by Freya Black
Our beloved dean held a degree from every reputable college in the United States, including a few overseas. A scholar to the core, he focused on the sciences, even becoming a well-known professor in the scientific community. Over the years, he’d gained a reputation, slowly making additions to his coven. Alchemy, an ancient form of chemistry, was the basis of his craft, drawing followers to our small town.
And with his magic, we would attempt to distract the supernatural hunters waiting to steal our powers.
I sat with Sloane at the back laboratory table, holding hands, devoid of emotion. A simple nod of the head was our only movement. Since the Inner Circle’s vote last night, Sloane had let me out of his sight only four times. He was afraid if he let go, I would vanish, in the same fashion I had after the Glamour War. One way or another, we were dead, and he knew it, too.
Kate swiveled on her stool and joined Jonathan and his colleagues at the front tables. She gripped the edge of the granite top and forced a smile. It was better than the permanent scowl she had worn since my return from Krona. “The Rubedo Coven is here to help us with our Hexenjager problem. We have one week to prepare, and your divine powers alone will not be enough to hold them.” Kate shifted her stance and nodded at the alchemist. “Jonathan, do you mind?”
“Not at all.” He looked at the three middle-aged men next to him.
Logan Moreau, his second-in-command, set an oversize specimen container on the table. “Alchemy, just like your powers, requires the elements of Air, Earth, Water, and Fire. With a simple mixture of chemistry and magic, we can create a magical illusion, similar to a Glamour,” Logan said.
Logan reached into the plastic jar and produced a sphere the size of a Christmas ornament.
With his height towering over Jonathan and the others, he was thick in the chest and had curly dark hair cut short and faded on the sides. Even after years of living in Arcadia, Logan’s New Orleans roots and Cajun accent would still bleed through at times.
“Dis—” He cleared his throat and corrected himself, “This is a Brimstone Ball.” His hand swallowed the transparent object shimmering with Blue Energy, the pale glow illuminating his dark features.
“We created a special mixture of sulfur and magic,” Jonathan interjected with a proud smile. “When thrown, they will produce a chemical reaction called combustion.”
Declan coughed in a rather obnoxious manner, catching my attention. He rolled his eyes, the same way he did every time Jonathan went on a tangent about basic scientific concepts.
Jonathan rambled on about ignition points, oxygen, nitrogen, and so on and so forth for several minutes. Declan pretended to prop an eyelid open with his pen, a devious grin matching the look in his eyes. It was the first time I smiled in what felt like days.
I perked up when Logan said, “Bind your powers to metal.”
“What does that mean?” I said, unaware I had spoken until his eyes were on mine.
Logan looked somewhat pleased by my intrusion. “In some ways, it’s similar to transmutation. There are different forms, but in regard to the elemental powers, we can change one element into another by binding it to metal.”
My chest ached the moment his words sank in. Divination and Telepathy fell into their own category. Despite my ability to use all five divine powers, Sloane and I could not bind our powers the same as our Coven.
I frowned at Sloane, who had made the same connection, and his energy shot up my arm. Declan scraped his stool along the floor until our knees touched. The irritation on Sloane’s face turned into anger that seeped into my aura as Declan leaned closer.
Declan brushed against my arm. “Hey, Fee, it’s okay.”
Sloane’s emotional transference had changed from a soft electrical current to falling in a bathtub with a hairdryer in seconds. I jerked my hand back and crashed into Declan’s shoulder, almost knocking him off the stool.
The Lovers card I had drawn from the Crescent tarot deck came to mind. A choice between the two, I could never make, even if it killed me.
“I’m so sorry.” Sloane held my hand and massaged the top with his thumb. “I can’t always block it.”
My lips tightened in an attempt to hide the pain that felt like flesh pressed to a hot griddle. “I’m okay,” I lied.
Sloane knew it.
“How does it work?” Declan raised his hand, staring at Logan. “I mean, the whole binding thing.”
“It helps if you use a personal object, something that has a particular meaning to you. Then, we—”
A set of keys jingled as Declan pulled them from the pocket of his jeans. “How ’bout this?” He held a long silver key in the air, the key to Shelby, his most prized possession.
“That would work,” Logan said.
Until Celeste’s hand shot up, I was oblivious to my surroundings and had forgotten she was in the classroom.
“When you say, change one element to another, does that mean you could take my water powers and turn them into fire?”
The corner of Logan’s lip turned up, suppressing a smile. “No, not exactly. One part requires a physical element, which is where a car key would come into play. Then, we use a Maleficum spell that will extract a portion of your powers and bind them to the object.”
“Dark magic.” Any hope Celeste had clung to vanished as her crooked smile turned into a frown. “But we’re not supposed to use Malum.”
“It’s okay.” Kate clutched the jeweled medallion around her neck and sighed. “We don’t have much choice here. But you need to understand, there are risks to binding your powers.”
“Kate’s right,” Jonathan said. “There are serious risks involved. For starters, you might never regain full use of your powers. Worst-case scenario, it could absorb too much of your powers, which would kill you.”
Celeste grimaced. “Have you ever done it before?”
“Yes.” Jonathan scratched the side of his face, turning his head toward Kate.
Declan leaned his elbow on the edge of my table. “Did it work?”
Jonathan adjusted his navy pinstripe tie, looking at Kate again, but he didn’t speak. I cringed when she bit the corner of her lip, a dead giveaway that she was hiding something.
“Well…” Kate sucked in a deep breath. “Would all of you mind giving me some time alone with Fiona?”
“Just say it.” I hopped off the stool, gripping Sloane’s hand tighter.
Kate exhaled, heels clacking on the stone floor as she walked toward my table. “Your mom kept a lot of things buried, and she wasn’t very forthcoming with her visions. She said it was her burden to bear. I don’t know what happened, but something changed. She had Jonathan use the Maleficum spell…”
My eyebrows furrowed, confused by how an elemental spell would work on my mother.
Kate stood between Declan and me, a dejected look on her face. “Your mom forced Jonathan to bind some of her powers to the Crescent Amulet.”
I glanced down at the amethyst around my neck, its energy breaking through the dim light of the flickering candelabras. “I thought it had to be an elemental power.”
“Normally, it does,” Jonathan said, avoiding direct eye contact. “Your mother was a rare exception. However, your father—”
“Jonathan!” Kate scolded.
“What about him?” I hissed through clenched teeth. “What are you not telling me?”
“I’m sorry. It wasn’t my secret to tell.” Kate reached out, but I recoiled at the thought of her betrayal.
That was all my life added up to anymore—a series of secrets and lies.
“Your mom made me promise, and I intended on keeping that promise…until today. Jonathan’s spell worked on her.” The pain behind her words ripped my insides apart. “But your dad…”
I fought the tears forming at the corners of my eyes. My chest ached, as if someone had ripped my heart out and crushed it to pieces. “Did they die in an accident, or was that a lie, too?”
Kate stared at the ground, a ri
ver of tears streaming down her face. “No, not exactly.”
“Then, who did we bury in that cemetery?” I shouted in a tone so harsh that Kate took a step back. Questions raced through my mind, whipping me into a haze, but my anger took over. “I held a torch to their funeral pyre, watched their bodies burn to ash. I buried my parents.”
Kate placed her hand on my shoulder, waiting to see if I would push her away again, before she wrapped her arms around me. “I’m so sorry,” she said, her voice muffled by her cries. “I wanted to tell you, but I couldn’t do it. I knew you would have enough pain to endure with the prophecy and the challenges that go with it.”
Sloane’s powers brought me back from the rage-entangled fury I’d stirred up inside.
“Please, just tell me the truth,” I begged.
Kate scooted a chair next to me and sat down. “After the Glamour War, your mom started experimenting with Malum.” Her bottom lip quivered as she spoke, “It changed her. She became distant and started hiding at the Coven House with your dad. Sometimes, she would go days at a time without coming home. The night before her death, she said she found a way to protect you from the curse. That’s when she gave me her personal grimoire. Until you opened her letter, I had no idea she’d stolen a Galdrar or a Scipio wand. All these years, I’d thought she was trying to protect you from the dark Fey, not the Imperium Council.”
If not for Sloane’s iron grip, I would have slid off the stool. My mother had spun a web of lies and left me clawing through them.
I cleared the lump in the back of my throat and tried to steady my voice. “What happened to my parents? How did they die?”
Kate shifted nervously on her chair, staring at Jonathan before meeting my gaze. “Jonathan was able to extract your father’s powers. That’s why your Cerebral Force is so strong. Instead of binding his powers to metal, your mother used a Sacrificium spell. It—”
“No!” Every emotion raced through me at once.
When it sank in that my father had sacrificed his life to give me his powers, his Cerebral Force, the air escaped from my lungs. A Sacrificium spell required the taking of one life to give to the other, and when binding powers with black magic, the effects were usually deadly for both parties.
“Mom used me as a vessel. How did I even survive the effects of the spell?”
“You underestimate how strong you are,” Kate said. “Like I told you before, there’s darkness on the Mandrake side of the family. That is what will help you balance the magic between the realms. The light and dark will cancel the other out.”
I tugged the Amulet off my neck, angry with my mother, and threw it onto the table, like a piece of trash. “I don’t want his powers. I want my dad back!”
Kate sucked in a deep breath and exhaled, blowing her hair in her face. “It’s not possible, sweetie. Only a Necromancer can do that.”
I remembered the story about Nate Alexander’s father, the Necromancer put to death by the Imperium Council, and then I thought of the last person I’d ever want help from, the man who had taken my mother’s place on the Council. “Where can we find one?”
“I’m afraid it’s not that simple,” Kate said.
“Would Gethin Marx help us?”
Kate tilted her head toward the wall, her nose wrinkled with uncertainty. A few moments of silence ensued before her expression changed, and something clicked. “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea. I’m afraid of what the Council would do if they discovered what’s inside of you. In order to combat the darkness of a spell from The Black Book, you need to harness that power.”
I felt the life drain from my face. “Were you there when it happened?” Tears burned my eyes, making it hard to see. “Were you there when my dad died?”
Kate nodded, a deep sadness resonating behind her eyes. “The morning after, I found your mom lying next to his body on the floor of the gathering room with the Crescent Amulet in her hand.”
I looked over at Sloane, wondering if that fate would one day belong to us. He tried to hide his fear with a tiny smile, but I felt every ounce of it rushing through my veins. Even if I could save Arcadia, the Council would execute me for treason.
It killed me that the people I loved would suffer, regardless of my decision. And I had to find a way to spare them.
Chapter 26
For my potential last day on earth, I craved the comfort of Dakota Pointe. Slivers of lavender and gold soaked into the sky, dancing across the mountaintops. Huddled around a small fire, Kate and Declan observed as Quinn attempted to explain my powers. Sloane caressed my shoulder, the warmth of his aura relieving the icy chill.
“You can do this, babe,” Sloane whispered into my ear.
I leaned back, resting my head on his shoulder, and smiled.
Quinn walked to the edge of the cliff, lifted a sizable rock, and set it down in front of me. His hand hovered over it, and before I had a chance to blink, the stone levitated beneath Quinn’s palm.
“You need to channel your energy and focus. Allow your anger to consume you, use that anger and hatred for the Hexenjagers to push your energy outward.” Quinn grabbed my hand, lifting me to my feet. “Feel it leave your body, and direct that energy toward this rock. There will be more of them, and they are far more powerful than anyone in our Coven, so focus is key. We will try to hold them off for as long as possible, but you need to work fast.”
I swallowed hard to clear the lump forming at the back of my throat. Since the attack, our entire Coven had remained at the Coven House. I felt like a prisoner held inside the sandstone walls, except that I wasn’t shackled. The house added a layer of protection for us all even though the cemetery itself proved to be a vulnerable spot. Hexenjagers could get to us now that they had weakened our shields around our sacred ritual grounds.
Sloane had set aside his differences with Declan, but I suspected he was keeping an eye on him. And Declan pretended as though he never kissed me. We were acting about as normal as one could in our situation. Celeste had stayed at the house with Vivian to work on their aquatic powers. Every member of our Coven was practicing for Samhain. We couldn’t risk being sloppy, not even for a second.
The power of my aura swept over me. Using my hand as a guide and the power of my mind, the rock plummeted over the cliff. A few seconds later, it shot out from the canyon. Both hands now in front of me, I could control the object, but something strange happened. Hundreds of tiny stones lifted from the bottom of the Sabine River. They floated around the rock, like planets orbiting the sun.
“Perfect.” Quinn’s smile reached his eyes. “Now, push them away from you.”
Searching the depths of my mind, I concentrated on the snow-covered peaks off in the distance and sent the stones crashing against them, turning them to dust.
“I think my job here is done.” Quinn laughed as he rubbed his hands together. “Tonight, make sure you do the same thing. Don’t lose your focus.”
“No pressure.” I shrugged at Quinn. “Just life or death.”
Our Coven assembled in the graveyard thirty minutes later. We formed a circle at the edge of the creek, holding hands, and we recited the Luna Crescent Prayer.
I took comfort in knowing that Declan had bound a portion of his powers to the key of his Mustang. Celeste had chosen to do the same. The copper Cherokee cuff bracelet her father had given her never left her wrist. But with some of her powers confined to the object, her control over water would diminish. Those with elemental powers had proceeded in the same fashion. With my Coven’s magic cut in half, everything was riding on me. Because witches were mortals, the complex task of draining a witch of their powers would kill them. So, the idea was that my Coven would survive long enough to save Arcadia, if the Hexenjagers managed to siphon my powers.
After we called on the Gods and Goddesses for their protection, Jonathan strolled through the gates. “Brimstone Balls,” he said, setting a black gym bag on the dirt floor in front of Kate.
His colleagues asse
mbled around him with bags slung over their shoulders. In casual shirts tucked into their jeans, their refined appearances seemed out of place in a cemetery full of witches.
Kate broke away from the group and waved her hand above her head. As usual, she captured their attention with the presence of a general. “Thank you all for coming.” Her tone matched the stern expression on her face.
Logan reached into his bag, and a yellow sphere the size of a Christmas ornament appeared in his palm. The ball shone like a ray of sun in the twilight sky. “We made a few modifications,” Logan said, struggling to hide his Cajun accent.
The circle parted, allowing the Alchemists to join our circle, and we turned to Kate for instruction.
“The Lorelei Talisman is very powerful and contains the magic of other witches and supernatural beings, so I suspect that will provide them with an extra layer of protection. We only need to trap them long enough for Fiona to use the Talisman of Grimnir. So, I suggest we use the Brimstone Balls combined with the elemental powers to create a barrier.”
Jonathan looked at his people. “Stick to the plan.”
They bobbed their heads in acknowledgment and started talking among themselves.
As I had for the past week, I tried to hold on to everything I could about Kate, Sloane, and my friends. I never said good-bye to my parents. Because of that, I’d spent my entire life trying to recall the sounds of their voices, the smell of my mother’s perfume, the twinkle in my father’s eyes when he’d looked at my mother, and most importantly, the last words we’d exchanged.
Staring into Kate’s eyes, I saw my mother. They looked so much alike that it was scary, but it wasn’t the similarities in their appearances that reminded me of her. Over the past ten years, Kate had become my mother in a sense and had taken care of the Coven in the same fashion. Despite her age, she was like a mother to all of us—Declan and I more so than the others.