by Gwynn White
“We cannot afford to offend the Legion,” Aurora told me. “Especially not now.”
She was right. I closed my books with a heavy sigh. It was my duty to serve my university—but more than that, I wanted to help. The Legion could shut us down just like that, and there was nothing we could do to stop them. Their power was absolute, their judgements merciless. I’d been waiting my whole life to study witchcraft here. Hundreds of other young witches had. I couldn’t let their dreams vanish before their eyes—not if I could help it.
“Ok,” I said, even though I had no time to spare. “I will assist the Legion in whatever they need.”
I packed my books into my bag, then followed Aurora out of the library. I froze when I saw Harker waiting in the hallway.
The angel’s hair was as pale as his wings were dark—and, yes, he had his wings out. They made him look enormous, like a tiger amongst kittens. His eyes burned with blue magic, like an electric storm lighting up the sky. Angel magic. It burned my tongue and shook my body. I could hardly breathe. This was how the angels kept everyone in check.
That same spark of magic sizzled on his wings. Glossy black accented with bright blue feathers, they were as beautiful as the angel himself. But the angels were all beautiful. Beautiful and inhuman. Harker Sunstorm was no exception.
“Bella,” he said with a smile that seemed to light up the whole hallway. He gave Aurora a dismissive wave. “You may leave now, Ms. Bennet.” His words pulsed with command.
Her eyes wide, dilated, Aurora scuttled off. The angel had obviously compelled her into obedience. His gaze never left mine; his bright smile never faltered.
“It’s a pleasure to see you again,” he told me.
I folded my arms across my chest and frowned at him. He might have been gorgeous, but it was no pleasure to see him again. I didn’t trust him, not after what he’d done to my sister Leda, another soldier in the Legion. Leda was friends with him again; she’d said he’d repented. I wished I could be so trusting. I could forgive a lot of things, but not someone who’d hurt my family.
“You have a very strong mind,” he commented as I continued to glare at him.
“Yes,” I told him.
“Good,” he said, nodding.
And without another word, he began walking down the hall. I matched his steps. His body hardly seemed to move, and yet I was nearly running to keep up with his smooth, effortless glide.
“What is this about?” I asked as we walked outside onto a beige stone path. “Why did you ask for my help?”
His eyes scanned the large, open garden where we witches grew our potion ingredients. To the left of the path, flowers, herbs, and vegetables were planted in straight, narrow lines. To the right lay an open field freckled with apple trees.
It really felt like the gods were smiling on us today. The sun bathed the entire garden in golden, almost ethereal light. Sunshine kisses warmed my skin, bringing me to life. It woke me up more than the five cups of Witch Coffee I’d drunk this morning.
Harker waved his hand. Magic zapped in the air, crawling across my skin like hundreds of ants. Tiny, sizzling metal balls dropped from the lampposts, the trees, even the flower beds. One of them rolled to a stop at my feet, and I looked down. It was a listening device.
“Now we can speak freely,” Harker told me.
My mouth dropped in shock. Witches were very fond of tech—and the covens were fond of spying on one another. I’d known the university was bugged; I’d been here long enough to spot the hidden bugs everywhere. But Harker had only just arrived. Not only had he found them all immediately; he’d destroyed them all too. I couldn’t even begin to fathom how much magic flowed through his blood.
“I cannot risk our conversation being overheard,” he continued. “This is a sensitive matter. The university is in danger from within. We can’t afford to trust anyone here.”
“But you can trust me?”
“Leda trusts you. So I trust you too.”
I didn’t trust him, though. Ok, I trusted him to do his job and uphold the gods’ order with unwavering, merciless determination.
“What is this danger you mentioned?” I asked, keeping my tone polite. If someone here really was threatening the university, my personal dislike for him was irrelevant.
“The demons have been growing bolder in the past year, trying to gain more supporters on Earth. So, the Legion has been keeping a close eye on all the city’s supernatural groups,” he said. “Last night, we detected a surge in dark magic coming from within the university. It was very powerful demonic energy, the kind you’d expect from a soldier of hell, a member of the Dark Force.”
The Legion was the gods’ army. The Dark Force of Hell was the demonic equivalent.
“There are no soldiers of hell here,” I told Harker.
“The surge of magic could also have come from someone trying to call a demon.”
“No one here would do that.”
“Perhaps. Or perhaps not. That’s what we’re going to find out. This wouldn’t be the first case of witches behaving badly,” he reminded me. “One thing is for sure: the demons are making a play to claim the Earth. Dark magic is seeping into this world. We can’t afford to ignore this. And we’re going to start at the top.”
The gravity of his words set in when we walked into Building 2, the house where the department heads had their offices. Harker stopped in front of the first office, the one that belonged to Morgan Bennet, Aurora’s sister and head of Chemistry here at the New York University of Witchcraft. A layer of golden glowing magic buzzed across it, barring our passage. The charge on the door was potent enough to knock out a monster.
Harker seemed unconcerned. He reached out and touched it.
Magic burst out of his fingers. It rippled across the golden barrier like silver fire, consuming it. The barrier sputtered a final protest, then went out. The door swung open.
Morgana’s office resembled a magic supply shop far more than it did a professor’s lair. A bookshelf covered one wall. A cabinet stocked with jars, boxes, and floating critters filled another. Her desk, which sat in front of a large stained glass window, was large enough to fit a king-sized feast. Trinkets covered the thick, wooden tabletop.
A rickety screech drew my attention, and I turned. Harker was standing in front of Morgana’s filing cabinet. He’d already sifted through the first drawer. He sure moved fast.
“This is all very neat,” he commented. “So perfectly legitimate.”
“And that’s bad?”
“It means the witches knew I was coming. And that they hid the good stuff.”
“Perhaps you’re just paranoid.”
He let out a soft snort. “I’ve been raiding supernatural leaders’ offices for decades. There is always something damning there, even if it’s small. Not here.” He slid the cabinet drawer shut. “Here I see nothing. If every supernatural leader were so truly perfect, I’d be out of a job.”
“You’re very cynical,” I told him. “You know that, right?”
“That is my job.” He looked through the notebooks on the bookshelves. “Amazing. It’s like Morgana Bennet has never sinned a day in her life.”
He had a point. Morgana was a talented witch, but she was far from sinless. She’d been fighting with her sister Aurora for years. That conflict alone had to have its share of skeletons hidden in the closet.
We searched the offices of the other three department heads with the same result. I didn’t feel right snooping in my professors’ things, but I couldn’t say no to an angel. And if we were really dealing with demons, a lot of people could be in danger. So I ignored my discomfort and helped Harker search every inch of the building.
We finally found something in the private library. Something about the room’s dimensions just didn’t add up. There was a secret compartment. I’d read enough mystery novels to know what that meant. I found a button hidden under a fake copy of Advanced Healing Potions. I pressed it, and the bookshelf swung back to r
eveal a second library.
The secret library boasted such books as Dark Summonings and Demonic Intervention. Several glass display cases rested against one wall. Each one contained a magical artifact. I reached for the first case, but the latch didn’t turn. The rest were locked too—except for one. A necklace chain of gold and rubies was coiled up on a black velvet pillow. There was something about that necklace, some magic that drew me forward with its siren’s song, compelling me to touch it.
I knew I shouldn’t, that nothing good could come of it, but that logical part of my brain drowned under my desire to claim the necklace as my own. I reached out. Harker shouted for me to stop, but I could hardly hear him. And I didn’t want to. Nothing and no one could keep me from the necklace. It was mine, and I was going to claim it. My fingers closed around the chain.
It felt like I was holding a lightning bolt in my hand. Magic shot out of the necklace, ripping through my body. My stomach groaned, black spots danced in front of my eyes, and my head hit the floor with a thump.
* * *
When I opened my eyes again, the first thing I realized was the necklace was gone. That moment of inexplicable panic faded, giving way to true dread. I was no longer in the secret library. I was… I didn’t even know where it was. Some sort of cavern? The walls around me shimmered like silver moonlight on a tranquil lake. I brushed my hand across the glossy surface. It was hot, as though a fire raged within the stones. And then, between one breath and the next, scorching hot flipped to frostbitten cold. Back and forth, the temperature swung like a pendulum gone wild. Faster and faster.
Every wall in the cavern shattered into a million silver shards. The shards swirled in the air, bonding and twisting. They formed a circle of seven silver cages around me. A different supernatural being was trapped inside each cage. Seven cages, seven supernaturals.
A vampire gripped his bars with bloody hands, exchanging snarls with the shifter next door. A siren with long blue hair sang out to me, her words like golden tears. She was telling me to open her cage, to release her. A violent storm was brewing inside the elemental’s cage. The psychic was bombarding her bars with telekinetic blasts. The witch had a hair pin in her hand; she was trying to pick the cage’s lock. The fairy just stood still, humming.
“You can’t help them,” a familiar voice said when I stepped toward the fairy’s cage.
I turned around to find my sister standing there. “Leda?”
Her pale hair flowed around her, like she was underwater. Her distorted voice sounded like it was underwater too. “Not yet, anyway.”
“How did you get here?” I asked her.
She smiled at me. “I came to save you, of course.”
There was something wrong. Leda was acting so weird.
“How can you help me?” I asked.
Her smile never faded, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Centuries ago, monsters invaded the Earth. The gods came down in all their heavenly glory, and humanity welcomed them with open arms.” The hint of a sneer kissed her lips.
“Leda—”
She kept talking. “The gods gave humanity magic. Seven gods, seven gifts.”
My gaze flickered to the cages. Seven cages.
“This is how the Earth’s supernaturals were born: vampires, witches, sirens, elementals, shifters, psychics, and fairies,” said Leda. “Each god has a special talent. Maya, for example, is the Goddess of Healing and mother of the Earth’s fairies. Her sister Meda, Goddess of Technology, gave some humans the power of witchcraft.”
I’d read a lot of books in my twenty-one years, and I’d never heard this tale. The gods were very secretive beings.
“The Earth’s supernaturals used their new magic to rebuild their world,” Leda continued. “They pushed the monsters from their cities. And they made great walls to keep them out. But they could not rid the Earth of the monsters entirely.”
She’d said ‘they’ and ‘their’, not ‘we’ and ‘our’. She didn’t see herself as one of us. She wasn’t one of us.
“Who are you?” I demanded.
“I’m Leda.”
I shook my head. “No, you’re not my sister.”
The false Leda stared at me. The seconds seemed to stretch into minutes, but I knew very little time had passed. Finally, a smile cracked her face—literally. My sister broke apart, revealing a man behind the magic mask.
His hair fell in black layers to his shoulders. His eyes were the color of amethyst gems. He wore a suit of black battle armor, not unlike the armor of the Legion’s soldiers, though considerably thicker. It covered his massive form like scales covered a dragon. Come to think of it, he reminded me of a dragon—a big, black dragon. He was beautiful—in a totally menacing kind of way.
“Who are you?” I repeated.
“Valerian.”
My pulse kicked up a notch, even as I tried not to panic. Valerian was a demon. And not just any demon. He was the Demon of Technology and Dark Lord of Witches. He was the goddess Meda’s counterpart in hell. Just as there were angels and dark angels, there were witches and dark witches. In fact, every supernatural had a dark magic counterpart.
“You are frightened,” he said. He seemed almost amused.
Of course I was frightened. No one came face-to-face with a demon and returned home to tell the tale. They either killed you or converted you.
“You don’t need to be afraid,” he said impatiently. “You don’t look all that tasty.”
I couldn’t tell if he was kidding, and I didn’t plan on staying to find out. I looked for an exit—only to remember that I was surrounded by seven silver cages, stuck in the middle of them with a demon.
“Someone summoned you here?” I guessed, remembering why Harker had come.
He’d said there was a spike in dark magic at the university last night. Where was Harker? Where was I, for that matter?
“Who was it? Who called you here?” I continued. I just had to keep talking. As long as I kept my mouth moving, my brain was too busy to imagine all the horrible things a demon could do to me.
“You.”
I blinked in surprise. “I beg your pardon?”
“You called me here.” He touched my face. “When you brewed a spell from the Book of Alchemy.”
“That is not a dark magic book.”
“No, most spells are neither light nor dark. They are only what the magic user makes of them. And, you, dear Bella, have the most beautiful dark magic I’ve seen from a witch in a very long time.”
“No, I don’t have dark magic.”
He nodded, smiling.
“Someone would have known about it,” I protested.
“Most supernaturals cannot tell the difference between light and dark magic. Even the soldiers of the Dark Force or the Legion do not possess that power. Only angels can. And only when you use your magic,” Valerian said. “Your magic is beautifully subtle, like a splash of dark chocolate. How dark is dark enough to set off their senses?” He shrugged. “It isn’t as simple as black and white.”
“But you can see my magic?” I asked him.
“When you cast the spell last night, yes. And when you touched the Blood Ruby Necklace. It is one of my objects of power. It responds to my magic. And to the magic of my kin.”
“Kin? You mean demons?”
“No.” He chuckled. It was such a strange gesture from a demon, and yet it looked perfectly natural on him. “My descendants, those with my magic.”
“You’re saying… I’m….”
“I can see it in your eyes. Those are Thea’s eyes.”
“Who is Thea?”
“The first dark angel. My daughter.”
The words hung in the air between us, heavy and unmoving. Like the world had fallen to my feet and shattered there. Six of the cages vanished in a puff of smoke. Only the witch remained. She stepped into the light, and then I saw she had my face.
“Haven’t you ever wondered how your magic was so strong? How you’ve always been a natu
ral witch, even before you began your training?” he asked. “I am the Dark Lord of Witches, and you are my granddaughter. My magic flows through you.”
I shook my head. This wasn’t happening.
“You look so sad.” He smiled at me. “There’s no need to be. I have come to help you. Under my guidance, your magic will grow even stronger. You will be magnificent.”
“I don’t want your help.”
“Not even if it allows you to realize your greatest desire?”
“I don’t care about being all-powerful.”
“No, you don’t,” he agreed. “But you want to help people. And power will help you do that. You could heal the injured, cure the sick.” His smile widened. “You could even rid the Earth of monsters.”
My heart ached and soared at the same time, torn in two opposing directions. Valerian was right. That was my greatest desire: to give humanity a world free of monsters, a world free of pain and suffering.
“You can play an important role in Earth’s salvation,” Valerian said. He reached out to me. “You need only come with me and seize your destiny.”
Images flashed through my head. I saw an Earth free of monsters. We didn’t have to live behind high walls anymore. Soldiers didn’t patrol every city. Children played in fields of daisies and daffodils. We were free.
But it wasn’t real. None of it was real. There were deities and angels much stronger than I could ever be. If they’d been unable to rid the world of monsters after centuries of trying, how could I do it?
“No,” I told the demon.
“No?” he repeated, as though he’d never heard the word before.
“I don’t trust you. And I’m not going anywhere with you.”
As soon as the words left my mouth, the cavern exploded. The force of the blast threw me back. When I hit the wall, I shattered too.
* * *
I jerked awake. Harker was crouched beside me, his eyes closed, his hands on my forehead.
“Bella,” he said, opening his eyes.
I blinked, looking around. We were still in the secret library. And the necklace was gone. Valerian must have taken it.