“Dragons have better manners than faerie ghosts.”
“I don’t even know if you’re being serious or not,” I said. “Has this been happening since we left?”
“No, but I heard you caused a stir in Edinburgh after I left,” said Agnes. “I have to apologise for leaving the way I did.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “Believe me, we have bigger problems. Someone yanked our house off the Ley Line and stole the gate from the garden.”
Everett’s eyes widened. “Someone stole the Gatekeeper’s gate?”
His wife, however, looked as unperturbed as ever.
“Yes.” Hazel’s hands clenched at her sides, her knuckles whitening. “We went into Faerie overnight and everything went to hell. Now we’re stuck here with no magic.”
“If you need any spells, you’re welcome to any from the shop,” Everett said.
“And if you want to go to Edinburgh,” Agnes said, “I do have a way. I’d have to make a few phone calls first, but I think they’d make an exception for the Gatekeeper.”
“We might have to take you up on that offer,” I said. The house might be unprotected, but the Ley Line went through the whole country. In Edinburgh, we had a whole team of potential allies. If only I could say the same for the Seelie Court. “But we need to find the gate first before we handle anything else.”
Hazel caught my gaze and nodded, her grim expression a reflection of my own.
9
“I hope you have a plan,” Morgan said when Hazel unlocked the front door of the Lynn house. “Because I think Edinburgh’s a safer bet than Faerie.”
“And I think the answers are in the Court,” Hazel said irritably. “They must be. The Court—someone in Faerie stole my goddamned gate.”
“It’s not yours,” said Morgan. “It’s the Court’s property.”
“Then they should be lining up to help me.” Her face was flushed and her whole body shook with rage. She was used to stepping up and taking charge, while I was used to standing invisibly in the background. So was Morgan, come to that, but he looked equally pissed off.
“Guys,” I said. “Calm down.”
Hazel shot me a glare. “Do you have any idea how much trouble we’re in? Mum’s supply of cash is gone. So is mine.”
“What, you still use magically generated money?” Morgan snorted.
“The Sidhe don’t know how to use human banks, obviously,” Hazel said. “So they use magic to make the money appear in the house, in Mum’s secure deposit box. The money’s always there. Except it isn’t, because there’s no magic here at all.”
“Obviously,” Morgan said. “We can survive a few weeks, and if it all goes tits up, we might not have to worry about that at all.”
“Morgan, you’re not helping,” she snapped. “I’m not relying on charity, especially as this is my fucking job.”
“No, it’s our mother’s job. And what’s she done? Got herself kidnapped.” He stormed into the living room, where River wisely glided out of the way. I was tempted to grab him and run somewhere quiet—like the library—but without the house’s magic running, anything they broke would remain in pieces.
“At least I’ve never stolen from anyone,” Hazel shot at Morgan. “From my family.”
Morgan scowled. “I wasn’t in my right mind back then.”
“And you never freaking apologised.”
“Guys!” I said.
“Who even fucking cares? Those were faerie antiques. It’s not like she or the Sidhe were ever going to use them,” Morgan said.
“Want to know why I care?” Hazel said. “This is my life. I have given my entire life to the Sidhe, and this is how I’m repaid for it. I nearly lost both of you.” Her voice cracked. “And they don’t care in the slightest.”
“Haven’t the rest of us been telling you that all along?” Morgan folded his arms. “This isn’t news.”
“Then stop blaming it all on Mum,” Hazel snapped. “She was an only child, so she always knew she was born to this. She never had to pick her family over the Sidhe, because her family already served them.”
“She wouldn’t pick us over the Sidhe,” Morgan said.
“Yes, she would,” I interjected. “Both of you, calm the hell down.”
River cleared his throat from behind us. “You have a visitor,” he said.
The doorbell rang. I frowned and tapped into my spirit sight. Holly? It must be her. Who needed a security system when you had the ability to peer at someone’s very soul?
Hazel walked to the door first, with the rest of us behind her, and pulled it open. Holly stood with a couple of books in her arms, her circlet gleaming bright blue. Full power. It hadn’t been evident to me until now how like Hazel she looked, despite the generations separating each half of the family. She had the same confident stance, the same aura that drew attention even when she wasn’t trying to. She’d dyed her hair black and clipped it to chin-length, which made her pale skin look paler and her blue eyes more startling.
“Hazel,” said Holly, breaking the imposing impression. Her teeth ran over her lower lip not unlike Hazel when she was nervous. “I came to speak to your sister.”
“Me?” My brows rose. “You told me to go away before.”
“I know I did.” She glanced over her shoulder at the garden. “What happened here?”
“Faeries,” I said, like that explained anything. “Actually, I’ve no bloody clue. None of us have.” Telling her Summer was in trouble wasn’t a wise move, not now she was interacting directly with the Sidhe. But maybe she’d guessed. Who knew how much more information she had access to now she was properly immersed in Gatekeeper training?
“I came to help you,” Holly said. “Believe it or not.”
“Go on,” I said warily. She showed no outward signs of hostility, but I wouldn’t trust her until I knew she hadn’t in any way been involved.
“Ilsa,” she said, almost hesitant. “I… when I returned to the house, my magic restored it to the state it was in before the Winter Gatekeeper’s magic destroyed it.”
“Yeah, I figured. But that won’t help us with ours.”
“That’s not what I wanted to say,” Holly said. “My mother… when she was scheming, she ordered that bird of yours to bring her some books from your house. They burned with the house, but my magic brought them back.” She held out a book, a thick ancient tome with a velvety red covering. “I can’t make up for what I did, but I can at least give you this. I think it’s how she found out about the Gatekeeper’s magic, and it was what I used… you know, when I was trying to work out if the Gatekeeper’s powers would be able to save her.”
I blinked, startled, but took the book from her. It was surprisingly heavy. “Wow. Faerie magic’s really something, huh.” I should have thanked her, but it felt too awkward and strange. And I’d dearly like to know how magic had managed to restore something that had been completely destroyed. I hadn’t really thought about how Holly was in the same position Mum had been in—as the only child, the only contender for heir, her role had been set before she was even born. Same as her own mother. Maybe that was why Aunt Candice had been so determined to break the curse.
Holly passed me a smaller notebook, too. “This is your aunt’s diary. I didn’t find much in there, but maybe you’ll be able to get more out of it than I did.”
“Great-Aunt Enid.” I took the book from her, feeling her hand trembling. “Thanks. A peace offering, right?”
“I don’t want to fight with you,” Holly said. “I’m not my mother. And… I don’t know what happened to your house. I’m sorry.”
“I think there’s a traitor who stole our gate,” I admitted. “In Faerie. They have their magic to protect themselves, but… the village doesn’t.”
Her eyes widened. “They stole the gate?”
“When we were in Faerie,” I said. I doubted she’d use the information against us, and it wasn’t like we had a whole lot in the way of information anyway. �
��God knows how, but we’re off the Ley Line. We have other ways to get around, but not to Faerie.”
“Ah. I’m not allowed to let anyone through Winter’s gate, and I don’t think you’d survive it anyway.”
“No worries. We’ll figure it out.”
The books in my hands called to me like a siren’s song. With this information, I had a proper guide to the Gatekeeper’s magic. Finally.
“If you need my help, just ask,” Holly mumbled. The words sounded like they pained her to speak aloud, but I gave her a smile. It probably wasn’t very sincere, but she gave me an equally false attempt at a smile back. And then she turned away.
“Hang on,” I said. “How did you get here, from the Ley Line? Where is it?”
“Over the hill,” Holly said. “My house is exactly where it always was. I didn’t even know yours wasn’t there until I went to check on the village.”
“Have you seen Arden?” asked Hazel. “He’s been missing ever since we went to Faerie.”
Holly shook her head. “Sorry, no. I’ll keep an eye out.”
“Sure. See you around,” I said.
And she left. Hazel closed the door. “Damn, Ilsa. What’s in those books?”
“Answers. I hope.” I took both books with me into the living room. “Let’s see what the last Gatekeeper has to say.”
The book, it turned out, wasn’t a guide to the Gatekeeper so much as a tome of advanced necromancy. The sort of book that would have been kept in Lady Montgomery’s office at Edinburgh’s necromancer guild, out of the way. It wasn’t a magical book, but a dryly written technical manual of how to do dangerous things like disconnecting from one’s body, exploring the spirit realm without a tether, and removing a force possessing a living person. Nothing I hadn’t done already, but it was nice to have an explanation for how it all worked.
Great-Aunt Enid’s journal was less useful. Most of it was old letters written in her almost-illegible handwriting. In the back were drawings and odd words scribbled down. Faerie… Gates… Ancients… and no context. Helpful. Maybe she was writing down her thought process, but I’d need to read the whole book to make heads or tails of it. Morgan and Hazel seemed to have forgotten their argument and lapsed into silence, so I went to my favourite spot in the library and prepared to do some serious digging.
Even without the house’s magic functioning, the comforting smell of old books embraced me as I read through the textbook. Apparently, I didn’t need to open the whole gate whenever a spirit got loose—I could carefully let only one spirit through. As I’d done with the half-faerie. But the part I wanted to know about was how to use the Ley Line to travel as Ivy did.
The spirit lines are anchors.
I stared at the page. Anchors… like candles. So did that mean if I left my body while on a spirit line, I wouldn’t go floating off into the void? I suspected most necromancers had absolutely zero control when they disconnected from their bodies, so I was one step above them in that I could actually control where I moved and how I extended my spirit sight. But master necromancers could go one step further and move anywhere they liked at will. They had absolute control. Their methods were also a swift ticket through the gates if they went wrong, but those who survived to become Guardians were able to use the spirit lines to travel great distances.
And so was the Gatekeeper… except I didn’t need to be dead to do so. I could go wherever I wanted at any time.
I looked up, and jumped, seeing River’s reflection in the window. “How long have you been standing there?”
“A while.” He gave a tired smile and walked to the desk. Besides the textbooks was the sci-fi paperback he’d borrowed from me when he’d been here the first time, what felt like a lifetime ago. “I never did borrow the rest of those books of yours.”
“Go right ahead.” I stretched my neck. “I might need to put some of this into practise soon.”
“Anchors?” he said, reading over my shoulder. “I didn’t know that about the spirit lines.”
“Where’s the nearest one to here?” I asked. “Aside from the Ley Line, I mean.”
“I assume there’s a spirit line close to the necromancer guild, or your family mausoleum,” he answered. “Why?”
“Because I can travel along spirit lines.” I closed the textbook. “Any of them. I could get to Edinburgh from here without leaving the village. I can travel between key points. There’s no risk of me leaving the line and risking being dragged through the gate.”
River’s fingers trailed over the back of my chair, and the earthy scent of his magic filtered through the old-book smell. My body remembered our encounter in the Sidhe’s forest even if my mind wanted to focus on the present. We had few hours of daylight left, and if it was possible for me to use my ability to find the Gate—I had to try.
River shook his head. “That skill’s Guardian material, and extremely dangerous. Key points closer together, maybe, but not that far apart.”
“My talisman can do it,” I said. “I can do it. Imagine what I can see from that side. Ivy did it, and she doesn’t even have the book.”
“Ivy?”
Ah. I hadn’t told him. So much had happened since that it’d quite honestly slipped my mind up until the half-faerie ghost had mentioned her name.
“I had a visitor, the day you first showed up here,” I told him. “She looked like a ghost but wasn’t one. Ivy Lane. That’s what she said her name was. It was her who put the idea that we had to find the heir to Summer into my head, but I don’t think she meant to—it was Arden who interpreted what she said in that way. It’s not like I knew her, though she claimed we were distant relatives… and she had a faerie talisman.”
His brows shot up. “She brought a talisman into Death?”
“Apparently. It’s not like we had time to talk. I was convinced she was either working against us or a figment of my imagination, and I haven’t heard from her since. But she travelled all the way up here from England, along the Ley Line.”
River looked at me with disbelief etched on his face. “It shouldn’t be possible.”
“Trust me.”
River’s mouth drew down at the corners. “I trust you. But whatever powers this Ivy person has, it’s not worth risking your own life.”
“Then set up a tether,” I said. “Activate some candles as a backup and watch me while I try to move around the spirit lines. Then it won’t harm me if it doesn’t work. I have to at least try. Maybe I can even get into the Vale.”
“And can you guarantee you’d make it out?”
He had me there. “You know how important this is.”
“I know your life is more important to me than whoever decided to leave this task to you.” He spoke quietly, his head bowed a little, his fair hair falling into his eyes.
My throat closed up. “And if my mum did it? Just let me try. I’m trusting you to watch me on this side, okay?”
He gave a sharp nod. “Right. But the slightest sign of danger and I’m bringing you back into this realm. I don’t think the person who made that book intended its wielders to have long lives.”
“Great-Aunt Enid did fine,” I answered.
“Did she ever have to do anything like you have?”
“Maybe. I’d need to read the rest of this to find out.” I held up her journal. “But I want to try the spirit lines before it gets dark outside.”
Once we reached the mausoleum, I had a look around to see if there’d been any new disturbances. None. Grandma’s ghost had moved on, so there were no residents here, but the amount of iron built into the walls kept out hostile presences. River set up the candle circle while I skimmed to the last section of the talisman book. I already knew what I’d find there. This was the way into the Vale—by disconnecting from my body, and risking certain, permanent death from which there would be no return.
If Mum had known how dangerous it was, she surely wouldn’t have passed the book on to me. But nobody from her own generation had claimed it, and fr
om what I’d read of Great-Aunt Enid’s journal, she hadn’t told a soul.
I swallowed down my complicated feelings on Mum’s decision, and walked up to the circle of twelve candles. River had spaced them out so I had room to sit between them. I climbed carefully into the circle, making the mistake of meeting his concerned stare.
“I want to do this,” I told him. “And I trust you to hold the rope. Okay?”
“I won’t let go, Ilsa.”
He spoke the words with all the intensity of a faerie vow. If I’d had faerie magic, those words would have bound his soul to mine. My mouth dropped open, taken aback, and he kissed me hard. His hands gripped my shoulders firmly, saying more than words could. Then he let go and took a step back.
I slipped out of my body. He was there, too, a pale shape floating beside the circle of candles. I drifted out of the circle, towards the necromancers’ place. A thin line appeared beneath my feet, faintly silver in colour. The same colour as the light around my body. I moved and my spirit did, zipping down the line.
I stopped abruptly, staring around. I’d ended up somewhere I didn’t know, beside a grassy hill surrounded by forests and fields. Must be another liminal space. Some faeries had hidden in these spaces before the invasion. Nobody could harm me as a ghost, but hellhounds and other creatures were known to wander the spirit lines. Probably from the Vale. It was all connected, after all.
I could get to Edinburgh from here.
I turned south, and continued to drift. Occasionally, I spotted other spirit lines intersecting with this one. Edinburgh was easy to find—a tangle of lines, lit up like a beacon. No wonder it was such a hot spot for ghosts. Other spirits drifted around, and I faltered, not wanting to run into any necromancers. I’d have a job and a half explaining how I’d travelled so far from my body.
I floated back north into the countryside, then stopped, my skin prickling. Someone was following me.
“Hey, you. Wait.”
I spun around. A woman appeared on the hillside, striding towards me with purpose.
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