Another light ignited outside the gates, and the vampires and liches alike turned in that direction.
“We’re under attack!” someone cried out, and all hell broke loose.
The light brightened as energy surged from the node, raising the hairs on my arms. Ignoring the vampires, I ran out into the swampland, skidding to a halt near the node. Bria stood beside it, and a number of shadowy figures appeared within. Not liches, but humans. Humans, whose palms glowed with vibrant energy.
Spirit mages. Bria stood beside them, a knowing look on her face. The vampires, meanwhile, made no move to confront the new arrivals.
“Enough,” said Lord Blackbourne. “Olivia Cartwright, come with me, and tell me where to find Brant Edwards so he can face justice.”
I indicated the node. “I’m not sure I like the idea of your justice. You’re working with a group of murderers and traitors.”
“Murderers?” said one of the newcomers, stepping into view. “I wouldn’t say that.”
“Quiet, Miles,” snapped the mage next to him.
Lord Blackbourne shot him a disgruntled look. “I would prefer it if you were to stay out of this.”
He knew the spirit mages? Was I the only person who hadn’t the faintest clue what was going on?
Lord Blackbourne gestured. “Get her.”
Two vampires moved behind me, but the Death King glided into their path. The vampires skirted the Death King with blinding speed, but I dodged their grasping hands, energy shooting from my palms. The vampires toppled into the mud like falling trees.
The first spirit mage who’d spoken laughed. “Damn, she is good.”
I sidestepped, blasted energy at him, and he deflected my attack. These were trained spirit mages, while I’d barely had one or two lessons. “Whoever you are, I’m not coming with you.”
“You don’t have a choice,” he said. “Besides, I’m told we’re not all bad.”
Three of the mages approached me—not walking, but hovering above the swampland. Astral projecting. Oh, bugger.
I tapped into the node, drawing in its energy, but I’d never faced more than one spirit mage at once before. Never faced one head-on at all, in fact. The node’s energy crackled in my hands, my hair standing on end and static creeping through my whole body.
“She’s powerful—I told you!” One of them threw a handful of spirit energy at me. I ducked and returned fire, and the spirit mage deflected my attack with a wave of his hand.
Then a flickering movement in the corner of my eye resolved into a pillar of flames. Bria grinned at me from within. “Hey, there.”
“You.” I took a step towards her, but she moved dizzyingly fast, and then vanished.
That was an invisibility cantrip… but that didn’t explain how damn fast she’d moved. Was she even human?
Energy slammed into me, knocking the breath from my lungs. I stifled a gasp as a familiar draining sensation grabbed me. The glowing ball of energy in the spirit mage’s hands turned to a stream of light connecting us. I trembled, struggling to break the connection, and it took everything I had to hold myself together. He was ripping out my life force.
“Get her!” someone shouted.
A dozen threads of spirit energy slammed into me at once. Images burst behind my eyes, and the world faded out.
I stood, my back against the wall, as Dirk Alban shouted at me. “You ruined everything, Olivia…”
Then I came to alertness to find myself nose to nose with Miles, the spirit mage who’d hit me. His ashy blond hair was streaked with grime from the swamp, as was his face. His brown eyes glittered with amusement. “She wakes.”
I pushed myself upright and bumped my head on the low ceiling. “Who the hell are you?”
“I thought you knew who we were,” said Miles. “They call us the Spirit Agents.”
What the hell is this? The room was bare of furniture, mostly because it was the size of a cupboard and contained nothing but a few dusty coats hanging from hooks. It seemed the Spirit Agents were short on cells to keep their prisoners in, because they’d shoved me into a cloakroom instead.
“What gives you the right to kidnap me?” I rose to my feet, but he raised a hand and sent a jolt of spirit energy into me. My back hit the row of cloaks, and a hook jabbed me in the spine. Ow.
This guy had real power. They all did. They’d learnt spirit magic somehow, away from the Order. It had never died out, not as long as these people kept it alive.
Too bad they weren’t on my side.
“The vampires want you dead,” he said. “This is the safest place for you to stay until they calm down.”
Safest? He claimed to want to keep me safe? A likely story.
“They won’t calm down,” I said. “Not until the real killers are brought in front of them, but that’s you, isn’t it?”
“Me?” he said. “What makes you think that?”
“You kidnapped me and locked me in a cloakroom,” I said. “And one of you tried to kill the Death King, too.”
“That was a mistake,” he said. “The two of us go way back.”
“You do realise the vamps want me dead because someone stabbed their messengers and set me up to take the fall?” I said. “Besides, I was told you’re a group of dangerous vigilantes.”
He laughed. “Yeah, right. I’m glad our fearsome reputation is spreading, but we don’t need knives to fight, and nor should you. Whoever those killers are, we’re not associated with them.”
“I was told you were,” I said. “I was also told you were working with the House of Fire. So if you aren’t with them, then who are you with?”
“The House of Fire?” He frowned. “Who told you that?”
Well… someone who just turned against us. For all I knew, Bria had been feeding me false information on purpose, yet the House of Fire had come up in connection with the criminals infiltrating the trials.
“Never mind that,” I said. “How the hell are there so many spirit mages here? You’re supposed to have died out. I thought the Order put everyone in the House of Spirit under a curse.”
His mouth thinned, and a hint of emotion flashed in his eyes. “They tried to. They cursed everyone who survived the war in the hopes of wiping us out, but we’re free spirit mages, born into families of other mages. It’s more common than you’d think… as you probably know yourself.”
“My family aren’t mages,” I said. “They aren’t even practitioners.”
“That would explain why you were so hard to track down,” he said. “Self-trained mages are my favourites. You have balls, Liv. I can call you Liv, right?”
“This isn’t funny.”
“No, it’s tragic.” A touch of pity appeared in his expression. “The Order genuinely thought that confining mages to the Houses and strangling all opposition would wipe us out. But we can’t be beaten that easily.”
An unexpected tide of emotion washed over me, momentarily dispelling my rage and confusion. These mages weren’t from my past, and he didn’t talk like a fanatic or a cultist. If I wasn’t more concerned with getting back to my friends, I might have stuck around to find out how many more free spirit mages existed here and how they’d escaped retribution from the Order.
I swallowed hard. “Look, if you’re telling the truth, then what do you want with me?”
“We offer a hand to all rogue spirit mages,” he said. “It’s only fair. You were hard to track down, which is why we didn’t approach you earlier. Then we heard you were in Grey’s employment.”
“That ended with the contest,” I said. “You and the vampires decided to crash the party before I could finish my job.”
“The vampires won’t stop until you and the fire mage are behind bars,” he said.
“They won’t calm down until they see proof that Brant is already behind bars,” I corrected. “The Order has him locked up in their cells. Lord Blackbourne and I have met before, and he has no reason to believe I’d lie.”
“Except f
or the two dead ambassadors,” he added. “I don’t know why Grey’s trying so hard to prove your innocence, but—”
“I didn’t kill them,” I snapped. “I thought you did. There’s definitely a rogue spirit mage involved in this.”
“I told you,” he said, “it’s not one of ours.”
The door opened behind him.
“Ooh, she’s awake,” said another spirit mage, a dark-skinned woman with a streak of pink in her curly hair. “Excellent.”
“Do I know you?” I said.
“You knocked me out cold earlier,” she said. “Nice aim.”
“Thanks,” I said, totally bemused. “Look, I’m finding it hard to believe there are any mages who aren’t double-crossing dickheads at the moment. What’s your relationship to the House of Fire? Do you want to boot the Death King off his throne?”
“No!” Miles sounded genuinely insulted. “As for the House of Fire, I’m no fan of the shitheads who run that place. They get paid for incarcerating their fellow mages. Shockingly, it means most troublesome rogues are runaways from the Houses, but if any of them are after Grey’s position, I assume they got booted out of the contest by now.”
“Why do you call him that?” I said. “Grey? Did you know him?”
“Sure,” he said. “Before he became all…” He waved his hands in what I assumed was supposed to be an imitation of a lich. “We weren’t close, but everyone knows the Death King.”
I stifled an inexplicable laugh. “Yes, and he’ll be pissed at you for taking me away at a time like this. I’m not kidding.”
“I guess I don’t blame you for mistrusting us,” said the woman. “Spirit mages who don’t find us tend to have short lives.”
I looked between them, my heart racing. I shouldn’t believe a word they said, yet something about them struck me as sincere. Maybe it was because I’d always had to keep my guard up around people who didn’t know about my magic. These people, though… they were just like me. Yet they’d somehow escaped punishment at the Order’s hands. Jealousy slid through me like a knife. They’d had one another while I’d had nobody at all.
Yet this situation struck me as far too good to be true. There’d be a catch. There always was.
“Look, as nice as it is that you haven’t tried to kill me yet, I have to get back to my friends,” I said. “I think Lord Blackbourne ought to be taken to the Order so he can see I was telling the truth about Brant’s imprisonment.”
That wouldn’t absolve me of being accused of murdering his fellow vampires, but he knew I was a spirit mage. Why would I fight with throwing-knives instead?
I took a step out of the cloakroom, but the two spirit mages blocked my path.
“No leaving the house,” said Miles. “You’re staying here until we say otherwise.”
“I don’t think so.” I stepped up to him, feeling my cantrip belt around my waist. He hadn’t removed my weapons. Guess he must have assumed I fought with spirit magic alone, like he and the others did. “Move, or I’ll be a lot less likely to give you the benefit of the doubt for kidnapping me. Where even are we?”
“Our base, in Elysium,” he said. “You’re a long way from home, Olivia.”
“Don’t call me that,” I snapped.
“Why?”
Because the Order did… and the Death King. “I’m sick of people trying to kill me, and frankly I’m concerned for my friends. If the vampires don’t guess I’m here, they’ll go after my allies instead.”
“The vamps won’t harm anyone innocent.” He glanced over his shoulder, and I took the opportunity to snatch up a cantrip.
The paralysing spell caught both of them at once, and I darted out of the room and into a corridor. They really had shoved me into a cloakroom—under the stairs, no less—and the door leading outside stood at the end of the hallway. A promising humming sensation permeated the air, indicating there was a node close by. Finally, some luck.
I pushed open the door and used a cantrip to seal it. That ought to hold them for a minute. Then I walked down the grassy path to the gate, spotting a group of chickens wandering around. Are they vampire chickens? Who brought them here? I dragged my gaze away and put those questions firmly in the ‘later’ pile.
The unkempt garden ended in a high fence overgrown with spiky plants, and I did my best not to touch any of them as I pushed open the gate from the inside. Thankfully, it opened without setting off any alarms.
Freedom beckoned. Once outside, I broke into a run, following the humming of the node. Left, right, into an alleyway… oh, shit. Someone else was ahead of me, standing still as though waiting for me to catch up. I skidded to a halt as the Death King turned around to face me, wearing his human face. “Good, you’re safe.”
My jaw hit the floor. “I was kidnapped and that’s all you have to say? Aren’t those people the same spirit mages who attacked us the other day?”
“They aren’t, but I don’t have time to explain,” he said. “Come with me.”
“Then explain on the way.” I walked after him, unable to believe his nerve. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me you knew a whole house full of spirit mages who weren’t turned into liches?”
“Because you had no desire to abandon your previous life,” he said. “Most of them were born here in the Parallel.”
“So you decided not to mention it was even an option?” My rage cooled a little as the truth began to sink in. “Being a spirit mage without turning lich, I mean? You let me think I was alone. That’s not cool, Grey.”
His steps faltered a little at the use of his name and he didn’t respond for a long moment. The buzz of the node grew more intense. I was too shaken to appreciate the fact that I was visiting another major Parallel city for the first time in my life.
Finally, he said, “Lord Blackbourne has given us an ultimatum. We need to convince the Order to hand Brant over to the vampires.”
“Again?” I said. “I’d ask those spirit mages to help, but I doubt they’re thrilled at me for giving them the slip. Besides, you know how it turned out last time. The vampire ambassadors ended up dead.”
But that wasn’t the important bit. If the vampires got hold of Brant again, they wouldn’t spare him. I didn’t doubt that for a second.
We have no choice. This is the only way.
We had to go back to the Order and hope that they were in a cooperative mood this time around. Which seemed a tall order, considering how many others we’d managed to piss off today. Not to mention Cobb… oh, damn.
“I know what Cobb stole from the Order,” I told him. “Cantrips that switch off nodes. I may have used one on the node outside your castle to stop Bria from inviting her friends in. That’s why the spirit mages came from outside the gate instead.”
“I see,” he said.
“Is that all you have to say?” Unbelievable. “Bria ran off, along with her allies. Why did you ditch your castle at a time like this?”
“Forget Bria,” he said. “I’ve dealt with her for now.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” I halted mid-step. “And the Order? How do you know Cobb’s allies won’t have a team of assassins lined up to take shots at us if we set foot inside their headquarters? Is pacifying the vampires more important than staying alive?”
“Not at all,” he said. “As for the Order, I am confident we won’t be attacked while we’re inside their headquarters.”
“Because of your so-called special arrangement with them.” A furious dam burst inside me. “They let you live—relatively speaking—and you don’t threaten their control over the magical world, no matter how many people they hurt. That’s how it is, huh.”
“It isn’t,” he said, “but now isn’t the time to discuss the Order. We have to go.”
The node’s current surrounded us, carrying the Death King and I away into the swampland.
The instant my feet touched the ground, mages surrounded us on all sides, hands blazing. Fire mages. The runaways from the House of Fire.
/>
As if we needed any more enemies. Did the Spirit Agents betray us, too? Were they lying?
Davies strode to the front of the group of mages. “Whoever my replacement is, they’re not going to get the chance to take up their position before they die.”
18
The Death King looked his former Fire Element up and down. Then his gaze went to his companions. “I have to admit I’m surprised you found any allies among the mages, considering the Houses’ well-known views on those who turn their backs on their own people.”
He knew where Davies was hiding? I didn’t know why I was surprised at this point. But while the Death King’s manner was calm, a hint of impatience underlaid his voice. He hadn’t expected them to show up here and now, when we had far too many enemies circling the gates already.
I glanced over at the castle, which appeared still and quiet. The vampires had gone, as had the Spirit Agents—for now, anyway. This should be Ryan’s fight, if anything, but the other Elemental Soldiers must have stayed behind to guard the castle and prevent the other contenders from taking advantage of the Death King’s absence.
“They know I always intended to bring you down,” Davies said. “And this time, I’m not going to lose.”
Davies’s fellow fire mages advanced, hands flaring with bright orange light. None of them had been stripped of their powers. They weren’t contenders. But then, why had they chosen now to strike? Had one of the Spirit Agents given them directions?
I really hated when my too good to be true assumptions ended up being on the mark.
Luckily, they hadn’t picked the best place for an ambush. I reached into my pocket and threw a cantrip into their midst, freezing several of them. Then I drew on the node’s strength, and the Death King did likewise.
Power blasted from our hands in unison, knocking the mages backwards. Their flaming attacks spun off course, setting patches of swampland on fire. Davies ducked behind his fellow mages to avoid being hit.
“Cowardly little shit.” I flung a cantrip at two other mages, freezing them to the spot. The mages might be strong, but there was no way they could handle both of us at once. We already had them on the run, backing up to the node.
Trial of Shadows (Order of the Elements Book 3) Page 18