Witch's Secret

by Emma L. Adams

  A thin-lipped smile crossed her face. “I was, once, dear, but this young thing is much more adaptable, wouldn’t you say?”

  Her voice sounded much older than it should have. I tapped on my spirit sight, and my blood chilled. The soul inside her body didn’t match her outside appearance. She wasn’t a necromancer, but a witch, wearing the body of a guild member.

  A shade, like me.

  Isabel tensed at my side. “What are you?”

  “I think you know, little witch,” she said. “I have a long and happy life ahead of me, and I won’t let either of you take that from me.”

  “You’re wearing someone else’s skin.” That was how the mages had infiltrated the guild—by snatching necromancers off the streets and replacing their souls with their witch allies to avoid detection. “Did you offer to help the mages gain power in exchange for a new life in the body of an innocent person?”

  “It seemed a fair trade,” said the witch. “My master gave me new life, and I intend to use it well.”

  Bile rose in my throat. “He used a blood sacrifice. Now he has you doing the same in turn.”

  Not only that—he’d bound her to her new body using the exact same ritual my coven had used to save my life. Why?

  The truth slammed into me. Since he’d found out Evelyn and I had been bound using a ritual, he must have wanted a piece of it himself. For someone who seemed determined to extend his youth, binding his soul to a younger person’s body was just the sort of thing he’d do.

  “You’re nothing but a lab rat,” Isabel said. “And I don’t like people who use magic for evil ends.”

  A flash of light enveloped the blond woman at a snap of Isabel’s fingers. As she stumbled, I conjured a whip of energy to my hands and lashed her legs together. She squirmed, fighting, and I hesitated. If I killed her, I’d never be able to prove the wrong soul had been trapped in her body. Handing her over to the authorities and wringing a confession from her would have to do.

  The witch raised a hand. “May the power of the grave take you.”

  Necromantic power slammed into me, knocking me out of my body. Alarmed, I caught my balance, flipping over in mid-air. The witch’s true form glowed through the fog of Death, her mouth twisted in a snarl.

  Shit. She knows how to use her shade powers. Where in hell had she learned that? Surely not from the Mage Lord.

  “Begone, shade,” she hissed. “I banish you.”

  To my horror, I felt myself slipping away. My body remained inert as my spirit floated backwards, towards the gates of Death.

  I won’t die. I can’t die.

  I held onto my Hemlock magic, let it flow through every inch of me. Calling me back to life. As long as it runs in my veins, I can’t die.

  The gates of Death faded as Keir caught me by the arm, steadying me. “Jas, what in hell just happened?”

  “She tried to banish me. Like a ghost.” And she’d almost succeeded. I scanned the spirit realm, but the blond witch’s real form had vanished. I swore loudly at the haze of ghosts surrounding me. Damn her.

  Focusing on the waking world, I blinked back into my body to find Isabel shaking my shoulder.

  “She ran off. I didn’t want to leave you.” Her brown eyes were wide, concerned. “Are you okay?”

  I jerked my head in a nod. “Which way?”

  “That way.” She pointed, and we both broke into a swift walk. My legs weren’t happy about that, but I pushed ahead through sheer stubbornness. “I reckon she’s off to fetch backup. Are you okay to fight?”

  “Yes,” I said, cursing my trembling limbs. “I have to warn the necromancers in case she’s heading back there.” I gave the spirit realm a quick scan, searching for anyone familiar. “Keir, is Ilsa at the guild? She’s the easiest to reach.”

  “No…” He fell silent. Then: “She’s patrolling. Also, that witch is heading her way.”

  “What?” Damn her. She’s after my friends now.

  “I’m on it,” Keir’s voice said in my ear. “I’ll send a vessel after her and give her a nice surprise.”

  “Thanks.” I quickened my pace, my breath coming out in gasps.

  “Hey,” Isabel said, at my shoulder. “You’re forgetting I can only hear half of what you say to people in the spirit realm. Are you going after Ilsa?”

  “Keir told me the witch has her sights set on Ilsa next,” I said. “She’s a shade. I’m not sure she can even be banished beyond Death’s gates. She’s like…”

  “Like you?”

  Like I was. Before I burned out my shade powers. “Yeah. And Evelyn. That means she can use both necromancy and witchcraft.”

  Speaking of Evelyn, it would have been nice if she’d helped me out back there. That was too close. I had to be more careful next time.

  Ilsa’s presence pinged on my radar, drawing me closer. Lloyd, Mackie and Morgan were with her. They’d taken the idea of sticking together to heart, but none of them would see another necromancer as a threat. They wouldn’t know she was a witch until she attacked.

  A single street lamp marked the end of the road. “Hang on. I know this place.”

  This street was where the deceased vampire king had once lived. Most of the houses were empty now, thanks to the pack of furies which had escaped through the spirit line and swarmed through the tunnels connecting the basements of every house on the street. A semi-transparent silver line threaded down the middle of the row of houses on one side of the street, humming with energy.

  Oh, crap. Not only was the entire street sitting on a spirit line, it was also the spirit line the Soul Collector had tried to break. Oh, and the one which Evelyn had awakened and let a dragon through.

  I stopped walking, detecting a spark of life beneath the house where the vampire king had once lived. “She’s in there. Why the hell did Ilsa go into the basement?”

  “This place feels… wrong,” Isabel said. Even she could pick up on the humming energy of the spirit line.

  I stepped towards the house. “That’d be because the entire street is on a spirit line. Ilsa and the others are in the vampire king’s old tunnels.”

  “Get fucked, shade.” Keir’s harsh voice beside me made me jump, and I switched on my spirit sight in time to see him crash headlong into the witch, nearly knocking her out of the necromancer’s body. And that’s my cue to jump in.

  Leaping down the stone steps, I kicked the basement door inwards and sprinted into the dark tunnel, Isabel on my heels. The cloaked witch-shade wheeled around to face me, looking decidedly paler. Nice going, Keir.

  “You again?” said the witch-shade. “Don’t you know when to quit?”

  “No,” I said. “The thing about being a shade is that we’re pretty tough to kill. But that doesn’t mean I can’t bring on the pain.”

  Hemlock magic lashed from my hands, hurling her sideways into the wide cave at the mouth of the tunnel. Behind her, Ilsa crouched down, gripping the book that contained her Gatekeeper’s magic. The body of a fury lay crumpled between her and Lloyd, while Morgan and Mackie dodged the swiping claws of another beast. Damn. Not more of them.

  As the fury lunged at Mackie, I steered my magic in that direction, latching onto the beast’s ankle. Isabel threw a spell into the fury’s face, sending him crashing sideways into the witch-shade. Both collapsed into a heap.

  “Nice going.” I let the whip dissipate into flickering ashes, reforming in my hand.

  The fury recovered first, its claws digging into the witch-shade’s back. She let out a hoarse cry of rage, struggling like a fish caught in a net.

  “That’s what happens when you make deals with monsters,” Keir said, grabbing the witch-shade’s hand through the spirit realm. Her eyes widened as his vampire’s touch drained her energy away. “The monsters sometimes bite back.”

  Morgan threw a knife at the fury from behind, which wedged itself into the beast’s spine. As it turned on him, Isabel threw an explosive spell into the fury’s face. With a shriek, the witch-shade pulled
herself free, staggering in my direction.

  “You won’t survive this,” she croaked. Her hands glowed green-blue, and an explosion sent both Isabel and me flying off our feet. Isabel’s arms lit up with a silver glow and she caught her balance, her mouth set in a grim line.

  I wasn’t so lucky. My back slammed into the wall, the wind exiting my lungs in a rush. As she closed in, the banishing words on her tongue, I lunged out of my body and punched her.

  The witch-shade staggered back, visibly surprised that I’d managed to do some damage to her from within the spirit realm.

  “Guess what?” I said, my hands glowing blue. “You can’t master necromancy by stealing the magic from its original owner.”

  I lunged forward, grabbing her—not her body, but her spirit. Snarling, she fought back, but I tightened my grip on her in the spirit realm. Drained from Keir’s vampire attack, she struggled, her spirit slipping loose from her stolen body.

  I bared my teeth. “I bet whoever performed that ritual on you didn’t warn you that being bound to another person’s body doesn’t mean you can’t be ripped out of it again.”

  “I could say the same of you,” she growled. “I heard what you did. That magic you stole isn’t yours, and now the realm of Death will take you back.”

  Her form became indistinct, turning dark. An empty hole shaped like a person. A shade, with pitch-dark eyes. Dragging me into oblivion along with her.

  Mackie’s scream hit both of us, sending me reeling back into my body. The others had successfully killed the fury, leaving only the witch-shade. Turning on Mackie, she attempted to grab the psychic, but Mackie danced out of the way with another precise scream. She really had got much better at control. At first, when she’d used the screaming power of hers, it tended to hit everyone in her path and shook up the whole spirit line. This time, the witch-shade took the brunt of the attack, flying backwards out of her body.

  “I will not die!” she screamed.

  “I beg to differ.” Ilsa kicked the dead form of the fury aside. “Whatever you are, I’ll send you to a place you can’t return from.”

  “Not before she stands trial.” Red light suffused my hands, mingling with the trapping spell on my wrist. “Isabel?”

  She gave me a nod. “Ready.”

  The two of us directed our magic at the witch-shade’s body, the combined force of our trapping spell pinning her to the wall. Her spirit turned on the spot, but Keir got there first, pinning her ghostly hands behind her back.

  “Well, well,” she said. “A shade-touched vampire. It’s an honour to meet you.”

  “The feeling’s not mutual, believe me.” Gripping her arms, Keir began to drain her.

  “Someone set up a circle!” I yelled. “Please tell me one of you has candles.”

  “Yeah, got it,” said Morgan, and there came the sound of swearing and dropping candles. “Lloyd, help me out here.”

  “I’m on it!” Lloyd moved to help, followed by Mackie and Ilsa.

  I joined Keir in restraining the witch-shade’s struggling ghost, yanking her towards the crooked circle of candles. The realm of Death tugged at me, the spirit line threatening to drag me in like the current of a river, but Keir kept me grounded, draining more of her spirit with each step.

  When the lights of twelve candles surrounded her, she finally fell still. Her eyes narrowed in malevolence.

  Isabel stood over her body, restrained in the trapping spell. “There’s no life left in her, right?”

  I tapped the spirit realm. “None.”

  That meant the girl was dead. Murdered.

  Silence filled the cave, thick as paste. The witch-shade hovered on the spot, trapped in the circle of lights. Dead furies lay sprawled around the cave where the vampires had once held their council.

  I licked my lips, my throat dry. “Someone call Lady Montgomery. She can handle the interrogation.”

  11

  Lloyd went outside to call the boss. Mackie followed, saying the tunnels gave her the creeps. That left Isabel, Ilsa, Morgan and me to clean up the mess their fight had left behind.

  “Why did you come here?” I threw a dissolving spell at the nearest fury’s corpse. “You know, an empty house with a bunch of creepy tunnels underneath—where the vampires’ king died in a few months ago—and right on top of a spirit line. It couldn’t be a more obvious trap if it had a sign in the window telling you to surrender your souls.”

  “The vampire king died here?” Ilsa wiped her bloody knife on her necromancer coat. The pocket was still glowing, indicating the presence of her talisman. “I didn’t know it happened on a spirit line.”

  “It was when all those furies got loose in the city back in December,” I said. “Right, Keir?”

  “It’s one of my fondest memories.” Keir hovered at the back of the cave, peering into the tunnel entrance.

  “Wait, is the vampire here?” Morgan turned to the spot where Keir’s voice came from.

  “Surprise.” Keir appeared, flickering around the edges. “I can’t kill furies in this form, but I can make sure there aren’t any other shades around.”

  “I bloody hope not.” I moved to the circle, where the witch-shade lay sprawled in mid-air. “The enemy killed a guild member to do this.”

  “The mages did,” said Ilsa, looking vaguely nauseated. “I’m—I’m getting out.”

  I didn’t blame her, but if I let that witch-shade out of my sight, she might break the circle and return to her stolen body. Isabel stood guard over the trapping spell as though she’d had the same thought, so I walked into the tunnel to destroy the furies’ other corpses.

  “Evil fuckers.” Morgan slammed the heel of his shoe into the cave wall.

  “I thought your sister was the voice of reason,” I said. “Why’d she let you guys throw yourselves into harm’s way?”

  “Mackie and I heard the furies first,” he said. “We didn’t know there wasn’t anyone living in the houses. Didn’t know that necromancer girl wasn’t an ally either.”

  “Nobody would have, not if they didn’t know her personally,” I said. “Anyone else at the guild might be a target. Our esteemed Mage Lord strikes again. He’s taking witches under his wing and offering them a new life in exchange for their knowledge.”

  And sacrifice, I didn’t doubt. My skin crawled.

  “All that because the boss won’t support him,” Morgan said sourly. “She’d rather sell her own soul, and he knows it.”

  “She’s ten times the person he is,” I said, surprised to find Morgan and I actually agreed on something. “And to think necromancers are supposed to be the evil ones.”

  He grunted. “I’ve met vampires living on the streets with more sense than he has. Sooner or later he’s going to push too far.”

  On the streets… “Uh, Morgan, you met other vampires before you came to Edinburgh, right?”

  He tensed. “Yes…”

  “There was a vampire working with those necromancers last night who Keir didn’t recognise,” I said. “Know where he might have come from?”

  Morgan shook his head. “Not if he was into sacrificial magic. That’s not my thing.” He cast a self-conscious look over his shoulder and carried on dragging the fury’s mangled head out of the tunnel. It looked like someone—probably Mackie—had hacked it to pieces with a blunt knife.

  I threw a charm over the fury’s head and it dissolved into ashes. “Hey, I’m the last person who’d judge anyone for turning to dark magic to survive.” The proof of that was branded into my arm, in the blood magic I’d accepted, used to my advantage.

  “It’s not you I’m worried about,” he said, almost too quietly for me to hear.

  “What, your sister?” I dragged the rest of the fury’s mangled body out of the tunnel and fumbled for another spell. “I don’t have siblings, so I can’t really comment.”

  “You’re his friend.”

  I stopped short. “You mean, Lloyd?”

  I’d known about Lloyd’s crush
on him for a while, but I hadn’t known it was in any way reciprocated. Morgan wasn’t the most observant person and generally seemed more interested in the spirit world than the real one.

  “Lloyd isn’t that complicated,” I said. “He likes zombie movies and comic books. He has a younger sister at uni. You have two younger sisters, don’t you? Same thing.”

  “Yeah, right,” he said. “His sister’s human. One of my sisters is the ambassador between the mortal realm and the Summer Court, the other guards the gates of Death, and my only shining achievement is being the second-best psychic at the guild. And there are two of us.”

  “Do you really think Lloyd gives a shit?” I said. “If anything, he’s glad not to have half the problems I do. Being the supposed saviour of the universe is overrated.”

  “Huh.” He looked me over. “Yeah, you look like shit, and you’re fading. Where’s that second soul of yours?”

  “Probably napping.” Considering I’d nearly been dragged over the veil and into Death, you’d have thought she’d want to check up on me. But when I tapped into the spirit realm, all I could sense were Isabel, the unconscious witch-shade… and no Evelyn.

  I looked down and found I’d somehow drifted out of my body, almost through the ceiling. What in hell? Gritting my teeth, I slammed back into my body with such force that I tripped over.

  Morgan took a step back. “Whoa. Don’t strangle me again.”

  “I’m not.”

  The realm of Death will take you back, the witch-shade had said. Was she right? Maybe the price to pay for leaving the world behind too many times was that eventually, Death and I would become one.

  But didn’t that mean the same would happen to Evelyn?

  “I am so fucked.” I rested my head against the wall. “Be glad you only have to worry about Lloyd.”

  “What about me?” Lloyd said from behind us. “The boss is on her way, but we have to get the witch’s body aboveground first.”

  “He thought you might have run into another fury,” I said vaguely, not wanting to worry him by mentioning my latest out-of-body experience.