Finally, Hawkins stopped fighting as a glare came their way. “I didn’t do anything.”

  “I’m thinking there’s no need to get the cops involved.” Mort gave an unholy smile as more small blue orbs began to weave around his fingers. “I’ll be happy to off this sucker just for the practice,” he added.

  “Then you could reanimate him after he’s dead.”

  Her friend grinned. “Good idea. I need a new servant. The last one didn’t last long.”

  “What was it, like two weeks?” Riley said, playing along with this charade.

  “If that. They don’t do well out in the hot sun. Roasts them every time.”

  “No,” the young man shouted. “You can’t kill me. He said I wouldn’t be hurt.”

  “Well, he lied.” The blue orbs grew larger now.

  “So which spell is that—the burn the body like a pinecone one, or the boiling intestines one?” she asked, struggling not to laugh.

  Mort was having the same difficulty. “Both. I combined them,” he replied. “I’ve been eager to try it out on a live subject. The last one only took about ten minutes to die. I’m hoping it’ll be longer this time.”

  “Oh my God, you can’t! I didn’t do anything,” Hawkins cried.

  Riley gave him a “really?” look.

  “Okay, okay, I put something in the dirt on the graves. That’s all I did.”

  “What kind of something?” Mort asked.

  “There were four glass spheres with powder inside. He said they contained spells. He told me to bury them a foot or so down, right above the vault.”

  “All together?”

  “No, he wanted them to form a square. He said that he would trigger them and then the dead guy would be free.” Hawkins sucked in a breath. “He said I was to do it before he came to get the bodies. That way if he couldn’t make the grave watchers break the circle, the spell would. And since I wasn’t there, I wouldn’t be blamed.”

  “Well, what do you know,” her fellow summoner said, “I never would have thought of that tactic.”

  “But you didn’t do that because you were sick the first night Katia watched Mr. Means’ grave,” Riley said, putting it all together now.

  “Yeah. He was really pissed about that.”

  “Are there any of those spheres on this grave?”

  Hawkins nodded. “When I talked to him last night, he said he didn’t need them anymore.”

  Had the necro finally stolen enough corpses or was something else going on?

  “What’s the summoner’s name?”

  Their captive shrugged. “He said I should call him Magus, so I did.”

  Which was just another word for necromancer. “And you did this because . . . ?” Mort asked as the glow on his hands faded now.

  Hawkins groaned. “He said he’d teach me magic. I want to be a necromancer. I want to raise the dead. I want to be somebody.” His defiance vanished and he sobbed. “I just want to make enough money to have a place to live. Food. Stuff like that.”

  Mort issued a long sigh at this news, trading a quick glance with Riley. It appeared their villain wasn’t as evil as they thought.

  “Where can we find him?” she asked.

  Another shrug. “He only calls me when he wants something done. The number changed every time.”

  “Of course it did,” Riley muttered. “Anything else you can tell us?”

  Hawkins sat up now, a sign that Mort had released the binding spell. He brushed the dirt off his T-shirt, then looked up at them, his face set. “The magus wants something in another world. Some realm place or whatever. He said he had to have it soon or lots of people would die.”

  “Realm?” Riley said, shooting her friend a worried look.

  “Yes, but he couldn’t go there himself.” Hawkins glanced toward the circle and then back. “Look, I’m sorry. I just wanted to do something better than starving, you know? I thought magic was the answer.” He shook his head in dismay. “It was a stupid move.”

  As Summoner Advocate of Atlanta, it’d be Mort’s decision if this fool was sent to the cops, or worse.

  “Anything else? Because now is the time to be totally honest. It might save your life,” Riley said. “I’m not kidding about that, Hawkins.”

  He grimaced. “Ah, yeah. The magus asked about the trapper that was with you that night. The Breman girl. He wanted to know everything about her, about her family, friends, her job, all of it.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know. But he doesn’t ask for something unless it’s really important to him.”

  “When was this?” Mort asked.

  “Yesterday. I sent him the info late last night.”

  “What did you find?” Riley asked.

  “That people thought she went to Hell and came back. I’m betting the magus guy was all over that news.”

  And she’s not answering her calls . . .

  Mort stalked away as he contacted someone on his phone.

  “It all sounded so cool, you know?” Hawkins continued. “Then I realized I couldn’t shake free of this guy. He gave me the creeps. Really powerful, though.”

  “You have family here in Atlanta?” Riley asked.

  “No. I’m from Michigan.”

  “Why are you so pale? Are you anemic or something?”

  He gave a quick nod. “I’ve been donating blood a lot.”

  Selling his blood because he had little money. Katia would see this guy as a kindred soul.

  “Where are you staying?”

  “I’m crashing with someone I met at a bar. She’s weird, but okay. Well, sorta okay. She’s even creepier than the necro. She keeps asking me to find her cat corpses.”

  Ewww.

  Riley set a circle around him. “Don’t try to break out of this or it’ll hurt.”

  He blinked, then nodded. “No reason to run anymore. It’s done.” He looked over toward Mort now. “Really done.”

  Riley walked over to where her fellow summoner was just finishing his phone call.

  “Learn anything else?” he asked, looking back at the man who sat slumped inside his magical prison.

  Riley explained exactly how the guy had been living hand to mouth, as her father would say.

  A nod returned, as if that didn’t surprise him. “Summoner Andrews has agreed to babysit him for the time being. I’m afraid if he’s left on his own, the rogue necro will kill him because of what he knows.”

  Riley didn’t bother to hide her sigh of relief. “Oh, good, I’m not the only pushover in this cemetery.”

  Mort smiled at her. “Not even close. I will need time to remove the spell on the grave just in case our rogue is still collecting bodies.”

  “Okay. I’ll call Katia again. And I’ll find someone to watch this one overnight.”

  “Sounds good.”

  When Mort delivered his verdict to Hawkins, the guy stared in astonishment, then fought back tears. “You’re not going to kill me?” he blurted, looking back and forth between them.

  “No,” Mort replied. “I wouldn’t have. I was just messing with your head so we can find this thief and stop him.”

  Hawkins slumped in relief. “Oh, okay. I deserved that.”

  “Yes, you did,” Riley replied. A thought occurred. “Did you call Mrs. Means to let her know that her husband had been reanimated?”

  Hawkins looked away, then nodded. “I thought she outta know.”

  “But you didn’t do that for any of the other families,” Mort said.

  “Honest, I was feeling kinda bad about all these bodies walking off. But I didn’t dare tell the magus I wouldn’t help him. He’s not someone to cross.”

  His conscience had finally kicked in. That still didn’t explain why Mrs. Means was dressed to impress for her trip to the cemetery in the wee hours of the morning. Maybe she was great at putting makeup on in a car. Who knew?

  Riley removed the spell around Hawkins and then he was waved over to join the senior summoner. This was going to be a complicated process as Mort needed to magically levitate the first few feet of dirt from the grave to find each of the spheres. Knowing him, he’d also raise the vault’s lid to double check that there was nothing else magical placed near the deceased. Then all that had to go back in place without a hint of it being disturbed.

  Riley turned her back on the activity, mentally working through a list of trappers who were skilled at grave sitting. There weren’t many, most were too wary to even try. Then she smiled and hit the proper contact on her phone.

  “Hey, boss. What can I do for you?” Jaye Lynn asked.

  “Want to earn some money watching over a grave?”

  “Ah, any chance that might earn me a visit from a body poacher? Like what happened to Katia?”

  Riley looked over her shoulder. As magic poured from Mort’s hands, the soil covering the grave rose a few feet above it, followed by four spheres. Those floated a short distance away and then settled on the ground while Hawkins stared in awe.

  “My guess is that there won’t be a rogue summoner tonight,” she said. “Not for this grave at least.”

  “Then count me in,” Jaye said. “The extra cash would be great.”

  Her next call was to Katia and once again it went to voicemail.

  “Call me. We found the pale dude.”

  Now they just had to find Hawkins’ boss.

  FIFTEEN

  Chilling cold enveloped Simon’s body as his lungs labored to take a breath. When he was sure he’d suffocate, the immense pressure suddenly ended. He sucked in air, his heart battering in his chest. Katia was next to him, but they were no longer touching.

  Where the other place had been barren, this one was lush, but in a way that grated against his senses. Grayish brown moss spread out around them. No, not moss, not when dragging his shoe over it made a sound like he was breaking glass.

  There were trees, if trees had leathery trunks and branches that moved even though there was no wind. The sky was an unusual shade of brownish red, as if someone had sprayed blood into the air and it had dried there. The air itself was heavy and so thick it was hard to breathe.

  His sister Amy loved urban fantasy novels, and she’d talked about places like this. The more bizarre and otherworldly the better. In those places were outrageous monsters, magical heroes and heroines. For a time Simon enjoyed reading those books as well, until he became a trapper.

  Then the monsters had become too real.

  “Duck!” Katia called out.

  His swift reaction saved him from being shredded by a creature that swept past them in the air, claws extended. It wasn’t a bird, more like a two-foot-wide butterfly thing. Its wings were razor sharp. They tracked it as it headed deeper into the forest beyond.

  “What was that?” Katia said.

  “I’m guessing it’s the norm for whatever this place is.”

  “Well, that blows,” she said. “What does the magic button say?”

  Simon held out his palm and the thing spun a few times, then stopped. Once again it pointed directly into the heart of the grim forest beyond.

  “Remind me to beat the hell out of that necro if I get a chance,” Katia said.

  “We both will, if Dee hasn’t nailed him already.” A chuckle returned.

  Rather than immediately heading into those woods, Simon took the time to apply Papal Holy Water to his forehead, followed by a prayer for protection. When Katia saw what he’d done she did the same. Her prayer was quick and to the point—“Don’t let us die here, okay?”

  “Ready?” he asked, seeing the apprehension in her eyes. He felt the same. He faced demons for a living, not creatures in unknown worlds.

  “Yeah. Let’s do this,” she said. “The sooner we are out of here the better.”

  As they walked toward the darker part of the forest his senses went on full alert. That proved a blessing when Katia tripped and would have fallen face first into the glittering moss if he’d not caught her.

  “Thank you. I’m not usually this clumsy.”

  No she wasn’t, and neither was he. It had to be the effects of this realm, or the journey here. Once they found the ring, how the hell were they going to get back home?

  It quickly became obvious that this realm’s time was out of sync with their own world. Daylight changed to twilight in a matter of minutes. Then nightfall and back to full daylight. It was like an ornery toddler kept playing with this realm’s dimmer switch. On. Off. On. Off.

  While the light and dark alternated, as if days had passed, so did the landscape. The forest now had lush orange bushes and head-tall amber fronds with trumpet-shaped flowers. Those flowers were dangerous and she’d made sure to keep away from them. Especially after nectar had dropped from one of the blooms and the moss beneath it had melted into goo. She figured the same would happen to them. She made sure to point that out to Simon.

  “The trees aren’t moving here,” he said.

  “Yeah. Noticed that.” Was that good or bad?

  Urrrrrrrrrip!

  Katia jumped at the shrill sound, hunting for the source. “Where is that coming from?”

  Simon pointed to their right. “There.”

  High up in one of the trees were about a dozen figures clustered along a thick branch. At first she thought they were crows. But these were composed strictly of bones with not a feather in sight. There were no eyes inside those skulls and yet they acted as if they could see both her and Simon. One stretched out a bony wing and then tucked it up again.

  Urrrrrrrrrip! Urrrrrrrrrip!

  In unison they all leaned over the branch now as if monitoring their progress.

  “Damned glad those things aren’t in our world,” she said, shuddering.

  Urrrrrrrrrip! Urrrrrrrrrip!

  They hurried onward and eventually the skeleton birds fell silent. Simon checked their progress with the button and found it still pointed forward. Once again it was daytime but that seemed to shift the moment they entered an area devoid of trees.

  Here there was no spiky moss, just pale brown dirt that appeared to move on its own accord. The same tall fronds they’d passed earlier encircled the open space. Something flew by one of the fronds only to be encased in liquid and whatever it was melted away in screeching agony.

  “Dear God, get us out of here,” Simon whispered, then crossed himself.

  In the very center of the open space was a rock. It was almost like an altar, large, flat, and surrounded by fronds. In the very center was a skull. She guessed it was a male from the size, and it was human. Katia could feel something emanating from it. Something incredibly powerful.

  “The button says this is the place,” Simon said, the item lying on his palm pointing directly at the rock.

  “I don’t see a ring.”

  “Maybe it’s under the skull.”

  “Riiight. So, we’re supposed to just roll up there and grab that thing? Does he think we’re idiots?”

  “I’ll go,” Simon offered.

  “The hell you will,” she said, glowering at him. “That is a trap. Even you know that.”

  “I do. But what other choice do we have?” he shot back.

  The increasing darkness flowing from that thing made her want to run. Simon had never been as tuned into stuff like that, but then his expertise was exorcisms, not random skulls in the middle of nowhere.

  Not this. Evil. Evil!

  Katia frowned. She’d last heard that voice the day she’d arrived in Atlanta. What was The Lady doing here?

  As she stalled for time to think this through, Katia turned in a slow circle to ensure nothing was sneaking up behind them. There was no sign of The Lady, though she knew she’d heard her.

  “Check the button again.”

  With a huff Simon extended his palm and it still pointed at the skull. “See?” he said, frowning. “We have no choice. The ring must be under that thing.”

  Before she could reply the button abruptly veered to the left, away from that rock and its prize.

  Simon stared at it. He shoved it back the way it’d been and after a time, it veered left again. “How did you know that would happen?”

  “Gut instinct,” she said, because now was not the time to explain The Lady and how they’d met. Things were freaky enough.

  Simon grumbled under his breath as the new direction took them out of the clearing and away from the rock. From behind her she could still feel its pull as if it was stalking them. When he staggered, she caught his arm.

  “You okay?”

  Simon shook his head. “Feel weird.” He paused, then straightened up. “It’s better now. Let’s get out of here.”

  They pushed on as the button routed them deeper and deeper into the woods. If The Lady meant for them to die here, this was an ideal way of leading them to their graves. But there wouldn’t be any graves. No one except Deanna would know they were here, and even she had no clue where here was. Katia’s parents, her brother and sister, would never know what happened to her. And neither would Simon’s family. They would just disappear, forever.

  “We survived Hell, we’ll survive this place,” she said under her breath.

  In the distance came a faint agonized cry. They picked up their pace. Near the far edge of the clearing was another tree with the same leather bark and the same oddly shaped branches as the others. What was different were the two leg bones lying on the ground in front of it. Every bit of skin and flesh was gone,= as if the tree had just gulped down a passerby. A ripped robe was nearby, a solid black one.

  “A necromancer?” Katia guessed. “But who would come here unless they were forced to?”

  A quick glance at the button told them this was their goal.

  Be of care. Much evil, The Lady whispered.

  Simon hadn’t moved. Then he pointed to yet another tree, another set of skeletonized legs, another black robe.