Eva’s mild anger dissipated into a slight sensation of melancholy. “That’s a possibility, is it?”
“Can’t tell what the dean will do. I’ve long since stopped trying to figure out how Turner thinks. But she won’t matter much if the sky spooks off all you kids. Can’t have a school without students.”
Although there were plenty of problems surrounding Brakket Academy, including the one going on at the moment, Eva had taken a liking to school. Without it, she would probably still be doing the odd job with Devon. Few and as far between as those jobs were, she would be going to mundane school. Her most recent experience with a mundane school had left her bored out of her mind.
Eva turned away from Wayne, not bothering to question him further. As he had said, it was something to think about later. For now, she was wasting time. With the potions delivered, she was fairly certain that they were ready.
Arachne didn’t have many preparations to make as she was made up of everything that she used to fight with. She was no longer shaking from the effects of the teleport either. When Eva gave her a glance, she nodded.
“Let’s get this show on the road.”
“Wait. We’re not going to let you do this on your own.”
Eva turned back to Zoe with a frown on her face. She tried to keep her voice polite as she said, “Wait? For how long? You do realize that Shalise could be in danger?” Eva bit down on a harsher response.
While she respected Zoe and understood that she wanted to help, Eva was somewhat anxious about finding the obelisk and getting back to Shalise. When Sister Cross had said there might be problems acquiring the obelisk, Eva had not expected that an assault on an Elysium Order controlled church to be in the cards.
“But don’t worry, this is just like a job with Devon. I’ve done tons of them. In fact, this is better than a job with Devon. This time, thanks to Nel, we actually have a map with the destination marked and a good idea of how many nuns are around. That’s ten times the preparation that ever went into any of Devon’s jobs.”
Zoe had her lips pressed into a thin line. Probably at the thought of Devon dragging her off on jobs.
“Eva, you–”
“Smell good…”
Eva jumped, whirling around to face the corpse on the ground. The sound had come from below and behind her. Right where that corpse had been lying.
The body was still dead. Still unmoving face down on the asphalt. No blood flowed through its veins. It was even in the same position that Eva had last seen it in.
The jaw had slackened from the hardened rictus that it had arrived with.
Eva jumped back as the body lifted a hand. She did a quick double-check of herself, the professors, and Arachne just to ensure that her blood sight was working properly.
Everyone’s blood was flowing just fine.
Everyone except for the currently animated corpse.
Her first thoughts were of necromancy. None of the skeletons or zombies that she had encountered had ever spoken, but the ghost that had assisted in her initial capture had responded to queries. Could ghosts possess corpses?
Then there was the blended girl and her friend. Both were strange to her blood sight and both had a connection to Sawyer. Their status of being alive was in question solely because of that. But even the friend had a pulse. A slow, lethargic pulse, but a pulse nonetheless.
It did, however, answer the question of why Wayne had brought along a corpse. If the Elysium Order thought that there might be undead in the general area of their church, they would probably send at least a portion of their forces to investigate.
Unfortunately, it would probably set the rest on high alert.
Maybe the undead should be contained and set to be released if they needed a distraction. A much better plan than alerting everyone right away.
Eva kept a careful watch on the girl as she pushed herself up to her knees and then to her feet. All the while, Eva had a portion of Arachne’s blood ready to strike or shield at a moment’s notice.
Arachne had moved back in the shadows and climbed partway up the building, looking about ready to pounce on the animated corpse.
“I
Given that she was wearing a white dress, she failed miserably. If anything, she only worsened the problem by smearing the dirt around herself.
The girl seemed to realize the problem only after it was too late.
As she looked up to glare at Wayne, Eva caught a dead-on view of her eyes.
Or rather, the endless abyss behind them. They were like little snow globes with storms in place of the snow that would be right at home inside of Ylva’s domain.
“You would have ended up on your face no matter what,” Wayne said.
His voice broke Eva out of her trance. She shook her head and averted her eyes, determined not to get stuck in that trap again.
