Eurus.
Podara.
But they didn’t look the way they did the last time they were all together.
Their skin was the same sick shade of gray as Danthan’s and their limbs moved as though they weren’t the ones controlling them—like horrible marionettes on a string. Their mouths hung open but no words came out. Instead they released groans of pain and suffering that came from their bellies. Each of them turned their milky white eyes towards her and stared right through her. Flesh clung to their bones where it had been torn apart, and chunks of them were even missing altogether.
And thestench.
Like rot itself had entered the chamber.
“No.” Ambrose stared at them as the reality of what she was seeing began to settle in her chest like a dull blade. “Danthan, what have youdone?”
“What I had to do to survive!” he yelled, spit flying from his foaming mouth. “What was I supposed to do when both youandAkadian went running into the woods? You left us completely defenseless.” He threw his gray hands into the air. “I had to watch every one of them get taken over by those horrible creatures. No matter how hard they fought or how many times I healed them, it was no use.” Danthan’s eyes widened with fresh fear from the memory, a hysterical fear that shook his entire body. “You can’t kill something that doesn’t have a body,” he mumbled. “You can’tkillsomething that doesn’t have abody.”
Ambrose’s mouth hung open as she took in her friends’ lifeless faces. “Please tell me you didn’t…”
“I had to!” Danthan screamed. “I had no choice!”
“You always have a choice!” Ambrose yelled back, tears stinging her eyes. “This is cruel!”
“Not when you left us to fend for ourselves! They were dying, I had to save them. It was the only way. I wasn’t strong enough to fight but I had to keep them alive. I needed their mana. Ineededtheir power,” he spat.
“No Danthan, this isn’t life. Youtookthat from them.” Her arms shook as she raised her sword and narrowed her eyes. Anger filled her veins, her bones, every corner of her being. Anger at herself for putting them in danger… For allowing Danthan to become something so horrible.
“Isavedthem!” He walked over to Podara. Her neck cracked and twisted in an unnatural direction as it turned to look at him. A moan rumbled out of her chest as she reached a palm out to him that had only the ring and pinky finger left. He took her hand and kissed the back of it tenderly. “Now, they can be with me forever. No one will ever leave me again, I have them. I can take care of them now.”
“Please,” Ambrose begged, mouth dry as sobs clenched her throat. “This isn’t right.” She shook her head. “You know it isn’t, necromancy is illegal for a reason.”
Danthan squared his shoulders, his skin tight and thin as his bones protruded from beneath it. “It’s illegal because the gods are selfish and jealous. Now, I’m more powerful than I ever was. Their sacrifice gave me the strength I needed to save them and live. Nothing can ever hurt them ever again.”
Ambrose raised her sword and brushed the tears out of her face. “Put them to rest. Now.”
Danthan’s screech didn’t sound human, “No! I’ll never let them leave me. I’ll never be alone again.” His dark eyes darted from their bodies to Ambrose, her sword held high. Pointing a bony finger at her, the corners of his mouth curled. “Kill her.”
The twins were the first to move. Legs pushing forward in jutted, clumsy movements—but surprisingly fast for the walking dead. Oryon pulled the sword from his side as Eurus gripped for one that wasn’t there because Ambrose had stolen it that night.
Their joints clicked and creaked as they fumbled towards her while Podara charged from the other side.
Necromancy was illegal because the gods were jealous, that was true—but it was also illegal because mana couldn’t be taken by mortal creatures without a severe price. Even Danthan was decaying right in front of her, skin sagging in places as it pulled itself from his bones. Muscles stiff under each movement from the rigor mortis already setting in. There’s no way they got themselves there on their own.
Casimir must have brought them.
He didn’t place them there because they’d be too difficult to beat, he did it to break her.
Casimir would die for this.
“Don’t do this,” Ambrose pleaded, easily dodging Oryon’s sword as he swung it clumsily at her torso. “Please let them rest, they don’t deserve this. Please don’t make me kill my friends.”
Danthan shook his head so violently she was sure his neck might crack. “Friends? We’re not your friends. We were out there because of you. They almost died because of you.Youdid this. Not me”
“Danthan,” Ambrose screamed as she ducked under Oryon’s sword. “Theyaredead.”
“No!” He glared at her. “I saved them.”
Oryon’s next swing almost collided with her shoulder but she brought her own sword up to meet his and knocked the blade from his brittle fingers. Reanimated bodies could only be as strong as the being that died and every day they remained reanimated the decay only set further in. Thestate their bodies were in, especially having been in the battle they were, were in no condition to fight. Necromancy could bring a corpse to its feet but it could never preserve the life that once lived there.
She didn’t want this.
