“Because we support the winning team,” she said. “The spirit mages will rise again, and our soldiers will aid their army on the path to victory.”
My heart lurched. “I didn’t think warfare was your thing.”
“Oh, it isn’t,” she said. “However, war breeds chaos like maggots festering in a corpse, and you and Adair were created for such a scenario. The pair of you will help us take over the Parallel once we’ve cleared the way for you. After we’ve burned the city of Elysium to the ground.”
“And you think I’m going to stand back and let you do it?” I called my fire magic, and twin flames sprang to my hands.
“Oh, I’m sure you’ll try to fight back,” she said. “That’ll make it all the more entertaining.”
She made a brief gesture with one hand, and my body froze, my heart stuttering in my chest. While Adair’s power gave him influence over anyone who looked him in the eyes, Lex’s magical ability involved full-body manipulation. She could stop my heartbeat with a snap of her fingers if she wanted to—or worse, force me to watch as she hurt my friends.
There was a good reason I’d told Miles to leave.
Her hand moved down, and I felt my heartbeat slow. Shit. She wasn’t actually going to kill me this time, was she?
“I could leave you like this all day,” she purred.
Sweat beaded on my forehead. I was acutely conscious of the cantrips inside the pendant around my neck, cantrips I couldn’t reach. Not while I was frozen like this. Her wide smile told me she knew perfectly well I had no way out.
“If you do,” I bit out, “I’ll hardly be able to help your son escape, will I? Did you know it’s the King of the Dead who has him captive now?”
“Him?” Her grip on me lessened slightly. “How inconvenient.”
“I’m the Death King’s Fire Element,” I added. “He’ll send people looking for me if I don’t come back soon. Sure you can take on an army of liches? Your abilities have no effect on the dead, do they?”
A scowl twisted her lips. “The Death King has my son, does he? Interesting. I suppose I’ll have to pay him a visit.”
Her words struck a horrifying chord inside me, but as I managed to move my hand, inch by inch, I gave a final lurch and grabbed the pendant around my neck.
My fingers found a cantrip and fumbled a button, which blasted a paralysing wave at her. Then I ran like hell.
She didn’t stop me. Not even as I ran through the collapsed gates, sprinted across the open wasteland and north, away from the house’s ruins and towards the pillar of light indicating a node. Closer, closer—
I ran into the node, turned on the transporter spell, and then I was gone.
13
Pain squeezed my entire body as I emerged from the Death King’s private node. Night had fallen without my noticing, and it felt like several decades had passed since the fight at the Withered Oak. Though I knew even she couldn’t move faster than a transporter spell, I half expected to find Lex had already sent someone to break Adair out of prison while I was gone.
Instead, when I picked myself up off the ground, I found myself face to face with Miles. Judging by his transparent state, he must have astral projected up to the castle. “Bria, I thought you were coming back to Elysium. What the hell happened back there?”
“Sorry.” My voice sounded leaden, hollow. “I have to warn the Death King… my family survived. They’re using their old base after all, and now they know Adair is here.”
Part of me wanted to march straight into the jail and demand for him to tell me what Lex was playing at, but that wouldn’t do anything but convince him that I’d let her words get to me. She knew how to get under my skin almost as effectively as Adair himself did. They had that much in common.
His arms folded across his chest. “You’re shitting me.”
“Nope.” I ran a weary hand through my hair. “She didn’t kill me. That’s not her plan. She wants to do worse.”
His expression stiffened. “That’s not reassuring, Bria.”
“I thought you knew what you were getting into.” Quiet, Bria. I knew I was being unfair, but well, I had warned him, and seeing Lex again had reminded me of the fragile nature of the new life I’d built.
One card would fall, and the entire house would collapse.
Miles’s brow furrowed. “I can’t help you if you won’t tell me what’s going on, Bria.”
I looked away. “This isn’t something I want anyone else wrapped up in.”
“I thought you wanted to join me,” he said. “And the Spirit Agents.”
I shook my head. “Not against the Family. It isn’t the same… they’re not even human.”
“Some say spirit mages aren’t either.” He floated closer to me until we were inches apart, and tension simmered between us. “Whatever you’ve been called, I’ve heard it all before, I guarantee it.”
My eyes stung and I blinked hard. “It’s not about what I’ve been called, it’s what I was made to be. I wasn’t born like this by happenstance. Lex and Roth saw themselves as gods who moulded me into the image of who they wanted me to be.”
“But you’re not that person.” The intensity in his voice surprised me. “You do whatever you like. That’s one of the things I admire the most about you.”
Unexpected heat seared my face. “It makes no sense to me.”
“Did I say it had to make sense?” he said. “I’ve heard every possible kind of story from spirit mages who went through hell with the Houses. This Family of yours can’t be worse.”
“I wouldn’t speak too soon,” I told him. “The people who raised me didn’t care about anyone but themselves. They still don’t, not even my brother and me. We were supposed to be their soldiers, nothing more. Now they want to take over the Houses of the Elements, and I’m not so sure we can stop them.”
“You got them to admit it?” he said. “That they’re after the Houses?”
“More or less,” I said. “Though Lex wouldn’t tell me where those cantrips are being created. She did more or less admit she has practitioners doing her bidding.”
“We can go back to Dawson’s place and trace them from there,” he said. “Not a perfect idea, but it’s better than nothing.”
“Might be our only choice now,” I allowed. “But you know… the Family isn’t beatable. Not by normal means. They’re functionally immortal and have a nasty habit of running away.”
I’d inherited that trait, but I’d have to find a new way to thwart them again, no matter how impossible it seemed. And there was no room for anyone else in that struggle. I knew that much.
“Hey.” Miles floated closer to me again. “It’s okay. You beat them alone last time, right? This time you have backup.”
“You’re deluded.”
He grinned. “Maybe. But you’re forgetting I once learned spirit magic alongside the Death King.”
“I did forget that,” I allowed. “The Death King, though, he’s not exactly—”
“I wouldn’t finish that sentence.” He jerked his head at a spot over my shoulder.
Unseen in the darkness, the Death King himself approached both of us, looking as menacing as ever. “Bria, go back to the castle and join the other Elemental Soldiers.”
I faced the Death King. “I have something I need to tell—”
“Later,” he said. “Miles, I need to talk to you. Bria, go on.”
“What—” I broke off, sensing that now was not the time to admit I’d gone and given away the location of our new prisoner to the one person who might be able to slip past his security. Besides, Miles’s revelation was a reminder that I wasn’t alone. Hell if I knew what I’d done to deserve that level of loyalty, but I wasn’t complaining.
I went inside the castle via the back doors, leaving a trail of mud behind me. I didn’t have time to change into clean clothes, but since nobody said I shouldn’t, I took the opportunity to wash the mud off my face in the bathroom and then went to find the others Element
al Soldiers. All three of them were in the break room, strapping on weapons and slipping cantrips into the pockets of their coats.
“There you are, Bria,” Ryan said. “Where have you been?”
“Dealing with a bit of family drama,” I said. “What’s going on here?”
“Liv,” Cal said. “As usual. She wants us to go on an absurd rescue mission.”
“What for?” I asked.
“Hawker was keeping and torturing a bunch of elemental sprites inside one of the citadels,” explained Ryan. “She wants us to get them out of there while Hawker is gone.”
“Sprites?” I echoed. “What’s he doing with those?”
“Sounds like he was using the sprites as a battery to keep the transporter running,” said Ryan. “I’m not all that keen on the idea of walking right into a trap, but I’m more than happy to shut down his little experiment.”
Experiment. Using sprites as a battery to power the transporter linking the citadels? Was that how they’d been kept running for so long? It sounded like the kind of twisted idea the Family would come up with, which, after my narrow escape from Lex, made my gut clench in dread.
“I can come, but…” Dammit. The Death King might not be willing to listen to me, but maybe I’d have more luck with the other Elemental Soldiers. “But I found out where those illegal cantrips are coming from. Where’d you put the ones we got from those earth mages in Arcadia?”
“Here.” Ryan indicated a muddy box behind the sofa. “Devon isn’t around, but we’ll give them to her later. You know where they’re being made?”
The others watched me, and the words stuck in my throat. “I’m not exactly certain where they’re being manufactured, but I found out where those mages were going when they went underground in Arcadia, and why the Family recruited them.”
Quickly, I summed up what I’d discovered at the Family’s old estate. I left out most of my confrontation with Lex, but I did tell them about the cantrip’s source.
“They’re not going to come back to get them, are they?” said Felicity, eyeing the box of cantrips.
“Nah, probably not,” I said. “I’m guessing Liv hasn’t seen them yet, if she’s been planning rescue missions. How’d she get that close to Hawker, anyway?”
“He tried to recruit her,” said Ryan.
My jaw dropped. “He thought Liv would join him?”
“Apparently,” said Felicity. “Didn’t work. She escaped him, but there were issues, and she had to leave the sprites behind.”
I studied the box of cantrips. “You sure it’s safe to leave them unattended?”
“Safer than anywhere else,” said Ryan. “I’m confident that nobody within these walls will betray us. Only the liches are an uncertain bet, and they can’t pick up cantrips.”
“Might be an inferno or two we can use.” I crouched down and peered into the box, picking up one of the cantrips. The topmost stack were all infernos, but beneath, the other cantrips bore unfamiliar marks. “Nobody touch any of these.”
“Why?” asked Felicity.
“In case they’re laced with that magical virus,” I said, thinking of Lex’s warning. “Liv couldn’t have picked a better time for this, could she?”
“No,” said Ryan. “We’d better go before she comes back here and drags us outside in person.”
“All right,” I said. “Adair hasn’t made any trouble, has he? Because the Family knows he’s here.”
“His cell will be under close guard,” Ryan said. “We’ll make sure of it.”
“Okay.” That would have to do. Lex’s abilities didn’t work on liches, so she wouldn’t get past the gates, and the only humans living in the castle would be with me on Liv’s ill-advised rescue mission. As long as we didn’t run into Roth out there… but if Liv had seen him, she would never have made it back here to tell the tale.
I slipped a couple of the inferno cantrips out of the box and into the pendant around my neck before leaving the break room with the others. Outside the castle, I found the shadowy form of a lich waiting for me.
“Hey,” said Harper.
“Hey,” I said. “Where have you been?”
“Around,” she said. “Miles came here looking for you. How’d you get split up?”
“I went looking for my family,” I said. “Let’s just say I got more than I bargained for.”
In truth, I had no idea what to do with the new revelation that they’d fixed up their old base, let alone Lex’s proclamation that she intended to step in to take advantage of a war which looked more and more inevitable by the day. The Family had always thrived on chaos. Even before they’d started outright interfering among the Houses, they’d sent in spies and assassins to sow paranoia in the city. That was one reason nobody had been sorry to see them locked up, yet they’d escaped anyway. Had the House of Fire’s jailor helped free them? Tay had acted against him, which ought to prove she wasn’t supporting the Family any longer, but I couldn’t help wondering if she’d known their location all along.
“I want to come with you to free the sprites,” said Harper. “I can help.”
I turned to her. “You want to come to the citadel?”
She drifted closer to me. “Yes. If Hawker has any cantrips which can bring me back to life, they’ve got to be there.”
“Are you sure he’d have left them lying around?”
“It’s worth a shot,” Harper said. “I can’t deal with this crap any longer. I hate being dead.”
Sympathy squeezed my chest. “I’m not saying you don’t have good reason to, but experimental cantrips… they can have downsides. Big ones. I can check with Liv, if you like. She might know if there’s a chance of finding them there.”
“Thanks, Bria,” said Harper. “I appreciate it.”
I turned away from the castle and saw Miles and several other spirit mages gathering in the ground, while Liv herself stood further off. If she’d been the one who’d brought the warning, she’d know if Hawker was likely to have a cure for the liches hidden in the citadel, so I made my way over to her.
When Liv caught sight of me, I said, “Harper wanted me to ask if you found the cure yet.”
“You mean for being dead?” said Liv. “Yeah, there’s a cantrip which technically returns someone to life, but there’s a major downside. Also, Hawker stole it anyway. He’s only using those fake ones.”
“Fake ones?” I said.
“They bring you back to life but make you rot from the inside out and fall to bits,” she said. “Trust me, Harper doesn’t want that.”
“Guess not.” I reached into my pocket and held up one of the inferno cantrips. “You want a way to destroy the machinery? This shit works. I already blew up one of them.”
She eyed the cantrip. “Is that one of those inferno cantrips which amplifies fire magic?”
“You’ve got it,” I said. “If I tell you to move, then I’d get outta the way.”
“I’ll take your word for it on that.” She sounded like her usual grumpy self, and I wondered what had possessed her to go and hear Hawker out when he’d tried to recruit her. On the other hand, I’d rather not tell her what I’d been doing for the last hour, so I returned to Harper’s side.
“Liv said Hawker’s using fake cantrips which bring you back to life and make you rot from the inside out,” I told her.
“Oh, ugh,” she said. “You know what, I prefer being a lich, thanks.”
“Exactly my thinking.”
I’ll find a way to help her. On top of the other shit going on, it seemed a tall order, but who knew, maybe the enemy had left a clue lying around which would enable me to help her return to life. It was no more outlandish a notion than the idea of capturing the Family again, after all.
Dex flew over to me. “Ready to stage a rescue mission?”
“You’re coming to save the sprites?” I said.
“Yes,” he said. “Wouldn’t miss it. Where’ve you been all day?”
A shadow fell over us a
s the Death King descended the stone staircase at the front of the castle, sparing me from having to reply. The King of the Dead wore a human face which looked younger than I’d expected, though it must be an illusion. A convincing one, too.
“Come with me,” he told our group. “We will go in through Arcadia’s citadel. Expect an ambush—and expect them to be armed.”
Yeah, I figured that much.
The Death King swept out of the gates, towards the node. Liv walked to catch him up, while I kept both eyes open for potential intruders lurking in the swamp.
Miles caught my arm. “You’re jumpy. Sure you’re up for this?”
“I’m sure.” I think. “Someone’s gotta do it.”
I walked with him towards the node, keeping my fingers and toes crossed that no members of the Family waited on the other side.
14
None did. We landed in Arcadia’s dark street, where the Death King led the way across the town square to the citadel. I’d assumed the way in was still barred, but he reached out and did something to the door, which slid open as though pulled by a mechanism from inside. Neat trick. I’d have asked him how he did it, but several liches waited on the other side of the door, and not the friendly type. They moved in a tide of shadow, and our allies stepped up to meet them.
I’d never duelled a lich before, but a flame from my hand took care of two of them, burning them to ashes. They’d regenerate, but hopefully somewhere far away. Ryan’s air magic had a similar effect, blasting the liches into the air like a curtain swept up in a breeze and sending them into the path of my flames. Between us, we cleared the way into the lower room of the citadel.
The inside of the citadel looked the same as ever, dominated by a long spiralling staircase leading to the upper floor. Liches gathered at all levels of the stairs, waiting for us. Easy pickings. Raising a hand, I shot a fireball and incinerated several liches in one go. Ryan’s air magic took care of another, while Miles and his fellow Spirit Agents duelled with the ones on ground level. Cal and Felicity took up positions outside the doors, no doubt to stop anyone else from getting in. Or possibly to stop the liches from getting out.
House of Fire (Parallel Magic Book 2) Page 14