Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 33643 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 168(@200wpm)___ 135(@250wpm)___ 112(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33643 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 168(@200wpm)___ 135(@250wpm)___ 112(@300wpm)
Sky lifted his head, his eyes somehow turning anime huge and even glistening. “Did you just call me honey?” he whispered.
He wanted to laugh. That would be the one thing that Sky’s sleep-deprived brain caught in all of that. “Yes, I can not if you would—”
“No!” Sky grabbed the hand smoothing his hair and pressed it to his cheek before laying his head on it. “I love it. You can call me honey all you want. I’m happy to be your honey.”
“Then, honey, why don’t you go to bed? You don’t have an appointment, do you?”
Sky rubbed his cheek on Nolan’s captured hand. “No. I thought I should be awake to monitor the minions.”
That wrung a snort out of Nolan because Sky’s eyes were closed and had been for most of Nolan’s visit.
“Send the minions home. Your place is spotless. Get some sleep.”
A huff escaped Sky, and he sat up, releasing Nolan’s hand. “You’re right.” He shoved to his feet and called Frank to his side. “Send everyone home. The place looks great.”
The black creature jumped and waved his hands in the air as he chittered.
Sky was shaking his head before Frank even finished. “I don’t have to make anyone sandwiches. First, I’m all out of bread, meat, and cheese. Your boss and his friends cleaned me out last night. And second, I didn’t summon you. He did. If you need payment, you take it up with him.”
That last sentence silenced Frank. The minion pressed his folded hands to his chest and cowered in front of Sky. He didn’t seem too keen on asking the king for payment.
Without further argument, Frank ran through the house, shouting at the other minions. One by one, they poofed away to nothing, leaving the two of them alone. Nolan leaned in and pressed a kiss to the side of Sky’s head. “Get some sleep. I’ll come check in on you later in the day.”
Sky grunted and shuffled to the stairs but stopped and spun halfway around. “That’s right. Why did you stop by in the first place? Did you need something?”
“Oh, shit! I forgot!” Nolan smacked himself in the middle of the forehead. The unexpected presence of a horde of underworld minions was enough to knock the morning’s disturbing news from his brain. “I wanted to ask you about the weird shit that’s being blasted across the news this morning. At first, I thought it might have something to do with the upcoming Moving Day, but I guess it was related to the demons you had partying at your place.”
As he spoke, Sky grew pale, and his eyes widened, the sleepiness vanishing from his posture. “What weirdness?”
He didn’t even wait for Nolan to reply. He darted into his living room, muttering to himself, “Where the fuck is my phone? Gotta find my phone.” Sky lifted pillows and pulled aside cushions until he came up with his phone buried in the couch.
“I haven’t seen any news since I woke up. Frank dragged me out of bed when they arrived, and I thought I should keep an eye on my cleaners to make sure they didn’t raid the remains of my pantry,” Sky grumbled. “Forgot about my phone.”
Nolan moved to stand next to Sky as he swiped through the security lock and discovered a ton of messages waiting for him.
“Oh fuck,” he whispered.
“The short of it is that the dead crawled out of their graves last night,” Nolan stated.
“What?” Sky squeaked, his phone falling from his fingers to clatter to the floor.
Nolan bent and picked it up while Sky remained frozen. “Yep. Crawled right out of their graves. Looked a lot like what happened when you summoned the dead against the vampires, except they didn’t put themselves away before dawn.”
“Are you shitting me? Is there video proof of this? Which cemetery?”
Nolan handed the phone to Sky, who clutched it with both hands. “I haven’t seen anyone post actual video of the dead climbing out of the ground. Just lots of pictures of rotting bodies and skeletons lying in the grass near open graves, as if they crawled free but ran out of energy to continue.”
Sky’s fingers tightened on his phone. “Which cemetery? Was it the one we went to for your brother?”
“No.” Nolan paused and shook his head. “I mean yes, but not only that one. All of them. Or rather, a huge number of them scattered around Hartford. They posted a list online of the graveyards that are closed to the public as the police investigate and return the bodies to the right graves. Had to be at least twenty to thirty names.”
“Holy fuck.” Sky exhaled. Nolan grabbed one of his arms as he sank to the ground. With a grunt, he got Sky moving so that he could sit comfortably on the couch. The necromancer appeared shell-shocked. His soft lips parted, but no words were coming out. Just quick pants. His eyes were wide, staring at some distant spot.