Witch's Shadow (The Hemlock Chronicles Book 1)
Page 23
Cordelia leaned forwards. “Isabel. You go, while I talk with Jacinda alone.”
Isabel hesitated, but I turned away from Cordelia to speak to her. “It’s okay. You should get back to your coven.”
“I’ll keep looking for more information on who found out the Hemlocks’ secrets,” she said. “I get the feeling we only scratched the surface.”
“I really hope not,” I said, accompanying her to the cave door. “Say hi to Ivy for me.”
“I will. You did great back there.” Isabel lowered her voice. “You’re better than they are. You don’t have to do anything they say.”
“Watch it,” I whispered. “You don’t want them to throw you into the middle of a faerie’s nest.”
“Even they wouldn’t dare attack another coven leader.” She grinned. “You’re welcome to come and visit me at any time.”
She waved at me, and the door closed behind her.
I turned back to the stone sculpture. “I know you’re watching, Cordelia. At this point, I’m pretty well versed in having people watching my every move who I don’t want there.”
“What do you plan to do now?” asked the old witch.
“I’m going home,” I said. “Meaning, back to the guild, not to Lady Harper. She’s as bad as you are.”
“Someday, Jacinda, you will come to understand why we made the decisions we did.”
I waited for an apology, but it never came. Sure, I knew Cordelia and the others had made their own sacrifices, but that gave them no right to make me into a martyr against my will.
“I get why you did it,” I said. “I still disagree with you. You broke every rule in the book when you bound her to me, and left me to take the fall for her madness. So if you don’t mind, I’d like to get back to my job.”
“The rulebook was created for humans, not for us,” said Cordelia.
“You’re still human. And I’m done here.”
As far as I was concerned, I was through with the Hemlocks until they saw some sense. Maybe Evelyn hadn’t come by her power-crazy tendencies through being stuck inside my body, but had learned it directly from the others. This was my legacy. Ancient and terrifying magic that warped the mind and tore dimensions to pieces.
Give me tame, ordinary necromancy any day of the week. Necromancy had saved my neck as much as witchcraft in the end, and I had some serious catching up to do on my apprenticeship. Besides, I’d always felt more at home among the dead than the living.
The instant I turned my back, the cave disappeared, leaving me on the bridge. I’d half expected them to dump me in the middle of the ruins as a last act of defiance, though in fairness, there were a few necromancers running around down there on the guild’s orders, in case the enemy had left any more dangerous spells or zombies behind.
I’d won this round—for now. I knew the spirit was likely hiding a thousand more secrets, and I doubted she’d consent to being imprisoned forever. But I’d find a way to get rid of her for good, without letting that monster out into the world.
For now, I had some ghosts to banish and a zombie movie marathon to plan.
***
Thank you for reading!
The story continues in Witch’s Soul (Hemlock Chronicles #2), coming soon.
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I hope you enjoyed Witch’s Shadow. If you have a minute to spare, then I’d really appreciate a short review. For independent authors, reviews help more readers discover our books, so if you’d like to see more of Jas and the necromancers, let me know what you think!
Other books by Emma L. Adams
If you’d like to see how Jas and Ilsa met, you might like Hereditary Magic, Book 1 in the Gatekeeper’s Curse series.
Ilsa Lynn has made it her life’s goal to avoid the curse that binds her family to serve the Summer Court of Faerie, but when she discovers volatile magic inside a family heirloom, she must learn to wield it before her family faces a fate worse than death.
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If you’d like to see how Ivy’s adventures started, you might like Faerie Blood, the first book in the Changeling Chronicles series.
When faerie-killer Ivy is hired to find a missing child, replaced with a changeling, she’s forced to team up with the seductively dangerous Mage Lord, at the risk of exposing her own dark history with the faeries—and this time, running won’t save her.
Find out more!
If you’re curious about what happened in the time of the faerie invasion, try Alight, Book 1 in the Legacy of Flames series. Dragon shifter Ember must risk it all to rescue her sister from the supernatural-hunting Orion League, even if it means kidnapping a lethal ex-hunter who'd like nothing better than to add her name to his kill list.
Find out more!
If you like action-packed urban fantasy with demons and magical mayhem, you might like Celestial Magic, Book 1 in the Celestial Marked series.
Devi Lawson, former demon hunter, is drawn back into the celestial guild when a demonic killer starts targeting the other celestials. To gain vital information, she's forced to ally with an immensely powerful warlock who knows too much about her, and if the netherworld holds all the answers, the price might just be her soul.
Find out more!
About the Author
Emma is the New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author of the Changeling Chronicles urban fantasy series.
Emma spent her childhood creating imaginary worlds to compensate for a disappointingly average reality, so it was probably inevitable that she ended up writing fantasy novels. When she's not immersed in her own fictional universes, Emma can be found with her head in a book or wandering around the world in search of adventure.
Find out more about Emma’s books at www.emmaladams.com.