Idols and Enemies (Amplifier 4)

by Meghan Ciana Doidge

  It clawed.

  It screamed.

  I could feel how it had woven itself through me, mimicking the tendons and fasciae that held muscle to bone. I shuddered, tears of pain streaking my cheeks unchecked. But I threaded the spell through the entity. I wrapped it up tightly.

  And then I shoved it back in the urn.

  Power exploded around us.

  Sky screamed.

  Isa stumbled back, losing hold of the urn.

  A torrent of power churned around Aiden, Kader, Sky, and me, our hands all pressed to the idol.

  And I could move. My limbs were my own again, under my control. Every cell in my body ached. But I could move.

  “In the pentagram!” Aiden shouted. “All together!”

  Isa reached back into the energy lashing at our hands and arms. Biting, clawing, trying to grab hold. Of any of us.

  We shuffled back a couple of steps, clearing the edges of the pentagram Kader had initially seared into the grass. That felt like … eons ago.

  My breath hitched. My heart started pounding.

  A belated reaction, I realized, striving to be rational.

  I shook off the thought, the residual echo of being trapped in my own body. I bent my knees, slowly bringing them to the ground, and the others did the same.

  “We have to seal the urn,” Aiden said, his voice pained, heavy with magic.

  “Just get it sealed in the pentagram first,” Kader said.

  “That isn’t enough,” I said. “It moved through the earth to get me, through the bonds of Cerise’s spell.”

  We set the urn on the grass, our hands still pressed to metal that was showing no signs of warming under our touch.

  “One step at a time, amplifier,” Kader growled. “We have to get it away from you. Then we’ll worry about sealing the breach.”

  “Or rehousing it,” Isa said grimly. “I imagine if the Myers coven could have vanquished it, they would have.”

  “Yes,” his father said agreeably. “But we are not Myers witches.”

  “Hey,” Sky snapped. “Right here with you all, buddy.”

  Kader chuckled.

  Aiden sighed. “Emma removes herself first.”

  “What? No,” I said. “I’m the primary contact.”

  “Exactly, love,” Aiden said. “You pull your hands, then Isa, Sky, and Kader.”

  “That leaves you last,” I growled, narrowing my eyes at him. “No.”

  “Aiden initiated the recall spell,” Kader said. “Brilliantly done.” He gave his youngest son a proud look.

  Aiden grimaced, meeting my eye, not his father’s. But I knew that somewhere, buried deep inside him, he felt lavished by the praise. So I smiled at him.

  He flashed his teeth at me. “It isn’t going to grab for me, because it’s going to go straight for you. And then Cerise.”

  “Agreed,” Isa said. “It’s already carved those pathways. And even if Emma is inhospitable, she holds too much power for it not to try again.”

  I wasn’t certain if I should be insulted or flattered. I settled on ignoring the know-it-all sorcerer.

  “We move as quickly as we can — Emma, Isa, Sky, Kader,” Aiden repeated. “Then me. We clear the edges of the pentagram. Kader seals it within.”

  His father nodded. “I can deepen the pentagram at the same time. Layer it into the ground.”

  Aiden glanced at everyone else. “And then we’ll add consecutive layers to the containment spell.”

  Sky nodded, her face drawn.

  All of their magic was drained. Not only from casting the recall spell, as Kader had called it, but also by me. More specifically, the Hallowed through me.

  The entity wearing me like a skin suit.

  I shuddered.

  “Emma?” Aiden asked quietly. “Are you with us?”

  “Yes. I’m here. I can’t … I don’t know any containment spells, but I can boost all of you, replace what’s been taken from you.”

  “Lovely,” Kader said brightly. “Shall we? The skin feels as though it’s being chewed from my hands.”

  Isa and Sky groaned simultaneously in agreement, then they looked at each other and burst out laughing.

  I glanced at Aiden, confused.

  He just grinned at me.

  I really didn’t understand people at all.

  I tugged my hands free, flipping backward out of the pentagram before my fingertips had even left the urn.

  Isa flung himself back. Then Sky.

  Kader straightened, taking a much more dignified step back.

  Then it was only Aiden holding the idol. The churning energy that was the Hallowed swirled around his hands. He looked up, meeting my gaze.

  I couldn’t read his expression. And for a moment, my heart stopped. Thinking … thinking he’d lied to me. To get me to release my hold.

  To save me.

  Over himself.

  But then, still crouched, he slowly peeled his hands back from the urn, slipping one foot behind him over the edge of the pentagram. Then he pulled his hands away and stepped back with the second foot.

  Kader barked a word of power. The edges of the pentagram snapped into place. The elder sorcerer swayed on his feet as Isa settled a hand under his father’s elbow. Kader didn’t brush him away.

  “Running water,” Sky said to Aiden, her tone stressed. “I’ll need a trench.”

  Aiden jabbed his finger toward the edge of the orchard nearest the house. “There’s a watering system.”

  Sky took off running, glancing back with concern at her sister, then at Grosvenor. The curse breaker was still sprawled on the grass, gazing skyward. Ocean was propped up on one hand next to Cerise, who was curled up in the grass. The elder witch’s chest slowly rose, then fell. Ocean’s expression was conflicted.

  “Grover,” Aiden said, pacing the exterior of the pentagram. His expression was strained. “We’re going to need you.”

  The curse breaker groaned, perhaps meaning to be playful. But he sounded drained.

  I offered one hand to Kader. The other, to Isa. Kader folded my hand into his warm grip without hesitation. I fed him a gentle flood of power while looking at the other sorcerer with a tight smile.

  Isa wasn’t so eager for my touch.

  “Don’t be an idiot,” Kader snapped.

  “Have you ever considered the bond it must form?” Isa asked his father coolly.

  “It wears off. With time and distance,” I said. “One amplification doesn’t tie you to me forever.”

  “Why would you care?” Kader said, still taking all the power I was feeding him. “Do you think Emma can somehow influence you? Into doing what? What could she possibly ask of you that you wouldn’t already be willing to do?”

  Isa glanced at Aiden. His youngest brother was pacing the pentagram, pausing every few steps to utter a word that cut through the grass at his feet, taking out a swath a half-meter in length and fifteen centimeters deep. He was forming the trench Sky needed.

  Without looking back at me, Isa stuffed his hands in his pockets and walked over to check on Khalid, still sprawled in the grass, gazing up at the blue sky.

  “Fool,” Kader muttered. Then he patted the back of my hand and released me.

  I thought about what it must have looked like, felt like, for everyone else when the Hallowed was radiating through me. Utilizing my abilities to siphon their power, then screwing with their heads with some sort of projection of my latent empathy. An ability that had always been passive for me, but which had been weaponized by the Hallowed.

  Which might mean that I was perfectly capable of doing everything the Hallowed had used me to do.

  As I watched Isa bend over Khalid and murmur something to him, I found I couldn’t blame him at all for not wanting to be amplified by me. For not wanting to be influenced by me.

  A pain rippled through my chest. Logically, I knew it must have been anxiety or guilt.

  But illogically, it felt as though another large chunk of my soul had
just been shredded even further.

  Sky ran into the clearing, dragging the hose with her from the orchard, spraying water everywhere. She splashed her mother and her sister, seemingly without remorse.

  Ocean gasped, then glowered.

  Grosvenor rolled to his feet, unsteady for a moment. I offered him my hand. He took it with a grim smile, his gaze on Sky as she approached the pentagram.

  I fed the curse breaker a touch of my power as gently as possible. His fingers tightened on mine, light-brown eyes widening. I offered him a slight smile, then upped the wattage of the amplification. He inhaled deeply, rolling his neck and shoulders.

  Kader grunted in satisfaction, then stepped over to the pentagram. He crouched, placing his fingers into the trench Aiden had dug. Magic flooded through the churned dirt, sealing it.

  Sky set the hose in the trench.

  It would have to stay running.

  Kader straightened. He and Aiden stood shoulder to shoulder, peering through the boundary of the pentagram. Waiting.

  “Salt?” Sky asked.

  Aiden nodded. “In the barn. I’ll help you.”

  “No.” Sky turned to look at her sister. “Ocean. On your feet.”

  Ocean glanced at her mother. None of the rest of us had bothered to check on Cerise yet. Not even Sky. “But … Mom …”

  “Now,” Sky demanded. “She’s alive. Which is more than she deserves.”

  Ocean frowned. “You saw what that thing did to Emma! It must have manipulated Mom —”

  Sky jabbed her finger at their mother. “She took that … that … idol from the coven archives! Archives she was supposed to be protecting, overseeing! You know she did! She used us. She would have killed us in order to release it, in order to get revenge on Kader!”

  Ocean’s chin trembled, her large light-blue eyes falling on her mother. Then she nodded, whispering, “Salt. We’ll imbue it with a barrier spell.”

  “We’ll imbue it with everything we’ve got.” Sky stepped over to her sister and held her hand out. Ocean grabbed it, then Sky helped her to her feet.

  Arms wrapped around each other, they walked away without looking at their mother again. As they stepped by me, I offered them my hands.

  “Let us get the salt first,” Sky said with a glance at the pentagram. “You might need all your reserves.”

  I didn’t mention that my reserves were fairly vast. I just nodded. Then, as the two younger witches ran for the barn, I finally stepped over to check on Cerise.

  The trench had filled with water. Aiden stirred his finger through it, murmuring arcane commands. The water began to run, flowing clockwise.

  “The entity is going to breach the pentagram,” Grosvenor said.

  No one answered him. But even as he started laying out his rune-marked wooden tiles, the energy sealing the pentagram started flickering.

  I stepped around Cerise, putting her between myself and the pentagram, so I could keep an eye on what was happening with the Hallowed.

  On the other side of the clearing, Khalid had gained his feet and was pacing with Isa. Way in the background, Sky and Ocean entered the barn.

  I crouched over Cerise — and found myself wishing that Christopher was home. Then I was wishing that the other four had been at both our sides. The Hallowed would never have gotten hold of me if the Five had stood against it.

  But that was because we never would have gotten into the circle in the first place.

  Cerise Myers would never have been able to get the Hallowed onto the property. Bee would have plucked her intentions right out of her head — possibly literally if she were feeling vindictive. Or protective.

  I pushed thoughts of Bee and the others aside, placing my fingertips at the base of Cerise’s neck.

  Aiden had helped me with the Hallowed. We hadn’t needed the other four.

  I had completely drained Cerise Myers. I’d known it already, but I touched her to make certain. It had never been confirmed whether or not I could actually permanently take another Adept’s power.

  I glanced over to the pentagram, looking at Kader. The elder sorcerer might know. Assuming the Collective had ever bothered to keep the victims I hadn’t killed while draining them alive. I doubted whether the lives of those victims, or whether or not their magic would ever return, had been important to the project. His life’s work, the elder sorcerer had called it.

  So Cerise’s magic might come back.

  Or I might have just ruined the rest of her life for her.

  No.

  She’d definitely done that herself.

  Cerise’s eyelashes fluttered, as if she was dreaming.

  Khalid had crossed the clearing, crouching on the other side of Cerise and checking her pulse. His gaze was on me.

  The boundary of the pentagram fell. Aiden, Kader, and Isa, standing at roughly equidistant points from each other, clapped their hands together and barked the same sharp command.

  Fire ignited along the edges of the pentagram.

  Khalid glanced over his shoulder, then back at Cerise. His expression was guarded.

  Grosvenor continued setting out his wooden tiles on the far side of the moat. He was building some sort of spell adjacent to each point of the pentagram. He moved on to the fourth point as the fire raged.

  It was clear that the sorcerers didn’t think the fire barrier was going to hold the Hallowed. Even though I’d amplified Kader, and Aiden wasn’t as badly drained as the others.

  “You stripped every last iota of magic from her,” Khalid said. His head was bowed, not looking at me.

  “Yes.”

  “And a few of the others, nearly so.” He flicked his gaze to my face, then looked away toward the trees.

  “Yes.”

  He nodded, then straightened up, brushing off his pants. His attention was on the magical fortifications being erected around the pentagram. Sky and Ocean were on their way back from the barn, each struggling to carry a large bag of the road salt Aiden always kept on hand.

  “Would you like me to return what I took?” I asked.

  Khalid glanced at me. “Can you … do so specifically?”

  I couldn’t. All the magic I currently held was a combination of everything I’d drawn from them all. But I would end up just absorbing it myself if I didn’t transfer it. “Does it matter?”

  He shrugged. “Maybe not.” He looked back at the pentagram. “I’m not needed at this stage … and I don’t mind the dampening. It hurt a hell of a lot more, but you’re better than anything I’ve smoked in the last few years.” He laughed joylessly, then nodded toward the others.

  Ocean and Sky had joined the group around the pentagram. The fire was half the height it had been a moment before.

  “It …” Ocean stammered. “It’s eating the fire.”

  “It would appear so,” Grosvenor said cheerfully. He reached to take the bag of salt from Sky, but the witch gave him a withering look.

  He backed away, hands raised as the witches stepped back, tearing open the bags.

  “I’m not needed at this stage,” Khalid repeated quietly. “But I’ll take you up on the offer if the entity gets by everyone else.”

  “You think you can fight it?”

  Khalid was quiet for a moment. Then he said, “I’ll try.” He wandered off to stand near his father.

  Sky and Ocean had linked arms in an impromptu circle with the bags of salt between them. A wash of power rose at their murmured bidding, pulled from the earth, twining around the bags of salt. Apparently, the witches didn’t need my amplification if they could access the power that lay in my property.

  My property. Property that Khalid had characterized as having been walked on by divine beings. I presumed that was my power and Christopher’s he referred to, plus Samantha more recently. Perhaps Aiden, Paisley, and Opal as well. But why my magic would feed the land when I couldn’t amplify spells or other objects, I had no idea.

  The fire edging the pentagram snuffed out. I could see the idol c
learly now. It was still set in the middle of the pentagram seared into the grass, surrounded by the moat of running water, and with Grosvenor’s wooden tiles beyond. The metal urn was still cracked. And the energy I’d poured back into it had poured back out — that glittering darkness. It surged forward in a slithering motion, a long tail still anchoring it to the urn. It started moving around the inner circumference of the moat.

  Aiden hissed. “We’re going to need to move it.”

  “Too dangerous,” Isa said.

  “I have a permanent pentagram for this exact reason,” Aiden argued.

  Grosvenor laughed. “For this exact reason? Emma seriously keeps you on your toes, cousin.”

  Isa ignored the curse breaker. “If we can move it, we can contain it.”

  Sky and Ocean dropped their hands, each grabbing a bag of salt. The sorcerers stepped back as the witches stood across from each other, each just outside a set of the curse breaker’s tiles.

  I stepped up beside Aiden. He threaded his fingers through mine without looking away from the witches.

  Magic flowed around Sky’s and Ocean’s hands as they each tipped their bags of salt, sprinkling a thick line of it in the grass. Murmuring in conjunction with each other, they moved in opposite directions, quickly crossing paths on the far side of the pentagram.

  “Witches don’t usually speak quite so … quietly,” I whispered to Aiden. “When casting in front of an audience.”

  “Really?” Aiden smiled. “In my experience, witches don’t appreciate an audience of sorcerers when casting.”

  “Ah. Just in case those sorcerers are taking notes?”

  “Sorcerers are always taking notes.”

  I laughed quietly. “Very true.”

  Sky and Ocean lapped each other a second time, then paused. The bags of salt looked half empty. Switching directions, they laid a wavy pattern over the thick straight line of salt they’d already sketched, lapping each other again and returning to their starting points with empty bags.

  Light-blue energy ran around the salted circle. It started humming.

  Sky tied her empty salt bag in a knot, slapping it against her thigh. “I’d like to see the asshole cross that!”

  “I’d rather not,” Isa replied coolly. “Since that’s pretty much all that we have to throw at it.”