“Why not a little bit of both?” He turns his hands so that they are palm up. “After all, you wanted to know who I am. Well, this is it, I am a priest of Neltruna.”
I recoil at that. Evengi is a priest? Out of everything I’d expected from him this was certainly not it.
“Oh, how repulsive,” I reply sticking out my tongue. “Am I going to be smote by the gods for letting you kiss me?”
“If you are to be smote for anything, it’s for being a necromancer. I’m no more holy than any other person, I may serve the gods but I’m still just a man. Also, I’ll remind you thatyoukissedmenot the other way around.”
I fold my arms, still not feeling comforted by this discovery. “Where are your orange robes?”
He smirks. “I thought they clashed with my complexion.”
“So, you’re a priest, but you’re not very priestly.”
Evengi shrugs. “I serve the goddess of darkness and monsters by hunting monsters with the rest of my order, not tending churches or grave sites. I, in particular specialize in ghosts.”
Faintly I remember Evengi’s comment during the dance about ghosts. I feel my eyebrows rise. “Ghosts?”
He grins. “I can see them better than most.”
“There must be many ghosts here,” I say glancing around at the shelves lined with bones.
“Indeed, and they are angry, but they won’t materialize even to me.” He does a double take to the corner. “Well, most of them won’t.”
I point to the corner. “Those comments you were making earlier when you kept saying you weren’t talking to me, you were talking to a ghost, weren’t you?”
Evengi hesitates for a second before he nods.
I reach up tapping my finger against my lip. If what Evengi said is true, I’m having a harder time imagining him being the one behind Brom’s disappearance.
He may be a bit more blood thirsty than most priests and probably wouldn’t hesitate to kill my family who are vampires, but what reason would he have to attack Brom?
“You really didn’t take Brom, did you?” I ask with a sigh as I rest my hands on my hips.
He shakes his head. “And I only broke into your house because I suspected you of something nefarious. I was right, but I did misjudge just how nefarious you were.”
“Flatterer,” I say, waving my hand through the air. I pace to the side, pausing as I catch a glimpse into the adjoining tunnel that leads to further burial chambers. There is a flicker like torchlight within. I take a small step forward when suddenly Evengi cries out my name.
“Natasya!”
I nearly jump out of my skin as I whirl. “What?” I demand.
Evengi’s eyes are wide and excited as he stares at the entrance of the burial mound. “It’s Brom, I just saw him. He’s all right. He just poked his head in here and then took off.”
I take two steps forward, ready to race after my fiancé but draw short when Evengi clears his throat.
I pause and release a sigh. I can’t very well leave him here. Necromancy only works across short distances. I could knock him unconscious, but that’s an unreliable method I’d have no way of knowing how long he would remain unconscious or of making certain that he doesn’t wake up before I return.
I jab a finger through the air. “Don’t you dare even think about making a run for the village.”
“I’m just as concerned with getting Brom back whole as you are,” he assures me. “On my honor as a priest, we can have a truce for as long as it takes to ensure that.”
“I hate the honor of priests,” I mutter as I shake my head, but I wave my hands and the skeletons release Evengi’s hands going back to being just as dead as before. I inhale deeply as it feels like a weight is lifted off my lungs. Now I just have to worry about keeping my papa reanimated.
Evengi pushes to his feet, gingerly rubbing his wrists. “All right then, let’s go find Brom so that we can go back to being mortal enemies.”
I give a sharp nod. “Agreed.”
Chapter Sixteen
