Kolgaar ambled toward Sturtagaard and said something. They had harsh words before Kolgaar slinked back to Annie. The future vampire scowled at her, just like he would in the future.
Sturtagaard watched his brother return to Annie. “I told him I was mistaken. There was someone in the future who greatly resembled him. He does not seem convinced.”
“Would you be?” Annie asked.
“No. I guess I wouldn’t,” he said.
Annie observed him carefully. He nervously glanced at his brother and then back to her.
“Are you okay?” Annie asked.
“You have been here less than a day, and you and your people are nothing but trouble.”
“Good. Take us to the coven and you’ll be rid of us,” Annie said.
“You will stay in Jorvik tonight, and I will take you to them in the morning,” he said and walked away.
“Why?” she asked but he was already immersed in the crowd.
Chapter 22
As it neared nightfall, the narrow streets emptied as the villagers retired for the night and stayed inside, fearful of a demon attack.
Kolgaar led them to the edge of town twenty feet from the forest, to an empty cottage. Through the darkness, orange eyes looked out at them, blocked by a protection spell. Annie first saw the spell before entering the small cottage. It was woven into the trees, and fluttered as the wind blew through them.
The golden mist shimmered in the moonlight. Though it started at the ground and worked its way to the canopy, there were thinning and missing spots in the protection spell. She hesitated as she entered, concerned that the protection spell was tearing and would soon be unable to hold back an attack.
The cottage consisted of two separate sides. The first was a small home with a bed, table, a storage chest, shelves on the far wall, and a fire pit at the center of the room with a pot hanging from a tripod-type hanging system. At the far wall, an open doorway led to an empty room that was still filled with hay and tools, with a loft above. Annie glanced inside, sniffed a strong stench of animal. The family must have stored their livestock here as well.
“I’ll take you to the coven in the morning,” Kolgaar said and left them alone without inquiring if they needed anything.
“Thank you,” Annie mumbled as she watched him leave. “Stuffy in here,” she added as she opened the shutters that faced the trees.
Gibbs began loading firewood into the pit and fumbled with the fire-lighting implements, grumbling as he attempted to light the fire sans magic.
Annie chuckled as she looked out the window. Thick gray clouds rolled across Jorvik, bringing chilly air and a fine mist. While she was cold and wet from the hike over, she left the window open and breathed in fresh air.
“What are you looking at?” Brite asked as he joined her at the window. She leaned against the window jamb, completely mesmerized by the protection spell and the holes scattered through it.
“The protection spell is ripping in areas,” Annie said. She glanced east and west. “I’ll have to watch it as we leave.”
“What protection spell?” Brite asked.
Annie glanced at him. “You can’t see it? It’s woven along the forest perimeter.”
Brite scanned the trees and shook his head. “I don’t see it. Gibbs, take a look.”
Gibbs used his magic to create a spark and lit one of the twigs. He placed it into the pile of wood before joining them.
“Annie sees a protection spell. Do you?”
Gibbs squinted as if that would put a magical spell into sight. He shook his head. “Nothing. What do you see?”
Annie explained the shimmering rose gold magic that was intertwined throughout the branches. “Seriously? You don’t see that?” she asked.
Both men shook their heads.
“Should we worry?” Brite asked.
“Maybe you’ve tapped into powers that aren’t yours,” Gibbs suggested.
Annie shrugged and returned to staring out the window. She shuddered as another pair of orange eyes glared back at her.
“Do you see the eyes at least?” Annie asked as she pointed.
Both glanced out. “Yeah. I see those,” Brite said.
“Demon?” Gibbs asked.
“That would be my guess.” Just above the eyes, she could make out a large rip in the spell.
Brite peered through the trees. “It’s really dark out there. I see another set of eyes.”
“They are nocturnal,” Annie said.
“I’ll collect the magic along the tree line when we leave tomorrow. I’m guessing you’re right about it being a protection spell. However, why only you can see it is a mystery,” Brite said.
Gibbs fumbled with the table, pushing it against the door. He flipped the chairs and lay them on the top, making room for them around the fire. “We should eat something and get some rest. Come morning, we’ll need to be ready.” He dug through his bag pulling out sandwiches and fruit. “Eat,” he said again.
The fire popped and crackled, quickly warming the small cottage. They covered the floor with a sleeping bag and sat to enjoy their cold sandwiches. Annie played with hers before taking a bite.
“You can have the bed,” Gibbs said as he cleared away their garbage, leaving it in his field pack.
“I can sleep on the floor,” Annie said, though she was too tired to argue the point. He helped her up, she crawled on to the bed and let him place her sleeping bag across her shivering body.
Gibbs and Brite unrolled their sleeping bags on the floor. “I’ve never been this tired before,” Annie said as her eyes flickered closed.
“Not even during your Wizard Guard test?” Brite asked.
“Not even that.” She pulled the blanket to her chin, but the bed was nowhere close to comfortable. “What I wouldn’t give for a futon.”
“I’d take a cot from Tartarus,” Brite said.
“No point complaining,” Gibbs said as he punched his pillow to find his comfortable position.
“Just lightening it up a bit.” Annie yawned as they each settled in, the sounds of the demons growing louder as they would be awake for most of the night.
*
Annie startled awake. Her heart pounded so quickly, she felt lightheaded and nauseated. Outside, the rain fell in a steady stream and the chilly air had snuck into the cottage, making Annie shiver under her sleeping bag.
She lay awake on the straw-filled bed, listening to the demons’ growl and their footsteps stomp across the earth as they paced against the protection spell that, for the time being, held them back.
Gibbs snored softly beside the window, Brite kicked out and made contact with the bed. Annie sighed and pulled the blankets around her to warm herself. But the dampness of England seeped to her bones and she couldn’t warm up. Annie stared at the fire, which by now was nothing more than smoky embers. She held her palm toward the firebox and cast a gentle spell to ignite the wood inside.
The magic didn’t take. Annie sighed and closed her eyes, stretching her hand out, reaching for the fire pit as she imagined the magical energy around her. She summoned the energy until her hand tingled. She felt the surrounding magical energy as it joined with her own. She let another spell fly from her fingers; it hit the lone log still in the pit and set it on fire. Annie fed the fire additional magic and watched the log become consumed by the flames. Confidently, she directed another log into the fire and watched it light.
At home in her time with full magic, the fire would have been roaring and burning through a large pile of wood. Here, her magic trickled slowly as she placed another log in the fire. Finally feeling warmth, she rolled to her back, exhausted from the magical output, and listened to the wood burn and pop until she finally fell back asleep.
*
Annie didn’t wake again until the light outside was turning gray. Gibbs and Brite were still asleep but moving slightly inside their sleeping bags.
The fire was low. Annie climbed out of her warm sleeping bag and added a
nother log, stoking it with magic and watching the flames grow. Still chilled, she closed up the shutters and sat back down on the bed.
Knowing she should only use magic when necessary, she dug through her bag, found her portable Book of Shadows, and searched for the memory modification spell and the one she had used to turn all shapeshifters back to their human selves.
How can we use this to kill all of the demons at once?
Rain began to fall gently against the thatched roof. She would have enjoyed the sound had she been home. Instead, she glanced at the ceiling and wondered if the roof was waterproof.
Too late if it isn’t.
Wind whipped against the cottage, which creaked and groaned against the storm. She returned to her Book of Shadows, reviewing both events as she worked through how to disseminate fire to an unknown number of unpredictable creatures in a large area.
“I can’t corral them into one place.” Annie murmured. “How do I use their blood to link them?”
“What girl?” Gibbs grumbled in a sleep haze.
“Sorry to wake you. Just working out a problem. Go back to sleep,” she said. She found an empty page and found a pencil.
“What’s the”—Brite yawned— “problem?”
“Sorry. Just figuring out how to use their blood to link them and kill them all at once,” she said.
“And?” Gibbs unwrapped himself from the sleeping bag and joined her on the bed. His long, thin hair fell to his shoulders; he tied it with a rubber band.
“Remember the setup we used when the Black Market fell? The one to turn the shapeshifters back to their human selves?”
“Yeah. We corralled them into the pen, surrounded them with crystals, and chanted the spell over the main rock that sent it to all the crystals, enveloping them in magic,” Gibbs said.
“We can’t do that with the demons because I don’t know where all the demons are. I suppose I could summon them, but then we don’t know how many there are either. You mentioned using a spell to do whatever we have to do. That got me thinking about linking the demons somehow. I can only think to link them with their blood.”
Gibbs glanced at her. “We know their blood is… different,” he said.
“How different?” Brite asked.
“Part human, part demon. I’m assuming it’s similar enough because they’re pretty much contained to this island. If they’re reproducing, it’s mostly from the same genetic pool,” she said.
“Okay. So we would need blood from one of them,” Gibbs said.
“Cast a fire spell on that blood? We’d need to use a spell to link the blood,” Brite said.
“In theory, if we can link the blood, we should be able to toss a fire on that linked blood and it should, in theory, burn all of the demons,” Annie said.
“Have you slept?” Brite asked.
“Not much. I was so worried about how we were going to get here, I never thought about how we were actually going to do this. And now with the limited magic, I’m hoping we can actually pull it off,” Annie admitted. She summoned her crystal and waited several seconds before it landed in her palm. She touched her finger across the grooves and cuts of the crystal.
“The Vikings or the coven might have it on weapons or clothing. Otherwise, we’ll have to find one in the forest and bleed it.” Brite grimaced.
“I think it might work,” Gibbs said.
Annie sighed. “And if it doesn’t work?”
“One problem at a time,” Gibbs said.
Light crept into the cottage through a slit in the shutter slats. When Brite opened them, cool, damp air and rain fell through the window.
“Heavy rain again,” Brite said.
Jorvik was already awake. Soft voices wafted through the air, doors squeaked, and smoke rolled across town. “It’s about six o’clock, you think?” Annie asked.
“About that. Eat something. He’s bound to come around soon and send us off to the coven.” Gibbs said. He pulled the morning’s provisions out. Annie summoned an apple; it came more quickly this time and smacked into her palm.
“Keep using magic. It gets stronger,” she told Brite and Gibbs. She took a bite of her apple and peered out the window. The forest was silent. The orange demon eyes were gone, and the grunts and growls had stopped. Lightning flashed and thunder boomed. Annie sighed.
I’m safe in the thunder.
The unmistakable scent of men’s cologne wafted to her. She sniffed again. It was so familiar, so safe. She knew Gibbs didn’t wear cologne and she didn’t think Brite did either. The memory of who belonged to that scent came to her. She kept the unused portion of her father’s cologne in her medicine cabinet, and she knew it was that scent—plus something else. A mixture of the cologne and the smell of him, almost like he was here with her now.
Dad!
“Do you smell that?” Annie asked excitedly.
Both men sniffed. “Just smoke and cooked meat. Why?” Brite asked.
“I smell cologne. It’s so familiar.” She looked at Gibbs who watched her with worry.
“It smells like the scent Dad wore.” She answered Gibb’s question before he could ask it.
He stood beside her and took another sniff before looking at her. “I smell it too. Right here next to you,” he said.
“Sturtagaard told me I’d be safe in the thunder.”
“Maybe he wasn’t blowing smoke up your ass,” Gibbs grumbled. He glanced outside and closed the shutters as a shadow of a man came toward the small cottage. “I think it’s time to go.”
Chapter 23
Kolgaar shifted weight between his feet as they finished gathering their things from the small cottage.
“Good morning,” Annie said as she passed him. He barely acknowledged her with a quick nod before he stepped away. She bit her tongue to keep from laughing, fully understanding that, after he deposited them, he was done.
Annie pulled her hood over her head as thunder roared and gray clouds rolled across the sky. The scent of the next storm mixed with her father’s cologne filled her nostrils as they walked east to the coven.
Brite walked the edge of the trees, examining the magic. His rock glowed a bright, hot white light. The magic use unnerved the villagers as they watched them march away. Annie watched them watch her. Some seemed frightened, others didn’t seem to care or were too busy. She sighed and turned back as they trekked toward the narrow trail that linked Jorvik to the coven village.
Annie’s thoughts were scattered. While she was here to kill demons and the plan was coming into fruition, she couldn’t help be curious about the relationship between the coven and Vikings. Why didn’t a coven member come for her? Why were there Viking artifacts in Wizard Hall? Something seemed… She thought of the dark wood walls, the throne, the sconces that hung on the support beams in the longhouse.
The sconces in the library!
Annie knew the design had looked familiar. She wondered if they had been brought over with the longhouse doors, electrified, and hung in the library.
Why did the Vikings let the coven take their things with them to the new world?
Or did the Vikings join the coven?
But Jorvik had been a Viking stronghold for decades and would remain the stronghold for another two centuries until William the Conqueror raided England in 1066.
They passed through the protection spell onto the narrow path through the forest. Annie reached out and touched the veil that protected the village. It shimmered and swayed gently at her touch. Kolgaar swung an ax, removing low hanging branches as they made their way through the trees.
“I don’t think this trail is used much,” Brite whispered.
“You’re probably right. I get the feeling neither group is fond of the other, but something about it is odd,” Annie said. Thunder roared above and the rain pelted the canopy.
“Still smell your dad?” Gibbs jested.
Annie chuckled. “It’s not strong, but I smell his cologne,” she admitted.
The path
narrowed, cinching them together until they walked single file. At the end of the path, Kolgaar slid between two trees, entering the coven village.
“We’re here.” Kolgaar stepped aside to let them exit the dryness of the trees into the clearing, where the storm whipped against them.
Annie recognized the village from her dream. It was much smaller than Jorvik; only twenty cottages had been built along the perimeter of the clearing. At the far end of the village was a longhouse. While it was larger than the cottages, it was much smaller than the one in Jorvik. Annie assumed it wasn’t the center of coven life, as the chimneys on each end of the building weren’t billowing out smoke. She thought maybe the villagers were tucked away in their own cottages, dry and warm and out of the consecutive storms.
A large fire blazed in a pit at the center of the village, fighting mightily against the raging winds and rain. It was tended to by two women who were pouring magic into the flames. They turned when Annie, Brite, and Gibbs entered the clearing. Annie recognized the women from her dream.
“You’ll stay with them until it’s done,” Kolgaar said to Annie. She nodded absently as the familiarity of the village hit her like déjà vu. She was walking the same path she had the day she entered the fire and proclaimed the prophecy.
The older woman reached for the girl, whispering in her ear. The young girl stopped and held her hands behind her back, her lips pursed anxiously. A smirk broke across the older woman’s thin wrinkled lips.
“You are here, blessed be,” the girl said and curtsied low. “Welcome, Anaise. We are so glad you are here. I am Bega. This our coven elder, Etheldreda.”
“Etheldreda, I’ve brought her here. I am released of my obligation,” Kolgaar said and dumped his pack at Etheldreda’s feet. He ripped the talisman from his neck and tossed it on the pile, walking away without saying goodbye, without looking back to ensure that, in the least, Annie was fine. She watched him leave, unsurprised by his actions.
“At least he brought you here,” Etheldreda spat. She took Annie’s hands and offered a smile that was neither warm or friendly. “We are so very glad you are here. Though I must admit, we did not expect others,” she said.
Wizard Hall Chronicles Box Set Page 125