A Witch Among Warlocks: The Complete Series Box Set

by Lidiya Foxglove

  “I feel ready to deal this bastard a death blow,” Montague said. He picked up a sword abandoned in the fight, maybe Rayner’s. “I’m going to be your Wesley today, Char.”

  “If you’re going to drink my blood, you’d better!” Then I added, “I love you, Montague.”

  I was so afraid he would die too. Right before my eyes. Just like that. I couldn’t even process.

  I clutched Firian, who formed a protective bubble just for the two of us, but Professor McGuinness was still struggling to keep up a wider defense, and I knew I couldn’t dwell on what had happened. I had to help my friends.

  Dead.

  Ina was dead, too.

  She’s in the Haven now, but she is alive. She came back.

  Alec picked up Harris’ body, my tall arrogant strolling boy now seeming so limp and fragile, and he brought him to me. His blue eyes were still open. I couldn’t handle it. Well, I thought I couldn’t, but somehow I did. I just silently shut his eyes with my hand. “Watch over him,” Alec said, his Adam’s apple lifting as he swallowed back his own sadness. “So we can bring him back home.”

  “Oh no…”

  It was too real.

  He was so, so pale.

  “Charlotte,” Firian said. “I’m so sorry.”

  In this moment, Firian didn’t make any jokes, he just quietly acknowledged that I had feelings for Harris, that he had finally started to really become a part of us, and now he was gone…so quickly and stupidly…

  The Withered Lord was still fighting ferociously, despite many injuries. Plus, Jie didn’t seem to like spiders, which I could not blame him for at all, so Silvus was the only vampire in the clan still fighting in earnest. Jie picked up one of the bows from the fallen dark elf girls and tried to shoot the spider demon from a distance.

  “The holy grail water really did it,” Firian said.

  That was generous, maybe. It wasn’t looking that good. He was making me feel better, like Harris’ efforts had some reward. Like we would make it out of this.

  “Yeah. Yeah. We never would have had any chance without it. But—” I wiped my eyes. “I have to help them.”

  “No. Just stay here. Alec told you to watch Harris. And Monty just drank your blood. You’re weak.”

  “What good is any of this if Alec dies?” I got to my feet, just in time to see the Withered Lord grab Alec by a wing and tear at it. The thin skin of his demon wings split and his back arched in what I could tell was some serious pain.

  “Alec!” I tried to run but a wave of serious dizziness overtook me from giving Montague my blood.

  “Just hold me, Charlotte,” Firian said. “He’s too strong for us. Sometimes you can’t fight anymore. Just hold me like you used to hold your stuffed cat in bed when you were sad.”

  I knew he was telling me this for my own benefit. He didn’t need to be held; familiars would accept death for their witch. But he always knew what I needed. I shut my eyes but I could hear Montague scream as he was struck and Alec still groaning in pain and when I opened them again, I saw the Withered Lord aim for my mom.

  “I told you what would happen,” he said. “Your life or hers, Emily.” He shifted back into demon form and grabbed the sword that Montague had dropped.

  “Kill me and let her go,” Mom begged, leaving herself open.

  “No!” I staggered toward the fray, shooting fire that fizzled in the snow.

  Sometimes you die fighting the boss, I thought. The whole party, wiped out.

  “Don’t give up, Mom, please! Dad—Dad needs to see you!”

  Chapter Forty-One

  Charlotte

  A portal opened, ripping into the fabric of Sinistral with sparks of light.

  I stopped in my tracks. This could be bad. Maybe the demon had backup.

  Stuart and Daisy appeared.

  Stuart. Daisy. Like fricking ANGELS.

  “Daisy and Stu in the house and we’re going to destroy—!” Daisy began, before seeing Harris and tripping over her own feet. “Oh—oh no no no…”

  “I’m so sorry,” Stuart said. “The council is looking for me, and I was trying to get to Daisy.” He said that and then he immediately turned to the Withered Lord. “Ignatius!”

  “It’s bad, Stu!” Ignatius cried. “Very bad!”

  “My magic is fresh,” Stuart said, and now the Withered Lord did start to back down as Stuart waved his wand, his fae robes flowing, his hair whipping around, and warm light surrounded the Withered Lord and made him glow.

  The demon seemed to be bound by the faery magic. In his already weakened state, he finally seemed deflated by this last strong burst of magic.

  “Get the sword!” he said. “While I have him held down. We need to get his head.”

  Who’s going for it? I looked around. Silvus was the only vampire still standing, and he didn’t look like the beheading type. Oh wait, there was Jie, now that the Withered Lord had gotten out of the spider thing, but he still had sort of a ‘hell no’ face. Ignatius?

  It was Mom who reached for the sword.

  “Emily, do you know what you’re doing?” Ignatius asked.

  “Yes.” She picked up the sword. “Master, you showed me the power I craved,” she said, and even now, her words were not entirely reassuring. “But you never could offer me the family I needed. I can’t follow you anymore. I am releasing all of your children.”

  “You will miss me, Emily,” he said, as she swung the blade.

  I cringed. I wanted to look away. I’m not sure why I didn’t, because the sight of my own mother striking the head off a demon with what must have been a really sharp sword would be seared on my brain forever.

  The body of the Withered Lord crumpled into dust, while Stuart picked up the head and tossed it in a sack. He hoisted it up. “It is done.”

  Daisy was dry heaving a little. When we looked at her, she quickly tried to look nonchalant. “I’m glad he’s dead. Revenge at last. Although I didn’t really do much.”

  “You did plenty,” Stuart said. “You got me here. Charlotte, now you and I are going to bring this to the faery queen.”

  “Me? Just me? What about Harris?”

  “We will, of course, give him a proper burial when we return,” he said gently.

  “No, seriously,” Montague said. “I can’t think about the faeries right now. Our best friend just got killed.”

  “We’re injured,” Alec said, through gritted teeth. “But Harris—”

  “Professor?” I asked. “Is there a way to…I mean…necromancers can bring back the dead, right? Ina was brought back.”

  “No.” I knew he was going to give me a look. “There is a price to pay for that, Charlotte. You have to pay a price.”

  “What price?”

  “I had to offer my power to…him…for Ina,” my mother said.

  “I—I know. I know that. But you had to give yourself up to the Withered Lord, and now he’s dead anyway,” I said.

  “Something very precious to you,” Professor McGuinness said.

  “Like my magic.”

  “Charlotte, you can’t give up your magic,” Stuart said. “You have the Wyrd wand. You’re the only one the faery queen will want to deal with.”

  “I don’t care about that. I know all you care about is making this deal, but I need to protect my friends first. Harris never even got to enjoy his life. He had just disowned himself from his family and—and he got the grail water that let us weaken the Withered Lord long enough for you to get here, and now you’re just going to let him die?”

  “If we don’t get the power of Wyrd, you are all in danger anyway!” Ignatius said.

  “You too,” I said. “You are both willing to let terrible things happen to us. I was with you until now. But I can’t…I can’t…just let him die.”

  I wrapped my hand around Harris’ cold one. “Come back to us, Harrison Nicolescu. We still have so many things to argue about. I give you my magic… all of my magic!”

  My hands glowed and
I felt woozy, but nothing really happened.

  “Damn it!” I was freaking out. Ignatius and Stuart looked about two seconds away from pulling me off of his body.

  Professor McGuinness knelt beside me. “You will need help.” He took my hand, elegantly voicing a spell in French, but speaking slowly, prompting me to join in.

  “Igor!” Ignatius said. “You can’t let this girl give up her magic.”

  “I’ll do it,” Daisy said, walking forward. “I’ll give up my magic to save his stupid ass.” I knew Daisy felt her magic was a terrible burden anyway, and I knew she must have some affection for Harris even if they didn’t match well as a couple, so I wasn’t going to complain. I was very touched that both Professor McGuinness and Daisy were so willing to help.

  But Rayner, despite his serious injuries, managed to get to his feet awfully fast when he heard that. “No way,” he said. “We helped you take out the demon. Now, I need your power as the diviner to find Lisbeth. That was part of the bargain.”

  “Get my grandma to do it!” she snapped.

  “No,” he said. “We had a deal. You said you would do anything to take this bastard out, and we fought ourselves to injury protecting your friends, whom we honestly have no reason to give a damn about.”

  “It’s okay,” I said. “Daisy, he’s right. I’ll give up my magic. You need to divine the fate of Lisbeth. Just one last divination and then you can stop.”

  “Oh, I can stop? I can just ‘stop’?” Her hands clenched into fists. “Fine. Whatever.”

  I turned back to Harris and the professor and I took up the threads of the spell again. Now I could feel magic beginning to flow through our hands.

  “You are making a huge mistake,” Ignatius said. “The fate of the entire magical world depended on you.”

  “There must be another way!” I said. “I’m sure you can find someone else with a Wyrd wand, or maybe try just talking to the faery queen anyway!”

  I was already weak from Montague draining my blood, and now I could feel the magic draining out of me and into Harris. It wasn’t the best feeling, but I could see it working. I could feel the warmth flowing out of me and into him, see color returning to his face.

  I exhaled, a small laugh-sob, as I felt his body twitch.

  Mom rushed close to us. “I need to heal his wounds now.”

  All three of us had our hands on him, and he groaned with pain as his eyes fluttered open.

  “Harris!” “Harris!” Montague, Alec and me all descended on him now.

  “Ugh…ow.”

  “You’re alive.”

  “What the hell happened?”

  “Well, the Withered Lord just straight up killed you in like two seconds,” I said, through a wave of extreme weariness. “And I gave up my magic to bring you back. So, basically, you owe me big time forever and ever.”

  “I owe you? You owe me. The grail water worked, didn’t it?” He coughed and winced. “I was dead?”

  “Yes, you were very dead, and now you’re undead, so I will need to prescribe you a vitality regimen,” Professor McGuinness said. “Post-revival care is crucial.”

  “Oh god,” he groaned. “I’m fucking undead.”

  “How about ‘thank you’?” But I couldn’t stop smiling. “I just wasn’t ready to stop arguing with you this soon,” I said. “I saved your life. You owe everything to me.”

  “You already said that.”

  “I’m gonna say it a lot.”

  “Charlotte…,” Firian said behind me, and then suddenly his arms were around me.

  “Firian!? Are you human again? Or is this just an illusion hug?”

  “I felt your magic drain away and just like Adia lost her ability to turn into a bird, I guess…I also am losing my foxiness.”

  “Oh.” That wasn’t the outcome I intended. It started to hit me that I had done something drastic.

  “I’d rather be a human than a fox,” he said.

  “But you’d rather be both.” He wasn’t fooling me.

  “You did the right thing,” he said softly. “Magic has consequences. Painful ones. It doesn’t mean it isn’t worth doing.”

  Harris looked at my mom. “So this is…”

  “Emily,” she said, offering a hand. “I’m Charlotte’s mum. Mom, I mean, I—yes, we were going with Mom.” She looked troubled.

  “And that’s the head?” He looked at Stuart and his conspicuously head-shaped, bloody bag. “That actually happened?”

  “Yes,” Stuart said. “But we do have a problem now.”

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Charlotte

  So, this is how I, Charlotte Byrne, went from being the Chosen One with the rarest and special-est of wands, the inherited magic of my great-uncle Samuel, and all the hopes of a band of dedicated band of rebels, gave it all up to save the exiled son of former royalty.

  When you put it that way, I felt a little bit awful. I had the chance to make a whole community a better place, and I botched it.

  But at the same time…

  Ignatius and Stuart still chose power over love, right? They let bad things happen to their friends and they knew some of us might die fighting the demon.

  Love meant more to me.

  Keeping my own clan together? That was more important. Did it really matter if we used our magic? If we lived in a parallel? We could just be normal, and we’d be together, and that was better. I think Professor McGuinness saw that, and that was why he helped me. What’s really a better way to spend your weekend, learning to raise the dead, or going to a pride parade in Savannah? Shooting fire out of your hands, or watching Netflix with your dad and the boys you love?

  I couldn’t control what the witches and warlocks wanted to do with their lives. I had to protect my own.

  Stuart and Ignatius could handle this. They still had a demon head. Maybe that would count for something.

  They weren’t that happy with me. They opened the portal back to the Fixed Plane and warned us that none of us would be welcome at Merlin College anymore.

  “We haven’t been welcome there ourselves,” Montague said. “Good riddance.”

  “And since I’m a Sinistral now, I don’t want to deal with magic,” Alec said. “I’d rather just become an artist for the sake of art.”

  “Even in high school, we were always sneaking out to the real world and getting in trouble for it,” Harris said.

  “Emily, are you going home, then?” Ignatius asked.

  “Er…yes,” she said. “Yes. Charlotte and I are going home.”

  “I wonder if Dad will let us have some tenants…,” I said.

  “I have a cabin that sleeps three, and no current bookings on Airbnb,” Firian said. “So his opinion doesn’t matter. Although two of you will have to double up and then we’ll get an air mattress.”

  “This could be fun,” Alec said.

  “Indoor plumbing?” Harris asked.

  “Yes,” Firian said. “And wifi.”

  “This is such a waste,” Ignatius stormed, pointing a finger at me after a dramatic whirl of his jacket. “We fought for fifty years to get women admitted to warlock schools and vice versa and you threw it away.”

  “Lay off her,” Professor McGuinness said. “She’s young and they are all so close to each other. Closer than I ever let myself get to anyone. The magical world has hardly begun to eat them alive, so just let them enjoy themselves. All you’re doing is starting a war that will wage for generations.”

  “It’s a war that needs to happen and you’ve always been with me on that in theory! A war that would bring so much opportunity to so many!” Ignatius shook his head. “You’ve always been a coward, Igor. I’ve never been so disappointed. But it’s done. Go home.”

  Daisy left with the vampires, after giving me a hug, and then giving all my boys a hug. “Goodbye, Robin Hood. Goodbye, Undead Boy. Goodbye, Sexy Demon. Goodbye, Montague.”

  “I don’t get a nickname?”

  She squeezed me tight. “Bye,
girl. I’ll see you around someday.”

  “You’ll see me soon, right? You can come visit.”

  “I’m not leaving the magical world,” she said. “I wish I could. But I’m a realist.” She whispered, “Maybe they’ll never find Lisbeth and be in the market for a new thrall.”

  I hoped she was joking. Man, it was hard to tell with Daisy. “Be careful,” I said.

  “Hmm hmm! Of course. I can handle myself. Think of me when you watch Queer Eye.”

  We had lunch with Professor McGuinness and Adams, Montague had to stop off and beg for blood from the vampires of Savannah, and we jammed into his SUV. Alec was still injured although his injured wing luckily vanished in the real world, and Harris still looked sickly, while I was still dizzy and craving steak, so we were all a bit lethargic.

  “Where are we?” Mom asked.

  “Savannah.”

  “So we’re still in Georgia,” she said, looking out the window. “I forgot how green it is here. It smells so good even in the winter!” After a moment, as we pulled out of the city, she turned to me—as we were crammed next to each other in the back seat—she said, “You did the right thing, Charlotte. I’m not sure what we set out to do is really possible, and none of us were happy for the fight.”

  “Yeah…thanks,” I said.

  A part of me was still uncertain. I remembered Ignatius at the trial. How they treated him, humiliated him, and insulted him. What battle for a better world had ever been easy? I was the person who just gave up.

  But look what Mom did to save Ina. If you have the chance to fight with death…who could resist?

  I shivered, knowing that I had failed to be the sort of necromancer Samuel was. I let my own desire get in the way.

  And my magic…

  Mom saw the look on my face. “You might not be a witch anymore, but you’re still a werewolf.”

  “A quarter werewolf. What does that do?”

  “Well, have you ever tried?”

  “Tried to turn into a wolf? No. Wouldn’t that just happen?”

  “Well, let’s see,” she said.

  “Where will Monty get his blood now?” Alec asked. “Is he going to have to become one of those deer hunting vampires?”