Witch's Secret

by Emma L. Adams

  “Asher,” he answered. “I paid him a visit the other week and bought one of those fake-brick-wall illusions. He wasn’t keen to sell anything to me, but he knows about—Aiden.” He faltered on the last word.

  “I’ll help him,” I said. “I promised I would, and when we find the Ancients, we’ll get him back.”

  “Sure.” His tone was quiet, his usual confidence gone.

  I exhaled in a sigh. “I really have to go, Keir. If they come back—”

  “I’ve got this,” he said. “You think I haven’t made contingency plans?”

  “I wish I could say the same,” I said. “There’s nothing I can do to stop them hunting me. Unless I declare my allegiance to Lord Sutherland, and even then, he’ll never forgive me for attacking his son.”

  “We don’t need his forgiveness,” said Keir. “We need him behind bars where he belongs.”

  “Couldn’t agree more.” I pulled out my phone, relieved to find I had a signal. “All right, I’m warning Lloyd.”

  “They haven’t been near your friends,” he added. “That I know of. I’ve been watching through the spirit realm.”

  Lloyd picked up the phone. “Hey, Jas.”

  “Lloyd, I can’t meet you on the bridge,” I said. “Sorry. The mages are out in the open. They were close to Keir’s house. We need to meet somewhere less conspicuous.”

  “Shit. Okay, come to… you know Ilsa’s address?”

  “Yeah, I do.” I’d passed by her place on the way back from missions before. “Okay. Be careful.”

  “I should be the one saying that.” He hung up.

  I released a steadying breath. Right. They’re not hunting my friends. I hope.

  “Ready?” Keir hugged me, his warm arms enveloping me from either side. His lips brushed mine, a swift but intense kiss. I longed for his warmth again the instant he let go, but if I hung out here all day, I’d be putting both of us in danger. Not to mention his brother.

  “I’d say I’ll be back later, but I don’t know how long I’ll be able to stay in the city,” I said. “The last thing I want is to draw attention to you.”

  “Don’t worry about me,” he said. “The mages assume I’m no longer living in Edinburgh. Whenever I leave my apartment, I use a disguise. Besides, I’m used to living on the edge.”

  “I’d be mad not to worry.” I pushed up my sleeve, sifting through the array of bands on my wrist to find a shadow spell. Not my best work, but I had to be sparing with my ingredients since I didn’t have a regular supply anymore.

  The mages were gone when I walked outside, but I still pulled up my hood under my shadowy disguise. The one upside to the mages’ incapability of being subtle was that I’d see them coming a mile off. They couldn’t seem to help flaunting their magic, and unlike necromancers, they could be fooled by the simplest of disguise spells.

  Ilsa lived on a road lined with neat terraced brick houses, an ordinary-looking corner of the city which seemed untouched by the impact of the invasion. I knocked on the door, turning off the shadow spell when Ilsa answered.

  “Look who it is.” She stepped aside to let me in, her dark brown eyes widening a little. “You look like hell warmed over, Jas.”

  “Cheers.” I waved at Lloyd over her shoulder. Ilsa was about my age, tall and curvy with long dark brown hair and pale skin. “Had a run-in with a few mages on the way. Don’t worry, they didn’t see me. Lloyd, you didn’t run into anyone, did you?”

  “Nope. Staying out of trouble.” He grinned and embraced me. “Meaning I’m staying here now, when I can. Ilsa has a spare room.”

  “If you ever need somewhere to crash,” Ilsa put in. “We have a vacancy for a new housemate.”

  “Seriously?” I followed him and Ilsa into the living room, where a sofa and a couple of armchairs grouped around a flat-screen TV. “Won’t the guild kick up a fuss?”

  “They assume I’ll use the spare room when my sister comes to visit,” Ilsa said. “Anyway, you can come and stay here anytime. Nobody will come looking.”

  “I owe you one.” Guilt over potentially getting Keir and his brother into trouble kept me from staying over at his place, but I wouldn’t say no to a bolt hole inside the city to lie low in if the mages came after me.

  “There’s nobody else in aside from us at the moment,” Ilsa said, walking to the kitchen. “Want coffee?”

  “That’d be great. Thank you.” I sat down next to Lloyd on the sofa. “A safe house. That’s what this is, right?”

  In case the guild is under attack.

  Lloyd gave another shrug. “I guess, but the mages never come to this neighbourhood. They were at Keir’s, though?”

  “He caused a diversion before they got too close,” I said. “He also used an illusion spell to hide the place. Sounds like he’s been paying visits to Asher. You know, Isabel’s friend.”

  “Friend,” he said, with a trace of a smirk on his face. “She sure spends a lot of time over at his place considering she lives hundreds of miles away.”

  “She does?” The Hemlocks must have been really mad at me. Or Evelyn. Let’s face it, Evelyn deserved most of the blame. Not only had she blown our cover, she’d opened the spirit line and set a giant dragon loose in the city as well. It’d be nice if Cordelia admitted I’d had it right that Evelyn was a loose cannon and acknowledged that I’d made an effort to stop her, rather than shunning both of us.

  Ilsa walked over, carrying three coffee mugs, and gave one to each of us before settling in the armchair on my right. “Who are you talking about?”

  “Isabel.” I checked my phone. “That reminds me, I need to talk to her. Keir’s brother… he’s under a blood magic spell.”

  Ilsa’s eyes went wide. “Really?”

  “Damn,” said Lloyd. “Like those zombies we fought?”

  “Kind of, but he’s not dead.” Aiden’s situation was unlike anything I’d ever seen before. “His soul is gone, but his body is still alive. I thought Asher might recognise the symbol I found on him.” I pulled out the crumpled paper and showed it to Ilsa.

  “Doesn’t look familiar,” she said. “When I said I used blood magic, I meant a blood summoning, not witchcraft. That’s not the same symbol the zombies had on them, is it?”

  “No, but…” I dropped my voice. “His body is still functioning and alive, but Keir said he hasn’t aged in eight years. Either that symbol put him into stasis and stopped him ageing, or he got stuck somewhere time doesn’t pass in the same way as it does here.”

  Ilsa put down her coffee mug. “You mean like Faerie? Some liminal spaces are like that, too. You can spend a few minutes there and find it’s been days or longer.”

  “And the witches’ forest,” I added. “I guess that other realm is the same. I know it’s a long shot, but I’m certain Lord Sutherland knows more than he’s letting on. He summoned an Ancient right there in his basement.”

  A thoughtful look came over Ilsa. She had an incurable instinct for seeing everything in an academic light. “If he does, then the mages have resources the guild doesn’t. I’ve been combing the archives for weeks, but I’ve found nothing about that other realm at all.”

  “The archives are falling apart without you there, Jas,” Lloyd said. “We have a weekly vigil in your honour, and the boss has turned your room into a shrine.”

  “Pfft. Now you mention it, what did you do with all my stuff?”

  On my instructions, Lloyd had brought me some of my clothes, but it’d have looked suspicious if I’d taken too many of my personal possessions with me to Lady Harper’s house.

  “Relax, I made sure nobody touched anything,” Lloyd said.

  I drew my knees up to my chin, my insides churning with sudden emotion. I’d left my sketchbook, my paints that Keir had given me… everything. No wonder I felt like I’d left part of myself behind.

  “The boss asks Lloyd about you at least once a week,” said Ilsa, picking up her coffee mug again and taking a swig. “She’s good at hiding it, but sh
e misses her best assistant.”

  “But she knows why I come back.” I gripped my own mug in both hands, savouring its warmth. “I expected the mages to be lording it over her for harbouring a criminal at the guild.”

  “Actually, it’s been fairly quiet,” said Lloyd. “The mages stopped the active search for you after the first week.”

  “I’m insulted,” I said. “I thought I was Edinburgh’s most wanted criminal. I killed the Whisper and the witch Lord Sutherland hired to summon her.”

  “Maybe that’s why,” Ilsa said. “If you killed Lord Sutherland’s best witch, he’ll have had to go looking for alternatives. Not to mention you exposed your magic in front of the council. He didn’t know about your Hemlock power before, but now he’s got to be on guard in case you use it against him.”

  “You sound like Cordelia,” I said. “Maybe you’re right, but if we take him down, there’ll be a power vacuum and someone worse might take his place. That’s what Vance keeps telling me, anyway. Not to mention, murder is kinda illegal. Cordelia doesn’t care, but she doesn’t have to deal with the backlash. Killing him won’t remove the death sentence on my head.”

  “Cordelia?” said Ilsa, a quizzical look on her face.

  “Jas’s evil grandmother,” said Lloyd.

  “More like great-great aunt,” I said. “She seems to think I should just march into the mages’ headquarters and slaughter the entire council. I don’t know about you, but I doubt that would improve the situation.”

  “Definitely not,” Ilsa said. “But I think there’s something to the idea of proving Lord Sutherland’s guilt in a public setting. Make everyone see him for who he really is. Have you been into the mages’ place recently?”

  I knew she didn’t mean in person, since Ilsa was one of two people who shared my ability to walk around the spirit realm at will.

  “Yes, but there’s nothing incriminating out in the open,” I said. “Lord Sutherland is pissed that the mages took away the pieces of Moonbeam stone. Oh, and he thinks Lady Montgomery has something he wants, but he didn’t actually say what it was.”

  “The boss knows he’s a bastard.” Lloyd drained the rest of his coffee. “You should hear the shit she says about him when she thinks nobody can hear.”

  “Wish I could join in.” I checked my phone. “Oh yeah—have you heard of a place called Foxwood?”

  “Did you say Foxwood?” Ilsa said.

  “Yes… why, do you know it?”

  “Foxwood is the name of the town I grew up in,” said Ilsa. “It’s a village way up in the Highlands—supernaturals only.”

  Well, damn. “Lady Harper sent a letter there thirty-one years ago, to someone going by the name Briar. Aka, the coven that saved my life. Ring any bells?”

  “No.” Her brow wrinkled. “The town isn’t on any maps, but the mirror… if I knew where it was, I’d take you there.”

  “What, the mirror?” I said. “I thought it led to the other world, where I found Aiden and Wanda.”

  “It does,” she said. “But it used to lead to Foxwood, too. Do you know what the mages did with the mirror after the battle?”

  “Didn’t they tell you?”

  She shook her head. “I guess I’m not important enough.”

  “Likewise,” added Lloyd.

  “Great.” Just when life threw me a bone, the bone reanimated itself and smacked me in the face. “How did they expect me to find them, then?”

  “There’s another way,” said Ilsa. “The Ley Line also links up to Foxwood, but… didn’t you hear what the mages did to the Ley Line?”

  My heart sank. “What… what did they do?”

  “They kind of own it now,” said Lloyd.

  “I’m sorry, what?” I blinked. “You can’t own the Ley Line. What the bloody hell did the faeries have to say to that?”

  “They don’t know,” said Ilsa. “The mages are restricting their control to this city only—for now, anyway. There’s some kind of upheaval in Faerie distracting everyone at the moment, too. But there are patrols on the Ley Line all the way from the beach to Arthur’s Seat.”

  “Damn.” My shoulders slumped. “I guess it’s not urgent enough to risk getting arrested. The Briar Coven—the coven who raised me—might have lived in Foxwood over three decades ago, and I thought they might be able to help me figure out how to bring down Lord Sutherland. Plus, Lady Harper knew them, and I thought—maybe they could help me make sense of the clues she left behind when she died.”

  Ilsa’s brow furrowed. “But you’ve never met them in person?”

  “Not while conscious,” I said. “They left the city right after I found out they existed.”

  Which suggested they hadn’t wanted me to find them. Still, Lady Harper had trusted them, when she trusted so few people. That must mean something.

  “We can check out the Ley Line,” Ilsa said.

  Lloyd made a noise of protest. “Not with the mages swarming around, you won’t.”

  “Through the spirit realm,” I added. “They won’t see me. I rattled the chandelier above Lord Sutherland’s head last night and he had no idea I was there.”

  I hardly believed he had the nerve to claim the country’s largest spirit line for his own, as though it wasn’t the site where the faeries had invaded this realm twenty-two years ago. I’d assumed he had more sense, but this was the same guy who’d summoned an angry god in his own basement. The problem was, his moronic actions would affect much more than just him and his fellow mages.

  “We’ll do it upstairs, in my room,” Ilsa said decisively, rising to her feet. “Don’t look at me like that, Lloyd, Jas knows the risks.”

  “Jas has an unhealthy sense of what counts as risky.” Lloyd gave me a look. “She’s risking life and limb being here in the flesh as it is.”

  “I’m aware of that,” I said. “You can just chill out downstairs and watch a movie, and you won’t even realise we’re gone.”

  “Exactly,” Ilsa said, checking her phone. “My brother will be over in a minute if you want company.”

  “I—” Lloyd cut off, the hint of a flush darkening his cheeks. “Sure, whatever.”

  I gave him a wink, but Ilsa didn’t seem to notice the tension in the air. Maybe Morgan himself wasn’t the only person oblivious to Lloyd’s crush on him.

  We walked upstairs to Ilsa’s room, which contained what looked like half the archives stacked on the shelves.

  “Did you borrow every advanced textbook the guild had?” I asked.

  “Only the ones I was allowed to.” She grinned a little. “Sorry, I still haven’t found anything about… your little problem. If you’re still trying to solve it.”

  “Evelyn?” I shook my head. “Looks like we’re stuck together for the long haul now. I wouldn’t mind undoing the curse binding Keir and me, but it’s not a priority for either of us.”

  Ilsa walked to the bookshelf and picked up several candles. “We’ll do it the proper way.”

  Lloyd snorted from behind me. “For someone who loves books, you never do things by the book.”

  There seemed little point in using a spirit circle to anchor ourselves when Ilsa boasted the title of the Gatekeeper between life and death, while I had two souls and couldn’t be dragged beyond the veil as long as I was bound to Evelyn. But I helped her lay out the candles to appease Lloyd.

  As we placed the last candle in a circle of twelve around us, the doorbell rang.

  “That’ll be my brother,” said Ilsa. “Best get into the spirit realm before he follows us.”

  “All right,” said Lloyd. “Good luck in there, okay? Don’t go treading on any evil spirits.”

  The candles lit up when Ilsa snapped her fingers, and I shifted out of my body. Ilsa appeared next to me, floating before the bookshelves. The house disappeared beneath a grey haze as the two of us floated through the ceiling. A breeze stirred my hair, and I found myself smiling. Sure, the living city was my home, but this empty haven had claimed part of me, too.<
br />
  “There.” Ilsa halted on the spot, pointing ahead.

  The Ley Line shone brightly, a beacon of light cutting through the city. Sparks of light danced over the line, a living current of magic. Even most rogue necromancers wouldn’t dare try a summoning in a place where the walls between the worlds were thin enough that monsters from Faerie could cross over in a heartbeat. The Line cut through Arthur’s Seat, travelling north along the coastline. In the opposite direction, it angled west, disappearing over the border with England.

  Ilsa and I dropped lower, above the hilly peak of Arthur’s Seat. “That’s where I used to cross over to go home,” she murmured, pointing to the grass below. “The mages decided to set up a base right there on the cliff and pissed off all the local half-faeries in the process.”

  Sure enough, instead of a group of Summer faeries, several mages stood clustered together on the hillside, wearing thick cloaks to stave off the cold. The mages were grouped together every hundred metres or so along the Line right up to the beach.

  “They can’t actually do anything to the Line, can they?” I twisted to face Ilsa in the air. “Mage magic isn’t affected by spirit lines.”

  Witch magic was a different story. And necromancy, come to that. Even shifters could be forced into animal form by Ley Line surges, as I’d learned recently.

  “Watch out,” said Evelyn, her voice sharp.

  “What now?” I turned on the spot, facing my second soul. “Is it Faerie?”

  Her brow wrinkled. “No… it’s not Faerie.”

  Ilsa hissed out an exclamation as a dark spot appeared on the Ley Line, growing larger. Then, a patch of blue light detached itself from the Line, heading in our direction.

  Crap. That can’t be good.

  5

  Ilsa swore, tensing next to me. A glowing symbol appeared on her forehead, flickering around the edges: the name of one of the gods, the one who supplied her Gatekeeper’s power.

  The glowing shape drew closer, forming the outline of a humanoid shape with wing-like shapes extending from its shoulders.

  “What the hell is that?” I whispered. “That’s not a shade, is it?”