Witch's Shadow (The Hemlock Chronicles Book 1)

by Emma L. Adams

  “After what you did in the fight? Don’t underplay your talent. I’ve seen it.” His gaze showed an odd kind of hunger. “I felt it. When I set my hands on your soul.”

  “There isn’t a single part of that sentence that wasn’t creepy as fuck, Keir.”

  He broke his gaze from mine. “I apologise for making you uncomfortable. I spend a lot of time in circles where people like me aren’t so unusual.”

  “Are these circles where you can find someone who can perform an exorcism?” I’d put my trust in him when hell froze over, but curiosity about how the vampires managed to keep their pet zombie armies a secret with guild members patrolling everywhere momentarily overrode my wariness.

  “Yes, I can,” he said. “I can’t say I know how it feels to share one’s body with another, much less a shade, but I imagine if it’s anything like trying to wrest control of an undead from another person… one of you must win, and the other must lose. And given what I saw of that shade, if I were you, I’d be questioning my options.”

  Well, shit. What he was right? Two spirits shouldn’t be contained in one body, according to all the laws, and when she’d fought against that fury, she’d completely pushed me away from the wheel. Even if I discounted the fact that the Hemlocks wanted both of us to be tied to their creepy forest the instant they died out, if Evelyn kept trying to take over, we were bound to come to blows eventually. And she had most of the magic.

  If only any person other than an untrustworthy vampire had made the offer.

  “That’s a nice argument,” I said. “But there’s nothing in it for you if you help me. How do I know you won’t bring a horde of vessels with you to attack me?”

  “A horde?” he echoed. “I can’t control a huge number without effectively reducing them to undead. Not my style.”

  “You tried to attack me this morning,” I said. “That was after you saw me in person. You knew I wasn’t the shade.”

  Keir shook his head. “I can’t actually see that well through the spirit realm,” he said. “Most shades… I can tell you’ve never met one before, because if you had, you’d understand why I struck first. She doesn’t look like you at all.”

  Considering I’d never actually seen what the spirit looked like, only that she could send half-faerie ghosts screaming into the afterlife just from seeing her face, maybe he was telling the truth. Or maybe he was talking bollocks. Anyone’s guess.

  I sighed. “What do you want from me? Because I’m not the person to ask about the coven. I want an exorcism, not an interrogation.”

  “My question isn’t about the coven itself,” he said. “It happens that someone linked to your coven took something from me. Maybe you can answer the question… do you know the location of the Ancients?”

  I blinked. “The ancient what?”

  “I suppose not,” he said. “In that case, ask your fellow Hemlock witches. If you bring me a satisfactory answer, then I’ll take you to my exorcist contact.”

  Damn. I shouldn’t be thinking of actually asking Cordelia and the others. After all, they could fob me off with any excuse they wanted. I knew they weren’t looking out for my safety. But it seemed an innocent enough question. And I did have a fair few questions to ask myself, about the nature of the spirit’s bond with mine, and how she’d managed to take the wheel so easily after being utterly quiet for most of my life.

  “I’ll take it under consideration,” I said, “but you must know, I’ll be breaking guild law by accepting any offer of a black-market exorcism.”

  “That’s your choice to make, Jas,” he said.

  Yes. It was. Dammit. Why had the Hemlocks decided to force me to break supernatural laws just by existing? “Why does the guild let you carry on as you are?” I asked, unable to help myself. “Don’t they notice zombies going missing?”

  “For my kind, we’re allowed to do as we like,” he said. “The guild knows of our existence, certainly. But they don’t want our filth corrupting their perfect system.”

  “You’re not a fan of the guild?”

  “I think they provide a fine service to the city,” he said. “But not to me. And speaking of vampires, it’s time I found whoever stole my zombies. If you want to meet with my contact, come to Queen Street, at seven this evening, with an answer to my question.”

  “Uh-huh.” Once I found my friends, I’d check with the guild whether they were aware of the vampires’ existence or not. Letting rogues who could suck out souls roam free sure didn’t sound like the guild’s usual approach, but most supernaturals just wanted to exist without persecution. Maybe they’d struck a deal. It wasn’t like necromancers couldn’t be deadly when pushed, too.

  Besides… I needed to speak to Cordelia Hemlock. She owed me answers, and if I got a satisfactory answer to Keir’s question, I might be able to free myself from the Hemlock Coven forever.

  10

  “So he’s not the bad guy?” asked Lloyd. I’d finally found him and Isabel, who’d been investigating every alley in search of another way into the tunnel. Given that it’d taken a blast of freakishly overpowered witch magic to kill that fury, I was kind of glad they hadn’t found their way in.

  “Yes, he is, but not the person who tried to kill me,” I said. “He wants to talk to the Hemlock witches, but I think I misread him as the villain when he’s actually…”

  “A rogue,” Lloyd said. “I bet Lady Montgomery would promote you if you brought him in.”

  “Or he’d cause a scene, escape, and land me on her shit list again.”

  Isabel cleared her throat. “I have no idea what that guy’s deal is, but I’m here to protect the Hemlock heir. If you definitely know what you’re doing—”

  “She doesn’t know what he’s doing,” said Lloyd. “Dude’s a wild card. I’d say report him.”

  “Right.” I chewed on the inside of my cheek, debating. “Look, Lady Montgomery is smart. There’s not a corner of the city’s underworld she doesn’t know about. He told me the guild does know vampires exist, so I’ll check the records.”

  “If you say so,” said Lloyd. “Are you sure he didn’t know the poisoner?”

  “Positive,” I said. “Isabel, did you get any clues from the market? I never asked.”

  “Unfortunately not,” said Isabel. “I’ll keep looking. While you’re at the guild, I can ask around to see if anyone has sold hemlock lately.”

  “Are you sure?” I asked.

  “Yep. I’ve got it covered.” She snapped a band on her wrist and transformed into a large red-faced man with a beard.

  Lloyd let out a low whistle. “That’s one hell of an illusion spell.”

  “It’s what I spent last night doing,” said the man, in Isabel’s voice. “I switch to a different disguise for each person I speak to. Makes it harder for anyone to track me.”

  “Good thinking.”

  Isabel could handle herself… which left it up to me to handle my not-so-fanged vampire friend. The sooner I found out what a vampire was actually capable of, the better.

  After a quick detour to my room to change out of my filthy clothes, I made my way to the archives. I’d expected there to be a novice at the desk, but instead, Morgan Lynn sat in my usual seat, feet up on the table, reading a book.

  Oh, come on. First I’d blown my perfect record, now Morgan had got muddy footprints all over the archive’s notebook I’d left on the desk.

  “Hey, Morgan, can you move?” I tugged at the notebook under his feet. “Didn’t you know you were on archive duty.”

  He shifted his feet off the notebook and pushed several overlong strands of hair out of his eyes. “I got temporarily removed from the patrol list for ‘excessive use of necromancy’. How the hell does that even work?”

  “Depends what you did.” If I had to guess, he’d thrown a zombie through someone’s window again. I walked to the back shelf and began scanning titles. “Ever met a vampire?”

  Morgan looked up from the book he’d balanced on his knees. “Sure. T
hey were everywhere in Glasgow.”

  “What?” I turned to stare at him. “You know of them? Does Lady Montgomery?” If the entire guild had been aware of vampires’ existence, it’d have been nice if someone had clued me in before I ran into one.

  “She might,” he said. “Catch.” He threw the book he’d been reading at me, where it hit me in the side of the head.

  “Ow.” The book slid to the floor. “What the hell, Morgan?”

  “Ah. Sorry. Thought you might be interested in that.”

  “You’re supposed to warn me more than half a second before throwing things at me.” I rubbed my head, retrieving the book to check the cover. “Advanced necromancy? Are you even allowed to be reading this?”

  He shrugged. Honestly. Both Lynns were weird even by guild standards, but I figured he’d spent so long in the spirit world that he’d pretty much forgotten how to act around normal people. Admittedly, calling myself ‘normal’ was stretching the definition, but still.

  “Did the vampires you met drain the life from people with a touch?” I asked, flipping the book over to read the back cover.

  “Sure. Nasty fuckers.”

  “And possess people?”

  He removed his feet from the desk, knocking over my carefully arranged paperwork in the process. “How’d you learn about vampires? You’re not supposed to know—”

  I grabbed the papers before they fell off the desk and put them on the nearest shelf. “You’re reading a senior book and you’re barely a novice, not to mention you got kicked off a mission for overstepping your boundaries. I don’t think I’m the one you should be worried about. Thanks for this.”

  “Hey, I wasn’t finished with that,” he said indignantly, as I left the archives with the book tucked under my arm. After the morning I’d had, I didn’t have the energy to wrangle answers from Morgan Lynn, and the book was exactly what I’d needed.

  Vampires occupied an entire chapter. I slowed down, reading as I walked. The description matched Keir exactly, and it didn’t sound like he’d omitted anything important from his description of how vampires worked. I’d need to ask the boss about the current laws on vampirism, though I doubted they were allowed to snatch random people off the street to snack on. The species of fae which did that were delegated to the ‘kill on sight’ list for not playing nice with humans.

  I stopped at the entry on ‘shade’. Then I reread the passage, my heart sinking into my shoes.

  A shade is a spirit that has taken entire possession of another person, leaving nothing behind but a husk. Shades are created when a soul is transplanted into a different body, by means of a ritual combining elements of witchcraft, necromancy and blood magic. Highly forbidden since the dawn of the supernatural council, there has been no recorded incident of shade possession which has not resulted in both parties dying.

  “Oh, god.” I whispered.

  Keir was right. My coven had done more than break the laws of the council, they’d broken the laws of nature to preserve their own magic. The longer the shade stayed in my head… would I eventually disappear for good?

  “What exactly is that book?” enquired Lady Montgomery, stepping out of the corridor in front of me.

  “Lady Montgomery.” I licked my lips, my mind helpfully blanking out. “Uh. I picked it up in the archives.” Not a lie, and I didn’t even feel like tattling on Morgan. It sounded like he was in enough trouble already.

  “I gathered, since you changed the rota. Care to explain?”

  “Vampires,” I said, intelligently.

  She arched a brow. “What about them?”

  “You know vampires exist?” I said. “Soul-sucking, zombie possessing… that type of vampire?”

  “I’ve been the leader of this guild for thirty years, Jas. I would be concerned for our safety if I didn’t know of the vampires’ existence. They have their own form of governance and a strict code of rules, guild-approved.”

  “Oh.” If the rulebook had Lady Montgomery’s handiwork all over it, the vampires wouldn’t be able to grab a zombie without filing a report. “I ran into one when I was looking for clues on who poisoned me, and I assumed he was going behind the guild’s back. Guess I was wrong.”

  “I cannot say I’m on a first-name basis with most of the local vampires,” said Lady Montgomery. “We also don’t broadcast their existence, the same way we don’t allow the public to know of psychics and our other skilled adepts. They’re quite strict about their own secrecy.”

  “And they’re allowed to keep their own pet zombies?” I asked.

  “There’s no rule against necromancers temporarily controlling the recently dead for their own reasons.”

  “Most of us wouldn’t have reason to.” How Keir had followed me was underhanded but not illegal. Dammit. Sure, it was nice to strike one enemy off the list, but that left me with zero clues about the poisoner. Hopefully Isabel would have better luck.

  “Thankfully,” said Lady Montgomery. “Jas, do let me know when you’re ready to be added to the patrol rota. And please be careful with the vampires.”

  Only when she was gone did I remember that if Keir had told the truth, there had been a vampire or two working against us. The two I’d seen in the spirit realm, who’d stolen his zombies. I hoped he’d managed to track them, because I had bigger problems. The boss might be fine with the vampires’ existence, but even she would draw the line at shades. And if the authorities got wind of Evelyn’s existence, not even my Hemlock magic would save me.

  I texted Lloyd asking him to meet me in the lobby, and he showed up a couple of minutes later.

  “Jas,” he said. “You look like you saw a—”

  “That got old on our first day, Lloyd. I need to go and talk to the witches.”

  “What, now?”

  “Urgently. Can you take care of this for me?” I handed him the book, which he turned over, raising an eyebrow at the cover.

  “Advanced necromancy? Isn’t this one of Lady Montgomery’s?”

  “I borrowed it from Morgan Lynn. Turns out he knows about vampires, and so does the boss.”

  He flipped the book open. “Wait, she does? Since when?”

  “Longer than me. I guess it’s senior necromancer level.” That the vampires weren’t illegally running a zombie trade made me feel a little better about going off-grid… not so much about seeking an independent exorcist. Guild law aside, it was as advisable as seeking dental care from a false hedge witch.

  But the book proved one thing: shades weren’t supposed to exist. And if I wasn’t careful, the person sharing my body would usurp me forever. I liked being alive too much to hand over control to another person, let alone a witch with terrifying powers.

  “Let me know if you need me to hide any bodies,” said Lloyd. “I know you can ask the same of anyone in this room, but still.”

  I rolled my eyes at him. “See you later.”

  Time for a long overdue conversation with Cordelia Hemlock.

  The witches apparently had even less patience for ceremony than I did this time around. The moment I crossed the disused railway tracks to the spot where I’d reappeared the last time I’d left the forest, the world disappeared, and the witches’ cave replaced the Edinburgh sky. The faintly glowing glyphs brought a glow to my own hands, and I clenched my fists, tight, willing it to go away.

  Cordelia’s judgemental frown loomed over me. “Yes?”

  “When exactly were you going to tell me you’re planning on letting the shade take over my body?” I demanded.

  She gave me a long stare, her eyes gleaming like black glass in a manner disturbingly similar to the fury that had attacked Keir and me. My whole body snapped to alertness at the power thrumming beneath my feet, resonating through the ever-present glyphs glowing on the cave’s walls.

  “Don’t be absurd,” Cordelia said. “By your own admission, no spirit who has passed into Death can return to the land of the living again.”

  “You yourself said it was more than
necromancy that brought her back,” I said. “Dark magic. Blood magic, rituals, evil magic… basically, everything in the earthly realm that’s ever been outlawed by the Mage Lords and the supernatural council. And I’m supposed to cooperate with this thing you put inside my body, in the hope that she won’t displace me and take over completely?”

  “What would give you that idea?”

  “I read up on shades,” I said. “The whole reason they exist is to replace the original soul, but usually, both end up dying. Care to explain?”

  “Shades summoned by amateur necromancers are doomed to failure,” she croaked. “But you’re much more than that. You can use her magic without involving her at all. That’s what your training is supposed to involve, if you’ve allowed your mentor to teach you.”

  “She has,” I said. “I can’t even create a simple warding spell.”

  “According to what the forest tells me, you used her magic to fight the dead, and worse,” said the old witch. “If you use her magic, you can create more than simple hedge witch spells. You can do anything at all.”

  And I’d thought that freaking vampire was full of himself. “In your dreams,” I informed her. “Which is all you’ve got now you’re stuck here, I might add, so don’t try to live out your twisted power fantasies through me.”

  “JACINDA HEMLOCK.”

  Cordelia’s booming voice rang through my bones. For an instant, I was convinced I’d been pushed right out of my body. The glyphs on the wall lit up, and my limbs trembled as the whole cave jumped to attention. Then the hum of her voice died down a little, and I released a shaky breath.

  “Don’t you dare presume to think that you were given those powers lightly,” she said. “You are to use them to defend your coven, and by extension, this entire realm.”

  “I did,” I told her. “At the risk of losing control over my own body, over my own life. You might be cool with being a garden ornament forever, but I’m not.”

  “If you learn to adequately use your magic, Jacinda, then you will have no reason to fear being replaced.”