Witch's Shadow (The Hemlock Chronicles Book 1)

by Emma L. Adams

  “That’s not what I’m afraid of.” Evelyn stepped in without a thought, and while her magic had saved my neck, I hadn’t been able to access an ounce of her power myself. While Cordelia and the others might be formidable, none of them had experienced having their soul bound to another. How did they know for sure that this wouldn’t end badly?

  “Learn your magic,” ordered Cordelia. “Come back to me when you’ve made progress, and don’t waste my time with ridiculous questions.”

  “Just one more question,” I said. “Have you ever heard of the Ancients?”

  Cordelia’s piercing gaze pinned me like a butterfly’s wing. “That is your purpose,” she said. “The Ancients are what we gave up our magic and our lives to keep contained. There are things between the worlds that should never be allowed to escape. Your magic allows you to continue our legacy, and for that reason, you must master it.”

  “What are these Ancients, exactly?” And why would the vampire be interested in the secrets of a coven who had nothing to do with necromancy? He hadn’t known I was a shade until he’d seen me.

  “Allow me to demonstrate.”

  The glyphs on the wall folded outwards, revealing a tunnel. At first, I thought I was staring at a magical illusion, or some kind of luminous painting of a giant closed eye, bigger than I was. Above and below the eye was a black tufty substance. Fur. And beyond was… not darkness, but emptiness. So much emptiness, if a person stepped close to the edge, they’d be sucked into the void to join the sleeping monster.

  Cold energy roared through my veins, reacting to the living thing sealed inside a place that quite clearly wasn’t earth. Not even close.

  They weren’t kidding around, then.

  I sagged against the wall. “Close the giant eye-hole, Cordelia. I think I’ve got it.”

  Namely: their magic was the only thing keeping that creature locked in whatever dimension it lay in.

  Tremors ran from my hands to my feet. No wonder they wanted a successor so badly—badly enough to fuse one of their people’s souls with a baby who had no say in the matter at all. But whatever magic the spirit possessed—it wasn’t enough to stand up to the power keeping that monster contained. No way in hell.

  I was hardly aware of leaving the cave, let alone stumbling down the forest path, until I found train tracks beneath my feet instead of tree roots. My whole body trembled with adrenaline.

  They’re batshit. Totally batshit. And yet, I knew no other magic user with enough power to keep that monster contained. Except maybe the Sidhe, but they had their own terrifying dimension.

  Someone stepped onto the tracks in front of me. Magic sprang to my fingertips, an echo of the forest’s power.

  “Jas!” Isabel held up her hands. “Relax, it’s me. I wanted to make sure they let you go.”

  “Oh, they let me go.” Hysterical laughter rose in my throat. “They’re out of their goddamned minds, but that apparently doesn’t matter as long as they get a willing host.”

  “I’m lost,” said Isabel, frowning. “What happened?”

  “You’ve seen the thing they keep in the forest, right? Please tell me someone else has seen that monster.”

  Her eyes rounded. “Yes. You’ve never seen it before?”

  “Nope.” I wrapped my arms around myself, shivering in the sudden cold. “They told me it’s my duty to help protect the world against things like that, and that’s why I have to use the Hemlocks’ magic.” I decided to leave out the part where they seemed to expect me to take their place, because that was far too much. “But you know I can’t. She can, and I’m not sure she’ll let me use her power willingly. What if I fail?”

  “You won’t,” said Isabel. “The Hemlocks… they’re tough, but they wouldn’t give you an impossible task.”

  “Their existence is built on the impossible,” I said. “And for that matter, I didn’t get the impression they’ve ever bound a soul to another person before. Let’s just say the book I found at the guild said this isn’t going to end well for me. Two souls can’t coexist without one of them dying.” And, eventually, both of them.

  Isabel swore. “The Hemlocks… damn. Want me to talk to them?”

  I shook my head. “I’m going to consult an exorcist,” I said. “One of Keir’s friends. Maybe it’s a mistake, but I can’t lie down and let this slide. If I can get the spirit out of my body—not kill her, but find a new host—then there’ll still be a Hemlock heir.”

  Her lips pursed. “Can a necromancer do that?”

  “None of the ones I know, but Keir seems to have a firm grasp of the supernatural underworld.” Exorcism or not, I dearly wanted to know how a vampire might have possibly encountered that terrifying void monster, if that’s really what an ‘Ancient’ was.

  “Are you sure vampires aren’t on the ‘totally illegal’ side of the supernatural law?” Isabel queried. “Because I’m—okay, it’s mostly Ivy—not exactly inexperienced with flaunting the rules, but there’s a difference between bending laws for the sake of keeping people safe, and well… sucking out souls.”

  “The guild knows about the vampires,” I told her. “Not the ones who attacked us, but Keir was on their tail. I’ll give him a good grilling. Trust me.”

  11

  I bounced on the balls of my feet, wishing I’d had the good sense to grab some food before leaving to meet Keir. The smell of coffee and sandwiches from the nearby food cart was highly distracting. I’d learned my lesson about buying strange food or drink, considering someone wanted to poison me, but the vampire was taking his sweet time showing up. I’d paced up and down the street a dozen times, looking for any signs of the living or dead.

  I paced back to the spot outside an empty shop, and Keir emerged from a side street, hands in the pockets of a dark jacket he hadn’t been wearing earlier, his casual stance not giving any indication that he might secretly be possessing multiple people at once. I couldn’t help wondering what he actually did for a living. Did he pilfer the bank accounts of the dead bodies he possessed? It was the sort of thing unscrupulous necromancers did until they were slapped down by the guild. There was a reason our rulebook was so extensive, and for Lady Montgomery to tolerate the vampires’ presence in the city, they must abide by guild laws to the letter.

  Keir stalled beside the sandwich stall, buying one, and walked to me while eating it.

  I raised an eyebrow. “Weren’t you warning me about poisoners?”

  “Not here. Jarvis is safe. I didn’t get to eat anything all day.”

  “Nor me. All right, I’ll be back in a moment.”

  I went to buy a sandwich of my own, scanning the empty street in case Keir had brought an undead friend. I’d been patrolling around here before and rarely encountered any zombies despite the number of calls we got from concerned locals. If the undead all had owners who disposed of them when they started to decay, no wonder.

  “So who’s this exorcist friend of yours?” I asked, walking back to Keir’s side and taking a bite out of my sandwich.

  “Patience. He’ll meet us here.”

  “Hmm.” I chewed my mouthful. “It won’t hurt, will it?”

  He screwed up his empty sandwich wrapper and tilted his head as though to study me. “Are you absolutely certain you want to go through with this? It looked like you got on quite well with the shade’s magic during the battle, and her skill far outweighs yours.”

  I nearly threw my sandwich at him. “You are such an arse. Only the witchcraft is hers, and I don’t use it. The rest of it is all me.”

  He smirked, tossing his sandwich wrapper into the nearest bin. “I didn’t mean to offend you—”

  “Because that changes everything.”

  “I meant to say that her skill is more… unconventional. No, being with the guild doesn’t count. They hire anyone with the merest hint of magical talent. And my acquaintance will expect reassurance that the witch’s magic won’t turn against him if you decide to go ahead with the exorcism.”

&nbs
p; I wouldn’t bet on it. Maybe Evelyn would lash out when she found out my plan. But I couldn’t just let her hitch a ride in my body forever. Keir had spotted her easily enough, and if she came out during another fight in the spirit realm, and a necromancer saw her… there was only one end for both of us, and it looked like the inside of a cell.

  “It’s your choice,” he said. “That shade won’t leave you by itself. They can be… tenacious, especially when bonded to the living for a long time. How long has it been bound to you?”

  “None of your business.” I tossed my own wrapper into the bin. “Listen, I’ll be blunt: I don’t trust you any more than I do your lowlife friends. Did you catch the vampire who stole your zombies?”

  His jaw tightened. “No. Your friends exterminated all the dead, so I assume the thief left the scene.”

  “Great.” Trusting any vampire was a terrible plan, but short of telling the guild about the shade, there were no other necromancers I could trust not to hand me over to the authorities. I’d heard enough rumours about the dungeon beneath the guild where the few people who did illegal necromancy and survived spent the rest of their days rotting—assuming the mages didn’t execute both me and the spirit on the spot. Nobody who broke the magical laws, whatever their reasons, got away with it. Hemlocks included.

  “But I do have my own theories about who might have tried to take your life,” he added. “Starting with the people who tried to exterminate your coven.”

  My jaw hit the floor. “Excuse me?”

  “I assumed you already knew,” he said. “If you’re not the last of your kind.”

  Dammit. Thanks for that one, Cordelia. If they hadn’t told me the shade might take my place, of course they wouldn’t tell me who their enemies actually were. Aside from the Sidhe, that is.

  “Who tried to destroy my coven?” I asked, quietly. “Tell me.”

  “I heard rumours,” he said. “Nothing concrete. Did you get an answer to my question?”

  “The Ancients?” I said. “I’ll tell you, if you tell me who my coven’s enemies are.”

  “That’s your answer,” he said.

  The image of a giant eye floated before me. Oh. Maybe they did tell me. But why would inter-dimensional monsters need to administer poison to wipe me out? And for that matter, how in hell would a vampire know about them?

  “You saw what we fought in the tunnel,” he added. “The same beasts, and much worse, tried to destroy your coven along with the rest of the world, and they’ll take every opportunity to do it again.”

  I swallowed hard. “That thing in the tunnel wasn’t an… Ancient. You called it a fury.”

  He shrugged, but the casual movement didn’t quite hide the hint of tension in his posture. “It’s a relation. They’re from wherever the Ancients dwell, and someone summoned it, using a ritual known only to a select few—including the Hemlock Coven.”

  My throat went dry. “Excuse me? You’re saying my coven summoned it? Trust me, that is not possible. You wanted me to ask them about the Ancients because you think the Hemlocks summoned those things?” I nearly laughed, though there was nothing amusing about the situation in the slightest. Powerful though they might be, the Hemlocks remained trapped in their prison.

  “If the rumours are true and you’re the last living survivor of the coven in this realm, I suppose not,” he said. “I wanted confirmation that you weren’t the summoner before putting you in touch with my contact.”

  “Assuming he shows up.” I shivered, not just from the cold. “I don’t get it. How did you know the Hemlocks existed if you’re not one of them? No outsiders are supposed to—”

  “A conversation for another day,” he said. “Our exorcist is here.”

  A tall man staggered towards us. He had long shaggy dark hair and wore a long coat. From his unsteady movements, he didn’t look capable of removing his own shoes, let alone an evil spirit. Why had I trusted Keir not to screw with me again?

  “Hemlock,” the man said, in a croaking voice.

  What? “You told—”

  “No.” Keir went very still. “Jas, he’s not here. He’s—”

  “Possessed by another vampire.” I grabbed my knife.

  The dead man raised both hands, and necromantic power blasted into both of us. The spirit world rose around me, revealing two shadowy outlines behind the dead man.

  Two vampires. Crap on toast.

  Hands locked around mine, pulling me back into the waking world, and coldness spread through my skin right to my soul.

  “Let go.” I kicked at the man’s shins, but while the zombie overbalanced, the vampire’s grip on my spirit remained tenacious. Shit.

  As greyness filtered in, a shadowy blur collided with the vampire from the side, breaking his hold on me. I barely had chance to gasp out a thank you, before the second vampire grabbed for me, this one not even bothering to use a zombie as a proxy.

  I blasted him in the face with necromantic energy, shouting the words of banishing at the top of my lungs.

  Before I could see if the banishing had worked, the first zombie collided with me, hands flailing. I tried to raise my knife, but my body didn’t obey my command.

  Instead, threads of white power whipped from my hands, slicing through the zombies, body and spirit both. Keir jumped aside with an alarmed hiss as the magic grazed him.

  Hey! Stop that.

  “Jas?” he said, looking me in the eyes. “Let her go, shade.”

  I floated above my body in the spirit realm, threads of blue-white energy glowing in my hands, not so different to piloting a zombie. Except the person being piloted—was me.

  If Evelyn can do that, then so can I.

  Gritting my teeth, I grabbed those threads of light, and shoved my way back into my body. For a few panicked seconds, I went nowhere fast. Then sensation shot back into my hands so abruptly, I yelped with the shock of coldness. Icy fragments cracked on my knuckles, and I caught my balance before I fell to my knees.

  “Jas?” Keir looked me carefully in the eyes. “Good. You’re back.”

  “You seem confident it wasn’t me who wanted to kill you,” I said shakily. My mind spun in circles. Even reading that book, hearing the Hemlocks’ words, part of me hadn’t wanted to believe I could forfeit control of my own body that easily. But she hadn’t just taken the reins. Pushing her out of my head had been like wresting control of that zombie from someone who absolutely did not want to give it up.

  “Are those vampires permanently gone?” he asked.

  “You should know if they are.” I wasn’t going back into the spirit realm to check anytime soon.

  His gaze briefly zoned out. “They’re gone,” he confirmed. “I didn’t know you could fight both in this realm and the spirit realm at the same time.”

  “Are you shitting me?” So much for exorcising the problem. I might have taken control towards the end, but Evelyn had stepped into my body without my say-so, like, well, a vampire stealing another’s undead vessel.

  “If it’s any consolation, your shade only attacked the enemies,” he said. “Not me. I got in the way, but I wasn’t who she was aiming at.”

  “You say that like it’s a good thing.”

  He held his hand over his heart with a mockery of a sad expression. “I’m wounded, Jas.”

  “You’re insufferable,” I said, though his ridiculous antics helped me feel a little better. “How I am I to know you didn’t coordinate the vampires’ attack yourself?”

  “You were outnumbered, Jas. If I’d been working with them, I could easily have taken you down while you were in the spirit realm.”

  “Not if she got to you first.” I gave him a grim smile that had absolutely no humour in it. “You’ve seen what she can do. I doubt she knows friend from foe, so I can’t say I know why she spared your life, but I think you should probably count yourself lucky.”

  He tilted his head on one side, a smile playing on his lips. “Threats, Jas?”

  “More like a wa
rning. Might have escaped your attention, but our exorcist is dead, and so is my shot at getting the shade out of my head. She’s been in there a long time and I can’t say I know what she’s capable of, but I’d be on my guard.”

  His smile shifted, showing a hint of what might have been respect. I had the distinct impression that earning his respect was no easy feat, but it didn’t make me want to thwack the smirk off his face any less.

  “So now your exorcist is dead,” I said. “What now, genius?”

  “Mine? Not hardly. It was a long shot. He wasn’t powerful… certainly not as powerful as your shade is.”

  “So you never planned to help me?” I said. “I thought you were a man of your word.”

  “I promised you an audience with the exorcist, and I apologise for not being able to follow up on that part of our bargain. However…” He paused. “I can’t say I’m absolutely convinced it’d have worked. Shades are rare, and even rarer is a host who lives alongside the spirit for years without being aware. To undo the binding, you’d probably have to consult the spirit yourself and see if she remembers how she ended up bound to you.”

  Like it or not, he made total sense. Even the Hemlock witches couldn’t possibly know what the spirit had been thinking while she’d been tied to me for twenty-two years, after all. Keir shouldn’t know anything about my relationship with her, but it wasn’t hard to guess, based on what he’d seen of me. I never had been a very good liar.

  Keir himself, on the other hand? He could lie for a living. His too-handsome face was just a mask for a shadowy person beneath who might be friend or foe. And he knew entirely too much about my coven for my liking. He might have helped me, but two of his fellow vampires had also known I was a Hemlock witch.

  “How many people did you tell about me?” I asked. “I have literally never told a soul that I’m a Hemlock witch since I moved to this city, and now suddenly everyone knows.”

  “If you’re accusing me of telling the other vampires, I didn’t,” he said. “Some of us may be friends and allies, but we’re fairly independent of one another and don’t share dangerous magical knowledge as easily as the guild does.”