by Sierra Cross
Asher looked me in the eye with a hint of sadness. “No, I didn’t.” His words hit like a sledgehammer. I knew now, I’d rather he’d broken his promise.
Asher showed his identification to an enormous night guard sitting at the chic modern-tech reception desk. He negotiated our entry with the security guard, and we were all ushered into a private office. It could be an office in Any Company, USA. Pleasantly furnished, but obviously all the money went into the computer equipment.
The phone buzzed and a voice crackled over the intercom. “Your files are now ready for access.”
Asher’s fingers flew across the keyboard. “Okay,” he said. “I’m in…and I’m at the time stamp.” A few more keystrokes. “Holy shit,” he said and half turned the monitor so we could see it on this side of the desk.
In the grainy night vision video, the splinter in Callie’s slim figure cut through the night. Her hips swung like a runway model and firebolts burned on her fingertips. We watched, speechless as she walked deliberately, throwing bolt after bolt. The wards warped and crumpled. Her steady progress was unimpeded.
We flipped from camera to camera, watching her path of destruction. But when she entered the lab something changed. Her measured actions took on a frenetic pace, fury raged on her face. Her white shirt came untucked, her hair mussed, sweat beading on her forehead as she rained destruction with the fury of a woman scorned. What the hell? She saved her last act of demolition for the safe. The explosion burned so bright the video went white for a minute. She pulled the drive from the safe’s interior, held it up, and looked directly at the camera. A smile spread across her face, slow and sultry, laced with evil. She blew a kiss at the lens. Then she called to her fingertips enough power to melt metal and attacked the safe. The room lit up and the video went white again.
We managed a four-way glance filled with questions. Was our lost coven sister working for my aunt? For Alana? Oh my god, were they all tied together?
One way or another, Splinter-Callie had answers. And we were going to make sure we got them.
Chapter Eighteen
Matt couldn’t fight with a cast on. Unfortunately, he couldn’t heal himself either. Asher was able to finagle some warlock magic to dull the pain and keep the bones stable. By the time we’d weaponed up and changed into our wardsuits, the work day at Millennium Dynamics would just be getting underway. Not the ideal time for an assault, but we had no choice. The Fidei would have a field day with the clean up on this one, I feared. One more mark they’d have against us.
We fought brutal rush hour traffic all the way to Millennium Dynamics. I was ready to leave my car in the fire lane rather than hunt for a parking place. But when I pulled into the lot, it was practically empty.
We tromped into the lobby like the crew out of The Matrix and approached the leery receptionist. “Alix,” she said tentatively, like she was trying to make sense of our outfits. “Are you, ah, here to see your aunt?”
“We’re here to see Callie,” I said.
“Geez, she’s with your aunt and the leadership team at an off-site.” She winced apologetically. “We’ve only got a skeleton crew here today.” Was she covering for something? She sounded so plainly sincere, so, well, Wontish. And then it struck me, I didn’t feel the usual bombardment of dark magic. It had to be almost all Wonts in the building.
“Okay,” I said, knowing something bad was happening. Just not here. “Then I’ll see my aunt.”
“Oh,” she said. “I was going to say, you just missed her. She went on the off-site too.”
“Can you tell us where they’re at?”
“That’s weird, usually they leave contact info, but I didn’t get it for this one.” She pursed her lips as if trying to recall. “I heard them talking…Suprema something or other? Not a place I’m familiar with—”
“Yeah, great. Thanks.” I turned and ran to the front door knowing exactly where they would be. My coven matched my pace as we headed back to the parking lot.
“Why would Jenn’s whole department be going to the Council Suprema building?” Liv asked as we piled into the car.
“Good question,” Asher said. “But definitely not to have a corporate meeting.”
“It wasn’t just Larch and Bonaventura that Caedis was after,” Matt said, looking like a lightbulb went on in his head. “She talked about toppling the whole system. Maybe hitting the Council is how she’s starting her war?”
“Don’t just sit there,” Asher said to me. “Drive!”
We slipped into the back of the crowded courtroom unnoticed. It was wall-to-wall magicborn, standing room only. The judges were in their robes, seated on the bench. On the dais in front of the judges, a ring of well-armed Millennium Dynamics bodyguards—a mix of shifters and Neqs—in front like bouncers at a concert, was Aunt Jenn. Callie looked on from the sidelines, a cold smile on her pixie face. Whatever my aunt was saying, it was making the judges look unnerved. Even Bonaventura looked unsettled. Only Merwin seemed calm.
We entered the room midway through my aunt’s spiel. Why was Bonaventura allowing her to have the floor? This didn’t seem like normal court proceedings.
“… This ruling body is holding back talented witches and warlocks because of illogical, patriarchal laws that should have died with our ancestors. Now is the time for the dawn of new alliances. The fact that so many of you showed up here today at my request tells me you feel that the time for change has arrived as well.”
There were murmurs throughout the gallery. I couldn’t tell if they were in agreement or opposition.
Was my aunt staging a coup? It seemed that Callie had been doing her bidding when she stole Masumi’s drive. Damn. It wasn’t until this moment that I realized I was holding out hope that my aunt wouldn’t be so evil as to try to topple the world as we knew it. I guessed she’d never stop disappointing me.
But she had so few soldiers. What was her plan? Show them the video and they’d just surrender to her will?
“It’s time to expand the Council,” Aunt Jenn went on. “Let the full spectrum of magicborn take part in ruling the world we inhabit. Dark witches and Caedis alike should rule beside—”
All the doors of the court room slammed open at once. Neqs in blood-red uniforms flooded in like a river flowing downstream. Green firebolts blazing, blades with glowing enchantments drawn. Every demon was poised for battle. The room was packed so tightly it was hard to move, but a path parted the crowd through the side of the room and I saw Alana enter. The Caedis, wearing her light witch glamour once again, walked with long certain strides to stand in front of the dais.
I could see the panic rising on Matt’s face. Things were about to get ugly, and if Alana was killed here his mother’s soul would be lost forever.
“Perfect timing,” Aunt Jenn said as Alana climbed the steps to stand next to her…ally? The audience was stunned into silence. So was I. After how badly it went with Tenebris, the one thing I didn’t think Aunt Jenn would ever do was team up with another Caedis. She made fun of light witches for following their emotions and intuitions, but there were times intuition could steer you right.
“Thank you, Jennifer.” Alana nodded to my aunt differentially. “Without your assistance all these fine magicborn would not be in attendance right now.”
My aunt smiled and half bowed, like she was soaking up the praise.
“And that, I’m afraid, is the end of your usefulness.” Alana gave a mock grimace.
A look of confusion crossed my aunt’s face.
With flash-frame Caedis speed, Alana pulled a glowing green strand from her waistband. The long cord pulsed with dark magic. In a fluid motion, she spun it over her head, forming a loop as she tossed it at Aunt Jenn. An expression of shock registered in my aunt’s brown eyes.
The enchanted rope encircled my aunt like a lasso. It made contact with her skin, and my aunt opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out. Its grip squelched my aunt’s struggles, the magic holding her firmly in place, stealing
her voice—but not the pain of betrayal in her eyes.
The Millennium bodyguards were a step too slow. By the time they brought magic to their hands, Alana’s Neqs let loose a barrage of fire. Slaughtering them all where they stood. The once huge guards were reduced to smoldering ash.
Looking into the dense crowd, Alana zeroed in on Matt. “Ah, I see my son has come to join me.”
He threw his arms down, calling his power, but wasn’t quick enough. Alana hurled another green lasso out in front of her. It wrapped itself around Matt’s body like a magnet drawn to steel. His eyes went wide as the glowing cord tied around him and tightened. Within moments, he could barely move his shoulders one centimeter. He was under Alana’s control. She gave a hefty tug on the cord and Matt sailed through the air, over the crowd, toward the front of the room.
“No!” I shouted and tried to push into the throng, but it wasn’t budging. I glanced up with horror to see Matt was standing on the dais at the front of the room next to that insane Caedis.
“I’m sure you understand, Matty, that a mother needs to keep her dear son safe.” Her hand reached out to stroke his incapacitated cheek. I saw a hint of a shudder run through him. “I wouldn’t want you getting yourself killed before you’ve come to see the beauty of my plan.” She turned her attention back to the audience. “And before the heroes among you get any clever ideas...” She snapped her fingers and three of her Neqs invaded the front row of the gallery, causing screams throughout the crowd. They each grabbed a magicborn, seemingly at random—a slightly built older warlock, a middle-aged witch, and a burly young shifter—and dragged them to the front of the room, all trembling and shrieking. “Anybody tries anything and their deaths will be on your hands.”
Bonaventura banged his gavel. Did he think she was bluffing? He yelled into the courtroom. “Guards! Seize those demons!”
Alana snapped her fingers again. The three Neqs holding the hostages loosed their firebolts at point blank range. All three magicborn hit the floor, dead on impact. Screams of horror rang out in the courtroom. Crowds pushed their way toward the exits, only to find them blocked by Neq guards in blood-red uniforms. Chaos raged around me, terror rose inside me. And the rampage continued.
Five of Alana’s Neqs descended on the Director, breaking the laws of physics with their speed. Bonaventura caught the first demon by the neck and shoulder and ripped, like tearing a piece of paper. The other four drew their blades, as the vampire swung with deadly force. Wine-colored blood pouring from multiple wounds, Bonaventura retrieved the dagger from the floor and, with deadly precision and preternatural speed, dispatched two more Neqs. The remaining two circled him, stopping one in front, one behind the vampire. The Neq in front rammed the Director with demonic speed and strength, forcing him into the arms of the Neq behind him, his arm moving like the needle of a sewing machine, stabbing over and over. The Neq in front crumpled to the ground, leaving his dagger in the vampire’s heart.
Callie stepped up next to the killing cluster, raising a blade of her own to the vampire’s throat. I watched her draw the knife from ear to ear and step aside. Bonaventura had been no friend of mine, but I couldn’t believe this was happening. Every fighting instinct in my body called to me, begged me to take action. But the three bodies on the floor forced me into submission. Ambrose crashed to his knees, blood leaking from him like the sea from a sieve. Even his vampiric healing couldn’t save him from that much blood loss. His mouth moved, trying to speak but only wet guttural grunts came out. Losing his fight, he toppled to his side, an ocean of red pooling around him.
I turned back to where the carnage had begun. The Neqs had another batch of hostages, the three lifeless bodies at their feet. This time they had six magicborn in their clutches.
“Just checking,” Alana said glibly. “Have I made my point?”
I was standing with my mouth agape at this powerful vampire’s defeat. Seething from the need to jump into battle, to take this room back from that Caedis. The crowd was so loud. The sounds of panic ringing in my ears. They were banging on the doors. Blasts sailed into the fray but still it didn’t stop them. Alana raised her hand and shot a stream of flame just above the crowd, like a blast from a firehose. The flame licked down, singeing hair.
Then from the upper balcony, Neq foot soldiers tossed a half-dozen lifeless Fidei guards over the edge onto the screaming crowd. One by one the bodies made impact with a sickening thud. The crowd ceased its movement. Fear was all-encompassing. Whimpers and sobs racked the trembling onlookers.
Magic bloomed on my hands but there were too many innocents between me and that Caedis. I pushed into the crowd but it just pushed back, unyielding in the panic.
Alana yelled a word in a harsh guttural language that had to be demon speak. Her voice was an otherworldly command and the cacophony was reduced to trembling whimpers. She stepped to the front edge of the dais and continued muttering her incantation, black eyes rolling back in her head. She’d shucked her glamour and her hair was turning a shocking white from the roots down. Spell tattoos covered her hands like evil graffiti. As she uttered her spell, an eerie green fog seeped from the floor just in front of the gallery. The haze slowly rose up, heading for the first row. I watched it creep forward, inch by painful inch.
“This will put you in the mood to listen. And I’d listen carefully if I were you. For those who survive, your world is about to change…for the better.”
Asher grabbed Liv and me by the arms and tried pulling us through the sea of people that stood between us and the exit. “We have to get out of here before that reaches us!” But it was futile, the crowd was too dense, nowhere for the stunned masses to move.
“Jennifer was partly correct,” Alana said, nodding at Aunt Jenn’s lassoed form. “The old system of hunting demons and dark magicborn must die. But her small witch-mind couldn’t quite grasp the full truth. You see, we demons do not simply wish for a place at your table. In mind, body, and magic we are your superiors and should rightly rule. We claim all the seats and the table itself. Those among you we deem least unworthy may serve us from the floor.”
Helplessly, I watched the slow-moving haze engulf the magicborn seated at the front. Their eyes glazed over, their bodies still.
“It’s a yielding fog,” Asher said. “It’ll essentially freeze us in place. We’ll be trapped.”
“Then we have to kick some Caedis ass before it gets to us,” I said. “There are enough magicborn in this room. If we join together, we have a chance.” A snowball’s chance in hell, but I’d be damned if I let anything control me ever again.
Chapter Nineteen
About six feet ahead of us, I spied a break in the crowd. “Bend your knee!” I yelled to Asher. For once in his life, he didn’t question but complied. My boot hit his thigh. Using every ounce of magic I had and every bit of guardian training that had rubbed off on me, I launched myself up. Tucking my body, I somersaulted over the crowd, landing in a three-point stance, shoulders banging people out of the way. Liv was right behind me. Our magic gleamed as we threw syncopated blasts in perfect rhythm.
At the front of the courtroom I could see Matt, still held in place by Alana’s lasso. It had to be tearing him up inside not being able to do anything to stop this.
Asher forcibly parted the crowd with an incantation that didn’t say excuse me. “Fight!” he shouted. “Or get the hell out of our way!” His tattoos glowed and writhed as his extended palm issued forth a visible stream of fierce magic. He was mumbling another spell and a white fog rose from him and met the Caedis’s effort head on. Sweat beaded on his forehead.
Thunder boomed as the two mists met. A turbulent wind rose up and spun through the courthouse.
Other witches on this side of the fog barrier had joined the fight. Their friends, neighbors, and coworkers in front of us were still in the thrall of the green fog. Green, gold, and red blasts sailed back and forth. Cries of pain rang out. Witches were falling around me like leaves in autumn. As Neqs turne
d to dust, more poured into the courtroom from outside. The stench of blood and sweat and sulfur dirtied the air. Inch by inch Liv, Asher, and I moved forward. My wardsuit had taken more blasts than it should have been able to handle, but was still holding.
The wind whistled like a freight train as it tore at my hair, whipping it across my face. Papers flew. Debris and dust—some of it from Neq corpses—stung my eyes. Matt squinted against the detritus that ravaged his face, but that was all he could do.
Alana’s Caedis stamina was being tested as the storm surged around her. Callie and the Neqs battled the forces of light, but the tide was turning. More Neqs were falling than light witches or warlocks.
Asher’s limbs were shaking with effort, his tattoos no longer swirling in a fluid motion, but shapeshifting every few seconds, like stop-motion animation.
“Liv,” I yelled, “put all your power into Asher’s fog.” I did the same and instantly could feel our coven’s magic mingling, joining, expanding. The thunder clapped louder. I didn’t know if it was creating lightning or it was all the blasts flying back and forth, but the room was strobe-flashing like Sanctum on a Saturday night.
As the green fog dissipated, a rivulet of white snuck past and was just about to touch my aunt. A vein throbbed in my forehead as I multi-tasked this assault. Forming blasts and pushing the white mist forward, battling back the Caedis equivalent. Another few feet and I’d be able to get my hands around Alana’s throat. I would rip it out with my bare hands. For Matt, for us. For the real Alana. Hell, even for Bonaventura—he deserved better than this dignity-free end, bleeding out on the courthouse floor. The demon had to go.
Asher’s steps were unsteady. Liv stumbled, her power waning. Our coven’s power was faltering. The Caedis in Alana’s body sensed the weakness and pushed back.
My aunt was mouthing something to me. I blinked and tried to focus.
What? She was repeating it over and over. When she saw the lack of understanding on my face she formed each word slowly. Wrest. My. Magic.