Hidden Necromancer

…ZOMBIES, INFECTED, DEADERS, BLIGHTERS… Zombie Tales from Undead Worlds contains three exhilarating short stories and three white-knuckle novelettes set in alternate versions of an Earth inhabited with frightening variants of zombies to haunt your waking hours and fill your nightmares. ​In The Blanket, a little boy hides as the end of the world enters his home… In The Scavengers, two unique survivors struggle to carve out a life for themselves while being threatened by the most frightful beings of all: humanity… In The Building, a teenage girl lives in a walled-in neighborhood and hopes to escape to the luxury of the high-rise apartment building that towers over it. But to reach it, she must risk the Deaders that roam the streets… In The Necromancer, a Cleric must deal with hordes of the destructive undead as they threaten a settlement in a futuristic world… In The Race, seven friends scramble to reach the safe zone while evading the dangers of the murderous Blighters and each other… In The False Start, a young couple is torn apart as the undead plague begins to take hold of Austin, Texas… ​Award-winning author Rhiannon Frater creates vivid new stories set in alternate worlds where people face nightmarish creatures that only desire one thing: to destroy the living.

When I was younger, my mother saved my settlement from the Unblessed Dead that would have killed us all. It cost her everything to reveal her necromancy and sent shockwaves through our stringent religious settlement. Convicted of heresy against our sacred Lost Texts, she died soon after. Since then, I have worked hard to maintain my Pious Standing so that when I turn eighteen I will be selected by a suitable husband at the Bridal Auction.As the large clock in town square ticks down to my eighteenth birthday, the dead have been appearing in my garden. If I'm discovered, I'll face the Necromancer Trial just as my mother, oldest sister, and I did all those years ago. This time I fear I will not survive it. To add to my worries, an enigmatic handsome young man has arrived in the settlement. Around him swirls a green aura only I can see. Is he here to help me? Or does he have more nefarious plans? My name is Ilyse Nott, and I fear I am a necromancer.If I am, my life is over.

I have escaped the Atonement Settlement, the rule of the Elders, and the cruel doctrines that took the life of my mother and almost condemned me to death. I have abandoned my former way of life, and now question the religion that ruled over me. But freedom is not all I imagined it to be. There is great danger in the Deadlands. High fences keep the high-tech trains safe, and even higher walls protect the settlements from the hordes of the Unblessed Dead roaming the untamed land. Yet, just like in the Atonement Settlement, humans are just as much a threat. Marauders terrorize settlements while a new religion is murdering suspected necromancers. I have no choice but to go to the Chantry and study to become a Necromancer Cleric. It is my only hope to one day save my younger sister, Carrie, from the Atonement Settlement. But when I am forced to reveal the full force of my necromancy, I soon realize that the human threat against my freedom may destroy all my hopes for the future.