That was the place our curse had started, after all.
Isabel pulled down her sleeves, concealing a fresh set of blood magic marks. “I think that will work, Jas. I’m ready.”
Morgan held out a grey hoody for the dog to sniff. “This has Ilsa’s scent. Reckon you can recognise its owner if you find her?”
The dog barked. Lloyd petted him, then turned to me. “Get back soon, okay? I don’t want you to get arrested by the mages or stranded in that creepy place.”
“If we get arrested and Evelyn is with me, I’d be more worried for them,” I admitted.
And with that, I stepped through the mirror. Glass crunched beneath my feet, and white fog smothered the hillside. Did it ever get dark here? I knew so little about this realm, yet it felt more like a liminal space than a world in its own right. The absence of the spirit realm, the ever-present fog… none of this was natural. Unless it was all a lingering side effect of the Ancients’ presence and the Hemlocks’ sacrifice.
Keir stepped onto the grass beside me, with Isabel, Morgan and the demon puppy bringing up the rear.
“You know,” said Isabel, “if we wanted to save time, we should have left pieces of this Moonbeam stone closer to our destination.”
“We can do that now,” said Keir, picking up a piece of the silvery glass-like substance and handling it to me. “Leave a trail of breadcrumbs. Or portals.”
“That gives the enemy more openings to follow us out, though,” said Isabel.
“Don’t forget the mirror’s being moved to the mages’ headquarters tomorrow,” Morgan said. “Serve them right if a swarm of furies invades the place.”
Keir handed the others more pieces of stone and took the lead down the hillside into the fog.
“God, this place is dull,” Morgan commented, after a few minutes of walking.
“Watch out for dragons,” I warned. “And please don’t wander off alone. These bits of Moonbeam stone are our only way back.”
“They’ll come in handy if we get separated, too,” added Keir. “Not that I’m planning on wandering off.”
The hillside was eerily quiet, with no signs of life—reptilian or otherwise. We skirted the area where the first dragon shifter had appeared, drawing closer to the X on the map. The fog made it impossible to see any potential obstacles, but it wasn’t the dragons who worried me this time.
Only the demon puppy didn’t seem spooked by the fog or the low visibility levels. While Isabel and I conjured light spells to show the way, the puppy ran ahead, hopefully in pursuit of Ilsa’s trail. My palm tingled as I let the light spell grow brighter. My magic is back. Let’s see Evelyn ignore me this time.
“X marks the spot,” I murmured, veering to the left. “That looks more like a hill than a wellspring.”
Despite the fog, it was definitely the same spot I’d seen in the vision I’d had of Evelyn’s history. The gently sloping hill grew larger as we approached, yet no glowing magical light appeared to guide us.
Is any of their magic still in the cave, or did it all end up in the forest?
The demon puppy let out a short bark. Then, without warning, he broke into a sprint. Morgan ran after him, around the hillside and away from the hidden cave entrance.
“Hey!” I swore. “Dammit, what did I say about not splitting up?”
“Is this it?” Isabel took the lead, using her light spell to show the way through the mist. The cave opening I’d seen in my vision of Evelyn’s past was still in the same place, but the pool within could hardly be called a wellspring. More like a puddle. Green light shone on its rippling surface, but its magic seemed faded, abandoned.
“Jas,” said Isabel. “Uh—my tracking spell isn’t picking up on Ivy. Are you sure she’s here at all?”
I reached into the puddle of magic. “This will get Evelyn’s attention.”
Hoping Morgan and the demon puppy were well out of the way, I tapped into my Hemlock magic, reaching deep into the wellspring.
Immediately, power flooded me, drawn from the puddle of magic into the energy already flowing through my veins. Concealed up my right sleeve, I held the tattoo pen. Once Evelyn got close enough, a single mark would bind us once again.
I straightened, backing out of the cave with my hand still glowing with magic. “Come and get me, Evelyn.”
Two furies descended. My Hemlock magic reacted before my thoughts caught up, a whip appearing in my hands and decapitating them. Blood sprayed the grass as their bodies thumped onto the hillside.
Then Evelyn appeared, her eyes blazing with pure rage at the sight of my glowing hands, and the wellspring behind me. “You traitor.”
15
“I’m the traitor?” I said to Evelyn. “Speak for yourself.”
Two more furies landed on her right-hand side. Isabel ran at them, threads of silvery magic swirling from her marked wrists. Keir made to run at the furies, too—then at the last second, he whirled on Evelyn, his vampire’s grip latching onto her spirit essence.
“What are you doing, vampire?” she hissed.
“You’re taking a major risk by siding with the shadow fury,” he growled at her. “I’m doing this for Jas, not because I enjoy feeding on you.”
Evelyn let out a wordless shriek. Magic exploded from her hands, reacting with the swirling power in the pool behind me with the effect of an earthquake. The ground trembled beneath our feet, and Keir stumbled back into his body, letting go of Evelyn. I conjured a shield to deflect her attack, gripping the tattoo pen in my left hand.
“Give it up,” I told her. “You know that magic is as much mine as yours, and stealing it from me was a dick move.”
“It never should have been yours to begin with,” she said. “And when I have a body of my own again—”
“You won’t.” Keir appeared in his vampire form, holding Evelyn in a death grip once again. “Not unless you’re willing to backstab your allies and risk an army of furies coming down on you. That is, if you’re not hoping Jas takes the fall instead.”
“Maybe I am,” Evelyn said. “I know about the lifeblood requirement and I planned for it. Believe it or not, I never wanted to kill your friends, Jas.”
“You just weren’t bothered if they ended up as collateral damage.” I called magic into my right hand, while behind my back, I used my left hand to ease the lid off the tattoo pen.
Keir’s grip tightened around Evelyn, and a whipcord of magic lashed from my hand around her ankle, dragging her towards me with the effect of a lasso.
And with my free hand, I twisted the tattoo pen around, and pressed the nib to one of the symbols I’d inked on my wrist. It was awkward as hell to do this one-handed, but a single touch ignited the marks on my wrist.
Evelyn’s gaze went to the light pulsing around my left hand. “What are you doing?”
“Binding us.” A grim smile spread across my mouth. “We’re both going down with the sinking ship now, Evelyn.”
Evelyn cursed, squirming free of the whip, but Keir appeared behind her, holding her captive. One last touch ignited the symbols swirling over my hands. With a scream, Evelyn broke free and flew at me, but the binding symbol activated, stopping her dead in her tracks.
“Kill me and you die, too.” Mission accomplished. “The unbinding spell you used was only temporary. I undid it, and our bond is as powerful as it ever was.”
Evelyn’s attack slammed into the hillside instead. I ran out of range, finding Isabel surrounded by the remains of several dead furies.
“You okay?” I asked her.
She nodded. “I still can’t track Ivy. I don’t think she’s here.”
“Damn.” I sought out Evelyn’s glowing form in the fog. Now we were bound, she wouldn’t be able to stray far from me. “Throw all the tantrums you like, Evelyn. You and I are one.”
“Then he’ll take your soul,” she hissed. “And I will take your body as my own.”
The fog darkened, and the shadow fury descended, stealing the breath from my lungs
. His clawed hands waited, hooks designed to snatch souls and feed on them. Without the markings his captors had marked him with, his scales resembled polished obsidian, his wings crooked and bat-like.
I marched towards him, positioning myself between the god and my friends.
“Hey,’ I said. “It’s me.”
The shadow fury hissed, eyeing the bodies of his fallen kin.
“I was defending myself,” I told him. “I want you to let your human captives go. And you’re not to hurt me or anyone else.”
“It’s too late, Jas,” Evelyn snarled in my ear. “Ivy Lane is not here.”
Isabel swore. “Where is she? What the hell did you do with her?”
“Tell us,” I hissed through my teeth. “You crossed the line when you captured my friends. I won’t make allowances for you any longer, and if that means going down with you, then so be it.”
The fury stared at me, perhaps wondering if I was losing my mind. Then again, I had reason enough to wonder the same. I’d doomed myself by binding Evelyn to me again, but what choice did I have?
“You will never win this, Jas,” said Evelyn.
Magic sparked behind me, and the wellspring exploded.
Chunks of grass and dirt flew everywhere, and I threw myself flat to avoid being hit. Keir did likewise, covering my back. The shadow fury took flight in a sweep of wings, while several loud thuds shook the earth. I half expected to look up and see the Devourer peering out of the sky as I had in my vision of Evelyn’s history, but the view remained as foggy as ever.
“What was that in aid of?” I climbed to my feet. “There’s no power left in that wellspring. Not enough for what you need, anyway. And I’m not willing to let you doom us by stealing all the magic in the forest.”
A bark came from the fog, then the demon puppy’s head popped out, followed by a dirt-streaked Morgan. Ilsa appeared a moment later, her face pale and her hair tangled.
“I found her,” he said unnecessarily.
“Do you have your talisman?” I asked Ilsa.
“She does, but there was a dragon up there,” Morgan said.
“She helped me, I told you,” Ilsa said, swaying on the spot. “Your evil cousin hits hard, Jas.”
Then her eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed onto a pile of upturned dirt.
“Damn.” Isabel dropped to her knees beside her. “Ilsa?”
She didn’t stir. The faerie dog pawed at her, while Morgan looked at me in alarm. “Shit.”
“Get her home before the furies come back,” Keir said, taking charge of the situation. “We brought those Moonbeam pieces for a reason.”
“Right.” Isabel reached into her pocket. “I’ll use a healing spell on her when we’re back. I don’t think Ivy is here.”
But Evelyn knows where she is. Now I had her at my side, I’d squeeze answers from her once all my friends were back home.
I pulled out my own Moonbeam piece and let it fall to the ground. Then in a flash of white light, we all vanished.
A moment later, we appeared back at the guild. Isabel leant over Ilsa’s inert body, while a very muddy demon puppy ran around the mirror room, leaving paw-prints everywhere. Morgan ran to catch him, while Keir went to help Isabel with Ilsa.
“Did the healing spell work?” he asked her.
“I think it’s best to take her to the infirmary,” Isabel said. “I can’t see any injuries, but I don’t know what Evelyn did to her.”
“If she tortured her, I’ll kill her.” Morgan grabbed the demon puppy, ignoring his muddy paws, and moved to his sister’s side.
“Really,” I said to Evelyn, “you’re lucky we’re bound again.”
Evelyn’s response was a derisive laugh, with no humour in it. She was pissed at me for binding us again.
“She’s back in there with you?” asked Morgan.
“For now.” I didn’t believe for a minute that being bound to me would bring an end to Evelyn’s schemes, but I’d deal with that later. “Evelyn, where is Ivy?”
No reply came this time.
Damn her.
Keir stepped in to help Isabel take Ilsa to the infirmary. No sooner had we dropped her off than Lady Montgomery entered, accompanied by River. He paled when he saw Ilsa.
“What did they do to her?” he asked.
“I don’t know.” Morgan’s expression didn’t even brighten when Lloyd entered the infirmary behind River. “She passed out. Isabel already used a healing spell.”
“Glad you’re okay,” Lloyd said to me. “I was watching the mirror for hours, but I thought I could be more use if I took over your work on translating the journal.”
Ilsa stirred, her eyes opening. River leaned over her. “How are you feeling?”
“I’ve been better,” she croaked.
“She’ll be fine if you all stop crowding her,” said the boss. “River, you can stay. The rest of you, go and get some sleep. The mages will be coming to pick up the mirror in the morning.”
Dammit. We still need to find Ivy.
“Ivy wasn’t in the other realm,” Isabel whispered as we left the room. “Where else might Evelyn have taken her?”
“Who, Ivy?” said Lloyd. “Why would she need her?”
“Her talisman, I bet,” I said. “She’s not talking.”
Lloyd’s gaze went to my wrist, then his eyes widened. “Wait, she’s with you right now?”
“Like I planned.” I just had to work out how to get her to tell me where she’d taken Ivy. Threats were meaningless when I was dealing with a ghost who shared my body and the Hemlock curse. “We found Ilsa, but not Ivy. As a bonus, with Evelyn bound to me, the shadow fury doesn’t see me as an enemy anymore.”
“Is Evelyn under control, though?” asked Lloyd.
Keir took my hand. “Not enough for my liking. I don’t trust her.”
“That makes two of us,” I said. “Isabel—we’ll find Ivy, I promise. I’ll figure out how to get Evelyn to talk.”
“I’ll head back to the hotel and speak to Agnes in the morning,” said Isabel. “The upside is, we delayed Evelyn’s plans, and she won’t be able to do anything to Ivy while she’s bound to you.”
I hope so. As relieved as I might be to delay my inevitable imprisonment in the forest for one more day, I’d need to be on my guard, or I’d wake up with a knife to my throat clutched in my own hand.
“I don’t think you should stay at the guild tonight, Jas,” Keir said.
“I reckon Ilsa would agree, considering Evelyn swiped her talisman the last time she was here.” Not that I trusted her in the same house as Aiden, either. “I’ll just go up to the archives and grab the ritual magic book.”
I hurried upstairs, grabbed the book of ritual magic, and returned to the lobby to meet Keir.
“What’s that for?” he asked, as I slipped the book into my bag.
“Insurance,” I said. “I can’t stop Evelyn from running around the city while I’m sleeping, so I either have to keep an eye on her from the spirit realm all night or try something a little stronger.”
Keir took my arm. “I don’t mind restraining her if she tries to make a getaway in the middle of the night.”
“I’m more concerned for you. And your brother.” I walked with him out of the guild, apprehension building. “Let’s face it, she’s more pissed off than she’s ever been. I screwed up everything she’s been planning for weeks, if not months. Even sharing my body, she’s free to wander around and cause havoc and let me take the heat for it, like before.”
“Then we’ll try something stronger.” He held my hand, his grip warm against my palm. Sensation in my other hand was already starting to fade, and not because I was spending too long in the spirit realm. “And we’ll fix this.”
“Keir…” I hesitated. “You know there’s no cure for this curse, right?”
I’d known it all along, deep down. There was never going to be another outcome, not if I wanted the world, the people I loved, to survive.
&n
bsp; Keir’s grip on my hand tightened. “You’ve done so many impossible things already, Jas. You can beat this, too, and I won’t let the Hemlock curse be the end for either of us.”
In his fierce tone, I heard the faith that had kept him going in the eight long years of Aiden’s absence. The determination that against all the odds, he’d find him alive.
I wasn’t about to shatter that faith. Not today.
We reached his house to find the lights off, the place quiet. I checked the spirit realm to make sure Aiden was sleeping and Evelyn wasn’t pestering him, then I turned on the living room light and opened the ritual magic book.
Tattoo pen in hand, I embellished the binding spell with a few strengthening charms. I’d prefer to bind Evelyn to the spirit line, but that was no longer an option. Midway through the third symbol, which prevented her from going more than ten metres away from me, Evelyn appeared on the sofa and bared her teeth at me. “Stop that.”
“Don’t start.” I held up a hand. “I’m wearing a permanent shield. If you attack me, it’ll bounce off. If you attack my friends, I have a symbol here which will mute you for as long as I want. Unless you’d like to tell me what you did with Ivy?”
Evelyn left the room, screeching curses to the heavens. I lowered the pen. “No ghost is going to get a moment’s peace while she’s around.”
“But we are?” Keir raised an eyebrow.
I held up the pen. “I can put a soundproof spell on your room.”
He grinned. “I like the way you think.”
I leaned up and kissed him. He made an indistinct noise, and the instant we were in his bedroom, I shut the door and set the soundproofing spell on the door. Then I dropped the tattoo pen and sprawled on the bed, inviting him to climb onto me.
Keir leaned over me, his touch tracing my outline in the spirit realm. In seconds, I was gasping for breath. His hands were all over me, and I forgot all about the grey-brown markings on my arms until he tugged my shirt over my head, revealing the evidence of the curse for all to see. The grey-brown texture had spread from my wrists to my shoulders, creeping onto my chest.
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