“All right,” I said. “Thanks.”
“And me,” Wanda put in. “Don’t look at me like that, Drake. If it’s safe for you, it’s safe for me.”
“Vance would have my head if I let a faerie take a bite out of you,” Drake said, but he let Wanda follow us across the road. Out of all the mages, I’d missed Wanda and Drake the most. Wanda and I had bonded over our mutual lack of magical talent as teenagers. The witch side of her family had all died in the invasion and she hadn’t inherited any of the gift, but the instant she’d managed to use her frost mage skill, Lady Harper had yanked her into accelerated training and refused to let us see one another most of the time. Losing my closest friend had been the catalyst to my eventual decision to leave home.
“You guys probably won’t be allowed into the actual forest,” I told them. “The Hemlocks don’t like unexpected visitors.”
“We’re talking about the creepy tree people, right?” asked Drake, dropping his voice as we walked. “I’ve never met them, but we know about Fionn and the—”
“Keep it down,” Wanda hissed.
“Who’s Fionn?” I asked. The name rang a bell, and I vaguely remembered hearing it at the council meeting a few months ago.
“A faerie who tried to cause a second invasion by attacking the forest,” Drake answered. “Ivy killed him.”
This Fionn must be the reason they’d broken their secrecy. “It was nice of Lady Harper to tell me that. Any other enemies I should know about?”
Wanda’s brow furrowed. “No… I don’t think so. My grandmother didn’t actually tell me what she spends her time in the forest doing.”
“She doesn’t tell me most things, and I’m supposed to be the Hemlocks’ heir,” I said, quickening my pace. “Hence why we’re not speaking. I’m sorry I never got in touch. I lost my phone in the move and I wanted a fresh start.”
“Yeah, she did say you were the worst apprentice she’d had,” said Drake.
Wanda elbowed him in the ribs. “Drake.”
I shrugged. “It’s true. The guild’s much more stable.” And with that, I dived into the subject of my necromancer training. At least I didn’t have to lie, since I’d had seven blissful drama-free years before the Hemlocks had bulldozed through my life and wrecked everything. Even Drake and Wanda would be freaked out if they found out about my extra soul.
We parted ways at the forest’s edge. The eerie sounds of the half-faeries’ music pursued me into the dark, and when a figure appeared on the path ahead, I instinctively dug in my pocket for a weapon—the spirit device.
And I found myself face to face with someone far more terrifying than soul-sucking monsters in the darkness: Lady Harper.
8
“Going somewhere, Jas?” Lady Harper asked, her voice deceptively calm.
“I’d rather not do this now,” I said, tensing as she reached out a hand.
“Give that here.”
I gripped the spirit device tight. “This is the property of the necromancers’ guild now, since I found and confiscated it.”
The air stirred with the merest hint of her mage power. The trees trembled in response, and magic sparked to my hands.
“The forest is set against you,” I warned. “I still don’t know my power’s limits, but I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end. Get out of my way.”
“I’m not your enemy, Jas.”
“If Evelyn Hemlock gets out of my trap, anyone is a potential enemy. And I reckon she’ll go after my allies first, especially the people responsible for her being bound to me. Let me take this to the guild and you can air your grievances with my decisions later.”
“I told you, I’m not your enemy.” She leaned on her stick with one hand, the other resting against a tree. “I have spent the last few weeks trying to work out how to correct your little problem.”
“What, you mean Evelyn being a power-crazy maniac? Can’t work out where she might have learned that.”
“Not here,” she said sharply. “You may be linked to the Hemlocks by blood, but they won’t hesitate to turn on you if you refuse to give them what they want.”
“They can’t hurt me.” My voice sounded quiet, small. “You know that. Also, you do realise they’re listening to every word you say, right? Why corner me here?”
“Because it’s the only place I can talk to you without being overheard,” she said. “We’re being watched, Jas, by more than the witches.”
“That’s funny. I thought it was you who sent witches to spy on me for seven years without telling me.”
This was the woman who’d personally killed two Sidhe, for god’s sake. What did she possibly have to fear from the Hemlocks? She’d worked for them, on a voluntary basis as far as I knew. She’d been complicit in their quest to force me into the role of heir. Now she was implying I needed to avoid them?
“I spent years out of contact with the coven, and it’s changed much in my absence, Jas,” she said.
“Yeah, same here. Unless you’re jealous I got the magic and you didn’t?”
“Certainly not,” she said, with a sniff. “My mage abilities are more than sufficient. Don’t be ridiculous.”
“You can’t say you aren’t jealous without admitting that it was wrong for them to make a creepy spirit take up real estate in my body, huh?” I wasn’t sure she was jealous, but I’d driven her attention away from the spirit device, which was the plan. “Keep telling yourself you’re in the right, then.”
I walked past, pointedly ignoring her, and the forest’s path changed, masking the former Mage Lord from sight.
“That is a dangerous power you hold in your hands,” rumbled Cordelia Hemlock’s voice.
“Let me guess, you know the person who made it,” I said, continuing to walk. “It’s another of our distant relations, who just happens to be working on a soul-sucking device to yank depraved witch spirits out of my—” I tripped headfirst over a root that definitely hadn’t been there before, and swore. “That was underhanded.”
The device, though… could it take in the spirit? I doubted it. Evelyn had required a full-sized necromancer circle with enhancements to contain, and even then she’d probably have broken free eventually. But damn, the possibilities. I wished I was as creative as Isabel and could pull the device apart to see how it worked, but witch spells were our area, not dubious spirit devices.
“That thing is made by humans,” said Cordelia, as I climbed to my feet. “That makes it dangerous.”
“Maybe magic’s changed since you walked the earth. You’ve been here a long time.” I kept walking. “Are you admitting you know what it is?”
“No,” she growled. “I do not know what it is, and that’s precisely why you shouldn’t use it. Many have tried to harness the spirit lines’ magic. Few have succeeded, and most have perished in the process.”
“Luckily, I’m planning to hand it over to the authorities,” I said. I didn’t add, and I think there’s a vampire behind this.
Silence answered, which I took as agreement. I hurried on through the darkness, towards home.
It was midnight by the time I’d finished updating Lloyd on the events of the past day. I’d put my cloak back on before sneaking back into the guild so nobody would question how quickly I’d returned from my trip, but there weren’t many people hanging around at this time.
Lloyd sat cross-legged on his bed, gaping at me. “And to think I spent today watching Mega Shark Zombie Part Two for the fifth time and missed all that. Now I’m questioning my life choices.”
“Only now?”
He swatted me with a hand. “Seriously, Jas. How do you travel home to visit family and still end up in trouble?”
“That was kind of the point. It was an investigation, to see if the people who messed with the spirit line weirdness here were operating in England, too.” I stifled a yawn, the dimmed light in Lloyd’s perpetually dark room making me sleepy. Full-length posters adorned the walls, which occasionally fell onto our heads when
we held movie nights in here, while his TV and DVD collection occupied the entire desk.
“And they are?” he asked.
“Possibly. But the person I saw must have been a vampire.” His creepy smile and grey-blue eyes couldn’t be anything else, even if vampires usually looked like shadows. Nobody else could influence people over such a long distance.
Lloyd shifted position. “I thought Lady Montgomery had them all under watch.”
“That’s what I thought, too.” I rubbed my eyes wearily. My return through the woods had cost me a few hours and I hadn’t eaten since noon, but I didn’t have much of an appetite. Tomorrow was free, so I could sneak off to the vampires’ territory if I wanted to, if I avoided running into the boss. “Suppose it’s worth asking their king and hoping nobody has set up an ambush this time.”
Generally, if someone indicated they didn’t want to speak to me again, I left them alone, but I’d been glad to have Keir with me when rogues had attacked the last time we’d been to see the vampires’ leader. There was at least one vampire involved, aside from the one Ilsa and I had banished. I was certain of it.
“So what’s the thing you confiscated?” he asked.
I pulled the metal device out of my pocket, putting it between us on the bed. “It absorbs spiritual energy—including ghosts. I think the people behind this must be using these devices to harness the energy they pull out of their sacrifices—and out of the key points, too, I’d guess. God knows why.”
Lloyd kept a sensible distance from the gleaming piece of metal, not reaching out to touch it. “Yeah, that doesn’t sound like a sane, normal-person hobby. So the guy who you took it from died?”
“Not before I saw a vampire possess him,” I said. “I’m sure that’s what he was, but it was over too fast to be certain. Looks like I’m going to have to visit the king again to see if he’s lost any rogues recently.”
Lloyd fidgeted. “Are you gonna hand that over to the boss?”
“When I make my dramatic return tomorrow,” I answered. “Since I’m supposed to be on holiday. I don’t understand why she’s suddenly so concerned about me.”
“You’re her valued assistant and you’re cracking up. When was the last time you slept through the night?”
“Before someone possessed and took over my body,” I said. “And I’m not cracking up, I’ve got it under control. Anyway, I’ll go and see the boss when I’m sure she won’t get suspicious. Appearing to teleport across the country would be a stupid way to blow my cover.”
The slightest crack in my story might expose the lies I’d told. And then? Evelyn Hemlock might get her way after all.
The following morning, I walked through the cobbled streets to the vampire king’s house, armed with every weapon Lloyd and I could sneak out of the guild’s storeroom. The guild had stationed lookouts throughout the vampires’ territory and there were more patrols than usual, so avoiding them was a task and a half in itself.
“Are you sure it’s this way?” asked Lloyd, after we’d walked in circles for fifteen minutes. “You didn’t get the street name?”
I was so sure I remembered the route. “It’s the road with one working streetlamp on.” This one didn’t have any. Stone buildings washed out from the rain sat under a sky the colour of damp cardboard, bathed in so much fog that the spirit realm didn’t look all that different. The vampires would be in their element.
“That’d work if the lights were on during the day,” said Lloyd. “Which they aren’t.”
“You’re being extra annoying today,” I said to him.
“You’re just snippy. Did you even sleep last night?”
“A bit.” I’d been reliving Evelyn’s possession every night since she’d taken over my body, and despite my exhaustion from the day before, sleep refused to claim me until dawn. And then I’d had to leave the spirit device locked in my room under a warding spell, which was preferable to carrying it on me. “I need a lamp to see through this bloody fog. I hope the vampires are in a better mood than I am.”
“Are there any nearby?”
I tapped into the spirit realm. I’d been certain we were close, but if we were, I should at least be able to sense a few vampires beneath my feet. Even if the vampires’ king was alone, I’d detect him. But not a single vampire pinged on my radar.
Weird. Seriously weird.
I halted, and the intermittent flickering of a lamp drew my eye. “Hey, you were wrong,” I said. “This is the one.”
“Creepy,” he commented, eying the flickering lamp. “They can sense us, right? Maybe this was a bad idea.”
“I should be able to sense them.” I scanned the tall, thin houses through my spirit sight. “Maybe he moved house.”
“Hmm. Which house?”
I found the right one, and using my spirit sight, I scanned beneath the street level again. The guy lived in the basement, but I didn’t pick up on anyone in the house—vampire or human.
Oh, boy.
Fists clenched, I walked to the stone steps leading to the basement door. Lloyd hovered over my shoulder. “Uh. Aren’t you breaking and entering?”
“I can say it’s guild business.” I rapped my knuckles on the door, and it swung inwards. “Oh, damn. I think he’s done a runner.”
“So he does live in a tunnel,” said Lloyd. From behind us, the weak daylight seeped into the hall, illuminating murky walls painted the colour of earth and revealing unstable foundations that hadn’t been obvious while walking in here with Keir at night time. It was lucky that digging the tunnels hadn’t caused the whole house to collapse. Had every vampire fled the place all at once? The tunnels extended far beyond a single house. They must cover the entire street. I’d bet they all belonged to vampires, too, so they could sneak in and out of each other’s houses without ever seeing daylight. For vampires who didn’t drink blood, they did seem to make a careful effort to match all the stereotypes.
“Right.” I pulled a candle out of my pocket. “Nobody living in here. That means…”
“Dead. Got it.” He yanked a knife from his pocket. “I swear you owe me hazard pay for coming with you on your wild schemes.”
“You chose to be my Second.”
“Er, Second?”
Where had that come from? “Witch thing. It means you’d get my powers if I died, if you were a witch and I was an actual coven leader.”
“Wow, really?”
“Didn’t Isabel tell you?” I walked further into the hall, shining my candle’s light onto the walls. “It’s not the same for me, anyway. Mine’s the only coven in existence that passes on the power by bloodline and not a democratic vote. Makes sense that they ended up with a lunatic like Evelyn as their heir, really.”
“Still badass,” he said.
“It’s overrated.” I paused as we reached the main room, or cave. “I think he ran into the tunnels.”
“Jas!” He grabbed my arm. “Did you hear that?”
I dropped the spirit sight and inched towards the tunnel entrance. A faint dripping sounded from ahead. I inched forwards, my gorge rising at the faint coppery smell.
My candle’s light found a dead body sprawled on the tunnel floor, throat torn out in a spray of blood. “Ugh. I knew it.”
I moved closer. The vampire’s wounds were thick, ragged, so deep that he wouldn’t even be able to stand if someone reanimated him. Behind, more thick blood splattered the tunnel walls and floor, and more bodies lay sprawled, shredded to ruins.
“Uh.” Lloyd pressed a hand to his mouth. “I take it that’s your runaway vampire king?”
I gave a brief scan of the bodies. “Yes. That’s not good.”
“No shit,’ said Lloyd. “I’d say the odds aren’t looking good for the people living upstairs, either.”
“No… I would have thought at least one of them would have left a trace behind.” Their deaths had been quick and brutal. I turned away, tapping into the spirit realm. Ghosts floated on either side of me, not speaking, approaching
the gates. The vampires who’d died would have had control over dozens of zombies collectively, and yet… nothing.
Lloyd grabbed my arm as a faint sound came from upstairs. Maybe footsteps.
“Not undead,” I muttered. “Too coordinated. Maybe a vampire’s vessel, but I didn’t sense one.”
“That’s not very helpful, Jas.”
“I’m doing my best.” My spirit sight wasn’t as good without Evelyn amplifying it, and my head felt weirdly fogged. Wait a second. “I think we’re on the wonky spirit line. And we never did find out where that energy went.”
“What?” said Lloyd. “Crap, you think they have a magical device thingy, too?”
“Maybe.” I pulled out my phone. “I can’t even report the deaths to the guild and ask them to help catch who did this. It’s out of our area.” But whoever—or whatever—had killed the vampires was not human.
“The mercenaries are usually good at hunting down monsters,” said Lloyd, though he sounded uncertain. “I don’t know. This guy was their leader, right? Isn’t there, uh—a backup king, or heir?”
“Nope. They don’t even have a council. They’re mostly independent and I’m pretty sure half of them didn’t give a shit about the king. Obviously, the guild needs to know, but I don’t want to step outside the lines on this one.”
More footsteps. My heart dropped. “Looks like backup’s arrived.”
I sprinted into the main tunnel and ran smack into someone solid, and human. Now my spirit sight decided to inform me he was a vampire.
Keir.
9
“Keir?” I said in disbelief. “How’d you get in here? Did you kill him?”
“You think so little of me?” He stepped backwards, the candle light flickering on his sharp-edged features. “The monsters that did this are still in the tunnels.”
“Let me guess. Furies.” Nothing else could cause wounds that savage. Which meant someone else was messing around with blood magic.
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