Legacy of the Necromancer [Legacy, BK1 - Completed]

Chapter 3:1

A cool hand was wrapped around my own. That was the first thing I noticed. The second was how much I hurt. Everywhere.

I opened my eyes, thankful that it was dark, but confused when I found myself staring up at the ceiling of my own room. My body felt too hot, stifling under the blankets that were piled on top of me.

"Ezra?" Mom's voice was just a whisper from the foot of my bed, but her eyes were bright with relief when I looked down at her. She clutched at the foot board, trying hard to stay quiet.

"Mom," I said, my voice weak. "What happened?"

Avery stirred next to me. She was sitting in my desk chair and had slumped over the side of the bed, asleep. It was her hand that was wrapped around my own.

She opened her eyes, and they reminded me of something. Something that had happened.

"Your test, it took too long, the others began to think that..." Mom paused a brief moment, then forced herself to continue. "That maybe you didn't make it. But then after dawn yesterday, the door opened and you were laying inside, and Poe was there, too." The bird cawed softly into the darkness from his perch. She wiped the tears from her face. "Ezra, you passed! You passed the test! Aren't you happy?"

It came back to me then, a rush of memory and emotions. How was I supposed to tell them?

"Ezra?" Avery's soft voice drifted to me. "What's wrong?"

I shook my head, still trying to form the right words in my mind. I pushed myself up, only to collapse against the headboard. I didn't have any strength left, but this was important. "I, I need to talk to Dad."

"You need to rest," Avery said. "You've been through a lot, and you're feverish still."

"No, that's," I paused, I couldn't tell them yet. Dad needed to hear it first, then the other Heads of the Families. "I need to talk to Dad. It's important." I tried to put strength into my voice, that forceful insistence that I'd heard Dad use so often with the others.

"Lay back down," Mom said, patting the blanket over my foot. "I'll go get your father and something for you to eat. You look practically starved."

I wasn't really hungry, but I didn't argue with her. She left Avery and I alone in my room, shutting the door softly behind her.

"I told you, didn't I?" Avery said with a smile when we were finally alone. "I knew you had the Stanwood gift in you somewhere."

"My Talent isn't Revival."

Her smile faded. "What? How's that possible. You're a Stanwood, you-"

I looked up at Poe on his perch. He regarded me with a quiet stare.

"I'm not really a Stanwood either. Gods, Avery, everything is so messed up."

Avery regarded me with a cool stare. "Ezra, what are you talking about?" She looked at her hands. "You aren't making any sense. Of course you're a Stanwood."

Dad chose that moment to knock on the door, and enter. Nathan and Lyssa filed in behind him.

"It's good to see you awake," Lyssa said.

Nathan glared daggers at me. Guess he wasn't too happy that I'd survived. I pushed myself up straighter, gathering myself for what I had to say. "I was just about to tell Avery what happened."

"You know as well as everyone in the Families that it is forbidden to talk about your test," Nathan snapped at me.

"I don't want to talk about the test, exactly," I said quietly. "I want to talk about how the Necromantic Quadriad just become a Quintet again."

Everyone stared at me with unease. Finally, my father cleared his throat. "Ezra, you've been through a lot. We should let you rest and - "

Poe screeched, interrupting my father with a few shakes of his wings which shook the pendent free from his talon's grasp. It swung freely from his perch, where the chain had become tangled.

Nathan, who stood closest, stepped back, putting as much distance between himself and the pendent as he possibly could without leaving the room.

Dad and Lyssa shared a grim look.

"What's that?" Avery asked.

"It was given to me before my test started. I think it helped me - with my Talent."

"That's impossible," Nathan whispered. "That necklace has been lost for years, and you just happened to find it in your family's vault?" He turned on my father. "What else have you been hiding from us, Stanwood?"

"I didn't find it!" I yelled, before my father even had a chance to say anything in his defense. "I said it was given to me."

"And who, pray tell, was in the vault with you?"

"Poe," I glanced at the raven on his perch. "He told me that Avery and Thea were right, that there was a power in me, but it was different from than the rest of the Stanwoods. That our Quadriad of Families would become a Quintet again. Then he gave me that," I pointed to the pendent, "and said that I was chosen to start a new line, to help guide the Families through the difficult times ahead. Then a door appeared, and he said that it was time to start my test."

Lyssa shared another look with my father. "This wasn't normal," she said. "In this case, we need to hear what happened."

Even Nathan agreed grimly.

"Alright Ezra," Dad said, "Tell us everything that happened."

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Thanks for reading! Please remember to vote, comment, and follow if you enjoy Ezra's story! The next part, chapter 3:2 will be published on 1/4/16. ~ <3 J.D.