Ignite: A New Adult Urban Fantasy (Spelldrift: Coven of Fire Book 2)

by Sierra Cross

  I have a family, I thought, and pictured Liv at our last magic lesson, her fearless grin as she leaned right into Asher’s firebolt. Remembered Asher carrying me up the stairs when I’d been hit with the demon sear. Remembered Matt’s arm around me, lighting up every pleasure nerve, as we knocked back a beer at Sanctum after our shifts. Remembered that coven meeting when I’d sucked up my fear and told them everything. My darkest secrets.

  And they stayed.

  Experimentally I tried to lift my right hand off the steering wheel. It moved. Excited, I called my magic…and to my amazement the fingertips of my right hand sparked with (mostly) golden light. I aimed a blast at Kavon’s tether—if I could just make a tear in it. A pathetic blob of weak magic sailed toward the Omni, hitting the green chain. The small burst had at least nicked one of the chain’s strands.

  “That’s it,” Kavon encouraged. “Hit me again.”

  From beneath my ribs, the peach pit throbbed. I cried out internally as Tenebris wrested control from me a second time. My light died on my fingertips. My hand was jerked down, painfully clamped to the steering wheel once more.

  So even thoughts of my coven weren’t enough.

  An entertaining display, my queen. I shall enjoy breaking your spirit, slowly.

  “Damn it, I thought you’d be stronger than this.” Kavon’s square jaw had tensed and a vein throbbed on the side of his forehead. He was trying to make it look like anger, but I saw through to the fear. We were almost at Castor’s Park. That was the end of the line for him. “That day I tracked you to the Fidei offices, I was sure you were going to rat my ass out, but you didn’t.”

  Kavon was following me that day? Of course; he had to get my likeness down. A photograph wouldn’t be enough to impersonate me well enough to frame me.

  “I thought damn, there’s something you don’t see every day,” he went on. “A light witch who’s not a sheep. Got a mind of her own. After that I almost felt bad about jacking your likeness when we…” He stopped abruptly, his gaze focusing on the road as if he couldn’t face me. Or maybe it was himself he couldn’t face. “When we did that job up in Edmonds.”

  That job? A fresh spark of outrage broke through my numbness. Kavon might be a great foster dad, but he’d still killed Marley—and her acolytes. Literally the least he could do is admit to himself what he’d done. What he was. “You’re a murdering bastard,” I spat, and was no less shocked than Kavon when the words actually came out. Apparently thoughts of love weren’t the only thing that helped—anger did too.

  Tenebris’s press of control felt like icy fingers on my cheek.

  Careful, my queen. He was doing my will.

  “You’re right, witch.” Kavon seemed encouraged, though the reach of my defiance was so far limited to that single phrase. “I’ve done terrible things. I’m a bad person. Going to hell, probably within the hour. But if I can get the demon out of my head, then damn it so can you. Or else…well, shit…what kind of person does that make you?”

  A scarred person, I thought. Not physical scars on my body like Matt had, but marked from battle nonetheless. The loss of my parents, my aunt, Callie. And that fateful night when we’d sent Tenebris back to the demon realm, when I took in some of his magic thanks to the dominion gene…that too had left a scar. It’s what let him get into my head. Touching the amulet had sealed the deal, but Tenebris had been getting his hooks into me for weeks. Those dreams of Eric...

  Eric is in the past, my queen. Take a good look at your future.

  He forced my head to turn to the right, where I met Kavon’s eyes. His posture was proud, but his gaze was world-weary, as if he’d been born an adult man with terrible responsibilities. My eyes traveled down from his square jaw, set with attitude, to his thick neck and well-defined chest. I knew without touching him that his pecs would be rock solid.

  “Watch the road!” Kavon shouted.

  Tenebris swerved me back into my own lane. A horn blared at us as it sailed past.

  You like my new skinsuit, I can tell. Our bodies will sing together.

  Tenebris’s deep laughter rolled out of my throat, like dark music from outside myself.

  “We’re so screwed,” Kavon muttered, sinking into his seat as deeply as the magical chains would allow. “Let’s just get to the fucking park.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Still wearing his magical chain and an air of deep resignation, Kavon followed me through the outer ward as I sliced it open and kept moving toward the cave. Leaving a gaping hole in the protections my coven had worked so hard to keep up. We’d hiked in silence, other than the phone call Tenebris had me make to his second, the plain-faced Caedis whose name turned out to be Paul. So Tenebris’s fanclub would be following close behind.

  Kavon’s hulking frame filled the stone-walled cave room. “Ah, hell.” His fingers were wrapped around the amulet’s leather cord, but he made no move to give it to me. Whatever was weighing on his mind was giving him pause.

  “Traitorous animal, your fate is sealed.” I felt a sneer form on my face as Tenebris’s emotions played out through me. “That body is mine.” I extended my hand, making the gimme motion with my fingers. “The amulet. Now.”

  Kavon exhaled a heavy breath and nodded. His lips turned up but there was no joy in his smile. Holding the amulet in his fist he thrust it at me.

  Tenebris wasted no time in making me hang it around my neck. I felt the searing pain of its intense dark magic, but the amulet didn’t let me in to its power. I was only the hijacked delivery service. I turned toward the scrolling metal of the Demongate.

  What the hell was I about to do? My mother had died guarding this barrier. Before her, a long proud line of female ancestors had devoted their lives to protecting it. How could I waltz across it and betray all the witches of my bloodline? My muscles twitched as I tried to override the Caedis’s commands, but Tenebris’s ironclad hold crushed my would-be revolt.

  My feet moved me forward.

  This was happening.

  You are mine.

  “Don’t do this, witch.” Kavon balked at his chain, shuffling toward me. My hand snaked out, a gold-green tendril of magic sailing at his legs, securing them in place. Putting an end to his last ditch effort to stop what we both knew was coming. I wished I could heed his words, but my feet kept moving forward.

  No pain penetrated me as the final ward let me pass through the demongate.

  You were meant to cross this threshold and rescue me, lover.

  Lover? The awful thought made my eyes widen and my breath stall in the rank, hot air. Matt’s beautiful face formed in my mind’s eye, calling to me. Matt was who I wanted. And with every step I was leaving him further behind. I needed to stop, but the effort to turn around was herculean and painful and futile. My body kept moving me toward Tenebris. My muscles shook from the battle that was going on inside me. Tears spilled down my cheeks because I knew I couldn’t win against this force. The night we destroyed the tree and I sucked Tenebris’ green life-force into me—performing magic without understanding the consequences—I sealed my fate too. It was only my coven’s magic around me, bolstering me, that kept it at bay as long as it did.

  Good intentions and regret never saved anyone’s soul.

  My feet were moving me along the jagged path. My resistance wasn’t slowing my body down. I made my way down a narrow set of obsidian steps, edges nasty-sharp. The air was so thick with sulfur it was barely breathable. On this lower level, the rock walls were striated with black obsidian and with every step closer to Tenebris the walls become blacker. Cracks in the rock walls glowed red. Molten lava flowed around the shiny, flash-cured obsidian. I was not underground. I was in another realm.

  Above me, the sky was dark and close and it too glowed red. Angry clouds swirled on the horizon. The wind blew hot, carrying grit and stench.

  With the amulet glowing heavy around my neck, I passed through the rock walls and the path opened. I stood at the edge of a hellish fiefdom.


  Twisted black cottages and dark fields with unholy crops ringed a steep hill with an ebony castle on top of it. The building was uneven and organic, like a sand castle made of dripped black sand, around it a bubbling tarry moat. Monstrous birds of prey soared in the bloody sky, letting loose piercing shrieks as I entered the village full of Neqs of all shapes and sizes. The scaly dead-fish ones I saw on the other side of the demongate came from the bigger houses. They must be of a higher rank here. Gnarled, many-mouthed, quill-covered Neqs looked up from the fields. They looked like a genetic experiment on a hedgehog gone wrong. Slender, grey, slimy ones. Red, pustule-covered oozing ones. Pus-bleeding, mucus-colored ones—came out to witness my entrance.

  There were so many creatures I couldn’t take it all in. The scent of rot and sulfur and infection caused bile to rise in my throat. At the sensory assault, I felt my witch’s magic roiling deep inside me, far away from my control, like a pebble sinking fast in the ocean. I was powerless to grasp it. My shame and pain caused the dam that had been holding my tears back to break. My anguish rose inside of me and from somewhere in the crowd tendrils of greedy lust licked at my emotions. One or more of these Neq sects must be sympaths, leaching the pain of my struggle for their personal enjoyment.

  Thousands of offending creatures followed my movement, but none had any intention of stopping me. Just the opposite, they started to genuflect as I passed like I was some great hero to them.

  My servants have been expecting you a long time.

  Slimy hands reached out to touch me. The crowd closed in on me, but didn’t slow my progress. Claustrophobia overwhelmed me, stealing my breath. I weaved my way through and climbed the arching staircase up to the palace. The great iron doors swung open, and Tenebris stalked out to greet me. In this realm, his red skin shimmered and glowed. Yellow cat-like eyes drank me in. His devil-like horns pierced the sky as he rocked his head back, laughing victoriously. Meanwhile, I was trapped inside my body in a bullet-proof glass box, pounding with all my might, trying to stop this.

  “My queen,” Tenebris greeted me as I mounted the last step. He took my hand and smelled the air around me. His eyes rolled back slightly in his head as if he was overwhelmed with pleasure. “You are ripe with wanting me.”

  I was in one of those horror movies where you’re a patient on the operating table, fully conscious, but catatonic. The scalpel was slicing me again and again and I couldn’t do anything about it.

  He turned to the thousands gathered at the base of the steps, looking up at us, like an unholy pope addressing his devotees. “As I predicted, my queen has come to me of her own free will!”

  Cheers rang out so loudly I wanted to cover my ears, but my hands wouldn’t obey me. Surely they knew that I was only here by force? Were they too stupid to see through his lies—or did they just not want to?

  “And now I go before you to make the way ready. The time will come soon for you all to cross over. And together we will conquer a new realm!” The response was deafening, guttural, and on the verge of manic chaos. Tenebris waited for the crowd to quiet, then bent his enormous ten-foot frame, and knelt before me. As I stretched the leather cord over his horns and around his head, my body leaned forward and my lips found his. He directed my arms to wrap around his enormous neck and his pointed tongue slithered into my mouth. Bile stormed in my stomach. The sharp edges of his teeth pressed on my lips, not quite breaking the skin. My tongue swirled over his. I was screaming in my head the whole time. Tenebris broke the kiss, finally.

  We made our way back through the ogling, needy, chanting crowd. By the time we were at the path that led to the Demongate, I could barely hear the chants, but I knew it was distance, not dwindling fervor, that had lessened their volume.

  In some weird audio version of funhouse mirrors, the chant started coming from all sides, bouncing off the dense rock. The sound was clearly coming from voices far in front of us…voices in the Earthly Realm. We approached the Demongate and my heart broke for the thousandth time today. My coven’s cave was overflowing with Tenebris supporters, all chanting in unison, bathed in green magic that had filled the room.

  “Our time is at hand!” Tenebris shouted to his supporters. “The crumbling institutions of human and magicborn will be replaced by an army of strength. Your loyalty will be rewarded!” He showered his followers with praise and they responded, jubilant and raucous.

  Kavon was in a prime spot near the gate, surrounded by the loyalists I saw at the last demon party. Paul the Caedis held onto his magical tether.

  Leonard the mage was here too, shifting through the crowd, working his way closer to the gate.

  Tenebris’s will bid my body to move toward his. As if I was the one who couldn’t contain her lust, he made my hand grab his arm, yanking him hard toward me. He made a show of bending toward me willingly. Our lips met in a hard kiss. I fought against it, and this time I felt a crack in the power the invader had over me. Not enough to stop the kiss but enough to break it on my own. What was different? How come I could suddenly resist?

  As I pulled my head back away from Tenebris, I saw Matt’s chalk white face in the doorway of the cave. Though a sea of demons stood between me and my coven, relief flooded me. How did they find me? Of course. They would know to come to Caster’s Park. It was the only place Tenebris could cross over. Even at this distance, I felt Matt’s soul aching viscerally. I shut that emotion out. I’d deal with it later.

  Focus on whatever matters most to you. That’s what Kavon said. My coven, my family, was here. I could draw on their power.

  Tenebris droned on about his plans for the future, and I became an energy sponge, reaching out with all my ability to draw in my coven’s magic. Liv’s witch magic was alive in the air, pure and clean—and ready for me to share. Asher’s golden warlock magic was overflowing, easy to access. Gold power peeked out from Matt’s blue magic, a beautiful mix that sought me out.

  I received all they had to give and pulled hungrily for more, but this time I was careful to not take too much like I had during the Fidei raid. Weighing their need for power against my own, I filled my waning coffers with their energy. With the boost they’d given me, added to our coven bond, I would break this hold. I’d stop Tenebris and fix this shit storm I alone had unleashed.

  Not I alone. There was a long list of people at fault. Wes’s amoral dealings. Leonard’s greed. Bonaventura’s furtiveness. Larch’s cold suspicion. Kavon at least had good reasons. Tenebris…was pure evil.

  The crowd’s chants rose up in the room, loud and disorienting. I kept my body perfectly still, waiting for enough golden power to make my move. Ready and sure, I called my magic. It sang sailing through my blood. Dizzy with power I pulled it to my fingertips, ready to throw my arm. And…

  Nothing happened. Couldn’t move my arm. Couldn’t even wiggle my fucking finger! The witch’s magic swimming in me was locked behind this barrier of the green Caedis magic that had taken up residence inside me. It may as well be the Great Wall of China that was separating me from my power. I’d need to blast my way through what was holding me back.

  Having finished his speech, Tenebris inhaled as if he was gathering strength. His talon-tipped fingers grasped the amulet that was around his neck. A great white glow seeped between his fingers. Even standing next to him, I could feel the extra buzz of power the necklace was providing him. It was super-charging his already formidable powers. The amulet’s light began to pulse, and soon his red skin glowed from within. When it seemed his body could hold no more power, he swaggered forward, into the boundary zone between realms. His huge body flickered and blinked. Starting from his feet, his solid form morphed into a dark red smoke, swirling in an Aladdin’s genie-type arc as he began to enter the Earthly Realm.

  At the moment his body changed states, the amulet flew free from the neck that was no longer there. The necklace sailed through the Demongate, landing on the stone floor. It was practically at my feet, and I couldn’t move a muscle to reach for it. The Neqs aroun
d me glanced greedily at the glowing pendant, but none reached for it. Out of respect? Or fear?

  The smoke that was Tenebris gracefully reached up and began a gradual sift through the Demongate. Even with the amulet augmenting the demon’s strength, his essence’s journey across realms was painfully slow.

  My body was forced to follow him. I pushed open the gate, stepped through, and crossed fully into the Earthly Realm myself. Immediately, razorblades of dark magic pricked my senses. My mother’s cave was packed with Tenebris’s followers. It was pretty much a repeat of the demon party at Millennium. Neqs. Dark witches. The odd shifter. Hooded humans—oh, and there was Leonard, rebelling with his hood pushed off his face. On this side of the gate, I also felt my coven’s magic even stronger. But it was still not enough to make my body obey.

  A gunshot rang out. With his lightning-fast reflexes, Matt moved his daggers to deflect the first of many bullets that bore down on him. The Fidei were just outside the door of the jam-packed room—and holy shit, they were shooting at everyone. I could see Larch and Daria leading the squad. How the hell did they know we were here? Clearly my coven hadn’t called them. They seemed to be indiscriminately firing into the crowd.

  Chaos erupted. Neqs evaded and threw green fireballs in return. My coven retreated into Tenebris’s throng of followers to escape the hail of Fidei bullets. By now half of the amorphous red smoke was on this side of the gate. Liv threw golden fireballs at the red smoke. Asher fired deflecting blasts at the Fidei, protecting our coven. Matt threw blades at the Neqs trying to clear a path to me.