Though I had a good idea already.
Poppy’s voice had been growing less and less vibrant, her eyelids drooping.
Like Lauren. And Gabrielle.
Someone—or something—was draining her life force.
“Poppy,” I said suddenly. “Where’s Jenkins?”
Poppy looked at the fresh grave a few feet away. “He’s fine, he’s right—”
She stopped talking, her entire body going completely still.
Then I saw it.
Jenkins sat on the dark, freshly turned earth, his tiny furry face tilted up adoringly at his mistress. But the patches of fur on his undead body were sparser than I remembered. His eyes more sunken.
I didn’t look too closely, but I was pretty sure some of his tongue was missing.
Poppy was a much better necromancer than that.
This time when I looked at the grave dirt, I could see it looked a little too thick. Less like dirt and more like tar.
“Everyone is always so impressed with Jenkins,” Reggie said softly. “But I can see him for what he really is. A liability. Your own sentiment and foolishness are going to be your downfall.” He took a step toward Poppy. “What kind of fool binds themselves to a dead dog?”
Reggie was focused completely on Poppy now, enjoying the horror that came over her face as she realized what he’d done. Jenkins was sitting on a spell. Probably the same ensorcelled grave dirt the witch had used with Lauren and Gabrielle. I would have bet my last set of double-A batteries that the pouch had held that dirt. Reggie had obviously given it to Catherine when he enlisted her help after he’d been bound. That’s why Poppy had recognized it, known it wasn’t Catherine’s.
The full weight of what Reggie had done hit me all at once.
Poppy had used her life force to animate Jenkins.
And now Reggie was draining her life force through the little terrier.
“Don’t even think about sending the pixie to free the dog,” Reggie said, speaking to me without looking at me. “That spell is quite…sticky. It will take Peasblossom just as easily as it took Jenkins.”
I glanced at the terrier. Poor Jenkins sat in the trap, completely oblivious to the fact that he was being used against his human mom. The one who literally gave him life.
The one who loved him so much, she hastened her own death to keep him with her.
My throat constricted, making it hard to swallow. Poppy was getting weaker, her body sagging toward the ground.
And still she didn’t let go of Jenkins. I didn’t know if shecouldbreak the bond between them.
In any sense of the word.
Hot anger rose inside me, turning my pain into fury. I faced off with the smirking necromancer. I was standing on the other side of Reggie now. He stood between Jenkins and me, stopping me from getting to the terrier or the tar. Probably to stop me from attempting to dispel it.
I smiled.
Perfect.
I pointed my palm at Reggie without moving my arm, trying to move carefully so as not to draw his attention. Red energy flowed down my arm, my magic writhing as it took the form of the spell I pictured in my mind.
Reggie heard me take a breath.
He turned.
“Ventus!”I flung an arm out at Reggie, releasing the spell.
