Strategy

by Layla Heart

  “They were gardeners in the old kingdom. They used to tend the gardens in the witch queen’s castle. They were pretty famous for it too.” She glances at me, thinking. “Do you know what else happened that summer?”

  I shake my head, confused. Am I missing something here? Something I should know?

  “I don’t know either, but let’s find out.” She turns around quickly, looking at the table and pulling a piece of paper to her, jotting things down. “On the run from an evil force. A freak accident in the human world. Sounds like someone was after them. Sounds like someone wanted them, specifically. A family connected to the old gardens, the seat of the witch queen’s power, and they’re mysteriously killed off?” She sits down, staring up at me, frowning. “What if the attacks on the campus aren’t about you six being there, but a totally different reason? What if the campus itself is the reason for the attacks?”

  “Why?” I like her idea, and we definitely need more to go on, but I’m not convinced yet.

  She looks at me over her shoulder, a spark in them that I see so often in Litha’s too, when something clicks in her mind and she comes up with a plan. “Because the forest on campus is actually what’s left over of the gardens of the old witch castle. It has immense power, magical power, beyond what you could imagine. And if the fae get access to it, find a way to yield it, the magic we’ve seen in the last weeks will be nothing in comparison. Especially if they have someone of that family with them...”

  Oh, fuck. Of course. We’ve got exactly what we need, we just didn’t know it, because we missed a lot of important knowledge about these families.

  Fucking hell...

  Chapter 6 - Kit

  I look at the map of the campus and the town, overlaid with the map from the old witch kingdom, the forest lined up with the old gardens so we can see all the matching locations. We knew that the campus was made on the old witch kingdom grounds, that’s common knowledge, but we never thought to check just how much of the old structures were still in place. I curse softly. No fucking way.

  If you have access to a magical hotspot like that and if you have a witch with you who can use that energy, then you don’t need some queen or other powerful witch from an old line at your side, you just camp out on the hotspot and let the witch do all the magic. You can just use the witch as a funnel and use the magic yourself.

  “You think he’s got someone from that family at their side?” Finn stares at the maps too, his eyes dark, worried.

  Litha’s mum nods. “It’s the only explanation for how they got so close to the campus without anyone noticing. That family has practically created the ground the town stands on. Their magical roots go deeper than any tree can reach. They wish for something and it exists, just like that.”

  “And that’s why Litha’s magic was so explosive too, why the magic-blocking spells didn’t work on her.” I look to the side, to where Litha, her dad and Rune are preparing dinner for us in the kitchen, father and daughter laughing at something Rune said as we’re working in here. “As a queen, she practically owns the place.”

  “Yeah.” Litha’s mum smirks. “I had a similar issue when I attended the school. The magic basically wanted me to use it. It wanted me to try out whatever I could with it, it gladly helped me do the strangest and most dangerous spells.” Then she lets out a sigh, going serious again. “Now that we know this. What have you got that you can use to stop this from happening?” She looks at Bane and then at Finn, who are both staring at the map and then at the research and notes on the walls.

  Finn stands up, tapping on some of the notes. “My dad has the fire protection from the dragon scales, the anti-shifting elixir for dragons, multiple ways to weaken the magic of werewolves and incubi and succubi.” He sighs. “And then, of course, the spell that allowed them to hide so well when they attacked the campus and the venom they’ve been using against us.” Finn groans, picking up a couple of pieces of paper. “The venom is going to be important. We have to find a way to protect ourselves against it. My dad will send a lot of well-trained soldiers, all carrying this venom, and we can’t fight them all, not even if we get ten times as many people to help us. There will be too many. Even if we round them up and kill them by the dozens, there will be too many.” He looks around again. “We need to look at it from the other side, now we know the end location, we can work back. What is he going to do when he reaches the magic hotspot?”

  “He wants to rule everyone.” Bane steps next to him. “Last time, he took the dragons’ ability to shift, their powers, their magic, to overpower them and bring them to submission. And then he claimed their lands for himself. We have to presume he’ll try the same thing this time, just on a larger scale. So, what’s he going to use against werewolves and the succubi and incubi? How is he going to overpower us?”

  “Not with more elixir, not immediately anyway. We’ve not found any evidence that he’s got someone working for him who can make something to target werewolves and succubi and incubi specifically.” Finn shakes his head, then he stares into nothing for a while, and a bad feeling settles in my stomach.

  If it’s not more elixir, then how is he going to fight both werewolves and succubi and incubi? It’s such a diverse group of people, and it’s not like he can send dragons after us or something, so he’s got to have planned something that renders us weak so that attacking us becomes easier.

  Finn’s eyes shoot to me, a coldness settled in them. “The spell you did last summer. To protect your race. Do you still have it?”

  I shake my head. I looked for it the morning after Rune stopped me, but I never found it again.

  “I have it.” Rune steps into the room, his eyes dark. “Didn’t think it safe enough to leave behind. Why do you need it?”

  “How does it work? How does the magic work?” Finn is looking at Rune now and I don’t like the calculations going on behind his eyes.

  “It creates a barrier around people. I think.” Rune glances at me and I nod. “It deflects and protects. With enough power, it can even push others away. Or something similar.”

  Finn nods. “Could a similar spell bind a whole race’s magic? Say, if they’ve got enough power for it from a hotspot?”

  The whole room goes quiet as Rune nods. “If such a spell exists, it could work.”

  “Or if they created one.” Litha’s mum stares at the map, her eyes wide. “The dragon scales work against fire magic, which is otherwise the hardest magic to protect against as an army, the heat is a problem. The venom works against people who they can get close enough to so that they can stab them. And if you bind a people’s magic before you take over their country... You can easily overwhelm them, even when your own magic isn’t the strongest out there, just by pure force.”

  “Fuck.” Finn growls. “Sounds like it’s a good plan, covering most of their bases.”

  “With one big flaw. They need the hotspot for it to work.” Bane lets out a breath, squaring his shoulders. “And they would need us, or our family members, to bind our magic, as they need royal blood for it.”

  And that, right there, is the moment I feel sick. The world spins as my stomach tries to empty itself. We need to be on campus to stop this all from happening, but being there also makes the plan easier to fulfil. And if that happens, we’ll all die. We’ll all be killed.

  I’ll lose them all, every single one of them, and it’ll be our own fault. We can’t win, not this time.

  Rune is at my side in moments, his strong arms around me, pulling me close, slowly humming, trying to spread his ‘calming’ thing. “We’ll win. We’ll make it out of there.”

  I shake my head. “No. We don’t stand a chance.”

  “We do. Because we’re going to get help from people the fae have already written off.” Litha’s voice is clear in the room, and when I look up, it’s almost like her magic is shimmering on her skin, her eyes filled with fire. “We’re not alone. We just need a little time to assemble all the pieces for our own plan.”

>   I’m about to ask her what plan she has, but a phone beeps and Litha’s mum looks up. “We need time we don’t have. I just got a message from Diana. The captured fae soldiers all committed suicide, taking a large number of their guards with them. Whatever’s going on, it’s going to happen soon.”

  “When’s the next magically important event?” Finn looks at Bane.

  “Fall equinox is in a couple of days, but it’s not that important for us.” Bane looks at me.

  “We like it, but it’s not important enough to affect our magic too much.” I think. “The next full moon is over three weeks away. They’re not going to wait that long either.”

  “Then we’ve got the new moon left. It’s not even a week after the equinox.” Bane nods, his eyes hardening. “Magically lowest event for werewolves, we’d already be at our most vulnerable.”

  “Same for us.” I nod. “Lowest point for our magic.”

  “Which means that we have how many days?” Litha looks at us questioningly.

  “Not even two weeks.” I groan. “If it’s the new moon they’ll attack at. If he does choose the equinox, we’ve got a handful of days.”

  “Two weeks to stop a plan which has been in the works for years, if not decades.” Finn sighs. “Six teens and two adults against a whole army of warriors and magic users who have been trained for years for this exact purpose...” He looks over the room. “So, what’s our plan?”

  “Having dinner first.” Phoenix stands in the doorway, her arms crossed in front of her, her eyes tense. “And then we’ll figure out what we’re up against, in what order, and we’ll find solutions for each problem we find as we encounter them. Starting with how we get rid of that venom and the potential routes the king will try to take to get to the forest. Just see it as the most intense impromptu exam we’ve ever had.” She winks, then takes Litha’s hand and pulls her towards the kitchen.

  Rune tightens his arms around me for a moment, and I lean against him. I wish I had Phoenix’ optimism, but sadly enough, I don’t. Because we’re talking about my family, my people. They’re the ones in danger, and I can’t lose them.

  “We’ll survive.” Rune’s voice is barely more than a rumble against my skin.

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “Because I’m still here. I found you. And then Litha found us. If Litha and I can find you, two people whose very existence is an anomaly, then we can protect your people too. They can’t keep us down for long. We’ll come back stronger than ever before.” He kisses the side of my head. “And because I want to be able to grow old with you, with Litha, all together. We’re going to survive this because I refuse this to be the last month of my life.”

  I smile, shaking my head softly. If you look at it that way... Yeah, maybe we can make this happen. Just... maybe.

  Chapter 7 - Phoenix

  Knowing what we’ll be up against, at least, what we’ll likely be up against, doesn’t make things easier, not really anyway. Especially because so much of what we’ve found is just things he could potentially use, it isn’t actually proof that the fae king will use it, just that he’s had research done on something. But it still means we could come up against it, potentially. There are too many possibilities to consider.

  “What happens if I do the spell that Kit tried over the summer?” Litha glances at me and I glare back at her, which doesn’t stop the next words from slipping from her lips. “Would it protect just us, or maybe everyone? Or just the dragons and werewolves? What would happen?”

  “No. You’re not doing that.” I shake my head, trying to let her know what a bad idea it is.

  “Why not? It should protect us, right? And I’m supposed to have enough magic for it.” She leans forward, giving me a peek into her tantalising cleavage.

  I swallow hard, pulling my gaze away, as I answer her again. “Still a hard no. We can’t risk it turning out in a way we didn’t predict, not now. We can’t add a random element like that. It’s out of the question.” And I’m not letting her put her life on the line like that. She may be able to do it, magically, she’s got enough power, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a chance that it will kill her... Even back in the old days, it wasn’t a safe option, even if it didn’t have the risks it has now. I’m not losing her over something we have no idea how it will work out.

  “Fine.” She sighs, crossing her arms and pushing her boobs up again. I glance to the side and see Finn struggling to take his eyes off her too.

  Sure, I feel bad for making her look sad and upsetting her. But we need to pick our battles carefully right now, and this definitely isn’t one we’re taking on, when we have no idea of the risks. We can’t do something unpredictable like this.

  “Okay.” Bane looks at me, taking a deep breath. “Priorities. You’re the one who’s good at planning and scheduling and stuff. What’s the order to do things in?”

  I roll my eyes at him, but don’t respond immediately. I’m not sure if he’s teasing me or trying to give me a compliment... “The venom on the weapons is still a huge problem. We can’t carry the antidote on us in case we get sliced, it’s too slow, and we don’t have enough time to build resistance to it. We need something to counteract it preemptively or something like that.”

  “What’s in the venom, precisely?” Litha’s mum looks up from one of the notebooks we found, she’s been reading the early books a lot. I’m not sure what she’s looking for, but she seems really interested in them.

  “Stuff that kills us?” Bane deadpans, then his eyes go comically wide as he realises who he’s talking to.

  Litha’s mum raises her eyebrow at him, the same way Litha always does when she’s not impressed with his answer and he blushes, shaking his head. “Anything that can go ‘boom’? Or anything we can use magic on to transform into something else? Turn into glue or stone or something? If they can’t take their weapons from their sheats, they can’t use them.”

  Finn nods. “I thought of that before, but I’m sure people will have tried that during the last war. I don’t think dad would have used something that could easily be magicked into making them useless. I don’t think we can transmute the weapons, it’s just too hard to target, and by the time they’ve pulled them, it’ll be too late.” He’s writing something down in his ever-present notebook.

  If we can’t get to the weapons when they’re hidden away, and after they’ve pulled them will be too late, what about right before a soldier tries to pull it? “How are the fae protecting themselves against the venom?” I look at Litha’s mum and dad. They’ve been just about everywhere on campus since the attack, they should have seen some of the methods that the fae use, right?

  Litha’s dad pulls a face. “It’s not very impressive. The soldiers wear special gloves. The venom doesn’t seep through certain types of leather or magical fabric or something. I don’t know if they’re specially made or they just apply it to gloves they already wear. Either way, pretty low-tech solution.”

  I think for a moment. “Basic and effective, and we can use it against them. If they’re wearing the gloves all the time, they probably don’t pay much attention to how clean their gloves and weapons are. There will be venom on their gloves and on the sheath and just about anywhere around the hilt of the dagger, even just trace amounts.” I look to Finn and then Litha’s mum. “Is there anything in the venom that will interact with another substance so that we can harden it or something? Like when you mix acidic hydroxy substances with some of those chlorine-thingies and it dries up into this hard glue-like mess. If we can use something that hardens the venom out before they even grab their weapons, or we turn it into a bad sticky mess where they get stuck to everything, they can’t use them. Right?”

  Bane grins, winking at me. “I knew there was a reason why you’re always top of our class.”

  “Hey!” Kit calls out from behind us, apparently not impressed with his friend’s conclusion. “We share that spot, it’s not just her.”

  I turn around to K
it and Rune, curled up on the couch, the smaller guy looking very satisfied in his spot under the dragon’s arm. “Do you have a plan, then?”

  He nods, a strength in his eyes I’ve not seen in a while. “Yeah, been working on it since you were talking all about the chemistry stuff.” He flutters his fingers in our direction. “My magic teacher told me about something that I’ve not attempted before, but I think it could definitely help us out. While you’re going to be focusing on the guys who can do the stabby and cutty things, I’m going to see if we can use some magic draining techniques on their magic users. I’m an incubus. Incubi and succubi are known for stealing magical energy at night, during sleep, or even during awake time, just the night portion seems to be important. If I can syphon some of their magic off, they’re not as strong, and we can probably use the syphoned magic ourselves. Because we’re going to need all the magic we can get.”

  “How?” I’m almost scared as I ask the question. Another experimental method...

  He smirks, a twinkle in his eyes. “Illusions and projections. I promise that I won’t have to get too close to them, I’ll be somewhere safe. But if I can shadow-walk to where the magic users sleep, I can use incubus abilities on them. Drain them dry before they attack us.”

  “And how much of this do you already know how to do?” Bane looks over to him, doubtful.

  “Enough.” He points to the wall of the living room. “And the rest is all in there. If we can get most of the magic users out of the battle, it will make our job easier.”

  I shrug. He’s right, and it actually sounds like a decent plan. “What about the witch we suspect they’ll have with them? The really powerful one? How are we going to stop them?”

  Finn shakes his head. “I don’t even know if someone like that exists. Though, it’s entirely possible, since Dad had a habit of hiding things from me. But he’ll try to keep the witch out of sight until the final moment. We either have to draw them out early on, or somehow take him out as close to the final moment as possible.”