by TJ Nichols
Angus leaned his head against Terrance. “Do you think they’ll let me walk out of here?”
If they wouldn’t, he’d open the void and leave, despite knowing he was supposed to use a doorway. He had demon blood. Perhaps he needed to be in Arlyxia to finish healing.
“Not a chance.” Terrance turned Angus to face him. “I’ll meet you at the Training Temple after?”
“You won’t come with me?”
Terrance shook his head. “No. I belong firmly on this side. I know that for sure now. But Saka is welcome to visit.”
Angus kissed him. “I won’t be long.” He didn’t want to leave Terrance again, but he couldn’t force him to come.
Terrance held him tight for a little longer, and Angus didn’t rush to pull away. He breathed deeply, knowing he was safe. Terrance’s arms were strong, and he’d always be there to save him.
“The sooner you go, the sooner you come back.” Terrance pulled away.
“You don’t mind?”
“No.” He kissed Angus. “Though you might want to put something on before you leave.”
Terrance opened up the drawer beneath the bedside table. A pair of bright blue pants and a cream shirt were neatly folded there for him. “Here.”
“Thank you.” He should’ve known Terrance would make sure he had what he needed. The bells he wore around his ankle fell out of the pile of folded clothes.
Terrance smiled. “Someone left them lying around. Your knives are in your room at the Training Temple.”
Angus didn’t know what to say, so he hugged Terrance again.
“Get some clothes on before I’m tempted to break the doctor’s orders and get you too excited.” But Terrance was smiling as he spoke.
“I’m fine.” He wasn’t fine, but he didn’t want to worry Terrance or prompt the doctor to come back and tether him to the bed again.
Terrance held him at arm’s length. “You wouldn’t say that if you’d seen yourself. Go for a visit but come back and rest. I’ll see you this evening?”
Angus nodded. “I won’t do any magic.”
“I’m not going to ask you to promise that. Magic is part of you… more than I ever realized.”
“More than I ever wanted.” Angus pulled on the pants and shirt.
“Do you regret it?”
Angus closed his eyes. He didn’t want to think about the cold and fury of the magic within him. “I have to believe it was worth it. The worlds are in balance.”
He would reckon with the rest later. Today he’d appreciate being alive. He put the bells around his ankle. “You sure you don’t mind me going?”
“Saka will be anxious to see you. He couldn’t be here the whole time, but one of us was always here.”
Saka would’ve had mage things to do. Angus gave Terrance another kiss and then opened the void and stepped through.
The doorway was as it had been… almost. The stones were more uneven and slick with rain, and the pillars were a little crooked. He tipped his face to the sky. The rain was sweet and warm, the way he remembered, and his clothes were glued to him in moments.
The soldiers at the doorway looked at him curiously at first. Then one of them took off running to the village, and Angus followed. If he walked carefully, the unevenness of his steps was almost unnoticeable, but running was out of the question, at least for the moment.
Saka met him halfway, rain beading on his skin like crystals. He stopped and stared, and Angus closed the gap and hugged him tightly.
It was a couple of heartbeats before Saka put his arms around him, but when he did, nothing else mattered. “Welcome back, Mage Angus.”
Epilogue
WHERE THE forest full of corpses had been were only charred stumps. Angus walked through the grass and tapped his staff on the ground as he went, looking for the remains of his tree. In his pocket were two seeds.
He stopped and turned, and Terrance and Saka looked back at him. They were all wearing coats and hats. Saka’s hat had horn holes. While the weather was warming, it was still cold.
“It doesn’t have to be the exact spot,” Terrance said, his breath huffing out in a cloud.
“No, but it should be.” His eyes hadn’t returned to blue, his blood type was still demon, and he still saw magic on this side of the void.
It had taken nearly eight months to get a formal thank-you and pardon from the WCD—for using magic during the ban—and to be invited home to help put it back together. Saka had finally made contact with the Lifeblood tribes, or what remained of them. He was desperate to get home, and this would be the shortest route. This doorway would be the first in Vinland.
Magic would be taught demon-style, where magic must flow and be rebalanced, and not like the Mayans’ blood magic. Somehow he had ended up in charge of that. For the last four months he’d been working with others to put Vinland back together.
“I think this is it.” It was where he’d stood cuffed and cold and waited to be hanged. He pulled out the seeds and handed one to Terrance. “You remember how to do this?”
“Easy.” He leaned in for a kiss. “Gather a little magic.”
Angus smiled. The three of them had done that before they came out. The scars hummed with trapped magic as he pressed the seed into the ground and reached for Saka’s hand. Saka held Terrance’s free hand, and the other hovered over the seed. Together they grew the trees that would form the doorway between Lifeblood and New London. It wouldn’t be open like the Mayan ones. Instead it would have a simple lock to prevent people from taking what they wanted from Demonside.
Saka had been working with Iktan and Cadmael on different types of doorways.
The trees grew and arched together, branches twining. Satisfied, Angus drew back and embraced Saka. “I’ll be back tomorrow to summon you and finish this.”
“I look forward to it. Perhaps you could escape for a day afterward? The mages at Lifeblood would like to see you.”
Angus glanced at Terrance, who nodded. “I’ll try.”
Saka tore open the void, and the sweet, spicy air of Demonside wafted through. It was tempting to go through and feel the heat. He hadn’t crossed the void in weeks. Saying goodbye to Iktan and the demons in the village had been hard, but he’d needed to come back. Now that he was here, he wanted to see Lifeblood surrounded by forest the way it had once had been. But he didn’t take that step. They had to do it right and follow the new rules.
The void closed, and Angus stared a little longer at the place where Saka had been standing. The grass didn’t remain flattened for long.
Terrance took his hand. “Are you in meetings today?”
Angus nodded. “We’re still settling some rules.”
The countries that had turned against their magic users, killing or jailing them, were in trouble for violating the rights of magic users. Magic users were entitled to use magic, demon or natural, but only if they followed the rules set out by the Institute for Magical Studies. The college had never mentioned those rules, but that wouldn’t happen again. And people could no longer be forced into using demon magic.
All magic had a cost. All magic left scars.
“What are you doing today?” Angus asked.
“Trying to get your mother’s chicken pie recipe for your birthday dinner.”
“Good luck with that. Just let her make it.” She’d been trying to make up for what had happened, even though Angus would rather move on. He’d healed the cuff burns on his wrists and ankles when the pardon came through, but he still wore the mages’ marks. He liked the way people flinched when they saw him. He wanted them to see the scars and remember.
Hand in hand they walked past the guards who protected the field. Around the edges people had left wreaths for those who’d been killed there. There had been memorials for those who’d died in Angus’s clean sweep. He’d given a formal apology, but he had no idea how many from the rugby field had survived. Their deaths were a heavy burden that he couldn’t forget. He still woke up some night
s shivering as though cold and drawing magic to him. Terrance would hold him until the nightmare faded back to a memory.
Slowly Vinland was starting to heal, at least on the surface, but some scars would take a lifetime to fade. He glanced back at the two trees in the field surrounded by the stumps. Some scars would never fade.
Terrance tugged on his hand. “Come on. I’ll walk you to your office, Dean of Sex Magic.”
Angus hated that title so much, and Terrance knew it. He grinned.
“Stop it.” Angus shouldered him.
“Nope.”
“Next time Saka is here….” He leaned and whispered a few words in Terrance’s ear so the guards at the gate couldn’t hear.
Terrance’s cheeks turned red. “That’s not possible.”
“I think you’ll find it is. And you’ll beg for it.”
“I don’t beg.”
Angus lifted his eyebrows. “You keep telling yourself that.”
“I ask. You on the other hand….”
Angus shrugged. “I know when to give in.”
They stopped outside Angus’s building. His office was on level three and had a view of the field.
Terrance gave his hand a squeeze. “I’ll see you for lunch?”
“Yes. Of course.” They always had lunch together.
It had been months, but Terrance still found it difficult to let go. Angus didn’t push him away when Terrance held him a moment longer. With a final kiss, they pulled apart.
If he’d known what summoning a demon would mean that first day, he liked to think he’d have still done it, but no one was that brave. He looked up at the building. They needed to finalize the rules before mages and priests could start teaching. He never wanted to be a teacher, yet here he was—no longer a warlock in training or a dangerous rogue, but a mage, and he wasn’t going to shirk that duty.
So he carefully climbed the steps, knowing that no matter what he did, he had a home on both sides of the void.
More from TJ Nichols
Studies in Demonology: Book One
Angus Donohue doesn’t want to be a warlock. He believes draining demons for magic is evil, but it’s a dangerous opinion to have—his father is a powerful and well-connected warlock, and Angus is expected to follow the family tradition.
His only way out is to fail the demon summoning class. Failure means expulsion from the Warlock College. Despite Angus’s best efforts to fumble the summoning, it works. Although not the way anyone expects.
Angus’s demon, Saka, is a powerful mage with his own need for a warlock.
Saka wants to use Angus in a ritual to rebalance the magic that is being stripped from Demonside by warlocks. If Angus survives his demon’s desires and the perils of Demonside, he’ll have to face the Warlock College and their demands.
Angus must choose: obey the College and forget about Demonside or trust Saka and try to fix the damage before it’s too late. Whatever he does, he is in the middle of a war he isn’t qualified to fight.
Studies in Demonology: Book Two
The blood sacrifices have brought rain to Demonside, but across the void, the Warlock College of Vinland is still storing and gathering magic, heedless of the warnings of the international magical community. The underground is full of warlocks who disagree with the college, but do they care about wizards and demons or only about snatching power?
With a foot in each world, Angus is no longer sure whom he can trust. The demons don’t trust humans, and even though he is learning more magic, he will never be one of them. He is human and only tolerated. Some demons would be happy to slit his throat. It’s only because his demon is powerful in his own right that Angus is alive.
Saka only has a year to prove that Angus’s people can change and that the magic taken will be rebalanced, but the demons want action. His affection for Angus is clouding his judgment and weakening his position in the tribe. Time is running out, and he must make a choice.
Readers love the Studies in Demonology series by TJ Nichols
Warlock in Training
“Engaging characters, interesting and compelling world, and outstanding story telling. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to any fantasy lovers out there.”
—Joyfully Jay
“Warlock in Training tells a unique, complex, and addictive story that is hard to put down.”
—Joyfully Reviewed
“This fantasy story is truly brilliant.”
—Gay Book Reviews
Rogue in the Making
“…if you’re looking for a suspenseful adventure full of surprises, twists and turns, and more than one revelation, then you will probably like this novel as much as I do. I can’t wait for the final installment!”
—Rainbow Book Reviews
“The author did a fabulous job with this book. We’re completely hooked into the story, wanting to know more….”
—OptimuMM
“I was so excited to see Angus and Saka again and I wasn’t disappointed. This story was just as in depth and thought out as the last one.”
—Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words
TJ NICHOLS is the author of the Studies in Demonology series as well as several novellas. Having grown up reading thrillers and fantasy novels, it’s no surprise that mixing danger and magic comes so easily. Writing urban fantasy allows TJ to make sure that evil gets vanquished and the hero gets his man.
With two cats acting as supervisors, TJ has gone from designing roads to building worlds and wouldn’t have it any other way. After traveling all over the world and Australia, TJ now lives in Perth, Western Australia.
Website: tjnichols-author.blogspot.com
Twitter: @TobyJNichols
Facebook: www.facebook.com/TJNichols.author
By TJ Nichols
STUDIES IN DEMONOLOGY
Warlock in Training
Rogue in the Making
Blood for the Spilling
Published by DSP PUBLICATIONS
www.dsppublications.com
Published by
DSP PUBLICATIONS
5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886 USA
www.dsppublications.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Blood for the Spilling
© 2018 TJ Nichols.
Cover Art
© 2018 Catt Ford.
Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model.
All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact DSP Publications, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or www.dsppublications.com.
Digital ISBN: 978-1-64080-882-9
Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-1-64080-883-6
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018947749
Digital published November 2018
v. 1.0
Printed in the United States of America
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