Soul Legacy: A Supernatural Ghost Series (The Windhaven Witches Book 2), Carissa Andrews [best books for 7th graders .TXT] 📗

Wade sits upright, instantly alert. “What is it?”

I outstretch my arm, pointing to where the zombie had just been. “It’s…gone. How can it be gone?” Shifting to my knees, I crawl on all fours to get a better look. I reach out and poke my index finger into the ashes and they continue to fade away, as if the molecules themselves are being erased from existence.

“How in the hell?” Wade says, suddenly by my side. “How is this possible?”

I shake my head. “Your guess is as good as mine. I’m in totally new territory here.”

“Can you see the other one? Did it disintegrate, too?” Wade asks, pushing up to a stand.

“I can’t see anything, so maybe it did. Help me up and we can go look together,” I say, holding out my hand.

Furrowing his brow, Wade grabs hold of my hand and yanks me to my feet.

“I don’t know what’s going on here, but one thing I do know is, we have to get outta this cemetery before anyone sees the mess we’ve caused,” Wade says, frowning. “The last thing I need is more rumors. Besides I’d hate to have you dragged into all of the conspiracy theories.”

Scanning the graveyard, it only takes a moment to realize he’s right. There’s a large trail of disruption leading from the columbarium all the way to our location.

“Yeah, we better go. We’ll have to do some research when we get back to Windhaven. This is definitely not the place for specula—”

In the distance, my periphery catches movement and I home in on it. I squint, trying to get a better view, but I can’t quite make it out. Suddenly, the movement sweeps in front of the large brick wall at the edge of the cemetery. Dressed from head to toe in white, it becomes glaringly obvious that it’s a person.

“What is it? What do you see?” Wade asks, stepping up beside me.

“Did you see that?” I say, refusing to even blink until the person is no longer in view.

“See what?”

I take a deep breath, finally looking Wade’s direction. “You were right to be concerned. There was someone in the cemetery with us.”

Chapter 9

A Home For The Dead

I might be supernatural, but even that doesn’t prepare a person for coming face to face with zombies. Real, flesh-falling-off, scary-as-all-hell… zombies.

The thing is, even with all the stuff I’ve learned at school, zombies have never come up. And I’ve been learning a lot of stuff about my craft and my abilities. You’d think it would be a pretty big deal.

Hobbling over to the computer section of the Windhaven Academy library, I take a seat at one of the computers and cast a sideways glance to Wade. “How is it zombies are real, but they’ve never come up in our coursework? It’s like no one wants to talk about them.”

“We’re also kind of newbies to this whole school thing. As much as we’ve seen, we can only consume so much information at once. I’m sure there’s info out there—we just gotta know where to look,” Wade says, sliding into the chair beside me.

I nod, bending down and rubbing at my pulsing ankle. “Thus, the library.”

“How’s your leg?” Wade asks, quirking an eyebrow.

“I’ll live. It just aches a bit,” I mutter, setting my hand in my lap. The truth is, it’s painted a lovely shade of black and blue, but at least I can walk on it now.

“Good.” Wade says, eyeing me suspiciously before turning back to the computer. “The way I figure it, there’s probably a lot of stuff out there we don’t know about. But if we can dream it up, it probably exists. I mean, the ideas for some of the modern entertainment stuff, like zombies, had to have come from somewhere. Don’t you think?”

“Good point,” I say, turning to the computer screen. Quickly, I enter my login details to get into the school’s vast archives of the magical, paranormal, and straight-up supernatural. After a few seconds, the search bar pops up and I quickly type in “zombies,” then press enter.

Wade leans in, placing his left hand on my right thigh as we wait. It doesn’t take long before the results come back.

“There’s only four,” I say, making a face. “Does that seem right to you?”

“That does seem odd,” Wade says, narrowing his gaze. “Open the first one.”

I click on the link and it opens a small landing page with a reroute.

Zombies > see also Revenants.

We exchange a glance, but I click on the link for Revenants. Something about the word reminds me of a conversation I had last semester, but I can’t remember who it was with.

As the first page loads, I read the details out in a hushed voice, “Revenants are animated corpses and/or remains that have been revived from death to haunt the living. The word revenant is derived from the Old French word, revenant, meaning the ‘returning.’ See also the related French verb revenir, meaning ‘to come back.’ Instances of revenants, both in name and in reality, have declined since the 1700s. This is believed to be thanks to the rise in scientific exploration, as well as the implementation of supernatural schools across the United States. Academies, such as the Windhaven Academy in Massachusetts, channel supernatural talents in a constructive manner, avoiding some of the darker elements of magic, such as revenants.”

“Well, I guess this explains why we haven’t heard much about them,” Wade mutters, shifting back in his seat.

“Yeah, for starters, everyone uses a different name,” I say, chewing on the side of my lip.

“Yeah, but I’ve never heard of revenants. Have you?” Wade chuckles. “I mean, there was that one movie with Leo DiCaprio—but that wasn’t even about zombies. Granted, he was kinda left for dead…”

“I must have missed that one,” I say, shaking my head. “Well, okay, so basically, we know zombies can happen—but we don’t really know why or how.”

“Obviously, someone’s behind it. It says they’re revived to haunt the living. So, spellwork has to be involved in