Witch's Soul

by Emma L. Adams

  “I was trying to knock your friend out before he realised what I was,” said Evelyn. “And I have no control over anything your companions do.”

  “They know the truth about you now.” Where did this bloody forest end? “You sided with Leila Hemlock against me, and you wanted to open the spirit line.”

  “Only temporarily,” she said. “I worked with Leila because I planned to claim her body, so I no longer had to share this vessel, and my magic would truly be mine. You would have survived.”

  I stopped walking. “Give it up. Just admit you want the Ancients back and it’ll make things easier for all of us.”

  “Yes, it will.” She appeared, hovering next to me. Her dark hair streamed behind her, and her grey-blue eyes shone in the forest’s dimness. “If we draw them out first, we’ll win. The Soul Collector is just the beginning. I would have caught him if you hadn’t stopped me.”

  Damn. She sounded so reasonable… just like she’d sounded when she’d talked me into leaving her in control of my body behind a spirit barrier. “We’ll revisit that one later.”

  The forest turned transparent, revealing Edinburgh’s abandoned train station. About damn time.

  “Here.” I stepped out onto the bridge, feeling Evelyn push at me again. “Not happening. I’m in charge.”

  “He’s here, you fool. He knows where we came from.”

  My head snapped up, and I spotted a figure on the other side of a wrecked car. “Keir?”

  The man walked towards us, eyes glowing with greyish light. “Hello, Jas,” said the Soul Collector. “So nice of you to join me. I couldn’t find your friend, but maybe you’d like to tell me where he might be hiding?”

  “Let go,” I warned. “Face me as yourself, not hiding behind a human shield.”

  “Why not both?”

  There was a flash, the light went out of the man’s eyes, and he fell forwards, dead.

  “Who should I target next?” whispered the Soul Collector’s voice. Fog swirled around, and when I crossed into the spirit realm, I saw him. Blue-grey eyes, a crooked inhuman smile…

  “I know what you are,” I said. “You’re nothing. You’re not even alive.”

  “I’m nothing,” he whispered. “And everything.” He blinked out of existence, and the spirit realm faded.

  A moment later, another human shambled into view. The Soul Collector watched me through the man’s eyes, smiling, and he raised a hand. Shimmering encased his palm, solidifying into the form of a long, oval object made of—something silver-coloured, almost metallic. Though it was nowhere near me, an icy sensation burned through to my bones when I set eyes upon it. As though it drew on my soul from a distance, threatening to suck me in.

  “Thank you for this, Jacinda,” he said.

  The shimmering silver device in his hand blinked once, and the man fell down, dead. As he did, the odd silver device disappeared, like it’d evaporated into smoke.

  My throat went dry. “What in hell was that?” Unlike the other spirit devices, it sure as hell didn’t look man-made. But it’d gone as quickly as it’d arrived.

  Evelyn stirred. “Let me take over, Jas,” she whispered. “Or he’ll kill everyone he touches until he reaches your friends.”

  I shook my head, fiercely. “I won’t.”

  “Don’t let her take over,” said a voice from behind me.

  I spun on the spot. Lady Harper climbed to the bridge from the ruins, walking stick and all. Her face was set, her hair streaming loose. “Leave us, Evelyn Hemlock, or we’ll seal away your soul where you stand.”

  “I’d like to see you try,” said Evelyn.

  21

  “Let go of Jas,” Lady Harper said firmly. “Now.”

  Surprisingly, Evelyn’s presence faded a little, allowing me to break through. “What are you doing here?” I waved a hand at the dead bodies the Soul Collector had left behind. “There’s a maniac possessing and murdering everyone in sight, if it wasn’t obvious.”

  “Why do you think I came here?” Lady Harper said.

  Isabel stepped up behind her, panting for breath. “Jas—sorry it took so long to find you. The forest isn’t playing nice at the moment.”

  “Were you both in the forest? Why didn’t I see you?” I shook my head. “Never mind. Isabel, you should be at the guild, out of harm’s way. Lady Harper… unless you know where the Soul Collector actually is, you’re best off staying in the forest.”

  “Certainly not,” she said. “I came here to help you bind Evelyn.”

  “Excuse me?” I blinked at her. “Now is not the time. Where’s Keir? Was he in the forest?”

  “I didn’t see him,” said Isabel. “Why?”

  “The Soul Collector is after him.” Worry clawed up my throat. “What is that thing he’s using to drain people’s souls? I just saw it—he had this silver thing. It looked sort of like the devices we found, but it… vanished.” I indicated the dead man a few feet away.

  Lady Harper sucked in a breath. “What he has is the original weapon, the Ether Converter—a device capable of storing the energy of an infinite number of souls. He stole it… or someone gave it to him.”

  “What?” Evelyn tried to step in, but I shoved her aside. “Where did he get this… Ether Converter?”

  “It was hidden deep within the Hemlocks’ forest,” said Lady Harper. “Not only is it a repository of souls, it contains enough spiritual energy to reset the spirit lines and destroy everything we’ve spent our lives trying to protect.”

  “Wait—” I broke off. “He keeps taking people’s souls with a touch. You mean… those other devices he made were like… copies.” But that wasn’t the worst of it. “Did you say he stole it from the forest?”

  “Someone stole it for him,” said Lady Harper, looking right through me. At Evelyn. “Someone who already has access to the forest.”

  “Not me,” Evelyn said, loudly, floating beside me. “He already had it when I followed him.”

  “Lies,” said the old mage. “We have a traitor in our midst, and while they may be flawed, Cordelia and the other Hemlocks would never willingly betray their own. It is you who’s stayed in the background, listening to every part of Jas’s life, and plotting to help the enemy. Don’t deny it.”

  “She’s got you there, Evelyn.” I turned to her, and saw her ghostly face whiten.

  “I did not steal the weapon,” she said.

  “You took my body right to the enemy,” I said. “Who do you think I’m going to believe here?” Lady Harper might not like me much, but she knew treachery when she saw it.

  “Jas.” Isabel moved in close, her eyes bright with worry. “Lady Harper, that’s irrelevant now. The Soul Collector must be stopped. The weapon isn’t a physical one, Jas. It’s not like anything I’ve ever seen before. He can move it between hosts, even, and it’s invisible most of the time. We have to get it away from the crowds—and the guild.”

  This just got better and better. “He has a weapon he can even use as a ghost? How are we meant to compete with that?”

  “We aren’t,” Lady Harper growled. “And you can start by binding that second soul of yours before she gives the enemy any further assistance.”

  “No,” snarled Evelyn, speaking through my mouth. “You’re accusing the wrong person.”

  “Nice try.” I pushed my way back in. “Assuming I get my hands on the Ether Converter, how do I destroy it?”

  “You can’t,” said Lady Harper. “The only way to contain it is to take it back to the Hemlocks—and away from any traitors.”

  Holy shit. “Why the bloody hell did the Hemlocks create it?”

  “They didn’t,” she said. “They stole it from the Ancients in order to prevent it from being used for precisely this. The Soul Collector might have no body of his own, but with that weapon, he can take out both you and Evelyn—and you can guess what he’ll be capable of when he has someone with Hemlock magic on his side.”

  The seams of the world would fall apart. “H
e set Evelyn free so he could take her soul. Right? Yet she still helps him?”

  “I’m not helping him!” Evelyn yelled in my ear, but I ignored her.

  “He’s a monster,” said Isabel shakily. “I haven’t seen him in person, but he’s leaving bodies everywhere. The guild’s sealed against outsiders, but he gets closer every time. This is a game to him.”

  My heart dropped. “Keir. Is Keir here? He had to leave his vessel because the Soul Collector nearly got him.”

  “I don’t know,” said Isabel. “We went into the forest, but the weapon was already gone. Lady Harper tells me you’re likely the only person who can get your hands on it without having your own soul compromised, but you have to bind Evelyn, otherwise—”

  “She’ll push my soul into the Ether Converter.” I pulled out my phone. No calls from Keir. Maybe he’d gone into the forest again—but even the forest wasn’t safe. I did have another call from Ilsa. “Do the others know?”

  “No. I planned to warn them, but Lady Harper insisted we need to find you.”

  I jumped when my phone rang. “Ilsa?”

  “Jas!” Her voice sounded staticky. “Did you make it back?”

  “Are you at the guild? Is Keir with you?”

  “I’m here, but he’s still out there,” she said. “I saw him—he came back to the guild when he was tracking you, but he said he had to stay outside to keep hold of his vessels. And something about the spirit lines, and the Ancients—”

  My blood turned to ice. The Ancients. They’d taken his brother—but he wouldn’t be foolish enough to go chasing the enemy alone now. Right?

  Oh god, Keir. Please don’t.

  “Jas? You still there?”

  I clenched my hand around my phone. “Yes. I… have to go. But you need to know. The Soul Collector has a weapon, like the devices we found, but worse. He’s using it to collect souls, and can possess anyone at any time.”

  “I know,” she said quickly. “Mackie warned us. As for that device, it sounds like… a talisman.”

  “Talisman?”

  Ilsa spoke quickly. “They contain power that originally belonged to the Ancients. Just fragments, a fraction of their power, but they’re that strong, even the tiniest amount of their power can be deadly.”

  “Fucking brilliant,” snapped Morgan in the background. “Oi, Jas, get back here before he gets to you. Mackie and I are trying to track him from a distance.”

  “Don’t,” I warned. “Keir is either his prisoner or about to do something very stupid. I need to save him.”

  “Jas, I—” Ilsa broke off. “Jas. Run. He’s behind you.”

  I spun around, and Isabel’s hand clenched around my throat. “Hey… Isabel. Let go.”

  A smile traced her lips. “This one had very strong defences, but I do like a challenge. Go on. Ask your little friends where the vampire is hiding. I was interested in hearing the rest of your fascinating conversation.”

  “Let her go!” I choked, my vision blurring at the corners.

  Isabel wasn’t a necromancer. One trip over the veil would end her life.

  Her grip tightened on my throat, and the blood roared in my ears. Evelyn’s magic tingled in my palms, demanding to be unleashed. No. if she took the wheel, they’d fight to the death.

  Lady Harper raised her walking stick, and Isabel’s body lifted into the air. She let out a startled scream, limbs flailing, but the Soul Collector was screaming, too. I gasped out, massaging my throat, scrambling to get hold of my magic—

  Lady Harper watched Isabel struggle with an almost calm expression, one hand holding her walking stick. I stared, unable to move, as Isabel—and the Soul Collector—fought for dominance.

  This is how she killed two Sidhe. Lady Harper’s ability, when fully unleashed, involved manipulating the minds and bodies of her targets. The Soul Collector and Isabel were both trapped, suspended in the air like birds caught in a net.

  I dove into the spirit realm, and found him watching me through Isabel’s eyes, blazing with anger. “You… cannot defeat a god. Your friend will die first.”

  “Lady Harper, let her go!” I shouted, panicked. “Please—”

  Isabel dropped to the floor, and Lady Harper’s stick clattered to the ground.

  “Don’t,” I pleaded.

  Cracks spread across the ground. A blast of air knocked me into Isabel, and we crashed onto the concrete. Stars winked before my eyes, and I lifted my head, blood trickling down my face, to see the former Mage Lord sink to her knees. Her gaze caught mine for an instant—whether her own or the Soul Collector’s, I couldn’t say—and she was gone.

  22

  Isabel moaned with pain, pushing herself to her knees. I managed to drag my gaze away from the fallen former Mage Lord. “Do you… do you need a healing spell?”

  “I have one.” Her tone was calm, but her hands were shaking. “Is—she—?”

  I nodded. One sharp jerky motion, that was all.

  I’d always felt Lady Harper would laugh in the face of death. Not die without a word, sucked into a place nobody could reach. As a necromancer, I knew when someone’s soul had departed this world. My own heart beat too fast, and even Evelyn’s presence had vanished, pushed aside by my own shock.

  I clicked on a healing spell, though I barely felt the sting of my injuries, and checked into the spirit realm. But Lady Harper’s soul wasn’t headed to the afterlife. The Soul Collector had stolen it for himself.

  “She’s not gone,” I said to Isabel. “I guarantee, she’ll be the most stubborn ghost ever, once we get our hands on that talisman. She won’t want to resist haunting the new mage trainees.”

  Isabel’s mouth trembled. “She didn’t have to do that. My witch defences—”

  “He broke into your mind, Isabel. Even witch defences can’t go against the gods. Where did he go?”

  Nobody else was around. I looked down at Lady Harper’s body, as though if I stared long enough, the truth would sink in. Isabel crouched down, too, her hands moving up her spell-covered sleeves. I checked mine, too, as though either of us could find a spell that might be able to save her. But it was too late, far too late.

  I leaned over and hugged Isabel, tears stinging my eyes. “We’ll find him,” I whispered. “We’ll make him pay for this.”

  “I’m right here,” said the Soul Collector.

  I jolted away from Isabel, whose hands glowed as her spells activated. Another man peered down at us, his eyes glowing blue-white.

  “Touching,” he murmured. “Were you close?”

  To him, our horror was entertainment. Rage momentarily overcame my shock, and white-hot magic seared my palms.

  “Actually, we hated one another,” I told him. “But if you don’t face me head-on instead of running away like a coward, I don’t need a body to do you some serious damage.”

  “You and Evelyn will fare much better if you choose to take my side in this new order,” he said.

  Then with barely a ripple in the spirit realm, his host dropped down, dead. Another soul fed into the Ether Converter. He must have more than enough to break the spirit line by now, even temporarily.

  But what was holding him back?

  “I do wish you’d put up more of a fight,” said a woman, the companion of the man he’d just killed. “Then again, you are hopeless in this particular situation, aren’t you, Jacinda?”

  “I’m not the one running.” I raised my hands, but the woman was still alive. If I attacked, she’d take the damage and not him. He wasn’t just able to switch bodies, he could use anyone else to take the fall instead of himself. Nothing could hurt him.

  The woman smiled. “Wouldn’t you like to know where your vampire friend is?”

  My throat went dry. “Keir. What did you do to him?”

  “Not a thing, yet,” he said. “I planned to have fun with him for quite some time. I’ve never taken a vampire with a shade’s magic before.”

  “What do you—”

  The woman droppe
d dead, in a flash of light. The Ether Converter, and the Soul Collector, were gone.

  I tensed, spinning on the spot, but no other humans were close by. The instant we went into a crowded place, though, he’d find someone else, and leave a trail of bodies in his wake.

  Isabel let out a choked noise. “They—what’s the point in all this?”

  “It’s a game to him.” My voice sounded distant as I looked down at Lady Harper’s body. “Keir… what did he mean by that? A vampire with a shade’s magic? Keir can’t take in magic… only souls.”

  But feeding on my soul had affected him. Had I done permanent damage?

  “Don’t look at me,” said Evelyn, piping up entirely too late. “The vampire never fed on me.”

  “Oh, that’s good news,” I snapped. “Where the hell is he, then?”

  Keir!

  He was either outside this realm, or drained and injured—or on the brink of death. The Soul Collector had found him after all, and had decided to lead me along for his own entertainment.

  “He’s alive,” Evelyn said. “Like us, he’s hard to kill.”

  I whirled on her. “And you’d know? You planned to offer us as bait.”

  “He can’t take us.” Her mouth lifted into a mocking smile. “Neither of us. Why do you think he’s going to the trouble of attacking your friends? If you hadn’t blown my cover, I’d have walked to his side and stolen that Ether Converter from his hands before he could use it to take any more lives.”

  “You can’t blame me for this. You’re full of shit, and besides, even if you’re not on his side, you already betrayed me once.”

  “Jas…” Isabel looked from Evelyn to me with frightened eyes. “I think we should get off the spirit line. And—if you want to bind her, you can, but I think she’s right. He can’t take you—either of you. You’re immune to the Ether Converter.”

  I shook my head, too numb to take in her words. “You—you should go. Ask the guild to let you in, before he catches you again. Please.”