by D G Swank
The book dropped to the ground next to me, the pages flipping frantically. When they stopped, the page read Crown of Blood.
“One life for many,” I whispered. They were the very words she’d said to me a week or so ago, when I’d found the book in the basement of Radcliffe.
“Yes, sweet Celeste,” she cooed, her voice soothing. “You were supposed to wear the crown. Why couldn’t you just take it when I offered it to you days ago? Was a mere human worth the sacrifice?”
“You promised you’d heal me,” I said, although I knew that promise was worth no more than dust.
“And you said you’d take the Crown of Blood, but instead of sacrificing the son of Theodos, you gave him the orb. If you take it back, I will save you and give you the crown.”
“You mean after you kill Zane. Whom you said you wouldn’t sacrifice.”
“I wasn’t going to kill him, sweet Celeste. You were. A sacrifice must be made. One for many, as you said.” She almost sounded sad, although I didn’t believe she was capable of it. So much horror had sprung from the book. The power-stealing spell used by Donall and my father. The orb. What else lay within it?
But if we didn’t free the spirit, perhaps she’d seek help from someone else who would. Donall or someone else with the Dark Set. With her power, they’d be unstoppable.
“Will you destroy the Dark Set?” I asked.
“If you free me, I will.”
“Will you protect my sisters? Will you protect Zane?”
“I refuse to protect any of them, but I won’t destroy them.”
I glanced over at Zane, who was using the orb to try to break into the pentagram. His mouth was moving, but I couldn’t hear him. I couldn’t hear anything other than the spirit of the book and my fading heartbeat.
“If you simply die, it won’t work,” the book said. “You need to either be killed or offer your death as payment.”
“I’ll sacrifice my life to save the people I love from the Dark Set,” I said.
The Dagger of Hillcrest lifted off the ground, hovering over my body.
Zane renewed his attack on the perimeter, his movements frantic now, and I could tell he was close to breaking in. There wasn’t any time to lose.
I reached for the blade.
“Your courage will live on in history,” the spirit said. “You will be revered for generations.”
I wasn’t sure I could plunge the dagger into my chest, but if she wanted blood, I knew how to give it to her.
I plunged the blade into my gut.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Zane
Zane watched in horror as Celeste stabbed herself in the abdomen. Blood poured onto the ground, and the book soaked it up like a sponge.
The face in the mist smiled in ecstasy as it took on color, and the wispy, ephemeral shape became solid.
“Celeste!” Zane screamed in agony, finally breaking through the barrier. Too late. He was much too late. There wasn’t even a glint of Celeste’s fiery magic left.
The spirit in the mist was now a beautiful woman in a full-skirted dark dress. Her ebony hair was piled atop her head in an elaborate up-do, and the front of her dress scooped over her ample breasts. She looked like she’d stepped out of a Renaissance painting.
“Celeste is no more,” she said in a melodic tone. “She has joined the martyrs who freely gave their lives to stop evil.”
She walked over to him and cupped his face, brushing a tear off his cheek. “Cry no more, son of Theodos. We will have a feast day in her honor.”
“Who the fuck are you?” he asked, smacking her hand away.
“I am Marij, your queen, and soon you will rule by my side.”
Marij? The author of the Book of Sindal? According to the histories, she’d died in a fire after being accused, correctly, of witchcraft. How had she become trapped in the book?
Ultimately, he didn’t care. He didn’t care about anything save the woman who lay dead beside the book. Although he was too late to save her, he owed it to her to see this through. To destroy the Dark Set and ensure they could never, ever return. To prevent this witch from causing more mayhem.
“No,” he said bitterly. “You killed the woman who was to be queen.”
“Did I?” she asked, her voice rising in a playful tone. “Or did you bring upon her death when you refused to stop that madman from beating her?”
He hated her even more for saying it, but it was true. Each decision he’d made had brought them closer to this fate. He could have stopped Donall—he was certainly strong enough—but he hadn’t. He could have taken her to a hospital, but she’d begged him not to ruin her cover. He’d suspected the book planned to make a human sacrifice, yet he’d assumed it would kill him if it killed either of them. No denying it. He was culpable for Celeste’s death.
But so was Marij.
“Your time for grieving must wait,” she said, glancing back at Celeste’s body. “For now, get the book and let us go.”
Zane shook his head. “No. She died for your precious book. She can keep it in death.” Before she could stop him, he called upon the earth to engulf her and the book in a tomb. Slabs of rock shot up from the ground around her and the rock fused, encasing her in a boulder.
Marij gave him a disappointed look. “You think that can stop me?” She sent a blast of power toward the stone, but nothing happened. She tried again and again. Frustrated, she turned to him, her cheeks red with her rage. “I need that book!”
“Tough shit. You may have gotten your freedom, but you won’t get another thing from that damned book,” he said with clenched hands.
“I need the Crown of Blood!”
“No,” he said. “You promised it to Celeste, and she’ll keep it in death.” He started walking to his car, swallowing a wave of grief. “If you’re coming with me to destroy the Dark Set, I suggest you hurry.”
“You will still fight with me?” she asked in surprise as he opened his car door.
He turned back to look at her in disgust. “Can you actually help?” He’d love nothing more than to leave her here—to destroy her—but he needed all the help he could get. Brandon and his small force would show up to help him, but he wasn’t deluded enough to think they were enough.
She waved her hands, and the wind began to whirl, creating a small tornado that hovered next to the stone tomb. It whirled toward the rock, but it had no effect. The stone remained untouched. Unchanged. The book did not emerge.
It would have worked if she’d connected with the wind to make that tornado. Instead, she’d pulled it out of thin air. Druid ways were unfamiliar to her. That would protect Celeste, just like he’d hoped.
“So, I take it you weren’t an elemental,” Zane said dryly.
“No,” she said in disgust. “I’m an expression mage, just like you. Just like Celeste.”
“You are nothing like Celeste,” he said, picking her up with magic and holding her several feet from the ground. “You will keep her name out of your filthy mouth.”
She gave a huge push and broke free of his magic, nimbly dropping to the ground on both feet. “I will forgive that infraction because of your grief.”
“Forgive me? You think I give an actual flying fuck what you think?” he demanded. “I’m in charge, and if you can’t accept that, I will kill you and make you my own sacrifice.”
He’d made the threat in anger, but now he wondered if it were possible. Could he kill her and bring back Celeste? How would Celeste handle knowing that a sacrifice had been made to restore her to life? He knew how disgusted she’d been by the spell Donall had used to steal power.
He walked over to the boulder, laying his hand on the smooth stone, wishing he’d held her one last time. Wishing he’d had a chance to love her. The rest of his life would be long and cold, but he knew he’d never find another woman who was as right for him as she had been. Few witches and mages were lucky enough to have a soulmate, but those who did only loved once.
“Killin
g me won’t bring her back,” Marij said as if reading his thoughts. “It would not only be pointless, but it would also hurt your chances at conquering the Dark Set.”
He shot her a dark look. “Perhaps I’m willing to take my chances.”
Her chin lifted. “You’ll need to free the book to know for certain.”
She wanted him to free the book, to give her an opportunity to gain the crown. No. He wouldn’t risk it. The spirit of the book was dangerous, maybe equally as dangerous as the Dark Set. He’d kill her later.
“Do you have a plan?” Marij asked as she followed him to the car.
“The plan was for Celeste to walk down the aisle to the altar to marry Donall, then use the orb to absorb everyone’s power. That plan was shot to hell thanks to you.”
Her brow rose. “Pouting is a very unattractive trait in a man. You know good and well we can still have—” She paused on the cusp of saying Celeste’s name, then gave him a simpering smile instead. “We have glamour, my king. I will walk down the aisle, and Donall will never know the difference.”
He swallowed his disgust. He would never be her king. “Then we need to hurry.”
She got into the car and he gave the boulder one last look. He’d avenge Celeste’s death. The witch would never see it coming.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Phoebe
I sat bolt upright in bed, panic racing through my blood and chasing away the cobwebs of sleep. Something was wrong with Celeste. I didn’t need the coven bond to know that.
Brandon had been asleep next to me, but he sat up and wrapped an arm round my back. “Pheebs? You okay? Did you have a bad dream?”
I pushed back the covers as dread washed through me. My power had been fully restored and assimilated the previous evening, and there was no denying what I felt.
Her spirit was on the other side of the veil.
“Celeste,” I choked out.
“She’s in the next room,” he said, trying to tug me back down. “Zane would have let us know if she’d gotten any worse.”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. I scrambled out of bed, so dizzy with grief I nearly fell to my knees.
“Phoebe,” he said, leaping out of bed. “It was a dream.”
“No,” I said with a sob. “She’s dead.” Something else was wrong, but I didn’t have the mental capacity to figure it out.
“You don’t know that.” He started to head for the door. “I’ll go check with Zane.”
“Brandon, she’s dead. My magic…”
His eyes widened in horrified understanding. “Your ancestral magic.”
The door flew open and Rowan burst into the room. “Phoebe? What’s wrong?”
“We need to check on Celeste,” Brandon said, slipping past her into the hall.
“Celeste?” Rowan asked in confusion.
“She’s not here,” Brandon called seconds later, his voice muffled.
Rowan’s eyes met mine. “She left,” she said in an uncharacteristically small voice.
“What do you mean she left?” I demanded.
Rowan gave me a pleading look. “Don’t be mad, Bee, but she and Zane left.”
“Left where?” Brandon asked, now in the doorway.
“To go save Lisa. To stop Donall,” Rowan said. “You know that big Dark Set meeting Zane told us about yesterday? Celeste was supposed to marry Donall. She set it up so he’d gather his people together and she and Zane could take their power with the orb.”
My mouth dropped open. Celeste had arranged to marry Donall? As a plan it was both bold and a little crazy, which made sense coming from Celeste. At the same time, I couldn’t remember the last time my sister had said anything about dating, let alone marriage. It was a surprising ruse to say the least, but my shock didn’t last long. It didn’t matter any more, the why of it. She was gone. Any plan she had wasn’t going to come to fruition.
Brandon was pissed. I didn’t even need to tap into our connection to feel it. “And you let her go?” he snapped. “She was too injured to do anything!”
Oh. That was the source of the something-is-wrong feeling. “They took the book,” I whispered.
Rowan didn’t say anything, which was confirmation enough.
“You let them take it!” Brandon shouted at her. “What the hells were you thinking?”
“Watch it, Brandon,” Logan said from the hall. He said it with the kind of no-nonsense tone no one would want to challenge. But Brandon wasn’t exactly feeling polite.
“This has nothing to do with you!” he shouted. “You shouldn’t even be here. You’re not magical.”
“I’m here, so deal with it,” Logan said in a tight voice. “And as long as Rowan is here, I’m not going anywhere.”
Brandon made a face of frustration, but his gaze softened when it landed on me. “Can you tell where she is, Pheebs?”
“How would Phoebe know where she is?” Rowan asked in confusion. Then her eyes widened, and she sucked in a breath. “No!”
I sat down on the edge of the bed and tugged her down with me, nodding as a fresh round of tears sprang to my eyes.
“No!” Rowan wailed. “You’re wrong! You have to be!”
“She’s crossed, Ro. I can feel it.”
Rowan collapsed on my shoulder, and I held her up as she cried. Distantly, I wondered why I wasn’t falling to pieces too, but all I felt was disbelief. It couldn’t have ended like this. Our journey couldn’t have ended so abruptly.
Logan pushed his way into the room and sat down next to Rowan, placing a hand on her back. I’d been hiding out with them a week, and it still surprised me how much this big, gruff human soothed Rowan’s soul. She’d always been so burdened by our duty to the book, and what she’d seen as her “insignificant” power, but now she was calm. Centered. I kind of loved him for it. I’d barely seen Zane and Celeste together, but I’d seen enough to hope my baby sister had found happiness and balance too, just like we had.
Sadness washed over me like a wave, threatening to pull me down.
“How did you know she’d left?” I asked her.
“I saw Zane take the book,” she said through her sobs.
“And you just let it happen?” Brandon snapped. “Why you didn’t tell me? You know how dangerous it is for Celeste to have that book. You saw what nearly happened at the hospital.”
“I was the one who almost killed Logan, you dolt,” Rowan said through her tears. “Celeste only went with Donall to take out the Dark Set. She’s different, Brandon. She’s changed. She’s learned how to control her magic. She needed the book more than we did, and I’d give it to her again in a heartbeat if I thought it would save her.”
“That’s what she wanted you to think!” Brandon shouted. “She fooled you!”
“If that’s true,” Logan said in a deadly calm voice, “then Zane fooled you too since he was the one who actually stole it.”
Brandon let out a string of curses.
“Stop it!” I shouted. “My sister’s dead, so obviously she didn’t do anything bad with it.”
That seemed to snap Brandon out of his anger. His face fell. “Phoebe. I’m sorry.”
I got to my feet and shot him a dark look. “My sister just died. I need you to be my boyfriend right now, not the head of the Protective Force.”
He reached for me, but I pushed him away and headed down the hall.
Rowan followed me out into the kitchen, and I started to make a pot of coffee. I didn’t want any, but I needed to do something. My sister was dead, and I still had no idea how to process it. Or what to do next.
“Where is she, Bee?” Rowan asked. “Can you find her?”
She meant her body, but I didn’t want to think of it that way. Not yet. And I could tell Rowan felt the same way.
Closing my eyes, I focused on Celeste. I couldn’t tell exactly where she was, but I knew she wasn’t close. “I can’t tell for sure,” I said, opening my eyes. “Maybe we should call Zane.”
“I just t
ried his phone three times,” Brandon said. “He’s not answering.” His gaze was troubled. “For all we know, he’s dead too.”
“Are you sure he didn’t defect?” I asked, because I had to. Because I didn’t want Brandon to run headlong into danger too.
“I’m sure,” he said. “He has a lot on the line. The Druids saved his life, and he’s been negotiating on their behalf for years.”
“We have to find her,” Rowan said. “We can’t leave her gods know where. I have to get her.”
“Absolutely not,” Brandon said. “You’re not going anywhere.”
Putting a hand on my hip, I turned to face him. “Excuse me?”
“Phoebe, be reasonable. The Dark Set is looking for her. What if they’re the ones who found and killed her? They could still be with her, and you’d be walking into a trap.”
I gave him a blank expression. “Fine.”
“Phoebe!” Rowan protested. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Brandon is right,” I said calmly. “It could be a trap. Brandon needs to focus on his raid of the Dark Set compound tonight, not worry about us. We’ll find her later.”
Relief washed over Brandon’s face. “We’ll find her, Pheebs. I promise. Let’s just wait until we finish this.”
“How soon will you leave?” I asked, but Rowan was furious with both of us and stomped off to her room.
“About an hour. I’m going to leave you here with Logan and Rowan.” He held up his hand to keep me from protesting. “I can’t bring you, Phoebe. I’d be worried sick if you came. I know you came with us to rescue Rowan, but that was nothing compared to what we’re walking into tonight. I’ll leave two men to watch over you.”
“You need them more than we do,” I said. “I have my magic back, and Rowan’s stronger than ever. Plus we have Logan. He’s not a mage, but he’s a policeman. He can help.”
Grief filled his eyes. “I don’t want to leave you unprotected.”
I closed the distance between us and wrapped my arms around his back, my fear spiking at the thought of what he was planning for tonight. If Zane wasn’t there to help him from the inside, he’d be up against steep odds. He’d faced his brother twice before. Would his luck finally run out? I’d just lost Celeste. I couldn’t lose him too.