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I scream, “Norbert!”
Now that he’s no longer facing the direction of the window, I get a better look at his eyes. They’re so milky that it’s hard to believe he can see anything through the film of white.
“I had to drag myself out of a shallow grave and stitch my head together without the use of my magic because someone stole my bracelets.”
Guilt squeezes my heart. My gaze drops to his unmoving chest. I hope he doesn’t realize I’m still wearing his stolen property.
“Can’t you return to the guild for a tune-up?” I mutter.
“While stinking of Unseelie magic?” he replies with a sneer. “I’d get struck off on suspicion of illegal enchantments. Are you going to give me that good night kiss, or will I have to take it for myself?”
I force my arms up and place both hands on his chest. No heat radiates beneath my palms—not even the coldness of death. Norbert’s body is room temperature and smells of fresh compost.
“Close your eyes,” I say, my voice trembling.
“Why?” he hisses.
“So, we can lose ourselves in the kiss.”
He stares at me for several heartbeats, making my stomach plummet to the floorboards. In a moment, he’s going to knock me out and take what he wants.
He closes his eyes and puckers. “With tongues.”
Shit, shit, shit!
I bring my knees between his legs. With a grunt, he loosens his grip around my waist. I shove him back with all my might, making him stumble.
“Help!” I turn on my heel and sprint out of the door.
Norbert seizes a handful of my hair and pulls me back into the room.
“This was going to be nice and easy, but now you’ve given me no choice.”
I bend over double, grab his wrist, and pull at his fingers. Norbert’s grip is as tight as rigor mortis.
“You’re going to be my corpse bride,” he snarls.
Nausea hits me straight in the gut. He’s going to kill me. Kill me and bring me back to life so I’ll join him as a living corpse.
“Over my dead body.” I kick out, and the heel of my foot strikes his kneecap.
He stumbles backward, taking a handful of my hair. “That’s the plan.”
With a blood-curdling scream, I head back toward the door, but he grabs me around the waist again and tosses me across the room.
I land on the side of the bed, just as he stalks toward me with a curved blade.
Fuck.
I crawl beneath the bed, hoping that I’ve made enough of a commotion to alert one of the witches outside. Magic crackles at my back. It’s one of Grandma’s cushioning enchantments that I used to stay alive when the cottage fell on my head.
Wriggling into the sphere of protective magic, I curl myself into a tight ball, making sure Norbert can’t reach any part of my body.
Norbert bends at the bedside, his hand fumbling around for my hiding spot. “Come on,” he whines. “It’s only one kiss.”
How on earth did Norbert get through the wards of Grandma’s house? More importantly, how am I going to escape becoming his corpse bride?
As he reaches through the barrier of protective magic, my stomach plummets through the floorboards. Even in death, necromancers are more powerful than witches. Norbert wraps his thin fingers around my ankle and drags me out.
