Necromantic magic swirled from my hands, merging with Morgan’s and River’s, and slammed into her. She hit the remaining piece of wall, which collapsed. Icy shards rose from the ruins, but bounced harmlessly off our shield.
Her mouth twisted with hate. “I’m no longer bound by the agreement not to harm you.”
Her magic… her magic had been reset. That’s all a vow truly was—a binding of magic more than words. She could harm us. We could do likewise. But our magic-proof shield would hold. It had to—
A sword flew through the air. River fell back, bleeding, but his aim was true, piercing Candice Lynn through the chest. She screamed in fury, blood spilling down the front of her newly glamoured clothes.
“How’s that for lifeblood?” shouted Morgan. “You’re weakened by iron now, too. Bet you never thought of that.”
Ice spread from her hands, flowing across the floor and up my legs. Hazel and Morgan, too, and River. Like the transforming spell in the faerie realm, there were some kinds of magic that could bypass our shields, and this was one of them. My legs locked together, instincts screaming at me to run before whatever had stopped the guild from collapsing wore off. It was too quiet outside. What in hell had happened to the council?
Ivy rose shakily to her feet. A spear of ice sent her down again. She has healing powers… but they must have a limit. And a newly reborn Sidhe had enough power to bring down an army.
The Winter Gatekeeper advanced on me. “I must ask you to hand over that book, Ilsa,” she said.
“You know I couldn’t do that even if I wanted to,” I said. Not that it mattered, in theory. Arden’s death had left it blank. I’d never be able to read it now.
“Your allies won’t come to help you,” said the Winter Gatekeeper. “You’re alone. If you give me the book, I’ll spare this city. I’ve no intention of starting a war. Our role is for peace, after all.”
“You’ve got to be fucking joking,” said Hazel. “You tried to incite a war with the Sidhe when you were a ghost. Now you’re one of them. Do you think they’ll welcome you to their Court with open arms?”
“I spent my life studying the Sidhe. Some have already agreed to join me. We really do need new blood in the Courts. So many half-faeries and fallen Sidhe are waiting for their new bodies…”
No. It can’t end like this.
The book began to glow again. Her words couldn’t bind it indefinitely. She might be Sidhe, might have killed Arden, but the book’s magic would always outrank hers.
She raised a hand, and the house’s ceiling fractured. Water slid over the ceiling at impossible angles, hardening to sharp ice. There was nowhere to run. If she brought it crashing down on us, we’d be crushed under several floors of debris. Not even Ivy or River could heal from that.
Panic gripped my chest. My gaze fell on Arden’s lifeless body lying beside the still-glowing candles, an empty summoning circle.
The ceiling cracked. A piece of ice came down, landing inches from my foot. The Winter Gatekeeper held out a hand.
“Give me the book.”
I pushed the last of my magic at the candles. They flew outwards, striking the corners of the room, and I shouted the words of binding.
River caught on and joined me, Morgan chiming in a second later. She hadn’t bound us not to use necromancy, and we’d turned the room into a magic-proofed circle. The building wouldn’t collapse on us… but we’d also trapped the Winter Gatekeeper inside the circle with us.
Fury suffused her features. “You dare resort to human tricks?”
“Human tricks?” I said. “You’re talking like a Sidhe already.”
My hands glowed, and I hit her with necromantic power, pushing her against the circle’s edge. If I got her outside, she’d be crushed by her own magic.
“I command you to open the book,” she said. One word came from her mouth, and the book ignited.
She’d read the word from the cover, activating its power. The book’s magic filled the circle, and the shape of the gates appeared, ready to drag us all in. Death tugged at my body, and at the others, too. Everyone except her. Mortal death held no threat to her. She stood calmly, while the others, even Ivy, began to drift towards the gates…
No. Please no.
My body glowed all over. I felt the gate close in, and knew it would pull me in, not her. Because she was immune. And if she took the book, if she won that power over… she’d be the Gatekeeper and Sidhe. I couldn’t let her do it.
“Sorry,” I said. “I can’t let you do that. You won’t get your wish.”
I stepped out of my body, concentrating all my will on the book, on pulling it with me into Death the way Ivy carried her sword through the void.
Her eyes widened in disbelief as my body fell to its knees, the book no longer in its hands.
I lunged at her hand, and grabbed the book of lifeblood.
It came with me into death, an item made of both living and dead realms. The momentum sent me flying to the very edge of the gates. The place where if I went beyond, there would be no returning.
I focused on the book, at pulling the gates closed, but my spirit was already being pulled into the void. The Winter Gatekeeper screamed in fury as the gate swallowed me up.
23
I floated away. The book of lifeblood came with me. A newly forged talisman. Already, the gods’ blood seeped through the pages, rotting away. It wasn’t meant to be contained in an object like this. The cauldron had apparently been an exception.
She’d never meant to pass on the power. Only hoard it for herself.
I let the book go, and it floated into the empty void.
Without the lifeblood, she wouldn’t be reborn if one of the others killed her. I had to hope they’d have the chance before the circle ran out of power. I’d taken away her shot at immortality, and she’d be out to take as many people down with her as possible.
River’s pained expression floated before my eyes. Silent, dry tears fell down my cheeks. The world beyond the gate didn’t look like much of anything at all. But I’d gone too far now. My body would be dead, but like a necromancer Guardian, I’d endure. The book… the book would do what it needed to, and that was it.
Hazel and Morgan.
Mum.
River.
Oh, god. I’m sorry.
At least Ivy would be able to visit me…
“What’s supposed to be here?” I asked of thin air. “This is Beyond?”
“Not even Guardians get to see that,” said a voice. Frank the necromancer appeared from the gloom. I felt stupidly relieved considering I didn’t even know the guy. It was just nice to see a familiar face for a second.
“What a let-down.” I scrubbed my eyes, but no traces of tears remained. “You knew I was Guardian material when you saw me, right?”
“I assumed you’d have longer in the realm of the living before you moved on,” he said.
Pain gripped my heart. “So I’m dead. For real.”
“Most would be. As for that book of yours… it remains to be seen.”
“Yeah, but now you have to tell me all your secrets. You know the Vale. You knew… did you know about the Gatekeeper’s curse?”
He floated on the spot against a backdrop of nothingness. “Only superficially. My predecessor knew more than I do.”
“Wait, there’s a Guardian older than you are?”
“He chose to move on.”
I blinked. “I didn’t know there was a term limit.”
“Do you really want to spend an eternity existing here? Would you answer the question the same way in ten years?”
“I’ve been dead five minutes. Give me some time to get used to it before asking me difficult existential questions,” I said. “Can I get into Faerie from here?”
“Not directly.”
“The Vale,” I said. “The enemy is in the Vale. One of them.”
I’d left the others to face the Winter Gatekeeper alone. She was outnumbered, but she was also pure
Sidhe.
She’s vulnerable to iron, and she’s not used to being one of them. The others would think of a plan. Someone had to. Because my job was only to hold the book.
The book, whose owner was dead.
Wait.
“Can you find an individual person?” I asked him.
“No. Not here. Most move on…”
Right. Of course. For a god who’d endured for generations, it had probably been a relief in some ways. The book remained blank when I looked at it. Arden was gone.
I hoped I hadn’t died for nothing. If the Winter Gatekeeper broke the circle and declared herself Queen of the mortal realm…
I’ll warn the Sidhe first. It was all up to me.
I floated back towards the gates. Almost immediately, the ground turned into the path to the Vale. The Ley Line… The territory blurred, and I found myself near the borderlands. There was a path here which led to Winter, and I floated through. Nobody accosted me. Probably, they couldn’t even see me. But I could see them. And I could see dozens of half-faerie ghosts, floating on the brink.
“She’s not coming,” I told them. “Whoever told you that you would get to live again, they lied. You’re stuck here forever. With me.”
“You’re supposed to die,” said one of them. “We’re supposed to sacrifice ourselves to kill you.”
“And you think you’ll be reborn after that?” I said. “They lied. You can see it. You must be able to.”
Life and death were two sides of the same coin. Their magic might look different, but it was as much a glamour as this entire realm. Beneath, the empty darkness waited, called by my book’s power.
The ghosts were crying, holding onto one another, looking around desperately. Summer and Winter alike, united in death.
“Those wraiths,” I said to the half-faerie ghosts. “That’s what’ll happen to you if you die here. But I can get you out. Wait for me. I have a couple of things to take care of.”
I cast my gaze around, looking for the path into the Summer Court—and spotted another ghost floating apart from the others. Not speaking. And unlike the other ghosts, he was Sidhe.
“You died,” I said to him. Less time had passed in this realm than I’d thought.
“You’re… human.” He stared at me. “How are you here… like this?”
“Good question,” I said. “You need to tell them who killed you. It was the Seelie Queen, right?”
“How did you—?”
“She tried to do the same to me. Look, as a ghost, you can make yourself visible to them. Like a glamour. I can’t explain how to do it. I… haven’t been dead long, and I’m not Sidhe.” I glanced over his shoulder. Other, living Sidhe gathered in the meadow at the end of the path, entirely oblivious to us. “Watch.”
I floated to the Sidhe. The book’s power hummed through my veins.
“Wisp,” said one of the Sidhe. “Which of you is spinning a glamour?”
“I’m not a glamour,” I told him. “I’m the Gatekeeper. And I’m here to warn you that one of your own is planning a coup. You need to gather an army to come to the Vale, or the Death Kingdom, right away. They took Summer’s gate.”
“What magic is this?” demanded the Sidhe. Oh, Lord Raivan. What a surprise.
“Hey,” I said, waving at him. “I’m dead. And so is this guy. The Seelie Queen killed him.”
All eyes turned to the Sidhe ghost, who’d apparently figured out how to turn himself visible after all.
“Lord Voren,” said one of the Sidhe. “What have you done?”
“He’s dead,” I said. “Permanently. This is what you’ll become when you die, and that’ll be all of you if you don’t come and help me. The Seelie Queen is conspiring with Vale outcasts.”
“She speaks the truth,” said the ghost.
“You’re a glamour,” snarled the Sidhe. “A trick.”
Oh, for god’s sake. The problem with living in a realm where nothing was ‘real’ in the normal sense was that even truth wasn’t absolute. For all I knew, Sidhe ghosts could lie. And according to everything the Sidhe understood, ghosts didn’t exist.
“I’m here to warn you,” I shouted. “The Seelie Queen is a traitor, and her people are forming an army in the Vale. If you search for the gate—the Summer Gatekeeper’s gate—you’ll find someone has moved it from the Ley Line into the Vale.”
I hadn’t thought such a thing was possible. It was fixed to the Ley Line. Hell, maybe it was still there, but hidden. It wasn’t like I’d checked the entire Ley Line. And Ivy had told me it led through the path of the dead…
“Just trust me,” I said to the dumbfounded Sidhe. “The fallout of this will hit the Courts whether you want to help me or not. Also, there’s a new Sidhe on earth who stole a temporary source of immortality and made herself Sidhe, so she’ll probably come back to make trouble as well.”
There was a flash of white light, and several people appeared in front of the stupefied-looking Sidhe. Quentin the brownie stood there. Behind him were Ivy, Hazel, Morgan and River.
“There she is,” Morgan said, pointing at me. “Knew she’d be doing something risky.”
“What the hell are you doing?” I hissed at them.
“Helping you,” said Hazel.
“You’re not supposed to be here.”
The Sidhe stood frozen, staring at us. Lord Raivan scowled. “You again?” he said to Hazel.
“You can’t keep me away,” Hazel said. “We’re looking for a criminal who ran into the borderlands.”
“The Winter Gatekeeper ran away?” I asked, trying to catch someone’s gaze. River’s eyes were on the body in his arms. Oh shit. He’d brought me—brought my dead body here with him. What in hell was he thinking?
“She broke the circle,” Ivy said to me. “She’s wounded, and pissed off, but she managed to cross into Faerie. She figured that ability out fast.”
“We got her,” Hazel said. “When she was distracted taunting you, I set up an iron spell. She walked right into it.”
“Her skin turned grey and started falling off,” added Morgan.
“Nice,” I said. “But—did she run into Faerie, or the Vale?”
“It shouldn’t be hard for them to find her if she’s here,” Hazel said. “They can sense iron from a mile away, and she has a whole stake embedded in her spine.”
I stared at them, the Sidhe entirely forgotten. “How did I miss that?”
“Because you were too busy trying to sacrifice yourself,” said Hazel.
“If she’d taken that book, we’d all be six feet under. Where in the world are the Mage Lords and the necromancers?”
“Dealing with the undead plague she raised with her last piece of necromancy,” said Hazel. “Holly ran to help. I think she feels bad.”
“She ought to,” said Morgan. “She killed you.”
“She’s not dead,” River snapped at him, apparently oblivious to the Sidhe witnessing the whole thing.
“Can we debate whether I’m dead or not after we find our runaway gate?” I said. “And the Winter Gatekeeper.”
Lord Raivan stepped forwards. “Get off our territory,” he snarled. “All of you.”
“Ask the Erlking,” I said desperately. “For god’s sake.” I’d wanted the Sidhe at my back. Not my friends to risk their lives again. But time was running out. Mum was trapped, and if one of the gods was really responsible, even the Sidhe might not have a chance.
Quentin stepped forward to talk to them, but their faces said it all. He was only a brownie, the others were mortals, and they still didn’t believe I was real. Let alone the other ghost. We were running out of time.
Ivy caught my gaze. “I hope you have a plan.”
“Get the Sidhe to follow me and confront the Seelie Queen. Didn’t quite work out that way. Their dead buddy is there and they don’t even think he’s real.”
“Figures.” Ivy rolled her eyes. She was still covered in blood, but her injuries had entirely healed. Faerie magic—or
gods’ magic—really was something. “You’re looking for your mother?”
“The gate,” I said. “Or both. I think one of the gods has her. But the gate can’t move from the Ley Line. I reckon it might still be there.”
Her eyes widened in understanding. “I think I know where it is.” She glanced back at Quentin, who was still talking to the Sidhe. “We’re on our own, though.”
“Fine,” I said. “How do we get there from here?” Bringing four living people with me hadn’t been on my plan.
“Where are you two sneaking off to?” asked Morgan.
“To find Mum, and the gate,” I told him. “I’m dead. There’s literally nothing they can do to hurt me. Except hurt you, which is exactly why I came here alone.”
“Tough shit,” said Morgan. “We’re your family. We’re here whether you like it or not.”
The fool. All of them. My eyes burned. They’d totally thrown off my game.
“Fine,” I said. “I don’t know what we’ll find at the end of this. Ivy, where’s the quickest route? Through borderland territory?”
“This path leads there, eventually,” she said, indicating the way I’d come in. The path bent at improbable angles and wove away into shadows. “I can probably find it.”
“Probably?” said Hazel.
The Sidhe ghost floated to my side, his eyes wide and staring. He probably didn’t know what to make of my bizarre mismatched family.
“Sorry they didn’t believe you,” I said.
“Something is calling me,” he said. “Something beyond…”
Ivy nodded to me. “Go after him. He’ll lead us in the right direction.”
The path changed as the Sidhe’s ghost moved forward, floating upwards. Uphill. River and Ivy turned in the ghost’s direction, while Morgan gaped at the spot where the meadow had been seconds before. It’d gone, to be replaced by a steep hill covered in half-dead trees. The smell of death drifted on the breeze, and a cold sensation spread through me. Something close by called to my spirit, and it wasn’t friendly.
The Gatekeeper's Curse- The Complete Trilogy Page 64