“Are you sure you’re ok?”
The guys had carried the girls outside to a bench for some fresh air in the courtyard. It was more like Dillon carried Tessa and Raven held Claire’s arm across his shoulders, helping her walk. Both women were awake and breathing more easily now as the fresh air filled their lungs and the sun warmed their backs.
“Yes Raven for the third time, I’m perfectly alright.” Claire looked up to Dillon standing beside her, “I’m so sorry to worry you D.”
From his kneeled position Raven looked Dillon up and down, seeing no emotion moving across his face. The man said barely a word and constantly looked as if he was in pain. Raven was worried about him carrying Tessa but he appeared as if a father carrying a sleeping child when they walked down the hall and even set her down on the bench with care. He had made sure Tessa was alright before coming to Claire’s side.
Claire reached up to squeeze Dillon’s hand, “I’m fine, I promise.”
Dillon held her stare for a moment. His head gave a slight nod to her as he turned to Tessa and also gave her a slight nod. Without another word he turned and walked through the same black cloud that had appeared behind him. The cloud slowly dissipated into mist as he disappeared. Raven turned back to both women and studied them up and down.
“I swear to god if you ask me if I’m ok one more time I’m gonna knock you out.”
Tessa made a squeak as she chuckled at Claire’s statement and Raven figured they were alright, “Fine. Now that you’re both ok, you mind telling me what the hell happened in there?!”
“Fine.” Claire breathed a sigh as Tessa stood.
“I should go back inside.”
Claire grabbed her hand, “You sure? I’m sure you won’t get in any trouble if you stayed out some more.”
Tessa shook her head causing her loose hair to fling around, “No. I need to get back inside. Plus, I can’t get over this if I stay hiding out here.”
Claire smiled at her bravery and told her to call if she needed help or found anything. Tessa promised to keep in touch as she walked to the door. Raven got up and Claire asked him to buy her a pretzel from the corner before she explained. He was about to refused but that one slice of pizza before was not enough for his hunger and he was still visibly angry about before. He figured walking it off could help cool him down and agreed to buy some. He purchased two giant soft pretzels and some soda from the food cart, walking his way back across the courtyard. He looked up as he saw the bench come into view and saw Claire bending over with her head in her hands. She made no noise but her shoulders were visibly shaking.
Raven quietly walked up to her casting her in the shadow, “Hey.”
Her shaking stopped but she didn’t look up. Raven didn’t say a word as he sat down beside her, handing her her food and drink, “Eat.”
She didn’t move at first but quietly took the food from him, careful not to show her face. Raven stared straight ahead as her soda hissed open and they began to eat. He gave her a chance to collect herself and a moment of privacy as they downed the drink and the pretzels disappeared. Raven waded up the wrapper and held a hand out for Claire’s. She silently gave it to him holding onto her can as he stood and threw the trash away. He came back and lit a cigarette, sitting down again so she won't have to face him. He gave her all the time she needed to talk.
“I’m sorry.”
“You could’ve told me you were shaken up about that.”
Claire shook her head as she turned to him, “I’m not shooken up about what happened. I’m shooken up about what it meant.”
Raven raised an eyebrow as he watched her, blowing out smoke, “What did it mean?”
Claire sighed as she leaned back against the bench touching her shoulder with his, “There’s something you gotta understand about Necromancers. Necromancy is not a magic you learn or train for. It’s one of the highest forms of magic there is and it comes with a price. Necromancies are born, they form family lines and bloodlines. They are taught before they can even speak and walk how to control their magic.”
“So this is someone who beat the system?”
Again Claire shook her head. She tried to gather her thoughts as she tried to explain what Dillon had told her years ago, “Necromancy comes at a price. Necromancers are torn between both worlds, ours and the World of the Dead. They have a foot in both doors and are constantly being pulled into both worlds. It’s like being asleep and being awake at the same time, their minds are constantly doing two things at once.”
Raven smoked his cigarette out and grabbed another as he thought over her words, “What does that have to do with what happened in there?”
Claire stared at her hands as she spoke, “Every Necromancer has a Book of the Dead. It’s something like a journal to them but so much more. One of the duties of a Necromancer is to listen to the ghost of this world so their voices can be heard and they can move on. The ghosts tell them stories, stories of their murders or the murders they committed. They tell of their families and what happened to them. It’s like a radio constantly playing at full volume in their ears. In order to keep sane they put all the emotions of those stories in their Books. They put pieces of their souls in them. Every Book of the Dead is personal to the Necromancer it belongs to.”
“So we can find out the Necromancer who killed Emily through the book.”
Once more Claire shook her head, “I felt it Raven. It’s forbidden for anyone other than a Necromancer to read a Book of the Dead because people get sucked in and trapped in the world of the Necromancer’s mind. I should have known it was a Book when I saw it but Emily wanted me to read it. It’s Emily’s book Raven. I felt her screams within that Book. Emily’s the Necromancer.”
“But you just said Necromancers are born into the family. Her parents aren’t Necromancers.”
Claire threw up her hands, “I don’t know. Things happen. It could be that she’s adopted and her Necromancy mother gave her up.”
Raven looked at Claire from the corner of his eye, “The Guild let that happen?”
Claire shrugged her shoulder, rubbing against his, “Like I said things happened. Usually in such cases the Guild keeps a file on the baby so they can keep track and come to the child’s aid when their magic matures.”
Raven blew a cloud of smoke into the setting sun as he threw the butt into the ash can, “So the paperwork got lost and this was just puberty gone wrong.”
He stood and Claire stood with him following him to his car, “No. Something’s not right. From what her mother told me and from what she wrote in her diary this has been going on for months. Necromancers are incredibly connected and they would have felt it when another Necromancer came into their powers. After that first nightmare they would have started looking for her. No one did.”
Doors where slammed as they climbed into the car and Raven peeled off, “What are you suggesting? Someone screwed this girl to make sure her magic runs wild, killing herself in the end?”
“It’s possible.” Claire turned to Raven, “Raven, there are mundanes who oppose mages, they’ve even done some extreme cases of killing mages. It’s not too farfetched to say that some kid in her school bullied her to this point.”
“You’re not seriously suggesting that a teenager killed this girl?”
“No I just…there’s something going on here. Someone deliberately pushed this girl into a corner.”
Raven glanced over at her and saw the seriousness in her eyes. He sighed as they pulled into the parking lot, “Fine, I believe you. But we’ve gotta find proof and fast. Once the Captain gets word of what we found he’ll want us to write it off as an accident.”
They were through the back door when Raven realized something, “Wait a second, what was it you called them back there?”
Claire turned around surprised, “Mundanes?”
Raven pointed a finger, “Yeah that. What is that?”
“Oh,” Claire turned back around and picked up Emily’s journal, “it’s kinda our word for humans.”
Raven stepped up to her, “Isn’t that racist?”
“Not really,” Claire looked up as she smiled sweetly, “Everyone’s human but not everyone’s a mage. Mundanes’ just what we call those who aren’t mages.”
Raven crossed his arms, “Why mundanes?”
Claire chuckled as she started reading the journal, “Because they live mundane lives.”
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