Contents
TITLE PAGE
Prologue
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
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Copyright
Author's Note
Dedication
THE NECROMANCER
Amber Lee Mysteries
Book 3
By Katerina Martinez
A mastermind pulls invisible strings. A new darkness threatens to consume everything. But this witch won't go down easy.
Amber Lee may be a powerful witch, but she's still completely outmatched. A mysterious figure in control of a fanatically loyal cult is hunting her down and won't stop until she and everyone she holds dear is dead. Life doesn't throw anyone any breaks, though, and when animals around Raven's Glen start to die Amber and her friends are left with no choice but to investigate. What they find at the source... changes everything.
Enter Collette, the Necromancer.
Amber must decide whether fighting darkness with darkness is better than fighting it with light, but she must do it fast because the Necromancer isn't whole or stable, and while she could prove to be a powerful ally, her very presence is a threat to everyone; friend and foe.
PROLOGUE
The darkness was coming for me. I had been able to endure the chase for a few days, maybe a few weeks, but the darkness was implacable. Relentless. It chased me over mountains as high as clouds, through caves and cities, and across fields of grass and snow. Everywhere it went the darkness ate, turning the world black in its wake. Soon, I feared, it would catch me and consume me too—and then it would win.
But I could not allow that to happen. Though my bones ached and my muscles screamed out in pain I continued to run, fighting to stay ahead of the darkness. To stay alive. To find the one person who could help me, the only witch on the planet with the power to fight the growing darkness. With my Shadow ravens at my side I moved across entire continents on faith alone, hoping that one day I would be drawn to her energy like a moth to a flame.
And it was in a sleepy grove that I found her.
White flecks of snow clung to her red hood and cloak. Streaks of auburn hair fell lazily over her shoulders and her skin, as white as the snow itself, seemed to glow in the cold, sharp light. But it was the wolf at her side that caught my eye most of all. Tall and powerful, the gray wolf watched me closely, its yellow eyes narrow slits which promised death at the first sign of aggression. But I was no aggressor.
The wolf emitted a low growl and I felt my insides quiver. The red witch placed her white, porcelain hand in the space between the wolf’s ears and scratched, and the growl receded. This is how it had been in each of my dream encounters with the red witch. She never spoke and neither did I. Sometimes the wolf would howl into the sky and cause large black birds to scatter out of the trees. Other times it wouldn’t so much as growl.
My heart started to race. This was new. I could feel it beating hard against my chest and for a moment saw my dreaming self squirming in bed, my forehead glistening with sweat. Behind me, the darkness was coming. I sensed the cold chill as it approached, colder even than the air in this snowy glen. It was a cold that made even the Shadow birds perched on wayward branches over my head shiver with dread.
The red witch snapped her head to the left and then to the right, her copper locks cutting through the air like red blades. She could sense the darkness now too. This, too, was new. I felt, this time, that the darkness was closer. Close enough even for her to perceive, no matter how fleeting her glimpse was. The darkness was coming for me, but it would consume her too if she allowed it.
This time, unlike any other time, I felt the need to speak. To warn her.
“Red witch,” I said.
She brought the weight of her green eyes on me and stared.
“The darkness is coming. Will you help me?”
The red witch stood motionless, eyes shining on me like Jade crystals deep in the eye sockets of a statue. The moment hung like a strand of time suspended in a great vacuum, but then the statue nodded and relief came rushing at me from all sides. I sighed, smiled, and for the first time in forever felt the hopeful touch of salvation grace my skin. But the red witch turned away from me and started to walk through the trees. Her wolf followed, silently padding the ground behind her.
“I must find you,” I said beneath my breath, “But I don’t know where you are.”
As if responding to my cues, the birds took flight and began to circle around me. Tens of them. Hundreds of black, flying creatures, part shadow, part real, zooming around me so fast they encapsulated me in a tunnel of air. Then they took off, one after the other, deeper into the woods and I followed them, and followed them, and followed them, until I came across a sign in the middle of the woods.
‘Welcome to Raven’s Glen’
CHAPTER 1
I was glad to have Frank next to me at the hospital. I would have ground my fingernails to bone if he hadn’t been here, sitting with me in this sterile white hospital waiting room. Up until now my day had been fine. I was in the garden, enjoying a beautiful spring afternoon in the sun with Frank, talking about Aaron, Magick, and the future. But now my knees were bouncing up and down, my stomach had cooled some ten degrees, and I couldn’t formulate a coherent sentence to save my life.
Me? Nervous?
Never.
But Eliza was about to have a baby. Sure, babies are born everywhere in the world every single day, but this one was Eliza’s! I wanted to be an aunt way more than I wanted to be a mom and now I was finally going to get what I wanted. Of course, every good thing comes at a price, though, and for me that price was a couple of hours in a hospital waiting room with Frank and my nerves.
“Do you know what I don’t like about doctors?” Frank asked. His voice cut through the silence like a knife.
I didn’t look at him. My gaze had been enraptured by the pentacle clasped between my fingers. I was trying to pray, pray for a safe birth, and failing. “What?” I asked.
“They’re impersonal. I mean, why would I let a doctor stick a finger up my ass without taking me out to dinner—or at least having the decency of trying to get me drunk—first?”
“You can say the same about gynecologists.”
“That’s what I’m saying. It’s like they get a free pass.”
“It’s their job. You don’t get any pleasure out of a visit to the doctor.”
“Speak for yourself.”
“Oh come on, Frank. Seriously?”
Frank threw me a smirk. “Well, you’ve been a stone cold witch ever since we sat down. I’m bored, so you get inappropriate jokes.”
I sighed. “I’m just nervous.”
“I’m sure mommy and baby are both okay,” Frank said.
I raised my eyes to him. “I’m sure she is too,” I said. “Actually, would you mind getting me a bottle of water from the machine?”
Frank placed a hand on my shoulder as he stood up. “Sure, I could do with a stretch.”
I watched his lanky form—followed by
an even longer, lankier shadow—sail down the shiny, white and grey corridor. I needed a moment alone with my thoughts like I needed a hole in the head, but I did want a few minutes of silence in order to throw a little magick into the air.
With the pentacle in my hand, snaking between my fingers, I uttered a prayer to the Goddess of the Moon. She is the life-giver, the creator, the protector. And at the dawn of spring, she is being born. I hadn’t made that spiritual connection until now but it fit, and I knew that no matter what, everything would be okay. Eliza and her baby would be okay, and that was the important part.
I couldn’t wait for this little bean to enter the world. She hadn’t even been born yet and I had no problem in deciding what embarrassing story about her mother I should tell her first. I had no shortage of those! But I also couldn’t wait to dress her up in little summer dresses, play with her in the back yard, and buy her first choker for her.
I would love this little baby with all my heart. I would be a good aunt. A great aunt, only without the age. The kind of aunt that can be depended on for babysitting, who never forgets gifts at birthdays and Yule, and isn’t afraid to tell her off if she’s being silly—or brattish. Nine months I had been waiting for this little baby to make an appearance and that day was now!
Yeah, I would be an awesome—
The big white door in front of me, which had remained motionless since my arrival, suddenly swung open. Behind it stood a nurse wearing a pair of gloves and an apron. I wasn’t oblivious to the few specks of blood upon it.
I shot up. “How is she?” I asked.
“She’s fine,” said the nurse.
“And the baby?”
“She’s fine too.”
Frank returned to me when he saw the nurse.
“When can I see her?” I asked.
“She’s resting right now and the doctor is still with her. They’ve had a tough time in there, but I think that—”
Evan’s head popped out from over the nurse’s shoulder like a whack-a-mole. I expected the happy face of a new father, but instead found his expression scarred and cowed; clearly he had tried to wrestle with Eliza’s wishes. “Amber,” he said, “She’s calling for you.”
The nurse tried to protest but I was past her before she could stop me. Frank followed.
Evan led us down a corridor lined with several doors and a tall window at the end, for natural light. The entire hall reeked of disinfectant and strawberry air-freshener, which mingled like oil and water. That is, not at all. Each sniff of the stuff took turns assaulting the nostrils. Gods how I wanted out!
Powering down the hall I wasn’t sure what I would feel when Evan opened the door to Eliza’s delivery room. An overwhelming joy, I was sure, but also—maybe—a little dread. I was next. I mean, I wouldn’t be the next person to have a baby, but I was next after Eliza. I realized, then, that I didn’t have any other girlfriends, and I guess that kinda sucked.
Evan stood by the brown door to a delivery room and smiled. “Ready?” he asked.
I nodded.
“Let’s get this done,” Frank said, “Hospitals give me the creeps.”
Evan opened the door and the rush of joy I was expecting fell over my shoulders like a fresh waterfall on a summer day. There, beyond the threshold to the delivery room, Eliza was sitting on a bed cradling her newborn creation. Her legs were in stirrups and covered by a blue mantle; on the other side of which a doctor was still working.
The doctor poked his head around the side and opened his mouth to ask a question, but stopped and hid behind the mantle again. I supposed he too had experienced Eliza’s… persuasiveness.
Then I saw it. The tiny little thing was like a doll covered in gelatin. Pale and tiny and wrinkled, red and pink and purple, a fresh creature presented to the world. I approached, and with every step I took my knees faltered a little further. The tears came a little harder. My smile widened a little more.
“Hey,” Eliza said.
“Hey,” I said.
Her voice was tired, but her cheeks had that warm red afterglow of someone who had just been through a crazy workout. The happy glow, as I call it. That’s what this was. And she was beautiful with it planted upon her face.
Then there was the baby, who I had made a conscious effort not to look at until I made sure that Eliza was okay because I knew that, when I did look, I would melt. And I did. Here was this tiny, wriggling thing. Tiny and purple and covered in bits of white and pink I knew belonged to Eliza.
“Oh my Gods,” I said, cooing over the infant. She hadn’t even opened her eyes yet. “She’s so beautiful.”
“I know. Gave us a scare, though. Thought the umbilical was wrapped around her neck. But it was fine.”
“That’s amazing. Look at how amazing she is,” I said to Frank.
“Kinda looks a little pale,” Frank offered “May wanna get her some sunlight.”
Eliza laughed, but it was a guarded laugh, like she wasn’t sure if he was being serious or joking. Frank’s infectious personality had rubbed off on her and they had become good friends in the last few weeks, much to my satisfaction. But she didn’t yet know him like I did. I had been his friend long enough now to know that Frank’s heart was made of soft dough—even if everything else about him suggested the contrary. Somewhere beneath his marble skin a heart was fluttering.
Just like mine.
“She’s beautiful,” I said, and I kissed Eliza’s forehead. “You guys have done a great job. You’re gonna be awesome parents.”
Eliza took my hand and squeezed it. “We couldn’t have done it without you.”
If the doctor heard, he didn’t question.
“Oh hush,” I said. “Have you decided on a name yet?”
“No, not yet.”
“Lize, she’s already here! She needs a name.”
“I know, but I have time to pick one. When it comes, I’ll know.”
“You’d better hurry up,” Frank said, “Otherwise I’ll pick one for you.”
“Do you have any suggestions?”
“I like different names,” I said, “I mean, there’s nothing wrong with names like Michael or Josh or Jake. But I would rather call my kid Rogue or Jet.”
“Jet?” Frank asked.
“Like a jet engine?”
“Yup.”
“Did someone want to be a fighter pilot when she was a little girl?” he asked in a mocking tone.
“Not really. I just like uncommon names.”
“They’re not that uncommon.”
The baby squirmed and then made a sound I had never heard a living creature make. A whine, a gargle, and a cough, all forced out of the same tiny mouth in one quick movement. Did she just sneeze or cough? I wasn’t sure. Then she did it again, and again.
“I think she’s hungry,” said the doctor.
Eliza shuffled the baby around in her arms. Evan came to help.
“This is the part where we leave, I think,” I said.
“Yeah, I’m gonna try and breast-feed her for the first time,” Eliza said. “Wish me luck?”
Again I kissed her on top of the head. “You don’t need it. You rest, okay? We’ll keep in touch while your family’s here, but I’ll let you call me okay?”
Eliza nodded and got herself ready to connect with her child for the first time. Evan barely acknowledged my goodbye, but I couldn’t blame him. He was so focused! Good for you, Evan, I thought. You better take care of them.
Frank and I left the room and my heart soared for my friend. My sister. Spring was here, and the waxing Goddess had touched her. Of that I had no doubt.
“That was something,” Frank said as we made our way out of the bright, white hospital. We had passed several nurses, patients in gowns, and visiting family members along the way.
“Yeah, at least it’s done now,” I said.
“I couldn’t do that.”
“Duh, you’re a guy.”
“No, witch, I mean even if I had your plumbing.”
/> “Well I think you’d make a pretty decent parent,” I said “A scary one, but also a decent one.”
“Now who’s the one being incredible?”
The automatic door opened and we stepped outside. The sun was still out, though it had begun its descent over horizon throwing up a honey glow into the darkening sky.
Frank took a deep breath and exhaled. “Anyway,” he said, “Time to go home.”
I nodded.
“By the way, I’ve been meaning to ask,” said Frank.
“About what?”
“About a certain someone in your life. Or, rather, who isn’t in your life right now.”
“Aaron?”
“You guys talk, right?”
“Sometimes.”
I didn’t normally talk about Aaron, but I did talk to him. Stolen phone calls in the middle of the night, mainly. But enough for us to keep in contact, at least.
“So… when is he coming back?”
“Honestly? I have no idea.”
I hadn’t seen Aaron in person ever since that day on the edge of town when he sped off in his muscle car into the distance. He told me that he had to go and find his father. That he had to figure out what he had become and how to deal with it. I always thought werewolves had crazy tempers and came out under the light of the full moon to hunt people, but that’s not how Aaron described his… current state.
He had a temper, sure, but he had always been a little quick tempered. I guess that kinda made sense now. From Aaron’s mouth, though, he spoke about his condition as a kind of strength. Anger and passion gave him focus. He can channel those emotions into his muscles and do incredible things with his body. Of course, I hadn’t seen him do any of those incredible things yet—but I had seen him take out a whole room full of demon worshipping cultists.
It was a mistake to wonder such things in front of Frank, though.
“You’re gonna screw his brains out, aren’t you?” Frank asked.
“Excuse you?” I said, turning to him, hand on hip.
“You heard me, witch.”
“I’ll have you know, while Aaron and I have been in contact during his absence we haven’t yet talked about… us…”