that many—”
“Megan, I can appreciate your logic, but isn’t raising flesh-eating corpses to keep you from going to homecoming a little extreme?”
“It’s not extreme. It’s flat-out crazy, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true,” I said, watching his expression waver between patronizing and contemplative before whipping out my ace. “Especially considering the RCs last night were after Josh.”
“How did you know that?” he asked, looking really angry. “Did your mom—”
“Mom didn’t tell me anything—you just did,” I said, doing my best to keep my satisfied smile from my face. “Half the school knew that Josh and I were going out last night and that he didn’t have a date for the dance. Someone wanted to make sure he didn’t get one, at least not if that date was going to be me.”
Ethan chewed his bottom lip for a second, then slowly snapped the phone shut.
“What? Aren’t you going to tell SA about—”
“I’m going to tell them, but I’d better do it in person. They’re never going to believe this could all be about some high school dance.” He sighed and ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “I’m still not sure I believe it, but I have to admit it makes sense. They found pieces of a football jersey on the two graves last night. When they searched the boys’ locker room this morning, the number fifteen jersey was missing.”
“That’s Josh’s jersey!” My stomach started churning big-time. Hearing the hard evidence that Josh had been the target made it all so much more real.
“But there are other things going on. Things I can’t tell you about that make this more complicated. If it were just these two attacks, I would say you were completely right, but—”
“There have been more attacks? Is that what happened at the football field? Was someone attacked by—”
“Uh-uh, no way. You’ve already tricked me into saying more than I wanted to.” He took me by the shoulders and turned me toward my front door. “Go inside and get something to clean up these ashes. I’ll take them with me to headquarters.”
“Okay” I sighed, knowing I’d won as much information from Ethan as I was going to get. For now. Might as well satisfy my non-homecoming-plot-related curiosity. “I didn’t know RCs could be destroyed by fire. I thought you had to send them back to their Maker. That only the blood of the one who raised them could make them go back to their grave.”
“It’s not destroyed,” Ethan said, turning to point to the ground, where the ashes were starting to look more solid. “In an hour or two, it will regenerate enough to start attacking things again.”
“No way.” Whoa, that was twisted. Black magic was some seriously warped stuff.
“Yes way. I’ll work the reverto spell on it when it reconstitutes. I just couldn’t send it back to its grave on fire. People usually won’t notice a zombie running back to its Maker, but they will notice a streaking fireball.”
“Makes sense,” I said, turning back to the house before spinning around again. “So, would you want to use the fire spell if there were a whole bunch of RCs raised at once? I know the reverto spell won’t work if there are too many of them.”
“I guess that could work in theory, but it would depend on how many you were talking about. The flame spell takes a lot of energy and usually a lot more time. I wouldn’t have been able to take care of this one so quickly if it weren’t already burning. So . . . I’d say you could burn maybe two or three RCs at a time, max, and that’s if the Settler was pretty powerful.”
“And by that time, the rest of them would be on you,” I said, feeling my stomach sink.
“You don’t have to worry,” Ethan said, his voice softer. “You’re not going to be attacked by a bunch of RCs, I promise you. Nothing like that has happened in the states since the thing up
“Megan, I can appreciate your logic, but isn’t raising flesh-eating corpses to keep you from going to homecoming a little extreme?”
“It’s not extreme. It’s flat-out crazy, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true,” I said, watching his expression waver between patronizing and contemplative before whipping out my ace. “Especially considering the RCs last night were after Josh.”
“How did you know that?” he asked, looking really angry. “Did your mom—”
“Mom didn’t tell me anything—you just did,” I said, doing my best to keep my satisfied smile from my face. “Half the school knew that Josh and I were going out last night and that he didn’t have a date for the dance. Someone wanted to make sure he didn’t get one, at least not if that date was going to be me.”
Ethan chewed his bottom lip for a second, then slowly snapped the phone shut.
“What? Aren’t you going to tell SA about—”
“I’m going to tell them, but I’d better do it in person. They’re never going to believe this could all be about some high school dance.” He sighed and ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “I’m still not sure I believe it, but I have to admit it makes sense. They found pieces of a football jersey on the two graves last night. When they searched the boys’ locker room this morning, the number fifteen jersey was missing.”
“That’s Josh’s jersey!” My stomach started churning big-time. Hearing the hard evidence that Josh had been the target made it all so much more real.
“But there are other things going on. Things I can’t tell you about that make this more complicated. If it were just these two attacks, I would say you were completely right, but—”
“There have been more attacks? Is that what happened at the football field? Was someone attacked by—”
“Uh-uh, no way. You’ve already tricked me into saying more than I wanted to.” He took me by the shoulders and turned me toward my front door. “Go inside and get something to clean up these ashes. I’ll take them with me to headquarters.”
“Okay” I sighed, knowing I’d won as much information from Ethan as I was going to get. For now. Might as well satisfy my non-homecoming-plot-related curiosity. “I didn’t know RCs could be destroyed by fire. I thought you had to send them back to their Maker. That only the blood of the one who raised them could make them go back to their grave.”
“It’s not destroyed,” Ethan said, turning to point to the ground, where the ashes were starting to look more solid. “In an hour or two, it will regenerate enough to start attacking things again.”
“No way.” Whoa, that was twisted. Black magic was some seriously warped stuff.
“Yes way. I’ll work the reverto spell on it when it reconstitutes. I just couldn’t send it back to its grave on fire. People usually won’t notice a zombie running back to its Maker, but they will notice a streaking fireball.”
“Makes sense,” I said, turning back to the house before spinning around again. “So, would you want to use the fire spell if there were a whole bunch of RCs raised at once? I know the reverto spell won’t work if there are too many of them.”
“I guess that could work in theory, but it would depend on how many you were talking about. The flame spell takes a lot of energy and usually a lot more time. I wouldn’t have been able to take care of this one so quickly if it weren’t already burning. So . . . I’d say you could burn maybe two or three RCs at a time, max, and that’s if the Settler was pretty powerful.”
“And by that time, the rest of them would be on you,” I said, feeling my stomach sink.
“You don’t have to worry,” Ethan said, his voice softer. “You’re not going to be attacked by a bunch of RCs, I promise you. Nothing like that has happened in the states since the thing up
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