Witch's Secret

by Emma L. Adams

  Looked like my assumption that the mages would never have been able to keep an Ancient caged in the same way as they had the vampire shades was dead wrong. And now it was roaming free somewhere in here, hungry for my soul.

  I spotted a pile of machinery which looked stable enough for me to climb to the upper corridor. Finding hand-holds, I gingerly pulled myself up, holding my breath whenever my feet slipped. For once in my life, I was glad of being short, lightweight and agile enough to balance on flimsy machine parts until my feet hit solid ground. If the guild doesn’t take me back, maybe I have a second career option as a stunt double.

  I walked tentatively through yet another lab filled with broken equipment, only to find myself at yet another dead end. “Seriously?”

  “Seriously,” a voice replied from the gloom.

  Great. Another vampire. At least this one had the courtesy of announcing his presence.

  “There’s a monster blocking the other corridor,” I told the disembodied voice. “Can you tell me how to get out without being maimed or killed.”

  “No.”

  “Really helpful.”

  “Look, that thing is an Ancient, and if you had the slightest idea what it’s capable of—”

  “I reckon I do.” Unfortunately.

  “Well, that makes things easier,” he said. “It can’t break the iron walls of this place, which is good news for the people outside. Just bad news for us.”

  “Fuck me,” I muttered.

  “I’m a ghost, but hey, I won’t back down from a challenge.”

  “Oh, lord.” Just what I needed. A ghost with a dirty sense of humour. I supposed he was a vampire. I heard him chuckling as I picked my way through the lab in search of a door.

  That giant monster was immortal. Just like the other gods. No wonder my fellow Hemlocks had kicked out the Ancients into other realms. They’d never been dead. Only imprisoned. “Please tell me there aren’t any more of them in here.”

  “Isn’t one enough?” he said.

  “Is there a way to reactivate the binding spells, then?” I’d rather that Ancient be trapped in a spell than roaming around snacking on my friends’ souls.

  “I don’t know, you tell me,” said the ghost. “You’re clearly a necromancer, not a vampire or… oh. Oh.” He appeared next to me, a transparent outline barely visible in the gloom. “You’re a shade, too? How did you get out?”

  “I wasn’t captured,” I said. “I’m the one who accidentally set you all free, I think. I was trying to put you out of your misery, but it backfired.”

  “I’m not miserable,” said the vampire. “I’d like to find my body, though…”

  “Sorry, but I don’t think that’s likely.” It was probably among those zombies who attacked me.

  And Keir. If he hadn’t made it out… dammit. I never should have brought him here.

  My fists clenched at my sides, and I kicked at the nearest piece of equipment. I was going to die here, too soon to win the Hemlocks’ war, because some bloody moron had decided capturing a giant god was a great idea. Why did I leave Evelyn behind?

  “What is it this time?” the vampire asked. “You look like you’re about to cry.”

  “My friends might have died for all I know, and I can’t reach them,” I said. “Instead, I’m stuck here with a monster and a bunch of ghosts. No offence.”

  “To me or the monster?” he said. “I’m not exactly in heaven either. Most of my friends were suspended in those tanks and lost their minds years ago.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be. I’ve had years to accept my fate.” He hovered in mid-air. “I stopped counting the days after they removed me from my body. You will, too, if you’re lucky to last long enough for that beast to forget about hunting you. Kinda hard to keep track without a clock.”

  Apparently, he was a talker. Not that I minded having someone to speak to. There was no danger of him disturbing the fury, because they couldn’t sense or hear ghosts, as far as I knew.

  “Why does that fury eat souls?” I asked.

  “Because it does,” he said. “I don’t know. I’ve been researching the Ancients my whole life and I haven’t come close to understanding them.”

  “Research?” I asked. “Is that why the mages took you?”

  “Pretty much,” he said. “The other vampires didn’t care, when I told them, but you strike me as a good listener.”

  “Not like I have any other options at the moment.” There was no way out except back the way I’d come. I’d have to climb back over the pit to reach the other corridor, which had been overrun by zombies the last time I’d seen it. And the fury was still roaming around somewhere.

  “Vampires are all descendants of an Ancient-human hybrid,” said the ghost. “Not sure which Ancient. I’ve never met them. Probably for the best.”

  “Given my experience, I’d have to say I agree.” I scanned the lab again. “Is this room warded?”

  “Why?”

  Hemlock magic sparked to life in my hands. “I’m going to blast the wall down. Can you warn me if the Ancient is on the other side?”

  “It isn’t,” he said. “But I don’t see any explosives.”

  I pushed up my sleeve, revealing my witch spells.

  He whistled. “I stand corrected.”

  I was about to tell him to stand back, then I remembered he was a ghost. “Get ready to run.”

  I reached out my hands, searching for the wards humming inside the building’s foundations. Resistance pushed back, but I gritted my teeth, finding the pattern of magic forming the wards. My hands moved over the wards, unravelling them one at a time. Just enough to leave a gap ahead of me.

  Then I threw an explosive spell and blasted a hole through the wall.

  The vampire whooped and cheered, doing a back-flip in mid-air. “Nice one.”

  “Let’s see what we have here.” I walked towards the newly created window and climbed through. “Do you know the way back to the room with the mirror inside it?”

  “The lab runs in a circle,” he said, pointing. “Keep going that way and you should get back to where you started.”

  “If you don’t want to be eaten, you should probably come with me.”

  The vampire kept up a stream of directions as I moved through the labs, dodging zombies and the occasional vampire-shade. When we ducked into a room lit with fluorescent lights, he grimaced and tried to hide in the shadows. “Ah. That’s too bright. I really need to feed, by the way. Just so you know.”

  “It won’t be long now,” I said, squinting in the brightness. He appeared clearer than he’d been in the dark. And his features were startlingly familiar.

  “Holy shit,” I said. “Aiden Langford? Is that your name?”

  19

  Keir’s brother blinked at me. “You know me?”

  “I know your brother.”

  He shrank back. “You’re lying.”

  “Keir,” I said. “That’s his name. You remember him, right? He’s here—or he was, anyway.”

  His eyes widened. “I have to see him before it’s too late. I can already feel myself fading.”

  “Hang on.” Was there a way to temporarily strengthen him long enough to get him to his body? “Can you grab a vessel?”

  “Not without letting myself get caught in that swarm of zombies.”

  And more vampires might be on the other side of the mirror. “Is there a way to stop that from happening?”

  “You can bind me to yourself,” he said. “Temporarily. Just to stop me from drifting off. But I don’t know if that’s magic you can do.”

  “Would it be in here?” I pulled out the ritual book I’d found in the pit. Its leather-bound cover was marked with symbols, too. Witch runes.

  “Where’d you get that?” Aiden peered over my shoulder as I skimmed through the book. It wasn’t hard to find which rituals had been used recently, because those pages were stained in dried blood.

  “That one.” Aiden po
inted at a faded heading inked in black, and I stopped flipping pages. “A temporary binding. It won’t endanger either of us. It’ll keep me alive, relatively speaking, until you find my body.”

  After reading the printed text, I didn’t see any harm that might result from trying the binding. No blood sacrifice requirements, and nothing that might screw up my bond with Evelyn and Keir. I dug in my pocket for the blood magic pen, then I copied the design onto my arm.

  Energy rushed to the surface of my skin, and the rune glowed around the edges. “Oh,” said Aiden. “That feels… strange.”

  “Did it work?”

  “Ah.” He moved, and when he did, so did I.

  “Well, this is awkward,” I said. The spirit was kind of… stuck to me. At least he wasn’t trying to eat my soul, but the last thing I needed was another permanent hitchhiker sharing my body. I’d better find his body soon.

  “Fair warning, I’m not alone,” I told him. “Don’t be alarmed if another spirit shows up. I’m a shade with a split soul.”

  “You’re telling me this now?” said Aiden. “Are you absolutely sure you’re not one of the mages’ lab experiments?”

  “No, just a freak of nature.” To say the least. “Can you sense Keir in here?”

  “No, but your mirror room is that way.” He pointed. “Better hurry.”

  When we came to an area I recognised, I took the lead until we reached the room with the mirror. Then I checked the spirit realm. No sign of the others—Keir included.

  “I can’t sense my brother,” Aiden said. “Can that mirror really get us out of here?”

  “Yep. Welcome to Edinburgh’s necromancer guild.”

  I leapt through the mirror, finding myself suspended in mid-air, legs flailing. The door lay open ahead of me, and the mirror had fallen onto its back. My feet snagged on the edge and I caught myself before I tumbled back through the mirror again. Bits of dismembered zombie and discarded candles littered the floor, while shouts echoed from the lobby. I ran into the corridor and turned right, my shoes crunching in salt. Kicking a rotting zombie arm aside, I led the way into the wide space of the lobby.

  Cloaked figures ran in all directions, and Lady Montgomery stood in the centre of the chaos, her hair streaming loose from its bun. Groups of necromancers hurried up and downstairs, carrying armfuls of candles, including—

  “Hey, Lloyd.” I waved at him as he reached the foot of the left-hand staircase.

  Lloyd dropped the candles. “Jas!”

  I ran to him and he hugged me tightly. “I’m glad you got out.”

  “Did you die again?” interrupted Morgan, also laden with candles.

  “You’re cold as the grave, Jas,” Lloyd said. “What in the world happened back there? Keir said he saw you fall into a pit—”

  “Keir’s alive.” I let him go, overcome with relief. “Did the others get out, too?”

  “You bet,” said Mackie, running past with an armful of candles. “I already screamed at two of those bastards and scared them into letting go of their vessels.”

  “She did.” Lloyd grabbed some of the candles he’d dropped. “Problem is, a bunch of them still got out into the city. It’s a mess out there. Ilsa went to round them up.”

  “I’d better go and help. Is Keir out there, too?”

  “Last I saw. Be careful.”

  I ran towards the guild’s doors and pushed them open. A row of cloaked figures guarded the entrance, and on the other side, a number of winged shapes circled the guild. Furies. No, shadow-furies. What did they want? Did they know a giant version of one of them was on the other side of the mirror?

  “This is beyond creepy,” Aiden whispered in my ear, making me jump. “Uh, Jas, is my brother somewhere behind those monsters?”

  “Quite possibly.” I tensed, readying my Hemlock magic.

  “They aren’t trying to get in,” Lloyd said from behind me. “They’re just… hanging around there. They attack if you get too close. Isabel took out three of them and used up half her spells in the process. What’re they playing at, do you know?”

  “They’re waiting,” I said. “Let’s just say zombies and vampire ghosts weren’t all I found on the other side of that mirror.”

  And I think they want to meet their big brother in person.

  A blast of fire hit one of the furies, knocking it out of the air. Drake appeared a second later, his hands blazing.

  “Hey there, Jas,” he said. “Heard the guild had a bit of trouble with unwanted guests.”

  Two more furies descended, and Vance appeared beneath, a blade in each hand. At his side, Ivy Lane readied her weapon, blue light igniting as she leapt into the air. My jaw dropped as she cleared ten feet, swinging the sword into a fury’s neck. Lloyd jumped behind the guild’s doors as its head went flying, bouncing off the wards.

  Ivy landed on her feet. “Hey, Jas. Sorry I took so long. I had a situation in Faerie to sort out.”

  I stepped back to avoid the spray of blood as the fury’s headless body hit the earth. “And now you have a situation here to sort out.”

  “Keeps life interesting.” She jumped, using the fury’s body to propel herself upwards and knock another low-circling monster out of the air. I ran to help, conjuring a whip of Hemlock magic.

  “I think I know why these bastards are at the guild.” I circled the beast’s leg and gave the whip a tug, pulling it to the ground. “There’s a giant shadowy fury on the other side of the mirror. Not sure if it was Lord Sutherland who imprisoned it or the Orion League, but I think those furies must be able to sense it.”

  Ivy jumped at the falling fury, sinking her blade into its spine. “Not an Ancient?”

  “You’ve got it.”

  Ivy climbed onto the fury’s back to ride its descent back to earth. “Should have figured something spawned those monstrosities. I’ll introduce it to Helena.”

  “Who’s Helena?”

  “Her sword,” Vance said, displacing his own sword so it sank into another fury’s neck from behind. As it fell, the sword vanished and then reappeared in his hand.

  I swung my whip at another fury, catching it before it disappeared into the shadows. “You mean the same sword which contains an Ancient’s magic? What does the god think of you giving it a nickname?”

  “He never asked.” Ivy sank her blade into the fury’s side as I tugged it out of the sky. Freeing my whip, I gave it another swipe, slicing the fury’s head off.

  “Nice one,” said Aiden’s voice from thin air.

  “Who said that?” asked Ivy. “Not Evelyn? That sounded like a guy.”

  “It was.” Apparently, Aiden had figured out how to make himself heard by non-necromancers. “He’s a vampire ghost I saved from the lab. Have you seen her, by the way? Evelyn?”

  “Isn’t she tied to you?” Ivy shook droplets of blood off her sword, which glowed bright blue.

  “I left her back here while I went through the mirror,” I explained. “She was pretty badly affected by the flood of ghosts in the lab the last time, so she wanted to stay here and defend the guild.”

  “Haven’t seen her,” said Ivy. “I did see that vampire, Keir, running across the bridge, but he didn’t stop to chat.”

  “He must have gone to Clancy’s.” I fed more power into the whip in my hands, which glimmered, slicing through the furies’ skin like paper. The remaining furies shrank back, and Vance appeared behind them, his blades flashing.

  “Oh, Clancy,” said Aiden. “He’s still around?”

  “Clancy’s supposed to be keeping an eye on Aiden’s body in case anyone steals it,” I said to Ivy. “Aiden is Keir’s brother, and he’s bound to me until I get his body back.”

  “And I thought I’d had a bad week.” Ivy dodged as a pair of claws appeared from the shadows behind her.

  I snagged the beast’s clawed hand with my whip. “How do you kill a god? You saw one die, didn’t you?”

  “Another god killed him.” Ivy leapt forwards, sinking her sword into
the trapped fury’s neck. “As for the god whose magic is in Ilsa’s talisman, he was killed by a Sidhe.”

  “I’m guessing no human has ever killed one?” I ducked to avoid the spray of blood. “No wonder the Hemlocks cursed themselves into a forest to opt out of the war.”

  They cut us off to save their own skins, the Soul Collector had said. Not surprising, given that the Hemlocks weren’t immortal in the same way the gods were.

  “Incoming,” Ivy warned, as the guild’s doors flew open and three zombies ran out behind me, driven by vampire shades.

  “Oh, hell.” I disentangled my magical whip from the dead fury. “They’re still getting out of the mirror.”

  “Damn, they’re fast.” Ivy swung her blade into a zombie’s chest, blood spraying out.

  “They’re using blood magic. You can still use salt to destroy them, though.”

  “And fire.” Drake threw a fireball at the nearest zombie, and he burst into flames.

  “Now the vampire’s gonna run for another vessel,” I warned, tapping into the spirit realm.

  Sure enough, the vampire reached out for me, hands grasping. I snagged him in my whip, holding him still.

  “Stay there.” I reached out with my free hand, calling his spirit essence into me. When the spirit essence touched my Hemlock magic, it shimmered, growing more substantial even as the ghost stopped struggling. A current of energy ran through my veins, sharper this time. Can I draw on spirit energy? Like a vampire?

  “I banish you,” I said to the vampire.

  Death’s gates appeared looming overhead. I never thought I’d be so glad to see you. I gave the vampire a cheeky wave as the gates swallowed him up. One down, a hundred more to go.

  A crack in the grey fog of Death caught my eye, and I tilted my head. That’s not supposed to be there. The spirit realm had split, just a little, creating a slim tear in the emptiness on a level with my head.

  I halted, realising I’d drifted away from my body and into the grey. More cracks lay in all directions like tears in the fabric of the spirit realm itself. What the hell were they?