How to Break an Undead Heart (The Beginner's Guide to Necromancy, #3)

by Hailey Edwards

“Have you ever considered teaching elementary school instead of college?” “No.” The rag, and his focus, slipped over my bottom lip. “Why do you ask?” “You’re a nurturer.” I took the cloth from him, the fabric warmer than his chilly fingers. “You’re good at taking care of people.” The praise stunned him into silence for a beat. “Caring for someone because you want to is a different beast than caring for someone because it’s your job.” “Ah,” I said eloquently while stinging heat crept across my chest like a spreading sunburn. The idea he might actually like having me around was…nice.

“Oh no.” I grimaced. “Can we not and say we did?” “Keet is your familiar,” Linus scolded me. “You must stop viewing him as a pet.” “Your owl tried to eat him,” I shrilled. “How can he do his job if he’s terrified for his life?” “He’s already dead,” Linus stated flatly. “There’s dead,” I told him, “and then there’s digested-in-stomach-acid dead.”

For weeks, Linus had allowed us to spar. No, that’s not right. Unlike other men in my life, he didn’t view my decisions as a thing he had the right to allow or disallow. More like he had kept his mouth shut, the way a friend might, while watching another friend embrace a bad decision with arms wide open because they craved recklessness or needed an outlet.

I wanted to make my own choices, my own mistakes, even if that meant getting my heart broken.

“Why would Boaz do this?” Pairing us up to fail. “He had to know how hard this would be for you.” “See?” She laughed, a crazed sound. “You don’t think the way they do. You care about others.” She tugged on her earlobe. “Boaz thought that goodness might fix me, that you might—I don’t know—heal me.” Never in a million years had I expected her to say that. As often as I had to peel him off the ceiling when I did something he disagreed with, I had no idea he thought I was capable of more than getting in trouble.

“I really, really hope not. I’ve got ninety-nine vampire problems, and I don’t want him to be one.”

They personified ideals and made such lasting bonds appear as the only logical step when you couldn’t breathe without the person next to you. Maybe that apparent ease was what made their unions burn so bright from the outside looking in. Maybe that kind of love wasn’t simple. Maybe it was a goal you strove toward every single day for the rest of your lives. A peak you never reached, but that was okay as long as you kept climbing.

“Who did this to you? What made you believe you’re disposable? You’re an heir, a scion, a professor, an artist, a potentate. Those are all positions of power.” I kept going, thinking it through. “Do you think you didn’t earn those first titles? That you must keep proving yourself? Heaping on more and more of them? Will it ever be enough?” His only response was the slackening of his fingers as they slid onto his lap. “You are worthy, Linus Lawson. You hear me?” I reached over and squeezed his chilly hand. “Don’t die proving it to yourself.”

This time, I let Boaz watch. Damn if I was going to hide one ounce of the pain he had caused for his sake. Forget pride. Let him see. Let him live with this. Let him fall asleep tonight and dream about my splotchy face, my tears, my misery.

“I warned him he stood at a crossroads,” she said sadly. “Had he chosen well, he would have had his heart’s desire: freedom to live as his own man, power to enact change, love that transcends centuries. But he chose poorly, and he has lost that which matters most to him: himself.” “It hurts,” I said thickly, voice catching. “It’s never… Him choosing someone over me never hurt this much before.”

“I don’t want to go to the Lyceum.” “The only alternative is bringing Mother here.” “I’ll pull on some pants.” “I’ll pack the bacon.” I patted his arm. “Good man.”

“The part of me that believed in happily-ever-afters and true love triumphing against all odds is crushed to learn sometimes you fall in love with a prince who is actually a frog.”