I felt Jake, Jasper, Graham, Billie and even Gaston sending me their magical power. Jasper’s healing, steadying presence. Graham’s charm and sense of justice. Billie’s fiery spirit. Jake’s mixture of protectiveness and animal aggression. Gaston’s…well, whatever. I felt all of it and my weakness melted away as I was able to get back on my feet.
I blocked Chester’s spell and then I exchanged spell blasts with Chester and Piers together. My morale surged as I felt my dearest friends in the world supporting me, their presence so close that I could almost see them standing next to me. I knew they must be working magic to shoot their power straight into my heart and fill me with their love and strength, and now it was more of a fair fight. I knocked out Albert before he could even get in on it, and now it was six against two because I felt all my friends at my side, not two against one. Byron was doing something that had Lord Variel looking strained and hopefully that held.
I knocked Piers back into the table.
I was ready to do it. I was going to kill my own blood, but I’d be doing the world a favor. Perish… I opened my mouth.
“Kill me and you kill Chester,” Piers said, with a twisted smile.
“Don’t worry about me!” Chester said. “Just do it! Please!” His eyes screwed shut.
“Perish!” I gasped.
The spell fizzled.
“You can’t kill Chester. I knew it.” Piers lunged forward. “Perish, cousin…perish!”
“Protection!” I screamed—and another voice screamed with me, as something disrupted the air behind me.
My brother was here. “You should’ve called me,” he said.
“Harris! Oh, please! I can do this on my own!”
“Can you, though?”
“I didn’t want you to get hurt.”
“And, let’s face it, you didn’t want to need help from your little brother either…”
Well, it was true. Of course Harris, being the only boy, and also the only one of us siblings who got to attend warlock school instead of wimpy witch school, was the most talented wizard in the family. Being the fifth girl of six meant I loved him to death but I also was often forgotten. It was going to be pretty annoying to watch him whip out his badass warlock skills and end this for me.
“You did something with a blood spell,” he said. “Tell me your plan, and tell me quickly.” His clear blue eyes shifted briefly to Lord Variel and Byron.
“You…little…half-breed…,” Lord Variel was growling out.
“They’re okay,” Harris said quickly.
“Um, I thought—if I sacrificed my Hapsburg blood, maybe it would break the covenants, because I thought surely one of our ancestors was responsible for the original oath. But it didn’t work. And I almost died. Please reserve judgmental comments for after the fight.”
“I think it’s a pretty clever use of magic,” Harris said. “But maybe you needed something like this.” He held up a ring with a seal of the Hapsburg crest, the sort you used for pressing into wax. “Or maybe you needed me. I’m not sure, so I hedged my bets.”
“Needed you?”
“Yes, a male heir.”
I didn’t have time to express my annoyance. Harris declared, “By the will of the Hapsburgs and the Holy Roman Empire—I, Harris von Hapsburg, wish to break the covenants of all the familiars, if I must spill my blood to do so!”
I felt it.
Just like I felt it when I tried to cast the spell myself.
But still, nothing.
I grabbed Harris’ hand. Maybe it needed both of us. Maybe I needed to give more. I tried to wrap every last drop of strength and feeling I had in me. “By the blood and the kings and queens, the princesses and princes, the blood of Rudolf II and Princess Julia and the Holy Roman Empire…break the covenants now!”
There was an almost deafening crack and all the stones split. Harris slumped as he now started coughing up blood and my dizziness was returning, although apparently I had spilled all the blood I needed to spill. The familiars formed a wall around us, and Chester ran to our side to block Piers from hurting us.
“Chester, get out of the way!” I cried, because I could see rage in Piers’ eyes. He was about to make Chester pay first.
Lord Variel let out a terrible roar.
“What are you doing to me?” he screamed.
“Well, I moved your soul into Etherium and blocked off all your escape routes,” Byron said. “Permanently. You’ll either have to learn some angelic habits or I don’t think you’ll enjoy yourself.”
“Who ever heard of a devil being banished upward?” Lord Variel spat out. Then he whirled on Piers. “You brought me here. You didn’t tell me I would have to deal with…”
“Lord Abiron the Gatekeeper,” Byron said helpfully. “I know it doesn’t sound quite as menacing as Lord Variel the Devourer; however…”
“You can serve me in the next world on your hands and knees!” Lord Variel said, wrapping his fist around Piers’ arm. He bit off Piers’ hand and swallowed it and then he made a motion with his teeth like he was tearing at meat, but what he tore at was a dark shadow that pulled away from Piers’ body.
He was eating Piers’ soul, not that it was much of a soul to begin with. For years now the word that came to mind when I saw Piers was ‘soulless’ and ‘dead’ and what Lord Variel took from him was just a weak, fluttering little dark wisp.
My mouth fell open as Piers collapsed, his eyes glazing over. He looked dead, but he was still breathing.
“You really should be more careful when you summon High Demons,” Harris said.
“Wise words,” Lord Variel said. “He was hardly even worth it.”
Lord Variel vanished in a huge plume of dark smoke while Piers was comatose.
“I was about to kill him,” I said, letting out my breath for the first time in what seemed like hours.
“Well, now you don’t have to,” Harris said. “He did it to himself. If his soul was strong, he would have been able to resist, but when your magic is void of any sort of love, power is pretty hollow.”
I gave Harris a quick hug. I was really glad to hear him say that, since he used to be more cold himself.
“Chester, are you okay?”
Chester nodded. “Yes—yes, thank you both very much. I’m free now. You have my gratitude and all the strength I possess. Harris, I know that Piers killed your familiar, so if you need me…”
“That’s…really good to hear, actually,” Harris said. “But you can’t replace what I lost. We had a bond. I hope you understand; you deserve better than to serve anyone right now. I think you should be free. But you’re family now, Chester, so if you need anything, feel free to come stay at Merlin College.”
“I would love that,” Chester said.
Byron had rushed to my side and put his hands on me, as if to feel that I was whole and well. “Thank the gods,” he said. “I knew if I could only block him off from Sinistral magic he would be rendered toothless—“ He paused. “Well, not entirely toothless, I suppose.”
“Are you all right, Byron? Your wing!”
“Marisa will be able to heal it when she feels better,” Byron said. “The pain is nothing compared to the worry over losing you. And I just checked on Marisa. She’s coming to, but she’s pretty weak. I think she’ll have to go straight home. Are you all right? I know it can’t be easy to fight your own family.”
“History might suggest it’s actually easy,” Harris said.
“Piers killed some of the familiars. I would rather have their lives than his. I’m just glad he can’t hurt anyone again.” I trailed off as the smoke was clearing and the familiars were settling down and then I realized…Bevan’s body was gone.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Helena
THEY SAY there is always a price with magic. A give and take.
Sometimes it is sacrifice. Other times, surrender.
The entire magic world would never be the same again. With the magical world whole for the firs
t time in a thousand years, magic would become stronger, but Etherium would deal with a “crime wave” of demons. The councils fell apart due to in-fighting. Royal families lost the magic that flowed through their veins. Hundreds more familiars would part ways with their witches and warlocks by their own choice. History was re-examined, old ways of thinking tossed out the window.
It was a year for the books, but it was strange to think I had anything to do with it. I hoped it was the one and only time I would ever make history.
Because I had to pay a price I never meant to pay.
I lost Bevan too. I would have been happy for him to be free, but I had a hard time accepting the note he sent me, an enchanted note that just showed up inside my pocket.
DON’T LOOK FOR ME, Helena. We were never that close to begin with; it would only be a waste. I realized that I have my own destiny. I want to gain power for the familiars. Jenny was not freed with the others and I’m afraid she is not the only familiar who is still bound by other chains like tradition…or fear. You could never have given me that power, nor do you have any interest in it, but Lord Variel can and does. I’m staying with him. I repeat, do not ever look for me. Go and have a good life. I’m going to look for Jenny.
I CRIED for a while over that. What the hell happened to my easygoing, sarcastic bat friend? He wanted to serve Lord Variel the Devourer? Did he have any choice?
Since Marisa had been weakened so badly, Byron and I actually had to fly home on an airplane, which turned into a huge mess (always teleport with your passport), and all the guys grabbed me into an embrace when I finally made it home.
“Hel, jeez, these last few days! I’ve barely even slept!” Jake said. “Never fucking do that again! I can’t believe you just left us here to twiddle our thumbs while you almost got yourself killed!”
“You hardly twiddled your thumbs!” I said, squeezing him tight. “I could never have survived without all of you and you know it.”
“We tried our best,” Jasper said. “But never do that again.”
“I don’t want to do it again! I didn’t want to do it the first time!”
“I would have done the same thing,” Graham said. “If I knew how to use magic. Byron, I’m glad you made it out all right too.”
“Yeah, Byron, come on and get in on the hug,” Jake said.
“Oh, thank you for the invitation. I didn’t want to dominate it entirely with my godlike charm…” Byron grabbed both the Sullivans.
“Well, I didn’t mean to get in on the hug between us,” Jake said, but they didn’t fight him off either. After a little more of the tight embrace, I grabbed Billie and Gaston next.
“I felt you guys too. Thank you.”
“We really did want to be there in person. I mean, I’m sure I could have helped. I’m a tough vampire now.”
“My brother ended up with the finishing blow anyway,” I sighed. “I wanted to take out Piers myself.”
“Oh, please,” Billie said. “It’s a lot better to work together. That’s part of being a family. Haven’t we all figured that out yet?”
“It looks like you’ve hardly done anything on the house,” I said when we got back to Bel Tramonto. “What the hell happened here?”
“We were worried about getting you home, not working,” Jake said.
“But what does Kiersten and Caleb’s house look like? They’re going to finish first!”
“I think you should rest,” Jasper said. “At least for one day.”
“No way. I’ve been dying to get here so I can stop resting. There was plenty of time to sleep on the plane.”
“Did you join the mile high club?” Billie said suggestively.
“No,” Byron said. “Airplane bathrooms can’t hold me. That’s just a fact.”
“You lost that bet,” Gaston said, holding out a hand to her. She gave him twenty dollars.
“Billie!” I said. “Or maybe I’m more mad at you for thinking I wouldn’t join the mile high club, Gaston…”
“I thought you would come home sad,” Gaston said with a shrug.
“Well, how do you think I feel?” Billie said. “He’s not even gonna spend that twenty dollars on me.”
OF COURSE, I was sad. I felt like a failure because losing Bevan seemed like my fault.
“At least he’s not dead,” Billie said gently when she caught me looking glum.
“But now he’s working for a demon. And not a nice demon.”
“He said he was looking for Jenny,” Billie said. “Maybe he’ll need some demon magic to save her. We don’t know. But sometimes things just happen, I guess. I didn’t want to be a vampire, that’s for sure. The blood lust is awful and Gaston says it gets hard about thirty years in when your friends start aging past you. But there’s no use crying over something you can’t help. Gaston said there are some gifts that come out of it too, and he’ll help me through it.”
“My family is more likely to nurse a grievance for the rest of their lives than to just say que sera sera.”
“Well, you gave that up, huh? You’re just a peasant like the rest of us, is that how it works? Do you feel any different?”
“I do feel a little different,” I said. “Lighter. Like I don’t have to prove anything or be anything.”
“But you’re still Jake’s Baroness.” She grinned and I waved as he moved past us with a wheelbarrow full of potted plants to spruce up the landscaping around the new addition.
“Hey, back to work, huh?” he said. “Lunch is over.”
“You’ve been a slave driver this week!” I said. “It’s almost Christmas! We can rest a little. You already dragged me out of bed at six am.”
“That is all the more reason not to rest!” he said. “We could have this done by Christmas! Then we can rest. You think Kiersten and Caleb are resting?”
“Yeah,” Billie said, folding a stick of gum into her mouth. “They went home to their kids for the whole week.”
Jake looked like he was about to catch fire. “Well, fuck them! We can beat them while they’re off their game!”
“Yikes,” I said, as Jasper came up behind him with a mop and a bucket of cleaning supplies. They were both working like crazy on the addition.
“Wait a minute…,” I said. “Did you invite anyone for Christmas?”
They looked at each other. They looked at me.
My eyes widened in horror. “Did you invite your parents?”
“They’ll love you,” Jake said. “I wanted it to be a surprise.”
I shrieked. “You don’t surprise me with something like that! Oh my god! When are they coming? Are you sure they’re going to be okay with—like—all of us?”
“Sure they are,” Jasper said. “They know the whole story.”
“I need to go buy a party dress or—or—how long?”
“Hel, they’re wolves. You don’t need to wear anything but jeans and flannel,” Jake said. “And we got you some flannel for Christmas. I guess if you want to open it early—“
“I am going to punch you,” I said. “Flannel!?”
“You’ll look so cute in it,” Jasper said. “You can’t spend the Christmas season without wearing flannel.”
“We’re going shopping,” Billie said. “You can’t just spring that on us. I thought we weren’t having a real Christmas. We already kinda celebrated Hannukah with Maya looking like a bunch of slobs.”
“I hope she doesn’t try to kidnap our dad. I know he’ll want to inspect the basement.”
“Inspect?” I said.
“Yeah, Dad’s our worst critic,” Jake said. “That’s why we’re freaking out. But he’ll be nice to you, so don’t worry. That’s just how he is.”
“Byron! Graham! Do you know the Sullivan parents are coming for Christmas?” I asked as I ran into the house to grab my wallet.
“No…,” Graham said. They were finishing up the tile in the second bathroom. “But I’m excited to meet them.”
“You’re so chill…”
“I could use some new clothes.”
“You already have nice suits and stuff. I need clothes.”
“Well, I don’t have any festive sweaters or anything.”
“Festive…sweaters.” I stared at him. “I was willing to forgive you for having carpet in your living room, but now you’re telling me that you own festive sweaters?”
“Lots of people own festive sweaters.”
“You are an incubus demon now.” I pointed at him. “You are sexy and suave at all times. No festive sweaters.”
“I will melt your panties in a festive sweater,” Graham said, giving me a look of slight—but genuine—irritation. “Let’s go shopping.”
CHRISTMAS WAS SHAPING up into a real clash of wardrobes. The Sullivan brothers practically bullied me into a soft flannel shirt from L. L. Bean that looked way too much like what they were wearing and Graham trolled me in a sweater with a sloth wearing a Christmas hat. I had no idea about the things normal humans were into. And worse, he was right. He still managed to look sexy. Byron was wearing a suit from the 1970s.
“Wait—was that what you were wearing when you died?”
“I had it dry cleaned. And I’m alive now, so it’s fine.”
The doorbell rang. I could already hear an unsettling amount of conversation outside.
Jake flung open the door. “Ma! Come in! Hey, Grandma…oh, man, did you bring this on the plane? Yum. Dad—‘sup? You look good. Heyy, I didn’t know you were coming, Aunt Liz! The baby is looking huge! Did Uncle Steve come?”
“Naah, he stayed home with the other kids.”
Jasper pulled me toward this unexpected group of people. I saw a big grubby 90s van parked outside. They drove from Massachusetts? Wow.
“Mom, Dad, Grandma Sullivan, Aunt Liz, and baby Sean,” Jasper said by way of a quick introduction.
“Helena! I’m so excited to finally meet you!” Grandma Sullivan gave me a huge hug while Jake took the food dish from her hand. “You’re too pretty for these two!”
“We’ll rough her up before long,” Jake said, as Jasper said,
“Grandma’s the one who made you the birth control.”
Phantom of the Library (Paranormal House Flippers Book 3) Page 19