“I would guess so.” I tilted my head, trying to see through the upstairs window, but the curtains were drawn. “Weird. The ward suggests a supernatural is running the show, but they might have done a better job fixing up the place.”
“Warding the door on the inside seems a little paranoid,” said Isabel. “Unless there’s something in there that shouldn’t be.”
“Precisely my thinking,” I said, turning over the scrap of paper again. “I’d say it can’t hurt to come here to their meeting as a human. But I’ll pay a visit to the mages before then.”
“In case we need backup.” Isabel nodded. “Have you ever been to Oak Drive before?”
“Yes, I have,” I said. “You’re going back to the witches’ place? I’ll meet you there after I speak to the Mage Lord.” If nothing else, I could try to get a warrant to sneak around the Ley Hunters’ place and see what they wanted to hide so badly.
I knew the mages’ headquarters, since I’d spent a fair bit of time there as a child when Lady Harper had put me in home-schooling with the other mage apprentices. I didn’t know how Vance would take my sudden return, but I was reasonably confident he wouldn’t execute me on the spot.
As long as none of the mages found out about Evelyn Hemlock.
5
I knocked on the door of number 15 Oak Drive, trying in vain to shake the raindrops from my drenched hair. The heavens had opened again on the way, and while Isabel had lent me her umbrella, the wind had blown the damned thing inside out. The manor-sized house which served as the headquarters of the local mages had whitewashed walls covered in protective glyphs, balconies on the upper windows, and a large front garden filled with carved hedges and a well-tended lawn. As the only member of the Colton family who’d survived the faerie invasion, Vance had inherited the house early, and continued to use it as the mages’ main headquarters. While the mages hadn’t exactly been cruel to me when I’d been a kid, Lady Harper’s continuous insistence that I shouldn’t act like an ungrateful brat hadn’t erased the memories of starving in an orphanage without a smidgeon of magical talent to buy my way out of poverty.
Please don’t let Lady Harper be here. If nothing else, she’d blow our chances of sneaking into the Ley Hunters’ place undetected. Subtlety was not the mages’ way. They had power, they wielded it, and they got their way through intimidation and skill in conjunction. Lady Harper had only served two years on the council the second time before retiring, but had presided over training new novices for a while. I figured it was because she got some morbid entertainment from yelling discouragement at people.
The door opened. “Er, hey, Vance,” I said.
Surprised widened his grey eyes. He looked exactly as I remembered—tall, broad-shouldered, his dark hair neatly combed and his expensive clothes tailored to fit his six-foot-two frame. He didn’t wear one of the Mage Lords’ infamous knee-length coats that sometimes got them confused with necromancers until they blasted people with lightning or set things on fire, but his intimidating stature and the shimmer of magic at the back of his eyes reminded me he wasn’t someone I wanted to cross. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea after all.
“Jas?” he said. “I wasn’t expecting a social call, so I assume you’re here to see Ivy. I didn’t know you were back in town.”
“Not for long,” I said. “Er, can I come in?”
“Of course.” There was a faint breeze from inside, and a band-shaped spell appeared in his hand, drying the rainwater from me the instant I crossed the threshold.
“You didn’t need to do that. I have my own spells.”
“I wasn’t aware you were proficient in witchcraft.” He gave me a brief once-over as though determining whether I was going to drip any dirty rainwater on the overpriced carpet. “I also wasn’t aware you could travel from Scotland to the middle of England in the space of a few hours, either. It took Ivy and me two days to drive up there last time.”
“So you two are a thing?” I asked, in the clumsiest attempt at a diversion ever. “This is the same Ivy who carries a sword and often skewers faerie corpses into the wall we’re talking about, isn’t it?”
“We’re engaged, yes.” He stepped aside to let me enter. The interior of the house looked the same as I remembered. A long hall extended before us, carpeted in red and wallpapered in white. At least the carpet would hide bloodstains.
“Watch out for the piskie,” he said, over his shoulder.
“Bad faerie!” shrieked a high-pitched voice. A winged creature flew out of the door on my right, emitting a shrieking noise, its twig-like fingers jabbing me in the cheekbone.
I jumped backwards, swatting at the creature as his sharp little teeth came down on my ear. “Ow! I’m not a faerie.”
“Bad faerie!” The piskie pursued me down the corridor and after Vance, buzzing like an oversized wasp. He opened the door into a living room, which served as an informal meeting place if none of the other rooms were free, and also appeared much the same as the last time I’d seen it. The expensive mahogany bookshelves looked as though they’d never been moved in seven years.
Ivy sat in an armchair by the fireplace with a stack of papers balanced on her lap. “Erwin, cut it out,” she said. “Jas, you look like you swam here.”
“Cheers.” I swatted the piskie away again and activated another quick-drying spell on my coat. “Why do you have a faerie living in here?”
A faint current of air gusted past, sending the piskie flying to the other side of the room. “Erwin, don’t bother our guest,” said Vance. “He’s Ivy’s pet.”
“More of a pest than a pet,” said Ivy, though she said this in affectionate tones. “He moved into my old flat and never left, so he had to pick me or Isabel when we moved out. He spends all his time trying to break Vance’s antique china.”
I’d bet that drove the Mage Lord out of his mind. From the look of the place, Vance’s neat-freak tendencies hadn’t changed an inch. He must care for Ivy a lot to put up with an unwanted housemate.
“Is there something you wanted to ask us?” the Mage Lord enquired, lifting a stack of papers from the table. In a gust of air, they disappeared. Vance’s displacing talents hadn’t changed, either. His mage ability involved moving things around without touching them… including people.
I weighed the odds, then said, “Have either of you heard of the Society of Ley Hunters?”
A furrow appeared in his brow. “No. You mean the Ley Line?”
“There’s a shop near Isabel’s coven’s place with a sign in the window that says it belongs to the Society of Ley Hunters,” I explained. “It only appeared in the last few weeks, but Isabel said the place is magically warded on the inside. Then I found this outside.” I held up the piece of damp, crumpled paper. “There’s a meeting there tonight. It doesn’t look like something on the legal side, let’s put it that way.”
“Huh,” said Ivy. “I might have walked past it once or twice, but I can’t say I was paying too much attention.”
Vance tilted his head. “Did you see anybody inside?”
“The window was boarded up. The sign was on the outside.” I took in a breath. “I’m actually here on behalf of Edinburgh’s necromancer guild. I was on a guild mission yesterday and we found a bunch of dead bodies at a key point, carrying fliers with the same name on them. The Society of Ley Hunters. They died due to some sort of disturbance on the key point, so naturally, my boss wants to get to the bottom of it.”
“You’re saying someone killed them by switching off the key point?” Ivy frowned. “That’s… weird. And probably not possible.”
“No, it isn’t,” Vance said, taking the note from me to examine it. “I certainly haven’t heard the name before. It sounds like a human endeavour.”
“The guy running the show was a supernatural,” I said. “But he was dead, too. I don’t know how, but a bunch of people dropped dead right on top of a key point which switched off with no warning. Even my boss is stumped. And I know activity on the spirit lines can cause k
nock-on effects in other places.”
“Maybe that’s why the necromancers were having trouble contacting their ancestors at the summit the other day,” Ivy said. “I just figured they were having their usual trouble with giving a crap.”
“Are the local necromancers that bad?” I asked.
“More incompetent,” said Ivy. “Their leader died nearly two years ago and they’ve still kept his ghost around instead of nominating a decent replacement. Mostly because there isn’t one.”
“So if there was a mass zombie attack…”
“There has been,” she said. “Somehow, we dealt with it. But they avoid all responsibility if they can help it, and we’ve pretty much left them off the list for the council altogether. It looks like your guild has its shit together, though.”
“Yeah, that’s mostly down to Lady Montgomery,” I said. “She sent me here to look for these Ley Hunters, but there’s nobody in the house. The neighbour refused to give us any useful information, either.”
“Is that so?” Vance said. “I’ll send someone to look into it, and the Ley Hunters’ place, too. If they’re breaking the law, we have licence to inspect the premises.”
“Wouldn’t sending a witch work better?” I asked. “There’s a ward on the door even Isabel couldn’t undo.”
Ivy gave a wry smile. “Asking for permission before breaking and entering? This has Isabel written all over it.”
Actually, I’m just trying to avoid getting on the wrong side of the law. The mages could kick the door in and storm the place on the word of a rumour if so inclined, but that wouldn’t do much good if the person responsible fled without us ever finding out if they were the same Ley Hunters as whoever had killed those people in Edinburgh.
“There’s nobody in there,” I said. “I checked, using the spirit sight, but last time, the person responsible had hidden way deep in the spirit realm. Nobody who isn’t one of us would be able to find them.”
The Mage Lord nodded slowly. “If that’s the case, take Isabel with you to search the place. I’ll alert the mages.”
“I don’t think that’ll be necessary,” I said. Unless they’d hidden themselves, I hadn’t even seen the flicker of a vampire’s presence. The owner might have activated the ward from the outside, but that didn’t make the setup any less weird. Still, I had permission to kick the door down. One problem solved.
“I’d come, but I don’t want us to blow your cover,” Ivy said. “Yes, that goes for you, too, Vance. Use your official channels to find out more about these Ley Hunters. See if the name has been mentioned anywhere.”
“That’s what I’m intending to do,” Vance said. “If it turns out this is a matter for the council, however, I’m required to tell them.”
Oh, damn. I’d momentarily forgotten I was in the same room as someone partly responsible for setting the mage council’s laws… including executing people who broke them.
I shook off the thought. Vance and I had known each other when I was a kid, for god’s sake, and he’d actually met the Hemlocks. Not to mention Lady Harper. That alone would be reason enough to spare me, if the truth came out. Besides, I didn’t need to drag the entire mage council into this investigation. These Ley Hunters were probably human amateurs who needed a wake-up call.
Didn’t make them any less dangerous, though. And just where had they got hold of a powerful witch ward?
“Wish I could come along,” Ivy said, looking despondently at the small mountain of papers on the floor in front of her. “I swear Lady Harper’s punishing me by making me fill out twice as much crap as usual.”
Ah, damn. “She’s not here, is she?”
“Not at the moment,” Vance said.
Relief swept through me. “Good, because I’d rather she didn’t know I dropped by. We had a major argument.” I didn’t need to give details. Lady Harper was capable of starting a feud against a garden gnome if she was in one of her moods.
“Yeah, thanks for making Isabel tell me to annoy her,” Ivy added, moving some of the papers aside. “Joking. Kind of. It was my fault anyway.”
“What did you do?” I asked.
“Isabel told me that you wanted her distracted at any cost, so I set Erwin loose in her guest room.”
I snorted. “Yeah, that’d tick her off.”
“Usually my existence does,” She re-shuffled the papers and picked up a fresh stack. “Since, you know, I’m engaged to her protégé.”
I could see where Lady Harper would find issue with someone like Ivy. She liked everything quiet and controlled. Ivy was not proper or well-behaved or good at following rules… not that I was one to talk. I’d never imagined Vance ending up engaged to someone like Ivy either, for that matter, but people changed.
“I’ll come back later if Isabel and I find anything,” I told her.
“If anyone can figure a way around a ward on a locked door, it’s Isabel,” said Ivy. “And I’ve heard you’re not so bad at spells yourself.”
I didn’t miss Vance’s raised eyebrow at her comment. The Mage Lord would remember just as clearly as I did that I hadn’t demonstrated any talent at witchcraft at all throughout Lady Harper’s training. “See you in a bit.”
Vance accompanied me to the door, but I didn’t break the silence. Anything I said might make it back to Lady Harper or the mage council.
“I didn’t know you’d learned to use witchcraft as well as the spirit sight, Jas,” Vance said.
“I guess not,” I said causally. “It turns out I’m much better at magic without Lady Harper breathing down my neck. I was a late developer and she wanted me to be perfect on the first try like you were.”
His eyes narrowed a little, not fooled, but I met his stare with a challenge. Most supernaturals discovered their magical capabilities at twelve or thirteen, but it wasn’t impossible for witches or necromancers to do so later. Or even mages, like my childhood friend Wanda. Usually there were at least some signs, though. I hadn’t displayed any talent in the slightest until I’d started working with Evelyn Hemlock.
“Lady Harper told me you’d spoken with your coven,” he said. “The Hemlocks.”
I wished the corridor wasn’t so long. “Yeah… I wouldn’t say we’re talking to one another at the moment. You’re sending backup tonight, right? Would that include the other council members?”
“Only my second-in-command, and that’s because Drake’s one of the best combat mages here.”
I blinked. “Drake? The same Drake who once crashed your best car into the canal?”
“That’s him.”
“You made him second-in-command,” I said. “You might as well put a necromancer in charge of a wedding.”
“You’d be surprised how well he’s handled it.”
More than you think. Drake had been the person who’d helped me engineer my escape to Scotland when it became clear that the Hemlocks were never going to let me walk away free. I couldn’t picture the trouble-making fire mage as a council member, but the idea of working hand-in-hand with the council suddenly didn’t seem so intimidating.
“Next you’ll be telling me Drake settled down like you did,” I said, a weight lifting off my chest despite my lingering misgivings. Having two people I knew on the local council wasn’t bad news, at all.
Vance smiled. “I don’t think that’s on the cards for him at the moment. I’ll tell him about the meeting tonight. He’ll want to see you. Wanda, too.”
“Sure.” Maybe memory had over-exaggerated how much of a condescending dick Vance had been when I was a teenager and Lady Harper had put him in charge of my magical training on occasion. Or maybe he was trying to get on my good side to get answers out of me on my Hemlock witch status.
Either way, I couldn’t afford to get too close to the mage council. After all, if Evelyn Hemlock broke out of my trap, we might end up on opposite sides of a battlefield.
6
By the time I reached Isabel’s coven’s headquarters again, the rain had stopped. I�
�d picked up a few ingredients from the market, dodging the efforts of a guy calling himself the “Warlock Extraordinaire” who pursued me down two streets trying to sell me some piskie wings for a pound each. I bought a sandwich from a stall and ate it on the way—after applying two tests for poison, that is. I used the hand-made spells every time I ate or drank anything outside of the guild cafeteria. Nearly dying of poisoning had made me cautious, to say the least.
Isabel let me into the house, where she’d taken over the living room with so many chalk circles that it was like playing twister trying to walk through them all.
I stepped around carefully to find a clear spot on the floor. “Got enough spells, Isabel?”
“I’m preparing for every possible eventuality,” she said, checking on a bubbling pot on the stove. Her hair frizzed from the steam, and there was a slightly manic expression on her face.
I laughed. “You’re annoyed you couldn’t get past that ward on the door, aren’t you?”
She moved the boiling pan to the side. “More concerned than anything. You can’t buy that spell type on the market. It’s a custom job.”
“There’s a witch involved?” I asked. “We’re not far from the market, though. A human might have bought it.”
Isabel sniffed at the pan, then stepped back. “There’s got to be something seriously valuable hidden in there, then. A custom job like that would cost a small fortune.”
“If this Ley Hunters Society is operating up and down the country, they must have money and connections,” I said.
“If they have money, what the bloody hell is the point in committing mass suicide at key points, then?” Isabel gave the pan’s contents a stir. “Unless the vampire in Edinburgh didn’t mean to die.”
“Or he was being manipulated, too.” She was right, though… it didn’t add up. I found a clear spot on the floor and dumped my bags of ingredients from the market. “Who knows why anyone would want to turn off a key point. Unless it was an accident.” But there were ways to harness the energy from spirit lines that I knew little about. Necromancers and witches were more tuned into the lines than most, but that didn’t mean we knew all their secrets.
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