by Leia Stone
Even before we arrived in the foyer, we could hear the raucous laughter from the Blood mages.
Those bastards were living in my grandfather’s house!
“Kill them all,” a male voice snarled.
A cheer rose up from the rest of them, loud enough to know there were more than a few in there. And then a female cried, “We’ll drink their blood—”
“And live forever!” another bellowed.
Wait. Wait. What? I mouthed to Zia.
She shook her head and mouthed, Later.
Who were they talking about killing! Us?
We huddled just inside the hallway that led to the foyer where our death party was being discussed. I couldn’t hear them well, which I suspected meant they were moving away from us, possibly toward the kitchen.
I looked at Than—the real one. The only reason I knew it was the real him was because he’d pulled his mask down and didn’t have a zombie look on his face.
Ready? I mouthed at him.
He gave me a thumbs-up, and I crept closer, wanting to hear more. If the blood mages saw me, Than and his boys would hopefully distract them from blasting me with magic or whatever they might be able to do.
I crept along the foyer entrance and down the hall, following the blood mage voices, which were growing louder once more.
“Queen Banpiroa won’t be at full strength until she’s fully fed,” a female said.
“I don’t understand why she won’t just drink from one of the captives—”
“They’re too weak, you fool. It will deaden her power,” the female snapped. “She needs one of the high mages.”
Fear wormed through my entire ghostly body at that declaration, and I peered into the kitchen.
The moment I made eye contact with her, a woman with long black hair and pale skin snapped her head up to look at me.
“Spirit,” she shouted.
Oops.
The female blood mage held a spirit crystal tightly in her palm as she sat at the breakfast table with three other blood mages. It seemed like only she could see me, which made some sense as only she held a crystal.
Okay. So they definitely knew how to use those spirit crystals.
Good to know.
Without another word, most of the Than copies burst into the kitchen, running in circles around the table as the woman watched them with wide eyes.
“Who? Where?” the others asked, looking around in fear.
“They’re … ninja spirits!” the blood mage holding the crystal breathed.
The other blood mages scowled at their friend. “I thought you were serious.”
“I AM! There’s a dozen ninja ghosts in this kitchen!” she shrieked.
Time to scram.
In the ensuing panic, I darted away from the kitchen to a different part of the castle with Zia by my side and our lone Than floating along in our wake.
Those blood mages in the kitchen were not the blood mages in charge. These weren’t the decision-makers. I needed to find Kalama or her mother. Preferably both.
Wherever they were … that’s where I’d find information that would help Rage and the rest of us make a good plan to take back the island.
Zia and I raced up the stairs with a few Thans floating up behind us as we headed toward the conference room that Reyna had shown me on the tour of the castle. I peeked out of a window in the foyer and saw over fifty more blood mages out in the gardens behind our home and even more out in the quad.
There were way more than I’d anticipated. Hundreds for sure.
We hovered at a halt when we spotted two blood mages standing outside the door to the conference room. Neither one of them looked at us, so we proceeded to the door and drifted right through.
Four blood mages sat at a large table, Kalama at the head with two additional mages, one sitting on either side of her. Next to one of the mages sat Kian, grinning like a lion over his kill.
That bastard—seeing him now, I just wanted to kill him right where he sat, but instead, my gaze went to the far end of the table where an old, old female blood mage sat, nodding off.
Was this their queen?
Her hair was white, and her skin so pale it was practically translucent. She wore a muumuu, a bright, colorful tent-like dress with hibiscus flowers on it. She looked like a nice grandma—except for the creepy tattoos. This woman looked like she wouldn’t hurt a fly, never mind drain a person of their blood.
“The young are asking for fresh blood,” the male mage who sat between Kalama and Kian said. “And there are many more who have yet to drink their fill.”
“Old man, you promised more—both here and on Shifter Island,” a female mage said, glaring at Kian.
He blanched, and his gaze jumped to Kalama, but my previous boss kept her attention on the female blood mage that sat near Kian as if waiting to see what more she’d do.
“You lied,” she snarled, rising out of her chair and leaning toward the now trembling high master of water. The female blood mage turned to Kalama. “Let me have him and—”
“No!” Kalama snapped, slamming her hand on the table. “The water mage is not for you, Cara. You’ve been warned.”
Kian swallowed hard.
That’s right, asshat. You climbed into bed with bloodsuckers.
The female dropped her chin to her chest and looked away. “Of course not. I beg your pardon, Princess.”
“I couldn’t have predicted how it would have played out,” Kian said, appealing to Kalama. “We still have a dozen lower mages left … maybe more.”
“No,” Kalama said, giving Kian a flat look. “We have two.”
Kian sat back in his seat as if she’d slapped him.
“Reese,” Kalama said, turning her attention to the male mage beside her while grandma snoozed away in her muumuu. “What’s our timeline?”
“We’ll have to move up our plans to attack the mainland,” the blood mage on Kalama’s right said. “We have a week to plan the best attack approach—at most. But we’ll have to send hunters out tonight or we’ll have hunger riots.” His hair was cut short in the back, but the front was long and hung down into his face, brushing his high cheekbones.
With her lip curled in disdain, Kalama stared down the other female blood mage. “Cara, you’ll lead the first charge on Mageville in three days. I want at least two hundred blood donors so everyone can be at full power.”
I froze, turning to look at Zia with wide eyes. She winced and then shook her head.
Then Kalama turned toward the male on her right. “Reece, I need you to secure the portal to the human realm. If the mages or shifters flee to the mortal realm, we’ll have a hellish time trying to hunt them down. Once that portal is destroyed, we’ll have all the blood we could ever want right here.”
Cara snickered. “They can run, and they can hide—”
“But there will be no escape,” Kalama stated.
Reece pushed back from the table, glaring at Cara. “Talk is cheap. Time to work.”
“Before you go, let’s take care of our queen,” Kalama said. She then turned to Kian like she was going to dismiss him maybe, and her lips turned up into a benevolent smile. “Thank you for your aid through all of this.”
Kian nodded nervously and pushed back from the table, his brow glistening with perspiration. “I’ve honored our agreement”—Cara snickered, and Kian’s eyes narrowed as he shot her a glare. “I hope you’ll still uphold your end. I can move into Alpha Castle tonight.”
Kalama watched him stand, and then she glanced at the ceiling.
“Yes, we promised you the king’s castle and our eternal gratitude,” Kalama agreed, facing Kian. “And we sealed our pact with blood, so there’s no way to break it without one of us dying.”
Kian cleared his throat, and his head bobbed. “That’s right.”
“Eternal gratitude lasts forever—as our queen has lasted since the dawn of days.” Kalama looked at the woman sleeping in the muumuu. Swirls of tattoos danced
across her translucent skin as she snored lightly.
Then Kalama looked at Reese and Cara. “Let’s show the mage how grateful we are for his assistance.”
The air changed then. Kian’s expression showed that he knew it as well as I knew it. His eyes widened, and he turned—as though to dart for the door, but Reese seized his collar. In less than a heartbeat, Kian shucked his robe, shrugging out of the grip of the powerful blood mage, and the blue garment fell to the floor.
Reece may’ve momentarily lost his grip on the high mage, but he lunged forward and grabbed Kian by the neck. Again, the high mage pulled away, and bright red gashes appeared where the vampire’s claws had gouged through his skin.
Cara slid over the table and, together with Reese, the vampires backed Kian into a corner.
“Don’t hurt me,” Kian begged. He was far outnumbered, and his gaze darted between the blood mages. “I’ll go. I’ll just go, and you never have to see me again.”
Kalama didn’t even look at him. “That was never in our agreement.” She raised her gaze to the end of the table and called, “Mother, time to feed.”
“No!” Kian screamed as the two mages pinned his face to the table. A pipe broke somewhere in the wall, and I could hear the water gush as Kian tried to use his element. He thrashed against their hold as a blast of water ripped through the wall and slammed into Cara. The blood mage growled but continued to hold his feet as Reese held Kian’s wrists. Kian bucked, and his head thumped against the wood.
The old woman lifted her head slowly, like a snake rising from the ground, and sniffed the air. Then, like an animal, she crawled up onto the table on all fours, her black claw-like nails clicking against the solid surface.
Holy mother of all things horrifying. I gulped, wanting to look away, but I couldn’t. Grandma muumuu had turned into a monster.
“No, please!” Kian screamed, his face painted with horror as he looked at the queen crawling toward him.
Her back was to us now, so I couldn’t see what she did, but the scene held me slack-jawed and riveted—unable to process as she moved lightning-fast down the table where she pounced on his neck like a cat on a mouse.
She landed at his waist, straddling him as though he were a lover. She lowered her head and latched onto his neck…
What the what?
Time seemed to slow as she sucked. First, Kian stopped thrashing, and then his body went limp. His skin paled then turned gray as it started to shrivel…
Gross.
In seconds that felt like an eternity, Kian went from a robust, living man to a mere husk. His papery skin stretched over his bones like the queen had sucked every living cell within him dry. And then she drove her claws into his ribcage … and after a sharp twist of her wrist, she pulled something out … Kian’s heart? With a terrifying shriek, she closed her fist, and a cloud of dust plumed in the air.
Even though I wasn’t in my body, I felt sick—like I would somehow ghost-throw up. “Oh my mage,” I gasped, glancing away.
I had no idea if my exclamation was the cause or if we were just really unlucky, but just then, Reese turned toward the door, and his eyes widened. “Spirits!”
Wait … my eyes fell to the spirit crystal in his hand.
Damn!
The queen’s head jerked toward the door, and she hissed.
If I’d been in my body, I would’ve fainted.
Her eyes were black, and her tattoos crawled under her skin like snakes. She had fangs—legit fangs—that protruded out of her mouth, and her bloodstained lips pulled back in a vicious snarl.
No one would mistake her muumuu for some nice old lady vibes now. This monster was feral and lethal.
Cara released Kian’s shoulders and darted around the table with Kalama on her heels. She stared wildly in our direction, but it was obvious she couldn’t see spirits as her gaze skimmed right over us.
“Give it to me,” Kalama said to Reese, holding her hand out.
The male mage stood at her side. In one hand, he held a spirit crystal, and in the other was a pale blue shard of stone, but its hue wasn’t like the other crystals. Something in my gut told me that crystal was a weapon. Even knowing danger and death surrounded me, I was so stunned I froze.
“We’ve gotta go,” Zia hissed.
Kalama ripped both pieces of stone from Reece and then took the blue one, reeling it back in her hand before letting it go.
I blinked, and the piece of crystal embedded in the wall next to me. Than’s ghost clone was gone. Poof.
“Damn,” Kalama said. “That one wasn’t real.”
Crap! How—?
It doesn’t matter. I needed to move!
Zia and I sailed out of the room and down the stairs, racing toward the study. We needed to get the hell out of here.
Behind us, I could hear the pounding of feet.
“One of those is Nai! I smell her magic,” Kalama shouted. “We want her alive. Use the celestite to anchor her spirit here!”
Oh crap! That didn’t sound good.
Zia grabbed my arm. “Return to your body. Once you leave, we’ll return to the spirit realm.”
I nodded, but I couldn’t even remember where my body was at the moment. Fear held me captive, and I realized then how little I could do to protect myself in this form.
Who knew there were weapons against spirits?
Blinking at Zia, at her long silvery hair just like my aunt’s, I suddenly remembered.
Sariah’s tent.
I felt something brush my skin, and then I sat up, screaming.
“Nai!” Sariah shook me, her eyes wide and filled with panic. “You’re okay—oh. My. Mage.” She swallowed. “You’re bleeding.”
Sure enough, a long gash down my forearm oozed, but the wound knit together as one of my shields absorbed it. Sorry, Honor.
Climbing to my feet, I brushed my hair out of my face. “I’d better go. Rage will find out about that, and I don’t want him panicking.”
Almost on cue, his voice invaded my mind, ‘Nai? You okay?’
‘Yes,’ I replied. ‘I’m on my way to you now. How are things?’
There was a brief pause.
‘Remember how Justice said it would be a shitshow? It’s not even that good.’ He sighed. ‘I hope you have some good news.’
I didn’t. I really didn’t.
Chapter Fourteen
I entered King Ozark’s dining hall only to be met by a cacophony of angry yelling.
“We storm the island and take what is ours,” a redheaded male shifter yelled. “I can’t believe we left it in the first place!”
I inhaled as I passed him. Lion.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about. You didn’t see them!” Carson pounded his fist on the table. “You didn’t see what they’re capable of!”
Julian sat in a chair in the corner of the room, holding his chest, his eyes glazed over.
Oh yeah.
He’d just felt his father die. He was now the high master of water. Fan-freakin’-tastic.
“Silence!” Justice bellowed the command, and in the subsequent stillness, Rage growled and stood.
Everyone remained quiet as they waited for the alpha king to speak.
“Nai’s here, and she has information for us.” He scanned the crowd, pausing on the redheaded lion. “Let her have the floor.”
Rage turned to me, and I gulped as I took in the faces of those present: Rage, his brothers, the new High Mage Council, the alpha of each wolf pack, including my dad, and the leaders of all of the shifters who’d accepted Rage’s invite to return to Shifter Island. There were even a few of the lower mages represented, Jakko being one of them. I nodded to the mage, remembering how he’d tried to kill the king last time I was here.
Probably the most important roomful of people ever.
No big deal.
I sucked in a deep breath and then nodded. “Many of you know me as the alpha heir of Crescent Clan, but I’m also the high mage of spirit an
d fated mate of the alpha king.” Yep, a total mouthful of titles meant to impress. “I’ve just returned from a spirit walk to High Mage Island where I spied on the blood mages. I saw their queen…” I swallowed back bile. “…kill Kian.”
My gaze flew to Julian, who just sank lower in his seat. There were gasps from around the room, but I held up my hands to stop any questions as I plowed on.
“There are probably five hundred of them in total. Their plan is to come here, to the mainland of Mageville, in three days. They’ll capture—” I forced another swallow to push back the horror crawling up my throat. “—as many blood slaves as possible. They’ll seal off the portal exit to the human world in Montana so we can’t escape. They want to rule us all.”
The room erupted into angry shouts. Rage pounded the table with his fist, and the force caused a crack to run the length of the dark wood. His eyes flicked to King Ozark in apology, but the king waved it off as if it were a daily occurrence.
“We’ll not stand idle and let the bloodsuckers take our land or our people, but shouting matches will do nothing to bring an end to this war,” Rage said. “Cool heads must prevail.”
There were several murmurs, but then the room quieted once more.
“Now,” Rage said, with a glance to Noble, who held a pen and pad of paper in his hands. “Let’s go around the room and give our ideas calmly. Stay focused on how to get our homes and land back so we can keep these evil ones from wiping out our people.”
The group took a collective breath.
Wow. Rage was a good leader, much better than me.
For the next two hours, we went around the room each of us throwing out different ideas while Noble wrote them down. We discussed selkie-led water attacks, hawk-led air attacks, and even a mage going through the portal to Montana to get a hold of black market human weapons to use against the blood mages.
Finally, it was my turn.
I looked around the table, all of us sitting together for the first time in centuries, working together on a common problem.
“I see a lot of strengths at this table.” I nodded to the selkie king. “Your people are unparalleled water navigators and strong warriors.” Then I nodded to the hawk leader: “And yours are no less formidable from the air.” Then I looked to the lion leader. “Your people are fearless hunters.” I let my gaze fall on my fellow high mages. “And you have elemental magic that could turn this entire world upside down.”