The Necromancer Council

Chapter 1

Chapter One

Waking up in her own time still wasn't something she was used to. Cissy screwed her eyes up, trying to shut out the phantom clank of chains she’d grown used to. She was far away from Alvin and his tender care.

Her phone buzzed on the side table, but she didn't pick it up. She didn't have to. The High Council had been clear that she could take as much time as she wanted before they all tried to rebuild the Necromancer Council.

Her phone buzzed again. She groaned and reached out, grabbing it from the nightstand to check who was calling. The lack of caller ID had her both concerned and not. It was probably just a cold call trying to tell her she'd had a car accident in the past year. That didn't seem likely. She'd been imprisoned for most of that time, and even before that she hadn't had a car.

Even knowing she should probably cancel it, she hit the red button. If someone really wanted her, they'd leave a voicemail. Or better yet, they'd text her and tell her they were going to call. Any kind of forewarning would be good. She didn't want to admit she was the jittery type, but ever since getting kidnapped from her own flat, that was just part of her personality.

"Might as well get up then," she mumbled to herself. Between the mysterious calls and the sun, she wasn't getting back to sleep. Not until she'd done a check of the house.

She picked her athame up from where it had been lying next to her phone. At least she hadn't lost the ceremonial knife when she'd been taken. Alvin hadn't let her keep it on her, but he had stored it for her. No doubt he was concerned about the old necromancer superstition about stealing athames.

Slicing a small cut in her arm, she began to hum, calling up purple smoke from the blood there and sending it forth into her house. It had taken her a long while to devise this spell, but she was glad she'd done it. There was something satisfying about being able to check all of the entry points into her house at once.

Purple smoke shot off in every direction. She continued to hum the spell as she waited patiently for it to return. That was one of the downsides of being a necromancer. Her spells wouldn't work if she wasn't humming or singing to the magic. There were some exceptions that she knew about, but the main one was that the dead stayed raised after the necromancer was done. Though thankfully, that wasn't as common an occurrence as the rest of the paranormal world seemed to think it was.

Her phone buzzed again, but she knew better than to look at it before her spell was complete. If she did, she'd just have to start again and she didn't want to spend the time between casting worrying about any potential intruders.

The smoke drifted back into the room, settling around her and reassuring her that she didn't have anything to worry about. No one had broken in during the night. No one had even tried. Not that she was surprised. She'd bought a new house the moment she could sell her old one. A new neighbourhood had done her good, especially as she hadn't told any of her friends where she was moving to. The only people who knew where she was were the High Council members themselves. And it was more than their positions were worth to tell anyone where she lived. They had a duty to protect paranormals, and that included her.

Sighing, she grabbed her phone again. Still no caller ID. There was only one thing for it.

"Hello?" she asked the moment she'd hit the answer button.

Heavy breathing greeted her and she tried not to freak out. She didn't want to let the person on the other end know how she was feeling.

"Hello?" she repeated.

"You don't know what you've done," the voice said. There was nothing identifying about it though. It was just a voice. Deep, male. Nothing special.

"I'm sorry?"

"You don't know what you've done," the voice repeated.

"I haven't done anything," she countered, knowing it was true. She hadn't even had anything to do with Alvin's fall from power. He'd had his sister to thank for that one.

"That's what you think. But remember, this is all your fault."

She was about to ask what the man meant when the line went dead. Frustrated, she dropped the phone on to the bed, flopping down after it. What was she supposed to do now? Did she call Tabitha and tell her what happened? Would the other necromancer understand? Technically, they were cousins, though they'd never met before Tabitha had freed her from Alvin's care.

It wasn't like family ties meant much to most necromancers, and it had been Tabitha's brother who kidnapped her and held her against her will. She still hadn't gotten to the bottom of why he'd thought that was a good idea, except that he belonged to the sect of necromancers who thought they were superior to everyone else despite the fact they weren't.

But she'd grown close with Tabby in the past couple of years, especially when the two of them had talked about the thing Alvin had put them through. While he'd never gone as far as to imprison his sister, he had tried to kill her along with her mate. Alvin was lucky he was dead, or he'd have been held accountable by the High Council. Cissy had no idea what would have happened to him in that case. Probably something similar to the fate of the previous Necromancer Council before they were disbanded. She suspected it was some kind of prison, but she didn't know that for sure. While they were getting better at being transparent, the Councils still had a reputation for being shadowy associations who controlled the lives of paranormals throughout the country.

Cissy sighed and pushed herself up until she was sitting up, wrapping her arms around her legs and pulling them to her. It didn't matter if she was getting strange phone calls in the middle of the night, or if she was too scared to go to sleep without doing a spell to make sure no one had broken in, she had to face the reality of what her future would bring. She had to face the High Council and get them to aid in her setting up the new one for necromancers. It was hard to believe they'd gone so long without one. That was how dens like Alvin's had been able to take root within society.

She might be nervous and worried about all of the things that might go wrong, but today was going to be the day she finally did something about the job she'd been charged to do.

She was going to set up the new Necromancer Council.