by Emma Dean
“Here goes nothing,” Mika muttered, setting the paper down and picking up her witch knife.
Blood magic wasn’t a crime, she reminded herself as she sliced her arm deep enough she had as much blood as she could possibly need for this. The book didn’t give her a specific quantity, and the instructions said she had to enter her clan name into the incantation.
Hopefully she didn’t accidentally set her own blood boiling with this spell.
First she used a drop, but Mika didn’t feel the crystal responding. Then she smeared some along the entire length of the darkest blood crystal.
There, something was listening.
So she started whispering the incantation, focusing clearly with all of her intention, switching out the clan name Marshall for its original primordial form Mareskalkoz.
At first nothing happened. Mika glanced at Ethan who shrugged.
Then her mind was sucked inward and she gasped, nearly dropping the crystal.
It was a lot like how the blackthorn had shown her its memories.
Mika was in another time and place completely, but all she could see was white fog. The silence was never ending and she had the distinct impression she was everywhere and nowhere at once.
“It feels like it’s been quite a while,” a soft, feminine voice said from behind her. “Since the last time I was called.”
Mika whirled around and the fog seemed to lift, revealing a room that looked a lot like her clan’s library downstairs.
The witch sitting on the couch had one of her family’s grimoires in her lap and she smiled at Mika like they were old friends.
Mika studied this woman with narrowed eyes. She wasn’t sure who this was, but she had the trademark white-blonde hair and blue eyes. It was just…the library looked strange.
And the witch was wearing a dress with large skirts and a tight bodice. Mika wasn’t sure what time period this was as fashion in history hadn’t really been her strong suit – that was more Claire.
“Who are you?” Mika asked, looking around at the library again. The fireplace was in the same place and the books looked familiar, but everything was slightly off. “Where am I? Or should I say, when?”
The woman smiled at her and patted the couch that was exactly like the one currently in the library except the upholstery was different.
“This is the memory that activates when the crystals are accessed by a witch for the first time,” she explained. “I’m Victoria Mary Morganne Marshall and it is 1846. This memory is supposed to be updated.”
“Clearly it wasn’t,” Mika said as she sat down on the couch across from Victoria, eyeing her. “You were the hunter. I was named after you.”
This was one of her ancestors, and this library may have been the first American rendition of the one currently sitting in her house. Mika blinked and for a split second she thought when she opened her eyes again everything would be gone, but Victoria was still there sitting across from her with that perpetual smile.
“So this is a blood dream.” Mika looked around again and saw that the picture over the fireplace was different. Every generation it was replaced with the current ruling family and Mika was just…blown away at how realistic everything was.
But then again she vividly remembered having her ribs spread open like a dead butterfly pinned to a wall.
“A little,” Victoria admitted. “This is like a database of information from the beginning of our clan’s inception. Much like the grimoires.” She patted the book next to her. “But the crystals focus on our specialty.”
Mika finally really looked at Victoria. It was disturbing how much she looked like Claire, but she was also nothing like her. “I have a lot of questions.”
“I assume so. You’re quite old to be accessing this for the first time.”
This kind of magic was beyond her, but Mika knew there were witches who could weave dreams so realistic the person thought they were awake. They could create enchantments and illusions so intricate that it would fool even the strongest of witches.
Night witches.
But they were rare and the Council hadn’t heard of one in this generation.
Though they didn’t know that Mika existed either, and they hadn’t known what Kenzie was.
So many things had been forgotten and Mika wanted to know why.
“Do you have a record of who accesses the crystals and when?” Mika asked.
Victoria nodded, that perpetual smile slipping for the first time. “My granddaughter was supposed to replace my memory with hers for the next generation. It eases the transition and the information is less overwhelming if the person starting the instruction is familiar.”
That made sense. Mika got up and went to the shelf where her mother’s grimoire would usually be, but it wasn’t there. A brand new copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was there instead – first edition and signed if she remembered correctly.
“How long has it been?” Victoria asked quietly.
“The year is 2019,” Mika told her. Clearly something had gone wrong. Something that caused a gap for nearly two hundred years. “When was the last access made and by who?”
“My granddaughter Elizabeth in 1886. She told me there was something big happening, and that she would update the crystal the next time she could.” Victoria’s eyes went vacant for a second and then she looked up at Mika. “There is nothing after that though.”
A snap of her ancestor’s fingers and another female appeared.
“Grandmother.” Elizabeth smiled and hugged another copy of the woman sitting on the couch, but they stood in front of the fireplace – a memory. “I think I’ve finally found the culprit. As soon as I find him and bring him to the Council, I will be back.”
“What is going on?” the Victoria copy asked.
“It’s too much to explain and I don’t have the time. I have to go now or the trail will grow cold.”
Another hug and the girl Elizabeth disappeared as did the copy of Victoria.
A stone settled in Mika’s gut and goosebumps rose on her skin despite the warmth from the memory of the fire. Something had happened.
The incident wasn’t all that long ago given the age of their clan.
So, what had happened to Elizabeth Marshall?
Mika paced as she tried to remember. Fates, it had been too long since she’d studied the family tree. She stopped in front of where it would be in reality and stared at the leather-bound book with a gilded stamp of the family crest – a raven sitting on the branches of a blackthorn.
A warped mirror of Morgana’s tree with the roots. Another facet of the Morrigan’s shield crest she’d seen once in one of the books Hunter had given her.
The Marshall crest was almost identical to the rooted tree of Morgana, but blood dripped down hers from the branches under a horned moon – with a raven carved onto the trunk.
Why had she never realized? Why had she never put it all together?
The Marshall clan had come from Scandinavia – an old Viking family. The same area they said Morgana had come from before settling in Briton. And the Morrigan was a witch goddess – a Celtic witch goddess.
All three of them were connected somehow.
Her grandmother had always told her and Claire how they were descendants of Morgana le Fay, but Mika hadn’t really believed it.
Had Morgana been a blood witch? Is that why there was a temple to the raven goddess on the university’s island?
She had to sit down. The book of their family tree felt weighty and just as mysterious as it had been the first time she’d looked through it as a kid. Mika opened the book and saw the tree ended with Elizabeth and her sister Annie in this memory.
“I don’t remember what happened to Elizabeth,” Mika admitted. “But I do know a lot of the females in our family die young. I know that I have blood stones and blood crystals that my grandmother squirreled away. She gave them to me just before she died.”
Victoria placed her hand over Mika’s and
Mika let her. This wasn’t real. She couldn’t accidentally kill a memory. Even though the contact was all in her imagination it was still comforting.
“As soon as I return I’ll look it up, but I want to know how all this works.”
This memory was as real as anything else in Mika’s life. But for the first time she had someone to ask all the questions she’d had since she’d found out exactly what her specialty was.
The overwhelming sense of relief was unexpected, but not as much as the physical reaction it caused. Mika buried her face in her hands as hot tears ran silently down her face.
She could ask…anything. And Victoria would tell her, or direct her to the information instead of sifting through endless books trying to find anything useful at all.
“Oh love,” Victoria murmured, wrapping an arm around Mika’s shoulders. “What can I do to help?”
Taking a deep breath, Mika wiped the tears away. She needed to pull herself together so she could finally get some answers.
“A demon told me there are no more blood witches,” Mika told the woman beside her. “I watched them get slaughtered on the University of Morgana’s island. How are you a blood witch? How am I? I know you don’t know what happened after Elizabeth but…” she trailed off and stared into the fire.
It was cozy in this place, so unlike the hot summer weather in reality.
“My grandmother recently passed,” Mika said when Victoria remained silent. “My mother just before her. They both died of heartbreak after a scheme was exposed by a void witch – Kenzie Kavanagh. My father and brother were part of a group of males trying to take over the coven so they could rule. I just recently discovered they were also part of the Hellfire Society.”
Victoria’s eyes widened at that. “So many familiar names. The Kavanagh clan has always been an excellent ally. And the Hellfire Society, well they like to stir up trouble now and again, but nothing too serious.” Victoria frowned and studied Mika from head to toe. “But you had a father?”
She raised one eyebrow at the other witch. “Don’t we all?”
Victoria’s laugh was like music it was so beautiful. “Biologically yes, but the men don’t live with us, and if they do it’s with the understanding that we are not theirs. That we may have other lovers. We are witches after all.”
So, now she had a timeframe to look into.
“Despite the ideology of your time?” Mika asked.
Victoria shrugged and eyed her perfect nails. It was so ladylike and yet so unlike the attitude Mika had assumed went with the Victorian era. “When one has money humans tend to mind themselves well enough. If one does not, the humans are even less inclined to mind, but I do know those witches pair up with males more often to go undetected.”
Mika blinked. It was the complete opposite of the current custom of arranged marriages to strengthen clans. “So how did you make alliances then?”
Victoria gave her a look like she was being silly. “Blood oaths, of course, dear.”
Of course.
Mika wasn’t sure what else she wanted to ask Victoria just yet, but this was already a good start. “I need to think of my questions and do a bit of research,” Mika told her as she stood.
She was still unnerved at how much Victoria looked like Claire. But the woman who stood and kissed each cheek was nothing like her sister. “I will be here waiting,” Victoria promised.
Murmuring the incantation to reverse the process, Mika closed her eyes so the transition would be less jarring.
When the heat seeped into her skin and she could hear the birds chirping outside, Mika opened her eyes again and saw Ethan staring at her.
“So it was a bust then?” he asked.
Frowning she looked down at the crystal in her hands and then Mika noticed the cut on her arm was completely healed. “What are you talking about?”
“Your eyes were closed for maybe a second,” Ethan said with a laugh.
A second? Mika shook her head as she tried to process the insane amount of layers of spells that had gone into these crystals. It was no wonder her grandmother had kept them a secret.
“I met Victoria Marie Morganne Marshall and had an entire conversation with her. It felt like twenty minutes maybe?”
Ethan’s eyes widened. “A time spell too?” He whistled in appreciation. “This is some heavy shit.”
Rolling the crystal between her fingers Mika nodded. He was not wrong. The only spell she knew that was capable of stopping time in reality was a complicated blood spell she’d run across just the other day. But it had been so complex and had required another plane of existence for the witch to travel to, to work at all.
“I finally have answers,” Mika murmured.
Ethan took her hand and squeezed.
They had answers.
10
Mika felt conspicuous dropping Ethan off at the coven building that morning thanks to the whole drama with her sister. She felt like everyone was staring at her, but she doubted anyone was more than they normally did.
After all, she was one of the last living members of a clan that had been a part of the Bay Coven since its inception.
“Will I see you again soon?” Mika asked, holding Ethan’s hands as they stood before the large portal door with Morgana’s silver crest.
Ethan’s grey eyes were calm today and his smile was gentle. Might have something to do with the shower sex they’d had before getting ready to leave.
“I can come back whenever you need me to. That’s the beauty of an independent study project. But I need to make sure my experiment is going well and set up a few others.”
Mika wanted to say she always needed him, but she didn’t want to be that girl. “Maybe this weekend then.”
He tapped her nose and then leaned down to kiss her. His lips were soft and warm and Mika sighed into him.
“Stay out of trouble,” Ethan told her. “I love you.”
“I love you.” She gave him one last kiss before releasing him.
Having her books and crystals would keep her busy. Training Callie should take at least a month. And the full moon was tonight.
Mika watched Ethan walk through the portal with a heavy heart, but she knew both Ethan and Lucien were only a phone call away.
Then the heavy door slammed shut and Mika checked her watch. She had time to do research before setting up for the midnight summoning.
The Morrigan hadn’t answered on the last full moon despite waiting all night long and doing everything perfectly. She’d traveled all the way to the temple too and Eisheth had even come.
It was kind of embarrassing with the demon there when the goddess had declined to show despite her promise to do so.
As she walked the dark halls of the coven building, Mika wondered if her plans would work tonight or if it would be another bust. Nothing said she had to be in the temple. So she was going to try again tonight, not in that temple, but somewhere just as powerful – if not more so.
Three rights and then a left. The coven library was nearly as expansive as the university’s. It was like each coven tried to outdo themselves. But Mika was one of the few who knew how woefully inadequate a witch library really was.
Pushing open the double doors, Mika paused like she did every time to really take in the library.
It was three floors and nothing but mahogany, brass, and leather. It was rich and warm and reminded her of Victoria for some reason.
Mika headed toward the section on clans and tried not to make eye contact with the few witches studying whatever it was they were currently working on.
Each coven had a coven building, and the coven itself was a lot like a country club in a way except less…boring. Witches who were accepted to join paid a membership fee and that fee paid for the staff and the amenities including the gardens and library. Rare supplies were kept here as were various temples and places of worship.
It was warded so hard they said Lucifer himself couldn’t break in, though Mika wasn’t sure how true tha
t was when Eisheth could come and go whenever he pleased.
But Eisheth was an anomaly and could apparently come and go wherever he liked for a vast variety of reasons. Perhaps he’d been one of the ones to ward the building in the first place.
With how much the demon liked to meddle, Mika wouldn’t be surprised.
Running her fingers along the spines of books copied from each clan in the coven focused her. Some of the clans were long gone, and some were brand new. But there was a shelf of books as old as the coven building itself.
Mika picked up the Marshall tome and eyed the gilded leather. It was heavy and dust-free thanks to one of the many useful spells that protected their books throughout the centuries.
It had their original clan name, Mareskalkoz, as well as Marshall – the less barbaric American iteration. The crest was stamped on there in silver just like it was at home, but that wasn’t what caught her eye.
Mika traced the ruby set into the black leather and carried the book to one of the quieter, cozier study areas. It wasn’t a separate room like the ones at Morgana, but the way the stacks lined up it felt very private and secluded.
Sitting down, Mika tapped the ruby once, wondering if it was what she thought it might be. She shrugged and cracked the book open, flipping through the worn pages to the era she was looking for.
Each clan book in the coven building didn’t just contain the bloodline, but it listed businesses and events as well – a history book of each family so to speak. And Mika’s was fatter than a lot of the others except perhaps the Takahashi and Kavanagh clans.
Flipping back to the very beginning, Mika wondered exactly how far this book went. Did it begin in America? Or perhaps earlier?
She slipped her witch knife out of her purse as she read, disappointed it only began in America, but intrigued to see it went back to before Christopher Columbus.
