“Don’t speak too soon,” said Lloyd. “We have the dead on our tail every day—or we did, before we started getting mobbed by vampires. Sure seems convenient that it happened right after you met that dude.”
“It wasn’t him,” I said. “The ritual… the vampire piloted a witch’s body to do it, but there’s got to be another witch behind this. The vampires couldn’t have figured out the coven’s secrets without someone betraying us.”
“Bastards.” Isabel sketched chalk symbols on the table. While I didn’t think the café had a policy against using magic on the premises, I hoped nobody walked out of the door while she was working her witchcraft.
“Any luck, Isabel?”
She put down the chalk, holding her coat at an angle that concealed the spell from anyone who passed by. “No. I’ll need a more complex setup to get any real answers.” Her phone buzzed on the table, and she picked it up. “Ivy said Lady Harper is throwing a fit.”
“Shit, did you tell her what Evelyn did?”
“No, but I should.” She looked at me. “At this rate, she’s going to get you killed, assuming you don’t do it yourself by running into tunnels after vampires in distress.”
“I’m not going to die,” I said. “I have the extra spirit as insurance. Unfortunately.”
“What did she even do in there?” asked Lloyd. “You came out of that tunnel looking kind of… crazed. Unless it was that vampire. You looked all hot and bothered…”
“Don’t be absurd.”
Occasionally, Lloyd tried to play matchmaker. Whenever someone asked if we were an item, he always said, hell, no, and then insisted on setting me up with someone. Keir would not fall into the category of suitable dates, within the limited supernatural circles who didn’t ask awkward questions. Seductive vampire abilities or not, I was not the quick fling type, and he didn’t strike me as the sort of person into long-term relationships. Now, with another person sharing my body, normal things like dating had never seemed further away.
“Then what happened?” He leaned forward. “I’m the last person who’d judge you.”
“Evelyn Hemlock used blood magic.” I spoke as quietly and clearly as I could. “She made me use blood magic, and tore the witch to pieces.”
Was that the Hemlocks’ speciality? Power over life and death? No wonder I’d turned out to be a necromancer as well.
“She… what?” said Lloyd. “Okay, that’s bad. Really bad. Tell the boss.”
“You think she’d let me stay at the guild if she knew? Possessing people is illegal, let alone using that type of magic.”
“It’s not like she can arrest the Hemlock Coven’s heir.”
A flash of light from Isabel’s chalk circle drew my eyes. She shook her head over it. “It’s not giving me a conclusive answer. Also, Lady Harper is threatening to come and see us.”
“Please, no.” I cast my mind around in an attempt to find an excuse that would stop the angry old mage from steamrollering into what was left of my life here. “Tell her we’re close to answers, and the guild is already at our back. You know what she’s like, she probably has some kind of grudge against Lady Montgomery like she does against everyone else she runs into.”
Isabel grimaced. “Yes, she probably does. Maybe she can help deal with your little spirit problem, but she’s a mage, not a witch.”
“And bonkers,” I put in. “She’d come into the guild and start making unreasonable demands. It’s not like even her mage magic can find hidden vampires, stop witch rituals, or tear out unwanted spirits. Must be why she’s so dead set on making me be her stand-in.”
“Right. I’ll set Ivy on her… that’ll keep her busy for a while.” She began putting her spell ingredients away. “I’ll have to take this spell back to the hotel with me, I think.”
“Question,” said Lloyd. “You said the spirit went out of hand, right? How? Did she take total control?”
“More than once,” I said. “It wasn’t an accident like last time. I don’t know if she just didn’t trust me or whatever, but it was scary as fuck, and I’m not sure she has an ‘off’ switch.”
Where was an exorcist when I needed one? Finding an independent one was all but impossible, short of taking the case to the upper levels of the guild and getting jailed for my trouble. Lady Montgomery might trust me, but the guild’s upper department tended to see things in black and white. I’d used blood magic while under control of a shade. I could be the leader of the Mage Guild and still be executed for that. Not even my Hemlock blood status would save my neck, whatever Lloyd seemed to think.
I’d see just how far the conspiracy stretched before I threw myself on the boss’s mercy. The sooner I got the spirit out of me, the better—and that meant getting the guild on my side.
17
I knocked on Lady Montgomery’s office door, steeling myself. While I wasn’t sure how much I could actually tell her, maybe dropping some hints about the spirit’s powers would ease the blow when it finally fell.
Who was I kidding? The best-case scenario was that I’d lose my apprenticeship and end up having to flee the mortal realm to that creepy forest for the rest of my life. No, thanks.
The door opened and the woman herself looked expectantly at me.
“Lady Montgomery,” I said. “Hi.”
“Mind telling me where you’ve been today, Jas?”
“Not in a council meeting.” Oops. I probably shouldn’t have said that aloud. “I mean, my vampire friend got kidnapped by a vampire possessing a witch, and it all went downhill from there.”
The boss listened with slightly raised eyebrows as I sketched out the series of events. I didn’t care if she knew about the tunnels, even if Keir might kick up a fuss if a bunch of necromancers decided to wander onto his turf. Worryingly, however, when I tried to mention the furies, I found myself skipping over the details and just saying that it looked like blood magic had taken place in the tunnel. So they fit into the same category as the Hemlock witches as far as the confidentiality agreement went. I also left out Evelyn’s decision to hijack my body, for obvious reasons, but made it clear the vampires and the rogue witches were working in conjunction.
Lady Montgomery was silent for a moment after I’d finished, drumming two fingers on the desk. “This vampire king… I don’t believe I’ve spoken to the latest. Thurston.”
“That’s his name?” I asked. “I didn’t realise they switched leaders so often. It seems pretty informal compared to the guild.”
“They do have a significant amount of disdain for ceremony,” she said. “I will assemble an envoy and send them to speak to the king tomorrow. If he fails to provide an adequate explanation as to why some of his people are working against guild law, we’ll take further steps.”
You could always count on Lady Montgomery to have the final word. “What about the witches, though?” I asked. “They don’t fall under guild laws. And they’ve managed to evade attention until now.”
“I will inform the Mage Lords,” she said. “They’ll send an envoy of their own, to the covens, to find out who is responsible for enacting illegal blood magic rituals.”
A shiver traced down my back. Her tone left little doubt that I couldn’t count on the guild’s protection if word got out that I had a witch who casually used blood magic sharing my body. “Er, but what if the person responsible isn’t part of a coven? Or not a local one?”
Isabel hadn’t found any more leads on whoever had sold the hemlock, nor where the witch who’d died in the cave had come from, but in order for word of the Hemlock Coven’s existence to spread, someone had to have learned about them to begin with. Since I hadn’t told a soul since my arrival and the knowledge of the furies’ ritual had apparently made it here from England, maybe the covens’ secrets had come from the same place.
Lady Montgomery picked up a pen and scribbled a note. “What makes you say that?”
“My friend—she’s a witch, and none of her spells have managed to track the enemy ye
t. I don’t think the vampire king himself knows, and if he did, he might do a runner.”
“Then he will face the law. Like psychics, vampires are capable of living as legal members of supernatural society, but the moment they stray outside the boundaries of guild law, they will face the same punishment as any transgressor.”
That would be perfectly reasonable, if not for the fact that my entire existence is against guild law. Crap on a stick. Did the Hemlocks assume the laws didn’t apply to them, or did they simply not care?
“As for you, Jas,” she said, “I’d suggest you stay here at the guild’s headquarters while we get to the bottom of this.”
Damn. She believed she was making the right move, and who knew, maybe she was. The vampire king needed to answer for his people, but in the meantime, our real enemy was sneaking around under our feet, undetected. And what if she was sending my fellow necromancers into a deadly trap?
Lloyd waited in the corridor outside her office, looking uncharacteristically grim. “What’s the verdict?”
“She’s sending people to talk to the vampires tomorrow.”
“And by talk, you mean…”
“Play judge, jury and executioner?” I grimaced. “It depends how much evidence they find, but if that vampire king broke the law, he’ll probably spend the rest of his life in the cells. Meanwhile, the real enemy is hiding.”
“Maybe a group of necromancers visiting the king will draw them out,” he said. “Hand the case over to senior management. The Mage Lords, too. Bet they can take out these witches. They must be wimps if they’re hiding behind vampires.”
“Have you forgotten the part where they keep summoning furies?” I whispered. “And for the record, I tried to tell the boss about those monsters and I couldn’t. They’re under the same geas as my coven.”
He blinked, befuddlement spreading across his face. “What? How can those monsters be linked to your coven?”
“Because—” They’re from the same place as the Ancients. A realm only my coven knows about, and I bloody hope it stays that way.
Except it wasn’t true. Keir knew, and maybe he did know how the other vampires had found out. We might have had a couple of shared near-death experiences, but that didn’t make him a hundred percent trustworthy.
Lloyd shook his head. “I don’t think we should just lie down and give up, but what exactly are the survival rates for summoning things using blood magic? Every cautionary tale they tell novices begins with blood magic and ends with a massacre.”
“Today nearly ended the same way,” I added. “Isabel never managed to track the witches responsible.”
“Why not let her handle the witches?” he asked. “She has way more experience than you do.”
I folded my arms. “You know it’s not her job, right?”
“It sure as hell isn’t yours.” He met my eyes and we glared at one another. “Don’t fight me on this, Jas. Did you at least tell the boss about the extra person squatting in your head?”
“I couldn’t tell her,” I said. “I told you, I’m under a geas that prevents me from talking about the Hemlock Coven except to people already in the know. Isabel knows because they elected to tell her. You know because… I have no idea.”
“Because I saw you die,” he said quietly. “I keep thinking about the other night, at the cemetery, when… I’m sure I saw her, looking at me through your eyes. Evelyn. At the time, I thought it was a trick of the light. I mean, you were dying.”
“Don’t say that.” I dropped my arms to my sides, my skin crawling. How many times had people looked at me and seen another person staring back? Maybe she’d been trying to take control all along, and I was better off running into the forest after all. I was violating the guild’s safety rules just by living here.
“Jas, you nearly died today, too,” said Lloyd. “You’re acting like you have to handle everything alone because your coven said so, but you’re messing with things that are way too dangerous.”
“That’s not the only reason,” I said. “Look, you know me, and I know you. You own every obscure zombie film from the eighties, you have a younger sister at university, and you use your guild salary to pay her tuition.”
He frowned. “Yeah, so?”
“I know more about you than I do about Evelyn Hemlock. We exchanged a few words, but she’s basically a stranger. Living inside my head. Would you freak out if someone started shooting lightning bolts from your hands when you were under stress?”
“Doesn’t sound all that different from a mage ability, to be honest.”
“Bad example.” We reached the corridor’s end, far out of earshot of Lady Montgomery’ office. “Okay. What if, whenever you were under stress, you defaulted to dark magic?”
“Jas, you know I discovered my talent when I accidentally reanimated my sister’s dead cat, don’t you? Necromancy pretty much is dark magic.”
I groaned and rested my head against the wall. “Blood magic,” I said to the plaster. “Like weaponised blood magic. That’s what it felt like. The ritual was similar to my magic. The fury-summoning, human sacrificial ritual. I mean she was bound to me using a blood sacrifice to begin with, so I suppose it’s not really a surprise.”
I turned to see him staring at me, mouth slightly agape. “Does the boss know that?”
“Hell, no. The mages don’t distinguish between being in control of your own mind and being possessed when you use dark magic—if anything, the possession makes it worse. They usually execute people who do what I did—what she did—on the spot. No trial.”
The Mage Lords were ruthless. They had to be. And while I’d known that my coven had a dodgy history, I’d never for a moment believed myself to be swayed towards dark magic, even for a second.
Lloyd shook his head. “You’re more than her, and I don’t think you need her at all. You used the magic yourself at least once, right? If you get her out of your body, exorcise her, you might get to be the Hemlock heir without the weird side effects.”
“I don’t think it’s that simple,” I said. “Besides, the exorcist is dead, and I’m not so sure even a vampire can get rid of her entirely. Have you ever heard of a case of possession where the host didn’t end up dead?”
“Who’s possessed?” asked a female voice.
“Nobody.” I turned to face Ilsa Lynn, hoping she hadn’t heard the rest of our conversation. Though if she had, it was likely the geas would lift as it had with Lloyd. But who knew if she’d report me to the boss or not? Even the Gatekeeper couldn’t perform an exorcism.
“Never mind,” said Lloyd. “I’m going to check something out in the archives, okay? You two catch up.”
And he headed downstairs. What was with him? Okay, he had reason to be concerned about me, and he and I had always played by the rulebook before, but events were too far off script to stick within the guidelines now. The witch’s soul was already bound with mine. I’d broken the rules from the second I’d stepped through the guild’s doors seven years ago.
“I take it you and Morgan made it back okay?” I asked Ilsa.
“Yeah. I don’t know what set Morgan off. He heard something odd, in the spirit realm. Said it didn’t sound human.”
The fury? They weren’t spirit creatures, right? I’d thought they were corporeal, if evil incarnate, but I’d assumed it was the vampire he’d heard.
“Did you manage to find your friend?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said. “But we found and killed another rogue vampire, possessing a witch. Lady Montgomery is sending an envoy to their king tomorrow.”
“She is?” asked Ilsa. “I was on my way to speak to her. Maybe I’ll try to get in on that.”
“They need powerful necromancers, for sure. But I’m not sure the guild’s is the best approach. Suppose this is beyond the rulebook…”
“In what way?”
I shrugged. What could I say? Under the geas—not a whole lot. And in the end, the vampires weren’t the guild’s main concern.
No… there was a witch masterminding this plot against my coven. I’d known it in my bones the moment I’d seen those glyphs on the walls of the tunnel.
My phone buzzed with a call. Isabel’s name appeared on the screen as I answered.
“I found where that witch came from,” she said. “I’m at the guild, now.”
Isabel waited outside the oak doors, hovering on the balls of her feet. I’d have been concerned about talking about the threat in public view, but there were few people around. Whatever Lloyd had gone into the archives for, he didn’t answer my text message, so I’d made my way down through the lobby alone.
“You found the witch?” I asked.
“I found the one who bought the hemlock,” she said. “She wasn’t part of an official coven. More of a loosely connected group of witches who meet up occasionally or pass on their messages through non-conventional means.”
“That sounds like a coven to me.”
“It would be,” Isabel said, “but when I traced that witch’s blood to her home, I ran into her family. They didn’t know she was a witch at all, but they hadn’t seen her in months. Same with the person who bought the hemlock. I asked around the market.”
“Wait, seriously? How’s it possible not to know?”
Isabel shook her head. “It’s rare, especially now. But it paints an ugly picture. From the questioning I did at the market, there are stories of other disappearances. Witches who’ve stopped showing up to meetings. Young, or unsupported ones. Relatives of other witches who didn’t belong to a coven. I wish I could pin the blame on one coven, but this is the best I could do.”
“You did better than me,” I said. “I should have questioned the vampires before Evelyn killed them. But what I don’t get is their fixation on the Hemlock Coven.”
“I do,” said Isabel. “Hemlock magic is powerful enough to decimate any other witch’s power. I don’t know how they found out you existed, but now they know what your magic can do, they’ll want you out of the picture one way or another.”
Witch's Shadow (The Hemlock Chronicles Book 1) Page 17
