Legacy of the Necromancer [Legacy, BK1 - Completed]

Chapter 10.3

When I could make sense of the world again, Nathan stood over me, the knife in his hand.

"I'm actually quite saddened by this, you know," Nathan said. "The last of your family, I'm not even sure how you managed to escape the Witches in the first place."

It might have been the concussion, but what he was saying wasn't making any sense to me.

"In any case, let me give you the opportunity to meet your real family." Nathan closed the distance between us, the knife coming uncomfortably close to my neck.

I glanced wildly around for John, but it was Poe I caught sight of first, darting for Nathan's face with open talons.

Nathan yelled, bringing his arms up to protect his face. "Crazy bird!" He slashed at Poe. I took the chance to scramble to my feet and put some distance between Nathan and I.

Poe raked his talons along Nathan's knife arm, slashing open gaping wounds. He backed off then, flying around to my side before transforming to the human version of himself.

Nathan swore vividly and turned to glare at us, then froze. The color drained from his face.

"No," he said with a shaking voice. "No, this can't- You're supposed to be dead. I killed you!"

Poe grinned at him. "You're not wrong."

Nathan took a shambling step forward, his expression darkening. "How? How are you here? I watched them burn your body. I was there when they spread the ashes. You are dead." Nathan lunged at us then.

Poe pushed me out of the way and met Nathan head on. They grappled, fighting hand to hand before Nathan broke away to throw a spell in Poe's direction, who laughed, knocking it away almost absently.

"I know your game, Lloyd." Poe laughed, "Oh, I'm sorry, you go by 'Nathan' now, right?"

"This is a trick," Nathan said, clutching his wounded arm. "You're an illusion, you can't be real!"

Poe's expression darken as he stepped closer to Nathan, backing him into the wall. "I'm real enough to kick your ass," he said, and hit him with a right hook that Nathan tried and failed to block.

"I'm real enough to see that you haven't changed." Another punch. "Real enough to get revenge for killing my family."

I stared at them. It was Nathan?

"That doesn't make any sense," John said, as if voicing my own thoughts. "The Reinharts were mostly all killed back before you and I were even born, right? Nathan would've been what? A few years old, if barely that." he guessed.

"Don't let him fool you, Witch," Poe said. "This man is much older than he looks."

Nathan laughed. He looked slightly unhinged with his blood stained clothes, swollen jaw, and hair disheveled. He looked just how I would expect someone to look like before they killed a whole bunch of people. He was not the clean cut business man I was used to seeing.

I glanced back at John and found him kneeling next to the sigils on the floor. They were untouched by the magic that he'd casted earlier. In fact, they looked as if they'd been burned into the concrete rather than painted on like when we'd first come down the stairs. How'd that happen?

"What the hell?" I sank to the floor, ignoring Nathan and Poe for the moment.

John shook his head. "There's something wrong with the magic here. It's..." he closed his eyes, frowning. "Tainted, twisted."

I knelt next to him, and reached to touch the nearest sigil.

"Ezra, no!"

I looked up in time to see Nathan take advantage of Poe's momentary distraction, slamming the blade in his side before stepping quickly back, pulling the knife with him.

Surprise fluttered across Poe's face, a hand going to the wound, only to come away red. He coughed, blood staining his lips.

"POE!" I dove for Poe's side as he fell to his knees clutching the wound. Catching him before he could fall, I eased him to the floor. Blood soaked through his shirt and began to pool beside us.

Poe's eyes seemed to fog over as he focused on me. He reached up and, with a finger soaked in his own blood, touched my forehead.

"Quae quod unum genus sumus," he whispered.

Darkness over took my vision as my body burned with power, causing me to gasp. It burst out of me, racing out in every direction, searching.

I didn't understand what was happening, I couldn't control it and I couldn't figure out what it was doing. I could only watch as the power spread over the city, and when it didn't find what it was looking for, it continued out over the country. It searched through each and every person we came across. Leaving no one untouched, until finally the power struck a resonance, then another and another.

I saw them all, all at once. An athlete alone in the college gym working out. A pair of twins sitting up in their beds, staring at each other across their brightly decorated bedroom. A leather jacket clad punk, out late in the streets of New York city.

The lost Reinhardt children weren't children anymore.

Just as quickly as the visions started, they were gone, but the connection to the other Reinhardts was still there. It similar to my connection with Avery, only fainter. Enough to find them. I could rebuild the Reinhardt family.

I looked down, a million questions on my lips, only to find Poe was gone, his form shifted back to that of a very still bird.

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<3 

J.D.