by Jayne Hawke
The Grim was easier. I turned my thoughts away from the aggravating arrogance and closed nature of witches to the Grim.
I nodded, feeling better with something to do. The Grim was familiar. I could look for any gossip or signs of where the witch might be hiding out.
“We might be able to get you a temporary pass to the witch library,” Amy said around a bite of pancake.
The potential for progress lifted my spirits. Spending the day looking through books wasn’t what I’d dreamed of doing, but I’d do whatever I could.
“That’ll depend on my coven, though,” Sky said.
I wrinkled my nose. The Morrigan witches hadn’t exactly been my biggest fans.
Unsurprisingly, the Morrigan witches had laughed in Sky’s face when she’d asked for a temporary pass to the witch library for me. It had been a long shot. I wasn’t a witch, I was a lowly garou, but we had to try. Particularly given the situation with Cole, I’d held onto a small sliver of hope that they’d make an exception.
“They were very... loud and firm in their decision to ensure that you never step foot in such a sacred and important building,” Sky said.
I rolled my eyes at the melodrama of it. It was a library full of magical information I couldn’t use. What was I going to do, sell the information to another witch?
“They threatened to smite you if you so much as looked at it,” she said with a shrug.
For a brief moment I wanted to see them try. I was growing sick and tired of the witches’ view of the world and their role within it.
Amy had a twinkle in her eye, a touch of mischief.
“I might have a way around this.”
That sounded promising.
“You have some inherent magic, your guardian magic. So we could form a glamour from that to trick the library into thinking you’re a witch. It’ll be complicated. Your magic is inherently different to witch magic, the threads there are different. At its very heart, magic is magic, though, so if I dig deep enough, we can twist those threads to make a temporary glamour. I’ll need Sky’s weaving abilities to help me, though.”
“Sure,” Sky said without a pause.
I looked between them with increasing suspicion. Sky had taken to this plan far too quickly. If it was that easy, they’d have offered it before and skipped the Morrigan coven part. No, there had to be a big downside to this. Something they didn’t want to discuss.
“It’ll only last an hour,” Amy said as she began pulling bowls out of the cupboards.
“And?” I pushed.
“Oh, it’s nothing bad,” Sky said too quickly.
I stared her down.
She rolled her eyes.
“That alpha glare doesn’t work on me.”
I continued to glare at her.
She huffed.
“Fine. It’ll hurt a bit, and your hair might look a bit weird afterwards.”
“Weird how?”
I wasn’t particularly vain, but there was a large spectrum there.
“Don’t worry about it. I have lots of lovely hats,” Amy said with a smile.
I closed my eyes and reminded myself that the clock was ticking. We needed to get Cole back. My hair would grow back, and, if need be, I could dye it. And pain wasn’t a problem. I would handle as much of that as I needed to.
“How long will this glamour take to make?”
“Five minutes,” Amy said.
That seemed like a short span of time for something as complicated as Amy had mentioned. There was no way that this was as simple as changing my hair a little.
I sat at the table and watched as Amy mixed what I’d thought were perfectly normal spices into a bowl. A thin curl of emerald green smoke formed, and Sky began muttering under her breath while she made small delicate movements with her black sword. This glamour was looking less safe than I’d originally thought. They were supposed to be thin veneers. You did not need a sword to form a thin veneer.
Amy turned to me with a big confident grin. I did not echo her feeling.
“Close your eyes and try to breathe.”
Rolling my shoulders, I tried to relax as I closed my eyes. It was just a few spices. No big deal.
The pain began deep within my chest and rolled outwards until it felt as though someone was peeling the tendons away from my fingers. Breathing was entirely forgotten as a concept. My entire body was being stripped into tiny little pieces, and there was nothing I could do about it. The scream was lodged in my throat, choking me.
And then it was over. I gulped down air and tried to move. Everything seemed intact. Slowly opening my eyes, I checked myself over and found I was still human shaped. No blood. No shards of bone.
“There. Now you’ll pass as a witch. We need to go now, though,” Amy said brightly.
“Did you know how much it would hurt?” I hissed.
Sky shrugged and smiled.
“You survived.” She started to turn away. “Can you honestly tell me you wouldn’t have done it? Knowing that Cole’s out there preparing to be sacrificed?”
I narrowed my eyes at her. I was really starting to understand why garou and witches didn’t get along.
5
I could feel the glamour within me. The expectation had been that it would sit against my face or skin like an odd suit or mask. No. It was closer to a chestburster that sat deep within me, its claws wrapped around what I assumed was my guardian magic. There was a faint sensation of dread in the back of my mind as I tried to ignore it. Things hadn’t exactly gone well for those who had had real chestbursters. A magical one had to be worse.
Amy kept drumming her fingers on the steering wheel as we got closer to the library. She was driving just over the speed limit and took the corners fast enough that I was sure we were up on two wheels at least twice.
“This is our only chance to get into the library. The glamour won’t last long, and I’m pretty sure that I’ll be banned from the vicinity once we’re done.”
I raised an eyebrow at her. What on Earth could the quiet little witch have done?
She smirked at me.
“I’m not as innocent as people think.”
“Now I need to know.”
She laughed.
“Another time. So, let me do the talking and act casual.”
“I can do that.”
“You’re a witch from out of town, and we’re just doing a little study. Nothing to catch any attention.”
Sounded great to me. I didn’t want to be near any more witches than I had to, and I certainly didn’t want to try and talk to one.
Amy took a deep breath as she turned the engine off. She was tense and entirely focused on the building before us. I didn’t think I’d seen her quite so wound up before, and this was far more than going up against the Apophis witch.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
“I’m wearing a glamour, too. I’m already banned from the building.”
I laughed. I had to. The situation was so ridiculous that if I didn’t laugh I’d cry.
“Is this better or worse than when we crept in after hours?”
“I’m not sure... “
Amy chewed on her bottom lip as she gripped the steering wheel in a death grip. Her usual bold spark seemed to have dulled some. There was a jitteriness to her that I was unfamiliar with. We hadn’t known each other that long, but she’d always been a bold, kind, steady witch. She’d been becoming my anchor, and yet in that moment she looked as though she were being consumed from within.
I got out of the car. Our glamours had a time limit on them. Figuring out what was wrong with Amy would just have to wait. We were there for a reason, and I needed to focus on that.
As far as I was aware, we were looking into Apophis’s magic and the god himself to try and get some clues about where he’d taken Cole. And how to get him out. That didn’t seem too difficult. I knew that Apophis witches were illegal, which made me question why the witch council hadn’t come down hard on him far sooner
. The sensation that we were missing a large part of the picture wouldn’t leave me. None of this was quite adding up.
“Witches can feel each other, right? The same way garou can feel other shifters?” I whispered.
“Yea,” Amy whispered back.
“So why hasn’t someone stepped in with this Apophis witch before? How has he gotten this far?”
Amy wrinkled her nose.
“The witch community is far more corrupt and broken than those on the council would have you believe. There’s a pretty façade put up for the rest of the supernaturals, but within it is a dark and broken world.”
I wished I could have been surprised. It sounded as though the community was far more corrupt than I could have imagined, though, to allow an Apophis witch to go as far as to become an avatar for that god. If I remembered my Egyptian mythology correctly, Apophis would swallow the sun and plunge the world into darkness and chaos. The witches had told me that an avatar for the gods would have the magic of a minor god. So, while the witch might not be able to swallow the entire sun, there was a pretty good chance he’d be able to plunge the U.S. into darkness and chaos.
Amy led the way to the front entrance. Everything about the place set my teeth on edge. I knew that I shouldn’t be there, that I didn’t belong. In the darkness, there had been a weirdness to it, but in the broad daylight I could feel the wrongness. It must have been the magic disguising it, but there was something about the appearance that my eye wouldn’t settle on.
The more I tried to focus on the simple building, the more my eye slid off it and my feet tried to carry me far, far, away. The glamour clamped down harder on my insides and I tried not to gasp and draw attention to myself. It wasn’t the pain so much as the sensation of the glamour being a living breathing thing hiding within me.
We walked quickly through the front door and into an entrance far grander than the one we’d used last time we were there. Gone was the high-school chic. This was more akin to a top-end conference building. Shiny marble coated the floors and the walls had a soft cream sheen to them with flickers of gold. The sense of not belonging almost overwhelmed me. Holding my head higher, I followed Amy past the guard, a delicate-looking woman that I had no doubt could take my head off without a thought. The witch couldn’t have been more than five foot, but my instincts screamed at me to run and hide. I didn’t dare look at her.
Garou did not belong in that place, and I became more and more aware of that with every breath I took within the confines of that space. It felt as though eyes were watching every tiny movement I took. When I stepped foot on the bottom of the stairs, I had a sudden horrifying feeling that someone nearby could read my thoughts.
Swallowing the ridiculous fear down, I told myself witches couldn’t do that. I had no idea if it was true, but I needed my focus to be absolute for Cole’s sake. Allowing that place to drive me out, or worse drive me mad, would not get him back.
Amy led the way up the broad staircase that led to the library proper. To my dismay, the interior was positively bustling with witches. I’d been quietly hoping that perhaps they’d be away with their covens, or dancing naked around a tree or something. This whole being here semi-legitimately thing wasn’t looking quite so good any more. Admittedly, the sneaking in plan hadn’t quite worked out, but at least I hadn’t needed to pretend I was a witch.
“We have just under an hour,” Amy whispered.
I was realising just how little I knew about witches and witch magic as I looked around at the library before me. Witches were clustered around the small tables that I didn’t remember being there before. More of them wandered down the aisles and gossiped about the gods. I was completely screwed if one of them wanted to talk magic with me. They could fit what I knew about witch magic into a thimble.
I sighed and looked around at the mass of bookshelves. There were tens of thousands of books in there, and we had to find the right ones. There must have been a system there, but I had no idea what it was. I looked around for a handy sign saying ‘ways to defeat the Apophis witch this way’ but I didn’t see one. There could well have been one woven into the magic that thrummed throughout the place.
Amy took my elbow and led me down along the left edge of the room. The shelves were humming softly, a delicate tune that was almost familiar. I wanted to pause and listen to it, but something told me that would end in pain. Everything about that place seemed designed to keep my kind out.
“They wove siren magic into the wards,” Amy whispered.
That seemed cruel and unusual. From what I knew of sirens, I guessed that meant I would be called to touch the wards thus giving myself away, and then I’d either be locked into place by the beautiful song or have my eardrums burst by the awful sound. I couldn’t quite remember how sirens worked.
Frowning, I realised that meant sirens existed; they must have been a form of fae. There were so many types of fae that I had no clue about. When this was all over and done, I was going to set aside some time to really research the magical community and how to defeat all of them.
We stopped in the dark corner of the library and stood before a shelf that was far taller than I was.
“So, what exactly am I looking for?” I asked Amy as I scanned the titles before me.
Most of them weren’t in English, which made me suspect the interior wasn’t either.
“Anything on Apophis.”
“Do you happen to know how to spell his name in hieroglyphics?”
Amy, being ever prepared, pulled out her phone and showed me exactly that. She remained tense, with her mouth pressed into a thin line. It bugged me to see her usual effervescence gone.
We split up, taking half of the bookshelf each. I began at the bottom, scanning along the leather-bound covers looking for something recognisable. Amy worked next to me in an efficient and methodical manner. She ran her fingertips over the bindings of the books as she scanned their titles with a look of deep concentration on her face.
I didn’t dare touch the books until I finally saw one with a mention of Apophis in English. The library was putting me on edge and I didn’t want anything more to do with it than I absolutely had to.
“Apophis is a dark god. They don’t like keeping too much information on him,” Amy said.
“I thought this was the library with all of the witch information?”
“It is, but you need special access to get into the restricted stuff.”
“How do we get there?”
“We don’t,” Amy said tightly.
“Why not?” I said, not willing to let this go.
If that was where the information we needed was, then that was where we were going to be.
“Because we don’t have the time to try.”
“And why would you be interested in Apophis?” a bright and peppy voice asked.
I held in my groan. Why couldn’t people mind their own business?
“We’re studying the broader pantheon,” Amy said without looking at the other witch.
She kept her focus entirely on the books before her and spoke in a flat disinterested tone. I hoped the witch would take the hint and leave us alone.
I pulled down a thick book covered in deep tan leather. The title had been embossed long ago and a scent of age and dust wrapped around it.
The peppy witch just stood there watching us. The desire to growl and chase her off grew with every moment she remained there.
“You’re being creepy,” I finally snapped.
“I don’t recognise either of you,” the witch pushed.
“We’re from out of town,” I said sweetly.
My attempt at being sugary and sending her away with sweetness was failed before it had begun. I shouldn’t have snapped at her, but my temper was running short.
“Oh, how wonderful. Which covens do you belong to?”
The young witch looked positively gleeful. She even did a little clap of delight. We were doomed.
“Ma’at and Odin, now if you wouldn�
��t mind...” Amy said pointedly.
“Odin, I hadn’t heard of any Odin witches being in the area.” She looked at my hands as I picked out another book. “I don’t see the runes on your hands.”
Of course there was something missing. I didn’t blame Amy. There were limits, and we didn’t have time to cover every little detail. I needed to think on my feet and send this damn witch packing before she figured out we didn’t belong there.
“I thought I’d be a little different,” I said with a grin.
The witch put her hands on her hips, and I knew I was done for. She didn’t believe me for a second. It looked as though witches didn’t think for themselves. I should have known that. They were bound to literal gods, and gods weren’t all that flexible in the myths. There was a lot of smiting and awful vengeful stuff.
“Odin is not a forgiving master. I don’t believe he would allow a witch to go against tradition,” the peppy witch said.
I turned to really look at her. She was in her late teens with perfectly coiffed blue-black hair and dark brown eyes. Her dress was simple and expensive, if the tailoring was to be believed. I pursed my lips and held my wolf in check.
“Are you daring to question what Odin has said to me?” I asked with a sweet smile.
She faltered. The corners of her eyes creased for a moment while the cogs whirred in her mind. There was a chance I was going to get away with this after all.
“Are you, yourself, an Odin witch? Have you dealt with him to understand his wishes, desires, and plans for his witches?” I pushed.
Maybe I was going too far, but I needed her to leave us alone. We hadn’t managed to crack open one single book yet.
“Well, no, but I have studied a lot.”
I snorted.
“Odin is known to love his runes and the markings they leave upon his witch’s skin. They also help them channel and focus their magic, while providing quick and easy communication with him.”
I took a step closer to her, feeling my inner predator rise as her confidence weakened. She was suspicious, but she was also doubting herself. I needed to give her a good firm shove to send her packing.
