by Jayne Hawke
Elijah began to strike out around him, his sword work sloppy, even haphazard as he assaulted the air around him. His senses still weren’t up to where they needed to be; he was attacking old scent. My first instinct was to simply increase the amount of magic pouring into him, but he didn’t need energy, he needed one sense to surpass natural limits. I wasn’t actually all that clear on how senses worked, and scent in particular had never been much use to me as a human. I dug around in his life force for any particular bit that seemed attached to the sense of smell, but I was getting nothing.
Since I couldn’t be subtle or clever, I went the other way and turned the entire sensory clump of his magic into a heavenly body, a living star practically visible from space. He would be able to separate one molecule of scent from the next. At least, assuming his mind could even handle that level of input. He froze for several seconds, overwhelmed, and the stalker took the opportunity to make an ugly slash along his chest. It could’ve been a kill stroke, but the finfolk was proving a point. It was a mistake I would make him regret.
Still brimming with life magic from Castor’s reserves, I quickly closed the wound. I had to leave off some of the sensory boost to do it, and the slight reduction put Elijah in the exact bracket he needed. He leapt to his right, thrusting his sword out and leaving a spray of blood in its wake. It was a clear hit, too much blood to be superficial. Water energy began to pour into the area, and it was quickly apparent that this was far from over.
I expected, as Elijah probably did, a direct water attack, either an attempt at drowning or a firehose type impact blast, something in the hydrokinetics spectrum. The working that actually came out was an incredibly dense fog, the scent of salt strong in the air. It was enough that I couldn’t smell anything else, the normal scents of the woods gone to be replaced by saltwater so heavy and dense that it made me gag. I had a moment of fear that Elijah was going to have the same problem, but the sound of steel slicing along scales proved that his enhanced senses were above and beyond such tricks. Immediately the finfolk changed tacks, letting the fog disperse and releasing a mass of several dozen hyperdense floating water orbs, each a construct unto itself with just enough intelligence to fly around at immense speed without hitting their master.
They began to spread out, but before they could go more than a few metres the shadows leapt into action. They had been commanded to attack anything they could see, and these qualified. In an instant, they went from perfectly still to universal motion, creatures ranging from vine-like corkscrews to undulating, elephantine leviathans throwing themselves bodily at the water orbs, taking heavy blows that threw them to and fro but getting back to whatever sufficed for their feet instantly while the constructs struggled to reform.
I realized that I’d stopped casting as I watched the show, the entrancing otherness of the spectacle overriding focus altogether. Elijah was struggling again, back to swinging wildly and taking hits from the stalker whose movements were all but unimpeded. The water constructs had done their job, even if not the way they were probably supposed to.
I redoubled my efforts, pushing myself to my limits as I tried to both heal and boost my alpha. The power was still there, thankfully, the reserves Castor could offer more than half full, but even so the act of forming and maintaining two spells at once was almost beyond me. I had to put healing on the back burner, but I couldn’t let it slide entirely because he was still taking serious damage from the quick and deadly foil strikes of my stalker. Elijah would have hideous scars that would take weeks to repair, but keeping his senses at the fore of my mind meant that I didn’t risk damaging those far more fragile parts or overloading him into catatonia again.
The fight seemed to go on for days, the stalker pushing harder and harder, striking faster and dodging ripostes that should have landed with ease, all the while maintaining an endless sequence of water attacks that the shadows had to crowd around to keep from their mark. Still, he was on his own, and his choice of lifestyle was his undoing. Elijah had me, and I had the pack, and that meant that this was only ever going to end one way.
When the final blow came close, I felt it coming, knew that this one would be the last. I pulled the precast spell I’d placed into the artifact that had previously held the pit trap out and sent it into the world. It spun outwards and then found its target, leaping to Elijah’s blade. The weapon glowed red hot as the fire magic bound to it, then began to weep molten steel as the earth magic fell into place. The spell would destroy the blade, but it would ensure that the killing blow ended this fight once and for all. There would be no resurrection in the sequel, no last second comebacks. The magmatic forge spell was my signature, and the spray of hot metal as it drove home was poetry in motion. The illusion fell away, and the venomous liquid fire glowed in the finfolk’s veins, his heart pumping it to every part of his body in the time it took to melt through the circulatory system. Within a few seconds’ time, his heart, liver, and kidneys were nothing but flaming meat, and the rest of him went soon after. By the time Elijah had thrown down the sword as the hilt heated beyond comfort, my stalker was nothing but overcooked fish, not even good enough for the scavengers.
Before he even hit the ground, the shadows took their end of the bargain. The vast majority fell out of existence in unison, and the three megaminds, whose actual forms I hadn’t yet seen, trotted off into the forest. They were almost horses in the way that the other shadows were almost elephants, hyenas, or mountain ranges. They were what nightmares had nightmares about, and they were free to roam our plane. I had a feeling that when Castor said it would be okay for a few shadows to get loose, he hadn’t meant those.
Fifty-Three
“Can’t you bring the small one back? He’d make an adorable pet. I’ll call him Shade,” Jess said as she watched the shadow creatures disappear.
“No,” Elijah said firmly.
“Aw, but I’ll walk it, and feed it, and love it so hard.”
“You don’t even know what horrifying shadow creatures eat,” Rex said.
Jess crossed her arms.
“I’ll find out.”
“No. They’re not a part of this plane, and I suspect they eat people,” Elijah said.
“I can find it people to eat...” Jess said.
I left them to continue arguing about whether Jess could have a shadow creature as a pet. The cottage was a disaster, but I was hoping that Zach had hidden the items he’d stolen around there somewhere. Making my way down some stairs into a surviving basement, I began looking in the bedrooms. The first on the left was a pokey little room full of photos and sketches of me. I shut the door on that one pretty quickly.
The next appeared to be his actual bedroom. The bed was a mess, clothes were strewn all over the floor along with some glittery scales. I reached out with my magic and found them to be finfolk scales.
“Waste not want not,” I said to myself as I began gathering them up.
Sure, he was dead, and it was slightly horrifying, but there were bound to be people who’d pay a fortune for something as rare as that.
The final bedroom was where I hit the jackpot. Shelves lined the walls and ran in neat rows through the room. Everything appeared to be neat and tidy, which stood in contrast to everything else I’d seen. A black notebook sat on a small table just inside the door. I opened it up and found lists of stolen items with the address they were stolen from, value, and date stolen next to them. He was like a magpie. There was millions of pounds worth of stuff just sitting there catalogued.
Elijah came and stood next to me.
“Looks like we’re rich, princess,” he said with a smile.
I wiped some blood splatter from his cheek and matched his smile.
“Help me find that missing moon shifter bracelet for my client,” I said.
“And the rest of it?”
I shrugged.
“I’m sure we can find buyers,” I said with a grin.
“I like the sound of this ‘we’ business.”
<
br /> “We’re not a bad team. And your pack does Castor a lot of good.”
I found the number and shelf location of the bracelet and moved into the room. It was by far the biggest room in the house.
“It wouldn’t be a bad idea to work together more frequently,” Elijah said.
“I might be open to that plan.”
I was almost to the bracelet when I found a unicorn’s horn. Those things were illegal and worth an easy five million all on their own. We’d never need to work again if we found buyers for all of that stuff. Not that I’d stop working; I got bored easily.
“Alpha, there’s someone here!” Rex called up.
I reflexively reached out with my magic and felt a new fae life essence. There was a lot of magic coiled around it, revealing whoever they were was likely a court fae. Only the most powerful fae rose up through the ranks to sit in the courts. Those who ran territories and claimed the title of lord and lady fought for their place. The weaker fae were killed or exiled. The fae argued that it kept the bloodlines strong. I thought it was just an excuse to sate their boredom and try to kill each other whenever possible.
“Coming,” Elijah said.
I grabbed the artifacts I’d been there for, along with some Aztec coins with weird magic woven into them, and stuffed them in my pocket.
We walked down to the entry way, where a sidhe wearing an exquisite slate-grey suit was standing waiting for us.
“I see that you’ve found the contents of our treasury,” the sidhe said.
I prickled.
“I’m afraid you’re confused. What we found are stolen items that are now ours,” I said.
The sidhe smiled, revealing perfect white sharp teeth.
“It would seem that you’re the one who’s confused. As this is my territory, the items are part of my treasury. We’ll call it payment for the release of dangerous creatures into my forest,” he said without losing that smile.
I couldn’t fight with the lord of the territory. I was in enough trouble as it was between James and the other one who knew my real identity.
“My mistake,” I said.
“Not to worry, it happens. Now if you’ll kindly vacate the premises, we have work to do,” the lord said as he gestured at his team of people.
“No need to risk the forest; we have a car waiting to take you home,” the lord said.
“Thank you,” Elijah said stiffly.
Shifters and fae didn’t get along very well at the best of times. Having a lord take our haul from us and then make the silent threat that he knew where we lived wasn’t going to improve Elijah’s view of them.
Fifty-Four
I’d returned the bracelet and shard to the clients, and we were looking for buyers for the finfolk scales and Aztec gold. It had been a few days since we’d killed Zach, and everything was beginning to feel like normal again. Or our new version of normal.
Elijah and I had made the announcement that we were going to work together. Word had spread like wildfire, and overall clients seemed very happy with the news. Castor was happier than ever and was learning about computers thanks to Liam. Jess had finally given in on the shadow creature pet idea, and Rex had smiled at me. At least I thought it was a smile, it might have been a grimace. It was hard to tell with him.
Castor and I were officially permanently moving into the pack house. Our house just didn’t feel like home anymore. I was keeping it in case things went south, and it was still a useful ritual space. I’d headed back there to pack up the last of my clothes and the grimoires. Elijah and the others were all running through the forest.
I opened the door and allowed the familiar ambient magic to wash over me. It had been a nice home while we needed it, but things were changing.
A note was waiting for me on my bed when I went upstairs. I froze, I’d hoped that was all over. It was foolish, but with the happiness at having the pack I’d allowed myself to believe it.
Picking up the note, it contained the same fractured magic and neat handwriting as the ones that had come before.
You’ll regret that. You should have walked away from them while you had the chance.
It looked like my troubles were only just beginning.
Book two, Ancient Magic will be out February 26th 2020. If you could take 2 minutes to write a quick review, fellow readers would appreciate it. Reviews help readers decide which books they want to put their hard-earned time and money into.
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OTHER BOOKS BY JAYNE HAWKE
Look for new books from me on the 26th of each month!
Urban Fantasy in this world (the god touched world).
Shadow Magic – A badass bounty hunter who must work with a deadly fae assassin to track down the person fool enough to steal god magic.
Big Bad Wolf – Two witches saving the world one case at a time. Perfect for fans of Supernatural.
Urban Fantasy in the Wolf Ridge world.
Wolf Ridge – Baker turned werewolf.
Chaos Witch – They never saw her coming.
Paranormal romance in the God Touched world.
Dragon Knight – She’s the only one that can break his curse.