Dammit. “You should stay out of the battle, Harper.”
“No chance,” said Harper. “You saved my life, and if not for the Death King, you’d never have had that chance. I’m coming with you.”
“No more arguing,” Miles said firmly. “We’re in.”
Their words bolstered me more than I’d anticipated, coming on the heels of Tay’s betrayal. I didn’t know what I’d do if I ran into her on the battlefield, but Miles was right. We had to take down the rogues before they could get their hands on any more power.
The three of us stepped into the node’s path, and the current of energy carried us away, towards the swampland… and a battlefield.
18
Bolts of fire shot across the swampland, clashing in mid-air as the fire mages fought the shadowy forces of the Death King’s liches. One of them must be Davies, the ex-Fire Element, and as I’d feared, he’d brought an army with him.
Liv and the Death King stood side by side, using the node’s power to send blasts of spirit magic at their adversaries. Not just fire mages, but some liches fought on the side of the enemy as well. This, I realised, was exactly what Liv had tried to warn me about. Some of the Death King’s own forces had gone to join the ex-Fire Element and his allies, and even with an undead army at his back, the King of the Dead was surrounded. There must be something I could do to help, but considering our earlier encounter, I bet Liv would think I was fighting against her if I went within her line of sight. If only she’d trusted me, then we could have teamed up against the enemy.
We still have that chance. If we survive this.
A clamour shook the swampland as a group of skeletal beasts on horseback rode through the gates of the castle, wielding swords and spears. It seemed the Death King had called on all his forces to help, and the tide of the battle turned as the wight army joined the liches.
A fire mage stepped into my way, hands blazing, a cantrip glowing around his neck. I dodged the oncoming inferno and retaliated with a strike of my own. Damn, those cantrips were strong. Was it any wonder, considering who’d created them?
Mav flew around, using her water magic to dampen the enemy’s fire. My heart lurched when I saw Harper surrounded by liches, fighting side by side with Dex’s firepower. Ahead of her, another fire mage stood in the midst of the liches, wearing armoured clothing in the style of the Elemental Soldiers.
It’s him. Davies. The Death King’s former Fire Element. He must have kept the uniform as a final ‘fuck you’ to his former employer… and his attention was on Harper.
“You.” He approached her, conjuring fire to his hands. “Thought you’d come back, did you? I could have given you a far better deal than the Death King, you know.”
Harper, no!
I put on a burst of speed, but a wall of shadowy liches blocked my path, cold hands grasping for my life essence. The world distorted in a haze of shadow as I fought to cling to consciousness. I spotted Liv punch Davies hard enough to break his nose, but I didn’t stop to join in. Instead, I slammed a fireball into the liches’ path, sending them scattering in all directions. Reaching Harper’s side, I dropped to a crouch beside her. She lay on her back, still and quiet.
No. Please, no.
Another fireball leapt to my palms, and I fired it straight at the liches blocking my path. Then I hauled Harper’s body over my shoulder and sprinted for the node. Too fast, but—fuck it. I wouldn’t let her die.
The node’s light flared around me, then I reappeared in the street of Arcadia, close to the citadel. Harper’s dead weight made my shoulders scream with pain, but I hardly noticed. In seconds, I ran across the square, reached the back door of the citadel, and kicked it open.
For an instant, I thought I’d crashed into another battle. Miles and another spirit mage were shouting at one another at the foot of the stairs—at least until he saw me. “Shit, Bria. What happened to her?”
“She’s dying,” I gasped out. “The Death King’s liches turned traitor—and the ex-Fire Element had them attack her.”
“I told you,” he shot at one of the others. Then he added, “They refused to come and help us.”
“Because it’s a death sentence!” protested one of the other spirit mages. “Fire mages with amplifying cantrips, full-powered liches and that scumbag of an ex-Fire Element—we’re outgunned.”
“So you’re going to wait for them to come for you instead?” I laid down Harper’s body, my shoulders aching, my eyes burning with tears. “You’re spirit mages. How can you sit this one out?”
“We’re spirit mages, not trained for war,” said Shelley.
“Some of us are.” Miles reached to Harper’s body, his brow furrowed as though focusing on something I couldn’t see. “This is bad.”
My heart lurched. “Can you save her?”
“Her soul is badly damaged,” he said. “I can try, but… it might be too late.”
My brief flare of hope extinguished in a flash. “It’s my fault. She came with me because she wanted to help.”
“She died because the liches turned on the Death King,” said Miles. “I have no intention of doing the same. If any of you have a problem with that, then you’re free to leave.”
None of the spirit mages moved. He must have assembled his remaining allies in here, but with the monster rampaging around upstairs and Shawn on the other side of the transporter, they wouldn’t be able to stay here forever.
Shelley shook her head. “She’s all but dead. It’s too late.”
“Not necessarily.” Miles pulled something out of his pocket. My gaze caught on the shape of a skull engraved into a disc-like shape. A soul amulet.
“What the…?” Oh. “You want to turn her into a lich.”
“I want to offer her the choice.” He glanced at Shelley. “Don’t look at me like that, Shelley. This is Bria’s and Harper’s business. Do you trust me?”
You know what? I did trust him, despite it all. I looked down at Harper’s cold, still form. “I never should have brought her back here. If I hadn’t…”
“It’s not your fault,” Miles insisted. “C’mon, Bria. Can you hold the amulet?”
I looked up at the skull etched into its surface. “I’m not a spirit mage.”
“Go with it,” he whispered in my ear, pushing the amulet into my hand. “I’ll save her.”
His hands glowed with light as he leaned over her body. A moment later, a tall, pale figure appeared, transparent and floating above his hands. Harper.
“What’s going on?” Panic lit up her gaze when she caught sight of her body lying on the ground below her. “I’m dead, aren’t I?”
“Harper, hang on,” I urged her. “Miles is going to save you.”
“I have to ask you first,” he said to her. “Are you okay with coming back as… as a lich?”
“Am I what?” she said.
A fist clenched over my heart as I recalled the rumours that the Death King had created his army by ripping out the souls of those who defied him, condemning them to serve him forever. While I didn’t think there was any truth to the rumours after what I’d seen of him, the fact remained that I was asking Harper to give up a natural life in order to survive… or else disappear forever.
“It’s okay if you don’t want to,” I said to her. “Miles and I wanted to offer you the chance. If you don’t, you can move on peacefully. If you do decide to stay, you’ll lose your fire magic as well as your old life.”
She looked between us, her mouth pinched with indecision. “If I disappear now… I’ll never see my brother again. I won’t get to say goodbye. I’ll do it.”
“Are. you sure?”
“No, but I only get one chance to make the choice, don’t I?” She nodded to Miles. “Do it.”
“Okay.” He lifted her transparent figure and gingerly carried her towards the amulet in my hands. Despite myself, hope bloomed inside me when her spirit sank beneath the surface of the disc. Miles muttered something inaudible under his breath, an
d light suffused the lines of the amulet.
Slowly, a shadow began to take form in the place where Harper had floated. A cloaked shadow shaped like a person but with no features, no life shining behind the shadowy mask. I glanced to the side at her body and shock hit me when I saw she’d gone, leaving nothing but her clothes behind.
“Hey there,” said Harper’s voice from the shadowy figure of the lich. “Damn, this is weird. Am I floating, or am I just taller than before?”
“Both,” said Miles, nodding to the amulet in my hand. I saw the tremor in his shoulders and realised the spell had taken more out of him than I’d thought.
Harper turned her shadowy head as though examining her new body. “I see why the liches always look so intimidating.”
“You’ll have a few new tricks up your sleeve, too,” added Miles. “Sorry you had to give up your fire magic, but in my humble opinion, spirit magic is better.”
“I can use spirit magic now?” she said. “Holy crap.”
“Don’t do it in here,” said Shelley, in tones laced with disapproval. “When you’ve quite finished raising the dead, Miles, we have a decision to make.”
“Keep your hair on,” he said. “We have one more ally now. Let’s head back to the base and find the others. Then we can help the Death King.”
I wasn’t certain that Harper would remain sure of her decision, but that could wait until later. For now, we had a battle to win.
19
Miles led the way across the square to the node. The others followed, grumbling among themselves. It seemed not everyone agreed with our plan, but hiding in the citadel with a monster loose above their heads wasn’t much of a battle strategy, either.
I turned to Miles to find him watching me with concern in his expression, which prompted me to speak. “Did… did you know? About Tay?”
“I suspected from the start,” he said. “But I didn’t know you at the time, and it didn’t feel right telling you my suspicions when I had no proof. All I knew is that she was missing, and I didn’t see who took her.”
I opened my mouth, then closed it again. The time for grudges was over. The only person who could tell me the truth was Tay herself.
We halted at the alley’s entrance to find the Death King of all people standing in our way. His gaze went to Harper, who gasped and tried to hide behind Miles. Unsuccessfully.
“That was risky,” he said, addressing Miles.
“Don’t you have a battle to fight?” I told him, standing defensively in front of Harper. “I thought you were in the middle of a war.”
“It’s over,” he said, his tone without any inflection. “Davies is dead.”
And so is Harper. “It’s not over. Shawn and his allies are still out there.”
“Then I expect you want to deal with them yourselves,” he said. “If you want me to take her soul amulet back to the castle to put with the others, then I can do that.”
I looked from him to Harper and back again. “What?”
“Don’t play at ignorance,” he said. “It’s not becoming of you.”
“It’s Harper’s choice,” said Miles, “but the amulet will be safer in the castle.”
“I’m not giving my soul to him,” came Harper’s indignant voice from behind me.
“Would you rather take it into battle with you and risk one of the other spirit mages finishing what Davies and his allies started?” he enquired.
Harper was silent for a moment. “No. Bria, give him the amulet.”
“You sure?” I pulled the disc-shaped object out of my pocket, acutely aware I was literally handing her life over to the Death King. But what choice did we have? If I kept it with me and the Family found me… it didn’t bear thinking about. I would not let Harper’s free will be taken away again.
The Death King took the soul amulet from me with cold, transparent fingers, making me shiver. “Come and speak to me later, Bria, and bring your friend with you.”
As he swept away, Miles chuckled under his breath.
I tilted my head at him. “What’s so funny?”
“He’s not going to arrest us,” he said. “Not going to conscript us into his army, either.”
“I bloody hope not, considering I just handed him my soul,” said Harper from behind us. “Also, how in hell did he know you were the one who turned me into a lich?”
“He’s the king of the liches,” I said. “Or maybe being a lich gives you mind-reading powers, who knows.”
“Hasn’t happened to me yet,” she said. “I want a refund.”
“Come on.” Shelley stepped into the lead. “Let’s head back to our base.”
Harper didn’t move. “Can I travel like this? Aren’t I supposed to go to live in the Court of the Dead with the other liches?”
“You don’t have to,” said Miles.
“You’d be fine,” I said. “Everyone will be terrified of you now.”
“Yeah, well. I’m not so sure about this.”
My heart dropped. “You think you made a mistake?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “I’ll come with you, and then… we’ll see.”
A twinge of worry reminded me her decision might not be permanent, and we might have to say goodbye later after all, but I pushed it aside as we followed Miles and the others through the node.
Once we’d reappeared in a flash of light, Miles led the way to a decently sized house with whitewashed walls. It looked almost like a transplant from back in the other world, complete with a garden, and, inexplicably, a number of vampire chickens roaming the yard.
“I’m going to ask for an explanation of that as soon as we’re inside,” I warned him. “Were you the ones breeding the vampire chickens from the start?”
“No.” He opened the gates and led the way to the doorstep, while the rest of us followed behind him. Then he knocked on the door.
A tall black man with hair shaved to stubble and a pierced ear answered. “Miles.”
“Hey, Tate,” said Miles. “Shawn’s on the run. Fancy chasing him down?”
The mage on the doorstep glared at us. “She’s not coming in.”
“I know Harper looks like a lich, but she’s an ally,” I said.
“Not her,” he said. “You.”
My heart dropped. “Excuse me?”
“You used to be with the Family.”
Shit. Did everyone know about my history now?
“I also heard another of your friends is working for the enemy,” he added.
“That wasn’t something I planned for,” I told him. “Tay betrayed me. And everyone else, too. Harper died for it.”
“I have no idea who that is.”
“Me,” said Harper.
“You brought a lich with you, too?”
“Come on, Tate,” said Miles. “We need a plan. If you let us in, I can explain it all. None of us are going to hurt any of you.”
“I’m more worried about her.” He jabbed a finger at me.
I frowned. “I’m on your side, and nobody is following me. I’ve been with Miles since the battle.”
“Let them in,” said another mage from behind him. “You’ll draw more attention hanging around outside. We won’t let anyone get hurt.”
To my relief, the group of mages moved aside and let us into the house. The white-painted hallway and furnished rooms were as incongruous to me as the Death King’s castle, compared to my usual haunts. The Spirit Agents had more resources than I’d known. Yet Shawn and his mates had thrown it all away.
Even so, the number of remaining Spirit Agents was higher than I’d expected. I counted over a dozen of them between our two groups. Some regarded me with suspicion, and a couple outright recoiled when Harper entered the room.
“Why is there a lich in here?”
“She’s with us,” I told them.
“She was killed by one of Shawn’s lot.” added Miles. “Not an hour ago.”
“So you decided to turn her into a lich?” said Tate. “Miles
, we’ve talked about this.”
This wasn’t the first time he’d raised the dead? I’d have asked, but the others descended on him, asking questions, while Harper shrank back into the doorway.
“Maybe this was a mistake,” she said quietly.
“Nah, they’re just on edge,” I whispered. “Besides, I think I’m the one in trouble. And Miles.”
At least the others had momentarily been distracted from questioning me about the Family by Miles’s apparent habit of binding people to soul amulets. I’d forgotten to ask where he’d even got it from, but it was clear this place was as full of secrets as the Death King’s castle.
“Enough,” Miles said, cutting through the others’ arguments. “Whatever you think of Bria and Harper’s presence here, the fact remains that Shawn screwed us all over, and took half our allies along with him. We scared him out of the citadel by setting his own wyrm on the loose, but they’ll be back.”
“And he has a fucking wyrm, too?” said Tate. “I’d say that’s a good reason to leave them to it.”
“They want us dead,” Miles said. “We need to get that monster out of the citadel, for a start, before it attacks someone.”
“Exactly,” I put in. “They’re in hiding, but I bet they’ll go back to Arcadia as soon as they think the coast is clear.”
“And what if that traitor friend of yours is back there waiting for us?” said Shelley.
She had a point. “I doubt she is.”
But I didn’t know what I’d do when I inevitably came face to face with Tay again. It was still too raw to think about her betrayal, and I didn’t blame the others for being suspicious.
“The wyrm is Shawn’s responsibility, not ours, anyway,” said Shelley. “What’re we supposed to do with the damn thing, keep it in the garden with the vampire chickens?”
Harper snorted, and several of the others looked startled to hear the noise coming from a lich.
Another mage asked Miles, “Where are Shawn and his friends now?”
“No idea,” said Miles. “They activated the transporter in the citadel. They might have gone anywhere.”
Cage of Fire (Parallel Magic Book 1) Page 19