Page 12 of How to Woo the Undead

Hyacinth leaned over the one with the candle, watching the flame dance while Austin made the shadows shiver with his movements.I’m choosing my first memory! That’s so exciting.

Chapter Six:

Austin

“Austin…whatwasyourfirstmemory?” the dead girl asked. Hyacinth, he’d learned her name that morning and tried not to cry.She picked my favorite flower!Sebastian and Smith looked at him like he was a porcelain doll about to break again. Austin kept all those happy tears inside his body.I do not think I can withstand either of you being worried about me another day longer.Everyone, and Austin meant everyone, in the house was worried about him.

How do I get them to realize I’m fine!Wasn’t he allowed to be sad sometimes? Was it because he didn’t always smile anymore?

He didn’t want to ask in fear of popping whatever tension bubble existed around the house. If he did, who knew what would spill out. So, he pretended not to notice everyone’s lingering stares and did his best to avoid Hyacinth in the light.

Then she asked him a question, and he froze. In the middle of skinning something fluffy, he stared blankly into the darkness knowing it could only blink back at him.

“I do not remember anymore.”

That was a lie.I’m a liar now.He grimaced as he pulled the last bit of fur off the body of the werewolf he had stuffed in a trunk to the far western wall. Austindidremember his first memory.It was a cavern full of bodies.Not a great start.Not when her first memory was actually his face…and she screamed into it.

“Oh, then do you think I’ll remember this?”

He turned toward her, glowing in the candlelight.She’s just so pretty.The circular shape of her face, the bump of her nose, the way her hair swept across her shoulders, he realized all too well she was miraculous. Sebastian took extra care with her. The stitching on her wasn’t as rustic and robust as his. She hardly looked like a collection of parts. In fact, if she were wearing a scarf and long sleeves, she’d look…well…still dead but not undead?Oh that didn’t make it better. He grimaced.

“I hope so. Memories can be fickle.”

She snorted softly, “Heh, I like that word.”

“Memories?”

“Pfft, no…fickle. I like the way it feels on my tongue. I also like viscous! Oh! And ginormous. Makes my mouth do this big ‘o’ shape.” She grinned easily, her gaze following him even in the shadows.

He was being silly by hiding, but his first instinct was to hide every inch of him. It didn’t stop her from staring deep into his soul with those purple eyes of hers. Like she could find him, even in the dark. Her lips twitched at the edges as she cocked her head to the side.

Answer her!He fumbled with the words that spilled from his mouth. “I, uh, like phlebotomy.”

“Fe-fu-fl,” she giggled the whole time while she tried the word.

“Phlebotomy,” he chuckled, returning to the table with his werewolf fur, wool fabric he was going to stitch it onto, and the stuffing for the teddy bear. “It’s the process of taking blood from someone.”

“Why would you need blood from someone?” She made a scrunched face as she pulled away from the table. Austin normally would worry he’d offended her, but her stare was already down at his collection of parts. It was nice to see the cogs turning on her face. “Where did you find fur?”

“Werewolf.” He flattened everything out on the workspace, eyes searching the dark for where he left the sewing machine.Thank you, Lord Rosemont, for eyes that can see even in magic darkness.The sewing machine was unlike the one Agatha used upstairs in the parlor. His was a little hand cranked device that helped him sew two fabrics together. Austin caught the handle sticking out of his box of tools on the far wall. Sebastian allowed him to build a full wall of shelving units for organizing all the little finicky tools they needed, then for storage. It’s where they kept all the vials, all the folded towels, and other bits and bobbles.

“And he won’t need it?” Her voice brought his attention back to her.

“No,” Austin laughed, shaking his head. “We tend to recycle here. We’re necromancers…not necromessers.”

She blinked at him, her gaze falling to the things on the table for a long moment, then glanced back up at him. “I have no idea what that means.”

“Which part?”

“Why it was funny?” she squinted at him. “I don’t understand humor just yet. I understand it, objectively, but…how do you know if something is funny?”

Austin’s eyebrows shot up on his head. “Oh…well…you just…organically laugh.”

“Huh,” she sighed, drumming her fingers across the workstation. “This must mean I’m not funny.”

“Or!” Austin interjected, causing her purple gaze to shoot up again. “Or I simply need to be funnier!”

He walked away to collect the sewing machine.She can’t see me. I made sure of it.There wasn’t much magic that Austin could do, not without tools from Lord Rosemont. However, the laboratory was always cloaked in magic darkness. All it took was to turn the lights out. The candles were only able to give so much light. However, if she were to lift the candles up to his face, he was in trouble.