Blood Threads: The Star Seamstress Book One

by Noella Royce

  In the middle of the room were dozens of hooded bodies on the floor, blood everywhere. Their bodies were twisted, and several were missing limbs and, here and there, heads. Sightless eyes stared at the ceiling, and more than one face was twisted in a horrified scream.

  "What did this?" Jasmine asked quietly.

  "Vampire," said Solal, and sighed. She stepped forward and surveyed the scene, poking one lifeless form with the toe of her boot. "One particular vampire who's always had a gift for violence. Didn't even leave us any alive for a wee drink. So thoughtless. But where is he?"

  A bright, masculine laugh came from the darkness to our left, and someone in a bright red hood strode out, followed by other Ashers carrying a large cage.

  Inside was Adin, wrapped in chains, his body crumpled, his head lolling against the bars. He was wearing the velvet outfit from the first time I'd seen him, but it was torn, and I could see with my new vision that the clothing's lifeforce was draining away.

  Also being led were Kyle and Sun Ji, wearing dirty clothes—the ones I suspected they were kidnapped in. Their eyes were blank.

  I gasped and my hands went up to my mouth, and Thalia turned to me with narrowed eyes. "Quiet!" she hissed. "If they don't know you're here, they can't prepare. Let our magic cover you."

  "Damn it," Jasmine sighed. "I was hoping they'd all be dead."

  "Spread out!" Leslie said, and the group dispersed, eyeing the gathering necromancers, now numbering roughly twenty or thirty, and pulling out their weapons. Thalia, Jasmine, and Hal stayed with me.

  Everything inside me desperately wanted to run over to the cage and check to see if Adin was alright, ensure he was alive, but my chaperones were packed so tightly around me I couldn't move.

  Another laugh came from behind the hood and my blood ran cold. "There's still enough of us left, you know," Red Hood said sweetly, and I wondered how they'd heard that all the way from there. The voice was familiar, in melodic I'd heard almost daily since moving to Maywen. "He took out more than half of my people, which I don't appreciate, but not quite enough to make us totally ineffective. Luckily, the oath caught up to him and he collapsed before he could finish us all off. We probably needed a good culling regardless. People get so greedy when you gather power."

  Could someone have two different voices? In Maywen, anything was possible.

  "Thalia," I whispered.

  "Hush! Stay silent."

  "But the one in red, they're—"

  "Quiet!"

  "Yes, Veda, be quiet," Red Hood said, stopping a hundred yards from us as the necromancers fanned out from the cage, forming a protective ring around their leader. "We wouldn't want to know you're here, despite the fact your prom dress is practically screaming your name." They tsked, and I noticed their voice was rising, becoming more feminine. "Turquoise for a sneaking mission, really? You barely wear colors for three weeks, and now you reach for the jewel tones? You're so inconsistent."

  That light, melodic tone, that warm but slightly disapproving voice, was now more than familiar. It couldn't be, but it was. "Breanna?"

  My roommate laughed and pulled back her hood. "Hello, sweetie. How nice to see you again."

  17

  My brain couldn't quite wrap itself around what I was seeing. Here was my roommate, sweet, proper Breanna, standing in the middle of the room in a gilded red robe and surrounded by necromancers.

  And yet it wasn't Breanna, because she was different, but in small, unexpected ways. She was taller, the shoulders broader, and her jaw was squarer, firmer and above a wider neck. My very feminine roommate was no longer a female, but instead an attractive, almost pretty boy, with shimmering blond hair and a blinding smile.

  I was having trouble handling this new information. "You're a necromancer? And a man?"

  Another trilling cascade of sound. How did I never notice the sharp edge to Breanna's laughter before? "Yes to question A, not quite to question B. I'm whatever I'd like to be, at any given time."

  "Still playing games, Brinneth?" Leslie crossed his arms, his carriage relaxed. There was a blue glow around him, however, that spoke of magic. "I thought you'd been drummed out of the Ashers."

  "Oh Leslie, behind the times as always." Breanna—or Brinneth, apparently—stepped back and put a proprietary hand on Adin's cage. "Fifty years is such a long time for humans, and the majority of the mages who were against me then are dead by now. Few still held a grudge for me being a vampire lover, and those that did just needed a bit of a... nudge, perhaps over a cliff, to see things my way."

  "And the remaining elders?" Solal asked in her droll tones. "You wouldn't have this level of support, and all these willing minions, if you'd killed all their masters."

  "Oh, they were conveniently called away to Europe, but I've certainly got their full support, I promise you that. I asked them to trust me, and enough of them remember the glory years to agree. They'll be quite pleased to see the gains I've made for the organization in their absence. But you're looking well, darling. Do you regret your choice to spend eternity in a child's body?"

  Solal rolled her eyes. "Eighteen is not a child, Brinneth, but you always were something of a prude. Do you still enjoy your life flipping between genders?"

  "Oh yes, it was the best decision I ever made." Their smile fell. "Well, that's not true. There was one better choice I made, but I spoiled it in the end. Perhaps, once I finish this little endeavor, I can take some time and coax that choice back."

  As they spoke, I thought of Breanna and her nice, calming tea, and wanted to smack myself for being an idiot. Of course she was the one who poisoned me, who else could it be?

  I turned to Thalia. "Why do they all act like they know each other? Who is she? Or he?"

  Thalia opened her mouth to answer, but Brinneth spoke first. "Sweet, lovely, Veda. It's astounding to me how they've kept you in the dark for so long. Maywen has truly stagnated, become overprotective of its secrets, and the monsters here have forgotten their ambitions." Several of the shifters snarled at the term 'monster'. "That's what I'm here for. But you, sweet, succulent, nascent Star Seamstress, have so much unique power and no one to show you what to do with it. Broke, alone, no friends and no dignity. Nursing a complex gift that no one will nurture. You've taken a brooding, powerful white knight as your protector, but he's useless to you when you need him the most. Really, his universal big brother complex has always entertained me."

  This was all said in Breanna's sweet, honey tones and my heart clenched. "Why are you doing this? Why did you poison me?"

  They ignored me except for a smile that would be empathetic in any other context. In that moment, I understood it was mocking. "You make a powerful dress, but then what? You throw yourself on me and we both die in the explosion of your power? What use is that?" Her gaze fell on Thalia. "Your need for control will be your undoing, beast-witch."

  Thalia growled, and Hal vibrated with rage. Brinneth laughed gaily. "You are so much less interesting than you could be, all of you." She draped herself on the cage and sighed. "Adin and Ellit really were the only fun ones among the lot of you, and he's neutered and she's gone." A shadow passed over her face before the expression of lazy contempt returned.

  I stepped forward, ignoring whatever Thalia hissed at me. I was humiliated and angry, and sick of being mocked. "So you always make a habit of betraying people? First Ellit, now me, whoever knows how many people in-between?"

  Brinneth's eyes narrowed. "Is that what Adin told you? How utterly like him. It's not that simple, Veda. Our relationship was complicated, and I believe we would've worked it out if it wasn't for his meddling." She reached through the bars and poked him in the shoulder, but he didn't move. "At least that whole affair shook out in our favor, taking our deadliest foe out of the game."

  Leslie walked to me and put a hand on my shoulder. "What is she talking about?"

  "Oh, don't ask her, Leslie. She only knows half the story, and not much of anything about Maywen. For example, she has no idea
that the necromancers created the vampires. That you are us."

  "What?" Fuck, that explained so much, including my dream and Adin's reaction to it.

  "Yes, indeed, and handsome Mr. 'First Changer' here was the one who crafted the spell, and the first to make the transformation. Me, I chose to pursue a different path, but the mechanism is the same. Our most powerful mage, our deadliest vampire. All that in one lovely, simmering little package."

  "Please shut up, Brinneth." I almost laughed with relief to hear his voice. Adin lifted his head and scowled at her. "You're far too fond of the sound of your own voice."

  "Why not, my sweet? It's a beautiful voice." I noted that despite their words, Brinneth moved quickly away from the cage. "You and Ellit always loved my singing. You and I sang so well together." The fondness in Brinneth's voice made me feel a spike of irrational jealousy. "You know, you were always my favorite. I love Ellit madly, and in many ways, she is the only one who understands me, but she doesn't have your power, your presence, although she was a little more practical." They glanced at me. "Your attachment to our baby seamstress here says a great deal about you." He growled at her, and she laughed.

  "But enough. You're all here to see the show, are you not? We have our batteries, and our audience—the moment is ripe." Brinneth flipped her wrist and turned. "Begin!"

  The necromancers began to fan out, facing the wall of glass and the water behind it, and raised their arms. Sun Ji and Kyle were roughly pushed to the center of the circle and fell to their knees. The mages began chanting, and my blood ran cold as a palpable feeling of power filled the room, manifested as a crimson cloud that was pulled from the boys towards the glass.

  "We attack as they cast." Thalia's low voice was a command, and Leslie nodded in agreement. "Stay back, Veda."

  A red miasma started to rise from the gathered necromancers, and with a sharp word the shifters and vampires sprung forward in attack, magic swirling around them and claws bared.

  Save us... desperate voices whispered at me, and I recognized the Agrimony's multi-faceted tones. What was happening?

  I watched Hal as he dropped down low and then jumped up in a blindingly fast motion, bearing down with a primal snarl on a tall Asher on the front—and then was pushed backward in a flash, flying through the air and landing on the ground with a sickening thud.

  "Fuck!" Peter yelled as the same happened to him. He stumbled backward, his hands and part of his face burned. It healed as I watched, but he winced in pain. "Bastards must have come out shielded. Where are they getting their power from?"

  The water behind the glass began to churn and rise, and it was as if it was being sucked from somewhere, pulling downward. And yet it wasn't just water; there were lights in it, shapes, and there were cries rising in the back of my mind, the sound of thousands of voices...

  "It's the river!" I cried. "They're draining the river!"

  Save us!

  Brinneth laughed. "I was wondering when one of you would notice. Quite surprised it was you, Veda."

  "You'll destroy us, you goddamn bitch!" Solal's expression was rage, and the laconic teenager was gone. "Everything we are is based on that river and the spirits within!"

  "No, I'll be destroying you; the town will mostly survive." Brinneth laughed. "I'm not taking the Agrimony out of Maywen, you see, I'm simply removing it from up there and bringing it all down here. It's not leaving, just... shifting. Existing in a nice, confined space for us to draw from. We just need to finish this wee binding spell and it'll be a much more docile, malleable body of water than the one we've known for the last few centuries."

  The red light was becoming stronger, thicker, and Sun Ji and Kyle's mouths were open in silent screams.

  I couldn't do it any longer, listening to the cries of the river voices in my head, watching Adin vibrate with rage, and two boys being drained as this person I thought I trusted took over this crazy town. Why the hell was I here in an unwieldy turquoise evening gown if not to fucking fight in it?

  The dress seemed to pulse in agreement. Protect me? I asked it, and I felt its response in a wave of electric power that pushed both inward and outward at the same time.

  I rushed forward, lifting my skirt, and threw myself at the chanting mages.

  "Veda!" Frank called out, his voice panicked. "No!"

  Sorry, Frank. I couldn't just stand by and watch this any longer. It was time for me to act.

  At first, the protective force tried to repel me and I stumbled back. Understanding my needs, my dress pushed its energy forward into a knife shape that pierced the magic and pulled me through.

  Brinneth's expression of surprise was gratifying, but in my self-congratulations, I didn't think what should happen next and whether I should be protected, and I cried out as a large body threw itself against mine, sending me sprawling.

  Scrambling backwards, I started to get up, but a boot landed on my chest. Grabbing it in panic and looking up, I found myself staring into the smirking, smug face of Chief Metzger. "Hi, Miss Geroux." His voice was full of mockery and he pressed down further. "Didn't I tell you to stay out of town business? Maywen's ours, and no little outsider bitch is going to take that from us."

  "Ours, Craig?" Brinneth's tone was droll. "Practicing magic for four years and you consider yourself one of the elite? I thought you swore to serve in humility and grace through the length of your apprenticeship. Bullying the locals does not count as humble, I wouldn't think."

  Metzger looked abashed, which I quite enjoyed, and the weight of his attention and the pressure of his boot lessened. "I'm sorry, Elder. I got ahead of myself."

  As he groveled, my dress reached for him. I could feel it almost as if it had an arm to stretch out. When I set it free, it was like a dog springing forward, excited and eager, and as I watched, turquoise, insidious light crept up his leg. Could no one else see what was happening? Was I the only one?

  "What the—" His words turned into a garbled howl and he stumbled backward, clutching his leg and then collapsing. "No, god, no, stop—"

  The mist had lazily wrapped itself around the whole of his body, and as I watched, it snaked around his throat and squeezed so he was choking, his hands grasping desperately at his neck as if to loosen the knot of something he couldn't feel or touch.

  His eyes met mine, and there was a desperate plea in them. I wished I found pleasure in his pain but the opposite was true—I was horrified to watch my power kill a man, stunned by the sudden violence and the horror of watching him die.

  "Veda!" It was Adin's voice calling to me. Unfortunately, that gave Brinneth a chance to lift her hand, chant, and as if pulling down an evil red cloud was a mundane activity, throw the power towards me like a fabric. By the time I saw it coming, it was too late, my mind too frozen to react.

  This magic was different than mine when it engulfed me; instead of strangling, it seemed to take over my limbs, and my mouth opened, soundless, as I was brought to my feet. My legs lifted me up, but I wasn't controlling them. Brinneth was.

  "That was nice of you," they said conversationally, stepping over the now prone body of Chief Metzger. I felt sick to my stomach. "He was useful from a public face front, but also a pig of a man. If he lives, I think we should find something a bit more back office for him to do, like feeding the undead monsters. That'll straighten anyone's attitude out.

  "Oh, Veda." There was a note of tenderness to her voice as she stroked my chin. "I really do adore you; you've a sweet soul and a great ass. And so trusting! You allowed me to poison you so easily, and did you once consider I was the cause?" Tears pricked my eyes. No, no I hadn't, because I'd genuinely liked and trusted Breanna. "I'd say I enjoyed tearing down your confidence with all those little jabs and making you so dependent on me, but I did feel guilt now and then. Really, if you were to survive this, I was going to make you my new toy." Brinneth sighed. "Think of all the fun we would have, testing the limits of your powers, letting you create beautiful outfits for us both. Perhaps I still will
, if you're a good girl from here on out." Their voice was a caress, matching the gentle stroke of those elegant hands.

  My hands clenched into fists at my knees, and I met Adin's burning gaze. His expression was twisted and enraged, like a mighty beast captive.

  I'm sorry, I mouthed to him. I'm so sorry.

  His brow furrowed, and then he snarled as Brinneth lifted their hand and their power brought me up with it, causing me to stumble to my feet. A thumb ran itself along my lip. "You know, I think you and I will go find Ellit together, and bring her back so we can create a lovely little family. This time, of course, I don't think I'll allow her as much freedom. You either. You'll be like dolls, to be broken; her especially, with her leaving me. Her I'll punish, you I'll—"

  Adin bellowed a word so alien, so infused with anger, it blasted through me, and he threw his hands out in a blinding flash of light. There was screaming all around us and I turned to see several of the necromancers falling on the ground, crying out in pain. Brinneth had been knocked back, eyes stunned, and Adin was free of the cage, his eyes blazing red.

  I almost smiled, relieved, until he howled and fell to his knees. He lifted his head and I cried out to see him weeping tears of blood.

  Veda, please! The river called out.

  "Oathbreaker," Brinneth mocked, struggling to their feet. "You knew this was exactly what would happen and yet you did it anyway? Such a fool, Adin. You didn't need to die, but here we are. And I didn't need all of them any longer. We're so very close, and our sweet baby batteries are almost drained."

  We are losing ourselves. Veda—the end of my name turned into a low, horrific moan, matched by Sun Ji and Kyle, who cried out together, as if one with the river.

  Their eyes were now utterly black and their skin was cracked through with red fault lines. They were dying, their life force draining.

  Adin rocked forward and then howled in fathomless pain, and I wept harder. We were failing. Brinneth was unsteady on their feet but their expression was triumphant.