The Necromancer (Amber Lee Mysteries Book 3) Read Online Free Page B

replaced by stillness. Their cheerful song drowned by silence.
    And as I stood, staring with my mind’s eye into the empty space where the birds had once been, a figure came into view. It was dark and left a trail of shadows as it went. Solid shadows, like a mantle. The creature flew down from the heavens, into the street, and directly into my line of sight. It wanted me to see it. And when it got close, I saw it for what it was.
    A large bird.
    Only this wasn’t an ordinary bird. It landed on the roof of a car mere few feet away from me and hopped around to face me. I couldn’t tell its breed. The animal was too small to be a raven, so it could have been a crow. But the thing was wreathed in a mantle of living, writhing shadow and its eyes—radiant yellow orbs—weren’t placed on the sides of its head; but on the front.
    And it was staring right at me.
    “Hey, Miss,” said a woman, snapping me out of my trance. I blinked and opened my eyes.
    “Yes?” I asked.
    “Are you alright?”
    “Uh, yeah, I’m fine. Why?”
    “Sorry, it’s just that you were… breathing really heavily and just kinda standing there.”
    “Yeah. I think I haven’t woken up properly yet. Thank you, though.”
    “You’re welcome,” she said, and she walked along to where ever the heck she was going. But when she passed I saw the bird sitting on the roof of the car across from me. No writhing shadow. No yellow eyes. It was a regular crow. I had never seen something in the Nether before that had a physical counterpart like this.
    The animal was fascina— CAW.
    I jerked away from the sound and backed into the store door causing the door to rattle. Then the bird flew away, but I got the distinct impression that the sound hadn’t fazed it one bit. It chose to fly off, and that thought suggested a kind of intelligence existing behind the crow’s silver mirror eyes.
    Or maybe I was making it up in my head.
    “Fuck,” I said, cursing under my breath. “What is it with the birds around here?”
    I shook my head, turned toward the store, and opened up. Today was already shaping up to be a weird day and I couldn’t wait for it to pass. After all, it would be one less day until I get to be with Aaron.
    And that day couldn’t come soon enough.

 
     
     
     
    CHAPTER 4

     
    Despite the morning’s strangeness, the entirety of the work day sailed by. Customers trickled in and out. Books were bought and sold. Obscure tomes were located and ordered. I even picked up some of James’—the owner of the bookstore—mail from the PO Box down the street. He never got anything interesting, but I had permission to open them and see what they were.
    Sometimes I would get official papers to sign and check out before faxing them to James’ accountant for him to deal with. We never spoke in person, me and James’ accountant, only via email. And I liked it that way. I enjoyed running the store with Eliza, even if her contribution had somewhat diminished as the bump started to get too big for her to manage.
    She insisted she could work, but I didn’t want to risk hurting her or the baby. And, truth be told, without the distraction that was Eliza, I was able to get a lot of things done around the store; chores which we had decided upon doing many moons ago but never actually got around to doing.
    Closing time came, and as the sun began its descent to the west and the sky began to return to the pale blue of the morning, I closed up—box of dead birds in hand. Animal control had shown up to clean the street earlier on, but I didn’t let them have the birds I had held on to. I decided never to tell anyone what I had done seeing as though to the average person I was probably crazy. Freak! But I didn’t care.
    I had a higher calling, and those birds deserved to be buried with love.
    So I walked home as the air cooled and made mental notes of where my shovel was and how deep each grave had to be. I also considered making tiny headstones or marking the