The other spirit mages examined the machinery at the back, and Miles pointed to a button which stood out among the others. “I saw one of Shawn’s mates hit that when they vanished before. Can one of you try it?”
Shelley hit the button. There came a flash of light, and two of the spirit mages vanished from the platform.
“Oops,” said Miles. “Okay… we’ll go in next.”
We climbed onto the platform, at which point Shelley hit the button again. A moment later, light flashed and the three of us reappeared in the room of Arcadia’s citadel. The empty cage where Harper and the other mages had been held captive lay on the floor, while the faint sound of fighting echoed through the half-open door leading downstairs.
“Is that monster outside?” asked Harper.
“Can’t be, we’d hear it.” Question was, where in the world had it gone? And did that mean Shawn and the others had fled elsewhere?
I made for the open door to the stairs, peering into the gloom. The room below appeared to be empty, but the sounds of battle grew louder. They came from outside. Harper glided ahead of me downstairs.
“Slow down.” I followed her, while Miles waited at the top of the stairs for the other spirit mages to catch up. “What’s going on out there?”
“I think we’ve found the Death King’s army,” she said.
I reached the ground floor and pulled open the front door. Outside, liches, fire mages and assassins clashed with one another, and fire leapt to my fingertips as I struggled to make sense of who was fighting on which side.
Then my gaze landed on Liv, who was looking straight at me as though I was the enemy.
21
I stared at Liv. She stared back. “Oh, fuck,” she said.
“Liv?” I approached her, my hands still blazing.
“I guess you saved me the bother of coming to find you.” Spirit magic blasted from her hands, and I rolled to the side to avoid it, the fire going out. Okay, maybe now wasn’t the best time to try explaining myself.
“Wait! I’m on your side!”
She didn’t seem to hear. The Death King’s Air Element ran behind her and levitated two assassins into the air, while sparks of fire ignited among the mages and knives flew in gleaming arcs. As one of the assassins threw a knife at me, I dodged and blasted him with flames.
“Hey!” Liv shouted at me. “Whose side are you even on?”
“Not theirs.” I hadn’t the time to argue with her, and before I could offer an explanation, a blast of spirit magic shot between us, forcing us both to dive to avoid it.
A blaze of fire slammed into the ground at my feet, and I deflected the attack with my own flames. When I looked up, Liv had disappeared somewhere among the fighting. I’d explain myself to her later, assuming she survived.
Amidst the chaos, I spotted Harper’s shadowy form, which was considerably more difficult to see with the oncoming darkness of night. That proved advantageous for her, as she was able to sneak up on the enemy without being detected until the last possible second. However, she hadn’t got the hang of her new magic yet, so she could only stall the enemy spirit mages instead of bringing them down. The liches accompanying them ensured they outnumbered our own team, while I saw no signs of the Death King and his own liches.
“Retreat!” Shelley called, backing towards the citadel’s shadow.
“You do realise we’re not supposed to be in there?” I said, my words drowned out by the general clamour. “If we go back in there, the vampires might come and arrest us for trespassing.”
Shelley’s response was drowned out by the echoing sound of metal clanking on metal, and a torrent of bright light shot from the citadel to the sky.
“Was that the transporter?” I looked around for Miles, but I’d lost sight of him somewhere in the fighting. That isn’t good.
A knife flew overhead, passing straight through Harper’s transparent body.
“Hey!” she said indignantly. “Nice try, but I’m dead.”
The light grew blinding. “I’m gonna check that out.”
I ran for the citadel and a blast of magic knocked me backwards. Four other mages ran out of the door, including Shawn. There he is. The bastard had slithered away, but I should have known he’d be back. I tackled the nearest mage—Garber—and slammed my fire magic into him. He reeled back, his eyes widening at my speed. “Tay said you weren’t human, but I didn’t believe her.”
Another blow hit my heart at the notion of her casually betraying me to the enemy. “At least I’m not the scum of the earth. What the hell is happening in that tower?”
“The second war is about to kick off.” The light of the citadel gleamed in his eyes, making him look quite deranged. “This won’t end like the last one.”
“Every single spirit mage died in the last war.” Fire leapt to my palms, and he recoiled with a hiss of pain. “So did millions of other people, you selfish dickhead. You’re the reason spirit mages have a bad name.”
He leapt to his feet with a roar, only for me to kick his legs out from underneath him. I spotted Miles duelling another spirit mage. I ran to his side as his opponent fell down at his feet, and he caught my eye, breathing hard. “Never thought I’d see the day where I’m forced to fight my own allies.”
“Shawn claimed to be starting a second spirit war,” I said to him. “They want a repeat of the last time.”
“Apparently they haven’t learned from how that turned out.” Miles shielded his eyes against the glowing tower. “The hell is happening in there?”
“I have no idea.” He and I wove through the fighting towards the citadel door, which I kicked open. While the light wasn’t as bright inside, several bodies lay scattered at the foot of the spiral staircase.
Then Shawn leapt at me from behind, his teeth bared in a feral expression. His punch sank right through me, and a sudden spasm of weakness shook my entire body. He was draining my life force in the way only a spirit mage could.
“Cut that out!” Harper flew up to him, breaking the connection so I could breathe again. I reeled on the spot, and Harper took my place, blasting spirit magic at Shawn.
I caught my breath, grabbing for a cantrip. I was almost out of them, but I refused to let Shawn escape our grasp again. He dodged Harper’s attempts to hit him with spirit magic, but before I could intervene, Miles ran into view and slammed an uppercut into Shawn’s chest that sent him flying back into the staircase. Around us, the citadel gave another tremble.
“What the hell is that?” I asked Shawn. “And don’t fob me off with an excuse this time. What are you doing in here?”
Shawn pushed upright. “You set that beast on us, didn’t you?”
“Me?” I said. “You’re the one who brought the wyrm here in the first place. If you’re looking for sympathy from any of us, you’re barking up the wrong tree.”
A horrible screeching noise came from above, followed by clanking which sounded too mechanical to belong to anything living.
“Bria,” Harper called from somewhere in the gloom. “The transporter is making that noise. I think it’s broken.”
“Oh, hell.” I kicked at Shawn when he tried to punch me again, and Miles got in behind him.
The light of a paralysing cantrip shone in his hands, and Shawn froze to the spot.
“Hang on.” Miles grabbed Shawn’s arm and fumbled in his pocket with his free hand, pulling out a rope. “I’ll leave him tied up in here. I’m sure the vampires will be thrilled to find someone to blame for attacking their city.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” said Shawn. “Bastard.”
“This place is supposed to be haunted, did you know?” Miles used the rope to tie Shawn’s arms and legs together. “Hope the ghosts of the spirit mages killed in the war kick the crap out of you.”
At a run, Miles and I headed for the stairs. Harper floated ahead of us and through the door at the top.
Inside the room, the transporter was trembling all over, emitting frequent flashes of bright light. Harper halt
ed in front of the bank of machinery. “How do we shut it down?”
“I reckon only a spirit mage can do it.” Miles stepped around the machine’s side, ducking a bolt of light. “Or a lich. Harper, you and I will have to switch it off.”
They took up positions on either side of the glowing platform. I watched them, a flicker of unease travelling through my nerve endings. Light washed over me. Rustling sounded at my back.
As I spun around, a hand grasped my wrist and dragged me into the light. I heard Miles’s exclamation of shock, but whiteness blanked out my vision, and the room disappeared.
The hand let go of me. Miles and Harper had vanished from sight, but I wasn’t alone. The coiled shape of the wyrm waited ahead of me, its body crushing the machinery. An alarming flare of orange-white light shone from the transporter, and its eyes locked onto me.
“Steady now,” I murmured to the wyrm. “I’m not your enemy, but I think you should probably get off that transporter before you get electrocuted to death.”
A familiar voice spoke from behind me. “He won’t, but you might not be so lucky.”
“You know, when I said we’d deal with our crap later, I meant when we weren’t in the middle of a war,” I said, knowing it was Tay without turning around. “What now? Going to try to kill me, or did you just want to gloat?”
The beast didn’t budge, but a faint growling came from between its teeth. It’d definitely broken free of the cantrip I’d used on it, but something held it subdued, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what. Or who.
“You know, I did think you’d come and find me as soon as you realised I was gone,” Tay said. “That would have made it easier.”
“I didn’t know where you were,” I said. “I thought the House of Fire had you, and then I found out about the Family being involved later down the line. If it had just been the House, I’d have gone there straight away, but then I’d have ended up arrested. Was that what you wanted?”
“You’d be safer behind bars,” she said. “So would the rest of us.”
“Wait, is that what this is about?” My hands fisted. “I thought you didn’t judge me for my history. Just like I didn’t judge you for what you did with your own magic.”
“You held it against me for years.” Her jaw trembled. “Don’t deny it.”
“Tay.” I softened my voice. “I didn’t. I swear.”
“You don’t understand,” she said. “They took everything from us, Bria. And now I see you working with the Death King as though he isn’t complicit.”
“I wouldn’t have had to ask for his help if you hadn’t let me think you were kidnapped,” I said. “You turned your back on me.”
Magic crackled from her hands, and dread bloomed in my chest. I’d never really believed she would hurt me on purpose, but she’d confided her past where I’d hidden mine, and I hadn’t known how deeply she’d resented me for it until now.
A jolt of electricity shot from her palms, bouncing off the wyrm’s scales. It recoiled, hissing in agony, as the waves of power travelled over its skin. “You know, it feels good to be able to cut loose again, and not worry about watching my back.”
“Stop that!” I dodged the next bolt of power that shot from her hands. “Tay, you told me why it’s too risky to use that power.”
Her type of magic was lethal in more than one way. When used too frequently, it rebounded on the caster… or anyone else standing in the vicinity. When she was a teenager, her first loss of control had ended in tragedy.
I didn’t believe she’d really meant to kill her younger sister. Her parents had said otherwise.
“Not anymore.” She revealed a cantrip, attached to a piece of string looped around her neck. “Your family had the means of controlling this power all along, yet you refused to share them with me.”
“I didn’t know,” I said. “Look, everyone working with Shawn and his friends is a liar, including whoever gave you that cantrip.”
“You lied to me.” Her voice cracked like a whip. “Every day we spent together.”
The beast snarled, recovering from Tay’s attack. I backed up a step. “I didn’t lie.”
“You’ve seen one of these before, haven’t you?” she said. “Your brother said.”
My chest tightened. She’s spoken to them, all right.
“He’s not my brother.”
If she meant who I thought she meant, I hadn’t thought of him that way for a long time. We’d grown up together, but I shared no more DNA with him than I did with the spirit mages. We just had the same family. Or rather, Family, with a capital F. They’d raised us, nurtured us, tortured and experimented on us in equal turns. I’d assumed the House of Fire had confiscated all the cantrips they’d created through their experiments, but it seemed someone had taken up the practice again.
“That’s not what he said,” she said, her mouth twisting with bitterness. “Was there anyone you didn’t lie to?”
“I always told you I hated my family,” I said to her. “I told you they were awful people. Yet you really believed him over me?”
“He told the truth,” she said. “You walked away from a great thing, Bria.”
“What spell did they hit you with?” I said. Or are you that desperate to repay your debts that you’d screw over your only friend?”
“You must know I didn’t have a choice, Bria,” she said. “The second spirit war is coming. Only one side will be victorious, and if it’s the Houses, they’ll see to it that we don’t live to see another day.”
I took a step forwards, and her magic tingled in the air like static. “Tay, stop this. I’m not siding with the Family, but I won’t hurt you, either.”
“Then tell me,” she said. “How did you really get away from the Family?”
My throat closed up. I hadn’t told her the full story. Hadn’t told anyone. Nor had I known she’d taken it so personally. “Does it matter now? You’ve already made up your mind.”
“Tell me,” she said. “You knew what those cantrips were, didn’t you? You know who was responsible for creating them.”
I shook my head. “Their resources were cut off. They should be behind bars.”
“Because you’re the one who put them there,” she said.
“If they were free, I’d know,” I added. “They’d have already killed me for it.”
“Our parents would rather see you suffer extensively for what you did to us.” The voice was strange and familiar all at once. A cold, horrible voice I hadn’t heard for years except in my dreams.
Oh, Elements. He’s here.
My brother had found me.
22
Adair strode into view. Tall and lean, he had the grace of an elf coupled with the intensity of a mage. Dark hair shaved to stubble, pale skin marked with fewer scars than it should have been, and expensive-looking clothes. His ears were pointed at the ends, and unlike me, he didn’t wear a pendant containing a cantrip which masked his real features.
The last time I’d seen him, he’d been cuffed with magic-sapping handcuffs and dressed in the House of Fire’s crimson prison uniform, his blue eyes narrowed in anger at me as I watched them take him away. He was never supposed to walk free. But if he was here… the others wouldn’t be far behind.
He looked me up and down. “Nothing to say?”
“Nothing I haven’t already said.” In truth, I had a dozen questions, but Tay’s presence was too much of a distraction. “That’s a low blow, targeting Tay to get to me.”
He shrugged. “Want to come home with me, or do I have to use force?”
The wyrm growled. It hadn’t moved an inch since he’d shown up. He was the one controlling it, then.
“What if it breaks free from your control?” I said.
“It won’t.”
No. His control was perfect. He’d pulled the same trick on me for years, after all, and now he’d used the same spell to ensnare Tay.
Light flashed in the room’s centre.
“Incomi
ng!” Harper’s voice came from thin air, as she and Miles appeared on the transporter’s platform.
All hell broke loose again. Miles’s spirit magic slammed into the monster, which reared up, forcing Tay to move aside to avoid being hit by its flailing tail. Adair grabbed for me, but I shot out of his grip, throwing a handful of fire at him. Miles looked startled at how fast I’d moved, and his eyes flew wide as Adair leapt across the room with the blinding speed of the magically enhanced. Straight at Miles.
I got there first, crashing headlong into Adair. I landed on top of him, pinning him to the floor with my knees.
“Still as fierce as ever, I see,” he said.
“Get fucked.” I rolled to the side as he threw me off him, narrowly missing another hit from the beast’s tail. “You can’t use your spell on me any longer.”
Miles stared at Adair. “Who are you?”
“Hasn’t she told you who she is?” he said. “Or should that be what she is?”
“Honestly, I’m more concerned about what you are,” he responded. “We were fighting a war back there, and you rudely interrupted us.”
“Exactly,” I said to Adair. “If you don’t mind, we have something more important to deal with.”
“What could be more important than family?” he said.
Chills raced down my spine. “I told you, you’re not my family. You’re a weapon and a tool.”
“Speak for yourself.”
“Guys, can you save it till later?” Miles ducked and rolled as the beast lashed its tail at him again.
“Watch out,” I told Miles. “The monster is under his control. Let’s just say he’s not like anyone you’ve met.”
“Figured that much out for myself.” His hands glowed with spirit magic.
“So you found some allies, did you?” Adair said to me. “They’ll all turn on you. Like she did.”
He indicated Tay, who’d backed to the other side of the room, not looking me in the eye.
My hands fisted. “Give me one good reason not to feed you to that beast.”
“All I did was keep the promise I made when you turned me in,” he said. “I will turn everyone against you. I will be the arbiter of your demise.”
Cage of Fire (Parallel Magic Book 1) Page 21
