Consort of Light

by Eva Chase

  Brimsey couldn’t seem to think of any way to counter that point. He sank back in the seat in sullen silence.

  “For now, your private life is not what’s most important,” he said after a few minutes. “Once this catastrophe is dealt with, I expect you to participate in some discussions with my department to ensure our society isn’t compromised.”

  “Fine,” I said. “I’ll talk to your people.”

  It wasn’t quite a victory, but at least the tension in the jeep felt a little less judgmental now.

  Investigator Ruiz had been talking with someone on her phone. “We’re coming up on the nearest observation point,” she said, lowering the phone to her lap. “The creature should be in sight shortly.”

  The driver slowed the jeep as we ascended a low hill. Before we’d even reached its peak, a surge of unsettling energy wafted over me. The energy’s off-kilter pulse raised the hairs on the back of my neck and made my stomach lurch. All at once, every nerve in my body screamed at me to run in the opposite direction.

  Brimsey’s hand tightened around the door handle. He might not have had any magical sensitivity of his own, but he was hardly numb to the demon’s power.

  I rubbed my arms, leaning forward to peer more intently out the windshield. We crested the hill, and the demon came into view.

  I flinched at the sight of it, even though it was at least a quarter mile away still. A huge form was making its slow lurching way across a farmer’s pasture. Even hunched over, its body was nearly as large as the delivery truck parked near the barn. A red-orange glow flowed over its skin, coiling and churning and never ceasing to move.

  The thing traveled at a gait that was somewhere between a human crawl and an ape’s knuckled lope, its features a similar mishmash of almost-human and animal and aspects that looked completely alien. Spikes with a metallic glint jotted from its curved back over a barrel chest. Its arms and legs bent in impossible ways. They each had an extra joint, I realized as nausea gripped my gut.

  Its face was turned away from us, but the pitch-black eyes that had peered at me from the portal were burned into my memory clearly enough.

  The dissonant energy the demon gave off had heightened in the air. My whole body had tensed against the urge to flee. When I managed to tear my gaze away from the creature, it settled on the patches of rotted vegetation left in the demon’s path. Even as I watched, it hesitated for a moment, turning its head as if trying to get a read on the landscape around it, and the plants around it shriveled and grayed.

  “Spark help us,” Brimsey murmured. He’d seen the demon in the cave, but not out in the open like this, not until now. His face had completely blanched.

  A farmhouse stood on the other side of the barn. A different sort of horror gripped me. “What about the people who live there? The demon must have crossed paths with some unsparked locals. If they start reporting it to their law enforcement and their news—”

  “No one has reported it,” Ruiz interrupted in a flat voice. “We’ve managed to evacuate most of the residents in its path so far. There haven’t been many of them. I don’t know how long the Assembly can keep up a story to divert them, but for now, it’s been enough. And the power the demon gives off seems to make anyone traveling by turn away before they get close enough to see it.” Her own hands were clenched on her knees, the knuckles white.

  “You’ve evacuated most?” I repeated.

  She wet her lips. “We weren’t quite fast enough when it emerged. And in the middle of the night, at one point it changed directions abruptly, and we couldn’t act in time… There have been five casualties so far.”

  Five deaths. Five innocent people dead, on top of all the witches whose lives had been ruined, thanks to the Frankfords and their faction’s greed.

  “There are two squads keeping watch,” Ruiz went on with a motion of her hand. A gray sedan was parked near the top of another low hill beyond the farm. Another, this one black, was poised in the distance beyond the fields. “We have three other vehicles maintaining the evacuation.”

  “The locals are being taken to a community center in one of the nearby towns that we have access to,” Brimsey said, with a waver to his words as he stared at the demon. “We’re keeping them fed and looked after.”

  Right. As well as confused and away from their homes, while that thing left a path of destruction across their properties.

  “What if it heads toward one of the towns near here?” I said. “We’ve been lucky so far that it’s stayed in the less inhabited areas. We can’t count on it remaining there forever.”

  “We’ll do our best,” Ruiz said, but her expression looked haunted.

  “We’re hoping we’ll have a proper plan of action before it comes to that,” Brimsey added. “Which is why we brought you in. Have you gotten any inspiration?”

  He managed to sound like an ass even while he was terrified out of his wits. I might have turned to him with a sharp retort, but at that moment the demon’s head swiveled toward us. My back went completely rigid.

  Even across that distance, I felt those fathomless black eyes fix on the jeep. The erratic pulse of the energy warbled faster, making my skin twitch. For an instant, I was frozen, my lungs not even able to expand to draw breath. The flare of my spark inside my chest dulled.

  I didn’t have the power in me to turn back that thing. Not right now, not on my own.

  As that realization washed over me, the demon shifted its gaze again. I couldn’t tell whether it had understood what the jeep was or that there were living people in it, but at the moment it didn’t appear to care.

  How long would this respite last? I swallowed hard, pushing myself straighter in the seat.

  Every second that monster was still moving around freely out here, more people could die. More of our world was rotting in its wake. I might not be able to take it on now, but I’d find a way. I’d push it back into that portal or kill it and see the gate into their world sealed, no matter what I had to do.

  There were no other options. Even if the man beside me and too many of his colleagues didn’t see me as anything more than a miscreant.

  “All right,” I said, my nerves still jittering. “I’ve made my observations. Now let’s head back and get that plan of action figured out before that thing gets any farther.”

  Chapter Four

  Rose

  By the time the jeep pulled up in front of the Assembly building, my stomach had just about settled. My thoughts were still spinning. How could we overcome the demon when so little of our magic could affect it? There had to be some kind of answer in the Frankfords’ files. I knew Kyler and at least a couple of my other consorts were pouring over them again alongside the Assembly officials, but I figured I’d better add to those efforts.

  When I stepped into the front hall, though, Gabriel and Seth were waiting for me. “Hey,” Gabriel said, studying me. “How was it?”

  I couldn’t suppress the shudder that rippled through me. “Not good,” I said, which was about as optimistic as I could manage to be. “It’s killed people. It’s destroying the land it crosses. We can’t let it keep going.”

  “We won’t,” Seth said firmly. “It’s just one demon. There are a whole lot of witches. We’ll stop it.”

  “Yeah,” I said, but just for a second all the bravado I’d been trying to hold onto fled. I stepped forward, reaching for both of my consorts, and they enveloped me in a joint hug. Their muscular frames, Seth’s more broad and Gabriel’s leaner, encircled me, and their combined scents—sweet and dark, warm and bronzy—filled my lungs.

  What I’d said to Brimsey in the jeep was true. I needed these guys, for far more than to keep my spark lit. They steadied me.

  They gave me all the reason I could ever require to fight my heart out.

  Brimsey sighed as he stalked off, and I decided it was probably best to refrain from any overt PDAs here in the Assembly’s office building. We were supposed to be here for business, after all. They’d take me a
nd my consorts more seriously if we kept a somewhat professional attitude.

  “Lady Ainsworth—Thalia—wanted you to come see her in the rooms where the recovering witches are staying,” Gabriel said as he eased back. “The Assembly people brought in a few more of them this morning. She sounded like it was urgent—she was hoping to talk to you as soon as you got back.”

  My heart skipped a beat. Had something happened with the newly freed witches that Thalia didn’t feel comfortable discussing with the Assembly? I could imagine they wouldn’t be in a hurry to trust any of the officials when several of the members of the Frankfords’ faction, including Charles Frankford, had been officials themselves.

  “I’ll go right now,” I said. “Did she mention anything else?”

  He shook his head and hesitated. “We’ll come with you, if you think it’d be for the best.”

  “If our being there isn’t going to upset anyone,” Seth added. “Jin went by and did up protective tokens for the new arrivals, but he said some of them looked really shell-shocked.”

  “Why don’t you come along and we’ll see how it goes,” I said. Gabriel’s easy-going charm and Seth’s stoic determination might be as comforting to the witches as Jin’s playful good humor had been. “We still don’t know everything they’ve been through. We’ll just have to approach things cautiously.”

  Gabriel nodded. “If you think it’s better for us to leave, just give the word.”

  We found Thalia in the same lounge room where I’d met with the first few recovering witches earlier. Nine of them were now sitting on the couches and chairs around the room, talking in hushed voices, their hands moving with nervous twitches. Thalia hurried to the doorway to meet us and ushered us back into the hall.

  “What’s the matter?” I said. “Is everyone okay?”

  She gave me a tight smile. “As okay as they can be, after everything.” Her own eyes were shining brighter than before, even more color back in her cheeks as her own recovery progressed. I could only imagine how much weight had been lifted off her with the removal of the spell that had kept her silent for so many years. “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about, though. I’ve been speaking with all of them as they’ve come in… They all understand the threat we’re facing. And most of us agree that we have to do everything we can to defend against that fiend.”

  My gaze slid past her to the room behind her. “Of course. I mean, any information they can give that might be helpful, tactics we could use—as long as it doesn’t strain them too much to talk about it. I know none of this has been easy for any of you.”

  “That’s where I thought perhaps you could help,” Thalia said. “We’d like to do even more than that if we can. At least a few of us would be willing to face those things again if it means we never have to fear them after that. But wanting to and being able to find the strength to… are not quite the same things. Your mind is clearer. Your magic hasn’t been twisted the same way. And it’s hard for us to turn to anyone in the Assembly in good faith. I’d like you to try guiding us through some joint healing exercises.”

  I balked instinctively. “I don’t have that much practice at healing. I don’t have that much practice at anything magical, really. I only came into my spark a few months ago.”

  And a few weeks ago, I’d been prepared to hurt anyone from the Frankfords’ faction who came near me. I had hurt my former tutor trying to get information out of him. I’d gotten those darker impulses under control, but I still wasn’t sure I should be trusted to heal people whose minds might be so fragile.

  “It’s all right,” Thalia said, with a knowing look that made me wonder how much of my doubt she understood. She’d been living in the Hallowell manor during the worst of that time—she might have overheard even more conversations than I knew. “I have some training in the healing arts. And this will be more mental than anything else. I can help direct you. I’m not sure we’ll see a great effect very quickly, but over time—as much time as we have—I hope it’ll make a difference.”

  “I suppose it can’t hurt to try,” I said, dragging in a breath. I glanced at the guys who’d accompanied me. “It sounds like maybe this is something that’ll go over better if it’s just us witches.” It’d been the consorts of the witches in here who’d manipulated them, enslaved their magic. My consorts were strangers to them, but it might be hard for them to completely relax for a ritual like this in the presence of any men at all.

  “That makes sense,” Gabriel said. “I’m sure we can find some way to occupy ourselves that’s at least a little bit useful.”

  He squeezed my hand, and Seth leaned in to give me a peck on the cheek. “I was thinking it’d be good to take a look at the demon’s course on a map,” the bigger guy started saying to the other as they headed off down the hall.

  Thalia watched them go, her smile softening. “I wish my consort had held even half as much affection for me as yours clearly do for you.”

  I hadn’t thought about the painful memories seeing us together might stir up for her too. “Now you’re free of him,” I said. “That’s something, at least. And if you take that step again, you know it doesn’t have to be with a witching man.”

  “Definitely a pertinent fact to keep in mind,” she said wryly. Then she directed me back into the lounge room.

  The witches looked up as we came back in, their expressions expectant. I got the impression that Thalia had already discussed her plan with all of them, and they’d just been waiting to see if I’d agree. They stood up from their seats, clustering around me with murmurs of gratitude and introductions from those I hadn’t met before. A lump rose in my throat as I responded to a series of sentiments that could mostly be summed up as, “Thank you so much for what you did.”

  I was the one who’d exposed the Frankfords. It was thanks to me that these witches were freed from their awful duty. I’d been so caught up in worrying about the demon that the full impact hadn’t quite sunk in until right now.

  Maybe I did have it in me to truly heal.

  As she’d promised, Thalia took the lead. “We should form a ring,” she said, taking my hand in her smooth dry one. “As we soothe our sparks together, the healing energy can flow between all of us. We are stronger together, always.”

  Yes, I thought, the sentiment reverberating through me. It echoed the way I thought about my consorts so well.

  The other witches shuffled into a loose circle. Crystal, the young witch with a sickly complexion who’d already been here early this morning, ended up at my other side. A little shiver ran from her into me as she wrapped her fingers around mine. From what I’d gathered, she’d consorted young, only eighteen years old, and her consort and father had pushed her involvement hard over the six years since. She was nearly as shaky as some of those who’d been drawn in decades ago.

  “We’ve had so much taken from us, it’s frightening to let any of our magic move through and out of us,” Thalia said. “But it’s only by releasing our magic that we can feel fulfilled in using it. It does no one any good keeping it bottled inside. Lady Hallowell will begin, just sending a touch of warmth through our circle. When you feel ready, add a little of your own. Let’s find our way back to the witches we were meant to be.”

  I inhaled deeply, focusing on the warm glow of my spark inside me. It danced at my attention. With a gentle circling of my thumbs against the hands I held, I drew that warmth through my arms and urged it on into my companions. A soothing glow with nothing but kindness and compassion in it for these scarred but not broken women.

  More warmth tickled against my palm from Thalia’s hand as she tapped her forefinger to guide her own spell. The growing stream of it coursed through me and on toward Crystal. Another wash of it eased over me from the other side. And around the circle, the witches’ faces were starting to relax. A glow lit in them too as they worked their magic without fear or compulsion.

  A smile curved my lips. I was helping. Even if they could mostly thank Thalia’s com
ments, her direction, my being here and starting the cycle had gotten them on the right path. Tremors of anxiety reached me here and there, but the warm glow quickly melted them away.

  There could be a formidable force in this room, if we mended all the wounds these women had been dealt.

  I wasn’t sure how much time had passed before Thalia bowed her head. “I think that’s a good start,” she said. “We can’t push recovery too quickly. You’ve all been very strong today. Thank you for standing with me.”

  “And thank you for standing with me,” I added. I might not have been afraid of having the magic in me stolen, but this ritual had left me feeling even more centered, even more resolved.

  “I’ll talk with the others later this evening to see how they’re feeling,” Thalia told me as we moved back toward the door. “Maybe you could come back for something similar tomorrow. I know it means a lot to them just seeing you.”

  Suddenly I felt embarrassed again. “I didn’t do that much. It was mostly you.”

  She shrugged. “We wouldn’t be here at all if you hadn’t found the strength to stand up to the Frankfords. None of us is ever going to forget that.”

  I swallowed hard. “I’ll keep doing whatever I can, then,” I said. “You’re right. We’re stronger together. And we’re going to need an awful lot of strength to push that demon back.”

  Chapter Five

  Kyler

  I was so absorbed in scanning the words on the laptop’s screen that I jumped in my chair at the click of the door. Rose peeked into the small office the Assembly had given to us.

  “Hey,” she said as she slipped inside. Her gaze found Seth where he’d ended up crashing on the sofa behind the desk about an hour ago, and her voice dropped lower to avoid waking him. “How’s it going?”