Halfblood's Hex (Urban Arcanology Book 1)

by S. C. Stokes

  “How do you know the Red Knight?” I asked.

  Frank eased back into the rich Corinthian leather. “I make it my business to know the best and brightest in any industry, and Edward Knight is a master of his art. Most miscreants meander into a life of crime through desperation or need. Edward Knight chose it as his calling and has honed it to an artform. His criminal empire has influence on most continents. While somewhat newer than many of the dynasties that have ruled the shaded path, Edward Knight has built his impressive empire in less than two decades.”

  “Sounds like he would be right at home in the Brotherhood,” I replied.

  Frank chuckled. “I'm sure he would, if he would accept an invitation.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “He turned down the Brotherhood? I was always under the impression that wasn't an option.”

  “Don’t go getting any ideas, Seth. For men like us, born into it, it’s an obligation and a duty. For up and comers like Edward, there are options for a seat at the table, and few turn it down. But the Red Knight has established himself as a man without a master. He believes an alliance with the Brotherhood would weaken his position, remove autonomy, and influence those he might wish to do business with. Try as we might, the Red Knight and his empire remain as neutral as Switzerland.”

  I tried to process what my father was saying. Knight had managed to free himself of the Brotherhood’s influence. He might know something that would help me do the same. I had no desire to spend what life I had in service to them.

  “What makes you think he'll be able to find the Inquisition?”

  Frank cracked his knuckles. “Because he is a normal. A normal with a very flexible moral compass and friends in low places. There is a chance his network might have picked something up. If the Inquisition is rooting around Central America, chances are they have moved goods or people through one of his shipping routes.”

  “What makes you think he will help us?” I asked.

  Frank ran his fingers through his graying hair. “I can't solve everything for you, boy. He is under no obligation to help us, but you've proved resourceful enough in the past. Perhaps one of those shiny trinkets you've pilfered will take his fancy. You won't know until you ask. The Red Knight is notorious for making deals. If you can provide something of value to him, he'll get us what we need.”

  “What we need?”

  It sounded dangerously like my father was starting to come around.

  “Yes, Seth. What we need. Just because I haven't had the luxury of gallivanting around the world chasing our curse, doesn't make this any less of my problem. After all, the curse will kill me first, so it's very much our problem.” His hands trembled and he clenched his fist in an attempt to hide it.

  “How bad is it?”

  He closed his eyes. “It grows worse day by day. I don't sleep well anymore. The voice is always there, inside my mind. I can hear her trying to influence me. She probes at my mind, trying to get me to break, but I won’t give her the satisfaction. I have more fight in me than that.”

  In spite of his words, I could hear a fatigue in his voice. One I'd never heard before. He was nervous. He'd been fighting this curse all his life and from what I'd seen in the last half-hour, he was starting to lose.

  He caught my stare. “Don't pity me, Seth. I've lived more in one lifetime than most men do in ten, but I have more that I wish to do. I fight this curse knowing that every day I hold out is one more day I have bought you.”

  I couldn’t hold his gaze. I turned and stared out the window at the passing houses.

  He sighed. “You might think that you can feel it now. The subtle whispers in your mind. Gentle suggestions that go against your nature. I remember all too well the day my father died. It was like a dam in my mind burst, and all of a sudden, she was there. Since that day there has been no respite.”

  I’d never heard my father speak of his burden so plainly. It explained the weariness in his voice. The constant unrelenting harassment. It would weary anyone.

  My father continued. “As I grew used to the reality of the curse and its ever-present invasion in my mind, I realized why my father had taken his own life. He hurled himself out of a helicopter, Seth. That's how desperate he was to make her stop. I won't do that to you. I’ll fight for as long as I can, but the truth is I’m running out of time. You’re running out of time. This temple is our best chance to rid ourselves of this forsaken curse once and for all. If the best chance of finding it is the Red Knight, we must speak with him. Fortunately, he's in London.”

  “Can you arrange the meeting?” I asked, turning back to him. The creases by his eyes seemed deeper than they had before. Maybe it was just my mind playing tricks on me.

  He drummed on the leather armrest. “I can. I have dealt with him in the past, profitably. He will take my call, but you must be careful, Seth. The Red Knight is ruthless and will be exacting in the price he sets. Do not enter into a bargain you cannot afford. No one breaks faith with the Red Knight.”

  I let out the breath I hadn’t realized I had been holding. It felt like at every turn I was trading something of myself to try and save my own skin. First the Brotherhood, now the Red Knight. When I was done, would there be anything left?

  “On the topic of breaking faith,” I began, wiping my palms on my slacks, “we need to talk about the Brotherhood. You know how I feel about them. I have no desire to continue your indentured servitude to the organization Francis founded.”

  “Be that as it may, Seth, they are too powerful to ignore. Money is power and our family’s fortune has bolstered their coffers for close to four hundred years. Wizards and normals working shoulder to shoulder to build a better world. You can be a part of that. You will be a part of that.”

  “Better for whom?” I asked, cracking the car window for some fresh air. “Better for themselves?”

  “Close that,” Frank barked. “We’re not safe until we’re back on the estate.”

  I sighed and wound up the window.

  “You're wrong about them, Seth,” my father said. “Those men at the airfield were willing to murder you, not just for the mask, but for what you are. A wizard in a World of Magic that they don't understand. Sure, there are folks who believe it can be used for the greater good, but history has proven time and time again that people fear what they don't understand. Now our world is being thrust before the masses and that will invariably breed conflict. The Brotherhood smooths that conflict.”

  “Isn't that a problem for the Arcane Parliament?” I replied, referring to the organization that governed magical affairs in Europe. The Parliament was like a government without borders. Instead of paying heed to where nations drew their boundaries, the supernatural community had its own lines of demarcation. The world was divided into regions, each region governed by a body of witches and wizards who dictated legislation to protect and preserve the rights of those who looked to them.

  Relationships between the mundane and supernatural world were their jurisdiction. After all, if the wizarding world was at war with normals it could distract and inhibit us from our role of siphoning excess supernatural energy that coursed through the world’s ley lines.

  Normals called it climate change but the truth was there was far more than pollution contributing to the world’s shifting climate. The world's magic was in commotion. Something had awoken in recent years and the increase in energy coursing through the ley lines that crisscrossed the world required a combined effort of the respective magical governments to keep it in check.

  The Arcane Parliament was drawn from members of Europe's most prominent wizarding families. It was nepotism at its finest but they had been governing arcane matters on the continent for over a thousand years.

  “It's cute that you think those old bureaucracies are still effective,” Frank chuckled. “The world is changing swiftly, and if we wait for deliberations from old wizards still clinging to prophecy and tradition, we will find ourselves extinct. The Gods gave us a duty. That duty
won’t wait for bureaucracy. The Brotherhood sees that the world doesn’t suffer while the bureaucrats deliberate.”

  “The ends justify the means?” I asked, looking him in the eye.

  Frank rolled his eyes. “It is the reality of the world in which we live. The Brotherhood moves to preserve global affairs at a speed that those bureaucracies simply can't hope to match. True, they are less scrupulous about the cost, but this is the real world, Seth. Sunshine and rainbows only go so far. Balance must be preserved, no matter the price. You may not like it, but we play a part in that balance. You, me, my father, and his father before him. For four hundred years we have supported, guided, and shaped humanity’s destiny. We can't break from that duty now, even if we wanted to. Our family built the machine that will consume us.”

  “I can't cure our curse if I'm tied down to the Brotherhood's agenda. I need time,” I replied, wiping a bead of sweat off my brow. Maybe it was the heating in the SUV that was beginning to make me sweat, or perhaps it was the inevitability of my father’s words.

  Frank nodded. “I will buy you what I can, but the day is coming, Seth. Do not play with Lynch. He will brook no foolishness.”

  “Lynch is a problem for another day.” I clutched the silicon bag against the mask, its weight comforting in my hand.

  “I'll set the meeting with the Red Knight while he is still in London. Tonight, if possible,” Frank said, rubbing his temples as if soothing a headache. “You'll need to take someone with you.”

  “I would have taken Dizzy but you sent her home.”

  Frank’s voice lowered. “I've every confidence in the heir of Alasa but she has trouble at home. I thought it best she see her parents. Perhaps she can be an influence for good.”

  “What you mean? What's going on?”

  Frank held up a hand. “It's not my place to say. She'll tell you when she is ready.”

  Typical Frank. Always interfering. He couldn't help himself. I slipped the mask back into its bag and tucked it into the duffel.

  “Don't grumble. I'll lend you Charles for the evening. Murdoch could badly use some rest. It looks like he's been to hell and back.”

  I smoothed my slacks and conceded the point. Murdoch had flown the red-eye from New York on the back of the day's heist and had almost been blown to smithereens by an RPG. If anyone deserved hazard pay, and a little bit of rest, it was him.

  “Fair enough.”

  Charles was my father's body man. Six foot six and as wide as an NFL linebacker, he was dense enough to have his own orbit. Even unarmed he was a formidable opponent, and Charles was never unarmed.

  “You'll need to change,” Frank said, pointing to my tattered clothes.

  What had been a perfectly serviceable wardrobe had taken a beating during the struggle at the airfield.

  “No worries. You set the meeting and run interference with Mom. I'll get changed and be back in the car in no time.”

  Frank folded his arms. “Not on your life, boy. You made the foolish mistake of overlooking your mother, now you must pay the piper. Make it right, and be quick about it. She deserves more.”

  I glanced out the window to avoid my father’s judgmental gaze. It seemed on this front he would be no help at all.

  In truth, I really had to do better. Obsession was in my nature, and I tended to focus on the task in front of me to the exclusion of everything else. Now I had incurred the wrath of my mother. Given the choice of enduring her fury or going another round with the Inquisition, I would be hard pressed to decide which was more dangerous. I would have to throw myself on her mercy and hope for the best.

  The convoy peeled off the road and onto a driveway leading to the palatial Weybridge Manor. Located in the heart of Surrey's prestigious St. George's Hills, the rolling mansion was set on three and half acres of pristine manicured lawn with dense woodlands providing privacy from prying neighbors. The manor itself was a monolithic structure of white rendered walls and charcoal eaves. Carefully groomed evergreens lined the drive as the convoy pulled up in front of the Manor’s main entrance. At a little over 21,000 square feet, it had seven bedrooms, just as many bathrooms, a two-story foyer, and a double grand staircase that was every bit the display of ostentatious wealth Frank had wanted.

  As a child, I could play for days without ever reaching the fence. I only prayed that today the size of the structure would give me a chance to evade Mother, at least until she had cooled a little.

  I opened the door and tried to get out of the car, but Frank reached across and placed a hand on the mask.

  “Leave the mask with me. That thing is a magnet for trouble and Edward Knight is an opportunist. It'll be safer here at the manor.”

  I handed it over. As I let it go, I could feel it calling to me. I cocked my head to the side. Could it be that the relic recognized our bloodline? I couldn’t begin to guess how it would react to Frank with his curse at such an advanced stage.

  “Be careful,” I whispered.

  “I'll be fine,” Frank replied, tucking the bag under his arm. “I want to run it against some of the notes I've gathered over the years and see what I can turn up. What else is in the bag?”

  I smiled. “A bribe, one I’ll sorely need if Mother catches me.”

  I pushed open the door and made for the front steps. Inside, I bounded up the left-hand side of the grand staircase, panting as I kept my pace up. Reaching the top of the stairs, I darted down the East Wing. So far so good. I slipped inside my bedroom, easing the door closed behind me.

  “And whom would you be hiding from?” a feminine voice called from behind me.

  My shoulders sagged as I recognized my mother's voice. I ought to have known better.

  “Hello, Mother. It's good to see you.”

  I turned to face her. Mother sat at my writing desk in a white dress, her hair pulled back into a ponytail and held in place by a diamond encrusted fitting that was probably worth more than my car.

  “Don't you hello mother me.” She rose from the desk, her finger waving. “You get engaged to someone without telling us, and then I find we’re not even invited to the wedding, how dare you. I shouldn’t pay the price for you and your father’s bickering.”

  I raised both hands in surrender. There was nowhere to go, and all of my excuses sounded lame enough in my head that I didn't dare utter them aloud.

  “Mother, it was an accident. A careless and foolish mistake but one I intend to rectify at once. The wedding is still months away. I always had every intention of inviting you. I just haven’t got to sending them out.”

  “Nonsense,” Mother fumed, her pale cheeks flushed with indignation. “Who waits this long to send invitations?”

  “I do,” I replied, hugging my mother. “Since when have I been the organized party planner? Lara's been hounding me for months, but truth be told I've been busy with other matters.”

  My mother didn’t relent or return the embrace. “More pressing than your own wedding, the poor woman. I feel sorry for her already.”

  “Aw thanks, Mom. Glad to know you're always on my side.”

  Mother didn't dignify that with the response.

  “Well, where is she then? Where is this young woman that has so captured my son's attention that he would forget his own mother?”

  My heart skipped a beat as I thought of Lara. It had only been a day and I already missed her terribly.

  “You’ll meet her soon enough,” I replied, hoping that I could deliver on that promise. “I've been hunting a relic that has to do with our family curse. I found it in New York and for the first time we have a very real chance of changing our fate. We may be able to cure this thing once and for all. That’s what has distracted me.”

  My mother’s face softened, her lips parting. “You found something that might be able to help your father?”

  “That's what we're hoping,” I replied. “This mask is the first solid clue we've been able to find.”

  My mother smiled, but there was a sadness in her voic
e. “That would be nice. Your father has been different of late. I fear it’s starting to get the better of him.”

  “Come here, Mom,” I whispered, wrapping my arms around her once more. This time she returned the embrace. Something had shaken her, and it worried me, almost as much as my father’s display in the hanger. “We are going to do everything we can. I haven't given up yet.”

  There was a slight sniffle as my mother tried to compose herself. “It's good to have you home, Seth. Will you be here for long?”

  “It depends,” I said, releasing her. “If we can find what we need from the mask, I could be on the road again, soon.”

  Mother nodded. “Is your fiancée traveling with you?”

  The question sent a pang of pain through me. “It's a little complicated right now, Mom.”

  She placed her hands on her hips. “Uncomplicate it then.”

  I didn't have time to adequately explain everything that had occurred in the last twenty-four hours and I had the distinct impression she would be less than pleased with how I'd left things with Lara. Leaving my fiancée bound to a chair in her office was unlikely to win me brownie points.

  Mom had hopes for grandchildren, something that had seemed unlikely to eventuate with me having stubbornly avoided relationships for most of my life.

  “I stole the relic from her work and she caught me. She was less than impressed, and her employer doubly so. I tried to patch things up before I left but between leaving her tied to a chair in her office, and the surprise I’m a wizard part, things are looking rough.”

  Mom shook her head, “You're just as bad at this as your father was. If I hadn't chased him down, you would never have been born. Do you love her?”

  Lara filled my mind, and not the Section 9 operative I’d met in her office. No, I saw her sitting cross legged on the lounge in our apartment, her head buried in an old textbook. The remnants of a hot chocolate going cold as she sat engrossed in her study. The image brought a smile to my face. “With my whole soul.”

  Mom poked her finger into my chest. “Then make it right, Seth.”