Legacy of the Necromancer [Legacy, BK1 - Completed]

Chapter 9.4

"Sit, I'll fix you something," Avery said.

"We could fix it ourselves," I said, moving to grab a plate.

Avery glared at me and pointed at the table. "Sit. You look like you're about to fall over."

I took a seat at the kitchen table as Avery opened the fridge. John sat next to me.

"What happened that night after you got away from the warehouse?" I asked her.

She paused her search in the fridge and glanced back at me. "I wanted to go back, and find you but Poe had already created a portal and Liam pulled me through before I got to say two words."

I sighed, relief and release of tension that I didn't know I'd been holding on to left. "I'm just glad you made it out of there."

She came over and wrapped her arms around me. "I'm the one who should be saying that." Avery kissed the top of my head.

"Perhaps I should leave the two of you alone to catch up." John said and started to rise from his seat.

Avery straighten. "Oh no, don't!" She went back to the fridge and continued fixing plates of leftovers from the party we'd skipped out on. Her hands slowed a moment, before she spoke with her back to us.

"What I don't get is why would a witch help one of us." She slid the first plate into the microwave and hit a button, before turning to look at John. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm very grateful for what you did. I just don't understand."

John glanced at me, then looked at Avery. "Because I already knew Ezra, and I knew that he isn't what everyone, what all the witches," he clarifed, "said necromancers were. I knew he wasn't a killer or a monster."

Avery pulled the plate from the microwave and slid it in front of him with a fork. "Wait, you already knew Ezra? How?"

"John and I were roommates at the college I went to, before I took the Test. I thought he was normal, and he thought I was, too."

"That's insane!" She pushed another plate of food into the microwave and started it. "That's got to be more than a coincidence."

John started to say more, but I spoke over him. "I think it was the will of the Gods."

For some reason, it seemed like a bad idea to let them know that John had been originally sent to kill me.

Avery brought my plate over and set it in front of me. "Well, whatever it was, thank you John. I owe you my life." She smiled at him with tears shimmering in her eyes.

He nodded, blushing a little over his plate.

We ate in silence for a few minutes while Avery fixed herself a cup of tea and joined us at the table.

"Were you at the warehouse the whole time you were gone?"

"No," I said around a bite of food. "We left the day after they caught me. Something went wrong with the portal, and we ended up in the half world, instead of here. "

"I knew it. That's why I couldn't feel you. That was the hardest part. Everyone kept asking if I could feel you, and if I couldn't-" she closed her eyes and took a  deep shuddering breath. "I didn't want to think that. But the longer you were gone, the more I believed they had killed you."

I reached for her hand and squeezed it tightly.

The sounds of raised voices carried over from the other room. One voice in particular stood out. I closed my eyes and scrubbed at my face with my hands. "Urgh, I really don't want to deal with him right now." Nathan was the last person I wanted to deal with, and while he may have wanted to mend fences before the ceremonies, that only left me unsure of the terms between us. Was he going to be civil to me now, or was the whole deal with the ring a one-time apology?