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“If we can move things along now that you’ve gotten your autograph,” Audrey interrupted, and Nolan was so very grateful. Esme clutched her signed book to her chest and hurried over to the mess she’d left on the ground with her bag.
“Where the fuck were we?” Audrey muttered.
“Deciding whether to kill the necromancer and his boyfriend,” Carol provided.
“This isn’t my fault!” Sky shouted, throwing his hands up. This time, he marched into the circle and glared at the other witches. “I didn’t cast a single fucking spell last night. I didn’t raise the dead or talk to ghosts. Nothing. I was still recovering from a bunch of full-moon nonsense, to be honest. Whatever happened last night, it had nothing to do with me.”
“Exactly. He spent the entire night with the king of the underworld,” Nolan added.
That earned a mix of horrified gasps and some lewd snickers. But it was only when Sky turned to look at him in wide-eyed horror that Nolan replayed what he’d said in his head.
“Fuck! That’s not what I meant, and you know it!” he snapped. With slumped shoulders, he sighed. “Sorry, Sky. You’re right. I’ll stop trying to help.”
The sweet golden-haired necromancer walked over to him, lifted on his tiptoes, and pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth. “I appreciate how much you care and that you are trying to help, but yes, please stop.”
At least he wasn’t mad.
Sky turned to the group and huffed. “Zalramon, king of the underworld, kidnapped me last night. He stormed into my home and hauled me off to the underworld to settle a bet.” He pressed his fingers to his chest and smirked. “I won, of course, and we settled our disagreement. The demon king and some of his companions came back to my house for snacks and TV binge-watching. I didn’t cast one spell last night, and all the demons that came with Zal left with him.”
The witches fell silent for the most part.
Well, they weren’t calling for Sky’s or Nolan’s heads any longer. Nolan tried to take that as a step in the right direction.
They were muttering amongst themselves in small groups all around. The birds resumed their song, and the breeze rattled the leaves. Nolan stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jeans and shifted from one foot to the other. He waited for the congregation of witches to come to some kind of understanding or realization about the situation. But they seemed stumped.
“Audrey snagged us from a cemetery where I’d conducted a quick review. I agree that whatever is causing this is from the underworld or the result of death magic, but this isn’t me,” Sky added.
“Did you say the demon appeared in your home without you summoning it?” The question made Nolan jump. The speaker was far closer than he’d realized. He twisted to find an old woman with a wrinkled face resting on one of the picnic benches. She looked as if she were the oldest creature living, but her dark eyes were sharp.
Sky nodded twice as if he were also stunned by the witch’s appearance. How had they not noticed her earlier? Had she walked up while they were engaged in the book discussion?
“Y-yes. I had already gone to bed and was nearly asleep when Zal appeared in my house and pulled me out of bed,” Sky explained.
“Careless demons,” the old witch grumbled, spitting on the grass. She lifted a gnarled finger and wagged it at Sky. “Grammy Wallace is gonna have words with you, boy, if she hasn’t already.”
“What?”
“Zal broke your door,” she continued. Her face twisted up, the wrinkles multiplying into a giant mass before smoothing again. “Well, maybe not broke, but he loosened things up enough that you’ve got a gap or a leak letting the underworld out.”
“What?” Sky croaked. “How?”
“The doors you create to allow the regular summoning are one way. You open and close it to allow the minions and magic to flow through. And when the door closes, it seals tight.” The old witch tsked. “But that dummy Zalramon forced one of your doors to open from the opposite direction. Broke all the damned seals. When it closed, it didn’t fit right. Now we got a leak. The extra underworld magic is what’s unsettling the dead. I got a feeling something else sneaked through when no one was paying attention.”
“Whoa,” Sky mumbled, and Nolan echoed it in his mind.
That was bad. Even if he didn’t understand it all, it sounded fucking bad.
“Necromancer—”
“Sky,” Nolan snapped without thinking. “His name is Sky or Skylar or Mr. Wallace.”
Audrey huffed and glared at Nolan, who glared right the fuck back at her. “Fine,” she sneered at him. “Sky, can you fix this?”
The cheeky man grinned at Audrey for a second, seeming to love that Nolan got her to use his actual name. “Yes, I can fix the leak around the door. I know how to close it, sealing off the magic. The problem is what escaped. I need some time to figure out what it is. Only then can I know how to catch it.” He paused and chewed on his bottom lip. “I’ll send a message to Zalramon, since he’s the one who created the mess. They keep excellent records in the underworld. He should be able to determine what’s missing quickly.”
“Can the demon also catch the creature making the mess?” Carol asked.
Sky shook his head. “That might be a bad idea. Demon magic is like fae magic; it comes with a lot of rules and limitations. I’ll have to handle it.”
