Witch's Sacrifice
Page 20
I halted, Wanda’s limp body in my arms. The spirit line carved a path through the guild’s centre. On either side, the doors had cracked from their hinges like two sides of a broken heart. The building, remarkably, was still standing, but the bricks on either side of the split were a pulverised mess of tree roots and stone.
I gagged, spat bile onto the road. No screaming came from inside the guild. But that meant—no, no, it couldn’t mean…
Lloyd. Ilsa.
Tremors continued to shake the spirit line. I stumbled to the nearest piece of steady ground and carefully laid Wanda’s body down. Then I climbed over the ruined road to the guild, pushing my way through the wrecked entryway. The split had cracked the lobby wide open, all the way up to the top floor. Only the magic built into the foundations must have kept the place standing.
One hand pressed to my mouth, I climbed over the wreckage. Lloyd. Ilsa. Morgan. Mackie. Lady Montgomery. River. Even the rest of the mage council and the Council of Twelve, who’d stayed behind rather than going with Vance and Drake. Rubble blocked the stairs, filling the lobby with dust. I coughed, covered my eyes, and turned on my spirit sight.
A spark grew beneath my feet. Then, a voice. “Jas!”
Ilsa. That was Ilsa’s voice.
“You’re alive,” I gasped. “Where are you?”
“The dungeon,” she said, her glowing form indistinct. “We evacuated. Lady Montgomery saw it coming—”
I dropped to my knees in relief. “How do I get inside?”
“I’ll let you in. Go out through the front doors and down the alley on the left.”
Thank you. Finally, a miracle. Or Lady Montgomery and her no-nonsense approach to a crisis, anyway.
I followed Ilsa’s directions down the alley alongside the guild, finding a metal door open at the side. From the symbols etched on the walls, it’d once been warded, but the guild’s wards were scraped clean, perhaps from the surge of magic along the spirit line. No traces remained of the protections I’d once set up all over the guild’s entrance.
Ilsa emerged from the door, staring up at the currents of energy rippling over the rooftops. “I felt that. Was it Evelyn?”
I choked on a sob and hugged her. “I thought you were dead. All of you. I’m sorry, I couldn’t stop her—"
“Whoa, Jas,” she said. “Calm down. We’re okay. I mean, we’re bruised and covered in dust and there’s a bunch of panicking novices down here, but we’re alive. What did she do?”
I sagged against the alley wall. “Evelyn woke the gods. All the Ancients in this realm. She killed the shadow fury and turned immortal.”
Her mouth fell open. “Shit. What about the god in the forest?”
“You mean, gods. There are three of them.” I swallowed hard, my eyes stinging. “The other Hemlocks still have their defences up, and she doesn’t have any more magic than she used to, but that’ll be next on her list. She also made the vampires dependent on her spirit essence, so half the local vampires are working for her, too. The ones who didn’t die when she forced Neil Sutherland to speak the god’s name.”
Her eyes widened. “She woke all the gods, and now she’s off to kill them?”
“I think so.” The ground tilted with another tremor, a reminder of the threat lurking under our feet. “I don’t know what’s happening to the spirit line, but—Ilsa, you’re carrying a god’s power. Has there been any change with your talisman?”
“No, but the god whose power rests inside my talisman is dead,” she said. “I saw the Ancient flying over the city. Where are the others?”
“Keir went to help his brother,” I said, my mouth dry. “Isabel is with her coven, Ivy went into Faerie to warn them, and Vance and Drake are further down the Ley Line, where Evelyn woke the gods. She killed Vance’s uncle. She killed—killed Wanda, too. She’s out of control.”
“I’m so sorry, Jas,” she said. “I can help. Tell me what you need me to do.”
“I need to find Agnes, for a start,” I said. “Is she with you?”
“No. She must be at her safe house,” said Ilsa. “We can win you time, draw away the Ancients—”
“I’m not asking you to die for me.” The words stuck in my throat. Wanda’s death had been accidental, I was sure, but Evelyn wouldn’t hesitate to strike down anyone who got in her path. There was no reasoning with her now.
“Jas,” said Lady Montgomery’s voice from behind Ilsa. “I need your help. The guild’s unstable, and we can’t keep every member here in the dungeon indefinitely. The defences are down, and without them…”
Without them, every rogue vampire in the city might descend on the guild.
My throat tightened. “I’ll help you, but I don’t know if I can fix the damage. The whole spirit line is messed up, and it’s likely to get worse.”
Shouts came from behind Lady Montgomery, and panicked screams.
“The ceiling’s falling down!” someone called.
I stepped away, raising my hands to find the remnants of the protective spells that had once covered the guild’s exterior. Calling on my own magic, I snapped the spells back to life, steadying the crumbling foundations. The building trembled, but remained upright.
“Get out!” I called through the open door to the dungeons. “Quickly. I don’t know if it will hold if I let go.”
“Do as she says!” Lady Montgomery ran down into the darkness again, raising her voice to address everyone in the dungeons.
Cloaked necromancers began to emerge a moment later, climbing into the alley and hurrying to safety. My teeth chattered, sweat streamed down my forehead, but I didn’t dare move. Not until all my friends were safe. Trembles racked my body, and a voice in the back of my head screamed that if I used all my power here, I’d have nothing left to fight Evelyn with.
Then so be it. I won’t let my friends die.
Mackie emerged first, with Morgan helping her climb the stairs. Then Lloyd followed with the demon puppy in his arms. Ilsa brought up the rear, with River and Lady Montgomery on her tail. Once the boss was outside, she straightened upright, her gaze fixed on the rippling wards with an almost awed expression.
“Whoa, Jas,” said Lloyd, his eyes widening at the magic pouring from my hands.
“Don’t mind me,” I said through gritted teeth. “I just need to hang on for one more second—”
“The dungeon is empty,” said Lady Montgomery. “You’re safe to let go, Jas. Thank you.”
I released the threads of magic. The building trembled, but no more bricks fell. Relief swept through me and I dropped to my knees, my body vibrating with the aftermath of the power I’d unleashed.
My vision blurred, but I forced myself to look through the spirit line. What if the forest had vanished forever? The other Hemlocks… were they dead?
“I can’t fix it this time,” I whispered, my eyes burning. My body felt heavy, limp. My hands cracked when I moved them, dry, like stone. Throughout the city, roads and buildings had been torn apart by the fracturing spirit line, innocent lives had been lost, and it was all the fault of my coven’s magic.
“Jas,” Keir’s voice broke through my stupor. “Where is she?”
“In there,” said Lloyd’s voice. “Watch that spirit line—it’s volatile. It kicked me out when I tried to get at her.”
I lifted my head, which felt like a dead weight. I hadn’t even been aware of the magic still crackling around my hands, surrounding my body like a forcefield. Lowering my hands, I let it drop, though the marks on my skin remained. I’d lost feeling in both hands and most of my arms, but I still felt the warmth of an arm wrapping around my shoulder. Keir.
“Aiden’s with Clancy,” he said. “We got out of the line of fire, but there was so little warning. Are you hurt?”
“Just cursed,” I said through dry lips. “Wanda’s dead. So is Neil Sutherland. Evelyn… she killed the shadow fury. She’s immortal now.”
“I’m sorry, Jas.” Keir hugged me tighter. “The council’s back. They
want to see you—”
“Oh, god.” I lurched to my feet. “Wanda.”
To the mages, Wanda was like a younger sibling, Lady Harper’s beloved granddaughter. The person she’d risked everything to save in the war. And I’d let her die right in front of me.
The sight of the mages gathering around her body sucker-punched me in the gut, leaving me breathless. Time slowed to a crawl with each step I took towards the circle of mages, heads bowed. Drake looked, for the first time since I’d known him, stunned speechless. Vance crouched beside Wanda, his hand around hers.
“Ivy’s okay.” I kept my gaze on the ground, unable to bear to look into the mages’ eyes. “She went into Faerie to warn them.”
“How…” Drake spoke slowly, his eyes swimming. “How did she die?”
I swallowed hard. “The Soul Collector came for Neil Sutherland. Possessed him, to get revenge on Evelyn. Evelyn laughed in his face and goaded him, then she tricked him into summoning another Ancient to save his own skin. Instead, he and the Soul Collector died, and Evelyn slaughtered the god and made herself immortal. Wanda died trying to stop her.”
Nobody spoke. The others’ silence was worse than shouts of condemnation. The mages were my family. Wanda and I might have fallen out of touch, but I’d never forgotten the kindness she’d shown me when her grandmother had been tormenting me over my lack of magical talent. Wanda had been like a sister to me as a lonely teenager, and now, even after becoming a master necromancer, I’d been unable to cheat death to save her.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, hot tears spilling down my cheeks. “I should have been able to stop her, but Evelyn won.”
“She didn’t win,” said Lady Montgomery from behind me. “Not as long as we still exist. I intend to assemble a fighting force to show her that the guild stands strong, and so does the Council of Twelve.”
“Not before we bury our dead.” My heart broke to hear the raw pain in Vance’s voice, and to know there was nothing I could do to help.
Or was there?
“I don’t know if it makes a difference, but I can summon her,” I said to him. “I can’t bring her back, but I can give you one last chance to speak to her, to say goodbye.”
Summoning the spirits of dead loved ones wasn’t against the necromancers’ rules, just discouraged, on account of how easy it was for necromancers to step over to the other side and never return. Also, most ghosts were incoherent at best, and it was hit and miss as to whether they actually remembered who they were. But the boss didn’t challenge me. She gave a brief nod, then turned away to allow us some privacy.
Vance dragged his gaze from Wanda. “Thank you, Jas.”
Lady Montgomery handed me the candles, one at a time. The others moved back to give us space, which I was grateful for, and I stood alone in front of the circle. “I summon you, Wanda Harper.”
Grey smoke swirled between the glowing lights. At first, I wondered if I’d gone too close to the spirit line to reach her, but after a few long seconds, a human-like shape began to appear.
Wanda’s ghost faded into view, a mirror of her living self. Vance and Drake both flinched, but held their ground.
“You…” Drake cleared his throat. “You’re really… Wanda, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” Wanda said. “You’re not allowed to blame yourselves, any of you. That clear? This isn’t your fault.”
“It’s Evelyn’s.” Drake’s voice shook with anger and grief. “And she’s just made enemies of the entire fucking mage council.”
“Yes,” Vance said. “She has. We’ll order a death warrant placed on her head.”
“If you must,” Wanda said, “but please, don’t go to war on my account. Vance, Drake, it’s okay. I’m okay. I don’t feel any pain.”
“You shouldn’t have died.” Vance stepped closer to the circle, his hand extended as though to reach out and touch her. “I swore to keep you safe. We both did. For your grandmother…”
I couldn’t listen to any more. Fresh tears flowed from my eyes, and I turned back to Wanda’s body. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be there for you,” I whispered. “I’m sorry for everything.”
Vance put his hand on Drake’s shoulder. I left them to their grief, my own laced with far too much guilt.
This was all her. Evelyn.
She’ll pay for it.
19
I woke up in Keir’s arms, my eyes stiff with tears. Keir stirred a little when I moved. I’d thought guilt over Wanda would gnaw at me all night, but the strain of using my magic to hold the necromancer guild together had caught up with me, sweeping me into a dreamless sleep.
“Hey,” Keir said, his voice rough. “You okay?”
I shook my head and he folded his arms around me. His strong and steady heartbeat kept me anchored, stopped me from falling apart. I couldn’t afford to. Not with Evelyn still out there, and my friends alive and in need of my help.
While Evelyn hadn’t been seen since she’d walked away from me on the battlefield, the necromancers had been forced to seek refuge at the mages’ headquarters. Once they’d found Neil Sutherland’s body, they’d bombarded me with questions until Keir had shown up to rescue me. With rumours cascading about the breaking spirit line and the god’s escape from Arthur’s Seat, Evelyn’s vampires still at large and the wreckage of the spirit line carving through the middle of the city, Edinburgh was one step away from erupting into full-blown rioting.
I rolled onto my side. To my alarm, the grey-brown texture had spread to my back, leaving an imprint on Keir’s arms and chest where he’d held me.
“Ah, crap,” I said. “I’m sorry.”
He blinked down at his arms. “Don’t worry about it, Jas. If you were covered in sharp thorns, I’d find a way to hold onto you.”
“Little excessive.” Then again, today might be my last day alive. My last morning waking beside Keir, his hair messy from sleep, his body relaxed. From the shadows in his eyes, he knew it, too, he just didn’t want to admit it aloud. “Keir, the vampires…”
“Aiden tried to track them,” he said. “You’ve been out cold for the last twelve hours, at least. Are you okay? Physically, I mean?”
“Well, I’m pretty sure I can punch a hole through a brick wall.” I raised my stone-coloured fists in demonstration. “I hope my magic has regenerated overnight, because I doubt Evelyn’s lying low. She’ll be stirring up trouble somewhere.”
I was sure I’d seen guilt in her eyes when she’d seen me crouching over Wanda’s body, but my part in her plans had come to an end when she’d left my body. She had a war to fight, and if I stood in her way, she’d mow me down without hesitation.
“She left her vampires behind,” Keir said. “They’ll start attacking one another when they find out she’s gone. I give it a day or two before the side effects start coming on.”
“And I’m the only other person who can remove the curse.” I heaved a sigh. “I can try, but there’s a chance they might try to kill me on the spot for walking into their nests after Evelyn screwed them over.”
I had to do something, other than wallowing in guilt over Wanda and waiting for Evelyn or another Ancient to show up. Or waiting for my untimely doom. Even my face was starting to turn stony at the edges, but it didn’t stop Keir from embracing me in a way that seemed far too final for my liking.
“Let’s wake up my lazy-arse brother,” he said. “And we’ll pay a visit to the local vampires.”
“What the hell does Evelyn want now?” Aiden asked as we left Keir’s house after a quick breakfast. “She’s immortal. She has a body again. She has an army. Is she feeling lonely and wants to adopt a puppy to join her on her world-conquering schemes?”
I didn’t laugh. Evelyn had cost me far, far too much. I wouldn’t forget the devastation on Drake and Vance’s faces anytime soon. They’d known Wanda since she was a baby. Accident or not, Evelyn had made a major mistake in pissing off some of the most powerful mages in the country and the Council of Twelve.
“Want to tell the guild we’re going after them?” asked Keir.
“I think we’re best going in alone. The guild has enough to handle.” Their headquarters was in ruins, for one thing, and the damage went deep. The city was in a state of shock, and the few people we ran into on the streets walked in tight-knit groups.
“We can explain what Evelyn did to any vampires who will listen,” said Keir. “If they’re open to negotiation, we can try to convince them to join our team once you’ve removed Evelyn’s influence. One more vampire on our side is one fewer person who’ll fight for Evelyn.”
The spirit line continued to glow, currents of greenish energy lighting the sky above the fractured roads where trees had sprouted through. Closer to the ruins, we found several adventurous humans taking photographs.
Aiden snorted. “It’s not the Northern Lights.”
“None of them have ever seen a spirit line before, have they?” I said. “If anything, it looks more like the Ley Line now. Except for the trees.”
The first vampire we found sleeping in an alley, a wiry old guy named Cheadle, reacted to being woken up by pulling a knife on Keir.
“Relax, we’re allies,” he said. “We’ve come with a proposal for you.”
“What, what?” Cheadle waved the knife at me. “You’re no vampire.”
“No, but I can fix what Evelyn did to you,” I told him.
His half-open eyes squinted further. “For what price?”
“Nothing,” I said. “But we’d like to make you an offer.”
“This I’d like to hear.” He coughed. “The others, too.”
“Others?” Aiden glanced at Keir, then down the alley. Sure enough, several other vampires were sheltering there, all of whom eyed us suspiciously. “Are they all under Evelyn’s curse?”