Free Unchosen by Michele Vail

post-party clean-up by eating the rest of the cheese doodles.
     
    THE NEXT MORNING, I actually woke up early, so I had some free time before classes. I lounged on my bed and surfed the Internet, trying to find any information I could about Lelia Briarstock and her death nearly sixteen years before.
    Okay, so I wasn’t the queen of research. I could find very little about my Aunt Lelia’s death. It was strange that the oldest daughter of a prominent necromancer family didn’t even merit a memorial FB page. I mean, what did people do before Facebook and Twitter? Sheesh. No one would know anything.
    I couldn’t even find Aunt Lelia on the school ’s website. If my aunt had been this great student and awesome record holder, you’d think they’d have some sort of information. I understood why they wouldn’t want to talk about my mother. Obviously, she had been a troublemaker and I doubted there was a rogue’s gallery available on the Nekyia website.
    After a half hour of useless searching, I finally tried the local newspaper’s site. I plugged in the search terms “Lelia Briarstock” and “death” along with the year of my birth. The results came back mixed. But one headline caught my eye: “Woman Dies in Brutal Attack.”
    I clicked the link. The page pulled up a three-paragraph story. Huh. That wasn’t exactly bursting with the kind of clues I needed. Next to the article was a picture of a wooded area with crime scene tape stretched between two large pine trees.
     
    WOMAN DIES
    IN BRUTAL ATTACK
     
    RENO, Nevada – Yesterday evening, the body of a young local woman was found in the woods just off Necromancy Drive. The two-mile road leads to the elite necromancer school, Nekyia Academy, and the woman was identified as former star student, Lelia Briarstock.
                                Officials have not confirmed the cause of death, saying only that it was a possible animal attack.                            Briarstock is the oldest daughter of wealthy entrepreneur Derek and his wife Sandra, who is well known in the elite circles of Reno society. The Briarstocks have not publicly commented about the death of their daughter. Their lawyer, Rosie Nowles, released a statement this morning: The Briarstocks are devastated by the loss of their daughter, and request that they be allowed to grieve in private. They are extremely grateful for the community’s support and they commend the Reno police department for conducting an efficient, professional investigation.
     
                  I re-read the article twice more. Neither the article nor the picture offered much information about my aunt’s traumatic death. Was she mauled by animal? Killed by a necromancer? Attacked by one of Set’s minions?
                  Well, there appeared to be one person who probably knew the answer.
    Rosie Nowles … AKA dear auntie Anput.
                               
     

 
     
     
     
    Molly’s Reaper Diary
    Put on Your Big Girl Panties and Deal
     
    That’s it.
    Put on your big girl panties and deal.
    Write it on your mirror.
    Tattoo it on your arm.
    Set it as a daily text reminder.
    You don’t have time to whine and wail about your lot in life. You’ll want to, believe me. It does no good to give in to your fear, your anger. Just box up the emotions and do what you gotta do.
    You can freak out afterward.

 
     
     
    “Scythes were created in the Underworld to strengthen reapers’ connections to the magic gifted by Anubis. Scythes open portals between worlds. Scythes are extremely important to reapers, and why they often kept animal protectors born of two worlds, the living and the dead. These familiars often protected the scythes—and their owners.”
     
    ~ Secret History of Reapers, Author Unknown
     
     
     
    “He was undead, a zombie. I’d been taught from an early age that zombies were mindless corpses, but here was my