The Necromancer Trilogy - Black Magic

Chapter Six - A Bolt of Lightning

Sophie yawned, resting her head against the back of an armchair.

“You can sleep.”

She looked blearily across the room at David. “I’m guarding you.”

“You can sleep,” he repeated.

Sophie sighed and watched the shadows dancing on the walls. They were meant to take twelve hour shifts in pairs, but nobody had come to take over from her six hours ago. She was exhausted, and refusing to sleep.

“There’s no point you just staying awake,” David said, irritably. “You’ve had us under surveillance for a week now. Nothing has happened. You can go to sleep.”

Sophie shook her head. “Blue will be here soon.”

“Whoopee,” he retorted, voice laden with sarcasm. “That makes me feel so much better. Could you stop breathing so much?”

Sophie’s irritation sparked. “Excuse me?”

“Your breathing is getting on my nerves.”

“Oh, is it?” she said, tartly. “Well, I’m sure I can stop altogether and die. My corpse will be a lot quieter, don’t worry.”

David looked at her for a long time.

“What?” she demanded.

He said nothing.”

“What?” Sophie repeated, resisting the temptation to knock his head clean off his shoulders.

David sighed. “You’re going to die at midwinter.”

Sophie started and was just opening her mouth to scream at him when Blue appeared in the room with a pop.

“There you are!” Sophie rounded on him with all her built-up anger. “Where have you been? You were meant to…”

She broke off, staring at him.

“Blue?”

His hair was wild around his bruised face, clothes torn and blood-soaked, a bleeding gash in his arm.

“Holy…” David was on his feet in a second.

“They attacked Chrysanthemum’s,” Blue panted. “They have Susannah and Adele. We destroyed most of them but…”

“How did they catch Adele?” Sophie cried, horrified.

Blue shook his head, eyes creasing with pain. “Soph, you have to get the Yales out of here. They’re going to be torturing people for information. And Adele…”