by Eva Brandt
“Do you really think this is going to help?” Declan asked, eyeing the process in a mix of interest and skepticism. “I mean... This is precisely what we were doing before. That’s how we ended up hunting humans to feed our rituals.”
“Yes, but even the most efficient ritual can be improved upon. Trust me a little, won’t you?”
The gravestone in front of us held the words Gilles Garnier. It was the name of the Werewolf of Dole, known among the humans as a notorious cannibal and child murderer. Of course, the humans also believed that Gilles had been burned at the stake when the reality was very different.
Nobody had realized that Gilles and his wife had escaped, taking refuge in the small town of Hastingues. From what I’d heard, he’d led a fairly uneventful life after his move and his children had been free of any forays into cannibalism. Later, his heirs had become twice-blessed, the same Garnier family that had practically taken Lucienne in before she and I had met.
Gilles was also the starting point of Mathias’s own investigation on the Garniers. My memories had started to settle a little since the episode with Declan. While they were still fragmented, they provided me with a good explanation of what had happened and what Mathias had done. It had been a good idea, but I could still tweak it and make it better.
“No matter how powerful Mathias’s rituals are, the fact remains that Gilles Garnier is a distant ancestor for Pierce, Diane, and Clara Garnier. That naturally means it’s not easy to make a connection.”
“It’s a little funny,” Declan commented idly. “He didn’t even bother to change his name and yet, no one figured out what actually happened.”
“I don’t think it is that strange. Back then, there wasn’t a real system to spread the word about individual events and Dole is on the other side of France. I suppose that if you weren’t a prince, the son of a noble, or an important political figure, there was no reason why you’d need to change your name.”
Declan paused and gave me a long look I couldn’t decipher. “Yes,” he said slowly. “That’s true.”
In front of us, one of the scavengers let out a victorious cry. “We found it! Your Lordship, we found it.”
The explosion of enthusiasm wasn’t really warranted since we’d all known the grave was here. But perhaps the whole episode in the office had made my underlings even more leery of me. That had potential.
I shared a look with Declan and together, we made our way toward the unearthed grave. “Well, this is interesting,” Declan said when we were close enough for the scavengers to hear. “I must admit, Your Lordship, that I far prefer digging my teeth into something alive.”
“Chin up, my pet,” I drawled. “I’m sure something can be arranged after we’re done here.”
We weren’t serious, of course, but I’d found that such conversations added a dose of veracity to my disguise and solidified Declan’s position by my side. It was not a secret that he had been a guardian before Mathias had run into him. That naturally meant that his loyalty to Mathias’s cause could be placed into question. I wouldn’t allow that to happen.
Also, watching the scavengers shy away from Declan was even more amusing than turning them into grave robbers. Yes, I was shamelessly taking advantage of my position, but to hell with it. It was better than losing control of my magic and almost tearing Declan apart.
I didn’t allow my little game to distract me from what I’d come here to do. As soon as my subordinates dragged Gilles Garnier’s casket out of the grave, I started to carefully inspect it. It had survived the ravages of time almost intact. The wood it had been crafted from was not the best quality, but the magic of the Accursed had kept it from rotting just the same.
Granted, the threads of the original spell were barely there anymore, but I could sense the distinct traces of Mathias’s magic—the magic that was temporarily mine. Mathias must’ve cast a spell when he’d come here last time, to put together his first ritual.
“All right,” I told the scavengers, “move back. Keep your distance. I will be casting a powerful enchantment and there’s no telling what will happen to you if you get caught in it.”
My minions scuttled off faster than fledgling vampires when exposed to sunlight. “Accidents happen a lot when you’re working under Mathias Vandale,” Declan explained in a conspiratorial tone. “It’s really nice of you to warn them about it.”
“What can I say? I’m feeling generous today.” I shook my head in bemusement at Declan’s antics. “But never mind that now. Come here and give me your hand.”
Declan complied. He joined me next to the casket and extended his palm. He didn’t flinch when I swept my finger over his flesh, slicing it open. Blood dripped down his wrist, onto the casket. I entwined my fingers with his bloody ones and squeezed. With my free hand, I used the crimson liquid to draw a pentagram on the wood.
Truth be told, I didn’t know much about magic of this kind. Alarians generally used our own native elemental abilities to fight and we didn’t rely on complicated enchantments, runes or other such things in battle. We had our rituals, but they were only ever used under specific circumstances, by specific people. For example, healers had their own way of casting their magic, but spells like the Alarian Vow also fell in this category.
I had never needed such things. My specialty lay in fields that didn’t require additions, so I didn’t have a lot of experience with ritualistic magic. There was, however, one significant exception, one powerful incantation that had stuck with me. It was the same one I’d remembered during my last conversation with Mathias, before we’d switched bodies to save my life. It was the spell that was supposed to awaken the High King’s Privilege, used only once, for the ceremony of my coming of age.
While crafted in the hopes of awakening the pendant, the spell could, in theory, work on other objects. It could also work on bodies if you twisted it in the right way.
I had no desire to turn into a necromancer and start resurrecting the dead. The spell wouldn’t be able to do that, even if I had been a more talented ritualistic mage. But there was knowledge hidden in the corpse of Gilles Garnier, knowledge Mathias had not been able to access before. And the ghost of an ancestor was always tied to his or her heirs in one way or another.
According to Declan, the Garniers had betrayed Lucienne because they owed her father a magical debt. But magic was tricky in that way. More often than not, the debt owed to a parent was automatically owed to that person’s child as well. This meant that, indirectly, through Lucienne, Declan and I should have the influence to reach Gilles Garnier, due to us being her soulmates.
It was a bit of a long shot and it depended heavily on what kind of binding spell Louis de Hastingues had actually used. Still, something told me that I needed to try.
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, squeezing Declan’s palm and remembering how I’d felt all those years ago, when I’d held something very different in my hand.
“Secrets of the ancestors, reveal yourself to me. Stories of the past, show me my future. Let the shadow over the present be lifted through the power I command. You have pledged yourself to the name and bloodline of my soulmate. Come forth, Gilles Garnier, and pledge yourself to me.”
The blood on the casket started to sizzle. The pentagram began to glow, each of its five points glinting in different colors, with its center shining a bright, brilliant gold.
Once upon a time, this symbol had been used in the enchantment that had condemned our ancestor to a doomed fate. The details of the actual spell had long ago been lost, but we had the general idea on its purpose and target. The pentagram represented the five elements—water, earth, air, fire, and spirit—all of which had ultimately twisted the nature of the Accursed into what we were today.
A heavy weight settled over my heart as the glow intensified. Declan grunted, his green eyes flashing gold again. The tension in the air increased and the ground started to shake.
“Come forth and pledge yourself to me!” I shouted again. El
emental magic crackled at my fingertips and I slammed my hand down against the casket. “I will not be denied.”
For a few seconds, I was afraid that my borrowed magic would fail to properly connect with the enchantment. I might have my memories, but the power in this body was not Alarian. I needn’t have worried. Electricity crackled over the wooden surface of the casket and something inside me clicked into place.
Mere seconds later, a rush of powerful magic exploded over both me and Declan. It was so sudden and powerful that, despite our advanced senses and natural defenses, we could not avoid it. We were thrown back and landed several feet away, bruised and battered, but otherwise unhurt.
Declan got up first and offered me his hand. I didn’t really need the help, but I took him up on it anyway. “Well, that didn’t work at all,” he said slowly.
I took in the splintered, smoking ruin of what had been a casket and a gravestone and looked up at the sky. “No, Declan. It worked all right. I just have no idea what it actually did.”
Fifteen
Loss
Malachai
The blood of a twice-blessed tasted fiery, like sunlight turned liquid, burning me from the inside out while still giving me the power I craved. It fed me and protected me as I engaged my victim’s son in battle. I’d fought Pierce before, the day I’d first spoken to Lucienne at her apartment. Our confrontation had been very different then, hindered by our cramped location and Lucienne’s intervention. Things had drastically changed and both of us were far more vicious.
Pierce didn’t bother with elegant spell-casting and projectiles made out of fire. Instead, he came at me with raw, unaltered magic. It was a little more inefficient than his sister’s targeted spells in terms of power usage, but it did the job far better than arrows and swords would have.
The heat pushed me back, unpleasant despite my age and the protection I received from the new feeding session. With an angry snarl, I forced myself to ignore the discomfort and lunged forward. He summoned a fire wall, blocking my path and keeping me from physically approaching him.
My inability to take him off guard frustrated me, especially after I spotted Bjorn encounter success while using the same strategy I’d just attempted. Still, I was convinced that the obstacle was only a temporary setback, one I could easily bypass. Pierce was powerful, but given time, I would chip at his defenses, grow accustomed to his fighting style and take him down after that.
Unfortunately, time was a luxury I didn’t have. Mathias unleashed a storm of fire more powerful than anything Pierce could have cast and, through it, finally defeated the opponent he had been chasing for more than a millennium. It didn’t end well, for any of us.
At first, when Louis’s shell cracked, I rejoiced. I knew something important was hiding underneath, and I wanted to find out what it was. But everything came with a price and in our case, that price was high.
The shell shards started to rain on top of us, but I had nowhere to hide and no method to shield myself. In front of me, Pierce cast a hasty enchantment that would presumably deflect any projectile. Bjorn did the same and threw himself over Lucienne to protect her. I didn’t have their skills so the only thing I could do was duck and hope for the best.
My method didn’t really work, as a shard came very close to impaling me straight through my midsection. Alois’s gift came in handy once again, though. I’d stashed the pendant in my jacket pocket when I’d attacked Clara Garnier, but I still felt it pulsing against my chest as if following the rhythm of my heartbeat. The flying shard stopped mid-air a few inches from my body. Its glow faded and it fell to the ground with a dull thud.
Mathias wasn’t so lucky. He had been closest to Louis, but I didn’t realize what had happened to him until I heard him utter a sharp cry from somewhere behind me. I had no idea how he’d ended up there, but I assumed the power of the blast must have thrown him back.
I turned to look at him and my breath caught as I took in his condition. A shard had pierced him straight through the chest. Alarmingly, he was making no attempts to extract it from the wound. Instead, he was staring at nothing, his eyes glazed with pain and distant sorrow. He lifted his hand and tried to get up as if attempting to reach for something only he could see. The motion made more blood seep out of his injury and the magic in the shard responded to it. Mathias’s eyes flickered, going from their usual silver to black, green, and purple. It was very similar to what I’d seen earlier in Louis, and I realized the shell shard was embedded with some kind of mind magic enchantment that had Mathias under its sway.
Cursing under my breath, I stumbled to his side. I instinctively reached for the shard, but as soon as I touched it, the thing lit up. Mathias’s body arched as a spasm of renewed pain erupted over him.
I instantly moved back, acknowledging the fact that I was just making things worse. “Fuck! What am I supposed to do here?”
Mind magic. Mind magic. Could I affect that thing using my powers? I wasn’t sure. Lucienne and Bjorn would have had a better chance.
Oh, God, where were Lucienne and Bjorn? I hadn’t gotten the chance to check up on them since I’d gotten distracted by Mathias’s injury.
I looked around desperately, berating myself for having forgotten about my soulmate, if only for a few seconds. I found Bjorn on top of Lucienne, unconscious, waves of malevolent magic floating around him.
Lucienne was out cold as well. From the distance, I couldn’t tell if she was breathing or not. Bjorn had tried to heal her before those twice-blessed had appeared, but for all I knew, he might have failed. Had she already succumbed to her gunshot wound?
The thought alone cracked what little was left of my sanity and composure. The beast stirred inside me once again, my anger, grief, and hopelessness feeding my bloodlust.
When I saw the Alarians make their way to Bjorn’s side, I didn’t think. I just attacked.
It was not my best idea. My assault did distract the Alarians from Bjorn and Lucienne, but it got me into hot water instead. I was a good fighter, but nowhere near as powerful as Mathias or Darius. My target, King Sterling, almost rivaled his son in terms of sheer magical strength. Between that and the presence of his reinforcements, I really didn’t have much of a chance.
Countless spells assaulted me from every possible direction. Most of them missed or couldn’t bypass the power of the High King’s Privilege. Those that actually hit me didn’t hurt me all that much. But magic wasn’t the only thing at the Alarians’ disposal. Some of them still had their guns.
I’d just managed to deliver a vicious blow to King Sterling’s chest when the first bullet struck me. The shooter had aimed for my shoulder, not a vital region, possibly because of my proximity to the king. The injury wouldn’t have been serious in itself had the bullet not been silver. The pendant could not counter such weaponry. Alois’s gift was born out of Accursed magic and as such, silver bullets were impossible for it to stop. Ten seconds after the projectile pierced my body, I could already feel the effects of the silver poisoning start to settle in.
Dazed, I staggered back, which naturally resulted in me receiving a few more blows, this time from daggers. The Alarians probably didn’t have a lot of ammunition left after having fought Louis and his Dames Blanches. It didn’t help me any.
I couldn’t stay here any longer. If I did, I would die. There was no way to deny that. But how in the world was I supposed to make my escape now?
The answer came in the form of a burst of familiar spirit magic. Bjorn was trying to help me. I hadn’t realized he was cognizant and to be fair, he obviously wasn’t doing well. His magic was weak, nowhere near the level it had been before. It still distracted the Alarians, buying me a little time and giving me the chance to grab a nearby paladin. Using him as a meat shield, I bid a hasty retreat, flying out of the crowd I’d so rashly attacked.
By some kind of miracle, I escaped the throng of Alarians, but my good fortune didn’t hold. The silver poisoning was already too serious for me to get far. I dro
pped to the ground only a few feet away from my previous battleground. I must have been sloppy while incapacitating my shield because the man freed himself from my hold with ease. He kicked me in the shoulder and pain exploded over me as the blow jostled my injury and accelerated the spread of the silver poisoning.
The rest of his friends soon showed up as well, and before long, I was back in the same horrid situation I’d had to face earlier. No, it was even worse now, since I had to worry about Louis’s troops as well.
While I’d been busy with the Alarians, Pierce and the rest of Louis’s minions had regrouped. The snail had disappeared, leaving behind only the humanoid version of Louis. Several Dames Blanches were tending to him, whereas the rest of them focused on Mathias, Bjorn, Lucienne, and unfortunately, me.
Mathias was helpless, still pinned down like a butterfly in an insect display. Bjorn couldn’t do much either since his earlier attempt had resulted in him being knocked out and taken captive by the Dames Blanches. Lucienne remained in the same state, although now that I was closer, I could see that she was breathing. As for me... My vision was already going fuzzy, my strength draining away and my reflexes far slower than before.
When Pierce shot another blast of magic at me, I couldn’t duck. It struck me in the chest, blasting me away from Lucienne and Bjorn.
I must’ve blacked out for a few seconds because the next thing I knew, I was on the ground and several Alarians were holding me down. My first instinct was to struggle against their hold, but I forced it back, knowing I could not escape under these circumstances.
My best chance to escape involved the Alarians fighting Louis’s forces once again, but that didn’t seem very likely. In fact, when my vision cleared, the first thing I saw was Pierce stepping forward and lifting his hands, as if trying to point out that he was harmless. “Your Majesty, let’s stop this battle. There’s no need for further fighting.”
