Midnight Truth (Shifter Island Book 4)

by Leia Stone

  “Carson.” The brunette dude kicked off the shed and shook my hand. “Earth.”

  “I’m Xavier,” the final dude grumbled. His handshake was brief and clammy, and his thin body trembled. He forced a swallow, and his red-rimmed eyes filled with fresh tears. “Fire,” he croaked.

  Yeah. He wasn’t handling Snade’s death well, but right now wasn’t the time to tell Xavier that his father was a douche.

  “So, we need to question Julian about his involvement in the attack and see if he knows anything that can help us make a plan to get the Island back. Do you guys want to come in, or would you rather go find a tent and get some rest?” I glanced at the door and frowned. “I’m going in with the alpha king, but each of you is on the High Mage Council now, so we should all be on the same page.”

  Jane’s expression turned vicious. “I’m going in with you. If he knew about the attack beforehand, I’ll kill him.”

  Well, it was good to see her loyalty was flexible.

  “Me too. I’m going in with you,” Carson said.

  Xavier shook his head and waved dismissively at the door. “I’ll pass. I trust Jane and Carson to find out what Julian knows. I don’t even want to see his face right now. I need some time alone.”

  I could respect that too.

  “We’ll come get you when we start to make a plan to get our home back. Okay?” I offered Xavier a tight smile.

  He shrugged and then walked away.

  I turned and scanned the trees to see Rage leaning against one, watching us. I beckoned him over, and after terse introductions, we stepped over to the front of the shed.

  ‘Got my back?’ I asked Rage with my hand on the door handle of the shed.

  He grinned, eyes going yellow. ‘Always.’

  I pulled the door open, and light flooded into the windowless space. Justice stood from where he’d been sitting in front of the door as a guard and faced us. Behind him, in the center of the small shed, was Julian, hands tied behind his back with a towel around his mouth, gagging him.

  “Watch the door for us?” Rage asked his brother.

  Justice nodded once and then slipped outside, allowing Jane and Xavier in before closing the door behind him.

  The space was maybe ten foot by ten foot, and the only light seeped in through the cracks between the walls. Several gardening tools sat on the back wall with a few bags of fertilizer. The four of us crowded around Julian, and his eyes widened as he took us in.

  ‘He’s been given the spell powder so he has no power,’ Rage told me.

  Good to know. But with all the power coursing through me, I had a hard time believing Julian could one-up me right now.

  ‘Why is he gagged, then?’ I wondered. The last thing I wanted to do was unbind him and cause havoc.

  ‘Justice got tired of listening to him whine,’ Rage replied.

  Not that I could blame him for that. ‘Right, then, follow my lead,’ I told Rage.

  ‘Yes, Agent Crescent,’ he joked.

  I rolled my eyes. ‘Shut up.’

  Crouching down, I ripped the towel from Julian’s mouth and then wrapped my fingers around his throat.

  “Listen closely,” I growled. “I’m going to give you one chance to keep your life. Tell me everything you know about the blood mages and your father’s involvement with them, or I’ll tear your soul from your body.”

  Julian’s eyes widened like a bug, and his throat bobbed as he forced a swallow.

  Was I capable of such a thing? Maybe. Maybe not. But he didn’t know that, and it sounded badass.

  ‘Okay … so you’re definitely the bad cop,’ Rage said.

  Julian whimpered, and his skin darkened.

  Shoot! I was squeezing him too hard, so I relaxed—a little, and he sucked in a rasping breath.

  “I don’t know m-much,” he stammered. “B-but I’ll tell you everything. P-please don’t kill me.” Tears spilled down his cheeks.

  ‘Nearly his entire household was killed, including his mother, four siblings, and the staff. Only two of his younger brothers made it out,’ Rage told me.

  Oh mage. Now I was feeling bad for the asshat who’d coordinated my attack. That was messed up.

  “Talk,” Jane shouted. “Or I’ll kill you.”

  Julian nodded as more tears streaked down his face. “One night, a couple weeks ago, I heard voices in the back garden. It … was late.” His gaze jumped from Jane to me. “I was … sneaking out to meet Jane.”

  Okay. I glanced at Jane, and her cheeks reddened, but she gave me a curt nod to corroborate Julian’s statement. Huh. Well, that explained a lot about her involvement before—and her anger now.

  “Tell us what you heard,” Rage growled.

  Julian swallowed hard. “My … dad…” He paused as if saying that name caused him pain. “Kian was talking to a female blood mage. I recognized her; she used to work at Alpha Academy.”

  Kalama.

  “And?” I inched closer.

  Julian frowned. “I … I want you to know, I didn’t understand what this meant at the time,” he whined. “Or I would’ve told someone. I swear.”

  Did I believe him? Nope. Not one bit.

  “It’s okay, just tell us,” Rage coaxed in his best good cop voice.

  “He said he was preparing a place for them to rule … alongside us as allies. That once we banded together with them, we wouldn’t need the wolves anymore. I … I didn’t know that meant—” Then he broke down, sobbing, and my heart pinched.

  Those tears seemed pretty real. I could believe that he hadn’t understood that his father’s plan meant they’d slaughter all his people or kick him out. Yeah, asshat, blood mages don’t play fair.

  Julian sniffled as he reined in his emotions. “The blood mage said her people would keep all of Mageville in line. That together, with Kian as their king, they’d rule the entire magical realm with an iron fist.”

  There it was, the carrot they’d dangled in front of Kian. King.

  Maybe that’s what he’d always wanted. Maybe that’s why he’d been hell-bent on controlling the wolves every chance he got. He wanted to be the king, not one of a council of five in charge.

  “That asshole!” Jane flicked her wrist, and a gust of wind slammed into Julian. He fell backward with a cry of pain.

  Carson stomped his foot, and the ground shook.

  “Hey,” I snapped at both of them. “Keep your emotions under control … or get out.”

  But Jane didn’t stop. Balling her fists, she lunged toward Julian. The air in the shed swirled with her power, and she screamed. “You could’ve said something! We—our people … my family—”

  Before she could fling her hands out, Carson grabbed her, pinning her arms to her sides as he hauled her body to his—her back to his chest. “That’s enough, Jane.”

  She screamed, flailing against him, filled with anguish and frustration.

  “I know,” Carson said, his voice calm. “We all know.” Jane sagged, turning into him as she sobbed. With a curt nod to me and Rage, he carried her to the door, pausing only to kick it open.

  “You okay in here?” Justice asked, poking his head in.

  Okay was such a lame word for this mess. Nothing was okay about it, but I knew what he meant: did we need backup?

  “Fine,” I said with a nod.

  ‘Well?’ I asked Rage. ‘What do you think?’

  ‘Your call. I’d leave him here to rot. He’s the worst kind of coward,’ Rage offered with a scowl.

  Thinking of how Julian had led an attack on me, I had to agree. But I wanted to hope he’d changed, given the circumstances.

  “Thank you, Julian,” I said. “I’m going to have Justice untie you, but you don’t have any magic right now. I’d suggest you don’t go anywhere, okay? Not everyone is on board with your freedom.”

  He nodded, staring at the wall. “I’ll stay here, but when you figure out your plan to take back the Island—” He swallowed. “I want to help.”

  Rag
e and I stepped outside and then filled Justice in.

  “So, what’s next?” Rage asked, looking at me for an answer.

  I sighed. “We need to have a leaders meeting. You, King Ozark, the alphas, all the leaders of the shifters, and the High Mage Council. We might also want to pull in the lower mages. We all need to sit down and figure out a plan.”

  Justice winced. “That’s going to be a shitshow.”

  “Yep.” I shrugged. “But the only way out from here is to work together. If we can’t get on the same page, nothing we build will stay. We need a big enough force to take on the blood mages—and no singular group has that.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Sariah pulled me to the side as soon as we returned to camp. “I just need a few minutes,” she said, her gaze darting from me to Rage. “I wanted to run something by you. It might help.”

  I gave Rage a tight smile. “Do you mind? I can catch up with you…”

  “Not at all,” he said and then kissed me, a soft brush of his lips against mine. “I’ll go round up the leaders. We’ll meet you in Ozark’s throne room for the party planning.”

  “Only you would think battle is synonymous with party,” I replied, shaking my head in mock disbelief.

  His eyes widened. “Not true. I can think of at least three others—”

  “Your brothers don’t count,” I said, chuckling at his dark humor. I linked my arm with my aunt’s, and the two of us stepped away toward a blue tent.

  As soon as we ducked inside, I faced her. “What’s up?”

  “You may’ve already thought of this,” Sariah said with a tentative smile like she was trying to be sensitive to my feelings.

  At this point, I was so beyond hurt feelings. “Hit me with it anyway.”

  “If you’re looking for a bit of inside information, don’t forget you can spirit walk and spy on the blood mages.”

  Oh. My. Mage.

  I wanted to facepalm myself for not thinking of that sooner.

  “That’s brilliant!” I said with a rueful smile. “And, for the record, I hadn’t thought of it, so … thank you.”

  Sariah’s smile grew, and she winked. “I’ve got your back.”

  A lump formed in my throat. “You’re a lot like Grandpa Geoff, aren’t you?”

  Tears glistened in her eyes, and the moment suddenly became serious. “I’d like to think so. Thank you.”

  “I miss him already.” My throat constricted as I tried to rein in my emotions.

  Reaching out, Sariah squeezed my hand. “Me too, but he had such a wonderful life. Those last few weeks, teaching you, I’ve never seen him so happy and focused.”

  I squeezed her hand and nodded.

  “I’m thinking I should spirit walk before our meeting. Do you mind if I do that from here?” I asked, glancing at the bedrolls in the corner of the tent we were in.

  She shook her head. “Nope, totally fine. Donovan and Annette are at the castle in the kitchen. I’ll stay here with your body while you go spirit-spy if you’d like.”

  I nodded.

  ‘Rage,’ I called through our mental bond. ‘Change of plans for me. I’m going to spirit walk and spy on the blood mages. Then I’ll join you at the castle.’

  ‘Whoa. Great idea. Be careful,’ he replied. ‘It’ll be a bit before I round everyone up anyway. Way to make those powers work for us.’

  After settling on top of the cushioned bedroll, I closed my eyes and took several deep breaths. There were no hot spring pools or crystals here to help me, but I’d managed to spirit walk without either in the past. Not to mention I was now a full-fledged freaking high mage of spirit. I could feel the power just under my skin, like a live wire, waiting to be called on.

  And thanks to Gramps, I had the bag of soul stones in my pocket, so those were safe.

  Thinking of my spirit test and how I’d gone into the school library and spied on the high mages, I smiled. I just needed two things: first, to relax enough to spirit walk, and second, to know where to find the blood mage queen.

  With its inaccessible location, I figured High Mage Island would be the likeliest place for the blood mages’ base camp versus Alpha Island. Plus, Kian already had a castle there, and he was clearly in with them. As I inhaled, I visualized all the castles I’d seen when I did my initiation tests…

  I could almost hear Grandpa’s voice telling me that when you can raise the dead, they give you the nicest castle.

  On my next exhale, I let my spirit slip from my body. I opened my eyes to find that I was now in my grandfather’s study—the room where he’d rummaged through his desk, looking for a crystal to help me get to the spirit realm. The room that’d been Honor’s bachelor pad. The room that was now spotlessly clean and organized, all the way down to the bins clearly marked as spirit crystals.

  Crap.

  Talk about top priority. The blood mages attacked only a few hours ago, and their first order of business was to organize Gramps’ office? What would Blood mages want with spirit crystals? Could they use them? Or was it Kian who wanted them?

  My mind spun.

  Too bad I didn’t have Gramps or anyone to ask … I nearly facepalmed myself—again!

  “Zia?” I whispered in my ghostly form, wishing she’d appear. Hadn’t Gramps said that one of the perks of being the high mage of spirit was that our ancestors could travel back to the realms of the living and help us? Especially considering I was carrying their soul stones on my person right now.

  A blur of movement flashed to my right, and I grinned. Dressed in a retro 1950s dress with fishnet stockings stood Zia.

  Wow.

  She faced me, her eyes wide and her lips in an O.

  “What happened?” she asked in a whisper. “Did you clean up Geoff’s office?”

  I shook my head. “Blood mages did … I think. Geoff’s … with my mom now in the Realm of the Dead.”

  She nodded. “I can sense the spirit master magic in you. When did he pass?”

  “A few hours ago.”

  I told her everything, and she listened as her facial expressions ranged from anger to sadness.

  “You need to call the rest of your ancestors,” she said. “If the blood mages have spirit crystals, there’s a fairly good chance they’ll see your spirit form. At least, if there are six of us, we can serve as a distraction.”

  My blood ran cold at that. I didn’t even have blood in this form, so that was saying a lot.

  “Can they harm us?” I asked.

  Zia shook her head, but her answer was hardly reassuring. “Probably not.”

  “Probably not?” I countered. “What does that mean?”

  Her contemplative expression morphed into a grimace. “It will depend on what spirit crystals they have and whether or not they know how to use them.”

  Fan-freakin’-tastic.

  A few minutes later, the rest of my ancestor-guides were with me—spirit me—and I stared at Raiden with a sense of dread.

  “You want me to make spirit illusions?” I asked him after picking my jaw up off the floor. “Of all of us?”

  “Yes,” he said, drawing out his one syllable until it felt like an entire speech.

  “The more the better,” Than added. “We want lots of confusion. You’re the high mage of spirit now, so it’s well within your power.”

  Yeah … I was sure a lot of things were within my power, but that didn’t mean I knew how to do them!

  I shook my head. “I understand the need for a distraction, but there’s no way I’ll be able to concentrate on anything if I’m trying to manage a billion illusions.”

  “She’s right,” Zia said. “But don’t bother making illusions of all of us. Just make a bunch of Than.” She pointed at him and shook her head. “He’s dressed like a ninja again, and for once, it looks like it’s to our benefit. Make a bunch of him, and they’ll be so caught up in trying to find the real one of him we should be able to move around easily.”

  The others agreed, and then Than
stood still, right in front of me as I studied him.

  “Can all the high masters make illusions of people?” I asked, as my thoughts jumped to Zombie Nai from the Realm of the Dead. Hopefully, I wouldn’t be making any Zombie Thans.

  “They can all make illusions of the magic they’re strongest at. Lucky for you, you’re the high master of spirit.”

  So lucky. An illusion of a lake or fire probably wouldn’t help right now.

  My attention zeroed in on Than, and then I tried to imagine making a copy of him. Something flickered next to him, and then Than 2.0 appeared, blinking at me curiously.

  Holy mage!

  “Keep going. That’s not enough,” Zia quipped.

  I did it again, over and over again, until my grandfather’s office was brimming with Thans.

  “Uhh, that’s probably enough,” Than said.

  Lucia giggled. “Than number eleven is missing an eye.”

  I looked up, and sure enough, one of the Thans had a single droopy eye.

  Oops.

  “Yeah, I’d better quit or the next one might be missing more than just an eye,” I said.

  “Now, release control of them to us,” Than said.

  Looking at the dozens of versions of him, I frowned. “How?”

  “Direct them! You’re in charge. They’re just energy,” Lucia said.

  Okay, that was creepy. “Uh,” I spoke out loud to the blinking room of ghostly Than versions. “You three go with Lucia.” I pointed at a cluster of them, and they nodded before zooming to her side.

  What the mage?

  “You go with Aine.” I pointed to another cluster. “And you with Raiden.” Another couple zoomed to his side. I directed another two to the actual Than and the final cluster with me.

  “You’re with me,” I told them and then turned to Zia. “I hope you don’t mind, but I’d like you to be with me too.”

  She nodded. “You got it, kiddo.”

  We all changed our clothes, with just a thought, so that we too were dressed in black ninja clothes, and then I pulled the hood up over my translucent silvery hair. After that, we all left the silent, sterile office and headed down the corridor toward the spirit castle with eavesdropping on our minds.