Page 33 of Death Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

One sprinted straight toward Delia’s cluster of witnesses.

If it reached her, we lost memory control. We lost the only thing keeping this from becoming the most watched horror clip on the internet by morning.

Faith saw it too.

She moved like a snapped wire, sprinting across the street. She fired once, twice, three times. The undead staggered but did not fall fast enough.

I threw a force push, slamming it sideways, buying a heartbeat.

Eve’s fire caught it mid-slide and it ignited, collapsing into a burning heap.

Delia didn’t even look up. She kept her fingers on a witness’s temple, as calm as a surgeon.

Eve exhaled, voice tight. “This is not stopping.”

Nishi’s gaze swept the alley mouths. “It’s feeding from somewhere. It’s too constant.”

Victor’s eyes narrowed, and he stepped forward, scanning, as if he could read the street like a mind. Maybe he could. Maybe he was.

He looked back at us, jaw tight. “We need to move this perimeter outward. Now. If we keep fighting here, we’re just stacking bodies.”

Faith’s voice went rough. “You mean stacking people.”

Victor’s gaze flicked to her, and his expression hardened. “Yes. That.”

Delia finished with the last witness in her immediate cluster, then finally looked at the fight. Her green eyes narrowed, assessing the speed, the aggression.

“This is beyond sloppy necromancy,” she said, voice cool.

Andel’s words echoed in my head.

Beyond typical death magic.

Eve’s fire roared again, flames curling high, but the undead kept appearing from the alley as if the fire were just an inconvenience.

My arms ached from throwing force. My lungs burned from smoke and cold and effort. My mind raced, searching for that tether seam Alex had mentioned, searching for any hint of the hand holding the strings.

All I felt was that tight pull, like a line drawn taut through the night, leading somewhere I could not see.

And the worst part was the realization that settled in my gut as another wave of undead rushed us.

This wasn’t a single outbreak.

This was a machine warming up.

And downtown was only the beginning.

CHAPTER 5

Three bodies poured out of the alley across from the café, moving in that jerky sprint that made my brain want to reject the whole concept. My magic flowed through the air, trying to buy distance, trying to keep teeth away from skin, trying to keep Victor’s officers from becoming a snack line. Faith fired with mechanical precision. Nishi’s hunters moved in a practiced sweep, blades flashing, eyes cold. Spencer tore into the closest undead with the efficiency of a man who did not want to think about what he was touching.

And Delia, as calm as a librarian at closing time, kept wiping minds.

That was the part that felt the strangest.

Fire, gunshots, shadow tricks, screams, blood on the pavement, and Delia walking through it all like she was conducting a very tidy social experiment.

She touched a man’s temple, spoke softly, and his eyes went blank with relief.