Necromancist (Seven Forbidden Arts 6)

“Actually, that’s not completely true,” he said with a smile. “You will see another human face, but only because I need him to finish a job.”

Was he mad? A shiver crawled down her spine.

She considered her options. The door was open, and Zach wasn’t near it. She could scoot around him and, with a bit of luck, make it out before he had time to snatch her.

He shook his head. “That won’t work.”

“What?” she asked with growing panic. He’d said it as if he could read her mind.

A shadow from the doorway fell over the floor. She inhaled sharply as a figure blocked the exit. The man who stepped into the light had a square, attractive face with red hair and freckles. He locked the door and dropped the key into his pocket.

“Who is he, Zach?” she asked.

The man replied, “Who are you talking to, honey?”

“He can’t see me,” Zach said.

She moved to the far side of the room. “What are you talking about?”

“Just now,” the man motioned at the space, “you called me Zach.”

“I wasn’t talking to you!”

“I’m surprised you can see me,” Zach said, ignoring the man who advanced on her. “That’s how I first knew you were different. Special.”

“Zach, please. You’re scaring me.”

“My name isn’t Zach,” the man said.

Alice grabbed her head in her hands. “Am I going crazy?”

“You will probably lose a bit of your mind while Godfrey does my work on you,” Zach said.

The name shocked her to silence. She stared at Zach with a bewildered feeling of betrayal growing inside of her. “Why are you doing this? How much is he paying you?”

“He’s not paying me,” Godfrey said. “I’m paying him.”

The realization that Zach hadn’t lied shook her. Godfrey couldn’t see him, which could only mean… Her mind refused to process it.

“Yes, my beautiful darling,” Zach said. “I am quite dead, which is why Godfrey will have the pleasure of touching you as I, sadly, no longer have the physical ability.”

Since Zach couldn’t lay his hands on her, she turned her attention to Godfrey who was the immediate threat.

“You don’t have to pay him. I’ll do what you want if you let me go.”

Godfrey laughed. “The price isn’t money, honey. It’s your life.”

She looked between Zach and Godfrey, no longer sure to whom she should be talking. “Why?”

It was Godfrey who answered. “In exchange for delivering Ivan to me and finding his soft spot, I agreed to give Boris an eternal partner to share his afterlife. He doesn’t have killing power, not any longer, but I promised to do it exactly as he would’ve done it.”

She choked out the name. “Boris?”

“You’re the one who insisted on calling me Zach,” Zach—or Boris—said. “Who am I to argue?”

The awful truth of the facts sunk in slowly—their meeting on the bridge, his bizarre reaction when she saw him, always avoiding her touch, Gerry who didn’t greet him, the people who stared at her while she spoke to him appearing as if she was talking to herself…

Boris sauntered to the loveseat and sat down. “I’ll have a front row view from here while Godfrey slices you up. If I were human, it would’ve made me hard just thinking about it.”

A tremble ran over her from head to toes. “If I’m dead, what are you going to blackmail Ivan with?”

“I’m not going to kill you until Ivan has done exactly what I want,” Godfrey said. “We wouldn’t want your spirit to warn him that you’re dead.”

“What do you want from Ivan?”

Godfrey tilted his head. “You don’t know? I took you for an intelligent woman.”

“Nothing can be worth the price of a human life.”

“There is one thing I want more than anything, one simple thing that stands between me and world power.” He gave a soft laugh. “I should say, one man.”

Then it hit her. “Cain?”

“Imagine what I’d be able to do if Ivan manipulates your father. He’ll hand over his confidential information, kill his own team, and then himself. Everything in the world, every single thing that has ever existed, will belong to me.”

She slid along the wall to the corner, trying to get as far away from Godfrey as possible, all the while aware of Boris’s sick, amused stare. “Ivan wouldn’t do that. Ever.”

“Don’t you know the lengths a man would go to for love?”

A small part of her rejoiced in knowing Ivan didn’t love her. Thank goodness for that blessing, which had seemed like such a punishment until a few moments ago.

“Oh, he does love you,” Boris snickered. “He’s just too insecure to admit it, even to himself.”

“It’s not true,” she cried.

“No?” Godfrey said, probably thinking she’d replied to him. “I went to extortionate lengths to have my first wife. That piece of history should be proof enough, but since you and I both have the time, I could name a few other examples from times present and past.”