The Necromancer ✓

Chapter Eighteen

"I was kidnapped and tortured..." I tell Tyler. He glances at the spot on my kitchen floor where he'd cleaned the blood from the floorboards. He looks back at me with questions in his eyes and I nod. "I got away."

"Yeah," he half smiles, "I could guess that much."

"Then I brought the Prince - the one who didn't kidnap me - back here because I was worried about what the other prince might do to him." It might not have been a wholly accurate explanation but it was all I was willing to give. "We were getting ready to take Faerie Land back from his cousin and you walked in while we were doing that."

"I didn't damage anything did I?"

"No," I said. "I was just testing something." I stared into a point in space between us, trying to forget the tortured look I'd inspired in Tyler's eyes. "I needed to find something out."

"Did you get the answer you were after?" he asked.

"I got an answer," I said. "Sometimes, that's the best you can hope for."

"That was incredible," Kieran said, after I took the circle down.

"It wasn't," I said.

"It was."

Realizing that arguing wasn't going to get me anywhere, I gave up. "We should get ready," I said.

"What do we have to do?" he asked.

"Oh, you know," I wrinkled my nose. "Shower. Get dressed. Take the precaution of arming ourselves. The usual."

"That's usual, is it?" he frowned.

"Actually," I said, "that was a joke."

"It didn't sound like you were joking."

"It's not supposed to." I sighed. "We call that dead pan humor here."

"Oh." He looked at me for a moment, like he was expecting me to provide another example. I stared blandly back at him. "So, shall we?"

A part of me was expecting Jack to turn up and tell me that I was wearing the wrong thing, anyway, so I guess I shouldn't have been overly surprised when he appeared in my room while Kieran was in the shower. I could have used the downstairs shower while Kieran was in mine, but, somewhere along the line, I'd stopped feeling as though I owned the entire house. I felt like I had no right to use the downstairs bathroom. That was Tyler's territory, not mine.

I was surprised to see Jack though. Not because he appeared in front of me, but because of the way he looked.

"Are you okay?" I asked, looking at the discoloration across his cheekbone. It seemed that everyone around me had bruises. I was the only one who'd managed to get rid of mine so fast. When everyone around you is magic, the fact that you're the first to heal makes you feel really special.

"Hurts more than a virgin on prom night," Jack said, wincing as he sat on the end of my bed. He was wearing a pretty snazzy black waistcoat with red embroidery, a black silk shirt, breeches, knee high boots and a red cravat. I didn't think a lot of people would be able to pull that look and still look halfway tough, but Jack did. Maybe it was the black eye.

"And you know do you?" I asked.

"No," Jack said. "I heard someone say it on TV once. Thought it was clever."