Void(50)

“We’re in a necromancer classroom, aren’t we?”

Hyde brushed back his white hair. “Where else would I get a fresh corpse?”

“Right. How stupid of me,” I said dryly.

Yanking open several more doors, he looked at me from over his shoulder. “Well, don’t just stand there. Help roll out the cadavers.”

I didn’t care how hot the dude was, that was not something every girl wanted to hear.

I took a deep breath and walked over, grabbed hold of the cold metal handle, and pulled. I kept my eyes averted, only glancing quickly down at the body bag before moving on to the next drawer. The next three were considerably smaller bags in varying arrangements, obviously animals of some kind.

As soon as we had all the drawers opened, Hyde put his hands up, and red magic flowed out of his palms. It poured out of him, sweeping straight to the dead bodies.

After a few minutes, he managed to resurrect every single body, and soon, zombies were unzipping their body bags from the inside, while the animals were using their claws or snouts to pop them open.

I blinked at the motley crew of undead as they gathered around us. A human granny wearing a paisley muumuu, an overweight dude with tobacco stains on his teeth, and a collection of animals, from an antlered reindeer and a bear cub to a chipmunk and a lounge of lizards. They were all completely zombified, all blank stares and jerky movements.

“I probably should’ve asked this before, but why did you just resurrect two dozen dead bodies?”

Hyde scoffed. “Like I’d ruin the surprise.”

He patted the dead dude on the shoulder, making his collarbone pop through his skin. “Huh. He must’ve been deader than I realized,” he said conversationally.

A snort escaped my throat before I could stop it. “Necro problems.”

“Indeed,” he agreed seriously. “Come on,” he said, turning on his heel. “My magic won’t last long with this many, and we have a ways to go.”

“Umm, seriously, where are we going with all these...things? Someone is going to notice!”

“Stop trying to ruin the surprise.”

He made his way across the classroom, holding the door open, and the zombies filed out in a perfect line. “Hold hands, children. We don’t want to lose anyone!” He called over his shoulder at them before snaking his fingers through mine. I glanced back at them, and sure enough, they gingerly held hands, their vacant eyes staring straight ahead. They were very well behaved.

We passed the buzzing cafeteria, another hallway of shifter classrooms, and went all the way up two flights of stairs to Headmaster Torne’s office. Once I realized where we were, I tried to tug my hand free of Hyde’s, but his grip stayed firm. “What are we doing here?” I hissed.

“Don’t tell me you’re afraid to get caught?” he replied in a louder voice than I was comfortable with. I snapped my head around to check and make sure there wasn’t anyone nearby.

“You realize they’re just looking for an excuse to kick me out, right?” I asked, though adrenaline flooded me from my risk demon cravings. “You’re probably tricking me! You suggested to the other paragons to get me caught up in shit so that the headmaster could kick me out!” I whisper-yelled.

Hyde blinked. “I suggested that before I met you.”

I scoffed. “So?”

“So...I don’t want you to get kicked out anymore.”

My mouth dropped open in shock. Hyde had never really been awful to me, but I didn’t think he thought about me differently than the other paragons. “Wait...what?”

“Don’t worry,” he said. “Stay here with the corpses. I’m just going to grab something real quick.” And with that, Hyde snuck into Headmaster Torne’s office.

I breathed out a sigh of frustration. “Can you believe this guy?” I asked the zombies incredulously. They were all still holding hands, just staring at the wall. The dude beside me had a string of drool running down his lip. “Great. Now I’m talking to not-dead dead people,” I grumbled. I wrinkled my nose. “You guys stink.”

I heard rustling on the other side of the door and held my breath while Hyde did...well, whatever it was that Hyde was doing. I had half a mind to leave him there. I didn’t want to be caught by the headmaster. Just as I’d gotten the sense to ditch this scene, the door opened and Hyde appeared with a...guitar? What the actual fuck?

“Did you know he plays?”

I stared at him with disbelief. “Plays what?”

“The guitar, silly,” he answered before strolling past me and back toward the staircase where we just were. “And they call me unobservant, ha!”

Now I was really curious. “What are you doing with Headmaster Torne’s guitar?” I asked while catching up. The zombies dutifully followed.

Hyde started tuning the strings by ear, adjusting the tone as he hummed along. Once we got to the bottom step, he answered me. “Well, we can’t have a concert without an instrument,” he answered before rolling his eyes.

“A concert?”

“Do you always ask a lot of questions?”

“Do you ever really answer them?”

“Touché, Void.”

He continued to lead his little parade until we were outside, the cool, Washington air brushed our skin as he started strumming a tune I recognized. It was catchy and upbeat. “Now the first rule of necromancy,” he began once we got to the gazebo where Banner and I had practiced unleashing my Void. “Never disrespect the dead. Making them live out your boyband fantasies is a definite no-no,” he instructed. He did some weird wrist flick, pouring out more red magic, and the zombies lined up and started synchronized dancing as he played the guitar. “But zombie river dancing is acceptable.”