by Nadia Heaton
“We need to go to Rashid’s chateau. We have to retrieve Tristan.”
“What?” Fleur was a good liar, Mirabelle had to give her that much.
“I know, Fleur. Rashid told me that he has Tristan confined. Don’t worry, I negotiated for her release. He won’t hurt her, but I don’t think it’s advisable to leave her there any longer than strictly necessary.”
Fleur sped up, overtaking Mirabelle. “I never should have sent her there. It was a stupid idea. If Rashid hurts her…”
“He won’t.” Fleur was giving her a funny look, and Mirabelle avoided her gaze. Fleur was very perceptive, and could probably guess some of her feelings for Rashid. If she did, she was kind enough not to bring it up.
Instead, she changed the subject. “When you were down there… did you see Savion at all?”
Rather than anger and disgust, which she would have felt at that question as little as a week ago, Mirabelle felt a stab of pity. It was obvious that Fleur was worried about her love. “No,” she said gently. “Half of the vampires were in manta ray form, and we were so busy defending ourselves, I didn’t really stop to take notice of who the ones in human form were.”
“Except Rashid.”
Mirabelle ignored the barb. She probably deserved it. “When we get Tristan, I’ll ask Rashid if he’s heard from Savion.”
“Really?”
“If he’s willing to talk to me. Someone has to do the handover, and I imagine it’ll be him.”
“Mirabelle… you know that Rashid is a troublemaker. What if he doesn’t just hand over Tristan like you expect? What if he’s not even there?”
That was a good point, at least the second part. Rashid had promised he’d put a stop to the attack in the north on the eternal flame. He would likely have to go there himself to do that, and Mirabelle had no idea how long it would take him to extract the vampires. He could very well still be there, which would likely leave the vampires at his chateau under the command of whoever had ordered them to Antarctica in the first place.
“Then we’ll fight our way in. One way or the other, we are getting Tristan back.”
Fleur nodded grimly, her hands clenched at her sides. Finally, the two of them wholeheartedly agreed on something. “We should fly, it’ll be quicker.”
Mirabelle considered. It was a long walk to Rashid’s estate. “All right, but let’s keep low in the sky. We don’t want them to see us coming..”
Fleur summoned two broomsticks, and they each took one
When they reached the woods outside Rashid’s chateau, the two of them slowed automatically, coming to land in an area of dense trees. Before all of this had started, Mirabelle had been training Fleur to take over for her as coven leader. It was moments like this that reminded her why she’d started that training in the first place.
She and Fleur thought the same way, for the most part. They could often communicate effectively with no more than a look or a simple gesture. At least, they used to be able to do that. Recently, it seemed that she and Fleur had been seeing anything but eye to eye.
Now, though, they were united, and it felt good. Mirabelle wondered if she may be able to salvage her relationship with her nieces after all, once this was over.
“What strength protection spell do you think?”
“Third tier, I’d say.” Mirabelle would have liked to walk into a situation like this with more backup, but all of the witches were needed back in town to keep the vampires under control. “We want to be able to keep it up, but still have enough energy to fight if we need to. Do you have a wand?”
“No.”
Of course she didn’t. Mirabelle controlled the wand supply for the coven, and she hadn’t allowed Fleur any access to them since she’d started seeing Savion. “We’ll make do. Come on.”
The two of them advanced, their shields crackling slightly. Mirabelle didn’t look at Fleur as she spoke, keeping her eyes fixed on the chateau ahead. “Do you know where Tristan is?”
“In the tower room, up top. You distract any resistance we find, I’ll go get her.” Fleur’s attention was likewise fixed on the chateau, which could just be seen through a small gap in the trees.
The moment they stepped out of the tree line, three vampires appeared, running fast toward them.
“Stop! I am here in accordance with an agreement with Rashid, to fetch my niece.” For all the attention they paid, Mirabelle may as well not have spoken. So, they were doing this the hard way.
She and Fleur threw their hands out. The vampires were blasted off their feet and hit the chateau wall hard. Mirabelle cast a ball of fire straight at the chateau. The force of it went through the walls like a wrecking ball, leaving crumbling, burning wreckage behind. Of course, the chateau was huge, and this was only a small portion of it, but that they could cause this much damage was hopeful.
Either Rashid’s defenses had been weakened by other witch attacks, or Tristan had been undoing them from the inside.
Or, Rashid had lowered them himself, hoping Mirabelle would come to see him. She hated the traitorous thought, and tried her best to purge it. Fortunately, the current situation was not conducive to errant thoughts, and Mirabelle found herself quickly distracted.
She cast bolts of concussive magic at the vampires, knocking them back hard enough to stun them. She could have killed them, but preferred to save her energy. She had no idea how many of them there were here, and disabling them was more than enough for now.
Fleur darted through the flames and crumbling building, her shield deflecting the attacks the vampires threw at her. Mirabelle quickly captured their attention with more fireballs, though she had to be careful now that Fleur was inside.
The vampires here were clearly ready for an attack, but it seemed that only a few remained. Most of them had gone north to attack the eternal flame.
They were powerful, but they were no match for Mirabelle’s rage and her fear for her niece. She would level this whole place if she had to in order to get Tristan out.
Slowly, the vampires started retreating. At first, they did it in an orderly fashion, but it quickly became a panicked dash back to the protective confines of the chateau. Mirabelle chased them. Fleur and Tristan were still inside, and she would do whatever was necessary to ensure that they had time to get out without vampires attacking them.
The vampires scattered down different halls. Mirabelle chased one of them until they met a dead end. She used magic to slam him against the wall. He struggled, but was unable to break through the spell.
Mirabelle didn’t recognize this vampire, neither did she care who he was. The chateau was in chaos; Fleur and Tristan should be able to slip out easily. Now that she had one of them cornered, she wanted answers. She desperately wanted to believe that Rashid was telling the truth, that he hadn’t ordered the attack on the eternal flame, but she didn’t trust him. He was a vampire, after all.
“Who gave the order?” she hissed. “The order to go to the Antarctic and attack the eternal flame?”
The vampire just laughed. “You’re insane, witch. Coming here with just two of your kind, attacking, for what? When the others get back, they’ll come for you, and there won’t be enough of you left to bury.”
Mirabelle brandished her wand, causing a bright ray of light to fall on the vampire’s face. He flinched, gasping as a long burn was left on his cheek. “Sunfire spell, vampire. If you don’t tell me exactly what I want to know, I’ll burn you to a crisp before moving onto the next one – there seems to be no shortage of you here.”
He didn’t answer, but his eyes stayed on Mirabelle’s wand, and she could tell he was worried.
“Now, who sent you to the north? Was it Rashid?”
“No.”
“I don’t believe you!” Mirabelle was irrationally angry at hearing the very answer she’d been hoping to receive. She worried that it wasn’t true, that the vampire was lying for Rashid. “I know you’re all Rashid’s little minions! He called you all to his chateau
to plot war against witches, and he’s been your leader ever since!”
Another ray of sun fire hit the wall perilously close to the vampire’s ear. He froze in the act of shaking his head. “Rashid did call us here, that much is true.” His words were hurried now, and his eyes were still fixed on Mirabelle’s wand. “He was directing us, but something happened. I’m not sure what it was, but ever since then, he’s been locked up in the library, making phone calls and doing research. No one has been able to get him to come out. He seems to have lost all interest in what he started.”
He seemed sincere, but Mirabelle had been fooled by vampires before. She wondered whether she dared to expend the energy to cast a truth spell. There was still no sign of Fleur or Tristan. While there was a chance they might be in trouble, Mirabelle needed to conserve her energy. Getting her nieces to safety came before confirming her own hopes and doubts about Rashid.
“If Rashid didn’t send you there, then who did?”
The vampire pressed his lips together, and Mirabelle sent another thin stream of sun fire at him, burning a hole in his shirt.
“Ok, ok! Rashid wasn’t strong enough to lead us, but we have a new leader, one more powerful than he ever was – one with the powers of both a witch and a vampire.”
“Lisette?” Mirabelle’s voice sounded oddly hollow, even to her own ears. She’d believed Rashid when he’d told her that Lisette was still trying to make peace between witches and vampires. The thought that her own niece could work against her like that was horrible. “Your queen? I thought she wanted peace.”
“Lisette is still harping on about that, yes. It’s not her I’m talking about, though. There’s another with the powers of both a witch and vampire, and this one is willing to lead us in the direction we need to be led. I believe you know her. Her name is Ariana.”
16
The momentary relief that Mirabelle had felt at hearing it wasn’t Lisette who had ordered the attack shattered. Hurt and shock raged through her. Her own daughter was responsible for the attack that could end all witches.
Mirabelle only realized that she’d unconsciously loosened her grip on the spell when the vampire darted away. She was vaguely aware of her knees hitting the floor.
Ariana must really hate her, hate all witches. She’d probably be happy to get rid of the witch side of her heritage. The worst of it was, Mirabelle couldn’t blame her. Ariana’s experiences with witches had been few, but painful.
When Julio had stumbled across a secret coven rite, then just an unknown man, Mirabelle hadn’t thought twice about cursing away his voice, ensuring he wouldn’t speak of what he’d seen. She’d had no way of knowing that he’d meet Ariana, and they would fall in love.
Cursing her love could hardly have endeared her to Ariana, but it got worse. When Mirabelle had found out that Ariana was her daughter, instead of going to her, she had fled. Ariana had reached for her, but Mirabelle had shrunk from her as though disgusted. By the time she’d had time to think better of her actions, Ariana was long gone.
Mirabelle wasn’t sure how long she knelt there among the wreckage, immersed in memories of her greatest mistakes. The next thing she was aware of was a tugging on her sleeve. She looked up to find Fleur standing over her with a worried look.
“Mirabelle? Are you hurt?”
She blinked at Fleur, trying to get her voice to work. “I’m not injured,” she managed eventually. With great effort, she pulled her mind from thoughts of Ariana. “We should go. This place looks like it’s about to cave in.”
“We can’t go, I haven’t got Tristan yet.”
“Then why did you come back here?”
“I sensed you. You were putting out powerful magical waves – I thought you were dying. Did you not realize you were doing it?”
Mirabelle hadn’t realized. Her emotions hadn’t gotten away with her and ignited her magic like that in a long time, at least not without her knowledge.
“Mirabelle? Are you listening to me?” Fleur was waving her hand in front of Mirabelle’s face, and Mirabelle realized that her niece had been talking.
“What?”
“Never mind. Come on, I’m getting you out of here.”
“We have to keep looking for Tristan.”
Fleur looked torn, gazing between Mirabelle and the rest of the chateau. There was smoke everywhere, and a number of walls were crumbling. “She may not even be here. I told her to get out at the first sign of trouble. If she was smart, she’d have teleported out the moment she felt magic hit the place.”
“Or she’d have stayed to try to help. She would have recognized a witch attack, and wouldn’t want to leave without ensuring that none of her coven needed help.”
Mirabelle looked to Fleur for confirmation, knowing that she knew her sister best. Fleur grimaced, and nodded. “She may well have done that. Look, just stay here, I’ll look for her. I may not be able to find her, though – if she stayed, it was probably under an invisibility spell. She has the necessary ingredients with her for the spell, I made sure of it. We’ve caused enough chaos for her to escape. We may have to return home and wait for her to come to us.”
Though she tried to concentrate, Mirabelle’s focus was slipping. Her mind kept coming back to Ariana. The shock of her daughter wanting to destroy her was quickly giving way to anguish – anguish and rage, rage not at Ariana, but at the vampires who had made her into who she was.
Growing up among vampires, she would have been taught to hate witches, just as witches were taught to hate vampires. Until now, Mirabelle had never questioned the practice, but she’d never expected it to result in her own daughter hating her.
When Ariana found out about the witch side of her heritage, she would have been confused and not known who to trust. She didn’t trust her cousins, that much was evidenced by the fact that she hadn’t stayed with them.
The one person she might have trusted was Mirabelle, and Mirabelle had turned her away. With no one to help her learn to use and control her powers, Ariana must have been terrified. Mirabelle well remembered how hard it had been to harness her powers when she was younger, and that was with the full support of her coven and family.
Ariana was all alone – well, no, that wasn’t entirely true. She had Julio. Mirabelle was sure, from the way that man had been looking at her, that Julio would follow Ariana anywhere. But Julio was a human and could do nothing to help her grapple with witch magic.
If the volcano was destroyed, all witches would lose their power. Ariana would revert to being a simple vampire. That was probably what she wanted – to sever her ties to her witch kin once and for all.
A hand settled on her shoulder, bringing her out of her thoughts. Mirabelle jumped, and found Fleur looking down on her sympathetically. “I still can’t find Tristan. Things are still crazy here, and I think I have some time to keep searching, but I need to get you out of here first. Vampires could walk in on you at any minute.”
Mirabelle stared blankly at Fleur, confused. She was a witch, she was more than capable of handling a few vampires. Perhaps some of her thoughts showed on her face, because Fleur gave her a sympathetic smile.
“You’re in no condition to fight. I don’t know what happened to you, but I can see something is seriously off. I’m taking you to the forest, putting a protection spell around you, and then I will return to get Tristan. This whole place will be in chaos for a while anyway.”
Fleur took her hand, pulling her forward. Mirabelle tried to focus on her surroundings, knowing they weren’t yet out of danger, but the grief and rage that had haunted her so often of late were pulling at her mind.
Fleur visibly relaxed once they exited the chateau. Mirabelle pulled her hand free of Fleur’s, trailing behind her niece. Fleur glanced over her shoulder, and seemed satisfied that Mirabelle was following.
Mirabelle was barely aware of what her feet were doing; she was lost in her own head. Rage was winning over grief. Vampires caused nothing but pain and anguish; her own story w
as proof enough of that.
Mirabelle realized that she’d stopped walking. She turned back to the chateau. The flames had subsided; the vampires must have been working to put them out. They were still in there, waiting for more orders from Ariana. Ariana was probably in Antarctica right now, laying siege to the eternal flame.
Rage boiled anew within her. More than anything, Mirabelle wanted to smite these vampires, to strike them off the face of the Earth before they could cause her or the ones she loved anymore heartache. Her sense of caution and logic was quickly overwhelmed as anger swamped her, turning the edges of her vision red.
Fleur was still moving quickly toward the forest; she didn’t realize that Mirabelle had stopped following her. By the time she turned around, it would be too late.
Mirabelle held her hands out, palms up, and started speaking. Power crackled as she spoke incantations from books known to a few of the most powerful witches. She was going to level this chateau. It would take all the power she had and likely render her unconscious, maybe even seriously ill, but right now, Mirabelle didn’t care.
Sudden shouting had her looking up. A vampire was standing on top of the chateau, looking down at her and waving her arms frantically. Mirabelle squinted. Oh yes, she recognized him. That was Savion, and he was shouting to Fleur, not her.
He was too far away to make out the words, but he got Fleur’s attention. She spun around and gasped, immediately running to Mirabelle’s side.
“Mirabelle, what are you doing? Stop it, now! Are you insane, that spell’s too powerful. It could kill everyone here, including you!”
Mirabelle was barely listening to her. She was completely focused on her lethal intent. She would bring down the chateau and the vampires. It didn’t matter if it killed her. Fleur’s voice was a buzzing in her ear. Her niece was tugging at her arm, but Mirabelle ignored it. One had was still clutching her wand, and she started drawing power from it too.