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Chapter Three

Axton

Knowing that I was stepping into the castle of a renowned elven necromancer, I already had a rather dark image of him in my mind. Seeing as none of the others who’d targeted the necromancer had actually gotten past his horde of undead, the tales of the man who raised the dead were quite impressive. I’ve heard multiple stories about how he’s slaughtered many while cackling maniacally from his throne. I’ve also heard that he sends his undead to nearby graveyards to dig up more dead so he can raise an army that will wipe out all of mankind.

And I can’t forget the plentiful descriptions of the gaunt man with pointed ears, hollow eyes, and long black hair that hangs in greasy strands.

Instead… this is who I’m presented with. An extremely cute and lithe man with slightly wavy white hair that hangs past his barely visible pointed ears. He looks like he’d be right at home wearing a flower crown and holding innocent baby animals.

He gives me a huge smile that makes me smile back for absolutely no reason.

“Do you like my flowers? I had to hunt all over for a dead person who likes to garden because the moment I look at a plant, it dies! Look at these—” He freezes, and that’s the moment I realize that Hades must have escaped the SUV and is currently eating his prized plants.

RIP, buddy.

The necromancer takes in a huge breath, likely to call hundreds of undead to smash my familiar which will force me to save him, but instead he says, “Oh my god it’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen!” Then he dashes off for it, pink robes—which he’d had some dead guy bring him before we left the house—fluttering after him.

“He doesn’t like strangers and will strike anyone that’s not me…” I just stop talking as the necromancer drops to his knees in front of my familiar and wraps the miniature horse up in a hug. Hades, who would stomp anyone else to the ground, leans into him. Hell, he’s spent years with my family and barely allows them to pet him and he’s going to let this guy hug him?

“Is he yours? He’s absolutely adorable.”

“He is…” I’m still trying to get over this. Hades is so unfriendly with everyone but me. “This is my familiar… Hades.” I’m not sure if I’ve ever been so embarrassed giving his name to someone.

The necromancer doesn’t even bat an eye at the odd name, just continues to beam at the tiny horse. “I have deemed him the cutest creature to have ever existed.”

I stare at the strange man and question at what point he’s going to try to kill me on his way to slaughtering thousands.

“You know what you need?” he asks the horse. He jumps up and plucks a flower before sliding it into Hades’s mane. “Doesn’t he look adorable?”

I gape at the man as I question what kind of trick this is. Is it to get me to lower my defenses then slaughter me? I guess not all bad guys look like bad guys, right?

“Now let’s go see a dead man!” And with that, he hurries off to my car.

Halfway out to my SUV, he gasps before whirling around. “So my name’s Sylvan, and I just realized that I don’t know your name. You could be a serial killer or something. I’m not sure if you read my profile but that’s my number one no.”

Hold on… now he thinks I’m the possible serial killer? Shouldn’t that be him?

“It’s Axton. And you… you put on your dating profile… that you don’t want a serial killer?” I ask in disbelief. He gives me a look like he can’t fathom how this is strange.

“ Are you a serial killer?” he inquires.

“If I were, you’d just have more bodies to play with.”

He scrutinizes me like I said something not quite wrong but definitely not right. “I never thought of it that way. Still no, hard pass on the serial killer. I don’t go on dates with them.”

“We… we aren’t going on a date. I’m having you revive a dead man.”

Sylvan hesitates, making me realize that at some point in the past ten minutes, he switched our plans around from reviving a dead man to going on a date. The stupid Cupid thing might have said we were “meant to be,” but this is definitely not how I saw a first date going. Though he’s handsome and he does seem rather sweet. Anytime I look at him, he just easily tosses me a smile that makes my heart do a little stutter.

“Oh… right. And I don’t have my driver’s license, so I’ll just ride with you. I mean… why learn to drive when I can just summon a dead person to do it? The only issue is that the last dead person I summoned to drive for me stole my car and drove off while I was reading a really good book, soooo…”

“Do you have any control over your undead?” I ask as I wonder how this “evil” necromancer let one of his undead steal his car.

“Of course I do! But it’s okay! I unsummoned him the moment I noticed… three days later. Now I just have to find the car! It’s out there somewhere… likely within a three-day drive.”

I send Hades into the back of the car while I mull this scenario over. The prophesied necromancer is so different from the one standing before me that I can’t help but question if I have the wrong guy. Maybe the necromancer is laughing at me behind my back as I tote his adorable nephew around or something. Although… I’m finding it hard to complain every time he flashes me one of those smiles.

Hades doesn’t appear to mind as Sylvan begins petting the muzzle of the horse who seems to already like him more than all the other people in my life added together.

As I back out of the driveway, I realize that all of the undead have come together to stand in the front yard and wave at us. It’s weird and kind of creepy but Sylvan waves back with vigor until he notices me staring and then seems embarrassed and pretends he was just fixing his white hair.

“Are you really Sylvan the necromancer who has been predicted will wipe out thousands of lives?”

“I am!”

“You shouldn’t sound so excited about that.”

He nods and replies with a gruff, “I am…”

“And?”

“And… I’m five foot ten and thirty years old. Oh, I like long walks on the beach and come with an affinity for the dead. I don’t have any pets yet, but I love them. Want kids, and I own my own… castle!”

I glance away from the road to look at him. “Was that… a recap of your dating profile?”

“I… guess? I don’t know. Thought it was more fun than talking about this dreary premonition,” Sylvan says as Hades starts rubbing his lip around in his hair. He laughs and pets the horse again, which Hades seems quite pleased about.

When we reach my house, there are police scattered about, telling me that Ricky did manage to call it in. Maybe they’ll have some answers, but if they don’t, my strange new necromancer might.

I notice that Sylvan starts to get fidgety the moment he sees the police cars. “Was this a setup?” he asks anxiously.

Glancing over at him, I realize that he looks quite alarmed about the whole thing. “What?”

“Let me out!”

“What? No! They’re just here because of the body. I had my assistant call in the body!”

Just as I’m slowing down, he smacks the door lock and jumps out of the moving car. It takes me far too long to register what’s just happened. Slamming on the brakes, I jump out and run after the necromancer.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m not falling for your tricks. You probably paid Cupid to send that notification about you being my true love to me so you could con me into turning myself in!”

I hurry over to him a moment before I realize that in the span of one minute, he’s called for a mini army consisting of the largest men—and one woman—that I’ve ever seen.

“This jokester harassing you?” a man who could clearly crush my body in half with a squeeze of his hand says. “I will crush his body with a mere squeeze of my hand.” The announcement is practically word for word my new fear.

“Please don’t,” I say.

“I will use his bones for toothpicks,” another announces.

“That’s… a bit much, Paul,” Sylvan says with a grimace. “Just like scare him or… what… the hell…”

As his gang of bodyguards who all look prepared to murder me loom around him like a protective cocoon, I realize he’s transfixed by something.

“What is this?” he asks, and off he trots toward the police he was just in the process of running away from.

“What—” And that’s when I realize exactly what snagged his attention. While the police are sprinkled around my yard… none of them are moving. It’s almost like they’ve become stone statues tossed about. In the middle is Ricky, who has also been petrified. But what the hell could have caused this?