“How can you possibly manage all of that?” Montague asked.
“Piers was sent here to restore Merlin College to its old, council-run, Ethereal, patriarchal mode,” Harris said. “But he’s failing. He couldn’t purify Charlotte. Alec’s dad is surely devastated. Alec was his only son and he’s never really done anything ‘Sinistral’ before. So, where does he go from here? If he can’t purify you successfully, he’s just going to get rid of you. I’m sure Montague is next. At this point, you’re alone, and that is when your great-aunt is going to wrangle a marriage between me and you.” Harris looked at me. “Having lost everyone you cared about, my family will offer you wealth, your power back, and no doubt, a chance to redeem the people you lost. A bargain. My guess is that they will offer Alec and Monty a path back to redemption if they bring the head of the Withered Lord to the council.”
“What? Marriage? How do you know that?”
“Because I heard Piers and Catherine conniving a little while back about arranging a marriage between us,” Harris said. “I told you I had a plan to save Firian. The Hapsburg artifacts have great healing power. As I was puzzling over all the possibilities last night, it all started clicking. What does the council want? They want the Withered Lord dead and the Caruthers family redeemed, but they don’t want a bargain with the faeries or Wyrd to gain any power. If they claim the spoils, that takes care of that. And what do our families want, especially mine? They want me to follow in Piers’ footsteps. Catherine wants her family’s dignity restored. If you marry me, the Caruthers are back in the good graces of the council. Daisy, I’m guessing, might be offered up to Alec instead of Piers. The Lyrmans are a good family and if Alec can be credited as the hero that kills the Withered Lord, his redemption arc is complete and little diviner heirs are guaranteed. It would be a heroic act worthy of being readmitted to Etherium.”
“Ohhh…,” Daisy said. “I mean—horrible plan. Poor Charlotte and Alec.” She pouted just a tad.
“That is a lot of conjecture,” Montague said.
“It sort of adds up,” I said. “Catherine did try to give me the whole ‘we’re family’ spiel.”
“I guess I have wondered why they haven’t took us aside and told us we can’t summon the Withered Lord,” Montague said. “So in this scenario, I ride off with the vampires and never see the rest of you again…”
“I don’t think Piers wants to give me up,” Daisy said. “But thank you for trying to give me a happy ending.”
Harris nodded faintly. “Well, Daisy, I think Piers is already starting to realize that you are a little much.”
“It’s my life goal to be as extra as possible,” Daisy said.
“And I suppose I just fade out of memory,” Firian said.
“We’re not letting that scenario happen,” Harris said, giving me a private glance that reminded me of the bet we’d made.
“All right,” Montague said. “Tell us the plan. I can see you’re bursting with it.”
“I never ‘burst’ with anything,” Harris said.
“What did I tell you? Nicolescus can’t bring it,” Daisy said, offering me a high-five. “Up top.”
“And down low.”
“I am not gracing that with a comment,” Harris said. “We need to take out the Withered Lord and give his head to the faeries as soon as possible.”
My high-fiving session came to an abrupt end. “Like…how soon?”
“I tell you, they don’t think we’re really going to do it. I assure you the Withered Lord isn’t expecting it either. We need to do it. We have a faery lord, two professors, a clan of vampires, and whatever Hapsburg treasure I can nab… We’ve got some fire power.”
“Okay,” Montague said. “You’re right. Another year of training isn’t going to matter to centuries-old vampires or faery lords. I’m in.”
“We’re—sure—we can do this?”
“Charlotte, as I have said all along, I am happy for you to not be involved,” Harris said. “In fact, I would much prefer it if you sat this out.”
“Reverse psychology,” I said. “Okay, fine. I can do it.”
“It’s not reverse psychology,” Harris said. “I don’t want you girls to die.”
“You’re still doing it,” I said. “Always with the ‘girls’. Do you want Montague to die?”
Montague rapped a teaspoon on the table. “Order,” he said. “We have to organize better than this if we’re going to take down a demon. I will contact Rayner and tell him this is the plan.”
“During Christmas break, I will try to get my hands on some artifacts,” Harris said.
“I can divine Stu’s location,” Daisy said.
“And I can find the other professors’ familiars and get in touch with them,” Firian said.
“What do I do?” I asked.
“You can tell Alec to find Ignatius and his familiar in Sinistral and stick together. They need to stay safe somewhere,” Harris said. “So get to dreaming.”
“Okay,” I said. “Mission accepted.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Alec
The good thing about Sinistral is that intention was everything. Once Charlotte told me in my latest delicious dream that Ignatius was here, I rushed down the forest path to one point.
The crows were gathering toward the same point.
“Ignatius!” I cried.
“Gyah!” I heard around the bend.
Ignatius was struggling to beat crows off with a stick while his familiar, in human form, drew a ring of fire to protect them. Then she collapsed, sweating. The crows fought past his stick, pecking at his face.
I took flight and rushed them, growling. The crows backed down.
“Alec?” Ignatius looked up at me, shoving his messy hair out of his eyes. “Is that you? You’ve gone full demon,” he said, as I offered him a hand.
“It was either that or lose my demon side,” I said.
I realized he was wearing a dress. It didn’t look right on him. The dress made him seem more feminine, like for the first time I saw how he could have been a woman, but it didn’t look right either. He quickly snapped up an illusion spell, replacing the dress with a red velvet smoking jacket.
“I’m sorry, Alec,” he said.
“I mean…we’re both in the same boat, I guess.”
“Can you un-demon yourself?” Ignatius asked, as he patted his familiar’s clothes as if to check that she was all right. “You could go to the Fixed Plane.”
“I haven’t been able to,” I said.
“What are you afraid of?”
“Nothing. I just—”
“You’re afraid of something, or you’d be able to do it,” he said, with the sharpness of someone who has taught too many kids the same lesson.
“I don’t want to have sex with someone who isn’t Charlotte,” I said. “The demons have been coming onto me, but I’m not into demons like I’m into…humans.”
Ignatius sighed. “So you’re afraid of cheating on Charlotte.”
“I don’t want to do that,” I said. “But I do need strength.”
“I don’t want to go to the Fixed Plane,” his familiar said, looking at the woods nervously. “But I can’t stay here alone…and would you be any safer there either? Those warlocks might come after you. This incubus looks big and strong…maybe we should…stick with him, huh?”
“Kim…be careful, please, you know what he is.”
“I’m sorry.” Her eyes widened. “He’s just…um…releasing a scent.”
“Yes, Alec is our resident sex demon. Please try not to release a scent,” Ignatius told me.
“I don’t think I can control that,” I said. “But I won’t touch your familiar.”
“Where is your familiar?” Then he saw my face. “Oh…”
“Oh?” Kim said.
“Sinistral warlocks still have familiars. Demons don’t,” Ignatius said.
“Oh…” She petted my arm. Ignatius quickly pulled her away when she started to
clutch me.
“We need to find a safe place,” he said. “There are good demons. One of them might give us refuge.”
“How do we find anything here?” I asked. “Are there safe places?”
“Try to imagine safety,” Kim said. “Solid walls to protect us from the crows and a warm hearth. People who will offer us food and a place to rest without asking for much in return, since…we don’t have much to offer.”
“A friendly holding,” Ignatius said. “And a good bowl of stew that isn’t too strange. And some wine, or ale, or whatever they drink in Sinistral…”
“Sounds good to me,” I said.
The path ahead seemed to change a little. I would have thought it was my imagination, only I was starting to get used to how Sinistral worked, after surviving here for a little while. It was true, the magical world tended to give you what you wanted, if you stayed calm and asked for it. When I was hungry, I found berries and nuts. There were plenty of birds and rabbits to eat, too, but it wasn’t like I knew how to kill animals and prepare them for eating, even if I had the nerve to do it. I would kill for some meat stew by now.
“You have seen Charlotte, haven’t you?” Ignatius asked, as he found a stick to stroll with.
“In her dreams…yes.”
“I should never have put her through all this…”
“Nah. Charlotte is tough. As long as she doesn’t get killed.”
“Well, that’s what I’m afraid of. My friends and I were both prepared to die to open up Wyrd, and I…I’ve seen Charlotte as someone who might be put in danger for the good of the realm. I didn’t know her. It was easy to detach myself and I got increasingly excited when she showed a strong potential…but she didn’t sign up for this.”
“At least you admit it,” I said. “Nothing better happen to her when we fight the Withered Lord.”
“I swear to you, Alec, I will take a fatal blow for any one of you kids. You are, I hope, the ones who will carry on what we started, and now it’s down to…just Stuart and me…” He stopped and looked at me, his eyes not quite focusing on mine at first, like he was seeing something in the past. “I hope you know what it will mean if we could get a foothold in Wyrd.”
I wasn’t sure I truly did, but one look at his face and I know he really was prepared to die for it. “Take care of yourself, too,” I said. “We’re going to do this thing.”
“Yes,” Kim said. “Please take care of yourself. I’ve been hiding out way too long.”
After hours of walking, occasionally battling crows and one ornery lizard-beast about the size of a goat, we reached a small castle. There were some baby dragons playing outside in the grass.
“Aww!” Kim said.
Three of the dragons started growling like nervous cats, and the other one took flight back to the castle. “Papa!” it cried. “Demons!”
It took about two seconds from there for a much bigger dragon to swoop out of the castle.
“So much for that welcoming hearth,” Ignatius said, as two more dragons joined the first one and the baby dragons retreated into the castle.
“I’ve never seen dragons before,” I said, and I was trying hard not to freak out. Considering I had turned into some sort of creature myself, maybe I should have taken this in stride, but the dragons were big and they had teeth as long as my arms.
Ignatius lifted his hands. “We mean no harm, good sirs. The path led us to you.”
“An incubus,” one of the dragons said, leaning in to sniff me and then giving a hot, disparaging snort. A little smoke came out of his nostrils. “Stay away from our mate and her kinfolk.”
“Do you see the tattoos on his body?” Ignatius said. “Look—they’re control spells. This incubus has a mate of his own already.”
“That’s right. I have no interest in yours.”
“I must demand your sworn oath or I will not permit you to enter.”
“I swear.”
“He means a spell,” Ignatius said.
“Yes. If your cock should so much as twitch in the presence of our mate, we will turn you to ash.”
I bristled. “I can’t promise that! I’m still an incubus. I think I need to find somewhere else to go.”
One of the other dragons laughed. “Guys, do we really want an incubus to not be attracted to our girl? That would be an insult to Lady Dakota.”
“Hmm.”
“Perhaps.”
“But you must swear not to touch her nor anyone in our household in a purposeful way, nor to enter her dreams.”
“I swear. If I go anywhere in my dreams, it’s back to my own girl.”
The dragon cast a spell that made his eyes glow, and a heaviness settled through my body. “Come in, but…I will be watching you closely, incubus.”
“I think our wife can take care of herself,” the other dragon said.
As they turned to the castle, they shifted into human forms, which…I was trying to be cool about this, but I had to admit that just because I was a demon, didn’t mean I was used to seeing shapeshifting.
The castle seemed like a busy, pleasant place on the inside. It was very Medieval-looking, but the furniture was abundant and comfortable, and some women were hanging out while kids played. I think the kids had been the dragons a minute ago.
“I am Lord Hiron. These are my bond-brothers, Xado and Rafe, and this is our wife and children,” one of the dragons said. As men, Hiron and Xado were more jacked than I was, even in my demon form, while Rafe was obviously the artsy one, because he was wearing normal clothes and looked like a guy who might live in Los Angeles and drive an old fin car; his style almost had a rockabilly vibe. You really could find anything in the magical world.
“As I said, stay away from our mate,” Xado said.
“I mean…,” their ‘mate’ said. This had to be Lady Dakota, a cute blonde—no, damnit, don’t even go there—old enough to be my mom. Better. One of the easiest antidotes to my incubus mojo was to remind myself that my human side was really not into women old enough to be my mom. Ignore him, Lady Dakota mouthed, with a little dismissive wave.
“We will be happy to offer you supper, as you look like you have been on a long journey,” Xado said.
“Yes,” Ignatius said. “Long enough, certainly.”
“What is your final destination?” Hiron asked. “Have you lost your way?”
“I’m an Ethereal warlock,” Ignatius said. “I was banished…and Alec, here, was the same, but they attempted to purify him.”
“Purify?” Lady Dakota asked. “What does that mean?”
“They have some way of trying to purify demons,” I said. “We watched them try it with a Sinistral spirit and it seemed to vanquish her entirely. When they tried it with me, I turned into this and ended up here. I haven’t seen my friends or girlfriend since.”
“You should be able to take a human form and get to the Fixed Plane,” Hiron said. “We are all able to do so.”
“He needs to rest up, that’s all,” Ignatius said.
“You can stay here for a few weeks,” Lady Dakota said. “This is the party pad.”
Xado was staring us down. “You are our mate, and I desire your happiness above all else,” he said, “but they are strangers.”
The dragons and their lady started arguing in lowered tones off in the corner while Dakota’s friends shrugged at us a little, calming down some bursts of child screaming, and one of them offered to pour us some ale. I caught some occasional words from Dakota like “never get to hang out with humans!” and “my mom would…murmur…good example for the kids…” and “test them?”
Xado didn’t want an incubus in the house. He kept glaring at me. I got the feeling that if my cock did twitch, he would tear it off.
“My first duty is to my kingdom and family!” Hiron hissed.
“These pure Sinistrals get very heavy handed,” Ignatius said. “They don’t use contractions when they speak either.”
“You don’t seem worried they might k
ick us out.”
“The path led us here,” Kim said. “So it must be right. The woman is a human and she seems kind.”
Something rumbled outside. The kids shut up abruptly, running to their parents.
“Haxon, you must be brave,” Xado said gently to one wide-eyed little girl. “You’re a dragon. It’s just thunder.”
Ignatius ran to the tall but narrow window. The gloomy sky crackled with eerie lightning that streaked across the sky. The wind had picked up so much that it rattled the panes. The temperature in the room plummeted. It become so cold it was painful. Now I wished I had more clothes, but clearly it didn’t matter. The cold seemed to come from inside me. The kids were shivering and crying.
“I’m coming for you…” A dry, rattling voice seemed to swirl around us from outside, but it was also in my head.
The kids screamed, covering their ears. “Mama…!”
“Shh, Mara…it’s all—right!” Lady Dakota shrieked as the window glass shattered. Ignatius barely dove out of the way and he still ended up with cuts.
“It cannot enter this castle,” Hiron said. “The protections run deep.”
One of Dakota’s lady friends, whom I realized were actually triplets with matching sets of fanged grins, helped Ignatius up along with Kim. “Are you okay? You’re bleeding.”
Rafe had run to the window.
“Get back from there,” Xado said.
Through the jagged shards of what was left of the windows, a bone-white face appeared in the window against the backdrop of lightning and swirling wind. Horns sprouted from his head, but he was so still that I wondered if what I was seeing was real. Then I saw his eyes track us and settled on Ignatius.
“A warning, Ignatius…you know what I am capable of… Emily is mine. Ina is mad. And Samuel is dead. What shall I do to you, now that you are in my realm?”
Ignatius buckled over into the glass, his eyes flashing blue light.
The Withered Lord is attacking him somehow, I realized. Was I looking at his face right now? I quickly grabbed some paper and a quill that were sitting on a desk in the corner and started to sketch the face, and the demon hissed and vanished as he realized I was trying to capture his likeness.
A Witch Among Warlocks: The Complete Series Box Set Page 70