Legacy of the Necromancer [Legacy, BK1 - Completed]

Chapter 5:1

I shifted in my seat again, trying to get comfortable as I took the ramp off the interstate into the city the Mansers called home. We'd driven straight through from Georgia; Dad and I took turns at the wheel so we only had to stop to get gas and change driver.

"We're supposed to be there already, do you think they'd go ahead without us?" I asked, adjusting my grip on the steering wheel.

"Ezra, it'd be a little hard to do the ceremonies without Avery's betrothed. I'm sure they won't start without us," Dad said dryly.

"Right." I checked the map again, there was still a ways to go before we reached the Manser's ranch. "Ah, grab my cell phone out of my bag. You can call them."

"Ezra-"

"Please?"

He sighed, reaching into the backseat to pull my bag free of the boxes of books we'd piled in the backseat. "This thing?" he asked.

I glanced over. He held my phone up. "Yes, Dad. That's a cell phone."

He grinned at me and pressed the power button. "I'm only kidding."

The phone played its start-up music and starting buzzing repeatedly with messages.

"When was the last time you checked this thing?"

I shrugged. "It's been a while. About when I left school, I guess."

"Who's John?" Dad asked.

"Hey- don't read them." I snatched the phone from him and tossed it in the map pocket. "He was my roommate from college. Forget it."

Dad was silent a few minutes while I concentrated on the road. Of course John would have left messages. I hadn't been off the mountain at all since I'd returned home. Well, except for my Test, but I doubt there was any sort of reception in the Half-World. So much had happened, I'd forgotten about school completely. I was so focused on my Talent, now that I'd finally had it. I glanced down at my phone, feeling a little guilty about not contacting John. He must think I'm a complete psycho.

"It's alright to have friends outside of the Families. You know that, right?" Dad said.

"Dad-"

"I wonder if your mother and I did the right thing, keeping you and Liam up on that mountain. I know it was safer, but you haven't had much of a real life, or real friends."

I pulled the car up to a stop light, and looked over at him. "You did what you thought was best. The other families do the same. There's no telling what the Witches are doing now. I mean, when was the last time a Necromancer was attacked?"

He looked at me solemnly. "Last month, out in Portland. One of the Emerson's cousins was killed. He barely had enough power to hear the dead and they still killed him. Made it look like a house fire."

I stared at him. "I thought they'd stopped -'

A horn blared behind us. I looked back to the road and drove through the green-lit intersection before the diesel truck behind us decided it was in a monster rally.

"I thought the Witches had stopped killing after they couldn't find the rest of us Stanwoods?"

Dad stared out at the passing scenery. "No, the Heads decided to stop telling everyone about the deaths."

"What? Why?! That doesn't make any sense-" But as soon as the words left my mouth, I saw it. "To keep the others from seeking revenge on the Witches? Is that why you didn't tell us?"

"There's more to it than that. We don't have the manpower we used to. The Reinhardts were our soldiers, and the Stanwoods also did our fair share of the fighting. The Witches took notice of that and aimed their attacks accordingly. If we tried to plan an all-out attack on them now, there's no way we can win."

My thoughts shifted to those who'd died at the hands of the witches. "But what about their families? What kind of justice do we offer them..." I let my words trail off. He couldn't tell them. That'd be where it would all start. Their loved ones would demand revenge and we didn't have the power to seek it. All it would accomplish would be to kill us off faster.

"There's gotta be something we can do!"

"Maybe, eventually, but right now all we can do is lay low and keep ourselves safe. Keep the children safe."

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Thank you for your patience while I've been working the kinks out of this chapter. Unfortunately, I was feeling very unwell during February and March, so this took way longer than expected to accomplish.  

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