Infernal Hunt Complete Set

by Holly Evans

  Elise took a long deep breath. “It is a delicate procedure. They can’t do it tonight. My reading and my lady have said that we have a few nights before the stars align correctly. It must be conducted in a very specific place, too.”

  “Then surely we can find this place.” I said hopefully.

  A wan smile flickered across Elise’s mouth.

  “Hopefully,” she said quietly.

  Kadrix leaned against Quin, who wrapped his arm around the elf’s shoulders. A crease had formed between his eyebrows.

  “If she cracks the networks, as you put it, the fae will be harmed. We depend on those energies to sustain our life. Damaging the web will cause a great deal of illness and death,” he said quietly.

  I looked between him and Quin. I knew that the fae were connected to their web, but I didn’t know what it actually meant.

  Elise squeezed the bridge of her nose.

  “We don’t know when the ritual will start. We don’t have much information. I’m sorry Kadrix, truly I am.”

  The elf sighed softly and leaned on Quin a little more. Lysander pulled me closer to him and nuzzled against my neck.

  “We’ve beat worse odds,” he said softly.

  “What information do we have?” I asked Elise.

  I wasn’t ready to give in. Maybe I was missing a key detail, but the witch wasn’t a god yet. We had a chance. I wasn’t going to sit around and squander it.

  Elise took a long deep drink from her tea before she began outlining the necessary components of the ritual site.

  “Do you have maps of the city and the surrounding area?” I asked the group.

  “We have one,” Quin said.

  “Then why are we sitting here?” I demanded.

  Kadrix smiled. “You are infuriating at times, Evelyn, but occasionally I’m thankful for your presence.”

  I ignored him. He likely meant it as a compliment, but my focus was elsewhere.

  “I can see the magic, I’ll be of use,” Raif said.

  Kadrix had pulled out his phone. “Azfin and Haeyl will be here momentarily. The cub can accompany them in looking at the web and trying to find any cracks that could lead us to the witch.”

  I raised an eyebrow at him. Lysander squeezed my hand.

  “He can look after himself, Evelyn. It’s the best way for him to help.”

  Raif stared me down waiting for my response. I gave a small nod. They weren’t wrong. Kadrix accompanied Raif out into the main church area when the Sidhe arrived.

  “Do we only have the one map?” I asked Quin.

  “We’ll buy some more on the way back home,” he said as he stood.

  “I’ll stay here and try to find some more information,” Elise said.

  We had a plan. It wasn’t much of a plan, but it gave us something to do. It gave us some hope.

  “Kadrix. You need to rest,” Quin growled.

  Lysander and I shared a look; it was the first time we’d heard Quin use a sharp tone with the elf. He tossed his phone down on the sofa and went into the kitchen to make the next round of coffee. We’d been staring at the maps that were strewn around the living area for two days. Each time we thought we’d found a location, we had to cross-reference it with the magical requirements. It was time consuming and exhausting. We’d slept for a couple of short hours before we returned to it. Tempers were fraying as we were all painfully aware of the minutes ticking by.

  Kadrix arrived when I finished my latest cup of coffee. He had Raif, Azfin, and Haeyl in tow. They all looked as worn down as I felt. Bags hung under the cub’s eyes. His hair stuck up every which way. Kadrix looked even worse.

  Quin pulled him into a hug and stroked his thumb across the elf’s cheekbone. “Talk to me.”

  Azfin’s lip curled. “A dark plague has begun claiming victims in the fae realm,” he spat.

  I looked between him and Kadrix hoping for some answers.

  “It means that at least one of the sacrifices has been made,” Kadrix said softly.

  “She has damaged the network. Harm is being done to our number and we’re no closer to finding her!” Azfin shouted.

  “At least one fae, likely more, is working with her,” Kadrix said.

  I frowned. “I thought you were all insanely loyal to each other…”

  Azfin gave me a very dark look. “We have been betrayed. Whoever is responsible is helping the witch cover her tracks.”

  Lysander handed them all a cup of strong black coffee and made room on the couch for them to sit. Quin stroked Kadrix’s hair and tried to soothe him. I felt lost. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do. Disaster was looming on the horizon, and we had nothing.

  “Is there nothing more we can do?” Lysander growled.

  “Felix and his pack are trying to track the witches. Elise is still looking at every possible angle,” Raif said.

  “And they have nothing,” Kadrix said.

  I exhaled slowly and glanced back at the maps. “We have to keep pushing. Does Elise know how long we have?”

  “Fourty-eight hours,” Azfin said.

  “Raif, go and get some sleep. You look like death,” I said as I walked back over to the maps.

  We were not going to give in.

  “You’ll be of no use to us if you’re exhausted,” Lysander said.

  I heard Raif leave for the room he borrowed from Quin while I returned to poring over the maps. We had the necessary information, we just had to pull it all together.

  The fae had slept on the couch and armchairs for a few hours while the rest of us continued scouring the maps. We had covered every square inch and pinned down five potential sites for the ritual when they woke. I rang Elise hoping for some new information, but she had nothing. Her lady was satisfied that everything was in place to play out as required. Felix had nothing. They couldn’t pin down a scent or get a trail anywhere. We had no choice but to gather as many people as we could and attack all five places.

  “We will be weak!” Azfin snarled.

  “What other option do we have?” I shouted back.

  He paced around the living room. “We need to narrow them down,” Azfin growled.

  “How? Do you have more information?” I snapped back.

  He sighed and deflated. “We have thirty-six hours. Take twelve to rest and gather your people,” I said.

  Azfin curled his lip but said nothing. He and Haeyl left without another word. I slumped down onto the sofa where Lysander wrapped his arms around me.

  “It’s better than nothing,” he said softly.

  “Raif, can you call in some favours with the lycans and get more of them on board?” I asked.

  He growled quietly. “I am not well thought of among the lycans.”

  I smirked. “I heard they tell bed time stories to their cubs about me to scare them into behaving.”

  Raif smiled. “Fair point. I’ll do what I can.”

  Lysander carried me to bed before I could argue. Quin and Kadrix were already asleep on the sofa, they’d crashed the moment Azfin left.

  I didn’t want to sleep. I wanted to narrow down our options, to put an end to this. Lysander stroked my hair and nuzzled my neck.

  “You’ll make our group weaker if you refuse to sleep, Evelyn. You know this.”

  I sighed and did my best to let sleep claim me.

  I woke up to a strange shuffling sound outside our front door. I dragged on Lysander’s T-shirt and ran to the door, peering through the peephole. Someone or something dark vanished down the stairs as I got there. I grabbed the long knife that sat behind the door for just such occasions and slowly opened the door. The hallway was empty. I almost shut the door again, thinking that I was over-reacting to a neighbour, when I saw the crisp white envelope on the floor in front of our door. I poked it tentatively with my toe. Nothing.

  Lysander came up behind me. He rested his chin on my shoulder and looked down at the envelope.

  “It smells of witches,” he growled.

  After I�
��d poked it once more I picked it up by the very tip of a corner and carried it to the living room. Raif emerged from his room.

  “What’s that?” he asked.

  “Something from the witches,” I said as I dropped it on the table.

  He and Lysander circled around the table, inspecting it. Kadrix and Quin woke up and watched with bemused expressions.

  Finally, Raif said, “I don’t see any harmful magics on it. We can open it.”

  “Can you verify that, Kadrix? No offence, Raif, but I’d rather not be blown up.”

  The cub gave a small shrug. Kadrix stalked over to the table and glared at the envelope for a long moment before he snatched it and tore it open. His face paled before his ears turned pink and pinned back against his skull. He threw the thick card on the table.

  “They’re playing with us.”

  Quin ran his hand up the elf’s back as I leant over and looked at the card that had been in the envelope. Elegant gold script informed me that we’d been invited to a very special event, and we were the guests of honor. It then gave us one of the addresses we’d picked out on the map. I rang Elise and told her.

  She barked a harsh laugh. “They plan on us being the final sacrifices. I’ll be there in twenty minutes. Prepare for war, Evie.”

  She hung up before I could respond. I took a long deep breath. We were walking into a trap, but there was no other choice. We’d go in armed to the teeth and kill as many of them as we could. Failure was not an option.

  Kadrix and Quin had run off to the elf’s workshop moments after the phonecall ended. Raif had spent the time growling and snarling on the phone to what I assumed were lycans. I took my time attaching as many blades as I could.

  “Do not forget your fire, Evelyn,” Lysander said as I handed him a third knife.

  I smiled and gave him a nod while I fastened the final throwing knife. Kadrix burst into the flat with a small army behind him. Azfin, Haeyl, and another elf that I didn’t recognise were hot on his heels, with Felix and a number of lycans behind them. Raif flashed me a satisfied grin; he’d gotten the lycans on board.

  Quin marched over to us and handed Lysander, Raif, and me pouches full of magical orbs along with a fresh pouch of anti-magic powder. Elise slipped in shortly afterwards.

  She shouted over the increasingly loud discussions about how this was going to work, “Quiet!”

  Everyone stopped to look at the small priestess standing in the middle of them. One of the new lycans looked down around him before his eyes finally settled on Elise, with a look of pure fury on her face. The lycan shrank away.

  “This is a complex ritual, but they are prepared for us. We must kill every bitch we can. Do not take any risks. Rip their throats out; near-fatal injuries are not good enough.” She looked around the group making sure everyone understood. “There will be a battery powering the ritual. Most likely a man. He will be surrounded by blood runes. Kill him and they cannot go ahead with the ritual. Everyone clear on what we’re doing here?”

  “Kill them all!” a lycan shouted.

  Elise smirked. “Exactly.”

  A baying howling noise erupted from the group. The fae snarled and cried out war cries. The lycans yipped and howled. Even Raif and Lysander joined them. The energy rippled through the group. We would not be defeated.

  Horns began honking outside. Azfin held up his hands to quiet everyone down. “There are vehicles waiting outside. More of our kind are joining us. They stole our friends. Our lovers. They killed our family in the fae realm. We will have our vengeance!”

  “What are we waiting for?” I shouted.

  Everyone turned and squeezed out the door. A neighbour peered out of their door as they watched our small army march down the hallway and jog down the stairs. I smirked to myself.

  It would give them something to gossip about.

  I had my celestial blades in my hands as we slowly walked between the trees. The hounds were listening to every small noise, not that the fae made any noise. The trees stopped and formed a very neat circle around a large cabin that was surrounded by dark grey gravel and totem-pole-style carvings. They were tall tree trunks, entirely devoid of smaller branches, topped with what appeared to be wooden carvings at first glance. We circled around the clearing; upon closer inspection, the carvings turned out to be carcasses. What I had thought was old wood was in fact weathered skin pulled tight over gaunt bodies. I looked away and cursed to myself. Witches were vile creatures.

  We stuck together as a group; we didn’t know what we were facing, and there was no benefit in allowing them to pick us off one by one. A full circle around the clearing showed us that there was no way to approach the cabins without making a lot of noise. The trees around the clearing were coated in the shimmering threads, and the gaps between them almost hummed. I trusted that the fae must have seen that and knew what they were doing. Lysander looked to me for some form of guidance; Raif was sniffing around the edge of the clearing.

  Kadrix turned to the group and said, “Evelyn, take your people and Mila and attack the back entrance. I will take my people and the lycans and attack the front. We will meet in the middle. Every witch you find is to be killed. No survivors.”

  Mila was a dark-haired pixie, small and deadly. Her sharp features shivered before they slipped away to reveal her full pixie form, complete with a mouth full of very sharp teeth and long claws. Raif whined and paced just at the edge of the clearing. The Sidhe had all taken on their full fae forms, all sharp edges and sharper teeth. The lycans growled as they shifted into their full wolf-beast forms. Dense coarse fur covered their tall, muscular bodies. Their eyes shone as a dark ember, jaws extended and filled with sharp canine teeth. I grinned. I was in my element.

  Kadrix gave a nod before he led them through the trees and ran at the porch. Quin and I led our group to the back door.

  That was where things went wrong.

  The back door flung open and three witches hurled curses at us. Elise waved her hands and muttered something while I threw a knife at the closest one. The witch laughed, a hoarse corvid sound, before she began forming curses between her moving hands. I dove to the side, dodging a large ball of curses. Elise landed besides me.

  “My magic doesn’t work!” she hissed.

  I took my eyes off the witches, who were throwing more curses at us. One of them was slowly forming a magical sword.

  “What?” I hissed back.

  “I can’t form magic!”

  “How the fuck is that even possible?”

  “I don’t know!”

  “Fuck.”

  The witch with her sword charged at us. I threw another knife at her. It bounced off. Double fuck. Elise and I circled around her while Raif launched himself at the third witch. I heard his snarl and yelp, but was preoccupied with the great big sword the witch was thrusting at me. My throwing knives weren’t touching her, and I couldn’t get in close enough to try with my celestial blades. My hand brushed over the small leather pouches on my belt. I’d forgotten the alchemy. Magic was a no go; we’d see how alchemy worked. I threw a pouch at Elise, it sailed over the witch’s head. She tracked it. I took my opportunity to try and drive my blade through her stomach. It took more force than it normally would have, but I succeeded. One of her sisters threw curses at me while she tried to sink her fingers into my eyes. I gutted her while batting away her hands. The bitches were just starting to piss me off. Pain flared around my lower back. I dug my hand down into my pouch with the anti-magic powder and threw it at the closest witch. Nothing. When I quickly followed it up with a throwing knife, it bounced off almost tearing into my thigh.

  My fire engulfed my hands. My temper snapped. Elise threw the orbs from the pouch directly at the witch’s head. She screamed as blue gloop coated the back of her head. Her hair fizzled and melted, her skin and skull not far behind. My feelings towards alchemy were becoming more positive.

  More pain cut through my ribs and hacked at my calves. I spun around as best as I c
ould to find two witches throwing curses and magical blades at me. My movements were far slower than I’d have liked due to the magically inflicted wounds. I threw the rest of my alchemical pouches back at Elise before I brought forth every inch of fire that I could. I allowed the pure rage to fill every fibre of my being. The witches remained frozen in their place. I wrapped my hands around the closest’s neck. She screamed and flailed. I let her go, and she continued to flail, succeeding in setting her sister on fire.

  Elise threw a handful of anti-magic powder at the witch closest to her; nothing happened. Elise ducked away from the magical sword and shouted a few choice curses.

  I turned to see Quin glaring at another witch just before she exploded. Raif launched himself back at another witch, his teeth grazing her face. It was enough to push her backwards and get us into the cabin.

  “Why isn’t the anti-magic powder working?” I growled at Quin.

  “The fae traitor has altered their magic, rendering the powder useless,” he snapped back.

  Elise had recovered from her lack of magic and had a pair of viciously serrated knives in her hands. Her face was a mask of pure fury. The witches were all backing up into the cabin. We entered a sprawling kitchen with a large island. Lysander pushed through a green ribbon on the floor. An explosion of curses burst out from the cupboards around us. We ducked. Lysander snarled. Quin shouted an impressive collection of curses. I peered through the dust and unnatural mist. Everyone was moving. We weren’t that easy to kill.

  “You weren’t supposed to have magic!” A witch screamed as she threw a volley of curses at us.

  One struck home, catching Quin in the shoulder causing him to stumble backwards. The other struck Lysander clean in the ribs; he grinned at her before he leapt on her, his weapons training ignored in favour of the classic teeth and claws.

  My movements were becoming more hindered as the injuries settled in. I didn’t know what they had done, but it hurt like a bitch. I used the pain to fuel my fire. The witches moved through the mist, trying to circle around us. One screamed when Elise sliced her from navel to sternum.