It was a gamble. I prayed Lixa would spare some of her kindness from Round Toss for this.
“Do you know what the necromancer”—I said the word for spite—“thescourgethey’re so scared of can do?”
Thea threw her legs over the bed and stood, still keeping her distance from the grimoire. “Raphael’s never been explicit, but I know they’re meant to be the antithesis of vampires, a punishment from Anagenni. Something unnatural, born every two hundred years.”
“What’s unnatural is cheating death, as vampires do,” I countered. “But I figured out the real reason they fear the witch.” I laid the opening passage out on the bed. I’d burned my coded translation before, but now I had mastered the Old Runyk enough to decipher it anew. “‘Through the goddess’s will, the necromancer has dominion over bone and blood, soul and spirit. The undead bow to the necromancer. One witch is gifted to the world every two hundred years with Anagenni’s blessing. They alone can right the balance.’You see? Everything the vampires are to witches and voids, this witch is to them.”
She was silent, staring at me.
“Thea, remember how you said there’s no such thing as illegal magic?” I prodded. “If the necromancer exists, with goddess-given magic, then how can you call it wrong? How can you help the vampires stay in power, hunting down the Witch Kingdom’s only chance at freedom from a life under vampires?”
Thea shook her head at me. “The vampires aren’toppressingthe witches. Raphael hasn’t tried to claim any new part of the kingdom as his own—and you know he could. There’s peace here, Samara. This book could throw that into chaos.”
“Ogre dung,” I snapped. “There’s no peace. Maybe the vampires aren’t actively conquering the witches, but it’s not peace. We can’t trade with other kingdoms like the vampires can. Hells, before coming here, I’d never even heard of a land beyond the western border, but there are entire maps here. They take mortal children and turn them into vampires. They take blood from those who seek refuge. They takeeverything.”
That dark, dangerous anger rose in me with each word. Vampires. Monsters. Sometimes I thought it might be different, but now, with the book in front of me, it was so clear.
Thea recoiled, and the anger dissipated. I didn’t want to scare my friend off—I wanted her help. Needed her help. Her support. I couldn’t do this alone.
“I’m just saying, you’re a witch, Thea. I know you’ve found a home here. I… I have too.” The words weren’t a lie. “But just because vampire-kind wants something dead doesn’t mean you do too.”
“I’m not exactly the Storm-blooded King’s biggest fan,” she reminded me. “Like you said, this is my home. If thenecromancer”—she lowered her voice around the word—“is a threat to Damerel, they’re a threat to the place that took me in when the king upheld the order that all oracles should be put to death.”
“It’s not about the king. It’s about balance,” I reminded her. “The necromancer can control vampires, right? If that’s so terrifying and unnatural for vampires, maybe vampires shouldn’t have that power over mortals.”
Thea frowned. “Is this why you betrayed Raphael? You read what was here and thought you needed to help some mythical witch balance the scales?”
“Idoneed to be the one to balance the scales. The Witch Kingdom has been surrounded by vampires for centuries. They never stood a chance.” If Raphael had killed the last fewnecromancers, cutting short a life born only every two hundred years, no wonder everything is so wrong.
“Why, Samara?” Thea demanded. “Why does it need to beyou? You’re a vampire now—I’m sorry, I know you never wanted to be, but you are. You can be a good vampire, the same way you were a good person. Why keep pushing things? Maybe they aren’t perfect, but they are peaceful.”
“Because.” I held her gaze completely. “Thea, I’m the necromancer.”
Chapter Thirteen
Samara
Thea stared at me.“Fuck.”
“I didn’t know,” I said in a rush. Now that the confession was out, there was an invisible clock ticking down. If I miscalculated and failed to convince Thea to help me and she turned around and told Demos or Raphael, this would be the end. “I had no idea I had any magic—I always thought I was a void. So once I translated the passage, I resolved I’d get the Black Grimoire to the necromancer and let them do whatever they felt necessary to right the balance. But then so much happened at once—Titus wanted me to poison Raphael, I reneged, he killed me, and then suddenly I was a vampire, what I least wanted to be, and immediately discovered I have this power. But I swear, Thea, I didn’t know.”
“I believe you.” Thea pulled me into a fierce hug. I drank in her warmth, her friendship. Tears blistered at the corner of my eyes, burning hot with relief. “I believe you, Sam. We’ll figure this out together.”
Together. A word I’d longed for. For a moment, I let myself relax into her embrace. But what if she meant . . . ?
“You can’t tell Raphael. Or Demos. Oranyone,” I pleaded.
She hesitated. In that second, my worst fears played in my mind: Raphael finding out; his hands on my neck, snapping it as easily as he had any other. I knew exactly how cold he could be.
“Please,” I begged. “Thea, you can’t.”
She pulled back, not letting go of my biceps as she held me steady. “I won’t betray your trust. Now, tell me more about how you found this out.”
“I woke up in the dungeon after . . . after. Demos was there. I was so angry, so scared. I yelled at him to go away, and he just did it, and I realized he was obeying in a weird way. Then I ordered him to forget it.” I hadn’t even thought about it in the moment, operating on pure instinct. But it had been such a violation. “It hit me at once that he was acting like a human thralled. Which meant I had to be the necromancer I was reading about, when I’d never thought I had a lick of magic. I realized suddenly I wasn’t a worthless void, but somehow a witch born every two hundred years and supposed to right the balance, whatever that means.”
“You wereneverworthless,” Thea cut in fiercely. Something in my stomach unknotted at the fact she didn’t immediately reject me. “Vampire, void, witch—you’re not defined by those labels.” She raised a brow. “You may have fucked up, but as a void, you nearly brought down a vampire king. Magic or not, you’re a force to be reckoned with.”
I looked away, blinking back sudden tears. “Or not, indeed. I can’t seem to deliberately summon any magic. I don’t know how I’ve managed to activate it in the past. I’m clueless about how to harness it. And . . . I was hoping you could help me.” My lips trembled over those perilous words. Asking for help—I’d been taught over and over again that it was dangerous, that it gave others an arsenal with which to harm you. But I couldn’t do this by myself.
