Page 55 of The Rut in the Road

Sylvia was nodding.“Sunshine, the reason people are so careful around you is that you have so much magicalpotential—it’s honestly quite alarming.”She smiled.“It’s a good deal less alarming if it’s life magic, however.”

I frowned down at Victor. “But if I’m a life-caster, then how did I raise a dead rat?”

“Because you’re a life-caster,” Mason replied. “You gave him life again—you didn’t just raise his body and manipulate it. The spirit is the essence of life—and you used life-casting to bind Victor’s spirit back into his body.” He shook his head. “I should have sensed that.”

Ward let out a soft sound. “So you’re saying he did to that rat what you did to me,” he said, looking up at Mason.

Mason looked vaguely horrified.

I don’t think that was quite the right way to put that,Sylvia murmured softly, although only Ward and I could hear her.

Ward grimaced. “That came out wrong, Mace. Sorry.”

Mason shook himself slightly. “It’s… not wrong,” he admitted. “Although I don’t think I want to try it on rats.” He glanced over at Victor. “Or anything else.”

“You’re keeping a dead rat,”Raj repeated, his eyes fixed on Victor the rat, who was sitting in a box I’d put out for him, washing his whiskers.

“He seems happy,” I said. “I felt bad about just… sending him back to being dead.”

“He smells funny,” Raj said, still staring at Victor.

“He’s an undead rat,” I replied. “I’m surprised he doesn’t smellmorefunny.” It was actually pretty weird how very little Victor smelled.

“That’s why he smellsfunny,” Raj replied. “He should smell like decay, but he mostly just smells… like mothballs and jerky.”

I blinked. “That’s…”

“What?”

“Oddly specific,” I replied.

Raj shrugged. “It’s what he smells like,” he replied, not taking his eyes off the rat. “What are you going todowith him? Does he need to eat?”

“I don’t know. Keep him until he decides he wants to leave, I guess. And no, at least not according to Mason.”

“And you named him Victor why?”

“Because he reminds me of that clockwork Queen Victoria doll fromThe Great Mouse Detective, but he’s a boy rat, so…” I shrugged.

“Victor,” Raj said.

I nodded.

“And why did you resurrect him, again?”

“I—it wasn’t on purpose,” I admitted.

Raj drew in a long breath. Let it out. Drew in a second one. “That is not actually reassuring,” he said slowly.

“I know.” I ran a hand through my hair, unconsciously imitating the gesture Raj made often when he was worried or agitated about something. “Mason says it’s not entirely unheard of for things like that to happen when you’re learning about death magic. He resurrected his pet dog when he was a kid, although I guess it was much less… pleasant.”

“I’m not sure I would characterize an undead rat as pleasant,” Raj said, his tone mild, although he was still staring at the rat with an expression that I realized was discomfort. He didn’t understand the rat, and therefore didn’t know what to do with it.

What made me uncomfortable was the fact that I recognized the expression because that was how he’d looked atmethe firsttime he’d met me. And the second. And pretty much every time up until I’d started working on the Gates-Adams case. I didn’t blame him for not understanding me, but I would have liked to think that I was at least less upsetting and more interesting than an undead rat.

“Does it bother you?” I asked, then winced. It was anundead rat. Of course it bothered him. Rats were not supposed to come back from the dead, much less take up residence in a cardboard shipping box lined with felt. I’d also put a few dishes in there with random food items, just in case, although Victor hadn’t shown any interest in those, although he had drunk some water. I guess undead rats could still get dehydrated. “I mean?—”

“I—” he began, although he cut himself off before finishing whatever he was going to say.