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Chapter 232
Leesa woke up again a little after six o’clock the next morning. Her room was still dark—the sun would not be rising for some time yet. While she still didn’t feel great, she was much more refreshed and alert than when she had awakened at midnight, for which she was profoundly grateful. She could not recall what had disturbed her so much then, but suspected it must have been a dream. She spent a moment trying to remember it, but it was gone. Oh well, she thought, if it was important, it will come back—she hoped.
Pushing her covers aside, she swung her legs over the side of the bed. For a few moments she just sat there in the darkness, gently rolling her neck and stretching her arms and shoulders before finally standing up. She flicked on the overhead light and donned her robe, then risked a glance into the mirror.
She grimaced at what she saw, which made her reflection even more unpalatable. Her hair was a tangled, snarly mess, and a pair of dar
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Leesa's Advent Chapter 233
Later that afternoon, Cali was sitting at her desk studying when she heard a firm, staccato knock on the doorframe of her open door. She turned around to see two men in dark blue suits with black ties framed in the doorway. They were each tall and well-built, with short, but not quite military style haircuts. Both had light brown hair. Cali guessed they were somewhere in their late thirties or early forties—about the same age as her dad. They didn’t look quite enough like each other to be brothers, but they were close. More importantly, they looked like cops. No, she thought, not cops—more like FBI agents or something. Behind the two men stood a woman, but Cali could barely see her past the men’s bulk. All Cali could tell was that she was wearing a pants suit just a shade lighter than her companions, and that her shiny black hair was pulled back tight against her skull.Cali wondered what the men wanted. She didn’t do drugs, so it was doubtful th
Leesa's Advent Chapter 234
“No, you’re not,” Jones said. “It turns out there are no laws on the books about killing zombies—who’d have guessed?”“We’re just trying to gather as much information as we can about what happened,” Smith said. “Where those things came from, why they chose your dorm, anything like that.”Cali was struck by the thought that if the BSI guys had come yesterday afternoon, she would not have had a clue to any of those answers. After last night, though, when Leesa had shared her full story, Cali now knew about the Necromancer and the black waziri. She was not about to tell any of that to these agents, though. She hoped their arrival today was just coincidence and nothing more.“I’m sorry I don’t know more,” she said. “There was just so much going on—kids running and screaming, the fire extinguisher blasting—I just never got a clear picture of anything.&rdq
Leesa's Advent Chapter 235
When Leesa returned to her room after her last class, she found Cali sitting on the floor alongside the door, waiting for her. This was never a good sign—since Cali lived only one floor down, she could have easily just left a note on the door and returned to the comfort of her room to wait. Obviously, whatever was going on was important enough that she wanted to talk to Leesa as soon as possible. Leesa hoped it wasn’t anything that was going to get in the way of her being a normal student for awhile, but doubted she was going to be that lucky.Cali scrambled to her feet as soon as she saw Leesa emerge from the stairwell.“Hey, Cali,” Leesa said as she fished inside the pocket of her jeans for her keys. “What’s up?”“Not out here,” Cali said, her voice low, yet urgent. “Inside.”Leesa’s sense of foreboding grew as she inserted her key into the lock and pushed the door open. She stepped
Leesa's Advent Chapter 236
After dinner, Leesa and Cali bundled up and headed out from the dorm. The night air was cool, and a chill wind blowing out of the northwest made it feel even colder. Leesa wondered if there might be a storm on the way. It was getting late in the year for snow, but her friends had told her that every now and then New England got walloped by a March blizzard. Dominic would know if a storm was coming—he was better than any weather computer when it came to forecasting snow or rain—but predicting the weather was one of many wizard tricks Leesa had not yet even begun to learn. She wondered if her book of magic, which was tucked safely in the backpack slung over her shoulders right now, had anything about weather forecasting in it. Even if it did, she imagined that particular skill would be pretty far down on any list of priorities for some time yet.She tugged her dark blue knit ski cap farther down over her ears and trudged on into the wind. Beside her, Cali already ha
Leesa's Advent Chapter 237
Leesa had to admit, this was about as private a spot as she could imagine anywhere on campus. The fact that it sat atop a bustling library made it even better.“It does seem perfect,” she said.She took off her coat and hung it over the back of her chair. Cali did likewise.“Okay,” Cali said, smiling. “I want to see some magic. Show me what you got.”Leesa was glad to have Cali here with her. Ever since her magic had become diminished, practicing had been becoming more and more boring. It had been more fun when Jenna had added her magic to Leesa’s, but Leesa wasn’t sure when or if that would ever happen again. Both she and Jenna were likely to be a bit uncomfortable around each other for awhile.Cali would be an appreciative audience, Leesa knew. She just wished her powers were at full strength, so she could really show off. Still, Cali loved everything magical and supernatural, and she was bound to b
Leesa's Advent Chapter 238
The storm Leesa had been wondering about arrived with a flourish the next morning. Not snow, though, as she had been thinking—unfortunately, the air wasn’t quite cold enough for that. Instead, great sheets of rain pounded down, driven at a sharp angle by a howling wind out of the northeast.Rumbling explosions of thunder had pulled Leesa from her bed shortly after eight o’clock. For a brief moment she had been startled and frightened, wondering in her half-awake state if she was under some kind of magical attack, but then she recognized the thunder and lightning for what they were. She quickly slipped into her terrycloth robe and fur-lined slippers and went to the side window, where the view of the storm would be best. When she pulled the curtain open, she was not disappointed in the least.Snug and warm in her robe and slippers, she stared in wonder at the fury of the storm. The morning was dim and gray under dark, low hanging clouds, with pelting ra
Leesa's Advent Chapter 239
The storm had weakened considerably by the time Leesa and Cali headed for the library after dinner. It was still raining, but nowhere near as hard as it had been that morning, and the wind had died down to almost nothing. Still, it was a cold, wet night, and both girls were wearing raincoats and carrying umbrellas. Since it had rained all day, the sidewalks and streets were minefields of giant puddles that reflected pale golden circles of light from the streetlights above. The falling raindrops made the reflections shimmer and dance. Leesa imagined that some of the puddles might be deep enough to dive into, though of course she knew that was foolish.“This is kind of fun,” she said, enjoying the unsettled weather as always.“Which part?” Cali asked as she swerved left to avoid a puddle that covered most of the sidewalk. “Freezing our asses off, or having to watch every step we take so we don’t fall into one of these monster puddles a
Leesa's Advent Chapter 240
Not too far from campus, another bit of magic was also in play.Three figures stood in the darkness of a deserted cemetery. In front of them were three freshly filled in graves, the loose dirt and sod atop them turned muddy by the storm. Two of the figures held umbrellas up against the diminishing rain. The third squatted close in front of them at the edge of one of the graves, protected from the rain by their umbrellas.“We know the bodies were dug up here from the police reports,” Rome said to Smith and Jones. “I can sense that magic was used here, but what kind exactly, I cannot tell. It’s been too long and the traces are too faint. But it was not the kind that could reanimate the dead, of that I’m certain.”The men thought for a moment.“Perhaps the magic was used to unearth the bodies,” Smith suggested.“And then the reanimation was performed elsewhere,” Jones said, finishing the thou
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