“What about Yazi’s nephew or niece?” I hadn’t met my younger cousins; I’d just hunted through my family tree wondering if my three-century-plus-year-old dad had any other children. He didn’t. Guardians, it seemed, didn’t breed often. I’d also tried to find information about guardian succession in the nexus library without any luck. I had no idea how potential guardian dragons were selected, how they ascended, or why each guardian then wielded unique magic beyond their inherent strength, agility, and invulnerability.
Drake shrugged, strangely silent as he followed me around the front of the truck. I let it drop.
The stars were clustered densely overhead, and I wondered what they would say about the next couple of life choices I was about to make. You know, if I could read stars.
“We only have twenty hours,” I whispered, urging myself forward. I could take whatever the sorcerer could throw. Hell, I’d been training my ass off in anticipation of this moment for three months. Well, not this moment exactly, but a moment probably much, much worse. Blackwell had a thing for me. He was a collector, the same as Kett and I were collectors. Sienna was only interested in destroying … as far as I could tell, at least. Sienna, not Blackwell, my ultimate target.
“Yeah,” Drake said, but I couldn’t remember right away what we’d been talking about. Then I picked up my own train of thought.
“Branson might not have come for me, you know,” I said. “If you hadn’t followed.”
Drake shrugged. The moonlight glinted off the hilt of the gold broadsword behind his shoulder.
A shadow disengaged from the low stone fence that stretched behind Drake. My jade knife was in my hand before the taste of her magic hit me … bitter yet refined dark chocolate … more berry than citrus.
“Kandy?” I whispered.
Drake slipped behind me but didn’t draw his sword. It was a well-practiced move. We’d determined early on that if he was behind me, my dowser senses were more accessible. By ‘we,’ I mean Branson figured it out. So Drake followed while I led. The fledgling hated it, and I wasn’t a big fan of having that sword behind my back either. It wasn’t exactly a precision weapon.
The shadow stalked toward me. Teeth flashed, their white enamel caught momentarily in the moonlight. Next thing I knew, I was running, then crushing a green-haired werewolf in a massive hug.
The werewolf in question gave as good as she got. If I wasn’t half-dragon, my upper arms and back would have been seriously bruised.
“Kandy,” I cried. I had missed her so much I forgot any and all decorum, not that I ever had much.
“Dowser,” Kandy murmured as she buried her face in my curl-covered neck and inhaled. “You smell the same. That’s good.”
I pulled away from the hug to look at her. Even in the moonlight, I could see her green hair wasn’t as perfectly dyed as it normally appeared. And she was slimmer than usual. More wiry than her typical litheness.
“You, however, do not look the same, dowser.” The cool voice spoke from off to my right. “And it’s not just the sword you carry or the new ability to wield it that is evident in your body.”
Kett. Surrounded by Drake and Kandy’s magic, I couldn’t taste the vampire’s magic at all, but I could feel the life debt bond he owed me. It hung between us in the darkness like an unsprung trap. I didn’t have to see him to know he would be untouched by the three-and-a-half-months that had passed.
“You’ve teamed up with a vampire?” I teased Kandy as I stepped back from our hug.
She shrugged. “He was here when I arrived.”
“Oh? What brings you to Blackness Castle, Kettil, Executioner of the Conclave?” I asked, mockingly. Vampires never did anything that didn’t benefit them directly, though they were also all about the long game so maybe I was missing something.
“I came directly from Portland,” Kett said, not answering my question at all. “Blackwell was obviously the best lead to the black witch’s whereabouts.”
Kandy snorted. “Would have been nice of you to share that info, vamp.”
“You’ve been here for three months?” I asked.
Kett didn’t answer.
Kandy growled with frustration. “We can’t get in.”
“We can,” Drake said from behind me.
We all turned to look at him. Even Kett stepped into the moonlight to lay eyes on the fledgling guardian. I still wasn’t sure how the vampire collected shadows around him so thoroughly. He was dressed in his typical cashmere sweater and atrociously expensive jeans combo.
“I thought it might have been a dream,” Kett murmured. His voice was unusually heavy with emotion.
“No such luck,” I said.
Kett turned his ice-blue eyes on me and smiled. That should have probably scared me even sillier than I already was, except I welcomed it.
God, I missed my life. Even the terrifying parts, it seemed.
“You brought a dragon to storm a castle, eh, Jade?” Kandy peered over my shoulder, jumping to a conclusion about Drake’s identity that must have been informed by Desmond’s recounting of the events in the nexus. Kett wasn’t chatty as a rule, and I’d had to keep our couple of phone conversations very short.
“You wouldn’t expect anything less, would you?”
“Nope.” Kandy grinned her patented predator grin. “I’m glad you’re alive.”
“Ditto, babe. Ditto.”
I hadn’t wanted to drag anyone — not my mother or Gran or Kandy — any farther into Sienna’s mess than I already had, so I’d kept my mouth shut about my plans. But I was more than pleased that the green-haired werewolf was back by my side. And the vampire, of course, though I never quite knew what would happen the moment our interests diverged.
∞
“Artillery fortified,” Kett said. “The defensive spur to the southwest is the main entrance.”
“Just point, vampire,” I said. Only five minutes into our reunion, I was already snapping at him for being way over my head all of the time.
We were standing by the pickup and gazing at Blackness Castle. Surveying would be a better word, maybe, except I really had no idea what I was looking at.
Kett raised his hand to indicate a stone walkway to the far left of the castle. “He’ll reside in the central tower,” he added.
“The wards are impressive,” I said. I’d scanned the length of the castle’s nooks and crannies, and couldn’t see any weak points in the magic that protected it and kept us out.
“Yes,” Kett agreed. “But I wouldn’t expect anything less of a sorcerer with Blackwell’s lineage.”
“Did you stop by the bakery for cupcakes?” Kandy asked. The castle neither impressed nor intimidated her. That unending confidence was the hallmark of most werewolves — but it was especially prevalent in Kandy, who was a pack enforcer.
“No time,” I answered. My employee Bryn had graciously taken over my shifts in the kitchen. Todd, the espresso wizard, eagerly stepped up to full-time. And my mother, Scarlett, was doing the bookkeeping. ‘Cake in a Cup’ was my baby. Tending to it had been the first phone call I’d made, the first moment I’d made it out of the nexus — after letting my Gran know I was alive, of course. She wasn’t too inclined to take Kett and Desmond’s word on that. “I was worried that bouncing in and out of the nexus would draw too much attention.”
“Cupcakes? What are cupcakes?” Drake asked.
Kandy looked at me as if I was a complete stranger with two heads. “The dragon doesn’t know what cupcakes are, Jade?” she mock-whispered. “Your world really is collapsing.”
“On hold is a more accurate assessment … I hope.”
“Maybe Blackwell has a kitchen,” Kett said.
Now it was our turn to stare at the vampire, who might just have made some sort of joke. He looked back at us all with his cool demeanor firmly in place. It was quite the poker face, but it brought me back on topic, which might have been Kett’s point.
“Is B
lackwell inside?”
“Haven’t seen him,” Kandy said.
“Yes,” Kett replied at the same time.
“He could be popping in and out with that amulet of his,” I said. Blackwell wore a ruby amulet that tasted — to me — like sour cream and butter on a baked potato rather than his own earthy cabernet sorcerer magic. The amulet was an exceedingly rare transportation device, most likely created by an alchemist far more powerful than I was many hundreds of years ago. I gathered this artifact was also renowned among collectors — Kett had identified it by my brief description alone. Blackwell had called it his “most precious possession.” It was also how he’d fled the Sea Lion Caves like the utter coward he was.
Kett shook his head and turned his gaze back to the castle.
“The vamp doesn’t think the sorcerer would leave with us out here,” Kandy elaborated.
“Too much to protect,” Kett murmured. His anticipation was marked, though maybe it was just the tingle of pleasure I felt from the life bond that colored his tone. That was new, unexpected, and disconcerting. I wondered if Desmond felt that same sensation through our life debt bond. I really hoped not, but seeing as he’d felt my pain when Sienna tortured me, he’d probably felt my desire afterward as well. Since then, I hadn’t taken the necklace off in Desmond’s presence. I never took it off any more, not even in the shower. If it wasn’t for my necklace I doubt I would have survived … well, Sienna. Actually, I still didn’t know if I would survive my sister.
“Any visitors?” I asked. My voice was louder and sharper than I’d intended. I meant had Sienna shown up. The sudden silence that fell between us told me they knew who I meant. The mere mention of her dampened our easy camaraderie.
“No,” Kandy said at last.
“Did you knock?” Drake asked.
The green of Kandy’s magic rolled over her eyes as she grinned at the fledgling guardian. “Yeah, we knocked.”
Drake nodded, very serious. “Plan B, then?”
“What’s plan B?” Kandy asked.
I turned to the green-haired werewolf and grinned at her. The smile stretched my face as if the muscles were unused to the expression. “We huff and we puff —”
“And we blow the door down,” Kandy said with an edgy chuckle.
“Artillery fortified,” Kett repeated.
“You think Blackwell has guns set up?” Guns weren’t something I’d considered. Magic screwed with such weapons so much that a sorcerer of Blackwell’s power should find them utterly useless. And while just shooting Sienna from afar was a lovely — if bloody-thirsty — daydream, she shielded herself with so much magic that a crossbow or bullet wouldn’t get within a foot of her. Bullets — if Blackwell had somehow circumvented how magic screwed with guns — might work against Kandy though. Silver bullets, specifically.
Kett didn’t answer, which was typical when he didn’t know an answer … or considered it beneath him.
“What about outer defenses and perimeter spells?”
“Disabled,” Kett said. He sounded so pleased with himself I was surprised he didn’t wink at me.
“Yeah, and no scaling the walls,” Kandy said. She ran her hands over her arms as if remembering something nasty. I could hear her wolf in her voice, probably manifesting along with the thickening tension. I felt it too.
“A month is a long time to be away from your pack,” I said quietly.
Kandy shrugged. “The fledglings must be avenged.”
My stomach bottomed out. She meant Jeremy, who Sienna killed with Blackwell’s sacrificial knife, and whose blood raised one huge, nasty demon. And she meant Mory.
“Have you heard …” I couldn’t bring myself to ask — again — if Mory was dead.
“No, dowser,” Kett said. “But the necromancer lives.” His cool tone instantly soothed me. I liked the soothing part, but I didn’t like the instant part. Since when did I feel comfortable around Kett? He liked to go all fangy and blood-lusty in tense situations … like this one.
“Do you have actual confirmation?”
“She wears a necklace constructed by you. She lives.”
“You don’t know.” I choked down the emotion threatening to close off my throat. “You don’t know that the necklace will … can … withstand three months of whatever Sienna’s been doing.”
Kett inclined his head, then turned his attention back to the castle.
I hated being potentially right about such a thing, more than I hated being wrong about everything else. Why had Sienna kidnapped Mory in the first place? For collateral? Even if it had been a spur-of-the-moment thing, why hadn’t she abandoned the necromancer as soon as she’d gotten clear of the caves? Or — as dreadful as the thought was — why not kill Mory and leave her body on Gran’s doorstep, or by the bakery to further torture me?
Kandy touched my shoulder, just lightly. But I could feel the brush of her dark-chocolate magic, and I welcomed the taste along with the gesture.
The castle intimidated me. I could admit it. I’d come through the portal all cocky and focused, and had immediately gotten derailed by Amber and Drake. Now, standing before the centuries-old structure, I was waffling. I was more unsure of my ‘find Blackwell/find Sienna’ plan with Kandy and Kett at my side than I’d been without them. Having them here made the last months far more real than that time had actually felt in the day-to-day living of it.
“We came all this way. Maybe Blackwell will play nice if we ask nicely?”
“He does have the hots for you,” Kandy agreed. “But what if — faced with all four of us — he decides to pull more of those demons out of his pocket?”
“Demons, yeah!” Drake cried, utterly delighted at this possibility.
“One doesn’t collect those kind of demons, werewolf,” Kett said without turning away from the castle.
Kandy mimed ripping off the vampire’s head and kicking it like a football behind his back.
“That was a greater demon,” Kett continued. “I wouldn’t have thought Blackwell was powerful enough to call it forth.”
“He seemed surprised himself,” I said. “Right before he ran like the utter coward he is.” And with that terrible memory on the edge of my mind, I turned my reluctant feet toward the main entrance.
Kett stepped up to follow, just behind my left shoulder. “Fighting a coward is a very different prospect.”
I nodded.
Kett stepped sideways into the shadows as we moved past the low fence and stood before the spur, as he had called it. The latticed iron gate, which was barely illuminated in the moonlight, loomed before us. It was wide enough that — if it stood invitingly open — we four probably could have walked through abreast. However — closed — it was secured at the top, bottom, and to each side into the thick stone walls and roof of the spur. Even Kandy, as slim as she was, wouldn’t find an opening wide enough to slip through.
“There’ll be traps,” I said. “Even if he agrees to let us in voluntarily. He likes to hide spells in things, boxes and such.” I directed this last caution to Drake, who was practically vibrating directly behind me. I took a deep breath and reminded myself the thirteen-year-old was invulnerable. If I tried to make him stay in the truck, he’d probably get into worse trouble than he would surrounded by Kandy, Kett, and me. Or so I hoped. I had a bad habit of being wrong. Like, a whole lot.
“You got any chocolate, Jade?” Kandy whispered.
“Just your magic, Kandy.”
“That doesn’t help me,” Kandy bitched, but I could hear that she was smiling.
I stepped forward until I was an arm’s length from the outer wards. Those defenses seemed to be attached to the stone of the curtain wall rather than placed in the yard itself. I reminded myself of the power of Amber’s ancestral stones. This was Blackwell’s ancestral home. Being a sorcerer, he couldn’t access natural magic the same way a witch could. But this castle had been in his family for generations. Yeah, the dragon libr
ary was extensive and detailed. It was finding the information that had taken the time. Digging through handwritten chronicles was way more intensive than Googling. Anyway, Blackwell’s magic would be potent here.
I opened my dowser senses to the magic of my three companions, breathing in Kett’s cool peppermint, Kandy’s bitter chocolate, and Drake’s honeyed almond. I firmed my offensive stance — left foot forward, right foot back with more weight on the ball of the foot than the heel — and ran my fingers across the knife at my hip. I twined the fingers of my left hand through the wedding ring charms of my necklace.
I could do this. Blackwell might be able to take on any one of us solo, but four together were pretty darn intimidating. Castle or no castle.
Of course, I was deliberately not factoring in that Blackwell owned the world’s foremost collection of magical artifacts — well, apart from the dragon cache. That was an unknown bitch. This collection ranked high on the dragon watch list, and it usually took the end of the world to get the attention of one of the nine. Speaking of bitches, Scotland was under Suanmi’s protection. One look at the fire breather and Blackwell would give up his best friend. Too bad Drake’s guardian hated me, and that anything below nuclear annihilation was beneath her notice.
Then Kett laughed. He was enjoying himself, maybe even feeding off my anxiousness. I wrapped my hand around the hilt of my knife as his pleasure and anticipation hit me through the life debt bond he owed me. Well, that was new. Of course, I hadn’t actually been in the same room as him since extracting the bond to save him from the cleansing of the dragons.
I laughed, deep in my throat and quietly. The vampire’s confidence was infectious. What was the point in being immortal — he was thinking — without a challenge?
“Okay,” Kandy said. “Now you’re both being really creepy.”
“Power up, wolf,” I said. “It’s time to dance.”
Kandy laughed. “I like it when you dance, dowser.”
“Everyone likes it when Jade dances,” Kett said from the shadows to my left.
“Is it like when she fights?” Drake asked. “Because that’s pretty cool.”
Treasures, Demons, and Other Black Magic Page 3