Witch's Sacrifice

by Emma L. Adams

  “We could use a compass, though.” The stone building was marked on one side of Lady Harper’s map, which left us an unknown amount of empty hillside to explore.

  “That way.” Ilsa unfolded the map and drew a line with her fingertip. “We’re here, and the X is somewhere over there on our left.”

  “I hope we’re right that the X is her destination,” I said. “Mind you, Evelyn could have got there seconds after she came here. She might be somewhere else entirely by now.”

  “Don’t forget time passes differently here.” A calculating look came over Ivy’s face. “She might have arrived here only seconds or minutes ago for all we know.”

  I slapped a hand to my forehead. “And there I was thinking Lady Montgomery was letting the mages stall us for no reason.”

  “The boss is way too sensible for that,” said Ilsa. “She knew the mages would kick up a fuss, but we had some time to lose. Jas was here an hour and lost fifteen days. That gives us leeway.”

  “Except life goes on in the real world,” I added. “I don’t want to get back to find fifty years have passed and everyone is dead.”

  “I lost ten years in Faerie,” said Ivy. “Believe me, it’s not an experience I want to repeat. Let’s move.”

  Ilsa followed the map, leading the way downhill into the fog. “Evelyn might have wound up miles away from here when she came through the spirit line, too.”

  “Don’t forget she’s a ghost, though.” I kept pace with Ilsa, which wasn’t hard because we had to go slowly to avoid slipping on the wet grass. “She moves fast. Also, we’d better hope Lady Harper’s map-drawing skills were accurate.”

  Ivy took the lead, her sword emitting a faint blue glow that lit up our path. Ilsa, Keir and I walked close behind, down one grassy hill and up another.

  “Wish we had a dragon to give us a lift,” I said, after several minutes of silence. “They know the layout of this place better than we do.”

  “You didn’t speak to the dragon when you were here, did you?” Keir asked.

  “No,” I said. “Not sure he could speak English. Ivy, you said you’d met one before?”

  “Not a dragon shifter,” she said over her shoulder. “He was a god who took the form of a dragon. But he had to shift into human form to speak to me.” She strode on, swinging her blade through the fog as though to slice it into ribbons. “I always thought of him as the shifters’ ancestor, but I bet he’s not the only shapeshifter to have interbred with humans in the past. He was indistinguishable from a regular human when he took the form of one.”

  “And humans will screw anything that moves, right?” Ilsa said wryly.

  “Pretty much.” Ivy halted. “There’s something up ahead.”

  A winged outline appeared etched against the fog. The outline solidified into a massive golden dragon with gleaming scales.

  “Hey… it’s a statue.” Ivy walked around it. “Damn good likeness, too.”

  “Wow.” I looked up at its intricately carved mouth, filled with teeth that looked sharp enough to be real. “Who built this?”

  “Dragon shifters,” said Ilsa. “They built statues of themselves. Like humans did in our world.”

  “I wonder if Lady Harper came here?” Ivy tapped the statue with the hilt of her sword, which emitted a hollow ringing noise. “I can’t picture her negotiating with dragons.”

  “She did a lot of things I couldn’t picture.” I stiffened, seeing another winged shape appear in the sky. “Uh, guys, I think that one’s alive.”

  A red-and-black scaled beast exploded out of the fog—not a dragon. Ivy threw herself in front of our group, slicing with her blade. Blood splattered the grass, and the beast’s talons struck the gold dragon with a ringing noise that made my ears throb.

  Then came the sound of beating wings. More furies, shaped like humanoid creatures with thick red and black scales.

  “Hey!” I yelled. “Don’t you recognise me? I helped your creator, ancestor, whatever. You don’t have to fight me.”

  The furies continued to sweep towards us, their huge talons tearing up the fog as they descended upon us in a cloud of red-black wings. Ivy’s sword flashed, severing limbs, while Keir and Ilsa wielded knives. Dammit. Had Evelyn done something to turn the shadow fury against me, or was it simply that the other furies didn’t care about our tentative alliance? I’d thought the shadowy fury might count me as an ally, but maybe it was naive to assume the gods would ever have my back.

  “Ivy, put down the sword!” Ilsa shouted. “We’re outnumbered—we have to run or one of us is gonna get seriously hurt.”

  “Like hell.” Ivy swung the blade, severing the nearest fury’s talons. Thick blood splattered the fog-drenched grass, and the sword’s blue gleam illuminated a human-shaped figure up ahead of us.

  A human, watching the furies. No, controlling the furies.

  Shock punched the air from my lungs. Evelyn’s body appeared solid, her hair streamed behind her, and her expression was ice-cold.

  Anger exploded to life in my chest, and I ran, ducking the furies, ignoring their talons in favour of the witch who’d ruined my life and stolen my magic.

  I tackled Evelyn, flying right through her and bruising my knees. She wasn’t totally solid, then. She hadn’t killed an Ancient yet.

  “Fuck you.” I climbed upright, breathless. “You’re no more alive than you were before. Was it worth it?”

  Her mouth twisted. “I tried to let you go free, Jas. You could have run.”

  “I don’t run.” I waved my wrist in her face, marked with the symbol unbinding us. “You did this to me. You stole my magic.”

  The words tore loose from a place deep inside me, where she’d wounded me so deeply that I’d never faced the real depth of the loss until now. Not now I felt her magic, our magic, rising in the air in a vicious current that slammed into my chest.

  My body flew back into the air, my limbs flailing, yet exhilaration burned in my blood. Some part of me responded to her magic, even when it was used against me. I landed in a roll on the hillside and lifted my head. “If you kill me, it will gnaw on you for the rest of your existence, Evelyn.”

  Evelyn stalked towards me, her magic solidifying into a whip in her right hand. “You think you know anything about regret, Jas?”

  “I do.” I pushed upright. “I saw your memories. I know how painful it was for you to lose your family in the invasion, and how you were on the verge of death when you and I were bound—”

  “You know nothing of me,” she spat. “You saw only what my traitorous ancestors saw fit to show you. I have walked in this realm since I was a child. I have more blood on my hands than you could ever dream of—”

  “But not the right blood,” I said.

  Her eyes narrowed. “Ilsa. I should have known she’d remember.”

  “Do you actually want to be immortal?” I asked. “I thought you wanted to save your coven. Looks to me like you left them for dead instead.”

  “It was a lie,” she said. “All of it was a lie, to gain your trust and steal your life force for my own.”

  “Really,” I said. “You know, I don’t believe you. Everything you did, you did for your family. Did Cordelia and the others really mean nothing to you?”

  “Nothing,” she said. “She condemned me. My true family died in the invasion.”

  “And would they be proud to see you slaughtering gods, turning on your fellow witches, and condemning your coven to extinction?”

  Her mouth thinned. “You know nothing—”

  “I know you better than you think.” I looked her dead in the eyes. “Because if you cared so little for me, why not drain all my life force? If the bond-breaking spell worked as intended, destroying me wouldn’t have killed you. You held back, Evelyn, because you couldn’t bear to harm me. Just like you can’t bear to sever the ties with the only people you have left in this world.”

  “Maybe I don’t want to hurt you, Jas.” This time, there was genuine regret in her ey
es. “But unlike you, I will do anything to get what I want.”

  Then she brought the whip down.

  6

  I rolled to the side as the whip struck the earth, and the smell of burning grass rose in my nostrils. I’d used the same attack countless times, and it always ended fatally. She was going for the kill.

  So that’s how it’s going to be.

  I lunged at her, my hands latching onto her spirit. Energy flooded me in an instant, and triumph surged to the surface as her life force flowed through my veins.

  She halted mid-attack, her body rigid with shock. “You dare—”

  “Use your own underhanded tactics against you? You bet I will.” I wrenched more energy from her into me, getting a blast of kinetic power in for good measure. Her body flew back, but she managed to catch her balance.

  Evelyn let out a snarl of abject fury and pounced. I side-stepped, slamming kinetic power into her so hard she went reeling. The outline of her ghostly form flickered, no longer seeming as solid as before.

  “Give Ilsa her talisman back, Evelyn,” I warned. “It’s not yours.”

  “Neither is the magic you stole from me.”

  It’s hopeless. She’s convinced herself it’s all my fault.

  “I thought you agreed to be bound to me for the sake of our coven,” I said. “If you die, what happens to your magic? Do I get it, or does it vanish forever?”

  “You will never hold my magic again.” The whip was back in her hands, shimmering with iridescent light.

  Behind her, my friends fought against the furies, but the fog hindered their speed, and they were far outnumbered by their foes. Like she’d stolen my magic, Evelyn had also taken the furies and turned them against me. Worse, if the shadow fury god was on her side, it would only take one literal backstabbing and she’d have the blood she needed to regain a physical form.

  And then? The other gods would be hers for the taking.

  Damn her. I can’t let her win this.

  “You called me an idiot for letting the shadow fury live,” I said to her. “What made you change your mind?”

  “They can’t tell us apart, Jas. They think I’m you.” The whip in her hand trembled. Maybe she didn’t want to kill me, but she wouldn’t hesitate to do so if I got in her way. “You know you can’t win. Why did you come here, Jas?”

  “You stole Ilsa’s talisman.” My hands glowed with kinetic power. “You couldn’t be satisfied with taking my magic alone?”

  “This magic was never intended to be yours.” She lashed at me with her whip, and I dodged, blasting her with necromantic power.

  “Tell that to Cordelia.” Anger pulsed through my blood. “Give me the Gatekeeper’s book.”

  “Fine.” She reached somewhere behind her and pulled out Ilsa’s talisman. “If your friend wants this back, she can get it herself.”

  She flung the book at Ilsa, where it disappeared into the fog. Ilsa dove down to retrieve it, and two shadowy outlines appeared above her, their sharp talons outstretched.

  “Ilsa!” I shouted in warning.

  The furies plunged through the fog, hook-like claws snagging Ilsa’s coat. She swore, fighting their grip, but their strong wings beat, lifting her into the air. Swearing, Ivy leapt up and slashed with her blade, but even her sword passed right through the fury’s shadowy talons.

  “If you continue to stand in my way, Jas,” said Evelyn, “I’ll tell them to let her fall to her death.”

  “That’s underhanded!” A fresh wave of anger crashed over me, so potent I could almost taste it. The mark on my wrist burned, and a rush of all-too-familiar power flooded me like a river bursting its dam.

  Hemlock magic blasted from my hand, crashing into Evelyn. She sprang backwards with a curse, her eyes widening. “You shouldn’t have done that.”

  “Guess you didn’t keep as close a grip on your power as you thought.” My wrist tingled, and a smile formed as I shaped my magic into a binding spell. “You won’t escape this time, Evelyn.”

  She spat out a curse, conjuring a shield to deflect my spell. A shadowy claw swiped at me from behind, forcing me to roll over on the grass. In the air, I glimpsed another shadow fury, taking flight with Ivy’s limp body in its talons. Another appeared behind Keir, claws outstretched.

  “Don’t you fucking dare.” I lashed the fury around the ankles with a whipcord of magic, pulling tight. The fury’s talons tore free in a spray of blood, and Keir moved in to finish the beast off. His knife flashed—once, twice—but more shadowy furies surrounded him. Taking Ilsa and Ivy away.

  Hemlock magic filled my veins, roaring in my blood, and the whip re-formed in my hands. “Leave my friends out of this, Evelyn.”

  “You don’t have the right to claim that power.” Her hands shimmered, conjuring a whip that mirrored my own.

  Our twin attacks collided, and bolts of magic shot out in all directions. Keir shouted my name, running uphill, and I threw myself in front of him. A bolt of magic slammed into the mark on my wrist, which ignited with white-hot agony.

  “Dammit, Cordelia!” I shouted. “Some fucking use you were, letting her kill me.”

  A haze of light shone overhead, and Evelyn’s furious shout rang in my ears as the light swallowed me up.

  I sat on a carpet of bright green grass, the whitewashed walls of the mages’ headquarters gleaming in the midday sun. Wanda sat cross-legged opposite me, drawing neat circles on a page. My own page was covered in scrawled symbols. I had no magical talent to speak of, but I did like drawing the symbols and adding my own artistic flair.

  “Why does your grandma want you to learn the symbols, too?” I asked Wanda.

  “She thinks I might be a witch instead of a mage.” Wanda finished drawing a circle with a flourish. “Because my mage powers haven’t shown up yet.”

  Most mages developed their talents around the age of eleven or twelve, but Wanda had both witch and mage ancestry and there was a small chance her witch magic would win out. She was self-conscious about it, especially around the other mages. Drake always said it didn’t matter, but I’d heard the whispers whenever a person born into a mage family failed to demonstrate magical abilities. I’d heard the mutters about the two of us when they thought we couldn’t hear them.

  Drake waved at us across the field, his curly red hair in disarray and a grin on his face as he chased a flame from one hand to the other. He was training a young fire mage to control his talent, and the apprentice wore an expression of intense concentration as he conjured vivid orange flames to his hands.

  If only magic came so easy to me. I looked back at the symbols on the page. They might look pretty, but they contained no spark of magic.

  “What’s this?” Lady Harper hobbled up behind me, wearing her customary scowl. “Have you been adding your own artwork again? If you don’t copy the symbols correctly, then it’s no surprise they won’t work for you.”

  I bit my lip. “Maybe I’m not a witch after all. They don’t work for me even when I draw them right.”

  Vance glanced over at us from where he was instructing a fellow mage in how to use his telekinetic power. “Lady Harper, what are you doing?”

  “Jas has decided to slack off and draw pretty pictures instead of doing any work,” said Lady Harper.

  Vance eyed the notes spread in front of me. “Jas is working as hard as Wanda is. Either someone has the gift or they don’t, and it can’t be bullied out of them.”

  Huh. I’d forgotten Vance had stood up for me. It’d been so long since that day. So long since that quiet moment with Wanda, the first best friend I’d ever had…

  Wait a second. I wasn’t really here. I was in a memory. Which meant—

  I’d reached the Hemlocks’ forest.

  As the thought entered my mind, the lawn turned into a winding path between thick oak trees. My wrist throbbed with pain, the mark burning with the aftermath of Evelyn’s attack, but I hardly noticed.

  Evelyn hadn’t killed the other Hemlocks after all
.

  Tangled trees surrounded me, thick undergrowth lay on either side of the path, and before me, a door stretched between two trees.

  I never thought I’d be so glad to see the Hemlocks’ cave again. I opened the door, revealing walls etched with glyphs which gave everything a backlit green glow. Stone sculptures and thick tree trunks connected floor and ceiling, gnarled and twisted to resemble hunched figures. From the central pillar, a pair of dark eyes met mine.

  “Oh, Cordelia,” I whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Jacinda.” Her gaze turned sharp. “Have you come to gloat?”

  “I’m not here to say I told you so.” I stepped up to the largest stone sculpture dominating the cave’s centre, etched with wrinkles forming the outline of Cordelia’s beaky face. “She fooled me, too.”

  I held back from adding that Cordelia was the one who’d been chiefly responsible for giving me insights into the tragic events which had shaped the person Evelyn had become. She and the other Hemlocks had been adamant in their belief that Evelyn was acting in the interests of the coven, not pure self-interest coupled with a reckless lust for power. One of us had to be the bigger person, after all.

  Cordelia looked down at me. “You saw her. But you let her go.”

  “I didn’t. She must have kicked me out of the other realm.” Panic rose. “My friends are stuck over there, and Evelyn set the shadow furies on them. I have to get back.”

  “I cannot send you back,” said Cordelia. “Your magic must have brought you here, but Evelyn cut herself off from this realm.”

  Damn. “Cordelia, she wants to kill the Ancients in order to regain a body and make herself immortal.” When she said nothing, I added, “Please tell me you didn’t know.”

  “It is not natural for anyone to live forever.” Cordelia’s pit-dark eyes bored into mine, the only part of her craggy face that looked alive. “You must make her see reason, before it’s too late for all of us.”

  “See reason?” I said incredulously. For Evelyn, reason had long since packed its bags and left.