Without waiting for the Mage Lord’s reply, she marched out of the guild with Everett at her side. I had to admire her courage in defying the entire mage council, but then again, Lady Harper had done the same. Frequently. Isabel and I followed closely behind, assuming we weren’t exempt from the invitation.
“Agnes,” I said. “I just wanted to thank you. For saving my life, when I was poisoned.”
“Ah, so you did figure it out,” she said. “Not long after, I was invited to an audience with the Mage Lord.”
“And he handed you over to the dragons,” Isabel concluded. “I can’t believe the nerve of him.”
Agnes held up the pendant, which shimmered with orange-gold light. “I have to thank you in return for handing me this. I wouldn’t have escaped without it.”
“That’s what protected you from the dragons’ flames?” Isabel said, fascination in her tone. “Is it a spell, or—”
“A gift,” Agnes interjected. “And we cannot delay if as much time has passed as I fear. Your second soul, Jas… where is she?”
“Not around.” I hurried to catch her up. Agnes walked bloody fast for someone about three times my age. “She broke our bond, stole my Hemlock magic, and escaped into the other realm to find the Ancients and destroy them.”
Agnes cursed in an unfamiliar language. “So that’s how you found your way to us. I did wonder. When the mages took me captive, the mirror was in their possession.”
“I know,” I said. “You’ve missed a lot. Evelyn… she didn’t turn out to be what the Hemlocks expected. She turned against me and captured two of our friends. You know Ilsa Lynn?”
“Ilsa?” said Agnes. “Evelyn took her? She’s a ghost without a body, is she not?”
“She has an army of furies answering to her,” I said. “We’re doing our best to track her down, but in the meantime, the Hemlocks’ curse is starting to affect me. Even though Evelyn has all the magic, she’s a ghost, so it doesn’t affect her at all.”
“The curse?” echoed Agnes.
I pushed up my sleeve, revealing the grey-brown markings. To my alarm, they’d already begun to spread to my elbow. I’d hoped Asher’s spell might have slowed the curse, but if anything, it’d accelerated while I’d been in the other realm.
Everett swore. “That looks like a blood curse, but… I’ve never seen one close up before.”
“Jas!” shouted a voice. Wanda hurried behind me, clutching a stitch in her side.
I halted. “What is it?”
“The mages found Lord Sutherland dead in his cell,” she gasped out.
“Don’t look at me,” I said. “I’ve been a world away.”
“He was killed by… by…” Wanda swallowed. “By something not human, I think. The guards are in shock, so it was hard to get any sense out of them.”
Something not human?
Oh, shit. The Soul Collector was back. And I’d bet his next stop would be the necromancer guild.
I turned to Agnes and Everett. “The Soul Collector is an Ancient who can possess and kill anyone, and he targets powerful souls. It’s too risky for you to come back with me.”
“Do what you have to do,” said Isabel. “I’ll make sure Agnes and Everett reach the safe house in one piece.”
If the other two had any arguments to make, I didn’t hear them. I was already hurrying back in the direction of the guild, a breathless Wanda at my side. Aches spread through my body. My exhaustion was starting to catch up on me, especially as I couldn’t use Hemlock magic to heal myself, but I refused to let the Soul Collector hurt my friends.
“I can’t believe he came back,” I said breathlessly. “I thought the coward was lying low.”
“He killed my grandmother,” Wanda said. “It’s not surprising that he’ll want to take out the competition.”
“He’s after the psychics. Or maybe the Briars.” Making a deal with Lord Sutherland was the least of his transgressions, but he had a fixation on Mackie after she’d spent years as his captive, forced to help him commit crimes.
Yet for all that, I’d thought Evelyn would be his first target. She’d been the one to turn on him at the last second and destroy his weapon, after all.
I burst through the doors into the necromancer guild’s lobby to find panic erupting, necromancers running in all directions. Scanning the spirit realm, I spotted the psychics on the upper level and took off in that direction.
He’d better not hurt Mackie again.
Taking the stairs two at a time, I barely stopped to breathe before sprinting into the training room. Morgan and Lloyd stood side by side, wielding knives, while Mackie hunched in the corner.
“Where is he?” I asked.
“He attacked Mackie and disappeared.” Morgan’s hand clenched around the knife’s hilt. “Come out and fight me, you wanker.”
“You know you can’t stab him, don’t you?” I tapped into the spirit realm, tensing at a faint movement behind me, but it was only the faerie puppy.
Mackie rose to her feet with a guttural noise, blue-white light suffusing her eyes. “You will pay for what you did to me, Hemlock.”
“Get out of Mackie’s body,” I warned. “You want Evelyn, not me, and she’s gone.”
The puppy lunged at the Soul Collector, passing straight through Mackie and into the mass of shadows possessing her. Mackie let out a startled gasp, and the Soul Collector broke free, his shimmering form lodged in the faerie dog’s mouth.
Morgan stared. “Damn. He bit the dead guy.”
“What is this?” demanded the Soul Collector.
“We have a demon puppy and we know how to use it,” said Lloyd. “Consider yourself warned.”
The Soul Collector snarled in rage, fighting against the faerie dog’s teeth. “You will pay for this.”
Mackie screamed. The vibration along the spirit line hit the Soul Collector face-on, knocking him sprawling onto his back. The demon puppy gave another flying leap, his teeth penetrating the Soul Collector’s ghostly form.
Morgan snickered. “He’s scared of a puppy. Not so tough now, are you?”
“You killed Lord Sutherland,” I said to the Soul Collector. “Any particular reason? I thought you and he were buddies.”
“He betrayed my kin,” he growled. “He left them behind in the lab those hateful humans set up to torment us.”
“Yes, he did,” I said. “That’s why I was surprised you supported him to begin with. Unless it was all about revenge on Evelyn and me.”
His eyes flared bright blue. “Evelyn will pay for her betrayal.”
“Get in line,” I said. “She betrayed me, too.”
“Then perhaps we can be of use to one another.”
“No fucking chance,” said Morgan, and Lloyd nodded in agreement.
“Wait.” I held up a hand. “You didn’t happen to run into any other Ancients while you were in the other realm, did you? Because that’s where Evelyn is right now. She’s going to kill all of you.”
Crap. It’d slipped my mind that he knew the other Ancients, and he might well be able to guess who Evelyn would target. Not to mention, his ability to track down psychics extended to her, too.
The Soul Collector fixed his gaze on me. “You seek to bargain with me?”
“Maybe I do.”
“No, she doesn’t,” said Mackie. “You possessed me, you sick creep.”
The Soul Collector smiled. “Yes, I imagine it would be no trouble for me to find your wayward alter ego. She stole some friends of yours, did she? How loyal.”
“You know where Ilsa is?” Morgan’s eyes widened. “You’re lying, aren’t you?”
“Perhaps, or perhaps not,” said the Soul Collector. “Maybe if you hand over your little friend again, I’ll consider telling you.”
“Stay away from Mackie!” I said. “If you’re going to try to steal anyone’s soul, try me. In fact, you’re welcome to.”
I was already cursed. What was making a bargain with an Ancient compared to spending a
n eternity trapped in a forest?
The Soul Collector turned to me, his blue-grey eyes lighting up with amusement. “Doomed, are we, Jacinda? Desperate enough to turn to the likes of me? I suppose I might consider helping you out… but I stand by my offer.”
His consciousness slid deep into mine, like a knife through my ribcage, puncturing the organs underneath. I crumpled, a sensation like ice-cold water spilling over my very soul. My vision faded out.
Hello, Death, we meet again.
My thoughts swam with confusion, while a pounding headache threatened. Then a familiar vampire’s touch caressed me, urging me to wakefulness. My spirit sight told me two people were in the room—Keir and Isabel.
I cracked an eye open, finding myself lying on a bed in the infirmary at the necromancer guild. “How long have I been out?”
“Eight hours, at least,” said Isabel. “It’s morning.”
“Great.” I rubbed my forehead. “The Soul Collector is a dick. Where did he run off to?”
“After leaving you comatose on the floor, he flew through the mirror again, pursued by a demon puppy,” said Keir. “Your friends caught the puppy before he disappeared, but the Soul Collector didn’t come back. And by the way, there’s also an irritated witch-mage who keeps calling Isabel asking to talk to you.”
“Agnes.” I pushed upright and winced at the pain in my head. “Please say someone has a healing spell.”
“I do,” said Isabel. “I also brought cookies.”
“You’re a lifesaver,” I said.
“I do this with Ivy all the time.” She handed me the spell and a paper bag. “Be careful until the spell kicks in, okay? You’ll have a sore head for a while. That means no getting into fights, Jas, got it?”
You didn’t argue with a cookie-wielding coven leader who’d made Ivy Lane of all people sit down and listen. I activated the healing spell, then I sat up. “Okay, I’m going to my room to shower and change out of these clothes. Keir, I think Agnes will want to speak with me and Isabel alone, but we can catch up later.”
“Oh, I know,” he said. “I’m here to talk to your boss, actually, but I thought I’d check in and make sure you were okay. You got hit pretty hard.”
“That’s what I get for trying to have a friendly chat with the Soul Collector.” I swung my legs over the side of the bed and hugged him. “I’ll see you later, okay? I want to hear what Agnes has to say.”
“Sure.” He hugged me back, then swiped a cookie from the paper bag. “I expect an update.”
I didn’t miss how his gaze lingered on the grey-brown patches on my wrists before he left the infirmary.
Isabel cleared her throat. “I’ll text Agnes and tell her to meet us here in half an hour.”
“You have her number?” I said. “I can’t believe half my friends met her without knowing she was a Briar witch.”
“Not me,” said Isabel. “I got her number while you were making ill-advised bargains with the Soul Collector.”
Touché. “All right, I’ll see you in a bit.”
When I’d showered and changed, I walked down to find Agnes waiting in the entrance hall with Isabel, shooting irritable looks at passing novices.
“This is far too public a meeting place,” she remarked, declining when I offered her one of Isabel’s cookies. “We’ll walk. Try to keep up.”
“Hey, I nearly got killed by a disembodied Ancient yesterday.” I took out a cookie and munched on it, leading the way out into the cobbled street.
“As far as I heard, you did get killed,” Agnes admonished. “It sounds like you’re lucky to have survived our absence.”
Isabel smiled. “She’s not wrong.”
“Guess it’s lucky someone gave me nine lives.” I turned left down the street. “Would have been nice if they’d given me an easier way to contact you. I didn’t know you existed until I found out Lady Harper’s maiden name and then asked around.”
Agnes snorted. “How inconvenient that I got myself captured by a degenerate mage who wanted to steal from my shop at an inopportune moment.”
Yeah, she’s definitely related to Lady Harper.
“Lord Sutherland stole it in person, then?” I asked. “I know you had the mirror before he moved it to the lab…”
“His people barged into my shop and stole it,” he said. “I expect he got my contact details from his dragon shifter allies.”
“Why would they ally with him?” I said. “I guess you weren’t here when he used bits of the Moonbeam to force shifters to commit murder, then attempted to make every unregistered witch in the city sign a register.”
“Sounds like him,” said Agnes. “Too fond of power, that one. I’m glad he’s dead.”
Isabel’s mouth pulled. “You and Everett are married, right? But you’re not a coven. Covens require three people…”
“They do,” said Agnes. “Yes, we’re married. I’m the only person from the Briar bloodline who survived the invasion, except your late mentor, Jas. We live in an isolated village, and we didn’t realise anyone had targeted your coven until—”
“I got poisoned.”
“Well, yes,” she said. “I sent people to rescue you… I’m not Cordelia’s biggest fan, suffice to say. But shortly afterwards, the Mage Lord paid an unexpected visit to my home.”
“Dickhead,” I said. “I’m glad you survived. Why did the dragons leave you alive, anyway?”
“They didn’t intend to kill me, only silence me, and then you took care of the issue by handing me this.” She held up the pendant. “It’s one of few items that’s impervious to dragonfire. The dragons had no intention of negotiating with us. They wanted whatever Lord Sutherland offered, and they were content to leave us to rot in the meantime. That left us with no way to send you warning of Lord Sutherland’s treachery.”
“But you knew about Evelyn.” I looked at her. “Right? You know she was bound to me as a baby.”
Something clicked into place. Cordelia had said that someone from the Briar Coven had brought me to the forest to have the ritual performed on me. But if these two were the only Briar witches, that meant it must have been Agnes.
Her eyes shadowed as though she’d guessed my thoughts. “One of my many regrets, Jacinda. Or should I call you Jas?”
“I go by Jas Lyons now. But I guess you knew that. You were spying on me…”
“From a distance,” she said. “I don’t live in Edinburgh, though I have eyes there who watch out for trouble. Your friend Ilsa would have told you my identity, had she known it was me you were looking for.”
“It wasn’t really your fault,” Isabel said. “Since you were kidnapped.”
“Well, yeah,” I said. “I should have put two and two together sooner, but Lady Harper left no clues behind after her death except a journal nobody can read and a map to nowhere.”
“That sounds like her,” said Agnes. “The two of us weren’t close. Alice was difficult to like.”
At least we agreed on one point. “I think she knew what Evelyn would do, or she guessed. Did you know Evelyn, Agnes?”
“Know her?” she said. “I’m the one who taught her to navigate the spirit lines.”
“You?” I stopped mid-step, my heart lurching. “I thought only the Hemlocks could navigate the spirit lines.”
“I had my own way.”
Oh. The mirror. “So—it’s true, then? The Hemlocks used to travel into the other realm all the time? I thought it damaged the spirit lines.”
“They did, before the dragon clan wars,” she said. “Your power, though, is designed to work in sync with the spirit lines, not against them. When it’s used correctly, it shouldn’t cause damage.”
Right… like when I first opened the spirit lines to throw the Soul Collector out. It was Lord Sutherland’s Ether Converter which had done the real damage, not my Hemlock magic.
“Lady Harper went there, too,” I said. “Her journal said. But—were the Ancients living in that realm, or just the dragon shifters
?”
“The dragon shifters lived alone in their city at the time,” she said. “Most of them were unaware of the Devourer’s existence before the Ancients awakened. When they did so, the Hemlocks were forced to use their own magic to lock the Devourer out of this realm.”
She fell silent for an instant, leading the way down a winding cobbled street. I hardly noticed where we walked, I was so focused on her words.
“Why them?” I asked. “I mean—why did they have to be the ones to make the sacrifice? Because our power comes from the gods themselves, right? That’s what Cordelia implied, but she hates giving me straight answers.”
Agnes turned to Isabel. “You’re aware that a typical coven has a set amount of protective magic, given to one coven leader, right?”
Isabel gave a wary nod. “Yes. The coven leader wields the magic, and if they die or abdicate, the Second takes their place. But what does this have to do with the Hemlocks?”
“The Hemlocks used to be the same,” said Agnes. “Their coven leader had a direct link to the source of the Hemlocks’ magic, a wellspring of power. That link enabled them to navigate the spirit lines and travel between worlds at will, as well as affording them the usual coven leader protections.”
“And they got that power by bargaining with the Ancients,” I concluded. “Right? Cordelia hinted that the original purpose of blood magic rituals was to communicate with the gods.”
“Yes,” she said. “Your coven was not the only one to bargain with the Ancients for a share in their power, but they retained that position by being peacekeepers. In fact, you might say they held the covens themselves together. At least, until the mages rose, some few centuries ago. The mages started as a group of elites who saw themselves as superior to us ‘hedge witches’ because they kept their bloodlines to mages only.”
That sounded familiar. “Like Lord Sutherland.”
She made a noise of distaste. “Over time, the covens weakened and lost some of their influence. And then, thirty-one years ago, it all changed.”
“The dragon shifters went to war,” said Isabel. “And… and the Orion League rose.”
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