9. Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

Natasya

T he forest is still and quiet. A welcome relief from the hubbub of the party that went on for far too long. We are now in the wee hours of the morning, and I have very little time for myself before I must once again become Brom's doting fiancé.

I exhale loudly through my mouth, tilting my head back as I listen to the dry rustle of the leaves as the nightly breeze washes over them.

By now, after the months I've spent here, my feet know the direction to take all on their own as I make it to the clearing. The rest of the forest is immensely dense, but it's almost as if not even the trees would choose to grow here. Sitting at the center of the clearing is a large stone, cut into the earth and engraved with ancient runic symbols.

Runes are known as the symbol of magic, but long ago it seems that even sorcerers used them. I dare not create a rune of my own for fear of being cursed by madness or perhaps just killed for my hubris.

I may be used to bending the rules as a sorcerer, but that is one rule I will never bend. The cardinal law of nature. Mortals are not meant to embrace the power of both magic and sorcery, they are two separate entities and the two are never supposed to meet.

So, I could never recreate this runic circle, but I still like to use it.

I move to the center. Suddenly, I feel my veins go abuzz with the power. I kneel down closing my eyes, sensing a pair of squirrel bones not far away. Typically, I must see the dead to control them, but in the center of this circle, it is as if I can feel them. Like they are an extension of myself.

I twist my fingers calling the squirrels bones to rise. I hear it rustle to my right and send it in a circle scampering around. I laugh lightly at its antics.

People believe that necromancy is a desecration, but I prefer to see it as a second chance. For just this moment, this squirrel exists again.

How could something like that be wrong?

I tilt my finger towards me, summoning the squirrel as I look up. I freeze when I see a figure step out of the woods. I'm on my feet in a second as the moon comes out from a set of clouds, revealing Evengi Ichabod standing there, still dressed in the tunic he wore during the party.

"Natasya?" he asks as if I'm the one who shouldn't be here. As if this isn't my sanctuary. He tilts his head. "What are you doing here?"

My eyes dart down to the skeleton squirrel sitting by the root of a tree staring at me from its empty eye sockets. I quickly wave my hand deconstructing its bones. Evengi turns, realizing that I'm looking at something over his shoulder. "What?"

I jerk my fingers, commanding the nearby leaves to drift over the bones. I hope that it looks as though they were blown there by the wind. I tuck my hands behind my back and smile over at Evengi. "This is my thinking spot," I say as sweetly as I can manage. Although, inwardly, I'm seething. How dare Evengi be here interrupting my time.

How dare he interrupt my life at all.

This man has only been in Sunder Hollow for a day and already he has done more to disrupt my ruse than anyone else here. He leaves me wondering if my carefully laid plans are quite as carefully laid as I had originally thought.

"Here?" he asks with a frown. "I studied at the academy for a while and I hate to tell you this, but I'm quite certain that this place was used for a dark ritual in the past."

"Whatever makes you say that?" I ask even though it's fairly obvious it was. It's why I like it here.

He winces as he jerks his head to the side, rubbing it against his shoulder, twice before he stiffens. He clears his throat. "Well, the circle you are standing on is one reason why I'd assume as much."

I pull up my skirts and gasp as if I'm looking down at them for the first time. "But I thought that runes were a form of magic."

"Runes are the written form of magic and not as predictable as the spoken form of it. Indeed, many non-magic wielders can use runes for the magic since the power is actually contained within the word itself and not in the caster." He steps forward, the leaves rustling as he moves. "And these runes speak of a dark magic indeed."

"They do?"

"I studied at the academy, remember. I learned to read the written form of magic." His eyes flick over it. "Soul magic, dead magic, killing magic," he looks up. "These are terrible runes."

"Oh," I say with a tittering laugh as if I don't already know that. I jump out of the circle, glancing back at it. "I guess I'll have to get a new thinking spot then."

"That might be prudent," Evengi says slowly, but there's something about his tone that makes me wonder if he actually believes my clueless act. Am I not convincing enough? No one in Sunder Hollow ever seemed to think so, but then in waltz Evengi. It's like he is toying with me, telling me things that he suspects I already know and letting me play a part.

No, I need to stop overthinking. I'm letting Evengi get in my head. No one has ever seen through my lies before. People see what they expect to see, and they don't expect to find a necromancer living in their midst.

Necromancers are monsters, violent, and reprehensible individuals…or so people believe. No one would expect to find one living peacefully next door. They would never expect a necromancer to not be performing any dark rituals and only reanimating dead squirrels to see them dance.

I pull my lip through my teeth. "What are you doing here, exactly?"

"Same as you, I suppose. I needed a moment of solitude." He arches his brow as if daring me to confront him and his paper-thin explanation, knowing full well that my explanation is no better. Either I take him at face value, or he will not take me at face value.

Oh, this man is toying with me indeed.

He holds out his arm to me. "But now that I've run into you, I'm honor bound to make certain that you get home safely. These woods are not safe. There are ghosts about."

"There you are with those ghosts again, Mr. Ichabod," I say as I slide my arm through the crook of his. At least if he is taking me away then he will have no opportunity to find that squirrel skeleton.

"I like to consider myself a personal expert on ghosts," he replies unphased as he begins walking. Straight toward the squirrel remains.

I try my best not to sound nervous as I keep talking. Anything to distract him. "Why couldn't you have found a normal area of expertise, like wildlife?"

"Now where would be the fun in that?" Evengi puts his foot down and I hear a crack. I wince as he lifts his foot. Through the unsettled leaves, I can see a glimpse of the pale bones. "What the Skyhold," he breathes as he bends down. I stand there paralyzed, unsure what to do to keep him from seeing those bones. I have only seconds to react, and I'm not proud of what my first inclination is.

I grab Evengi by the collar of his tunic, jerking him upright. His eyes widen and his mouth opens in question, but I don't let him get it out. Instead, I reach out tracing against his jawline. "I think I know the real reason you're out here tonight."

His eye darts to my finger then to me, the squirrel remains hopefully forgotten. "And wh—what would that be?" he stutters, sounding nervous. Ironic that he's alone in the woods with a necromancer, but the reason he is nervous is because a woman touched his face.

It makes me want to stroke his face again.

"The same reason I am," I whisper. "You were hoping to come across me so we could finish that last step of our dance."

Evengi's eyebrows furrow. "Our… dance?"

"Yes," I breathe, leaning closer. Evengi leans against the tree, tripping a bit over the root and fully leaving the squirrel remains behind. He presses his back against the tree even as I press myself against him. "Such a dance is incomplete without one final move."

Evengi licks his lips nervously. "I'm not sure I understand what you're talking about, and I like to consider myself an exceptional dancer."

"It's this," I breathe leaning forward and pressing my lips against his. It's supposed to be a brief kiss, one that gets his mind completely off the squirrel, but as I kiss him, I find myself apparently very desperate to help him forget what he was doing. Because as soon as I start kissing him, I discover I have no intention of stopping, at least not any time this witching hour.

I slide my hands up his chest, and Evengi lets out a sigh, and then he is kissing me back, his hands on my hips, gripping into the sides of my dress.

As I lean closer, tracing my lips over his, suddenly a chilling neigh echoes through the forest. Evengi shoves me away, coming to his senses first, and I stumble back a step, almost landing in the squirrel remains myself.

He whips his head around. "We aren't alone in this forest," he says just as a dark form that appears to be mounted on horseback races through the woods, silent as the night.