Page 42 of Death Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

Because if someone out there could contest my necromancy while I was actively using it, then they weren’t just raising corpses.

They were watching.

They were reacting.

And they were strong enough to push back.

Faith tightened her grip on my arm, solid. “We got what we needed. Mina, get your footage and get out of here.”

Mina swallowed, nodding fast. “Okay. Okay. We got it. We got enough.”

Eve exhaled hard, anger and fear tangling. “Salima, step back.”

I did, because the nausea was rising, and my hands were shaking, and the dead threads felt like they were burning into my palms.

Eve released hellfire.

The pinned undead ignited instantly, flames eating through rot and cloth and the awful laughter that still echoed in my head.

Mina’s crew kept filming for another second, then Mina snapped, “Cut. Cut. We’re done.”

Delia moved back into the crowd line, already erasing, already smoothing edges.

Victor barked orders to his officers, tightening the perimeter again.

Nishi shouted at her hunters, sending them down the block to check the alley mouths.

And I stood there in the middle of it all, smoke in my lungs, my pulse pounding, realizing something I did not want to say out loud yet.

Whatever was controlling those undead knew I was here.

And it didn’t like sharing.

CHAPTER 6

The last pinned corpse burned down to a shape that barely resembled a person, and the smell clung to the back of my throat like punishment.

Downtown Ravenholde looked like a natural disaster. Police cruisers angled across the street. Flashing lights bounced off shop windows. Smoke drifted in thin ribbons, and ash dusted the pavement like black snow. Victor’s officers held the line, pushing mundanes back behind the vehicles, repeating the same instructions with the tired intensity of people who knew nobody listened until it was too late.

Delia moved through the crowd in a steady rhythm, two fingers to temple, a soft voice, a shift in the eyes. She worked as if she’d done this a thousand times, which was unsettling for several reasons I did not want to examine.

Mina and her friends stayed behind the police line, filming their staged explanation, whispering cues to each other as if this were a student project and not a public massacre. Mina’s excitement had finally dulled into something closer to seriousness. Not enough seriousness, but more than she’d started with, which was something.

Eve stood close to me, hands lowered now, hellfire banked but not gone. I could still feel the heat of it in the air, even with the winter bite. She kept scanning the street as if she expected another wave to barrel toward us at any second. Her face was smudged with soot, and her eyes looked bright in a way that always made my stomach tense. Eve with access to rage was a dangerous thing. Eve with access to hellfire and a reason to use it was scary.

Faith reloaded with practiced motions, not looking at the bodies, not looking at the blood. She had that same hard focus she always got in a fight, like emotion was a luxury she refused to purchase.

Nishi paced a few steps away, phone pressed to her ear, speaking in quick bursts. Her hunters moved along rooftops and alley mouths in coordinated sweeps, checking angles, securing exits, keeping the undead from slipping into the crowd again. If anyone could make chaos look organized, it was Nishi Kazuko.

I stayed still for half a second, trying to let my heartbeat return to something that didn’t feel like it wanted to break out of my chest. My hands shook. Not from fear, exactly. From strain. My necromancy still felt contested, like I’d tried to lift something heavy and someone had shoved back from the other side.

I hated that feeling.

I hated it because it meant the person controlling the undead could touch my power. Could resist it. They were more powerful than me.

Somewhere in the mess, Mina’s voice carried through the air, bright and staged.

“We were filming a zombie movie. We had no idea people would think it was real. Please stop sharing the videos, we’re working with authorities.”