Page 138 of The Bonds of Indigo

“Ashspyte is what killed these people, along with the land, but it also preserved them and prevented cell breakdown. Scientists never figured out if it was parasitic or viral. I’m going with the latter. Something that hijacked the nervous system enough to give Necroth their basic motor functions back.”

“It’s hot how smart you are.”

Her soft laugh warms my barely beating heart. “Necroth never had brain function, not without an intervention factor. If they’re evolving enough to… drive, and if that’s the population of these towns? I’d classify that as not good. Witches can use Ashspyte as an ingredient to bring back the dead. The caster has to give a lot of themselves to do that—some say their soul.”

I wrap my arm over her shoulder and drive us down the uneven, cracked road. The town is desolate, buildings boarded up, doors reinforced. I’m certain I see a few shadows darting between structures, but I don’t linger long enough to risk plowing into a parked car.

It’s bone-deep eerie.

And if I wasn’t confident I could rip a Necroth’s head clean off, I might actually be concerned.

“But for their evolution to be… like this?” she says quietly. “That’s concerning.”

“Again, why’s that?”

“Demons can control Necroth because they walk the line between life and death. Born of the Beyond, walk amongst the living,” she answers. “That includes the naturally created ones, and… the manufactured ones. They’re essentially Demons themselves. Or another subset of them.”

“I’d not go that far… right? Belial didn’t create them.”

She takes a deep breath and nods.

“Yeah. I mean, it makes sense. Necroth are unnatural. They have no souls. Everything that made them them has already been taken to the Vayl or the Beyond. So whatever’s left is animated by a toxin that’s said to have originated from Belial himself.”

“Wow… wow.” I laugh nervously. “What?”

“Right. Everhaven’s educational system isn’t the best, even before the war.”

I pinch her arm softly, and she yelps. “Hey!”

“I’m going to spank you for basically calling me stupid again, little slayer.”

That gets me a soft laugh from her, and I smile like an idiot all over again. How’d I fight this for so long?

“Looking forward to it… Anyway, before we get off topic—” Bloody Beyond, I want her to get off this topic and onto me. “It was said that Ashspyte didn’t come from the core, but from a strategic opening of gates to the Beyond. They let it seep into this world, killing resources and causing the Old War. It wasn’t just Everhaven that was hit, and honestly it would explain why certain continents were only affected on one or two sides, not the entire land mass.”

“That’s a myth. Has to be.”

“Maybe,” she hums thoughtfully. “Regardless, you should tell Atlas that if the militia isn’t already studying their evolution, they need to. Necroth shouldn’t have an active brain without some external influence. Something pushing them to function beyond a brain-dead… well… zombie.”

I drag my fingers across her arm. “I’ll mention it… Did Ashspyte affect your home?”

“No, it didn’t.”

She pauses, but I can feel there’s more she wants to say, so I stay quiet. When she finally speaks, my chest constricts.

“Hatred did.”

“Oh, Amarah… I’m sorry.”

She’s made it painfully clear her kind isn’t liked, and the fact that I was part of that group until I got to know her—it stings.

Just as I’m about to try to gently push for more, her hand slides across my thigh and right over my dick.

“It’s fine. Let’s move on.”

For the first time, I don’t want to. “I’ll listen. You can tell me.”

I want to press. I want to demand she let me in. But she grabs my cock through my pants and squeezes.