I tapped into the spirit realm and sensed Keir behind the doors, alone. Good.
“They took Lloyd,” I said, hurrying out to meet him. “So I’m going after them.”
Keir eyed the wards flickering on either side of the entrance. “This is the best place for you to stay. It’s protected.”
“Because I redid the protections using Evelyn’s magic. It might not last. They have Lloyd, and they also have a psychic. That’s who attacked the spirit realm. You felt it, right? The screaming.”
He nodded, his face pale. “Yes… a psychic. That must be our missing link.”
“They’re not using the psychic to get info on me anymore, since they have everything they need,” I said. “Instead, they can attack the guild without setting foot near the place. If not for Evelyn, I’d be passed out or worse. The vampires made themselves immune, by carrying iron.”
Keir’s eyes widened. “I carry an iron knife. That must be why it didn’t affect me as strongly.”
“Speaking of weapons.” I scanned the bodies in the lobby. “I need to arm myself. Hang on a moment.”
“So you didn’t know?” Isabel asked him. “You’re not working with the enemy? This was more than an attack on the guild: it was a diversion, too.”
Keir walked into the lobby behind me, warily glancing at the wards as though expecting them to block his path. “You still don’t trust me.”
“Nobody is supposed to be able to get in here, Keir,” I said. “Let alone break the wards. You seriously didn’t know the vampires might be planning this?” I turned over the nearest vessel’s body and retrieved a knife from his pocket. He didn’t just have weapons, but an iron wristband, too. I’ll take that. It was a little loose on my wrist, but I slid it halfway up my arm.
“Of course not.” Keir’s gaze skimmed the fallen vampires and necromancers, and the bloodstains on the polished floor. “I have all the weapons I need. I assume you have some idea where your friend is?”
“Yes,” said Isabel, to my surprise. “I have a few addresses the rogue witches might have used, gathered from the market.”
“Too vague,” said Keir. “Are you capable of searching for your friend through the spirit realm, Jas?”
“Possibly.” I moved to the next vessel, grabbing as many weapons as I could conceivably fit into my pockets without accidentally stabbing myself. “I’ll do it now.”
The grey fog of the spirit realm still looked distorted, odd, and no ghosts appeared to be within sight. I should use candles, but if I ran to get some, I’d get waylaid, and I didn’t have time to deal with the senior necromancers demanding an explanation. Lloyd’s life might depend on it.
My actions had led the enemy to our doorstep. If they hadn’t known I worked for the guild… No. it’s not my fault. They’d been one step ahead of me all along, but they’d taken Lloyd because they couldn’t beat me on my own turf. Instead, they wanted to lure me to theirs.
I’d better give them a fight to remember, then.
“Lloyd.” The greyness swallowed up my voice. I reached for the ghostly trace of his presence—even if he was dead, there’d be something, given that it’d been mere minutes since our phone call. Then I drove my consciousness in his direction.
I bounced off something solid, like my ghost had run full-tilt into a spiritual wall. I winced, hovering on the spot, and tried again. The same barrier blocked my path.
“Ow.” I returned to my body, rubbing my forehead. “They have some kind of spirit barrier, I think. But he’s alive. I’d know if he wasn’t.”
“Can you tell where the barrier is?” asked Keir.
I shook my head. “I’d be able to if we were close to it, in the real world. If there are a number of vampires close together, it’ll point us to the spirit barrier’s location.”
“I doubt they’ll make it that easy,” said Keir, his eyes on Isabel. “Do you have a definite address for these rogue witches?”
“Only the place where the witch you fought underground used to live,” said Isabel. “It’s probably cleared out by now, but if Jas knows the general direction of the barrier…”
“I’ll be able to sense if we get close to it, too,” Keir put in. “I can’t project far, but I’ll know another vampire when I sense them. Unless they attack the spirit realm again.”
“Then we’d better move fast,” I said. “If it helps, I know the general direction of the barrier. I’ll know if it’s our enemy’s hideout as soon as we get close. If not, assume it’s a trap and act accordingly.”
We had little choice. Lady Montgomery was incapacitated. So was Ilsa, and every other powerful necromancer in the guild. Any witches might be working for the enemy. That left three of us against an unknown foe with a psychic powerful enough to blast out the defences on the whole guild. I didn’t like the odds.
Isabel took the lead, walking down the darkening street. I didn’t hold out much hope that the witches had left any clues behind, but Lloyd didn’t deserve to get wrapped up in this.
“I can’t believe they took out the guild,” I whispered to Isabel. Then I shot Keir a sideways look. “Not permanently. They’re probably pissed and planning revenge right now, and I can expect to be fired by the morning, assuming I survive this.”
“You think I’d take advantage of the guild being incapacitated?” he asked. “I thought you’d revised your opinion of me.”
“I’m having a little difficulty telling friend from foe at the moment. But no, I don’t think you would. Having said that, the enemy has a psychic who can read any thought from anyone’s head, if they’re a strong enough necromancer. I guess that includes vampires, too.”
“That’s how they knew your coven,” said Keir. “I should have guessed. If you never told a soul, and there’s nobody in town who knows your family…”
“There is,” I said. “The Briar Coven. Lady Harper sent them to spy on me.”
Isabel swore under her breath. “Damn her. I don’t believe for a minute anyone would betray Lady Harper and get away with it, but that psychic… can they read anyone’s thoughts at any given time?”
“According to Morgan Lynn, just powerful necromancers. I don’t know. Maybe it wasn’t the witches’ fault. I just wanted to be angry with Lady Harper for leaving me completely underprepared for this crap.”
“You’re prepared as anyone might possibly be,” Keir said, his eyes faintly glowing with white light as he tapped out of the spirit realm. “Now isn’t the time for second guessing.”
“Why are you coming with us?” asked Isabel.
“Isn’t it obvious? I owe you.”
His tone didn’t sound entirely sincere, but there was no time for an interrogation. Isabel led us down a cobbled side street, and Keir paused to check the spirit realm once again. “I can’t sense any vampires close by.”
“Maybe the iron stops them being traced, too,” said Isabel. “I don’t know, I’m not an expert.”
“Maybe it does,” I said. “I really need to look into this when I’m back at the guild. That psychic blast even knocked Evelyn out of commission. And she’s really, really pissed. If she goes off the rails again—both of you should keep your distance.”
Keir turned to me. “Are you sure she’s uncontrollable? She might share your body, but you can exert control over other spirits, using necromancy. Why not do the same to her?”
“What, like a vampire?” I shook my head. “She’s overpowered, and we’re not exactly separate, besides. We’re bonded. I can stop her taking the reins, to some degree, but when that blast hit me, it knocked out both of us. And we’re about to go up against a psychic, more vampires and potentially a whole witch coven.”
“It’s not a big coven,” Isabel put in. “More like a small group of misinformed individuals pulled into a scheme they likely don’t understand. I—I have no idea how they got so many witches involved at all. This type of magic is antithetical to nature. And you know, when you use witch magic against nature, there are side effects. There’s a reason th
e Mage Lords banned it.”
I thought of the carnage Evelyn had wreaked. Maybe it was my coven we should be worried about, not the enemy. What did Cordelia really want me to do with the spirit in my head? Even if I’d been willing to give my body up to Evelyn for their cause, she was far from coven leader material. Slicing people to ribbons while revelling in the bloodshed was not a stellar requirement for leadership even if I’d had a real coven to rule over. But who knew, maybe the Hemlocks had planned things that way. They also cared for my safety considerably less than hers. I’d literally died for her already. I was nothing more than insurance. As long as she was attached to me, she couldn’t die.
“The question is,” said Keir, “why would they choose now to strike? They’ve had the tools in place for quite a while, if this psychic of theirs is an informant.”
“Who knows.” Isabel picked up speed, standing on tip-toe to peer past the houses. “Maybe they realised just how powerful Jas is and decided to take her out of commission along with the guild.”
“You told the guild about the vampires?” Keir asked. I didn’t miss the accusatory undertone to his words.
“Yes, I did,” I said. “You know perfectly well the vampire king was letting people work against the law right in front of him without reporting them to the guild. If they did that, who knows what other laws they broke? Some innocent people are dead in there, Keir, and this week, I’ve met way more bad vampires than good ones.”
Not that I was celebrating being right, considering said vampires had orchestrated a massacre. I hadn’t counted the dead, but at least half a dozen people had died. Maybe the enemy had heard I’d warned the guild, or maybe they were incensed that I’d outsmarted the vampire in the cave. Either way, this was the endgame, and there was no room for doubts.
“What is your problem with the guild?” I asked, when he didn’t respond.
“I have no problem with the guild,” he said, through gritted teeth. “I have a lot of problems with self-proclaimed authority figures hoarding knowledge and then acting surprised when that knowledge is used against them by those they betray.”
“Come again? The guild betrayed you?”
“The Mage Lords,” he corrected. “The guild’s number one allies.”
“Uh, that’d be because they’re the leaders of the entire supernatural community,” I said to him. “What did they do to you?”
“Now isn’t the time for a discussion.”
“It’s important,” I said. “If you’re going to claim I’m exempt from your weird vendetta despite being a Hemlock witch and a guild lackey, I should tell you I was raised by mages for half my life. My foster mother—”
“I have no issue with your family.”
“You know half the mages are related, right? Including me. I’m part mage. So chances are, you do have an issue with me.”
He shook his head. “You didn’t make the laws. It doesn’t matter. Are we close to the witches?”
“Don’t change the subject.” I scanned the stone buildings and the cobbled street winding downhill. “Isabel?”
“We’re close,” she said. “Check the spirit realm. I can only sense spells when I’m too near to block them.”
I touched into the spirit realm, looking carefully for any signs of a trap. None… and no sign of any visible spirit barrier, either. “This isn’t our place,” I said. “You’re right—they must have evacuated. Maybe we should be searching underground…” But the way the attack had hit, I’d felt it come from a certain direction. “Oh, damn.”
“Jas?” queried Keir. “What is it?”
“Spirit lines,” I said. “The guild’s on a spirit line. That psychic attack hit dead on. It must have come from—”
“A key point,” finished Keir. “You’re right. I don’t have a map on me, but—”
“You don’t need one,” I said. “I know where it is.”
Spirit lines criss-crossed the whole country, and they all amplified magic to some degree. Every witch knew that—and they also knew that where one spirit line crossed another, it formed a key point where gaps into other realms, liminal spaces, could open. Like the forest.
Isabel’s wide eyes met mine. “They wouldn’t.”
“They would,” I answered. “But—they shouldn’t know. They shouldn’t…”
“They have a psychic,” said Keir. “There’s nothing they can’t know. Which key point?”
“There’s one over the train station.” And it’s where the Hemlocks are.
“But—” Isabel broke off. “Even if they did know, they’d be risking their own necks to try anything there. It’s no better than the Ley Line.”
“I think both of you are underestimating what our enemies will do to win,” Keir said. “Where’s your coven?”
Oh god. If I told him—but what did it matter, now? Whatever his problem was with the Hemlocks, odds were, we’d all be dead by the end of the night anyway.
“They’re in a liminal space,” I said. “On the spirit line that goes through—hell, I’ve no idea of the limits, I don’t have a map on me. Except it connects to the disused railway tracks.”
“Then we’ll go there,” he said. “Even if the enemy isn’t there, they’re likely on the same spirit line, and it’s easier to track from a key point.”
“It’s also easier to get hit,” I pointed out. “The Hemlock witches are protected. They’ve been there for over thirty years and even outlasted the faerie invasion.”
But with other witches, armed with blood magic, working against them? Now the enemy knew the Hemlocks’ location, if there was the slightest chance that they might be able to break into the forest, we’d have worse than furies on our hands. We’d have a full-blown supernatural war.
20
Several frantic minutes later, we reached Waverley Bridge. Looking down at the faerie-infested shattered glass that had once covered the train station, there was no way to tell if any nefarious rituals were taking place in there. It was a downright risky place to try any dodgy magic. Fae nested in the walls, zombies rose from the carcasses of broken-down trains, and the tangled spirit lines amplified any magic nearby almost as much as the Ley Line did. But unlike the Ley Line, a path to my own coven lay somewhere under our feet.
“How did you get in there?” Keir indicated the mass of broken concrete and the gutted shells of old cars blocking the road down into the station.
“The Hemlocks’ magic kind of tossed me onto the rails down there.” I pointed. “But if you can really use the spirit realm to figure out their location, you can probably do it from here on the bridge. God only knows what nasties are lurking in there. Even the necromancers aren’t sent in unless we can get a guarantee there’s only undead, not wild fae.”
“Aren’t you capable of killing them?” He eyed my knife, which I kept clenched in my hand. “The guild uses iron weapons.”
“Yes, we do,” I said. “But faeries don’t play fair. It’s not like we have the Sight. Besides, I think we have worse than faeries on our hands.”
“You’re not wrong.” He scanned the blockade. “I can’t get a reading on the spirit realm here. I think the key point is messing with my vision.”
I tapped into the spirit realm. If the barrier was close, I couldn’t tell. Everything was blurred, like seeing through a fogged window.
“I guess there’s a bunch of iron in the place blocking our spirit sight,” I observed. “It always surprised me that the fae moved in, considering, but the spirit lines act as a magical amplifier. No wonder the psychic reached so far.”
While the spirit realm might be eerily quiet, I knew the psychic must be close. The scream had hit the guild directly. I scanned the greyness, looking for familiarity.
The cold presence of a barrier was all the confirmation I needed. “Lloyd’s in there.” I jerked my chin at the ruins. “This way.”
I walked slowly down the sloping road, occasionally having to climb onto the walls or clamber over debris to avoid the broke
n-down vehicles blocking the path. Stone balconies overlooked the train tracks, and darkness gathered below, hiding predators from sight.
Even the mercenaries avoided this place. So did half-faeries, and they had the Sight. Faeries which managed to exist around iron were not to be trifled with. The vampires and witches must have cleared them out, though too much darkness shrouded the place for me to be able to tell whereabouts the enemy might be hiding.
Inside the station, the shattered glass fronts of shops and cafés waited ahead below a collapsed bridge, while on the right, the carcass of a train exuded a stench that suggested it was a minefield of undead.
“Hello, Jacinda,” said a male voice from next to me, in the spirit realm.
I turned my head, letting the grey fog filter in, but not enough to completely mask my sight. “Hey. Are you the enemy, or just another gormless lackey?”
The touch of his spirit on mine was unmistakeable: vampire.
I recoiled, readying myself to fight. Shuffling movements came from all around. Isabel’s hands rose, her skin glowing faintly with the spells on her wrists. Keir clenched his knife, his knuckles whitening. Heads popped up, and my vision flickered with threads of blue light. Vampires. No—a vampire-controlled zombie army.
Here we go.
“Ready?” I said, and all hell broke loose.
The dead poured down the broken-down escalators, clambered over the collapsed bridge and leaped down to land on the fractured ground in clumsy rows. If one vampire controlled them, they’d be less coordinated than your average zombie. The bad news was that like zombies, they got the upper hand by swarming. And swarm, they did.
Isabel hurled an explosive at the escalator. The resulting blast sent severed limbs flying and toppling bodies blocked the stairs, but the other zombies just climbed over their fallen companions. I reached for a spell, then stopped. The enemy probably wanted us to waste our entire arsenal on this zombie plague, but the witches and vampires waited somewhere out of sight—not to mention the psychic.
Time to make use of my necromancy training.
Witch's Shadow (The Hemlock Chronicles Book 1) Page 19
