Page 25 of The Rut in the Road

Melissa probably wouldn’t, either, mostly because she stressed out about any sort of new magic.

I didn’t think Hart would care one way or another, and Sam would probably say it was cool.

I wondered what Raj would say, and it bothered me that I didn’t know. That was the sort of thing you should know about your boyfriend—his opinion on potentially deadly magic that might go awry.

He’d probably object, at least on the grounds that I might be in danger from my own magic. Or from whatever I tried to necromance.

I didn’t even know if that was a verb.

I knew that I could just tell Archie I’d changed my mind and not learn.

But I didn’t want to do that.

I’d decided that I wanted to learn.

I wanted to have a skill that wasmine. To be able to do something that was magically impressive. Something that would make me feel powerful, or at least not weak and pathetic. Something that I might be able to use to protect myself and the people I cared about.

Something that wouldn’t make me into a victim.

Archie?I asked.

You ready to raise the dead, sport?he asked, appearing in his usual baggy pants, suspenders, ratty white t-shirt, and bathrobe.

I blinked.I assumed we weren’t going to start quite that… complicated, I said.

He laughed.Oh, we’re not, never you fear,he replied.But we’ll get there eventually.

I nodded.

Archie stopped laughing and studied me.In all honesty, sport,he said.I’m not sure how this is gonna go, what with you bein’ a witch and me not. I know it’s possibleto find ways to cross over between magics—his nibs does it all the time.

His what?I had no idea what he was talking about.

The ghost laughed again.His nibs. Y’know, like his majesty or whatnot.

I stared at him blankly.

Mason, the ghost informed me.He’s powerful, clever, dignified. All that.

It wasn’t how I’d ever thought of Mason, but Archie was right that he was a powerful witch. And I knew very well that Mason was able to adapt the kinds of magic Archie and Ward did to make it work with witchcraft—so it was possible. Whether or not I could do it, however, I didn’t know.

I nodded to show Archie I understood. I could probably ask Mason if we ever got stuck and couldn’t figure things out, I supposed. Or Sylvia, who worked with Ward all the time and was also a witch, although she was learning about her magic, since it hadn’t been recognized or cultivated when she’d been alive.

Most important thing to know,Archie informed me, his usually jovial expression turning serious.Is that there’s a mighty difference between souls and bodies.

This didn’t seem particularly surprising to me.That seems obvious, I said to him.

When you’re raising the dead, it gets less obvious,he replied sternly.You don’t want to have soul in a body if it’s the body you want. And you don’t want to have a body come along with the soul when you summon a ghost.

I blinked.That happens?No one had mentioned this in any of the training sessions I’d done with Jackson and Ward, and we’d practiced summoning quite a bit.

It can, Archie replied.Usually when someone’s tryin’ to bring a body back rather than a ghost, but if you’re not careful, or if the dead man’s too fresh.

I grimaced. The idea of raising a “fresh” dead person was repulsive on several levels.

Point is, sport,Archie continued.If you put the soul back, what you get ain’t right.

What does that mean?I asked him.