Read The Necromancer's Betrayal (The Final Formula Series, Book 2.5) for Free Online

unison as the bond flared up once more.
    “That’s not suppose to happen,” she whispered. “I—”
    “Careful.” He pressed a finger to her lips, still damp from his kiss. “You’re not yourself. Don’t give me any commands you might later regret.”
    She frowned. “I gave you a command?”
    “Yes.” He wondered if she was disappointed.
    “Oh God.” She pushed open the passenger door and almost fell out in her haste to leave.
    By the time he climbed out of the car, she had already disappeared around the side of the barn. He walked after her, unconcerned about losing her in the darkness. With a taste of her soul, he would always be able to find her again.
    He reached the corner of the barn and heard retching. A peek around the corner revealed what he expected, she was on her knees emptying her stomach. Another side effect of her over-use of necromancy? Concerned, he took a step toward her.
    “Dead, Elysia,” she whispered. “Dead, dead, dead. Why do you keep forgetting?” She retched again.
    James stood in silence a moment, then retreated to the car. He didn’t know why it bothered him. He had always known that no woman would have him once she knew what he was, but to make a necromancer sick? Not cool. Necros were known for their depravity.
    He glanced toward the barn. He was alone, and she was weak right now. It was an opportunity he couldn’t ignore. If he got far enough away, could he resist her call?
    Addie. He would go to Addie. If anyone could figure out a way to free him, she could.
    He shrugged off his coat and tossed it on the driver’s seat. Goosebumps pebbled his arms. This February had seen higher temperatures than usual, but it was still cold.
    Hands on the hem of his shirt, he hesitated. He should make sure Elysia made it back to the car before he left.
    No, she wasn’t that out of it. She would be fine. He had to get out of here while he still could. He tugged his shirt up to his armpits and stopped.
    If Elysia died, he could be banished from the mortal plane. Would he end up trapped in the land of the dead? That’s what had happened to Gavin, the grim before him.
    Grumbling, he pulled his shirt down and walked toward the barn. Why did she have to soul bind him? A blood bond would have been sufficient to tie him to her. Why add the if-I-die-you-die clause? Had she been that afraid of him?
    He stepped around the corner of the barn and stopped. Elysia was gone.
    Chapter
5
    J ames called the hound and his senses came to life. He turned in a slow circle, looking for the glitter of Elysia’s now familiar soul. Nothing.
    He sifted through the scents and caught a whiff of her strawberry shampoo. Yet it seemed to have moved beyond this area. Unease fluttered through his stomach, the situation reminding him a bit too much of the time he had lost Rowan at that haunted crematorium. But Rowan’s soul had been masked from James’s sight by another. This old barn didn’t appear haunted. So where had Elysia gone? Distance did limit the hound’s sight. Could she have moved far enough away in the short time he had been gone?
    James stripped off his clothes and slid into his other form, but even the hound’s greater range failed to spot her. He took off into the trees.
    Ghosting through the forest, his footsteps made no sound in last fall’s leaf litter. He circled the barn in wider and wider loops, but found no sign of her. It seemed she had vanished. If she were a grim, he would suspect she had jumped into the land of the dead.
    He remembered Addie’s necromancer… friend and his hackles rose. He could travel to the land of the dead, but Ian Mallory was a lich king. A dead necromancer who was now a lich himself. The man’s power was nothing like James had ever felt—or was it? Elysia had made a lich in seconds with nothing but her blood.
    James pulled open the portal and jumped through, his body shifting forms without his conscious control. He now stood on two legs in the dim red glow, his