House of Fire (Parallel Magic Book 2)

by Emma L. Adams

  “See anyone you recognise in there?” Miles said.

  My gaze snagged on three mages standing near the window, including a stocky guy with a shaved head, idly playing with a flame he’d conjured in his hand. Bark.

  “That guy was in the Death King’s contest,” I muttered to Miles. “Thought he was dead, but I guess not.”

  “Want to lure him out?” he said.

  “Nah, if he has the nerve to hang around in here, he clearly has no idea we’re coming,” I said. “I reckon we can back him into a corner.”

  “If you say so,” he said. “All right. You guys wait outside.”

  While the other spirit mages stood back out of range, the pair of us entered the pub. The grey-haired owner of the Withered Oak stood behind the bar, while his assistant was serving drinks to a couple of shifters. The muscular black man spotted us and moved over to exchange words with his boss. Uh-oh.

  I took the lead and approached the fire mages near the window. “Hey, there.”

  Bark reacted as though he’d expected me to attack. He swung around, fist in the air—which I dodged. Instead, Miles’s punch knocked him flat on his back, and the other two mages leapt to their feet with exclamations of fury.

  “You again?” growled the Withered Oak’s owner, crossing the room at speed. “What trouble are you causing this time?”

  “This man,” said Miles, indicating the fallen mage, “was a contender for the Death King’s new Fire Element before he got kicked out of the contest for conspiring against the Court of the Dead. Trust me, you don’t want him in here.”

  “I don’t want you in here either,” said the grey-haired man. “You and your friends are always hanging around breaking shit.”

  “Hey, I haven’t been here in weeks,” Miles said. “Have you seen a spirit mage recently, then?”

  “That’s confidential, that is.”

  Everyone was staring at us. Okay, there were only about ten people in the room, but maybe drawing attention hadn’t been the smartest idea. Did the ex-Spirit Agents who betrayed Miles come here? They had some nerve showing their faces in public, but then again, the enemy already had one of the Houses dancing to their tune. Made sense that their allies would have started getting bolder. Especially if the dude who owned this place gave shelter to known criminals.

  Bark dragged himself upright and glowered at Miles. “I’m not breaking the law.”

  “Uh-huh,” I said. “We’ll just forget how you used an illegal cantrip to cheat in the Death King’s trials and were then caught in the act. Still keeping up old habits?”

  Two of the other patrons rose to their feet and made for the door. The three fire mages, meanwhile, approached me, and I smelled the smoke before they conjured flames into their hands.

  “Stop that!” yelped the bartender. “We barely cleaned up the last fire.”

  “You ought to invest in a fireproof bar,” I told him. “Really sorry about this.”

  I ducked under Bark’s arm and kicked him in the back of the kneecap, causing him to face-plant, before flinging a paralysing cantrip at the other two fire mages. They froze midmotion, flames dying to a flicker in their hands.

  Miles, meanwhile, ran at the two men who’d made a hasty retreat, and a cantrip flashed in his hand, causing both of them to collapse into a heap on the spot.

  Miles grabbed one of the men’s hands and retrieved a gleaming coin. “Inferno cantrip. This could easily have killed everyone in the building.”

  “Fuck.” The bartender paled. “You lot—don’t move.”

  I looked around the bar at the remaining patrons. “Anyone else want to make any confessions?”

  Nobody said anything. Bark groaned at my feet, while the other two mages unfroze only for the black man from behind the bar to use air magic to levitate their flailing bodies into the air. I flung another paralysing cantrip at them to make it easier for him to move the intruders out into the corridor, then employed a similar cantrip on Bark before he launched into another attack.

  “Good job we showed up when we did,” I murmured to Miles.

  “I hate to break this to you, Bria, but I reckon we’re the reason they brought out that inferno,” he whispered back. “They figured we know what their game is.”

  I grimaced. “What’re the odds of there being more illegal cantrips hidden in their rooms?”

  “Good point.” Miles addressed the owner. “Where were they staying?”

  “This dude was in the first room on the right.” He indicated Bark’s limp form.

  “You might want to vet your guests in future.” With Miles behind me, I hurried upstairs and ran up to the room on the right.

  To no surprise, I found the door locked, and not with an actual lock either. From the electric charge in the air, he’d sealed the door using magic. I reached into the pendant at my neck for an unlocking charm, hearing some odd scuffling noises from inside the room.

  The door sprang open as I activated the spell, revealing a large hole in the floor—newly created, judging by the splintered mess of floorboards at my feet. A box of gleaming cantrips lay at the far edge. I trod carefully around the hole and reached for the box, only for a pair of dirt-stained hands to snatch it away from me. “What the—?”

  A wild-haired mage stuck his head out of the hole. “Who are you?”

  I blinked down at him. “I’m the Death King’s Fire Element. I take it you’re one of the dickheads who’s using this place as a base to trade illegal cantrips?”

  He gave a high-pitched laugh. “We’re trading a lot more than that, sweetheart. Be seeing you.”

  I lunged for the box, but he vanished through the hole in the floor. The whole building gave an alarming shudder as the earth mage tunnelled his way down, and I caught my balance before I tumbled headfirst into the hole. Unlike an earth mage, I didn’t have the inbuilt ability to navigate underground tunnels without suffocating to death.

  I ran out of the room and found Miles looking up at me from the hallway. “What’s going on?”

  “There was an earth mage in there. He took his box of contraband underground.” I took the stairs two at a time and caught him up by the door. “I’d follow, but I don’t trust this place not to collapse on my head. Pretty sure the moron took out the foundations.”

  “Then we need to evacuate.” Not that there were many patrons left. The bartender’s assistant ushered the rest of them out of the door, while we ran outside to find two of the fire-wielding mages attempting to make a quick getaway. Miles’s spirit mage friends barred their path, adding to the general confusion, but I was more concerned with the rumbling sound below our feet.

  “Dammit, I need an earth mage to track him.” I didn’t know any, except… wait. “I’ll go back to the castle and get backup. See if I can convince the Earth Element to help.”

  “Good, because we’re outnumbered.” Miles ducked as a fireball shot overhead. The mages had brought backup of their own, it seemed. If all else failed, surely the Death King had a good reason to pay attention this time. “I’m gonna run to the vampires’ council house and see if any of them will lend a hand with these mages.”

  “Be careful.” I left Miles and the others and used the node to travel back to the swamp. Near the gates, Ryan stood in conversation with Trix and one of the Death King’s liches.

  “Problems?” Ryan said.

  “You might say that,” I said. “Someone attacked the Withered Oak. I’m going to find the Death King.”

  “The Death King isn’t in,” Ryan called after me, but I was already breaking into a sprint through the gates. From there, I ran up to the castle doors and inside the main hall, skidding to a halt on the polished floor.

  “Death King!” I shouted.

  No response. Dammit. Ryan was telling the truth. I ran down the main corridor and to the break room, and Felicity and Cal both jumped to their feet when I dashed in.

  “Bria,” said Felicity. “What’s going on?”

  “Trouble,” I said. �
�Some of the surviving fire mages who infiltrated the trials were using the Withered Oak to trade illegal cantrips, and an earth mage took their stash underground. I need an earth mage’s help to track them.”

  Cal scowled. “Really?”

  “Yes.” I braced my hands on my knees, breathless. “I’m going back no matter what, but if one of you could tell the Death King what’s going on, it’d be appreciated.”

  “I can stay here and wait for him to come back,” offered Felicity. “Go on, Cal. It’s not like she’s got anything to gain from lying to you.”

  Cal gave me a sideways look. “If you’re trying to trick me, I’ll bury you alive.”

  On that promising note, the Earth Element and I left the castle and headed for the gates. Ryan and Trix had both disappeared, along with the lich they’d been talking to. I hoped they were on their way to the Withered Oak, because we needed all the allies we could get.

  Cal and I reached the node without speaking a word to one another. He acted more of an ice mage than an earth mage most of the time, but as far as I knew, the guy wasn’t friendly to anyone, so I didn’t take it personally.

  By the time we got to the Withered Oak again, the place was ablaze, and the smell of burning drifted outwards, along with creaking noises which suggested the entire building was on the verge of collapse. I halted at a safe distance from it and addressed the Earth Element. “Can you track an earth mage from here?”

  He crouched and pressed his palm to the ground. “Not when the building’s shaking like that. I’d need to go somewhere more stable.”

  “The tunnels?” I suggested. “There’s got to be an entrance somewhere nearby. Those tunnels run all over the city.”

  I looked around and spotted Miles duelling one of the escaped mages. He dodged a fireball and slammed his palm into the mage’s chest, striking him with spirit energy that sent him crashing into the wall. The mage slid to a halt in the doorway of the Withered Oak, and I caught up to Miles. “Backup’s here.”

  “Hey, there,” said Miles. “Who’s that guy?”

  “The Death King’s Earth Element,” I said. “We need to get to the tunnels to track that earth mage.”

  A hollow boom rang out. An instant later, a conflagration rose to consume the remains of the Withered Oak from the inside. Shit. Hope nobody was left inside there.

  “That,” I said, “looked like an inferno cantrip. We’d better move.”

  We backed further down the street, where Miles pointed out a hidden stairway leading deep into the earth. “Doesn’t seem a good time to go underground.”

  “Nobody asked you.” Cal descended the stairs without looking back, disappearing into the tunnel.

  “Touchy, isn’t he?” Miles said in an undertone.

  “That’s his natural state, from what I’ve seen,” I muttered back. “C’mon. Let’s hope his tracking skills are up to scratch.”

  We climbed down the narrow staircase into one of Arcadia’s many underground tunnels. Cal stood in front of one of the earthen walls, his hands pressed to the solid surface.

  “How close do the mages need to be before you can track them?” I asked.

  “Close, but if I can find them, then they can find me, too,” he answered.

  Ah. “Can you sense anyone now?”

  Cal removed his hands from the wall. “Yes.”

  “Where?” I asked.

  “Right about… there.” He pointed at our feet. Oh, no.

  An earth mage exploded out of the ground, covering all of us in dirt. Cal collided with him in a literally earth-shaking thud which made me concerned that the tunnel itself would collapse on all our heads. As the mage flung Cal aside, Miles blasted him in the face with spirit magic. The mage hit the wall, which swallowed him up. Uh… that’s new.

  An instant later, he burst out of the wall again. I spun around and flung a paralysing cantrip into his face, while Cal grabbed his shoulders and dragged him into view. I could see something glinting at the back of the tunnel he’d made.

  “I think that’s our cantrips,” I said. “I’ll get them.”

  As I dove into the tunnel’s opening, the mage unfroze and grabbed my ankle. Cal punched him, causing him to let go, but another alarming tremor shook the ground. Another earth mage was coming this way… and I was right in their path.

  Once again, a solid wall of soil slammed into me, bringing two mages along with it. Cal swore as I flew out of the hole in the wall and crashed on top of him. Miles ran in to meet the two newcomers, while I rolled to my feet and flung a paralysing cantrip at one of the mages before he could disappear into the ground again. The narrow space made it hard to fight effectively, while the shaking walls and floor didn’t help in the slightest.

  “If he keeps this up, the whole tunnel is gonna come crashing down.” I spat out a mouthful of soil, looking for the box of cantrips, but it’d disappeared in a shower of earth.

  “Nah, it’s sturdier than that,” said Cal. “Earth mages built this city, in fact.”

  “Better hope it holds up.” I sank my fist into one of the mages’ jaws. “Or else it’ll become a mass grave.”

  The mage grinned, soil between his teeth. “You’re all dead.”

  The ground trembled again, and movement came from near the stairs. Then a gust of wind blasted through the tunnel, knocking all of us off our feet at the same time. I crashed on top of one of the mages in a confusion of limbs, dizzy and bruised. As I raised my head, two figures emerged from the staircase nearby. Ryan and Trix.

  “Oh, hello,” said Trix. “What’re you doing down here?”

  “Getting attacked by earth mages.” I pulled myself to my feet, treading on the mage’s face in the process.

  Cal surfaced, too, covered in dirt. “Took you long enough to show up.”

  “You’re welcome,” Ryan said, blasting air magic through the tunnel again and knocking down a fleeing mage. Trix, meanwhile, ran towards the dazed-looking mages and threw a punch at one of them when he tried to rise. I didn’t know why it surprised me that he could fight. Despite their mild temperament, elves were resilient and tougher than they looked, and most spells just bounced off them. Handy to have around in a crisis.

  With Trix and Ryan on our team, we made short work of the earth mages and had them piled up on the floor of the tunnel in seconds. Cal, meanwhile, widened the hole in the wall so I could dive in and retrieve the box of cantrips. Breathless and covered in dirt, I displayed my haul for the others to see. Dozens of golden cantrips filled the box, each bearing an all-too familiar mark.

  “We should bury them,” said Ryan.

  “No,” Cal said. “Any earth mage would be able to dig them up again unless we hid them somewhere which was magic-proofed.”

  “Let me see.” Miles strode over, his face dirt-smeared and a growing bruise above his eye. “I’d offer to hide them in the Spirit Agents’ base, but you’re better off handing them over to the authorities.”

  “Meaning the vampires?” said Ryan. “They haven’t exactly stepped up to help us.”

  “Did none of them come to help at the Withered Oak?” I asked Miles.

  “No,” he said. “Their security human said they were asleep and to come back at dusk. Told us to pile up the mages’ bodies on their doorstep.”

  “No surprise there,” Ryan said. “We usually can’t count on the vamps to show their faces unless there’s a direct threat to them.”

  “If those cantrips had got out into the city, they’d have had a real problem on their hands,” I pointed out. “Tell you what, I think we should give them to Devon. She’ll be able to figure out what they’re designed for. Maybe track where they came from, too.”

  “And we’ll get the vampires to lock up these dickheads.” Ryan nudged one of the earth mages with their foot. “Doubt that’s their only haul of illegal cantrips, but at least we shut down their operation in the Withered Oak.”

  “More like burned it down.” I grimaced. “I hope the owners had fire insurance.”


  Cal scowled at the unconscious mages. “We ought to report them to the Houses. They’ll sort them out.”

  “I wouldn’t count on that,” I said. “Haven’t you heard?”

  “What?” he said.

  “The House of Earth is under the control of the Family,” I said. “Or some of them are. These aren’t the only earth mages I’ve seen carrying illegal cantrips around.”

  His expression shuttered. “So that’s why they aren’t answering the Death King’s requests for an audience.”

  “Does he not tell you anything?” At least it wasn’t just me he refused to share pertinent information with.

  “I haven’t had contact with the House in years,” Cal said. “Not since the Death King bought out my sentence, like he did with Davies. He’s no friend of the Houses, but I rather hoped they’d see the error of their ways.”

  He was imprisoned in the House of Earth? And Davies was in the House of Fire? It surprised me a little, though perhaps it shouldn’t have. I hoped for all our sakes that Cal didn’t plan to betray the Death King as well.

  “I know,” I said. “He sent me to speak to the House of Fire and it was a disaster. That’s how I found out about those cantrips—someone used one to kill the jailor. Except the jailor himself was allegedly working with the enemy, and I’m pretty sure there’s traitors within all four Houses now.”

  Cal gave me an assessing look. “Where are these cantrips coming from, then?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “You’re lying.” The Earth Element faced me. “I know you used to be imprisoned in the House of Fire, too, and I’m not entirely convinced you shouldn’t have stayed there.”

  “Cal,” Ryan said in a warning tone. “Get these bastards aboveground. Someone fetch the vampires, too.”