I move to the center. Suddenly, I feel my veins go abuzz with the power. I kneel down closing my eyes, sensing a pair of squirrel bones not far away. Typically, I must see the dead to control them, but in the center of this circle, it is as if I can feel them. Like they are an extension of myself.
I twist my fingers calling the squirrels bones to rise. I hear it rustle to my right and send it in a circle scampering around. I laugh lightly at its antics.
People believe that necromancy is a desecration, but I prefer to see it as a second chance. For just this moment, this squirrel exists again.
How could something like that be wrong?
I tilt my finger towards me, summoning the squirrel as I look up. I freeze when I see a figure step out of the woods. I’m on my feet in a second as the moon comes out from a set of clouds, revealing Evengi Ichabod standing there, still dressed in the tunic he wore during the party.
“Natasya?” he asks as if I’m the one who shouldn’t be here. As if this isn’t my sanctuary. He tilts his head. “What are you doing here?”
My eyes dart down to the skeleton squirrel sitting by the root of a tree staring at me from its empty eye sockets. I quickly wave my hand deconstructing its bones. Evengi turns, realizing that I’m looking at something over his shoulder. “What?”
I jerk my fingers, commanding the nearby leaves to drift over the bones. I hope that it looks as though they were blown there by the wind. I tuck my hands behind my back and smile over at Evengi. “This is my thinking spot,” I say as sweetly as I can manage. Although, inwardly, I’m seething. How dare Evengi be here interrupting my time.
How dare he interrupt my life at all.
This man has only been in Sunder Hollow for a day and already he has done more to disrupt my ruse than anyone else here. He leaves me wondering if my carefully laid plans are quite as carefully laid as I had originally thought.
“Here?” he asks with a frown. “I studied at the academy for a while and I hate to tell you this, but I’m quite certain that this place was used for a dark ritual in the past.”
“Whatever makes you say that?” I ask even though it’s fairly obvious it was. It’s why I like it here.
He winces as he jerks his head to the side, rubbing it against his shoulder, twice before he stiffens. He clears his throat. “Well, the circle you are standing on is one reason why I’d assume as much.”
I pull up my skirts and gasp as if I’m looking down at them for the first time. “But I thought that runes were a form of magic.”
“Runes are the written form of magic and not as predictable as the spoken form of it. Indeed, many non-magic wielders can use runes for the magic since the power is actually contained within the word itself and not in the caster.” He steps forward, the leaves rustling as he moves. “And these runes speak of a dark magic indeed.”
“They do?”
“I studied at the academy, remember. I learned to read the written form of magic.” His eyes flick over it. “Soul magic, dead magic, killing magic,” he looks up. “These are terrible runes.”
“Oh,” I say with a tittering laugh as if I don’t already know that. I jump out of the circle, glancing back at it. “I guess I’ll have to get a new thinking spot then.”
“That might be prudent,” Evengi says slowly, but there’s something about his tone that makes me wonder if he actually believes my clueless act. Am I not convincing enough? No one in Sunder Hollow ever seemed to think so, but then in waltz Evengi. It’s like he is toying with me, telling me things that he suspects I already know and letting me play a part.
No, I need to stop overthinking. I’m letting Evengi get in my head. No one has ever seen through my lies before. People see what they expect to see, and they don’t expect to find a necromancer living in their midst.
Necromancers are monsters, violent, and reprehensible individuals…or so people believe. No one would expect to find one living peacefully next door. They would never expect a necromancer to not be performing any dark rituals and only reanimating dead squirrels to see them dance.
I pull my lip through my teeth. “What are you doing here, exactly?”
“Same as you, I suppose. I needed a moment of solitude.” He arches his brow as if daring me to confront him and his paper-thin explanation, knowing full well that my explanation is no better. Either I take him at face value, or he will not take me at face value.
Oh, this man is toying with me indeed.
He holds out his arm to me. “But now that I’ve run into you, I’m honor bound to make certain that you get home safely. These woods are not safe. There are ghosts about.”
“There you are with those ghosts again, Mr. Ichabod,” I say as I slide my arm through the crook of his. At least if he is taking me away then he will have no opportunity to find that squirrel skeleton.
“I like to consider myself a personal expert on ghosts,” he replies unphased as he begins walking. Straight toward the squirrel remains.
I try my best not to sound nervous as I keep talking. Anything to distract him. “Why couldn’t you have found a normal area of expertise, like wildlife?”
“Now where would be the fun in that?” Evengi puts his foot down and I hear a crack. I wince as he lifts his foot. Through the unsettled leaves, I can see a glimpse of the pale bones. “What the Skyhold,” he breathes as he bends down. I stand there paralyzed, unsure what to do to keep him from seeing those bones. I have only seconds to react, and I’m not proud of what my first inclination is.
I grab Evengi by the collar of his tunic, jerking him upright. His eyes widen and his mouth opens in question, but I don’t let him get it out. Instead, I reach out tracing against his jawline. “I think I know the real reason you’re out here tonight.”
