The Horned Mage: Books 1-5

by Hayden Harper

  “What’s the cost?” Jadeite demanded.

  I looked back and forth between them. I guess I’d thought that with the pixie bound through a magical contract to serve Jadeite that answering questions would be a natural part of their relationship. Apparently I was wrong. Trixie indeed. Bitch.

  “A boon for each answer,” Trixie replied, floating down to hover at eye level with Jadeite. “To be called upon when I so choose.”

  Jadeite narrowed her eyes, raw anger burning in their dark depths. If I were that pixie, I would not have been hovering so close.

  “A single boon,” Jadeite said. “You told me the snake was your enemy. Anything we learn that could hurt her is already a boon to you.”

  The pixie pouted but seemed to consider this. “A boon then. I say when.”

  Jadeite visibly grit her teeth. “You say when. Now tell me.”

  “The she-snake is like our hunter here, blessed thrice over with magical affinities. Water, truth, and obfuscation. She can taste a lie and hide herself from the eye and from magic. She could be in this room and we’d not know it.”

  Now that was utterly terrifying. It also explained the interrogation and how she’d got the drop on me earlier.

  “And my dad,” Jadeite said. “Tell them my dad isn’t the enemy. I’ll pay your boon just to prove him innocent.”

  The pixie frowned again, a deep and genuine frown, all trace of humor gone from her. “The adze is your father’s creature. It is at his mercy, not the other way around.”

  “You’re lying,” Jadeite screamed. “Why would you lie about that?”

  “You know I cannot lie,” the pixie whispered, but in the quiet after Jadeite’s outburst, her voice reverberated like a thunderclap.

  Pain exploded through my chest. Not physical pain, but sharp and distinct. I sensed Lexus’ calling upon our bond, using the magic it provided her with. I felt her fear and sensed that she was hurt, though not how badly. More powerfully still, I felt her magic tugging at me, letting me know unerringly what direction she was in.

  I glanced over and caught Victoria’s eye. She felt it too.

  Simultaneously we rushed to the front of the shop.

  “What’s going on?” Thomas asked, hurrying after us.

  “Lexus,” we said at the same time.

  I continued. “She’s hurt.”

  Victoria pushed her way outside and expelled a gout of green flame from her mouth. The fires engulfed her and emerged as an enormous, saddle-patterned giant canine. I climbed aboard, fingers digging into the mane of fur about her neck and shoulders.

  Thomas made to follow me onto her back but Jadeite pulled him out of the way. “There’s only room for two on her back and that’s my sister in danger.”

  Thomas looked like he wanted to argue but instead gave a nod of understanding. “I’ll catch you up.”

  I met his eye and gave him a nod of thanks. He returned it. I really didn’t know much about Thomas, but I knew then that I trusted him.

  Without another word, we took off.

  # # #

  Lexus was waiting for us back at Eleanor’s house, a little bruised but already healing. From what Lexus told us, she’d been attacked by Mr. Glow on her way home from school. The werewolf magic Victoria had infected her with had already healed the wounds he’d managed to inflict, though not the trauma of the event.

  If trauma was the right word. Lexus was in a rage the likes of which I’d never seen. To hear her tell it, Mr. Glow had sucker punched her out of nowhere and nearly dropped her then and there. Apparently he hadn’t realized what she was and she’d got him right back, transforming and, depending on the telling (we heard it at least seven times), nearly burning him to a crisp or ripping off a body part (usually his arm). Maybe she really had. Either way, there was no way she was topping what Trixie the pixie had done to him. Just thinking about that made me want to squeeze my legs together. If nothing else about the last few days gave me nightmares that would.

  We caught Lexus up on what had happened to me, including and most embarrassingly, what had occurred with her mom at Mr. Glow’s direction. At this, her rage, which had begun to dwindle, roared to life with renewed fire.

  “He did what to you two?” Her voice ignited with a series of curses I had never thought anyone capable of producing. She whirled on Jadeite, storming over to her stepsister and getting right up on her face, eyes glowing with emerald fury. “Your father and his pet vampire are hurting my mom!”

  Jadeite had never been one to back down, especially not from her younger stepsibling, but here she shrank in on herself. Her eyes fell to the ground, unable to hold up under the weight of Lexus’ gaze.

  “It’s always you, isn’t it? Always fucking you!” Lexus shoved her sister with more force than her lean frame suggested she should be capable of and Jadeite stumbled back a good yard before falling on her butt.

  “Why can’t you be more like Jadeite?” Lexus demanded, imitating her mother’s voice. “Focus on your grades so you can go to college like Jadeite. Stay out of trouble and read books like Jadeite. You’re more her daughter than I am and you let that man—”

  I grabbed her from behind and spun her around. Lexus didn’t resist, instead burying her face, wet with streaming tears, into my chest. She screamed, “He has my mom!”

  My magic rose within me, answering her rage with my own. It had been building in me from the moment we discovered the underwear and dog leashes hung out like trophies at the abandoned cantina. I wanted to crush Crimson’s throat beneath my foot while I poured fire down on his face until even the skull crumpled into ashes.

  My magic urged me to hunt him down, to set Victoria and Lexus upon him the way I had set them to tracking Lexus’ friends before, and then once we’d tracked him down, burn him. Feed them his charred remains. No one would ever find the body. Everything wrong he’d committed would be avenged. The thought was as satisfying as a home cooked meal.

  I almost gave in to it. I was reaching within myself to call upon my hunting spell when I caught sight of Jadeite’s face.

  Tears ran down her cheeks in twin rivers. She was about ready to come undone.

  After everything she knew he had done, Crimson was still her father.

  He deserved everything my magic wanted to do to him and more, but he was still her father. If I did what I so very much wanted to do to him in return for his evil—and there was no doubt in my mind that what he was involved in was evil—Jadeite would never forgive me.

  I took a deep, unsteady breath. What had been done to Reagan and me was done. I’d stop him, but I wasn’t going to rush in, metaphorical and mystical guns blazing, and simply end him. If only because the last time I’d used the hunting spell without thinking we’d gotten our asses handed to us by the poltergeist.

  No, if I was going to hunt him, it had to be on my terms. Not his and certainly not my magic’s.

  I stroked Lexus’ hair until she stopped sobbing. She looked up at me, eyes no longer glowing but rimmed with redness from crying.

  “I’ve got a plan,” I told her. “But I need you for it to work. Are you up for it?”

  Slowly she nodded. “If it gets Mom back, yeah.”

  “Alright,” I said. “Here’s what we’re going to do….”

  Chapter Eleven

  It probably said something really bad about us that no one even once suggested that we call the police.

  Instead we set our trap and waited. Lexus had called Crimson in tears, telling him she’d been attacked and couldn’t get in touch with anyone. He’d asked where she was and she’d told him. I’d made it a point to clear the furniture either out of Eleanor’s living room entirely or at least push it to the sides. Hopefully it would avoid the damage that had been done to the last home I’d fought in. Not that there should be much of a fight.

  Eleanor had all kinds of useful materials in her office, though calling it an office was a bit of an understatement. More li
ke workroom, laboratory, and studio all rolled into one. Technically we weren’t supposed to go in there. Technically I didn’t give a rat’s ass because our lives were on the line and Jadeite needed the material to lay a ritual trap for restless spirits, aka, the undead. This included Mr. Glow as adze were some sort of vampire. Given that he was a strain from Africa though, and not the more familiar Eastern European variety, we weren’t entirely sure how the spell would affect him. In theory he would fall over and become a corpse until the spell was lifted. In practice all we needed was a few moments of distraction and we’d roast him.

  Lexus and Victoria were transformed and lying in wait on either side of the entryway, hidden from the front door’s view. Jadeite and me hid further in, her ready to set loose the spell, me to support the girls with fire. The land’s power coursed through me, invigorating me and fueling my magic. That was the main reason we had to do this here. I wasn’t in good shape. Whatever crutch I could get I would take.

  By concentrating our efforts, I hoped we’d be able to take out Mr. Glow easily. I may have struggled with him by myself, but I’d been weakened and caught off guard. And Lexus had gotten away from him on her own. That said something about his abilities compared to my werewolf-cu sith girls.

  The sound of a car parking up the street reached my ears and a moment later Trixie appeared in front of me and Jadeite. Apparently veiling herself and scouting for Jadeite was worked into their contract because she hadn’t argued with Jadeite’s orders.

  “They’re here,” she said. “Crimson’s staying in the car but Mr. Glow is headed for the front door.”

  We nodded.

  “He’s not like an Eastern European vampire,” Jadeite whispered. She was breathing hard, holding a crystal rod in one hand and a heavy stone bound in a rope made of twisted sage leaves in the other. I couldn’t begin to wonder about what they did exactly or how they interacted with the bits and pieces of other things she’d scattered throughout the house. Apparently they would all work together to create a magical cage, or a literal “dead zone” for the undead. “He doesn’t have to wait to be invited in.”

  She’d said all this before but I didn’t call her on it. I could taste her fear and hated that a part of me found it arousing. I wanted to make her my prey, to run her down and claim her for my own. I held my tongue, shoved down my completely inappropriate desires, and let her process. Whatever helped to calm her down wasn’t something I was going to interfere with.

  It was a shame that the sun wouldn’t roast the vampire. As summer drew closer night was taking longer and longer to arrive. Hopefully he’d at least be weakened by its presence outside. At the very least, Trixie said that the damage she’d inflicted would have taken a lot of energy for him to recover. I tried, and failed, not to think about what that might mean for Reagan.

  Hs shadow fell over the door window and without hesitating he shoved it open, breaking the lock and nearly tearing the frame from its hinges as he burst inside. His eyes glowed with yellow light and his fangs were bared. There was something manic about his appearance that should have made him terrifying. Except that he’d been so much more horrifying before, when he’d been completely in control. By contrast, this fury bespoke weakness.

  Once he’d been in control. Now he wasn’t and was less scary because of it. Or at least, I thought so. Jadeite apparently didn’t agree because she let out a little yelp and dropped the crystal rod to the floor with a clink.

  Lexus and Victoria leapt from their hiding places and Mr. Glow’s savage expression was replaced by one of unadulterated panic as the girls bore down on him, green flames licking from their open maws. Victoria reached him first, going in low to take his feet out from under him.

  She was abruptly airborne, flying over Lexus to land in the empty living room behind Jadeite and I. Flames roared from her mouth and she snapped at the air.

  Not the air, I realized a second too late. A shadow. Either the poltergeist from earlier hadn’t been killed or this was a new one. Either way, the empty room provided few things it could hurl about, especially with Victoria’s fangs and flames brought to bear upon it.

  I rushed to her aid, remembering exactly how dangerous that thing had been before. If it got loose the entire house would be weaponized against us. With Mr. Glow in the picture there was a good chance we wouldn’t survive that.

  Mere feet away I blasted the pair of them with my fire, energizing and strengthening Victoria and torching the poltergeist. The land’s magic raced through me and laced my fire with still more strength. But the shadow in the fire didn’t stop wriggling or trying to escape Victoria’s fangs or shrieking.

  Shouting behind me alerted me that something was coming my way and I ducked just in time as Lexus and Mr. Glow tumbled past, grappling and biting each other. I split the difference of my fire between my girls, bathing them and their opponents. Mr. Glow’s shrieking joined the poltergeist’s. There were few things in the world, magical or otherwise, that liked fire.

  But neither one of them was giving up. They struggled, thrashed, bit, slithered, and clawed. Blood flew, theirs and the girls. My flames sputtered. I was exhausted and the continued stream was proving difficult to maintain. I pushed on. If either one got loose we were dead.

  Chanting sounded from the entryway and a burst of energy washed over us with a little tingle. Jadeite had pulled herself together and cast her spell. The poltergeist ceased resisting and Mr. Glow momentarily stiffened. That was all it took. The girls ripped them apart. Mr. Glow lost limb after limb, each ripped away and hurled across the room in arcs of gelatinous blood. Once apart from the main body and exposed to my flames, they ignited, erupting into clouds of sparks and ash.

  The Poltergeist’s end was less dramatic. The more Victoria bit at it the less of it there was until my flames simply evaporated it.

  The girls turned toward me, doggy grins on their muzzles. We’d done it. My plan had worked.

  I grinned back at them. “That wasn’t so hard.”

  The now familiar click of a gun made me whirl around.

  Crimson had Jadeite in a headlock and was pressing the muzzle of a gun into her braids.

  Terror and rage filled me. To my back, both girls snarled, the sounds like twin truck engines rumbling through the house. It made my chest rumble and fueled my anger.

  “You are going to stay right there,” said Crimson, taking a step back.

  I took an unsteady step forward.

  He brandished the gun but didn’t remove it from Jadeite. “I mean it. You are going to stay right there and me and my little girl are going to have a daddy-daughter heart-to-heart.”

  He stepped back and once again I stepped forward.

  “Are you fucking deaf, boy? I will fucking kill her.”

  Jadeite stiffened in his arms. He didn’t seem to notice.

  “The moment you hurt her, you die,” I said, the heat came out of me not in an explosive burst, but controlled and concentrated, my words cutting like a plasma torch.

  “Bitch, you need to reexamine the fucking playing field,” Crimson said. “I have a hostage. I will kill her if you don’t do what I say.”

  “What you have is a temporary reprieve.” The words sounded so much calmer coming out than they felt inside of me. “I do what you say, you’ll kill her when you’re gone. You’re only alive so long as she stays unhurt.”

  Crimson shook his head and took another step back. I followed, matching his step. The girls didn’t bother. Lexus, green flames lighting up her pure white coat, came to my side, teeth and flames bared. Victoria turned around and vanished into another part of the house. Instinctively I understood that she was moving to cut off his escape route.

  Another step back into the empty doorframe.

  I matched him with another step.

  A gunshot tore through the night.

  Crimson and Jadeite toppled over. The gun in his hands went off when it hit the ground, but the bullet flew harmless
ly into the wall. Jadeite screamed and kicked her way free of her father just as I reached her and she grabbed hold of me.

  I pulled her close and reached out with one hand to let fly a blast of flame at Crimson but he was already on his feet. Blood blossomed from his shoulder where he’d been shot. Victoria came around the side of the house and Thomas stepped out from the neighbor’s bushes across the street, his father’s rifle aimed and readied to be fired again. I’d been surprised to learn he was such a good shot considering he spent almost all of his time on the computer. I’d been further surprised that he’d been so willing to involve himself in our problem. My estimation of Thomas had grown that night.

  Crimson whirled around, disoriented and agonized. I was sorry the shot hadn’t killed him. I had asked Thomas to set up there as a last resort, just in case. I hadn’t actually expected him to have to use the gun and halfway hadn’t expected it to be effective. Effective or not, it had been much too close to Jadeite for my liking. Or was Thomas so good a shot that he’d deliberately targeted the shoulder so that Crimson wouldn’t be able to shoot Jadeite? I’d have to ask him later.

  Crimson fell, but then was back on his feet, gun in his other hand. I threw Jadeite to the ground and dove atop her as the gun went off, expecting to feel pain at any moment. It never came.

  I raised my head and to find Crimson running down the street, propelled to inhuman speed by some sort of magic. Victoria rushed across the street and returned to human form in a burst of green fire. I’d expected her to give chase, what was she…Thomas lay unmoving on the ground. She fell to her knees beside him.

  Lexus was at our side a moment later.

  “I got her,” she said. “Victoria’s got Thomas. You go after Crimson.”

  I wanted to argue, but he was running. There wasn’t anything I could do here. If he got away now, this whole thing would start over again. My girls would be in danger. Jadeite’s family would be in danger. This had to end now.

  My magic leapt to fill my body and senses as I took off after him, propelling me forward with the same urgency as before, when I’d been following the girls. I was on the hunt. I knew without actually knowing where Crimson was going, knew from a thousand miniscule details that I’d never be able to point out to someone else, that I was gaining on him.