Read Online The Necromancer (Amber Lee Mysteries Book 3) by Katerina Martinez - Free Book Online Page B

his pupils expand and shrink as he rid himself of lethargy in an instant. “Hey,” he said, “What time is it? Are you okay?”
    “Yeah, I’m fine,” I said, “I just wanted to tell you that I’m heading out.”
    “Work?”
    I shook my head. “No, witchy stuff. I don’t want you to worry, though, so that’s why I’m telling you.”
    “I always worry.”
    “I know you do.” I kissed him again, caressed his jaw, and smiled. “You sleep in. I’ll be back soon.”
    Aaron snatched my neck before I could leave and pulled me down to his lips. We kissed, and warm tingles shot through me. I wanted to stay, but I had a job to do and someone was counting on me. She may have been a stranger, but she needed my help.
    By 07:00 I had picked Frank and Damien up from their houses and was driving them up into the woods. The drive gave us all a chance to wake up and prepare ourselves mentally for what lay ahead. None of us knew what we were getting into.
    Except, of course, Frank.
    “Cenotes,” Frank said.
    I glanced at Frank’s image in the rearview. Damien cocked his head.
    “Whatnotes?” I asked.
    “That’s what the Aztecs called portals into the Underworld. According to what I’ve read, they were little pools of black water said to connect the realm of the living to the realm of the dead.”
    “Link? How?”
    “That depends. If the pool was big enough for you to get into, supposedly you could enter the Underworld itself. I’m thinking the witches of the time used the pools to siphon the power of the realm instead of actually going into it.”
    “Some people did, though,” said Damien. “What about the story of Orpheus?”
    “Maybe it was true, in whole or in part.” Frank said. “I have a feeling we could learn a lot about the underworld just by studying what the different cultures of the world have said about it.”
    “You aren’t saying that all of it is true, are you?” I asked.
    “Not all of it,” Frank said, “But even a broken clock is right twice a day. There’s gotta be plenty of truth in here for us to dig up.”
    “ If we’re interested in the Underworld. Which we aren’t,” I said.
    “Speak for yourself. I’m going to devour every morsel I can find like I was blindfolded at a sausage eating contest.”
    “Graphic. I thought you said you couldn’t trust necromancers?”
    “You can’t. They’re shifty. They’ve had to do all sorts of messed up things to get their powers.”
    “Can you give me an example?” Damien asked.
    “I can’t,” Frank said, grinning at his own reflection in the rearview. “But we’re about to meet someone who knows firsthand. Maybe we should ask her?”
    We pulled up to a dirt path that led us deeper into the woods, and when I started to recognize the landscape I stopped the car and we stepped out. The air was cold and damp in the woods. Grey clouds had descended and a thin layer of mist was creeping a foot or so above the ground. I found the gloomy weather to be a little odd given the sunny streak we had had. But I didn’t think much of it.
    “I hate the woods,” said Frank. “I keep stepping on jagged rocks. The woods were better when they were covered in snow. At least that was smooth.”
    “Schh,” I said, “There it is.”
    Vertical streaks of the decrepit old cottage poked through the mess of trees in the distance. Black smoke was puffing out of the chimney, and from here the house seemed smaller and more run down. Maybe it was the angle, or the gloom—or the mist.
    “That’s where she lives?” Damien asked. “That cottage doesn’t look like its seen use in years.”
“Decades, I think,” I said. “C’mon.”
    I approached, and with each step I took my heart began to skip in my chest. The reality of the situation was starting to dawn on me, and for a moment I had forgotten about the dead birds and Collette’s shadow. It was like I was finding out about everything all over again, relearning the fate this poor woman was