A Witch Among Warlocks: The Complete Series Box Set

by Lidiya Foxglove

  “They all have his face,” Alec said.

  “Welcome to my forest,” the phantoms said, almost—but not quite—in unison. “There are only eleven of you. And infinite numbers of me. I thought there would be more of you. I thought there would be thirteen, thirteen…”

  Firian growled in a low, worried way. “It would be really stupid,” he said, “if we failed because we needed thirteen. Stuart is the thirteenth child. There were supposed to be thirteen of us. The magical realms love numbers.”

  “I’m not going to accept losing over that,” Alec said. But his hot demon ass was shivering. Since he was in his full on Sinistral demon form, even his tail was shivering.

  It would be really stupid, I thought, if we died of hypothermia and not even fighting demons, but that started to feel possible on top of everything else. I was shivering so much I thought I might break my teeth. I tried to cast a warming spell but my brain seemed stuck in a reeling loop of fear as the phantoms came closer and closer.

  “Come on, everyone,” Ignatius said. “Holy ward!”

  We all chanted together, generating a new barrier of warm light, and this one seemed a little stronger than the one Ignatius made by himself. Life slowly bled back into my frigid—

  Aaand nevermind. The phantoms came toward the ward. The moment their bodies struck the shimmering bubble, they melted it instantly. And they kept coming. I scrambled back. The vampires moved to the forefront to protect us. Well, maybe not to protect us, really, because I don’t think they cared, but let a girl dream. I wanted someone to save me, but maybe there was no one. The vampires couldn’t touch the phantoms with their blades or their strength.

  “Speak to me, demon,” Rayner said.

  All the phantoms opened their creaking mouths and spoke, still not quite in synch, in the brittle voice of the Withered Lord. Your compel magic means nothing to me. You cannot touch me.

  “Speak to me! Where is Lisbeth?” Rayner swept his blade toward the phantoms, meeting no resistance, but he swiped it again anyway. “What have you done with her?”

  I am shielding her from you.

  “Why?”

  Because you vampires and your arrogance and your insistent affection for one stupid girl is annoying. Because I can. Because I feed off of your misery, and there is nothing more delicious than toying with all of your affections…

  “At least come out here and fight me with your corporeal form!” Rayner growled.

  The Withered Lord’s phantoms lifted their hands and shot cold fire at Rayner, his clothes burning away and then the flesh of his chest singeing as he screamed.

  Silvus threw up shielding spells while Montague moved away from me and toward them to help. I saw Harris’ brow furrow.

  Rayner collapsed to his knees, hissing with pain. “Don’t touch me.”

  Harris moved forward a step, but then hesitated.

  “What is it?” Firian asked.

  “He hasn’t shown his true form yet. Would it work?”

  I knew he meant the grail water. “But he can hurt us with these ghost creatures, so why would he ever show his true form?” I whispered.

  “This really is a boss battle,” Firian said. “Charlotte, you’ve been training for this all your life.”

  Meanwhile, the Withered Lord wasted no time swooping around Ignatius with the cold phantom fingers of his three illusionary forms. You know, Ignatius, the more time I spent with you, the more I like you. You smell like ambition. Like Emily.

  “I am not joining you,” Ignatius said. “I would rather die.”

  I could arrange that.

  “Wait—no,” I said.

  “Ignatius? Charlotte?”

  I heard my mom’s voice emerging from behind the phantoms, and I felt faintly dizzy as I saw their ghostly forms part. She walked toward me. She looked…normal. Human. She was gorgeous, too. I could see why Dad idolized her. I never looked that put together and sophisticated, but…I saw the family resemblance. It was so weird, seeing so much of me in another woman. She had on a black trench and, no kidding, skintight gold pants. Mom showed up to the battle in skintight gold pants. Fucking rock star. Her hair was past her shoulders, thick auburn, with some light curl mine didn’t have.

  “Mom?” I felt choked. “Mom…”

  She held out her hands. “I want you here, little goblin. You and Firian.”

  She seemed more mellow than when I summoned her. Kind of sad. I didn’t know what to say at first. I wanted to hug her and talk to her like she was normal, but she was working for a demon who took pleasure in killing people.

  “I can’t be here, Mom,” I said. “I already told you that.”

  “But now you have friends here,” she said. “I would teach you everything I know. No one would ever hurt you or control you again.”

  “Do you realize this demon killed your cousin?”

  “Y—yes.” Some tears formed in her eyes although her face was resolute.

  “Emily,” the Withered Lord said, speaking from just one phantom now, instead of the multi-voice-stereo-effect thing he had going on before. He was more gentle with her, but it was just as terrifying, especially since the voice was coming from this dead-eyed ghost. “You know the bargain.”

  “Charlotte will join us,” she said sharply. “She will. Just let me talk to her.” She looked at me again, a spark in her eyes that said, Bad things will happen.

  I took a step back. “No. I won’t join you.”

  She swallowed. “Charlotte, I’ll protect you here. Do you think the council is so innocent?”

  “No.”

  “The faeries of Wyrd? The ones who won’t even see you? Evil is everywhere.”

  “Love is everywhere too!” I said. “No matter what world you live in, you can choose that instead, but you didn’t do that! You chose a demon who kills people and I keep waiting for some…catch, some explanation, and all I can see is that you chose this. Mom, please…come home.”

  “Your family will no longer accept you, Emily,” the Withered Lord said. “Did your parents ever come to rescue you? Would Evan understand you at all? Your marriage is ruined. Your family doesn’t want anything to do with you. I am all you have.”

  “That is not true,” I said. “My grandfather Rhys came to me in a vision and told me that he wanted to save you. That they had been trying all this time.”

  “Well, they never came for me,” she said. “And they didn’t bother to see you in the US. They’re still in bloody Australia, aren’t they?”

  I frowned. “Maybe there is a reason. Maybe he is keeping them away!”

  “They are afraid I might kill them,” the Withered Lord said. “Because I might. However, the fact is, you are far too broken to ever belong with your family again.”

  “He’s right,” she said. “I can’t go home. But you could come to me and be with me. If you don’t—”

  I felt like I was standing on a wobbly rock at the edge of a gorge. One wrong move… “I am willing to meet the Withered Lord,” I said.

  “You have,” the demon replied, a hint of annoyance in his fragile, ragged voice.

  “I mean, you know, formally,” I said. “These are just your illusions.”

  “Ah, you want to shake hands, little witchling? You want to see me in the flesh? Follow me and I’ll show you the power I can offer you.”

  I glanced at my guys. “I need to meet with him.”

  They exchanged very tense expressions, and Montague put an arm around me and kissed my head, followed by Alec, giving Harris cover to slip the grail water in my pocket. The Withered Lord’s phantoms turned to a path that appeared between the snowy trees. Mom gave me a pained look as she started to follow him. I glanced at Firian and he came with me. The phantoms whipped back, their ghostly wisps trailing around them like rags, and created a gate of ice that separated me from my guys.

  Your familiar may come. No one else.

  Mom was next to me. “It’s okay,” she whispered. “It’s okay.”

 
“Is it, though?” I whispered back. “Mom, are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

  I don’t know why I was asking. Her body language answered for me. She was scared. She didn’t know what she was doing at all.

  I started to get even more nervous. When would I reach max nervousness? Was it actually infinite?

  The Withered Lord’s path dead-ended at a rocky cave. On the exterior the huge doorway, which must have been nine feet wide and tall, was shaped from massive grey rocks. Inside, ice sparkled from the interior walls, lit by a few blue flickering witch lights. A few sad looking animals were around, sleeping or staring at us. I thought a high demon might have a castle, but no, this wasn’t even as nice as Stuart’s cave. Cave living was trendy in the magical world, I guess. The phantoms gathered around the wide entrance, watching us as we entered.

  I brushed my fingers along Firian’s head, thankful that at least he was with me, because the sense of dread and despair that swept over me as we neared the cave was almost overwhelming. Firian was shivering too.

  “Oh…” I was feeling near tears without being sure of why.

  You feel a dying world, the Withered Lord said. The magical world. I have taken in these creatures of Sinistral, children without homes, desperate souls too weak to survive without my protection, and I give them a home.

  “They still look desperate,” I said.

  “These do not work hard enough, so they will always be desperate!” The voice came from inside the rooms of the cavern. My mother bowed as I heard soft footsteps approach from the depths of the cave. Everything went silent.

  The Withered Lord had arrived. He was bony and white, with admittedly terrific cheekbones, black claws and horns, and glowing blue eyes that I couldn’t meet without immediately shying away. The sight of him had definitely ruined some fan art for me, and I felt like something terrible would happen if our eyes met.

  “Here I am, Charlotte,” he said. “A demon in the flesh. I know you find me terrifying now. Repulsive, perhaps. But I can give you so much. I can give you the ability to forge your own destiny. You will have all the power you need. You can take your lovers as you choose, live as you choose, protect the people you love.”

  “As long as we obey you,” I said.

  “You must give me strength from the Fixed Plane,” he said. “That is necessary. It’s the bargain I offer, as I once offered your grandfathers a home when they were orphaned, and all I asked for them to do is play the music they enjoyed and send the power of the crowds back home to their master.”

  A part of my brain was like, I cannot even believe you’re standing here in a cave in a parallel world talking to an early rejected design for the Night King, or maybe cocaine-era David Bowie playing an ice demon. I tried to keep holding onto that thought because otherwise I really would pee myself, because there was this permeating sense of despair and futility that surrounded the demon, and my mom was right there next to me, close enough to hug, but a million miles away.

  I was so scared of losing her, and so scared of getting her back. She was broken. If I brought her home, would…it all be okay?

  You know it wouldn’t all be okay.

  But I had to try anyway.

  When you love someone, you don’t really care.

  I decided that I had one moment, and everything I tried before already failed, so I was just going to be honest.

  “Mom, I can’t follow a demon,” I said. “I won’t hurt people to gain power. I came here to bring you home, and—and I’m scared. You haven’t been in the real world for twenty years and I don’t know how you’ll fit in. I don’t know if you and Dad will still know how to love each other. I don’t know what you’ll do at our house. I’m sure you’ll have PTSD. Maybe you’re not even a good person anymore. I don’t actually know. Dad realizes all this too. We talked about it. We know it’s going to be hard. But he still loves you, and so do I, and no matter how hard it is…we want you back with us.”

  I took out the painting of her Alec gave me and offered it to her. And then I tugged off my ring that was actually her ring and held that out too. “We never stop thinking about you. Never.”

  Her eyes widened slightly. “Charlotte, I—I can’t believe he’d say that if he really knew me as I am now.”

  “He said it. You can believe him or not. And it’s how I feel too. There is nothing harder than growing up without you. What do you even have to lose?”

  The Withered Lord looked at my mother and beckoned his claws. “Come to me, Emily.”

  Mom hesitated, and I could tell he wasn’t used to this, so that even the slightest hesitation made him suddenly straighten his long, bony limbs and dig his claws into her. “You know what you have to do,” he whispered.

  Mom’s face.

  I would never forget the way she looked when she suddenly cried, “Charlotte, run!” and I saw the demon’s teeth bare, the look of fury in his eyes when he realized she would betray him for me. He’s going to kill her, I thought.

  I didn’t run. I tore the bottle of grail water from my pocket and tossed it at him. Instantly, it started eating at his flesh, leaving black burns behind, and he let out a roar of pain.

  “Mom!” I grabbed her hand and we both started running.

  “What was that?” she gasped.

  “Holy grail water!” We ran down the passage out of the cave, but we were immediately confronted by a Hitchcockian level of ravens swarming at us, aiming for our eyes. I screamed, quickly casting fire spells and swinging my wand around like a club. The various beasts who had been bound to the Withered Lord were edging away.

  “Hey spectators, I just killed your captor, you want to give me a hand?” I cried.

  Is that what you think just happened? You think some holy water can kill me? The voice seemed to penetrate my brain.

  “Bloody hell!” Mom screamed. “He’s still alive! Just run, run!”

  I whirled. “Where’s Firian! Oh—there you are. Oh—!”

  My hesitation almost cost me; I heard a skittering behind me although what came out was not the if-Nosferatu-was-almost-good-looking white bony demon, but a huge white spider, and it still had these black horns.

  I wish I had not even seen that in my whole life. I let out a scream that was like ten cats getting their tails stepped on. The spider was limping and kind of charred looking on its entire right side, which was the only thing that kept it from advancing toward us with completely terrifying speed.

  The guys had already been battling more creatures while we were gone; I could see that my group was exhausted and bloodied. Rayner had been injured before I left; Thom was also on the ground collapsed. And then I saw Montague, collapsed in the snow while Alec and Harris were doing their best to fend off a snarling bear-like beast with glowing red eyes.

  “Is he okay? Is anyone helping him?”

  I ran for Montague. Ignatius was leaning over him, trying to cast a healing spell. He frowned at me. “No one here has studied advanced healing!”

  Right. That was women’s magic.

  “I have,” Mom said.

  Ignatius and Mom exchanged the briefest complicated look, two old friends meeting, and then he saw the Withered Lord just behind me and immediately shoved me down to Montague and took up a fighting stance. “Just stay with him.”

  Mom put a hand on Montague’s forehead. “He’s a vampire…he needs blood.”

  The Withered Lord spider was gathering speed as it locked its multiple eyes on Harris. The demon let out a crackling roar of agony as it cried, “You, boy! The holy water came from you!”

  He launched at Harris, lifted him up, and flew into the air with a crazy spider jump that carried him well out of our reach before landing. Harris barely kept hold of his wand, and I heard him shout the French words of a spell, trying to land a final blow on the Withered Lord, but he was cut off by the demon goring him with his horns.

  Blood.

  It happened so fast.

  Harris’ body, flung upward, pinned on th
e horns. They drove through him, coming out of his back. He screamed and I knew he…

  After that one scream, Harris went limp.

  He wouldn’t live through that. No. I didn’t know what an advanced healer could do, but I knew they could not heal that.

  I stood in shock. Paralyzed. The demons could have killed me in that moment, if I didn’t have my friends to protect me. I shook my head, quickly forcing myself back into action, casting a paralysis spell at a boar that advanced on Montague.

  The Withered Lord shook off Harris’ body so he was thrown into a snowdrift like trash to the curb, and then the demon turned back to us.

  Montague clutched my arm and pulled me close to him. “Charlotte,” he said, his eyes wide. “Trust me. Let me taste you.”

  Chapter Forty

  Charlotte

  I only paused a moment.

  “I do trust you,” I said.

  “Good.”

  “I’ve…I’ve wanted this.”

  “I know.”

  He pulled me to him and bit my neck. The pain was a sweet sting as I felt my life force flooding into him and his arms around me, his vitality returning. It felt even better than I expected as his venom was drug-like. Not that I’d done drugs, but if drugs were like this, no wonder they were a problem. There was a brief wave of lust and euphoria, although it didn’t last long because too many terrible things were happening around me.

  Still, we both felt better for it.

  The other vampires perked up. After a moment, Montague lifted his head, wiping my blood off his mouth, and held me. “No,” he said. “You’ll get your Lisbeth. She’s all mine.”

  “Oh…” I was just a little dizzy. Montague handed me to Professor McGuinness for support, because Alec and Ignatius and my mom were already hurrying to fight the Withered Lord and check on Harris. Check on? More like…confirm the worst.