Geoffrey the Very Strange - Merseton Tales, #1

An outcast necromancer and a half-demon clerk need to save the world from seashell zombies. No pressure. Everyone's always told Aspic that trouble can't help following him because of his heritage. Determined to put the lie to half-demon stereotypes, he's finally landed a good, quiet job as an herbalist's clerk where the owner trusts him to man the shop alone. What could go wrong selling coriander and thyme? When Geoffrey first enters the shop, Aspic finds the little man's eccentric appearance startling, then intriguing.
Geoffrey explains, in stops and starts, that he is a theoretical necromancer researching replacements for blood magic. His current line of inquiry involves seashells-do they have any in stock? Aspic's co-workers warn him that Geoffrey is a walking disaster, but he finds himself more and more drawn to a necromancer concerned with ethical death magic. Geoffrey's first impression of the half demon shop clerk is that his brain is as fluffy as his bright pink hair, but Aspic's persistent appearances at Geoffrey's lab soon let him see the kind heart underneath the façade of friendly nitwit.
Aspic's company isn't that bad, and he is someone to talk to during the frustrations of one failed experiment after another. Failed, that is, until something finally goes right-and then terribly, horrifyingly wrong. This book contains theoretical necromancy, unexpected spell outcomes, some extraordinarily angry seashells, and a guaranteed HEA.