Resummon: (Lycan Academy of Shapeshifting: Operation Shift, Book 6)

by Shawn Knightley

  “Bravo, maintenant,” Margaux spoke, seating herself back down to the chair with a slow grace compared to my plopping down between her and Adeline. “Allow me to tell you a few things about myself, Mademoiselle Blackburn, given I have not made the best impression. I am Margaux Elloise Carville. Coven mistress to the Sorlin-Vontaine, and the lead luxra witchling in Paris. Paris is my domain. My home and my territory for magical practices. I destroyed the ability of demons and croxa to haunt many parts of France and I cleansed the city of all spirits doing harm to witchlings. Paris has a bloody history toward my kind and I have made it my life’s work to correct the wrongs done against us. Not because it is righteous to do so but because it will become essential to our survival. We live in dark times, Mademoiselle Blackburn. This was something your brother knew well. Which was why I supported him in his effort to create safe houses across Europe for Blackatters. He wanted to protect his own just like I wish to protect my coven and every other witchling in France whether they practice with a proper coven or in solitude.”

  I recalled what Alexei said about Dirk. That he had been attracted to Margaux. I saw why. She was definitely his type. But perhaps out of his league. Then I reminded myself of who Margaux chose as a mate. She might have been a bit old for him but she would have been better off with my brother than the likes of Alexei, a blood-sucking arsehole.

  I flashed a glance over to Adeline. A soft smile graced her face, letting me know how pleased she was. Not that Margaux was giving herself a proper introduction since we hadn’t the opportunity before. But because she was seated at a table with two people she may have thought lost to her at one point or another.

  ‘Don’t get too excited, Adeline. You know as well as I do that this is far from over.’

  I took a massive sip of champagne for some liquid courage only to realize that the insecurity lurking inside and constantly telling me that I was beneath Adeline and now Margaux needed to stop. I might not have Adeline’s magical aura or Margaux’s elegance but I was unique in my own way. I had more power inside me than the vast majority of other women and I wouldn’t be sitting there with them if I didn’t.

  “I’m Riley Blackburn,” I said to her in a firm voice. “An accomplished opera singer recently enrolled student of the Lycan Academy of Shapeshifting and a Blackatter. I dreamed of you the night the grandmaster kidnapped you and took what wasn’t his. Your body and your mind. There are few people on this earth that I value as much as my brother. I want nothing more than to find Dirk and free him from the grandmaster just like Rodrick and I did with you.”

  She leaned back into her chair with one arm propped up on the back and another floating over the rim of her champagne glass. “Ah, oui. Rodrick Blackbane.” Her lashes fluttered only for her eyes to settle on me with a knowing gaze. “There is something there, is there not?”

  Adeline roughly cleared her throat. “Everyone is properly introduced now,” she said. “Shall we move onto proper busine-”

  “I’m not entirely sure,” I answered Margaux honestly. “All I know is that he’s the dean of the academy and I’m a student. I’ve been informed that anything other than that is unsuitable for polite conversation let alone suitable for the future of my studies.”

  Margaux raised a brow and leaned over the table with her hands neatly folded before her. “You must forgive Adeline’s modesty about such things. She was born in a very different time when courtship was a formality and not an enjoyable flirtation.”

  “Or perhaps I just don’t think it appropriate,” Adeline stated. “Riley is young and she needs to experience the world more before…”

  “Before what?” I interrupted her.

  “Before she commits to anything too soon,” she insisted. “It wouldn’t be suitable given her current enrollment as a student in the academy nor is it suitable for a woman who desires to become a Vontex. You need to keep your options open, Riley.”

  I rolled my eyes and decided to nurse my champagne glass a bit more.

  Margaux was far from fooled. “He is quite handsome but far too British for my taste.”

  ‘I think it’s safe to say that your taste in men is questionable.’

  Margaux let her newly formed hand gently graze my arm. When she reached the cuff of my trench coat she pulled the leather away from my wrist. Her finger lightly touched the bracelet. Only she wasn’t fascinated by the bracelet itself. She was touching the space between the bracelet and my skin.

  “Incroyable,” she muttered under her breath. “The grandmaster made a connection between the two of you.”

  I gave her a small nod, not wanting to remember the way my brother scarred my soul as badly as he scarred my face. My air of confidence threatened to dwindle as the reminder drifting across my thoughts that no matter how hard I tried to hide it, the scar would never go away.

  “I don’t know why he didn’t come after me when Alina attacked me,” I said. “Or when I got you out of the dungeon. He must have known how much pain I was in.”

  “He knows the vixra guard are hunting him,” Adeline said. “The Vontex is with you whenever you leave the academy and he wasn’t about to try kidnapping you in my family home where vixra witchlings were eating their supper several floors above him. He might be powerful but the grandmaster knows his limitations. He’ll want you out in the open. Somewhere isolated but where he can see everything.”

  “Like the forest he took me to in the Czech Republic,” I said.

  Margaux’s face lit up. “Ah, yes. Czechia would be the perfect place. It’s the birthplace of the Dolch Erbe.”

  “The perfect place for what?” I asked.

  “To trap the grandmaster,” she answered.

  I resisted the urge to get too excited. It was the first time I had more than just one person on my side and ready to get Dirk back. And now that it was a real possibility I was tempted to allow myself to hope. I finished off the champagne and rested my hands in my lap, refusing to let them both see my palms sweat. I could already hear my heart hammering in my ears.

  ‘This is it. I finally get to talk about a real plan to save my brother.’

  “We need to create the perfect illusion,” Margaux explained. “From the few moments I remember with the grandmaster, he was exceedingly careful. He let others do his work for him unless he needed to be there to guide them. Including me.”

  She said those last two words with such shame on her face. For a second I thought her voice might crack. It didn’t. She covered it up with grace and continued speaking.

  “He will reveal himself if we have something he truly wants. Something he cannot refuse.”

  “Me,” I said softly, already sensing where she was going.

  “The grandmaster doesn’t know that my mind has been freed from the luxra of his inner circle,” she continued. “And with its spirit trapped inside Rodrick’s crystal, there’s no way to tell him. This gives us an advantage.”

  My attention turned to Adeline. An uncomfortable look crossed her face. She didn’t like what Margaux was about to say. I could sense it. That didn’t stop her from letting Margaux finish her thought.

  “I will make contact with Dirk using my magic,” Margaux went on. “And I will tell him that I have taken you as my prisoner. He has grown impatient with you being constantly with the Vontex or sealed away in the academy where he doesn’t dare try to kidnap you. With Alina gone, he no longer has a contact on the inside. I will take you directly to him in Prague. Right in the heart of where it all began for the Dolch Erbe. If Rodrick provides me with the crystal-”

  “You mean me with the crystal,” Adeline interrupted.

  “You still don’t trust me?” Margaux scoffed.

  “It’s the bitch that possessed you that I don’t trust. Not you. I wouldn’t have slept in the same room with you last night if I thought you were still a danger to me. Besides, you know I could take you down easily and do my nails all at once.”

  Margaux gave Adeline a playful scowl as if to say she kne
w it was true but Adeline didn’t need to rub it in. I had a feeling their banter tended to descend into mild bickering at times.

  “Fine. If Rodrick gives us the crystal, I can use its essence to trick the grandmaster into believing I’m still possessed by the luxra witchling inside it. I will bring you to him and Adeline will help us with capturing him.”

  “I’ll be close the entire time,” Adeline reassured me. “If anything goes wrong I can get us out of there in an instant.”

  “And once we bring him back here, I’ll let you and the dean work your magic on the grandmaster,” she said. “But if you will forgive me, I don’t care to watch it. I would like revenge as much as any other victim of the Dolch Erbe but I don’t wish to relive that experience again.”

  I nodded as I tried to hide how thrilled I was on the inside. That was until the realization dawned on me.

  If I was going to pretend to be Margaux’s prisoner, Margaux would have to use her magic on me.

  ‘This isn’t some sick sort of revenge, is it?’

  “How bad will it be?” I asked, knowing there would likely be some light torture involved.

  Margaux poured me another glass of champagne. I nearly turned it down until she beat me to the punch and let me know exactly what she intended.

  “Have another glass,” she said. “It will make it a little easier.”

  I drew in a quick breath. “What? Here? Right now?”

  She set down the bottle and looked back at me as though she was surprised by my negative reaction. “This might be the first time I have ever met a Blackatter not up for a challenge.”

  “Might I remind you that I was paralyzed a little over twenty-four hours ago, I aided in a prison break, and I used up all my reserves of magic to free your mind. My body is still weak.”

  Margaux stood up and extended a hand to Adeline.

  Adeline dug deep into her trousers and pulled something out of a long pocket hidden inside the lining.

  It was the svethulka. She freely handed it to Margaux. I had to blink a few times to remind myself that things had changed. Margaux wasn’t possessed and this wasn’t a battle to the death at Chatsworth. Margaux was trying to help me and my brother. And doing so would require I sacrifice much more than my comfort to get the job done.

  “S’il vous plaît.” She gently nudged me out of the chair. “Finish your drink and assist me. You must know what my magic feels like before we do this in front of the grandmaster. We must have a plan in place. That plan includes you, Mademoiselle Blackburn, knowing what it feels like to have my magic running over your skin.”

  “I know very well, thanks,” I snapped a little offended. “You attacked me at Chatsworth.”

  “That was not me,” she said, standing up a little straighter with the wand between her long fingers. “You know that. I’m Margaux Elloise Carville. The most powerful luxra witchling in France. Allow me to demonstrate.”

  8

  I made the mistake of thinking that my heart was racing only a matter of minutes ago. That didn’t even come close to how it hammered once I guzzled down the last of my champagne and stood up from the chair.

  ‘You will not make me out to be weak. Not after the week I’ve gone through.’

  I walked to the center of the large room and extended my arms. “Go for it!” I prompted her, thoroughly angered by the woman trying to make out my character as lacking simply because I had been put through hell and didn’t fancy the idea of being tortured only a day later.

  ‘I’m going to take a wild guess and assume you’ve never had a broken spinal cord.’

  Then again… I had never been burned alive with crowning magic. She had. Several times.

  “Easy petite chienne,” she cooed me. “It won’t last long.”

  ‘Did she seriously just call me a little dog?’

  Adeline stood close behind me, ready to tamper down the tension steadily building in the room if she thought she had to.

  I could feel the anger building up inside me. It cradled me in a way no physical being could. It almost felt like a natural state of being at this point. I was growing used to it. And I wasn’t entirely sure that I liked it.

  “After all,” she said as she raised the svethulka in her hand. “We don’t want to trigger the connection between you and the grandmaster.”

  “I thought you said he wouldn’t pursue me here.”

  “Perhaps not. But he can see what you’re going through when you’re in extreme pain.” Her tone of voice mocked my concern. As if she was having to explain things to someone completely beyond her depth. “We don’t want him learning your secrets, do we?”

  I knew at that moment why she was the coven mistress of the Sorlin-Vontaine. She was a woman who didn’t mind walking over a few dead bodies to get what she wanted.

  ‘I’m not sure I like you anymore.’

  Her magic shot out of the svethulka and lit up the room in a glorious glow of cobalt blue light. Her pale complexion glowed before me, making her eyes appear like a viper ready to strike in complete silence. She didn’t weave her magic about her hand. Nor did she give me a chance to prepare myself. Her magic struck me right in the chest, freezing my heart and rolling over my skin like a sea of nails tearing into my flesh.

  I went from determined to stay on my feet to crumbled on the floor with nothing but my hands to support me. And they were quickly giving in to the temptation to slip out from under me.

  A thousand daggers dragged over my skin all at once. Her magic snaked over me as if she had poured her it through the smallest hairs over my body and forced it to seep into my skin, rolling it through my veins and boiling my blood.

  Revenge for what Adeline and I did to her in the dungeon perhaps?

  I wanted to snarl at her. To find a way to raise my body from the floor and launch right at her. But I didn’t. I struggled to keep my composure and stayed where I was, huddled on my hands and knees as they gradually begged me to cave in and let her magic wreak havoc over me.

  I grit my teeth. Saliva came spitting through my lips as I grunted and groaned. For a second I thought she was going to force my limbs to start shifting.

  No. This was a different sort of pain. I realized right then that the luxra that chased Rodrick and me over the Parisian rooftops were striking at me with maybe a fraction of Margaux’s strength. She had more power than any of them.

  ‘No wonder you’re the coven mistress. Who did you kill to get there?’

  “That’s enough,” Adeline said. “She’s had a taste.”

  Margaux instantly let up. I wanted nothing more than to collapse entirely on the floor but I forced myself to sit back on my heels with my knees under me. I wasn’t about to let her beat me. Not when I was so close to getting Dirk back. If I had to power through this I would do so.

  To my surprise, the pain gradually dissipated and my body healed. The pain was intense but fleeting. My body was healing already.

  “Take a moment,” Margaux said with the svethulka still extended in her hand. “We need to go again.”

  I looked back at Adeline, hoping she would be on my side and say that I didn’t need to. Instead, she gave me an encouraging nod.

  I let out a sigh of frustration and remained on my knees, ready to endure her magic again and train my body how to withstand it.

  Before I knew it, her magic spiraled out of the svethulka and charged right into my chest. This time I didn’t crumble forward onto my hands. I was launched right onto my back. Electricity shot up my spine and barreled into my head. And this time I couldn’t resist the temptation. I screamed. It didn’t help. Nothing did. There was only her magic invading my skin and funneling right into my veins.

  I did the unthinkable. I pushed through the pain and sat up, forcing my body to do my will as she kept going. She wasn’t about to let my body heal too quickly. I had no choice. I had to learn how to handle it.

  ‘Is this what Lothar goes through when he lets me channel him?’

  I suddenly h
ad newfound gratitude for all the times he let me channel his body for the remaining vixra blood in his system.

  Her magic let up. The instant it started evaporating I struggled to get one leg propped up under me. And with more effort than I was willing to admit, I got myself up to a standing position. Even so, it wasn’t without an enormous amount of effort and fury. I let it embrace me. Anything to get the focus off her magic and onto something else.

  ‘I can’t believe I thought you were elegant a matter of minutes ago.’

  Margaux stood there with the svethulka in her hand, balancing it between her fingertips. There was a sly smile crossing her face. She was pleased but not exactly thrilled that I managed to withstand what she had to offer. I could see the gears inside her mind twisting about as she considered using a little more magic on me this time around. She extended the svethulka out once more as I tensed the muscles in my core to withstand it.

  “That’s quite enough,” Adeline said.

  “I can take it,” I told her gruffly.

  “I know you can. You’ve proved yourself very capable. If Margaux has any remaining doubt of your strength then she threatens to perjure her own judgment.”

  Margaux’s eyes were locked on mine. I had to remind myself that her mind was free of the luxra of the inner circle. This wasn’t some sick way of gaining higher ground over me. It was just Margaux. A chic, elegant, and absolutely ruthless luxra witchling. I might have just met her but I knew not to ever underestimate her without needing to get to know her any better.

  ‘Maybe you and Alexei are well-suited for each other after all.’

  “Alright then,” Margaux agreed. “I would like another go but if you insist.”

  “I do.” Adeline extended her hand expectantly for the svethulka.

  Margaux reluctantly handed it back to her. I recalled how Alexei claimed Margaux had searched for the svethulka for ages and it took being possessed by a luxra of the Dolch Erbe’s inner circle for her to obtain it. I could see the annoyance in her face when she had no other choice but to give it back to Adeline.