The Dark God's Bride Trilogy, #3 by Dahlia L. Summers Read Free Book Online

stay for a few more days?”
    “I’m so close to collecting all ten thousand souls, Amara, and Death knows it. What I’m doing is against the natural order of things and Death will do everything in his powers to stop me. I can’t slow down now and I can’t stay in one place for too long or risk being caught. Besides, the solar eclipse is approaching. If I haven’t collected all ten thousand souls by then, I would have to wait another 360 years for the next one.”
    “Can it only be done during a solar eclipse?”
    “A total solar eclipse,” he corrected her. “That is where all of my predecessors before me failed. Necromancy has a lot more to do with location and timing than with talent or skills. It’s ritualistic. If I am to succeed, I need three critical elements. The first and obvious is the ten thousand souls that I must gather. The second element is the location directly on top of the earth’s power veins.”
    “What is that?”
    “Haven’t we gone over this once before, apprentice?”
    “I don’t think so...”
    He sighed. “The earth’s veins are the pathways in which the source of life flows through. Each individual vein is usually no more than several meters wide and incredibly hard to locate if you don’t know what to look for. All of these veins are connected at three points on the earth’s surface. These points are the earth’s power veins. So far, I’ve only located one.”
    “I see. If that’s the case then the power veins must be around here somewhere,” Amara guessed. “Now I understand why you linger around here.”
    “Why can’t you focus the way you are now during my lessons?”
    She shrugged. “I don’t really care about reanimating the dead.”
    “I’ve taught you other things, too.”
    “Anyway, so the last element you need is a total solar eclipse?”
    “Correct. However, a total solar eclipse can only be seen at any surface point on earth once every 360 years. Since there are three power veins on earth, there is an opportunity every 120 years if you know the location of the other power veins.”
    “In theory, a powerful Necromancer would appear every 120 years.”
    “In theory,” he chuckled mockingly. “The last person to succeed was born in the BC.”
    “Whatever happened to him?”
    “I don’t know what happened to her.”
    “The Necromancer was a woman?”
    “The books said that she was a nameless Egyptian priestess who served Osiris, the god of the underworld. In Egyptian mythology, Osiris was dismantled by his brother, Set, and the pieces were scattered across the land. The part that most people don’t know is that the priestess was tasked to find the missing pieces of her god by the goddess Isis, wife of Osiris. Isis asked the priestess to collect the souls of 10,000 dead before the summer solstice of that year. When the priestess returned with the souls of 10,000 dead, Isis used the souls to make the priestess an immortal. Together they set out to find the missing pieces of Osiris. Once they found him, or most of him, the priestess used her powers to resurrect the dead god.”
    “… Did she succeed?”
    “Yes. Osiris was brought back to life and he conceived a child with Isis. The priestess was never mentioned in the text again.”
    “What do you think happen to her?”
    “Isis probably sacrificed her in the process,” he hiked his shoulders. “I don’t really care. She was just Isis’s tool to resurrect her dead husband. The important part is that she had the powers to resurrect a god! That’s the kind of powers that most people couldn’t even begin to fathom.”
    “I suppose it’s too late for you to stop now. After you’ve accomplished all you want to accomplish, you should spend more time with your wife.”
    “Amara… I know I haven’t expressed myself before but… I really… appreciate you taking care of Elizabeth and my daughter in my place.”
    “Do try to be careful. Gemma needs a father.”
    “I know,” he said quietly.