“I don’t know what to do,” I said finally. Finn sighed and slung an arm around Eli’s shoulders. Eli, who was staring at me like he didn’t quite know me anymore. I gazed back at him, trying to put all of my intentions into my expression. “I want us to be safe. I want the murders to stop. But I don’t know how to fix this without hurting as many innocent people as they have.”
There was a knock on the doorframe, and we all looked up. Levi stood there, leaning against it, hugging his stump of an arm and looking irritated.
“It’s right in front of you,” he said, “and you don’t even see it.”
“When did you get back?” Finn asked. Levi ignored him, looking at me instead.
“Do as your father did. You take their powers. You bind them. The ones that won’t stand down, but haven’t been in the thick of things, who aren’t so evil you need to kill ‘em, but aren’t so good that they can go free without the consequences of their actions.” Levi rubbed at his arm like it hurt, his expression dark.
“I-” It sounded like a good idea, but- “How the hell am I supposed to do that?”
He smirked and turned around, moving to leave.
“That rock around your neck will do the trick. It sucks up magic like nobody’s business. And by the way, you’re welcome.”
Twenty-Three
The only problem with Levi’s sudden reappearance and proclamation of what seemed like a great idea… I had no idea how to do it.
I sat staring at the heartstone for several hours, letting it sit, warm and humming quietly, in my hands.
With a sigh, Ace sat on the couch next to me, looking a mix between bored and curious.
“So?” He asked.
“Sing to it,” I said, “maybe that’s the answer. I held it up toward him. “It was made for wolves. Maybe… maybe your howl will unlock it, give me something, y’know? A way forward. Anything. I’m out of ideas.”
Eli snorted, but Finn glanced at me, tilting his head to the side.
“Maybe,” he said and then hummed softly. The stone flickered, warming against my skin. My eyes widened.
“Again,” I said, waving a hand at him. His own expression was astonished, and this time when he hummed, Eli joined in, harmonizing with him in a lower bass note. The stone’s surface glittered, and light shot outward from it in all directions, like a miniature star. It grew hot against me, and I pulled it away, yanking the chain off of my neck and held it that way so it wouldn’t burn my fingers.
“Okay, so we can make it glow,” Finn said, “that’s a start.”
“It’s hot, too,” I commented, wishing that I knew more about heartstone magic. I felt like I was just making it up along as I went. Which wasn’t a great way to take down major power structures in the witching world: guessing, praying, and fucking things up along the way. Fantastic.
“So we can set shit on fire with it?” Eli asked with a cock of his head. “That’d be more exciting if you couldn’t already do that with your lightning.” He frowned to himself, then sighed. “Let’s try it again, Finn, this time-” Eli got to his feet and disappeared upstairs. We waited for him to return, Finn, smiling wryly.
“Y’know half the fun of being around him is his mysterious disappearances and unfinished sentences,” he said lightly before sliding close to me, his hip bumping mine. I glanced up at him. “How are you coping?” He asked, voice rough. Concern crinkled the corners of his eyes, and he dropped his forehead to press against mine. I sighed, letting my eyes shut as his closeness surrounded me.
“I’m confused and terrified,” I admitted. “I feel like I can’t do this. That I can try all I like, they’ll always be more powerful than me, and there’s no point of even… giving it a shot.”
“A million times, probably, I should have died. Here, during the war over in Europe, so many times, I stared death in the face, and each time she laughed at me for daring to survive.” His hands lifted to cup my cheeks, and his mouth moved to mine, lips warm and soothing. “But here I am, lived long enough to laugh back, and now I’ve got you. Pretty good reward if you ask me. Worth the risk. And that’s what I… I guess I want you to think about it. Ask yourself, are we worth the risk of failure?”
I couldn’t hide from him anymore. I opened my eyes back up to look at him, the emotion raw on his face.
“That’s not even a question for me anymore,” I replied, kissing him back, my fingers gripping at his hips, nails digging into the rough denim of his jeans.
“Alright,” Eli said, guitar in his hands. He came toward the couch and shoved between us, making us split up. Finn growled at him, but Eli's smirk made me laugh, a small snatched moment of joy. “Sing, bitch,” he said to Finn, his fingers twisting the heads and getting the guitar back into tune.
“You talk to everyone that nice, or just me?” Finn asked before clearing his throat. He closed his eyes, and I reached out to take his hand in mine as his voice lifted up over the guitar. I clung to him, the heat from the heartstone spooling outward. It responded beautifully, humming in my hand in response to Finn and Eli’s music.
There’s magic all around us, fragments of it from the shattered, collapsed mansion, and I let my consciousness sink into it. What next, though? I opened up my soul to the heartstone. I made it; we’re two halves of the same being, in a lot of ways. It seemed to sing to me, vibrating in my hand, reaching right back toward me, the soft glow of its magic embracing me.
See the magic? I thought of it like it’s a child. Can you… before I even finish the thought, that feeling of its attention on me fades, and it was turning away, growing, stretching, toward the demolished wreckage.
“Shit,” Eli said, his fingers stumbling on the strings, and I knew he could feel it too. My mind tracked it as it faded into a broad mist, streaking over the land. It swooped, fluttered, and the moment its pinkish-white fog touched the first patch of excess power, it sucked it right in. That was the only word I could use to describe something I could sense but not see.
“The fuck is that thing,” Finn murmured while Eli kept playing.
“Shhp,” I replied, not wanting to tear away my concentration. “I just want to know if I can make it work on a person,” I breathed in awe. C’mon back now, I urged it gently, calling it back to me. I cradled the stone in my hands, pulling them against my chest. The feeling of being surrounded by glowing magic faded as its sentience retreated back within the crystal matrix.
And there it was. Our answer.
“I think we can do this,” I said, as Finn fell quiet, and Eli’s hands stilled on the guitar. Eli nodded slowly.
“Alright,” he said. “Then let’s goddamn well do this.”
We agreed, right out, that facing down my father immediately was probably the worst idea. No, we had to go for someone, a household, that wasn’t nearly as powerful. The point was that we weren’t going to kill them, not if they ‘came quietly,’ so to speak. Surrendered to us. Let me gently unleash the heartstone on them, watch it eat away at their powers until they were left, mundane, like every other human on the planet.
Able to hurt others, but in the standard ways. No more hunting down members of other magical species.
I knew the Byrds. I didn’t remember the adults much, but they had a son, that had been a few years older than me. I was pretty sure he’d moved away, and come to think of it, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen him.
If it was just the Byrds, in their modest house, a sort of miniature mansion, then it wouldn’t be a problem. I could take them if I had the guys at my back, supporting me.
“Do you want to do the honours?” I asked Charlie, who glanced at me. He smirked and shook his body out before shifting. He fell to all four paws, charging forward. His howl split the night, shattering the calm and the silence. Four other wolves streaked after him, and it didn’t take half a second before alarm magics were cutting through the darkness, as the Byrds, and whoever resided in their home with them, were alerted to our presence.
Flares
of magic shot off, something I’d never seen before, spears of power that exploded in the sky, like fireworks. I had no idea what magic that the Byrds possessed, but hopefully, there was only one magic-caster in the household if Mrs. Byrd had her power drained, just like most female witches. My blood was up, racing through my veins as I started my slow walk toward the house, feeling the current of my power trace the ground in front of me. The wolves circled the building; I saw Finn off to the left, Cash at his side as they stalked through the bushes. There was no need to hide; the sleepy residents were already awake, the lights flicking on in the house's upper story.
Another set of flares go off, this time arcing towards me. So the first had been alarm magics and the second volley-
They were deliberate.
I crossed my arms in front of me out of instinct, the hum of electricity rising up inside me, thundering to life. Lighting, spinning upwards and out, until it formed a dome around me, crackling and snapping, emerged just in time.
The flares hit my shield, deafening me and sending me tumbling to the ground. It hurt, biting dirt with my knees, and I bowed under the pressure, struggling to breathe.
I grit my teeth.
Never again.
I got to one foot and then the other, dispersing my shield with a flick of my fingers and started walking again toward the house.
I’m coming for you.
They couldn’t hear my thoughts, but the front door flung open, Mr. Byrd standing there, rumpled in a pair of navy silk sleep pants and matching button-down shirt that his belly pressed up against and threatened to burst open. His eyes fell on me and widened, just as a dark streak of wolf launched at him.
He howled in surprise, stumbling back and waved his hands.
Ace went down, fireworks exploding all around him, and Eli’s snarl echoed across the battlefield. A chorus of howls followed, and I squinted through the bright light as four shifted wolf-bodies flung themselves across the dirt, their claws digging in deep and turning the neatly manicured lawn to shreds.
Mr. Byrd shrieked, and unholy tremble in his voice as Finn reached him, taking him down. I ran, skidding to the ground. Ace rolled over just as I got to him, shaking himself off.
“I’m fine,” he said. “Just stunned me.” He staggered to his feet even as he waved off my hand, taking a few steps forward. “Don’t hesitate again,” he said, the words would have burned if they weren’t right, and I nodded, gulping down my panic. He took one step, then another, the shift crawling up his body as he morphed in front of me, going down on all fours, streaking after his pack mates.
Never again.
I would never hold back for a second, ever again.
Under my breath, I hummed to the heartstone, and at my breastbone, it bloomed with warmth. There, the tendrils caught on the breeze, spreading out, soft, delicate fingers reeling through the air.
Them, I whispered to it in my mind. Get them all. Even children. Nobody would be spared. I couldn’t risk letting the magic leak out; any leftover spill of it could be turned against us.
How many times had I come back from the near-dead, the near-defeated with some new way of looking at magic, defeating every limit placed on me?
I wasn’t going to risk anyone else doing that. The heartstone was hungry, too, eager in my mind, the tension and excitement bubbling up inside it as it spread out. It soared over my wolves, wove around them, playfully. It knew it belonged to them, and they to it. And then it reached Mr. Byrd, wrapping around him like a bright cocoon where he lay pinned between Finn’s massive paws.
No more fireworks. No more magic. It sucked him dry, from toe to top of his head, his magic draining from him and toward me. The heartstone was boiling hot, and I pulled the necklace off, holding it out in the air toward them, willing it to work faster, to keep us safe.
We desperately needed this.
Next? It was my father. If I could do this, I could do anything.
Twenty-Four
The heartstone worked so well, it was almost anti-climactic. Mr. Byrd was curled against the wall of the house, his knees to his chest, breathing hard, a feverish sweat broke out over his forehead. He trembled when his wife emerged, small children in tow.
Guilt bit at me. I’d picked them because I thought they didn’t have kids. The wolves ranged around me, growled softly as one when Mrs. Byrd cursed at me.
“Don’t,” I said, staring her down. “You know what I felt when I drained him of every last speck of magic? Yours woven in. He stole from you before I ever do.”
“Why are you doing this? Cavil?” She bent to her husband, who waved her off with a hiss.
“Leave me be, woman,” he spat, glaring at me from under heavy eyebrows. “Cunt that you are-”
Eli snarled, stepping forward, his tail lashing dangerously. Mrs. Byrd shrieked and shoved her children behind her. Ace crept forward, almost on his belly, nose to the ground as one child, a tow-headed girl, peeked at him from behind her mother. When she smiled, just a small thing, his tail started wagging, and he wriggled there, on the stone porch.
“Elsie,” Mrs. Byrd snapped, yanking her daughter back into the house.
“Don’t talk to me like that in front of your kids, Cavil,” I said, “you don’t want them growing up to be like you, do you?”
“Better than like you,” he rasped. His breathing was laboured. Good. I hoped it hurt.
“Anyone else in the house I should be worried about?” I asked, patting Charlie on the shoulder as he walked up to me, nudging against my thigh.
“When I get my magic back-” he started, then began coughing. I heard the sound of the shift behind me, and Ace stepped past me, kneeling down in front of the crumpled man.
“You won’t get it back,” Ace said simply, kindness in his voice that Cavil Byrd did not deserve.
But that was Ace.
My heart squeezed painfully.
Mrs. Byrd emerged again from the house, and I saw her children hovering in the open hallway. I wasn’t sure if I needed to destroy the house or if I could bind the magic in it too. I closed my eyes and stroked the warm, pulsing surface of the heartstone. It felt like it shivered against my skin, and then-
With an inaudible sigh, it reached out, pulling in the home’s magic, the layers of years of spell casting unravelling right in front of me. The faint heartbeat of the house began to slow.
In minutes, it would be dull and dark, the sentience absorbed.
“So you’ve stolen my magic, wretched creature,” Cavil quavered.
“She could’ve done worse. So could we have,” Ace said.
“We’re not like you,” Charlie spat at him, anger making his voice shiver. “We don’t murder for fun.” The little girl edged closer to the door, peeping at us, and my heart wrenched. It wasn’t fair that innocent lives had been lost and that more was going to be impacted. She edged up to her mother, dragging her little brother along behind her. Where had the older Byrd child gone, anyway?
“Where’s your son?” I asked. Both of them stared at me.
“Bertie left,” the daughter piped up before her mother hushed her.
“Left?” The wolves around me tense, and I think we all know what that means.
“Betrayed the blood, like you,” Cavil replies, sounding exhausted.
“Cavil!” Mrs. Byrd cries out,
“You killed him,” I breathe because it washes over me as the last power seeps out from the house, returning to the heartstone and bringing the secret answers to me.
He’d been like me. Black sheep. Didn’t want to grow up to be a monster like his parents, like the rest of the witching world.
And then one night- the scene is too horrible, and I look away as if that would stop it from playing out in my brain.
“Murderers, even your own children,” Eli says, and Finn nods in agreement. “We should take them from you.”
Mrs. Byrd lets out a horrifying shriek at that, and I tremble on the inside. How many of these magical homes hold secrets as da
rk as this one?
I dread the rest of this job.
I know it’s only going to lead to more pain and more horrible things being revealed.
“What will we do,” Mrs. Byrd asked, her voice quavering. Her children snuggled closer, against her knees, and I knew I’d made the right choice. Eli’s call had been right. We were not going to murder children.
“Go, get a real job,” I said, “rebuild your life like I had to. Like all the wolves had to every time witches sent hunters to slaughter them. And don’t touch a hair on your children's’ heads.”
She stared at me, resentful. I lifted my chin.
“You can hate me, but remember you started this-”
“I never murdered anybody in my life,” she said, offended.
“And you lived with people who did,” I spat. “You went to their parties, and celebrated with them, and acted like it was no big deal that kids no older than your own were murdered in their sleep or grew up orphans.” I was so angry that my fingers were sparking up. One of the children started crying, turning his head into her leg.
“Please, Mummy,” he whispered. He was only five, maybe six. My chest ached. I was so fucking tired.
“Just go,” I said, pointing toward the road. “Go. I have work to do tonight, and you’re not going to want them to see it.”
Jesus, I was causing many PTSD and future counselling sessions for these kids, but it was better than the alternative.
If I had to be a monster so I could stop more death, then I’d do it.
“You’re a beast, just like them,” the woman spat, but grabbed her children by the hands and started leading them back inside. Mr. Byrd got to his feet, staggering, and when Ace went to catch him, Cavil slapped him away.
“Mundanes are nice,” I said. “Knock on some doors. Ask for help.” She cursed me as she went, her children hiccuping through their sobs. I only let my guard down when they disappeared, the exhausting threading through my whole body.
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