House of Fire (Parallel Magic Book 2)

by Emma L. Adams

  It was nothing but a memory too old for me to recall in any detail. For all I knew, my subconscious had made it up. Yet the sense of familiarity grew worse the further we walked. The town was a wreck, as though something far more devastating than a war had taken it to pieces. Elysium might have taken a hell of a beating, but enough of it had survived that it remained inhabited. Arcadia, too. The war had left most of the major cities standing, but on a local level, it was hit and miss, and this place had clearly taken the brunt of a major magical assault. A targeted one.

  The white glow grew brighter in the distance, then split into two blots of blurred light.

  Miles halted behind me. “Shelley, that isn’t a node.”

  “What?” Shelley peered ahead of us. “Oh… fuck.”

  The glowing mass had begun to move towards us. Nodes didn’t move, nor did they fly, with transparent arms outstretched and glowing from within.

  Phantoms: the Parallel’s version of ghosts. I conjured fire to my hands in warning. “Go away.”

  They ignored me and closed in around our group, emitting moaning noises and seemingly unafraid of my fire.

  “I think they want us to leave,” Miles said. “Too bad, mate—we don’t have anywhere else to go. Mind moving out of the way?”

  “They can’t understand you,” said Shelley, conjuring spirit magic to her hands.

  As cold hands reached for me, I fired off a ball of flames into the mass of phantoms, causing them to scatter. Their group reformed a second later, sweeping towards us and emitting a low moaning noise that sounded like half-formed words.

  “Go away!” Shelley blasted them with spirit magic at the same time as I threw another fireball. Miles did likewise, his hands blazing with light. Our combined magic broke through their mass, sending them scattering in all directions. This time, they got the message and pulled back out of range, leaving the path clear. The so-called ‘node’ had vanished from sight, leaving nothing but wasteland behind.

  Teeth bared in frustration, I marched ahead. An image kept intruding, the vivid picture of a burning town with a sentinel-like tower in the centre. I did my level best to push the image away. Getting out of here was more important than finding out what this place had once been… and who’d once lived here.

  It took several minutes before I became aware of a scuffling sound among the ruins of a nearby building. Too loud to belong to a phantom. A hairless head popped up from the shadows. Then another. Revenants.

  “Shit,” said Miles. “I think we attracted the locals.”

  “The good news?” I said, conjuring up a flame. “There must be a node nearby. They feed on the nodes, right?”

  “Best news I’ve heard all day.” Miles blasted the revenant with a handful of spirit magic, sending it recoiling. Shelley intercepted another, while I hurled a fireball, lighting up the gloom ahead.

  We rounded a corner, spotting the welcome sight of a pillar of light. It wasn’t until we got closer that I saw the dark shapes moving within it. Revenants surrounded the node, feeding on its magic.

  “No other way out,” I said. “Ready to run?”

  “You bet.” Ryan conjured a handful of air magic, drawing the revenants’ attention. They abandoned the node and flocked towards us in a swarm.

  A fireball grew in my hand, and I flung it at the revenants. Two of them burst into a torrent of flame in an impressive display which caught the others in its orbit, fuelled by Ryan’s fire. Bits of burning revenant scattered all over the swampland, and Miles whistled approval.

  “Thanks, Bria,” said Miles. “You found our node and took out the dickheads guarding it.”

  “It’s her fault we got stuck there,” Shelley reminded him.

  “Actually, it’s more the Death King’s fault that he rescued Liv and left the rest of us behind,” I put in.

  Ryan snorted.

  I glanced at them. “Tell me I’m wrong.”

  “She isn’t wrong,” Miles supplied. “He did ditch us. I’m insulted.”

  “Liv probably got injured again,” said Ryan.

  “She did say she had a day to live,” said Miles. “Anyway, don’t blame Bria for the mess. Blame the dickheads who locked up those sprites.”

  “He has a point,” I said to the others. “How’d they catch so many of them?”

  “You think I know?” asked Ryan. “I can only assume they used magic to do it.”

  “Never mind them,” said Shelley. “We’re going back to Elysium. The others will be worried. They might even have sent a search party after us by now.”

  Miles gave her a nod, then he turned back to me. “Will you be okay?”

  “Sure.” I fixed on a smile. “Nothing wrong with me that a long nap can’t fix.”

  “Come on,” said Ryan. “We have to report back to the Death King.”

  I grimaced. “I can’t wait to see what’s gone to shit in the Court of the Dead while we’ve been gone.”

  16

  Nothing, as it turned out. The grounds were quiet, the castle undisturbed. I made my way back to my room and more or less collapsed on the bed. I woke a few hours later with a blazing headache and checked the time. I’d slept half the day, to no surprise given how long it’d been since I’d last had a proper rest. I went to shower and dress, then grabbed some food from the break room. Nobody else was around, including the Death King. I had yet to update him on my discoveries of the previous day, but it was his own damn fault for leaving us alone in the middle of nowhere and expecting us to walk back to the castle on foot.

  It was pure luck that had spared us from running into the Family again, and while I wanted to tell him they’d reclaimed their own hideout, the Houses needed to know more urgently. Someone ought to clue them in about the incident at the Withered Oak, for that matter, but I doubted Harris would give a shit that a group of rogue mages had got themselves locked up by Arcadia’s vampires. I hadn’t checked up on Tay for a while, come to that, but if anyone else in the House was working with the Family, then it was only a matter of time before they picked up where Zade had left off.

  Since nobody seemed inclined to give me orders, I left the castle for the node and travelled to the centre of Elysium. The first thing I noticed was that the lock had been removed from the door to the House of Fire. Had they got over their brief spell of paranoia? Or had they somehow learned I’d broken in? I doubted that was the case, so I knocked on the door.

  Harris answered, along with another half-dozen guards who spilled out and surrounded me on all sides.

  “Hey, there,” I said. “What’s going on?”

  “Bria Kent,” said Harris. “You’re under arrest.”

  For a brief moment, I considered running, but I figured it was best to humour them until we cleared up whatever they’d got themselves worked up over this time. They can’t possibly know I broke into Zade’s office, right?

  I raised my hands in surrender. “Hey, I just got here. What am I being arrested for?”

  “Conspiring against the Houses of the Elements,” he answered.

  “What does that mean?” I said. “Seriously, I haven’t been anywhere near the Houses in the last day.”

  “We saw you go to your family’s estate,” Harris said.

  Oh, shit. I should have known they’d be watching me—from a safe distance, of course. “I wanted to see if they’d left any clues behind. It turns out they’re hiring earth mages—”

  The guards shunted me through the doors to the building and down the staircase off the corridor. Shit. They’re seriously taking me to the jail? To my horror, someone grabbed the pendant from around my neck and pulled it free, then more hands dug into my pockets and took my spare cantrips.

  “You met with the Family,” said Harris. “Don’t deny it.”

  “I didn’t expect to find anyone there,” I protested. “How was I supposed to know you let them move back into their old property after their escape without even trying to stop them?”

  There was more I wanted to s
ay, but I couldn’t reference Zade’s files without admitting I’d broken into his office. Not that anyone was inclined to listen, either way. The guards herded me downstairs, then led me to a cell and pushed me into it. Tay’s cell, in fact… but she was no longer inside it.

  “Where’s Tay?” I asked.

  The door slammed on me, and Harris leered at me from the other side of the bars. “You’ll be staying here this time. No escaping.”

  “Where’s Tay?” I called after him as he retreated. “Seriously, this isn’t a joke. Where did you take her?

  Nobody replied. I stared into the darkness in disbelief for a long moment. Had Tay made a break for it? That was the best-case scenario. Because if she hadn’t escaped… if they’d killed her…

  I shut down that line of thinking hard, instead examining the door for a possible way out. Of course, it was magic-proofed, too, so after trying every angle, I sat down on the bench and waited for someone to come back.

  The minutes dragged. It felt like a million years before anyone came downstairs, and I was beginning to doze off when Harris walked into view again.

  “Where is Tay?” I demanded. “If you had her killed, I swear to the Elements, I will rip out your throat.”

  “Your friend Tay gave us the slip last night,” said Harris. “Tell me where she is.”

  “What?” I said. “You think I helped her escape?”

  She’s free? It didn’t surprise me that she’d run, and I wouldn’t deny it was a relief that she’d got out before they’d decided to punish her for Zade’s death. Question was, where had she gone?

  “Was that a confession?” he said.

  “Look, if I’d helped her escape, I wouldn’t have come back here, would I?” I said. “Ask the Spirit Agents who were with me yesterday evening. Or ask the Air Element. We spent a fun night stranded in the middle of nowhere after staging a rescue mission on the Death King’s orders.”

  “Your allies are no more reliable than you are,” he said. “You were seen heading to the Family’s house several hours before her escape—"

  “Look, I don’t even know when the Family got back to their estate, or how they rebuilt it,” I said. “Since nobody told me how they escaped from prison or that they went right back to their old haunts. It’s not like you didn’t have the resources to have them followed.”

  He moved closer to the bars. “You—”

  A sudden crash came from upstairs. Behind him, a body came flying down the staircase, head over heels, wearing the guard uniform of a member of the House of Fire.

  “What the—” Harris spun around. “Who’s up there?”

  The guard lifted his head, groaning. “The—earth mages.”

  Oh, damn. It seemed the House of Earth had finally made their move.

  Without looking back, Harris ran for the stairs. I tried to get the door open again, but of course they’d taken my unlocking cantrips. My fire wouldn’t help, either.

  ‘Hey!” I said to the fallen guard. “Help me out of here.”

  He crawled upright with a groan. “Are you serious?”

  “Look, I didn’t do anything wrong, but if it’s the House of Earth who’s attacking you, they were compromised a long time ago,” I told him. “They’re buying cantrips on the black market, nasty ones. The same cantrips killed Zade.”

  “I heard your friend was the one that killed Zade,” he said uncertainly. He was young for a guard, with light brown skin and dark hair matted with blood.

  “Clearly, she isn’t the threat at the moment,” I said. “I can help you fight those earth mages. Trust me, you want me on your side, not against it. Harris arrested me on false pretences.”

  “Harris is a dick.” With a nervous look over his shoulder, he ran over to my cell and unlocked the door. “Don’t tell anyone I let you out.”

  “Cheers.” I climbed out of the cell, halting when footsteps sounded on the stairs. A lithe figure descended into view, dirt smearing his pale face. Earth mage.

  I tackled him, knocking him off his feet and running past him up the stairs. He hadn’t been prepared for my speed, and he toppled straight into the guard’s fist. I left him behind and continued running up the stairs to the surface.

  When I reached the main hallway, chaos greeted me. The front door stood open, while the bodies of several guards littered the hallway. I vaulted over the bodies and ran into the room where I knew they’d stashed the cantrips they’d confiscated from me during my arrest. Nobody tried to stop me, but I made a point of knocking down as many earth mages as possible on my way through. Once I had my pendant back, cantrips and all, I was out the door before anyone could get their hands on me.

  Outside, more confused fighting littered the streets. While some of the attackers were earth mages, others fought with knives. I only needed to see the uniform of a masked assassin to know who’d sent them. The Family had made their move against the House of Fire, and possibly the other Houses, too. The streets were awash in confusion, bolts of magic flying through the air.

  I broke into a sprint around the corner behind the House of Fire, eyes open for the nearest node. An assassin blocked my path, a cantrip gleaming around his neck. His fist shot out, but I ducked, glad that despite the enhancements the Family gave their assassins, my own speed still outranked theirs. A knife flew from his hand, grazing my shoulder, and a fireball sprang to my palms.

  “What’re you playing at?” I said. “I thought the Family wanted me alive.”

  No response came. The fireball left my hands and blasted him sideways into another assassin, and I ran on, following the route which circled the four Houses of the Elements from behind. The House of Earth was up next, and I skidded to a halt at the street’s end. The entire route was blocked by a tall barrier made of packed earth, which definitely hadn’t been there before. The barrier entirely covered the street’s end, leaving only one path open.

  I took that route and ran on, but it became clear that every street entrance I passed was blocked by the same barriers the earth mages had conjured up. The routes to the citadel and the town’s centre were still open, but they would take me directly into the middle of the fighting. Which was no doubt the intention. The mages had blocked off the centre of the city, turning it into a cage. With the Houses warring from within and nobody able to get in or out, it’d be a bloodbath. Gusts of air rippled past, water and fire extinguished one another, while the ground trembled beneath my feet and assassins leapt across the rooftops flinging knives into the melee.

  To get out, I’d need to find a way to vault over one of the barriers caging the centre of the city, find somewhere to hide inside one of the few empty buildings—or go to the one node near the square and expose myself in the process. Not good odds.

  The assassins made up my mind for me. Two jumped off the nearest roof to bar my path. A fireball flew from my palms, and they ran to the side to avoid being incinerated. I skirted the corner and nearly tripped over the body of a fallen mage. His body was covered in blisters.

  Those cantrips again. If anything, they were a more deadly method of killing than using elemental magic, especially if the earth mages had been spreading them around the Houses.

  The two assassins rose to their feet again with jerky motions like puppets on strings. I darted to the side, avoiding another knife, and Miles and Shelley ran over to join me, hands blazing with spirit magic. The assassins backed off, sensing they were outnumbered, and our combined attacks took them down.

  “How’d you get in here?” I asked the two spirit mages.

  “Through the node,” said Miles. “We were on the brink of coming to bust you out of there.”

  “I had it covered,” I said. “But—why are they blocking off this part of the city? Did they not remember people could just use the nodes to get in and out instead of moving around on foot?”

  “I don’t know, but the Death King called us to meet with him,” he said. “When he heard you were missing, he told us to go to Elysium. I think he figured out
you’d gone to the House of Fire.”

  “And there I thought he’d forgotten I existed.” I picked up the pace when the node came within sight. “Tay escaped, too. The House of Fire tried to blame me for helping her out of her cell. That’s why they locked me up.”

  “Your friend is working with the enemy again?” said Shelley.

  “I don’t know.” Her absence was an ache in my chest, but what if she’d been involved in the enemy’s attack? I couldn’t go looking for her either way, not when I had zero clue where she’d gone. Besides, we had bigger problems on our hands.

  We ran down the narrow street, blasting down any assassins who got in our way. The closed-off streets gave me claustrophobia, but I made it to the node without being cornered. “The Death King had better be able to spare some people to help us.”

  “That’d be welcome,” said Shelley, catching me up, “considering we helped him, and he repaid us by abandoning us in the middle of nowhere.”

  “C’mon,” said Miles. “Coast’s clear.”

  Our group hopped through the node and landed in the swampland. The quietness disturbed me, as though part of me had expected to find the Court of the Dead under attack as well. Instead, outside the gates, the Death King stood nose to nose with a vampire. They appeared to be engaged in a heated argument, but when I tried to enter the grounds, Liv barred my path.

  “Where have you been?” she said.

  “Elysium,” I replied. “I take it you know the Houses of the Elements are under attack?”

  “The Houses?” Her brow furrowed, and she turned to the vampire who stood arguing with the Death King at the gates. “You didn’t say the Houses of the Elements were under attack. That’s a world away from a handful of mages stirring up trouble.”