“Aren’t I walking cautionary tale?” I said. “Also, I might be a shade, but I’m only a junior necromancer.”
“No, Jas,” said Lady Montgomery. “There’s nothing the highest-ranked necromancers know that you don’t. I’d like you to help design the new novice curriculum.”
Whoa. “Does that mean I have to take up tutoring?” Please, no. I’d been a bad student and I would be a worse teacher.
She gave a rare smile. “Only if you want to. But you’ll have a seat at summits, along with Ilsa and the other top-level necromancers. Not just as my assistant, but as a master necromancer in your own right.”
Holy crap. That is a big deal. More than I deserved, really. Evelyn might have made her own choices, but she’d developed most of the skills she’d used to make her escape during our partnership. Still, the boss’s praise left me glowing, and almost made up for the gaping hole my Hemlock magic had left behind. “Thank you. Does that mean I don’t have to do any more long shifts on archive duty?”
“You can remain in charge of the rota if you like,” she said. “In fact, I need someone to to ensure every patrol has at least one individual who is proficient in the energy transfer skill. Can I trust you with that, Jas?”
“Sure,” I said, a weight lifting from my shoulders. I had a purpose now, aside from tracking down Evelyn. “Is that all?”
“That’s all for now, Jas.”
I took a step towards the door, then paused. “What about the mirror?”
“It’s still being decontaminated,” she said. “The lab, that is. We have a team searching the place, but considering the extent of the damage…”
I nodded, squashing my disappointment. “Okay.”
“Go, both of you.” She waved Isabel, off, too. “Get some rest before the next mission.”
“Should have seen that one coming,” I whispered to Isabel, closing the office door behind us. “I know the Briars could be miles away from the mirror for all I know, but she must know I’m not asking about it just to be annoying.”
“She’s trying,” Isabel said. “Changing the laws overnight will take some work.”
“I’m surprised she’s trying at all,” I admitted. “Let alone working with you. Wouldn’t Asher be more logical? Not that I’m complaining about you being here more often. We need more no-nonsense witches around the place.”
“Asher refuses to get involved,” she said. “Says he doesn’t trust the mages.”
“But he doesn’t mind you sharing the information on blood magic?” It had been Asher who’d caught me its potential for use in battle.
“Like I said, it’s hard to hide the truth now,” she said. “I think it’s necessary, besides.”
“To give us a fighting chance against the Ancients.” I didn’t add that without my Hemlock magic, I was no longer able to use blood magic on myself the way I once had. I’d need another witch to mark me if I wanted to go to war.
Her gaze dropped to my wrist, as though the same thought had occurred to her. “No change?”
“I thought it reacted on the mission,” I said. “We had to walk onto the spirit line. The forest has gone, and so has she, so I guess it was a false alarm.”
“The mark hasn’t faded, though,” she said. “That suggests it’s reversible.”
I doubt it. I’d read the ritual magic book backwards since uncovering Evelyn’s deception and found no clues on how to erase the unbinding symbol, let alone reverse it. “Wish it would help me keep tabs on her. I keep expecting her to march in here and declare war.”
Recent events had shown how hopelessly outgunned we were against our enemies. Evelyn might not be on the Ancients’ side, but she sure as hell wasn’t an ally either.
Still, the blood magic mark on my wrist was also a reminder that my coven survived, and as long as they existed, so would I. Whether Evelyn liked it or not.
2
“Jacinda…”
A whisper pursued me as my feet trod a familiar path beneath ancient oaks wreathed in fog. Somewhere in here was a door etched with runes leading into a cave, yet no matter how far I walked, I never found it.
“Jacinda.” The voice came again, louder, as its owner faded into view. A spectre, with more life in her than any spirit had the right to possess. “Go away, Jas. I’m not bound to you anymore.”
“Yes, you are.” I held up my wrist to show the mark. “You said yourself—we have a job to finish.”
“I undid our bond,” she said. “We are no longer one, Jas, and I will no longer let you hold me back.”
“I kept you in check.” Okay, she’d slaughtered with abandon, tried to assassinate the mage council and even summoned a dragon shifter into this realm, but she’d have done much worse without me to temper her worst impulses. She was a stranger, yet in some twisted way, a crooked reflection of the witch I might have been, in another life. The girl who’d cried over her dead family seemed a world away from the angry, cold-eyed spirit before me, but I refused to believe she’d forgotten her origins.
“There’s time for you to turn back, Evelyn,” I said. “You don’t have to start a war with the gods. Whatever the Hemlocks taught you, the choice is yours, not theirs.”
“This is my choice,” she said. “The war was already coming, Jacinda. I wanted to declare it on my own terms.”
I took a step towards her, and the forest faded out, becoming transparent. Below lay the spirit line, stretching across the countryside. Threads of magic flowed from the line into Evelyn, and she glowed all over, her spirit brimming with power.
Evelyn had the power of life, I had the power of death—and thanks to our link, we both shared life and death magic in equal measure. United or divided, we’d irrevocably changed one another, and now some of her essence was still tied to mine. When the line’s magic filled her, it filled me, too.
I closed the inches between us, and then my hands were on her, reaching into the essence that kept her alive. Evelyn’s magic flowed into me, humming through my veins, making me stronger. Triumph and exhilaration burned inside me, as I broke the connection and Evelyn disappeared from view.
“One of us had to die,” I said. “Sorry. It’s nothing personal.”
I stood alone on the spirit line, the last of Evelyn’s power flowing into me. Magic hummed through my limbs, coating my skin with the texture of stone and bark until the Hemlocks’ cave swallowed me whole.
I was the last Hemlock witch.
The last of my kind.
And my magic held the fabric of the world together.
I woke with a gasp.
Since Evelyn and I had been severed, I’d been dreaming of her a lot more often than before. At one time, I’d drawn my nightmares onto paper to stop them from gaining life, but I hated to even think of Evelyn’s face, even in dreams. Since her departure, I wasn’t exhausted all the time anymore and I’d regained some of the weight I’d lost, yet there was no denying Evelyn had taken part of me with her when she’d left. The dream had got that part right.
As for the part about the Hemlocks’ cave? That was absurd. I’d know by now if I was going to turn into a human statue.
You and Evelyn are bound, whispered a traitorous voice in the back of my mind. Which gives you an equal share in the Hemlocks’ curse. One way or another, it’ll come to deliver in the end.
I shunted the thought away. If Evelyn had taken my magic, she ought to have taken the Hemlocks’ curse along with her. And good riddance.
Keir stirred in the bed next to me. “Bad dream?”
“Mm.” I shuffled closer to him and he pulled me into his warm embrace. Beneath the warmth, the delicious chill of a vampire’s touch stirred my senses. Keir and I might not be bound anymore—the first time he’d fed on me, he’d accidentally taken in some of my spirit essence at the same time—but he’d since admitted he preferred feeding on me to anyone else. I inched closer, giving him permission to skim the surface of my spirit essence.
A sharp rapping on the door made me ju
mp in Keir’s arms.
“Are you two decent?” said Aiden, already opening the door.
“No, we’re having wild animal sex.” I yanked the covers over both of us before Aiden walked in. “What’s so important that you had to come barging into your brother’s room?”
“He’s always doing that,” Keir said, his tone half-sleepy, half-affectionate. “Guy has no concept of privacy. Piss off, Aiden.”
Aiden gave a staged gasp. “And to think I thought you missed me.”
“Shut the goddamn door,” Keir shouted after Aiden, who retreated, laughing to himself.
Keir gave a half-hearted lunge for the door and managed to push it shut. His dark hair fell into his eyes and around his ears, rumpled from sleep. Stubble brushed my cheek as he leaned in and murmured, “What was that about wild animal sex?”
There came the sound of Aiden clattering around behind the door, and Keir sighed and let me go. “Better go and see what he wants.”
I grabbed the rucksack with my spare clothes which I kept at Keir’s place, along with a few witch spells and various other essentials. We’d quickly settled into a routine once I’d reclaimed my employment at the guild, and I stayed here every weekend and sometimes during the week, too. Life was as good as it had ever been—at least since Evelyn Hemlock had crashed into my life—and despite the visible mark on my wrist, I’d heard nothing from her since her departure. If not for her ghost haunting my dreams, I’d say things had taken a definite turn for the better—and so would Keir.
Aiden was cooking breakfast by the time Keir and I entered the kitchen to the smell of bacon and eggs. Aiden was an inch or two taller than Keir and less broad in the shoulders. Unlike his brother, he didn’t lift weights, so he lacked the defined chest and the strong arms that made Keir such an excellent hugger.
“Thought you two were going to sleep all day.” Aiden piled toast onto a plate as I sat down. “I’ve been working like a serf here.”
“Hey, it’s my day off,” I said. “Besides, you didn’t have to cook. We could have gone to Cassandra’s Café instead.”
“That place is still around?” Aiden finished dividing up the food and dug into his own plateful. Years of captivity hadn’t erased his good humour, even if he was struggling a little to adjust to being back in a human body after eight years stuck in limbo.
“I keep them in business,” I said indistinctly through a mouthful of bacon. “It’s that or eat in the guild’s cafeteria, and trust me, that place leaves much to be desired.”
Aiden looked up. “I’ve been thinking.”
“Don’t strain yourself,” Keir said, and his brother swatted him on the back of the head, messing up his hair.
“I think we should join the guild,” Aiden went on.
“Excuse me?” Keir dropped his fork. “You mean the necromancer guild, not the guild of disgraced vampires, population the two of us. Right?”
“Ha ha.” Aiden scooped fried egg on his fork. “I mean it, Keir. We’ve lived on the edge for too long, and now’s as good a time as any to walk into the guild and sign up. I’m not all that inclined to get wiped out along with the vamps who take the Ancients’ side. And they will. Trust me.”
“The guild won’t wipe you out.” I chewed a mouthful of toast. “Not that I think it’s a bad idea for you to join. You’d have the guild’s protection.”
“We protect ourselves.” Keir stabbed at his bacon with a fork. “Always have. The guild wouldn’t piss on us if we were on fire.”
“That’s not the impression I got during the battle two weeks ago,” Aiden commented, munching toast. “They let us in. Like we belonged to them.”
“Like we belonged to the council,” Keir corrected. “They want ambassadors, not soldiers. I’m not sitting in stuffy meetings debating whether my people deserve to have their names stuck on a registry or not.”
“The Council of Twelve doesn’t want a registry any more than the guild does.” I turned to him. “The necromancers wouldn’t turn on the vampires, Keir. I wouldn’t let them.”
I didn’t blame him for being wary of the mages. He’d almost lost his brother once already, due in no small part to him acquiring knowledge the Mage Lords didn’t want to go public. Namely, that vampires were descended from a binding of an Ancient and a human. Vampires looked out for their own survival, and I had zero doubt that many of them would take the Ancients’ side when it came down to it.
Keir returned his attention to his plate. “Look, if we go to the guild, they’ll want to know how you spent eight years in another realm and didn’t age. They’ll think you’re some kind of—”
“Freak?” Aiden said lightly. “We’re all freaks, Keir.”
“He’s right,” I said. “Besides, don’t forget Lady Montgomery let me back in, even after I nearly assassinated the mage council.”
Aiden blinked. “Thought that was your psychotic alter-ego.”
“She’s not psychotic.” Evelyn might make questionable choices, but she was perfectly sane and knew exactly what she was doing. “Besides, if not for her, we’d never have found you.”
“Well, I don’t appreciate her dragging us into war with the Ancients.” Aiden jabbed a finger in my direction. “Which is why I say we should throw ourselves on the guild’s mercy before we have no allies left. You can say I forced you into it if you like.”
Keir chewed a mouthful of bacon. “You’re more trouble now than when you were missing.”
“You wound me.” Aiden leaned back in his seat, grinning. “I’m the eldest. I always win. You’ll see.”
“Come to the guild.” I prodded Keir in the shoulder. “I assume you’ve already paid off this place, because the salary is crap, but the benefits are good. Well, kind of. You’ll get a great funeral, free of charge.”
“I like the way she thinks,” said Aiden. “I’m in.”
Keir groaned. “Don’t encourage him, Jas. And yes, I know the pay is crap. That’s why you live in those tiny flats, like student halls of residence. Aiden wouldn’t like that, would he? He likes his own space.”
“Eh.” Aiden took a bite of toast. “We’re not all as stingy as you. I can’t believe you haven’t redecorated the place in the last eight years. You didn’t even throw out those ghastly puppets, either.”
“Maybe I’ll give them to charity.” Keir yawned. “Any of your friends want hand-stitched puppets, Jas?”
“I’ll ask Lloyd.” My phone buzzed in my pocket and I pulled it out. “Maybe not. I’m supposed to meet the Council of Twelve at the necromancers’ place in an hour.”
So much for a lazy day off.
Since the mages had booted them out of their headquarters, the Council of Twelve now gathered in a spare room at the necromancers’ guild. I wasn’t a real council member, more of an ambassador, but thanks to Lady Harper’s untimely death, I was the only person vaguely connected to the Hemlock Coven still in existence. Evelyn didn’t count, and from the stares and whispers that rippled up and down the long table when I walked in, she was never far from anyone’s thoughts.
Heat seared my cheeks, and I ducked my head, scanning the table for a familiar face. Drake pulled out a seat and I gratefully sank into it. The fire mage had tousled coppery hair, a thin scar on his face, and a devilish smile which made him the bane of single ladies in the magical world. Beside him sat Wanda, tall and willowy and dark-haired. As teenagers, Wanda and I had been best friends, and she and Drake felt more like my family than the Hemlocks ever would.
Once the table had filled up, Vance Colton, leader of the West Midlands council of mages and one of the founders of the Council of Twelve, rose to his feet. “I hope this suffices as an adequate meeting place. I can ask Lady Montgomery for a bigger room, but she said the only ones available were in the dungeon.”
“None of us cares what room we use, Vance,” Drake said. “What we want to know is where these bloody Ancients are hiding. Three false alarms in a week, and that Lord Sutherland rattling his chains in the mages’
basement like he knows something we don’t.”
“He’s not trying to escape, is he?” I said. “Or reconnect with the Soul Collector?”
“He’s under constant guard, don’t worry,” said Ivy Lane, who sat beside Vance with her sword propped against the back of her seat. “And he knows we’ll stick a knife in him if he steps out of line.”
“Our current plan is to wait for Edinburgh’s mage council to elect a new leader,” Vance said. “After that, we will see if they decide to reinstate the old cross-supernatural council or not. If they do, we will extend an invitation for them to re-join the Council of Twelve.”
“That involves too much waiting for my liking,” Ivy said.
“We cannot interfere in the vote,” Vance said. “And if they choose not to reopen supernatural relations with outsiders, then it would be unwise to allow them to access our resources. It sets a bad example for the other regions. It’s been difficult enough to establish an independent council as it is.”
“That’s because we do keep interfering,” Drake pointed out. “I blame Lady Harper. She spat in the face of tradition, beat it to death with a shovel and then trampled it into the earth.”
“Thank you for that, Drake,” Vance said. “If Lady Harper understood one thing, it’s that the supernatural world cannot survive if it remains divided. The Council of Twelve is a vital part of our cooperation with the other supernaturals, allowing them to have an equal say in our decisions.”
“There’s a slight problem with that,” said Ivy. “Not to be the bearer of bad news, but the mages do dominate every council in the supernatural world. So as long as that remains true, some will refuse to join us. Especially the shifters, considering how Lord Sutherland and his people treated them.”
“She’s right,” said Isabel. “We’ve seen it first-hand everywhere we’ve travelled with the council. If we’re to maintain any credibility, we have to grant every member equal access to our resources.”
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