Crown of Blood

by D G Swank

“I feel it,” I said in excitement.

  “Really?” Surprise made the word rise in pitch. I could understand why it shocked him. I couldn’t feel a thing with my own magic, and if I could sense his smooth surface, he had to sense my jagged one. “What is it like?”

  He was testing me, trying to determine if I was telling the truth. “It’s small. Their magic is defined when I drill down, but when I pull back slightly, it’s like white noise—there in the background, noticeable if you think about it, but easy to dismiss.” I’d followed the “noise” back to the source—the trees—and described what I saw as I encountered it. Focusing on their energy, I followed it back to myself. Likely not how Zane wanted me to learn it, but I’d learned it nonetheless.

  “Believe it or not,” he said carefully, “their magic can help stabilize yours, but you have to let it in past your magical barrier.”

  “Make myself vulnerable,” I said flatly. If I opened the barrier to my magic, I’d also be opening myself to Zane.

  “I’m doing it now,” he said, realizing the source of my hesitation. “Can you penetrate my magic?”

  Taking the challenge for what it was, I let my magic explore the surface of his “lake.” But try as I might, I couldn’t find any signs of weakness. “You’re really doing it now?” I asked.

  “Yes.”

  I searched again, spending nearly five minutes on the process, and still came up empty. I opened my eyes, blinking at the sunlight. “How are you doing it?”

  He laughed. “I’m not telling you all of my secrets yet. I’m just proving it’s possible. You need to focus on letting the energy of the trees sink into your own and let osmosis do its thing.”

  “Are you insane?” I scoffed. “You won’t teach me your little trick, so if I make myself vulnerable to the tree magic, I’ll also open myself up to you.”

  His smile faded. “It will take trust, Celeste, something I know I haven’t earned, in fact, quite the opposite, but I’m asking you to trust me anyway.”

  “Let’s say I’m foolish enough to try it. What’s to keep you from raiding my mind?” I asked. “You obviously think I’m here for devious purposes. What’s to stop you from using the opportunity to find out for yourself?”

  He tilted his head to the side, a hard glint filling his eyes. “Because I believe there are lines in the sand that shouldn’t be crossed.”

  “The Dark Set doesn’t believe that. Lisa told me that Donall ravaged Rowan’s mind so brutally he put her in a coma.”

  “Donall and I have different belief systems,” he stated. His expression was shuttered, but I thought I caught an edge of dislike in his tone. Maybe even hate.

  “Yet you’re here with him, getting ready to take over the world.”

  “I didn’t join the Dark Set because of Donall,” he said. “Your father recruited me. I met Donall later.”

  “So you believe everything the Dark Set stands for?” I asked, irritated with myself at the hard edge I’d let slip through.

  “I don’t believe in everything,” he said in a sharp tone, “but then, I’m sure neither do you.”

  “What part do you believe?”

  “I believe that mages have been suppressed for too long. That we need to take back our power.”

  “By stealing it from the witches.”

  His eyes darkened. “If need be. You know the old stories. We’re in this situation because power was taken from mages in the first place.”

  “And what about Lisa?” I asked. “Are you planning to take her power too?”

  His shoulders pulled back and his back stiffened. “Leave her out of this.”

  “Have you worked out an arrangement with Donall to let her keep her power?” I taunted. “Is that why you’re here? To protect her?”

  A force slammed me hard in the chest, lifting me several feet off the ground. “Leave her out of this.”

  I studied him, surprised at his violent reaction, although I wasn’t sure why it shocked me. He’d reacted violently the night I’d met him, and then again yesterday morning.

  “Do not question my allegiance to the Dark Set,” he said through gritted teeth. “And do not concern yourself with Lisa.”

  “Okay,” I forced out. The magical band holding me aloft was also squeezing my chest. “No more questions about Lisa.” No, when we got back, I’d tell someone that I’d been injured and needed her nursing services. She had seemed willing to talk. I’d ask her my questions directly.

  He set me down, and I moved closer to him. “You know why the Samsites took the Brexors’ power, don’t you? Because men are prone to violence. You’re only demonstrating that they knew what they were doing.”

  He took a step back as emotions flashed through his eyes, but he quickly shuttered his expression. “The choice is yours, Celeste. Either you try the tree magic, or you don’t.”

  “Which means I have to trust you,” I said, my voice cold.

  “Yes.”

  “Then no thank you.”

  He ran his hand through his hair in frustration and took several steps backward. “I guess we’re done for now.” He spun on his heels and strode away.

  Chapter Eleven

  That man loved to show me his backside. Then an unbidden thought rose to the surface of my mind.

  But he does have a very nice backside.

  True enough, and his face was nice to look at too. I suspected Zane Chambers was used to getting what he wanted from women, whenever he wanted it, and I was a thorn in his side. That being said, he had tried to charm me.

  In a sense it was refreshing, given that I was sick to death of the Dark Set’s bullshit, but I wasn’t sorry for letting him stomp off. I couldn’t trust him, even though some part of me strangely wanted to. I reminded that part that he was the enemy, and I couldn’t let him or anyone else know my true plans. Although I’d seen those pink flecks in his aura, I didn’t know what he was hiding, and a man who wasn’t all bad still wasn’t all good. Maybe I appeared to be here willingly, but so did he.

  I hadn’t even told my sisters the truth about my mission—I wasn’t about to let him have access.

  As I watched him disappear down the path into the woods, my thoughts running the gamut, I felt another presence join me.

  I spun on the balls of my feet to face it. The spirit from the book looked back at me, her face shifting between different shades of white and gray. A tingle ran down my back, and I couldn’t tell if it was excitement or fear. Despite my distrust of the book, I still longed to possess it. To make the visions it had showed me come to pass.

  “Spirit of the book,” I said. “You’ve come to join me.”

  “You don’t need Druid magic to stabilize your power,” said the face in the mist. “You only need to use me.”

  “No,” I said, evenly. “You need me to use you. The real question is why?”

  “Isn’t it obvious?” she asked. “I want to be free.”

  “You’re free now,” I pointed out. “You’re here in spirit form while the book is gods only know where.”

  “The book is in Chicago,” she said. “I can lead you there now.”

  I shot a panicked look over my shoulder at the path, then turned back to the form in the mist. “Be careful what you say! You’ll lead the Dark Set right to you.” And my sisters.

  “Not if you find me first,” she said. “And you needn’t worry. You’re the only one who can hear me.”

  She had a point. Neither Donall nor my father had heard her in the cafeteria.

  “I can’t come with you yet,” I said, fudging. “I still need to earn their trust.”

  “No,” she said, her voice growing louder. “You and I will consume their power and the power of anyone else who gets in our way.”

  The last thing I needed was more power, although part of me preened at the thought. Part of me was eager to wear her Crown of Blood.

  That wasn’t the person I wanted to become, so I had to play the spirit of the book, too, just like I was playing
Donall and my father.

  “I’ll come to you,” I said. “But on my terms.” When she started to protest, I held up my hand. “No. I’ve let other people rule over my life since the day I was born. My parents. The Small Council. My sisters. Now you. I need a taste of freedom before I’m shackled again.”

  “You’re mistaken, dear Celeste,” she cooed. “I have no plans to shackle you. I plan to elevate you.”

  “By offering me a crown?” I said. “I’ll be far more shackled than I’ve ever been before.”

  “Sweet Celeste,” she said. “I offer you the world, why won’t you accept?”

  “I will accept it,” I lied, “but first I need to see this through. The Dark Set is helping me control my magic.”

  She laughed. “Where is the Dark Set now? Perhaps they are letting the trees train you.”

  She wasn’t far off.

  I let out a sigh but came up with a plan that would help me and might appease her. “The faster I master this, the sooner I will come to you. Why not keep guard so that I’m not taken advantage of while I commune with the trees?”

  The woman in the mist laughed. “Commune with the trees…”

  “Will you help me or not?”

  “Yes, I’ll help, but only because I need you to come to me. And because I wish to see this.”

  If she was expecting a show, she was bound to be disappointed. “How do I know you won’t take advantage of my vulnerability?”

  “Because I need you whole and strong,” she said. “I don’t care about your motives, as long as you come to claim me.”

  To what end? Why would crowning me free the witch’s spirit from the Book of Sindal? I didn’t really care at the moment. Although I didn’t intend to make good on my promise to her, I did want to try Zane’s trick with the tree magic.

  I lay down on my back, thankful the ground was dry, if a bit hard and rocky.

  “Make a cushion for yourself,” the mist said.

  “The magic might interfere,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. Besides, it felt strangely nice to lie on the ground, with nothing between me and the earth. I squinted up at the blue sky and shivered as a soft breeze skated across my bare arms. “Let me know if someone approaches.”

  “As you wish.”

  Closing my eyes, I searched for the trees’ magic. It had been much easier to find it using Zane’s magic as a guide, but now that I’d sensed them once, I managed to do so again. I followed their magic back to the source, opening my own magic to it as I did so.

  A world of color lit up in my mind’s eye. The magic of the trees was interconnected, forming a network not unlike the organs in a human body. The network was anchored to the ground and air, both of which possessed their own magic.

  I sensed the animals around me, too, venturing through the trees. Each had its own magic, dependent on the earth.

  The world was literally brimming with magic.

  As I reached for the magic of the trees, it reached for me, too, scouring the surface of my jagged magic, and I welcomed it, its touch like the gentle rocking of the ocean. I could feel my energy surge against it and then pull back, soothed a bit, before it reached out for more. More tree energy surrounded me, and it struck me that it stayed clear of my right palm, clear of the orb. Was that because it had come from the book?

  I savored the push-pull of tree magic against my own until I felt a magical jab in my side. I locked down my magic as my eyes flew open, surprised to see the sun was setting and the air had gotten much colder. Hours had passed without my noticing. I’d hoped to practice with the Orb of Power too—I needed to harness its power, although I planned to do so in pursuit of my own plan, not Donall’s.

  “The expression mage approaches,” the spirit of the book said. She dissipated into a light mist that trailed away as Zane emerged from the path, looking furious.

  “What the hell are you doing?” he demanded, stomping toward me with a piece of dark cloth in his hand.

  I sat up, feeling disoriented, as though I’d just woken from a long nap.

  “Are you out here pouting?” he asked, stopping several feet in front of me.

  I snorted. “Pouting? You may have stomped off, but I had work to do, so I did it.”

  His brow furrowed in confusion. “Your magic is different. What have you been doing?”

  “Communing with the trees.”

  “Alone?”

  “Well, you weren’t here.”

  Panic filled his eyes. “Celeste, what if someone had snuck up on you?”

  “Like who?” I asked. “A member of the Dark Set? I thought we were all working for the greater good.”

  My answer was bullshit and we both knew it. I’d been concerned about Zane getting too close while I was vulnerable—I most certainly wouldn’t have wanted a random guard to sneak up on me. Still, it occurred to me that it might not have been wise for me to place so much trust in the spirit of the book, either. She had her own agenda too.

  “Donall is looking for you,” Zane said with a scowl.

  “Are you in trouble?” I asked as I got to my feet. “You lost your charge, and now Donall’s out to flay you.”

  His deepened scowl told me I wasn’t far off.

  But now that I was out of my stupor, my body started to violently shake.

  He thrust the cloth out to me. “Here. Put this on.”

  I reached for it, realizing it was a sweater, but when I didn’t take it fast enough to suit him, he started to shove it onto my arm.

  “How long have you been out of it?” he asked, sounding worried.

  “Practically since you left,” I admitted, shivering harder.

  He reached behind me and grabbed the other sleeve of the sweater and started to thread my arm through the opening. “The temperature dipped, but part of this is the result of the magic. You were under far longer than you should have been.”

  I let him dress me like I was a three-year-old as I watched him with a curious gaze. “Why are you so concerned? Surely Donall doesn’t care if I’m cold.”

  “You underestimate him.” He pulled both fronts of the sweater together. “You don’t have time to change.”

  “Why not?”

  “You’re expected at dinner in fifteen minutes.” He wrapped an arm around my upper shoulders and led me toward the path.

  I jerked out of his reach, startled by how right the gesture felt. “I can walk on my own.”

  He didn’t respond, instead walking close behind me.

  We walked in silence for several seconds before he asked, “What did you do out there all this time?”

  “I already told you. I communed with the trees.”

  “What else?”

  I glanced over my shoulder at him. “What else could I have done?”

  “I don’t know,” he said, sounding frustrated. “But your magic is too different for you to have just worked with the trees.”

  I stopped and turned around to face him. “When you see their magic, what else do you see?”

  “I already told you—pinpricks of magic.”

  “What about the magic of the earth and the air? The animals?”

  He stared at me for several long seconds. “You saw their magic too?”

  “Wasn’t that the point?”

  His eyes widened with a look of wonder. “It took me years to master that.”

  I wasn’t sure what to make of that. He had no reason to lie to me, but I didn’t see how that could be true. Especially since he’d already told me that I was starting too late.

  I shook my head and spun around. “Apparently we don’t have time for this.”

  He followed me to the entrance we’d used to leave the church that morning.

  “Are you sure I don’t have time to change?” I asked as we walked in.

  “No.” He grabbed my upper arm and pulled me to a halt. When he lifted his hand, I flinched. Grimacing, he reached into my hair and pulled out a piece of a dried-up leaf.

  “I wasn’
t going to hit you, Celeste.”

  “You’ve shoved me against a wall and tossed me to the floor, so who’s to say you wouldn’t?” I retorted. “Now where are we going?”

  He frowned and gestured down the hall. “This way.”

  A short walk delivered us to a small dinner party. About a dozen men and only two women sat at a long table situated in the precise middle of a room with rich wood paneling. Expensive looking oil paintings of old white men hung on the walls in ornate gilded frames.

  Donall sat at the end with an empty chair to his left. Three spaces to his right was another empty chair. Donall glanced up and narrowed his eyes at me, likely because I was very underdressed in my jeans, T-shirt, and sweater. He and the men were wearing suits, and the two other women were in cocktail dresses. At least Zane didn’t look much fancier than I did in his T-shirt and jeans.

  “Celeste,” he said, getting to his feet. “Did you not get the message about dressing for dinner?”

  I could throw Zane under the bus for abandoning me, but I likely wouldn’t have made as much progress if he’d stayed and I wouldn’t have known to try at all if he hadn’t told me. It was in my own best interest to protect him, but I also realized I didn’t want to throw him under the bus. For some reason, I wanted to protect him, and I had a sneaking suspicion it wasn’t just for Lisa’s benefit.

  I gave Donall a gracious smile as I took a couple of steps into the room.

  “It was my fault,” Zane said, his back stiff as he moved to my right. “I kept her out too long, which didn’t give her a chance to change.”

  “This is unacceptable,” Donall said, his brow furrowing. I could feel his energy rising with his anger. “You were to dress for dinner.”

  “You are planning a revolution, Master Donall,” I said, focusing hard on sounding demure. “And I suspect I’m going to play an integral part, which means I must learn to master my magic. Zane and I”—I shot a quick glance at Zane, then turned back to Donall—“were working on just that. Surely you must place more importance on the success of our mission than the clothing we’re wearing.” There was no doubt my statement was a rebuke, but I’d used a genteel enough tone to make it sound respectful.