Witch's Secret

by Emma L. Adams

  “I’ll stay.” Evelyn’s voice startled me. “I can guard the guild from this side while you’re in the lab.”

  “Are you sure?” At Vance’s quizzical look, I added, “Evelyn, you can make yourself visible.”

  She appeared, flickering around the edges. “Ta da,” she said, in sarcastic tones.

  Lloyd stifled a snort, while Lady Montgomery and Vance both stared at her, probably bewildered by the resemblance between her and me.

  “Meet Evelyn Hemlock,” I said to Lady Montgomery. “She’s… we’re distantly related.”

  “And you’re both shades,” she said.

  “Technically,” I said. “I know my coven broke the law, but it’s hard to arrest people when they’re dead. And I was a year old at the time. So…”

  “Nobody is getting arrested,” said Lady Montgomery. “Except, that is, for Lord Sutherland and his contingent of mages. I’ve been compiling a list of disloyal mages and their potential replacements, and I’ve invited those replacements to meet for a summit in the next two weeks. I wish it could have been sooner, but given the circumstances, it’s best not to make him suspicious until we have the evidence.”

  Oh, we’ll bring the evidence, all right. “We’ll have enough for a trial from the lab alone. Who in their right mind wouldn’t arrest him after seeing what he did to those vampires?”

  “He played his part well,” said Lady Montgomery. “Not well enough, however. I have recorded evidence that he paid a visit to our guild some years ago and requested that we raise his wife from death. She died from a fatal illness, as far as I know. That’s enough to prove the origin of his fixation on necromancy.”

  “I hope you’re right.” That explained his obsession with preserving his own life, even to the extent that he’d make deals with the gods to avoid death.

  Banish the vampires. Gather the evidence. Bring down Lord Sutherland. When I saw my own determination reflected back at me in Evelyn’s eyes, my resolve strengthened.

  Let’s do this.

  Within an hour, our small group gathered in the spare room where the necromancers had stashed the mirror. Whatever argument Ilsa had used on Lady Montgomery had worked, because she let me choose the team myself. Ilsa, Morgan, Mackie and Lloyd joined me, while Isabel and Vance organised a defensive patrol around the guild in anticipation of trouble from Lord Sutherland. River and some of the other senior mages, meanwhile, worked on the guild’s defences in case any of the vampires got loose.

  My arms were lined with spells, and Isabel had also given me one of Asher’s pens in case I needed to use blood magic in a pinch. Not that I’d let that one slip to the boss. If she realised I’d chosen to use forbidden magic, I’d rather handle the fallout after the battle, not before.

  When Keir entered the room, Lady Montgomery’s mouth tightened. “Are you sure taking another vampire with you is wise, Jas?”

  “Absolutely,” I said. “He’ll know if the vampires can be saved or not.” It wasn’t a job I’d wish on anyone, but Keir merely nodded.

  “I don’t think she likes me much,” Keir remarked. His jaw was set, and while I’d let him feed on me before we left, we were still bonded. If either of us disappeared during the fight… don’t think about that.

  Drawing in a deep breath, I walked through the mirror, with Keir at my side. We emerged into the same room as before. An eerie silence filled the air, all the stronger with Evelyn’s absence. It was far from the first time we’d been apart, but she’d saved my neck when we’d gone up against the Whisper and almost lost her life for it. Facing the enemy without her made me feel vulnerable in a way I didn’t care for at all.

  Mackie stepped out of the mirror and immediately recoiled. “Can’t you hear it?” she gasped. “They’re screaming. They’re all screaming.”

  “You’re still wearing the iron, right?” said Morgan.

  “Of course I’m wearing the bloody iron,” she snapped. “Can’t you hear them?”

  “Yeah.” He stepped backwards. “I hear them.”

  “Mackie, I think you should head back,” said Lloyd.

  “Says who?”

  “Says me,” said Morgan. “Lloyd, take her back home.”

  “I’m not your little sister,” Mackie informed him.

  “Thank god. I have too many of those already,” said Morgan. “Ilsa, back me up.”

  “Guys,” Ilsa said. “If you want to bicker, do it somewhere that isn’t swarming with ghosts.”

  “There’s nowhere on this side of the veil that isn’t swarming with ghosts,” Mackie said, her eyes wide. “They’re so miserable… you have to let them out.”

  Keir, who’d peered out of the room, withdrew his head from the corridor. “Show yourself, vampire,” he warned.

  A shadowy form appeared, hovering in front of us. He was male, maybe Keir’s age, and faded around the edges. Huh? He’s not the one I set free. Had another vampire got out of his tank, too?

  My shoulders tensed as the ghost approached, hands outstretched. Keir caught his arm, and I lunged, my hand passing right through his chest. Okay. Spirit drain… now.

  My Hemlock magic tried to react instead, but I pushed it down, reaching for the energy humming through the ghost’s body, keeping him alive by a thread. Catching the thread, I pulled it loose. The ghost made a faint gasping noise and my stomach turned over.

  “It’s okay.” I drew in a breath, pulling the current of energy into my hand. “I’m saving you. I banish you beyond the gates of Death.”

  Please let this work. I’d had no chance to practise the spirit-drain technique, and I’d thought we’d be banishing the vampires inside the tanks, not loose in the lab. How had he got free? Whatever the reason, the energy flowing into my hand reacted like a live wire. I startled as the current zipped up my arms, flooding my veins like icy liquid. Is this supposed to happen?

  Keir tightened his grip, his own hands glowing the same as mine. The ghost struggled, arms flailing, but growing weaker.

  “I banish you,” I said.

  The vampire remained there, so transparent he was barely visible.

  “That should have worked,” said Ilsa, frowning. “Are you sure we aren’t in a liminal space?”

  I shook my head. “Keir and I only explored two corridors before the ghost got out and we had to run back. We don’t have a map of the place. But both corridors from here end up in the same place. The only way through went past the lab where we found the—”

  “Vampires,” Keir said, staring ahead into the corridor. “I think we may have a problem.”

  I let go of the energy, following him to the door.

  The entire corridor outside was filled with ghosts. Not the trapped, tormented spirits, but an endless flood of ravenous vampires.

  18

  Had one vampire somehow managed to set the others free? Or had my freeing the first vampire had a knock-on effect and somehow broken the defences on the other tanks? Either way, we had to stop them from getting through the mirror. The vampires formed a faded shadowy mass, a hundred or more of them crammed into the narrow corridor. If they all entered the guild at once, there’d be a massacre.

  Ilsa pulled out the Gatekeeper’s book. At once, the ghosts recoiled from her, floating into the destroyed labs.

  “They’re afraid of the book,” she said. “Morgan, take Mackie back through the mirror.”

  “I vote we all get out,” said Lloyd.

  “Bit late,” I said. “If we do, they’ll follow us. For some reason, we can’t banish them here. Either it’s a liminal space, or—”

  “A spirit barrier,” Ilsa said. “Around the whole lab. Knowing our luck, it’ll be on the outside.”

  Bugger. I bet she’s right.

  “We can handle this,” Keir said. “Ilsa, if they’re afraid of the book, you’ll have to lead the way. You guys, stay back here and guard the mirror.”

  “Shouldn’t Ilsa be the one who stays behind?” asked Mackie.

  “No, because then we’d get
mobbed by vampires,” said Lloyd. “We should set up candles. Right, Morgan?”

  He nodded, not arguing for once. “Sure, I brought candles. Put them by the mirror. Might not be strong enough to keep out a whole army, but it can buy us time. Mackie, go and warn the others. That’s an order, okay?”

  Mackie opened her mouth to argue, then took another look at the ghost-filled corridor. “All right, whatever. Don’t get killed.”

  “We’ll try not to.” Lloyd stepped beside Morgan, who looked a little surprised. “We’ll set up a salt barrier, too, in case that discourages them. Jas, you’ve got this, right?”

  “I sure hope so. Ilsa, lead the way.”

  “Be careful, you two.” Ilsa took the lead, and the ghosts recoiled again, floating backwards out of her path. They were scared of the book—or more accurately, scared of the Ancient’s power contained inside it.

  Ghosts fled as Ilsa walked, following my directions to the lab.

  When we reached it, I halted, staring into the gutted interior. Every single tank inside the lab had shattered, and their inhabitants were drifting around like balloons released into the sky. Surely I’d have noticed if my magic had shattered every tank when I’d set the first vampire free, but nobody else had been here since Keir and I had chased the vampire shade through the mirror. Right?

  “It’ll be quicker to find the edges of the spirit barrier if one of us leaves our body,” I said to Keir. His eyes had glazed over, suggesting he’d got the same idea.

  Ilsa tightened her grip on the book. “All right, but be quick.”

  I joined Keir in the spirit realm. At once, a mass of ghosts surrounded me, like a crowd jostling me from all angles. I gritted my teeth, pushing them aside with a gentle use of kinetic power. The lab didn’t go on forever, so it must come to an end somewhere.

  Sure enough, when I reached out my awareness, a solid barrier blocked my path, confirming Ilsa’s suspicion that the mages had put a spirit barrier around the outside of the lab. No candles shone inside the walls, so I’d have to break the outside walls to move them. Someone really didn’t want trespassers wandering in, living or otherwise.

  A pair of hands grabbed me, yanking me around. I pulled myself out of the grip of a vampire shade, his fevered eyes glowing with blue-white light, and a burning sensation in my wrist jolted me back into my body. My blood magic mark must have kicked in.

  “Jas.” Keir caught my shoulders. “Did you find the edge? I couldn’t see any candles.”

  “Nor me,” I said. “It’s a spirit barrier, all right, but we’ll have to blast the walls down first. If anything, the mirror’s a safer bet. We don’t know what else is out there.”

  Ilsa swore. “Never mind what’s out there—we have bigger problems in here.”

  A human-shaped figure stood in the doorway, eyes glowing with the bright awareness of a vampire. Not an undead at first glance—until I saw the mark on his collarbone.

  Oh, crap. The vampires might be dead, but they retained enough awareness to inhabit a vessel. Specifically, a vessel preserved using blood magic.

  The vessel moved, arms swinging, but Keir got there first. He blocked the vampire’s strike with his forearm and casually tossed him sideways. His skull hit the wall, but he was on his feet a second later, aiming a punch at me. I dodged and hit back, sending him flying backwards into a second undead.

  I called my Hemlock power to my hands, forming a shield between us and them. Their eyes glowed with blue-white light, their hands grasping, begging to feed.

  “Hold on.” Keir kicked the first undead to the ground, then grabbed him through the spirit realm. There was a bright flash, and the undead’s body fell back, limp, the insubstantial vampire rising as a ghost. “I banish you beyond the gates of Death.” Nothing happened. “Guess it was worth a shot.”

  I dropped to my knees beside the body, Hemlock magic searing my hands. I pressed my palm to the mark on his collarbone, pushing my magic directly into the symbol. The dead man crumbled, rotting away, and I did the same to the two undead grasping at the shield. When they collapsed, Ilsa ran forwards, holding her talisman in outstretched hands. The vampires’ ghosts cringed away from the book, but behind them, more waited, eyes aglow, hands reaching out, begging for our souls.

  Ilsa tensed, gripping the book like a shield, but the undead swarmed her, faster than any dead had the right to move.

  “Ilsa!” I shouted.

  Dead, clammy hands grabbed at us. I kicked out, and a heavy blow collided with my skull. Keir caught my hand, pulling me after him and dragging me down a side corridor.

  “We can’t leave her!” I said.

  “Jas—it’s a dead end. We’re stuck.”

  I turned on the spot. The corridor ended abruptly where the floor had collapsed into a giant hole which covered a huge section of the building, the splintered remains of machinery dangling into its depths.

  “Shit. Do you know how to fly?” I called my Hemlock magic, conjuring a shield between us and the relentless dead.

  Keir approached the pit behind us, his face pale. “I can’t see the bottom, but we might be able to climb down.”

  As he turned his back on the pit, a dark mass rose behind him. “Keir!”

  The dark mass resolved into a clawed hand, grasping Keir and yanking him out of sight. The hand belonged to something with long talons and jagged wings, an oversized version of one of those shadowy furies. Malevolence simmered in its eyes, and my body locked to the spot, raw terror permeating every nerve. Keir… no.

  Twisting, Keir slammed a knife into the claw holding him captive. The beast turned to shadow, dropping him. Keir landed on his feet, inches from the pit, his face ashen. “What the hell?”

  The beast opened its mouth, and growled, “I will devour you.”

  Crap. It could talk as well?

  “Sorry to burst your bubble, but no thanks.” I conjured my Hemlock magic, pushing a second shield towards the pit in an attempt to get Keir out of harm’s way.

  The beast’s claw reached out, through the shield—through me. I stared at the claw sticking out of my chest with a feeling of detached disbelief. There was no blood, and the claw didn’t look solid at all—yet that same claw had grabbed Keir. What the hell is this beast?

  The fury yanked its claw out of my chest, and my spirit came away with it. My body remained where it was, but the beast’s claw had hooked my soul like a fish on a line. The monster pulled me towards its huge mouth, my transparent limbs flailing.

  “Put me down.” I squirmed, wincing as its claws dug into my non-existent skin. “You can’t eat my soul. It’ll give you indigestion.”

  Keir wasn’t looking at me, but at my inert body. He gave me a firm shake, and a burning sensation shot up my arm. I vanished from the fury’s grip, blinking back into my body. The blood magic rune had saved my skin, but Ilsa was gone, and the only way out of the corridor was past the shield I’d conjured to keep the zombies back. The instant we ran, they’d swarm.

  Rather them than that fury beast.

  I turned on my amplifying rune. “I’m gonna blow them up. Ready to run?”

  Keir gave a short nod. I raised my other palm and blasted Hemlock magic at the zombies, knocking them into one another like skittles. Taking Keir’s arm, I ran at the wall of undead. Between reanimated bodies and that shadowy monster, I’d take the zombies any day of the week.

  My shield collapsed, and a wave of zombies descended on us, pushing me back towards the hole in the floor. Keir’s arm was wrenched from my grip, and he disappeared beneath the flailing wall of zombies. I gave one last desperate lunge and the floor ran out, casting me into darkness.

  Everything hurt. My body throbbed all over, and so did my spirit. On the plus side, my soul was still attached to my body. I hadn’t gone floating off… or been devoured.

  Keir. Please tell me he made it out. I raised my head, but all I could see were the wrecked remains of the machines and tanks which filled the room that must have stood beneath the cor
ridor whose floor I’d fallen through. Judging by the size of some of them, they’d been holding that monstrous shadowy fury captive. The spirit barrier around the lab was probably the only thing keeping the beast from roaming throughout the Highlands, devouring everyone it ran into.

  I groaned and rolled onto my back. My head pounded, and something sharp dug into my spine. Something book-shaped. Lady Harper’s journal. I’d forgotten I even had it. What would she say if she found out I’d met my end in the ruins of an old lab, without ever fulfilling my duty as a Hemlock witch?

  No. I wouldn’t give in that easily. I had too much to lose. Evelyn was fighting for both of us back in Edinburgh, and so were my friends.

  Climbing to my feet, I squinted into the gloom. There was no sign of the shadow-fury, which I hoped meant it had assumed I’d fallen to my death. Another life gone, Jas. Aside from the pain, I didn’t feel quite as out of it as last time I’d died. I conjured a spark of magic to my hands to light the way, revealing marks on the glass-strewn floor.

  Witch runes. Wards. Powerful ones, none of them active.

  “Oh, no,” I whispered.

  Somehow, when I’d broken that tank with my Hemlock magic, the aftereffects had undone the wards around everything else in the lab as well. Including the spell imprisoning that monster.

  My foot crunched in something hard. Bone, brittle enough to snap. Broken glass. Machinery. I walked through the ruined lab, wincing at every sound, but the giant fury didn’t reappear. I found a book lying half-open at the edge of one of the faded chalk circles. I picked it up, staring at the numbering system on the spine. I’d volunteered in the archives enough times to recognise it as the guild’s property. And the title—Ritual Magic.

  Asher didn’t mention he stole it from the guild. But this must be it. A ritual book, which someone must have used to summon a giant shadow-fury and imprisoned it here in the lab. If it escaped into Edinburgh, we were all screwed. The monster looked too big to physically fit through the mirror, but who knew, when it came to the Ancients? The Whisper had managed to exist in a single symbol, while the Soul Collector had existed without a body for years. I wouldn’t put anything past them.