So it’s true. The stone could control shifters, but it could be wielded by anyone. Even me.
Now to test my second theory.
I held the glowing stone high, and the shifter’s gaze followed it as though hypnotised. “Tell me,” I said. “Is Wanda somewhere in there? The female mage your people took? She’s about my age. Ring any bells?”
“She…” The shifter’s voice was slurred. “She has the mage. The mage is with her.”
“Her?” I echoed.
“The witch,” the shifter said, his voice fading in and out. “Find the witch. The witch can stop this…”
“What witch?”
The shifter howled, an ear-splitting noise, raising his hands. Claws formed, scales creeping up his arms. “Stop. Please… end this torment, necromancer.”
He howled again, his form flickering, madness and fear colliding on his expression. My stomach twisted, and I squeezed the stone tight. In my other hand, I called the power of the veil.
“I banish you,” I said to him. “I banish you beyond the gates of Death.”
Keir joined me, his voice rising alongside mine. “I banish you, Vaughn Sanderson.”
The shifter howled again, but his body was fading, and the shape of Death’s gates appeared behind him. In a blink, he was gone.
I turned the shard of stone over, my heart pounding. “Damn… I don’t think he was going to tell us anything else, but that’s some twisted magic this thing has.” The pieces of the Moonbeam entirely took away the shifters’ free will. “Lloyd, Mackie—can one of you tell Lady Montgomery and the other necromancers that the only way to stop the shifters’ ghosts attacking is to use those stones and banish them?”
“Sure.” Lloyd pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Anything that gets rid of those ghosts… but who has the rest of the stones?”
“The mages,” I said. “If they aren’t behind this, they’ve definitely known how to banish them for longer than we have. When the necromancers are done with the stones, they should hand them over to…” I faltered. Who could even be trusted now? “Anyone who isn’t Lord Sutherland. Lady Montgomery, maybe.”
“My vessel is on the way,” Keir said, his eyes glowing faintly. “It should be able to get through that barrier.”
“Be careful,” I said. “The Whisper… I don’t know how, but part of her seems to be in that room. I don't know if she’ll see you cross the barrier. She said she had no body or spirit, but she knew I was there.”
“All right,” he said. “The worst she can do to me is stop the vessel or turn it against us. But your friends…”
“I know.” I scowled at the sealed barrier. “I should be able to get in if I just leave my body behind… maybe if I possessed someone.”
Keir shook his head. “You can’t go deeply into a vessel the way a vampire can, Jas. Not to the extent that you become the same person.”
“It’s that or die again.” Wait—Evelyn might be able to confuse the barrier. She actually was dead, shade or not. “Wanda’s in there somewhere, the shifter’s ghost said.” He’d also said to find the witch, whoever it was. I wished I’d asked more questions before banishing him.
An undead man shambled up behind us, Keir looking through his eyes. The vessel moved on towards the door to the abandoned house, pausing beside the barrier. “I’m going in.”
“Evelyn!” I tapped into my magic fiercely, drawing her in. “Evelyn, possess me.”
“Excuse me?”
I jumped as she appeared at my side. “You were already there?”
“Where else would I be?”
“I thought you were still breaking the spirit line. No, wait—don’t go. Only dead people can pass that barrier. Does that include you?”
Her eyes glittered. “Yes, it does. If you’re willing to totally break the connection.”
Am I? No question. Isabel was in there. I had to get her out.
I nodded frantically. “Do it.”
Evelyn looked into my eyes, the hint of a smile at her lips. Then I was gone, pushed out of my body with such ease that I was sure she’d been waiting for this opportunity.
My body moved, joining Keir’s vessel, and reached through the spirit barrier for the door handle.
As for me, I floated behind. Alive, bound to my body, but no longer part of the waking world.
The barrier opened immediately, allowing Keir’s vessel and Evelyn to walk through, but resistance pressed me back when I tried to follow. I gritted my teeth, pain ripping through me. Ow. I guess I’m too alive this time.
The view within the house was as horrifying as before. The dead stood in a line in the hallway, skin etched with bloody symbols. Where had the enemy found them? Had they rounded up people off the streets? Whatever the case, I'd bet they hadn't come willingly.
“Evelyn, get Isabel out of harm’s way,” I called, floating right up against the barrier so I could see through to the room on the other side. “Then bring that barrier down.”
“Really?” the Whisper’s voice rang out. “Are you sure you want to risk that, Jacinda?”
Isabel moved into the light. She held a scalpel in her hand, her expression blank as she pressed it against her wrist. Evelyn would never reach her in time.
“Stop!” I shouted.
Cursing, I scanned the room for signs of Wanda. But aside from the dead, the only visible object in the room was the shimmering mirror at the back. It seemed to shine from within, white light flickering under the surface. Not unlike the pieces of enchanted stone…
Evelyn spotted the mirror, too, moving in that direction. The Whisper remained silent, but I tensed.
“Careful,” I hissed, one eye on Isabel.
Keir’s vessel moved in behind Evelyn, following her, but she already had her hands on the mirror.
The silvery surface shimmered under her touch—and her hand went through it.
I gasped aloud, an unbearable tugging sensation ripping at my spirit. Keir’s vessel grabbed for Evelyn’s hand, but they were already falling—disappearing into the mirror.
In the same instant, so did I.
Murky greyness filled my vision. Then it cleared, revealing fog surrounding the top of a hillside. More rolling hills appeared silhouetted against the fog, too distant to reach.
Where in hell are we? The scenery looked like a countryside smothered in fog and silence. I floated above my body, my head spinning in confusion.
Keir swore quietly. “I don’t think we’re on Earth. I think we’re… somewhere else.” It was weird hearing Keir’s voice coming from the dead man’s mouth, but not as weird as watching Evelyn inside my body, crouching down in the grass.
“Evelyn, what are you doing?”
Footsteps crunched. The fog cleared a little beneath the vessel’s feet, showing pieces of glittering white rock.
A large rock, broken into fragments.
“The stones,” Keir said. “We came in here through the pieces of Moonbeam stone. I guess affecting shifters isn't their only power.”
“What?” I turned on the spot, hovering above the hillside, but there was no sign of the mirror we’d come from. Another crunching noise drew my attention to the fragments of gleaming stone. They shimmered, reflecting the cloudy sky—and for a moment, an image of the room we’d left behind appeared in one of the largest fragments.
The stones and the mirror formed some kind of two-way portal to nowhere.
As it hit me, sensation rushed back so abruptly I sat down on the damp grass, back in my body. Evelyn had gone. The devious witch had abandoned me here.
“Jas?” Keir asked.
“Right here. Evelyn’s gone walkabout again.” I climbed to my feet, scanning the rippling hillside. “Guess this is the Whisper’s secret bolt hole. Seems empty.”
Mostly fog and broken stones, by the look of things. This place might be a liminal space or the Ancient realm or even just the Scottish countryside—until we found a landmark, we wouldn’t know.
I squinted int
o the fog, spotting something large and blocky further along the hilltop. “Aha. Civilisation.”
I took the lead, Keir’s vessel behind me, and approached the fog-smothered construction. A stone building came into view, weather-worn and overgrown with weeds.
“Bit run-down for a hideout,” I commented. The eerie silence gave me the serious creeps. What could possibly have broken that shifter’s stone? And why leave the pieces here?
Keir reached the small wooden door first and kicked it open. The space within was bigger than I'd expected—a huge cathedral-like space with a high ceiling supported by stone pillars.
Someone was tied to one of the towering pillars, a man with long dark hair and his eyes closed as though in a deep sleep.
Keir made a choked noise. His vessel swayed on the spot.
“Keir? What is it?”
“He—” He broke off, his gaze fixed on the man. “He's my brother. He’s Aiden.”
“What?” I stiffened at his side, staring into the cathedral. “How can—how can he be here?”
“I don’t understand.” Keir’s vessel stepped into the hall, and the floor lit up as several symbols flared up along the edge. A barrier rose, semi-transparent and shimmering, stopping us from taking another step.
Then I spotted the second prisoner, tied to the opposite pillar. Wanda.
“What are you doing with her?” I shouted into the otherwise empty space. “What the hell are you playing at, Whisper?”
“Insurance.” Her voice spoke from behind my shoulder. “The Mage Lord will come here. When the mages fall, I will gain what I desire.”
The Mage Lord… she meant Vance. “He’s not going to come,” I told her. “He saw through your trick. You’re working with Lord Sutherland, aren’t you?”
“If the mage does not come, then the girl will die.”
I threw myself against the barrier’s edge, pain bruising my arms. Hemlock magic roared to the surface, lighting my hands in grey-green, and I hurled it at the barrier. The magic fizzled out on contact, sending sparks dancing across the floor. I couldn’t leave Wanda behind—but I’d bet the barrier was the same as the other. Only the dead could pass it.
Keir’s vessel slammed into the barrier. Maybe not. “Let me through,” he snarled at the Whisper. “Or so help me—”
“You’re nothing,” she whispered. “Both of you.”
Keir made a choked noise. His vessel collapsed, the light vanishing from his eyes.
“Keir!” I turned on the spot, and my pocket lit up with a white glow. The stone. I pulled it out, and the glow engulfed me. Reflections of the room full of zombies danced before my eyes. Maybe the individual pieces could act as portals, too.
My gaze snapped back to Wanda, my heart torn. I can’t leave her.
The stone’s glow brightened, and I screwed up my eyes, my grip slipping on the stone. I fell forward, and stumbled out of the mirror onto the damp floor of the abandoned house.
Chaos reigned. Zombies toppled into my path as though felled by an invisible weapon, their bodies falling to pieces as they stood—symbols and all. What the hell is going on?
The Whisper screamed in rage, her anger reverberating through the room. My head pounded. “Hey. Keir, where are you?”
“Jas, get over here!” Lloyd shouted.
I spotted him grinning at me from the other side of the shattered window. “What did you do?”
“Salt,” he said triumphantly. “Turns out the barrier can’t keep it out, and even specially enhanced zombies don't stand a chance against salt. Let’s see what that piece of shit does with no army.”
Another zombie fell across my path, his body dissolving. The zombies were falling to bits, even the most preserved ones. I'd spent so long thinking of ways to out-magic the enemy that it hadn't occurred to me that there might be a more mundane solution after all.
I turned back to Lloyd. “How'd you know that would work?”
“Morgan’s guess,” Lloyd said, nodding to the psychic standing just behind him. “We figured there must be a vulnerability somewhere. They’re still undead, after all.”
“Exactly,” said Morgan, looking pleased with himself. “They might be in stasis or whatever, but they're as dead as any old zombie.”
“We figured we could be of use while you were off saving the day,” added Lloyd.
“Not sure I've saved anything, to be honest,” I said, my heart twisting. “Wanda’s trapped behind a mirror in… in another realm, I think. The mirror’s a sort of portal. Is Keir back in his body?”
“We have to get back there,” Keir said, moving into view. “Jas—can you get out?”
“Ah.” I took a step towards the window and the barrier pushed me back. “I can’t get out. Evelyn’s gone.”
She’d left me stuck behind the barrier.
21
I swore and kicked out, but my foot bounced off the barrier. I was trapped in a room full of zombies and the Whisper.
“Really funny, Evelyn.” I turned around, peering into the room. “Hey there, Whisper. Mind letting me out?”
Silence. Her screaming had stopped, too. Bits of dismembered zombies littered the floor, Isabel and Asher stood at the side, looking on blankly.
“Uh… Isabel?” I peered at her. Her gaze was out of focus, but she held a salt canister in her hands.
“I had a zombie give it to her,” Lloyd explained. “I think she had just enough awareness left to use it.”
“But she’s still under the Whisper’s control.” I peered into Isabel’s eyes and saw no flicker of recognition. “Evelyn, where are you?”
“Right here,” she said, at my shoulder. “I thought you wanted to rescue your friend.”
“You know perfectly well nobody alive can pass through the barrier,” I told her. “Get me out of—”
A heavy object crashed into my skull. Eyes watering in pain, I staggered to face Isabel, who’d hit me over the head with the salt canister.
“What the hell?”
Isabel’s gaze remained blank, but her hands glowed with bright, unfamiliar symbols. They warped, twisting, changing, and lashed out at me like a physical force. I flew back into the wall, pain rippling through my skin. Ow. So that's how it felt to have another coven leader’s magic used against you.
“Isabel!” I gasped. “It's me, Jas.”
Dark symbols glowed on her hands, lashing at me again. I dodged, cursing. I didn’t want to hurt her. The Whisper was probably watching and laughing at us right now, though she’d gone awfully quiet.
“Heads up!” yelled Lloyd from behind the barrier. A spell sailed over my head, hitting Asher in the face as he crept up on me from behind. The knockout spell went off, and he fell unconscious.
“Cheers, Lloyd.” I ducked another blow from the salt canister, my head throbbing with pain. Sorry, Isabel. Grabbing a knockout spell from my own wrist, I threw it in Isabel’s face. She fell flat on her back, unconscious.
“Sorry,” I said to her, my stomach turning over at the sight of those awful symbols on her hands.
“Can’t you get those marks off, Jas?” Lloyd shouted from outside. “She must still have her own coven marks underneath them.”
Yeah. She does. The Whisper must have shut them down.
I crouched down, taking Isabel’s hand in mine. Her skin glowed with marks like tattoos, but which swirled and moved like a living force. Carefully, I held my palm over the symbols. Then, like with the zombie, I pushed my own magic into them.
Magic sizzled from my hand to hers, warping the symbols and turning them into bloody smudges. I swiftly moved to the next one, then a spark of magic answered. Isabel’s eyes flew open, and light ignited under her skin in the form of silvery marks. They spread, her magic mingling with mine, until they reached the mark on her collarbone. The control mark, which forced her to serve the enemy.
Our combined magic swamped the mark, twisting it beyond recognition. As it faded out, a wordless scream of rage rang out, and I dropped her hand,
recoiling.
“Whisper?” I asked into the silence. The scream had come from the mark.
Was that where the Whisper was hiding?
Isabel groaned. The silver marks flickered and went out, and she crawled towards Asher. “Help him,” she whispered. “Help him, then get out, Jas—you have to stop her.”
Isabel’s eyes slid closed and she slumped to the floor again. She’d used all the power she had to break the Whisper’s control.
I won’t let it go to waste.
I moved to Asher next, using my Hemlock power to remove his symbols, too. When I reached the mark on his collarbone, a hiss of anger echoed from the mark.
The Whisper… was she in the symbols? The blood magic? Was that how she’d survived without a body or spirit?
I left Asher and Isabel unconscious, pacing back to the door. “I think I know what form the Whisper takes,” I told the others. “She exists inside the blood magic symbols. I heard her scream when I destroyed them.”
“You destroyed…” Lloyd trailed off. “Shit, Jas. There must be hundreds of zombies already out there. Can you destroy all of them?”
“She can’t be in all of them at once,” I said, though anything was possible where the Ancients were concerned. “Did the Whisper say anything to you when I was gone? Anything that might hint at her true form?”
“Nope,” said Morgan.
“She’s pretty weak,” Mackie put in. “She has to use a proxy for everything. She's not like the Soul Collector—she can't even link mind to mind.”
“She's still dangerous, though,” I reminded her. “She can make witches do her bidding with a single symbol. And she can't be killed.”
“She must have her spirit preserved somehow,” Keir said. “Maybe—the original symbol used to summon her, if it was a ritual.”
“It’s not in here.” Every symbol in this room was gone, burned out. “The enemy must have another base. I don’t think she was behind that mirror either…”
“Summon another shifter and ask?” Lloyd suggested.
I recalled the shifter’s words. “Someone summoned her to begin with,” I said. “A witch. Probably a living one… Evelyn, now would be a fine time to tell me your plan.” Other than start a war, that is.
Witch's Spirit (The Hemlock Chronicles Book 3) Page 20