Witch's Secret

by Emma L. Adams

  Asher arched a brow. “Breaking and entering, are you?”

  “Kind of.” I weighed the odds, then said, “Suppose I found out the Mage Lord was guilty of a crime and wanted to prove it… what kind of spell would be able to hold him? Not kill him. Trap him. His magic is too strong for a regular trapping spell. And he’s an earth mage, so he can probably break any other type of binding, too.”

  “Maybe try throwing a net at him?”

  “It’s not funny,” I said, irked. “I thought you were the best at what you do.”

  “Oh, I am.” He lifted a thick leather book from a shelf underneath his desk. “As I’m sure you found out when you used my spell to destroy an Ancient.”

  “Your spell? I thought you got it out of that book.” I indicated the leather-covered volume he’d pulled out. “Wait, you’re not saying you use it yourself? Blood magic?”

  “Did I ever say I didn’t?” He turned over the pages, which were stained in the residue of old spells.

  “I thought you said the enemy forced your friends to raise the dead using blood magic against their will, but nobody in their right mind would use it otherwise,” I said.

  “That’s not what I said.” He turned to a fresh page. “The Orion League forced the Bloodroot Coven to use their magic to commit terrible crimes. They were active blood magic practitioners before then, like my own coven. If you have an issue with that, you’re welcome to find another witch.”

  “I’m in no position to judge anyone for using illegal magic,” I said, “but—it’s dangerous, isn’t it? Was it blood magic which backfired on you and hurt you?”

  “It was,” he said, with a slight cough. “A miscalculation on my part. I do have a regular spell you can use to break into the mages’ headquarters, but if you fail, no spell can prevent the mages from using their own wards to trap you.”

  “I’ll risk it,” I said. “If I don’t catch Lord Sutherland and bring him to justice, he’ll go after the necromancers.”

  “Why not leave the guild to handle the mages?” he said. “You don’t work for them anymore.”

  “I owe them my life.” Lady Montgomery and the necromancers had given me a home when I’d come to Edinburgh alone, fleeing the Hemlock name. They’d welcomed me, given me a purpose, and now thanks to Lord Sutherland, their lives were in danger.

  “I may be able to put something together which will help,” Asher said. “But it’ll cost you.”

  “Not an issue.” Thanks to the fortune Lady Harper had left me, money was the least of my problems. Pity it’d take more than cash to buy my freedom. The mages had the power of the gods on their sides.

  Asher went into the back room to set up the spell, leaving Isabel and me alone in the front.

  “Spending a lot of time together, huh,” I muttered. “And you got distracted? Really?”

  She ducked her head. “He’s… not like any other witch I’ve met.”

  “I can’t say I’ve met another witch who used blood magic and gave themselves a fatal illness as backlash,” I remarked.

  “That’s not… okay, he did,” she admitted. “But he’s learned a lot since then. He knows what getting caught will cost him.”

  I was more concerned with Isabel getting caught, considering she wasn’t local and didn’t have her fellow coven members waiting to defend her.

  “What do the rest of your coven think about all this?” I asked.

  “They don’t know,” Isabel said. “They think I’m away on official Council of Twelve business—which is technically true, more or less. I left my Second in charge. She’s good at her job.”

  I released a breath, willing myself to relax. Asher wouldn’t talk her into breaking the law. Isabel was way more sensible than that. The only reason she’d left me instructions on how to use that blood magic spell was because it was the only way to kill the Whisper.

  Still—Cordelia’s words kept coming back to me. She wanted me to use blood magic. Granted, I was already a fugitive, and it was no secret that my coven was steeped in ritual magic—like the binding that’d saved my life, for instance.

  Asher emerged from the back room and handed me a fresh spell. He must have been taking lessons from Isabel, because it was band-shaped and striped in red and grey.

  “What does this do?” I turned the spell over in my hands.

  “It’s one of my illusions,” he said. “Won’t hide you from the necromancers, but it can be enhanced for four different stealth options that can trick most wards, even the ones the mages use. Just twist it to change from one mode to the other.”

  “Thanks.” I fished in my pocket for my spare cash. Lady Harper had hidden fistfuls of twenty-pound notes all over her house, and I’d stuffed my purse with them before leaving.

  As I handed the cash over, my phone buzzed. Nodding to Isabel, I stepped away from the desk and answered the call.

  “Hey, Jas,” said Lloyd. “We ran into a slight hitch.”

  “Oh?”

  “The mirror’s not here,” Ilsa’s voice said in the background.

  “Wait, it isn’t?” I dropped my voice as Asher gave me a curious look. “Are you sure?”

  “I used my spirit sight to search the whole building,” Ilsa said. “It’s not there. Not in the boss’s office either—Morgan went and looked.”

  “You might know it,” I said. “Are they hiding it in another location? I’m going to the mages first, regardless. If they’re not going to break into the guild, I’d rather find out where they’re targeting before we try to ambush them.”

  “Meet you there,” Ilsa said. “If you’re sure.”

  “I am,” I said. “I don’t know what they’re playing at, but we’ll stop them.”

  “Damn straight,” said Lloyd. “Catch you later, Jas. Don’t get arrested.”

  “I’ll try not to.” I hung up. No time to waste. I couldn’t think of anywhere safer than the guild’s headquarters, but what else could Lord Sutherland possibly want to steal from them other than the mirror?

  I pushed up my sleeves and took stock of my spell inventory: healing spells, cleansing spells, shadow spells, trapping spells. Nothing too complex, aside from the new illusion spell.

  “Does it have a time limit?” I asked Asher.

  “An hour.”

  “Then I’ll use this one first.” I twisted my spare shadow spell, my body disappearing and blending into the dark shop. I’d save Asher’s illusion charm for the last minute, if at all.

  “Call me if you need me,” Isabel said. Doubt shone on her face, displaying her inner struggle about whether or not to follow me, but I refused to let my friends take the heat for my recklessness. Besides, I wouldn’t be alone.

  “Jas,” Keir whispered in my ear. “Are you sure about this?”

  “Nope.” I ducked out of the shop. “But you know, desperate times call for kicking the shit out of mage apprentices.”

  “Wish I could be there in person,” he said.

  I reached out through the spirit realm, searching for Neil Sutherland’s presence. It was easier to track someone I knew well, but meeting someone once was enough for me to be able to recognise them in the spirit realm. Especially when they’d pissed me off as much as Neil had.

  Sure enough, I found Neil standing guard outside the mages’ front gate, a waiting target.

  “I’ll grab a vessel,” Keir said. “Then I’ll keep an eye out. The place has some heavy wards outside.”

  “Not an issue.” My new illusion spell waited on my wrist, tingling against my skin. Tricking wards was difficult, but while Asher might be a little unpredictable, he knew what he was doing with witchcraft.

  I left Asher’s place, hurrying through the market. The shadow spell made me invisible to anyone without the spirit sight, which would be enough to get me into the mages’ place without being spotted. I hope. I hadn’t counted on the mirror not being at the guild, though. Where was it, then? Surely the mages didn’t already have it… right?

  I came to a hal
t when a dead man stepped out of the alley in front of me. “Hey,” it said, in Keir’s voice. “Nice to see you, Jas.”

  “Nice to know you’re taking this seriously.” My heartbeat quickened as the front of the mages’ place came into view, along with the slight, straw-haired figure standing in front of the warded gates.

  A bright presence pinged on my radar. Oh, shit. Necromancers.

  Ducking into the alley with Keir’s vessel, I held myself out of sight.

  “They aren’t high-ranked,” Keir murmured. “They can’t sense us.”

  “Still.” Three cloaked necromancers were walking towards the mages’ guild in full view. “That’s not a patrol, is it?”

  A sharp suspicion gripped me. Keir swore softly, as though he’d had the same thought. Then his vessel moved before I could hiss out a warning. The dead man shambled past the entrance to the mages’ place. Neil gave him a cursory glance, but Keir had picked a vessel who resembled a normal human and not one of the mages, so the others would think he was a harmless onlooker.

  Unless one of the necromancers turned around.

  The three of them approached Neil. As he moved to let them inside the gates, I shifted out of my body, unable to help myself. I had to know what they were doing in there. Had Lady Montgomery put them up to this? Only the senior necromancers had been allowed into the mages’ headquarters even before they’d upped their security and withdrawn from the Council of Twelve.

  There was one other explanation: the mages had insiders at the necromancer guild. Which meant…

  “Keir,” I whispered to him, in the spirit realm. “They already stole it.”

  “Figures,” he said. “What do you want to do?”

  I don’t know. If I went ahead with my stealth mission, the three necromancers might spot me through the spirit realm, but I’d know if they were high-ranked, and they weren’t.

  I turned on my spirit sight again, sensing the necromancers’ glowing forms inside the mages’ headquarters. I’d bet Lord Sutherland couldn’t get anyone with any real talent to betray Lady Montgomery. She was too smart to allow traitors to join the guild’s highest ranks.

  A smile formed. “The necromancers won’t stay in there forever. When they come out, we’ll convince them to confess to their crimes directly to Lady Montgomery.”

  It’d make my entire year if the testimony of a group of novice necromancers led to Lord Sutherland’s arrest.

  “I like the way you think,” said Keir. “Want me to lure them out?”

  “Let me text Ilsa first. She’s already on the way.”

  I sent her a message and then waited a few minutes before leaving my body and floating up to the gates again. The mages’ headquarters was an impressive sight from the outside, a grand old house with tall balconied windows and wards flickering over its whitewashed exterior.

  A shuffling sound behind me heralded Keir’s presence—or rather, the zombie he’d hijacked. He walked right past the mages’ place again with exaggerated slowness.

  This time, Neil stepped forward. “Hey, who are you?”

  The zombie moved closer, until it stood inches away from the mage apprentice. Then Keir made its head lift up and look Neil in the eyes, rasping, “Brains.”

  Neil yelped and jumped backwards into the wards. “Help! Zombie!”

  “Who doesn’t carry salt these days?” I stifled a grin. Arrogant mage apprentices.

  Neil pressed a hand to the mage mark on his arm, then faltered at the last second, perhaps because it’d hit him that the Mage Lord wouldn’t appreciate being called out to deal with a single zombie, considering the necromancers already in the building. Lucky, because I’d forgotten he was wearing that pesky mage mark. If the Mage Lord himself showed up before Lady Montgomery did, then our plan would fall to pieces.

  Three glowing lights in the spirit realm moved, and the oak doors to the mages’ guild opened wide. The necromancers hurried out of the mages’ headquarters in pursuit of the zombie. Where is Ilsa? She was supposed to show up before they came out. If the necromancers spotted either of us, we’d have to start from scratch.

  Keir had other ideas. Smoothly avoiding Neil’s half-hearted strike, he lunged at the three necromancers as they passed through the gates. One of them dropped like a stone as Keir’s vampire power drained him. The second cried out a warning, only for the zombie to punch him in the mouth. Neil yelped and hid behind the wards as the zombie dove at the third necromancer. I’d seen Keir knock out someone with ease and he could have put all three necromancers on the ground in seconds, but that wasn’t the goal. He wanted to draw attention, and nobody could cause a stir quite like a mostly-invisible vampire.

  “Excuse me?” Ilsa’s voice rang out. There she is. “What are you doing so far from your patrol route?”

  She strode towards the necromancers, accompanied by two other cloaked figures. Clever. She must have been gathering more witnesses. That way, the necromancers wouldn’t be able to hide that they’d been having clandestine meetings with the mages.

  “There’s a zombie,” said the necromancer who’d hidden himself behind the gate.

  “The three of you couldn’t take out one zombie between you?” Ilsa raised an eyebrow. Of course, she could see Keir floating behind the zombie, but she didn’t give him so much as a glance.

  Neil’s head popped up. “You’re the Gatekeeper, right? My dad would like to have a word with you. Would you like to come in?”

  That was unexpected.

  “It’s got to be a trap,” I hissed at Ilsa, but she ignored me. The mages wouldn’t make an overt strike against the Gatekeeper, would they?

  Ilsa hesitated for a second. Then she nodded to the other necromancers and walked past the fallen cloaked figures to the gate. “All right.”

  What’s she playing at? Maybe she couldn’t resist getting a look at what the mages were doing in there. Lord Sutherland hadn’t called any meetings with non-mages since he’d pulled Edinburgh’s entire mage council out of the Council of Twelve, and he pretended the other supernaturals didn’t exist most of the time. That he’d been secretly conspiring with necromancer apprentices proved he hadn’t forgotten us, but he must know Ilsa would never side with him over the necromancers.

  Ilsa walked up to the stone steps leading into the mages’ guild. I hope she knows what she’s doing. Then again, there was no refusing an invitation from the Mage Lord himself. Ilsa must be nervous, but she walked confidently into the wide hall, her head high. Above, the chandelier gleamed, filling every inch of the hall with light.

  “In here, Ilsa.” Lord Sutherland’s voice drifted from a half-open oak door, and my skin crawled.

  Inside the otherwise empty council room, Lord Sutherland sat at the end of a long table, for all the world like he was waiting for the council who had yet to show up. His hands gleamed with spells, designed to make him look young, fresh, and harmless. My hands curled into fists, and while I could literally put a hand through his skull as a ghost, I didn’t want to distract Ilsa. If he laid a hand on her, though…

  “Ah, Ilsa.” He rose to his feet, a false smile on his face. “You must forgive me for giving no warning before inviting you to speak to me. When I heard you were in the area, I couldn’t resist. It sounds like your boss keeps you under her thumb.”

  “I wouldn’t say that,” Ilsa said, her voice calm. “I’m employed by the necromancer guild and the Council of Twelve, and you opted out of working with both.”

  “Is that what your supervisor told you?” he said. “I can assure you that we made every effort to attempt to cooperate with Lady Montgomery. Most unfortunately, she was not receptive to the idea.”

  “I know,” said Ilsa. “I was there, remember? She’s opposed to the idea of listing all supernaturals on a registry, for one.”

  “Oh, that’s old news,” he said, waving a hand. “I wish to extend a formal offer of cooperation directly to the Gatekeeper, then. That’s you.”

  He packed an alarming amount of condesc
ension into those two words, like he disbelieved that Ilsa had won the position fairly. Her shoulders stiffened and her expression shuttered, her hands clenching behind her back.

  “I’m afraid I don’t understand what you’re offering,” Ilsa said. “If you’re asking me to approve of your registry plan, I can’t do that.”

  “That isn’t what I’m asking, Ilsa,” he said, his tone deceptively soft. You utter slimeball.

  “Then what?” Ilsa asked.

  “I find myself in need of the cooperation of someone with necromantic capabilities,” he said. “I heard you’re one of the best the guild has to offer, and a comparative newcomer. You might have heard the mage guild employs other supernaturals on occasion, if we feel they would benefit.”

  “If you’re asking me to work for you, I already have a job.”

  “Rest assured, this won’t take away from your guild responsibilities,” he said.

  Damn, Ilsa. If I was in her position, I might have said yes, if I didn’t hate the bastard too much to hide it. But if she turned him down, who knew what he’d do to her?

  His smile was as cheap as the spells he wore, while his spirit was the typical faint grey of a human without the spirit sight. Except for the glowing blue light in his pocket, which brightened by the second.

  Oh, hell.

  I’d seen that glow before… but I’d thought all the spirit devices had been destroyed.

  He’s carrying a live bomb. Ilsa must be able to see it if she turned on her spirit sight, but even the Gatekeeper had no defence against a device that could both absorb and unleash spiritual energy. Human souls included. Those traitorous necromancers had already stolen from the guild—but it wasn’t the mirror they held.

  The light grew brighter as I drew closer, wishing I could reach through the spirit realm and take the device right back. My magic sparked to life, and Lord Sutherland’s gaze snapped up. “Who is in here? Who did you bring?”

  Ilsa shook her head. “I don’t know what you—”

  “Ilsa, get out of there!” I shouted, as the doors burst open and three mages ran in.