Chapter 13
Penelope’s jaw tightened. “The magic… it’s waking all of them, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” Mingxi said. “Slowly. But once one rises, the others follow.”
Penelope inhaled once, deeply, and then exhaled through her nose. “I refuse to be here for the encore.”
A wet thud sounded from inside the shattered doorway.
Then another.
A series of dragging footsteps… slow at first and then picking up irregular speed.
Penelope didn’t wait to hear the rest.
“Portal. Now.”
They moved—fast—across the blood-soaked lawn. Her skirts soaked through where they brushed the grass, but she didn’t falter. Mingxi took point, senses stretched razor thin.
Behind them, the manor groaned.
Something heavy slammed into the interior wall, rattling broken windows.
A chorus of faint, staggered breaths followed, dozens of them, out of sync, unnervingly wrong.
Penelope quickened her pace.
“How long do they take to fully rise?” she asked.
“It varies,” Mingxi said. “The necromantic spell is not designed for instant reanimation. But once awakened—”
A scream tore through the manor. Not human. Not alive.
Penelope flinched, but her stride did not break.
“They are all waking,” Mingxi finished.
Another impact rocked the doorway. Shadows shifted violently inside, shapes jerking upright with grotesque speed. The portal flickered ahead—unstable but open—its blue-white arch spasming like a dying heartbeat.
“Keep moving,” Mingxi ordered.
Penelope didn’t need to be told. She lifted her skirts with one hand, the other pressed instinctively over her pocket where the Grimoire lay.
The fog parted just enough for the portal’s light to halo around them.
Behind them, the revenants began to pour out of the manor. Not fully formed. Not fully coordinated. But many.
Penelope didn’t look back. “Councilor Shen,” she said tightly, “if any of them reach us—”
“They won’t.”
“Promise me.”
“I do.”
They sprinted the final stretch.
Just as the first revenant stumbled onto the garden stones behind them—its jaw unhinged, body twitching with incomplete animation—Penelope and Mingxi crossed into the portal’s light.