Hexbound: Book 2 of The Dark Arts Series

by Bec McMaster

  The doors to the warehouse ground open. A man stepped out, his lanky form limping slightly. At least he was alive. Or more alive than the pair of constructs who followed woodenly on his heels.

  "...eleven, twelve... fourteen...," Lady E muttered, craning her head to peer inside the warehouse. Her face paled. "He's insane. Nobody can control that many constructs at once."

  Verity stared at the hypnotic green glow and the shadowy figures surrounding it. "Could he do it using the Chalice?"

  Lady E's lips thinned. Yes. Potentially.

  Through the fog and the green glow, Verity began to make out a golden object sitting on top of a single crate in the middle of the warehouse. Definitely a trap for the unwary. But also definitely the Chalice they were after. If it were her, she'd have planted a fake, but that meant there would be no need for flesh constructs to guard the place.

  The man leading them turned in circles, peering into the gloom. But whatever spell work Lady E was casting, he didn't seem to be able to peer through it.

  "What do we do?" Verity whispered. "I can see the Chalice."

  This might be their one chance to get it back.

  "It's definitely a trap though," she added.

  Lady E peered along the docks. "What we need is a distraction. If we can get that necromancer moving, then we might be able to get past the constructs. They're simply dead bodies, fuelled by power and capable of performing only simple tasks. Like killing or maiming anything that comes near it. They might even follow us if they see us, but we can outwit them easily." Her gimlet gaze narrowed on the necromancer. "It's him I'm curious about. I'd love to see his face."

  Lady E gathered in power, and Verity felt it like little ants marching across her skin. It was done so slowly and so smoothly she was impressed. "Forshuva di asko," the older lady whispered, letting it go in such fine tendrils that Verity could almost see the spell forming.

  A sudden wind whispered over the dock, and sweat gleamed on Lady E's brow. No small feat, manipulating weather.

  But the man's hood slithered back from his brow and he cursed under his breath as the wind died down.

  Lady E froze and knelt back down behind the crate. She clearly knew him.

  Who? Verity mouthed.

  "It’s definitely Horroway," Lady E breathed back.

  Bishop had been right.

  Lady E held out her hand and gestured for her to take it. Verity accepted it, and suddenly Lady E was pushing inside her head.

  It was instinctive to push back: Verity had never felt like this before, but she held herself back and allowed the psychic touch.

  "Horroway's dead himself," Lady E told her. "Uses some sort of elixir to keep his soul tied to the flesh, and he jumps from body to body every month or two. I can never forget those eyes, that aura…. He's been banned from the Order for over ten years, and there's a warrant on his head. Sometimes the bodies he takes are not empty before he commandeers them. Nobody has ever caught him, however."

  She didn't know how to link back, so she mouthed, "Dangerous?"

  Lady E nodded. "Unknown range of skill, which makes anyone dangerous. Linked to the Chalice? Extremely dangerous. I was hoping it wouldn't be him."

  "Now what?" Verity whispered.

  Lady E shot another glance over the crates. "Let's see if I can distract him."

  With a whisk of power, a sudden clatter sprang up toward the entrance to the dock. Horroway turned that way, body erect like a hound on the scent. Verity could see shadows rippling: three of them. They looked like they were running. The only giveaway was the fact they didn't stir the fog, but in the heat of the moment she thought that might have been missed.

  With a snap of the fingers, Horroway strode toward the shadows as they ducked into an alley, taking five of the flesh constructs with him. They lumbered after him steadily, focused on the shadows in an eerie, one-track way.

  "This way, child." Lady Eberhardt's grip was like a manacle, so it wasn't really as though Verity had any choice in the matter.

  "What are we going to do?" she whispered to the old woman. "There are dozens of them inside that place!"

  "Yes." Lady Eberhardt looked grim as they scurried behind another section of crates at the back of the building. "That mewling, piss-poor excuse for a sorc—" She blanched all of a sudden, sucking in a sharp breath and pressing her hand to her chest.

  "Are you all right?" Lady Eberhardt didn't look it. "Perhaps we should return to the house? I'll come back later, and—"

  Stubbornness etched its mark on the older woman's face. She flexed her left arm several times, shaking her hand. "I'm fine. It will take more than a little pain to stop me in my tracks. Now stop your dillydallying and strap on your breeches, girl. There's too much to be done, and not enough people to do it. If we deal with Horroway and the Chalice now...."

  Verity bit her lip. Lady E was far too pale for her liking, but what could she do? The old battle-axe would simply ignore her advice and tow her into battle.

  Peering over the crates, they watched the ring of flesh constructs guarding the Chalice before bobbing back down. It was easier to see from here, as the doors hung halfway open.

  "Stealth," Lady Eberhardt said, "is preferable to direct confrontation in this circumstance."

  "Agreed."

  "And we have only moments before Horroway comes back. Can you get in and steal the Chalice before they notice?"

  Verity glanced over the crates once more. "I can get in and out easy enough, but what concerns me is what I might not be seeing. I usually prefer a little more reconnaissance before I infiltrate a potential trap."

  "I can deal with any wards that Horroway might have set," Lady E told her, and began rolling up her sleeves. "Quickly, Verity. If anything goes wrong, you make your way back to my house. Can you do that?"

  Verity nodded.

  "Off you go then."

  The Veil dropped from around them and Verity tore through time and space, the world rushing back into being as she landed in the building directly in front of the Chalice.

  The relic gleamed bronze, standing about a foot high where it rested on a crate. There was something not quite right about it.

  A ring of flesh constructs stood around her, but they all had their backs to her, as though they were expecting the threat to come from without.

  Verity circled the Chalice. Nothing that she could see. Not directly. Biting her lip, she reached out, grabbed the Chalice, and then translocated out of there.

  Or at least, that had been her intention.

  Something hooked at her, like a magical hand grasping the collar of her dress, and she slammed back into real time and space, directly into the back of one of the constructs.

  A spark of green light appeared above the crate and a shimmering dome of vivid green formed, trapping her on the inside and the flesh constructs on the outside. The one she'd crashed into turned and looked at her but it couldn't push through the shimmering ward. Thank goodness for small mercies.

  So far the ward wasn't doing anything. Just keeping her inside. Testing the ward again earned her nothing more than an abrupt slam back into her body. Damn it.

  What the hell was Lady E doing? She'd promised to deal with the wards!

  Sorcery crackled. Red light shimmered into a dome around her and then a ring of gold sparks began eating away at the bottom of the dome, slowly lifting—

  "Come on!" Verity whispered, eyeing the flesh constructs that circled the dome. The second it was gone she was out of there.

  "Who's there?" called a hollow, cadaverous voice.

  Verity ducked low, her heart rabbiting in her chest. Horroway had returned, no doubt sensing the ignition of his ward.

  The constructs moved aside for him, barely paying her any attention at all. Horroway paused in front of her, his mouth slightly slack and his eyebrows drawing together.

  "Who the hell are you?" he demanded. "You ain't who I were expectin'."

  Anytime you'd care to intervene, Lady E.... Verity ste
eled herself. "Would you believe I belong to Dock Security Authority?"

  His gaze dropped to the Chalice tucked under her arm. "You stink of sorcery, my dear. One o' the Prime's little rats?" He chuckled, glancing down at the ward that was slowly lifting. "Certainly trapped like one. The second that lifts, they're comin' in."

  Verity swallowed, glancing at the decaying constructs around her. The odor was definitely starting to penetrate now the ward was halfway to her shoulders. One of them moaned, pushing against the ward. She drew in power, waiting for the moment the magic keeping her trapped failed. "Well, they can come in. I'm not hanging around to wait for them."

  With a crackle and a fizz, the ward evaporated.

  Verity punched through time and space, taking the Chalice with her. Landing lightly on her toes, she caught Lady E's hand. "Come on! They won't take long to realize what happened!"

  She turned, but there was a gasp behind her and a heavy weight pulled at her.

  "Lady E?" Verity turned back to the woman.

  The old woman really did look quite dreadful, clutching a hand to her chest, her face bearing the strain. "Go!" Lady E gasped. "Get the Chalice... to Bishop." With a low moan, she bent over, shaking as she caught at a crate to hold herself up.

  "I'm not leaving you here!" The flesh constructs would be on them at any moment. "What's wrong?"

  "I'm having a bloody angina attack," the woman shot back, clutching her wrist with an iron claw hold. "Leave me here. The Chalice is more important." Some emotion tore at her expression. "Give my love to Adrian. And Marie."

  Verity didn't know what to do. This was all going wrong. "If you think I'm going to return to Adrian without you—"

  "You'll do what you're bloody well told—" Lady E gasped again, sinking lower to the ground.

  Bloody rotting hells! Verity knelt beside her. This was outside her realm of experience. She was a thief, not a Healer. And Horroway wouldn't take long to come looking for them. She stared at the Chalice. Even now, its magic churned green, wisps of hazy fog crawling over its bronze lip and creeping toward the warehouse. Horroway would track them for sure.

  But how could she leave Lady E? What would Bishop do if she returned without his beloved mentor? And how could she leave a friend here to suffer the fate that terrified Verity to her very bones?

  No.

  "I'm not leaving you here," she told the woman, her resolve firming. "And you can curse me the entire time, but I think it best if you just focus on breathing."

  "You bloody—"

  "Breathe, Agatha," Verity insisted. "And shut up and let me concentrate!"

  She'd never translocated someone else with her. Only objects.

  You can do it. Come on. But her heart knew the risk. What if she made a mistake, and Lady E arrived... in two separate pieces?

  Well, the only other option is to leave her here to be devoured. Which was not an option at all, not with that low moan growing louder as the flesh constructs shuffled toward them.

  But neither was getting the woman to Bishop. Verity needed a Healer, and she needed to go somewhere she knew well, to increase the chances of this working. By herself she might risk a blind jump, but not whilst carrying someone else.

  The image of her room at the Crows formed in her mind. It was her base location, the one place she could always find, ingrained as it was in her consciousness, in her body. Power tingled through her as she drew in as much as she could handle, and locked her arms around the older woman in preparation.

  She just hoped that Mercy was there.

  And that Daniel Guthrie wasn't.

  * * *

  Verity hit the floor hard, her entire body stretched and raw in places. She felt certain someone had punched her in the sternum, driving the breath out of her, and the very thought of summoning her powers at the moment made her want to retch.

  But it had worked. Hadn't it? She'd carried Lady E's weight the entire time, feeling it pulling at her, growing heavier with every microsecond.

  A gasping wheeze brought her back to herself. Verity scrambled to Lady E's side, the Chalice tumbling abandoned to the timber floors that she knew so well. Its magic had cut off abruptly during the leap, the link to Horroway vanishing. "Lady E?"

  The woman couldn't answer. Sweat soured her hair and she gasped faintly, her fist clenched against her chest.

  No time to lose then.

  Verity dragged a pillow off her bed and stuffed it under Lady E's head. "I'm going to get help. I promise I won't be long."

  She dragged herself to her feet and nearly went top over toes as her knees quivered. The leap had taken more out of her than she'd imagined.

  Steps echoed in the hallway outside the bedchamber she used to share with Mercy. Verity froze, slipping the small knife she kept up her sleeve into her palm.

  The door opened—

  And Mercy slipped inside, shutting it behind her so swiftly that the light barely penetrated.

  "Sweet Jesus, Verity, what are you doing here?" Mercy hissed, wearing her familiar boots and trousers. "If Daniel realizes you're here...."

  He'd have her right where he wanted her.

  Verity shook the thought away. "You felt me?"

  "I do ward our rooms," Mercy replied, then her gaze fell on Lady E's crumpled form and she strode warily to the fallen woman's side. "What happened? Who is she?"

  "Angina, I think. Can you heal her? Can you stop the attack?" Verity hovered over the pair of them as Mercy reached out and pressed her fingertips to Lady E's chest. A faint blue glow surrounded her hand.

  "Verity, she's dying." Mercy withdrew her touch with a flinch.

  "No. No, she can't." Bishop would be devastated and God blast the old harridan, but Verity had begun to like her. "Can't you do something? You can heal. I know you can heal—"

  "I can heal cuts, scrapes and broken bones," Mercy shot back, "but not this." Her eyes grew vague as she lost herself in the inner workings of Lady E's heart. "It's so complicated and I'm not entirely certain what to do. There's... some kind of blockage and it's stopping the heart from pumping blood through it. Plus, there's some bleeding there, as though the muscle has torn."

  Lady E gasped, her face turning a most alarming shade of gray. But somehow she managed to lash out and catch Mercy's wrist. "Patch it... up." Those dark eyes flickered toward Verity. "Get me... Bishop."

  "Can you do that?" Verity asked, taking a step back and hovering indecisively. With the lock of hair that she carried she could find him and travel there, now that she wasn't burdened with another.

  If she had enough strength left in her.

  Mercy frowned, that blue glow widening around her hand. Lady E sucked in a sharp breath as Mercy set to work. "I'm trying to stop the bleeding," Mercy muttered. "Stop pacing. You're distracting me."

  "I'm—"

  The door thumped open. "What have we here?" Betsy demanded, backlit by the light in the hallway. The old procuress's eyes narrowed with triumph as they locked on Verity. "Trespassers by the look of it."

  Darting a glance at the forsaken Chalice, Verity took a step toward it just as Betsy lashed out with the braided whip she carried at her side. Verity flickered out of the way, landing near the window, but Betsy was ready for her and the whip cracked across her cheek with a brutal lash of fire.

  Damn it. Her gaze landed on the Chalice again, which was a mistake. Betsy flicked the whip, wrapping the end around the Chalice and then jerking it toward her. The old bawd held it up triumphantly. "Looking for this, Verity?"

  "That's mine!"

  "We shall see." Betsy smirked, and her attention shifted as footsteps thundered in the hallway behind her. The Crows, no doubt, alert to strange sorcery in their domain.

  Verity was outnumbered and outpowered, but for the first time in her life she had allies. The Crows might have been a place where she could blend in and hide, but they'd never been family. Not truly.

  Verity exchanged a look with Mercy, wary but not defeated. "Keep her alive." And then she suc
ked in her power, stuttering faintly as weariness pulled at her bones, and vanished.

  Chapter 21

  "DRAKE'S ALIVE AND well," Ianthe murmured, seeing Bishop to the door. "And I intend to keep it that way. I'm sorry that I called you out of bed. In the panic I wasn't certain if it was just the one person attempting to breach the wards, or whether there were more and they were simply testing our defenses."

  "Don't apologize. We're in this together," Bishop replied. "And you have your daughter to worry about now, as well as Rathbourne."

  "Lucien," she insisted.

  He still felt uncomfortable referring to his half-brother by his given name. "I'll do one last check of the grounds before I leave, but don't hesitate to call upon me if anything else happens."

  Bishop slid his hands into his pockets as he stepped out onto the front porch. A failed attempt at getting through Drake's wards, but an attempt nonetheless. He stared into the gardens, hunting through the shadows. I know you're out there. But who? Kali? Or Thanatos? Or Osiris?

  Ianthe followed on his heels, closing the door gently behind her. "Any sign of the Chalice?"

  He knew what stirred her concern. The demon had intended to possess her husband as its vessel, and came very close to it. Your brother. "No sign as of yet, but I feel like our web is tightening. Horroway’s our main suspect. We’ll find him."

  "Do you have any idea why he would want it?" Ianthe drew her shawl tight around her shoulders. "We might have destroyed the Blade of Altarrh, but if Morgana is involved with the Chalice's theft, then what, precisely, is she up to now?"

  "Hell if I know. Unless she plans to unleash an army of flesh constructs upon London? Force the government and the Queen to turn their backs upon the Order? Disgrace us? Or send them to destroy us?"

  "She's never wanted the Order's destruction before," Ianthe said. "She's always wanted to rule it and destroy Drake."

  "Plans change. We did drop a house on her head. Maybe she's peeved?"

  "Maybe." Ianthe didn't look convinced. "I can't help thinking that Ascension is only a few days away now. If she wanted a chance at the seat of the Prime, then it's virtually hers for the taking."