I stared for a moment, then the air lit up as a thousand spirits reappeared.
Blue light flared along the circle’s edge, and a blast of icy air sent me staggering back. I gasped as the coldness intensified like a thousand needles stabbing at every inch of exposed skin.
“The gate is breaking,” yelled the necromancer.
A spirit flew at him, passing through his body, and the necromancer went still.
Then a high pitched laugh issued from his throat. He spun to face me, an inhuman smirk twisting his lips, and sent a blast of cold, blue light from his fingertips. I ducked on pure instinct. Was that faerie magic? Is the spirit possessing him?
I blocked the magic with my own, my mind reeling. Ghost faeries possessing human bodies. What the hell next?
I used my own magic to deflect another attack, but the spirit used the necromancer’s body to lunge at me with inhuman speed. I blocked his strike only because I used faerie magic enhanced speed myself, but this faerie clearly hadn’t forgotten how to use a physical body. A punch to my jaw set my head ringing, and I stumbled.
Vance stepped in. Rather than using his sword, he struck out with a hand now covered in shiny black scales. The necromancer flew back several feet, pitching against the circle’s edge.
Vance met my gaze, and I damn near forgot we were in the middle of a fight. His eyes had narrowed to dark slits, which combined with the claws and scales, gave him a positively demonic appearance.
“Vance?” I asked uncertainly.
Fear squeezed my chest. Oddly, at that moment I remembered Vance had said he’d become head of the mages by killing the last one. Was he losing control again?
Vance roared, hands now entirely taken over by long black claws, and hit out as the second necromancer attacked.
Yes. He’s losing it. Get away.
I drew my sword, certain the necromancers themselves were dead, and only the spirits’ presence kept them moving. I couldn’t afford to hesitate. My sword swung, blood spurted, and the necromancer crumpled like a puppet with its strings cut.
I stared transfixed for a moment. I hadn’t expected my first human kill to be like—that.
Vance roared again. His claws reached out and knocked down the second necromancer, who didn’t get up this time. Another spirit flew past, shrieking and yowling. The breeze lifted the hair from my head, but I hardly noticed the cold this time. The way Vance looked around with predatory eyes made me feel more like I stood on the same side as an unpredictable monster than an ally.
“Vance.” I waved a hand in front of his face. He didn’t react. I considered slapping him again, but his furious shifted form might take my head off with those claws.
Drake shouted, and the summoning circle’s lights ignited again. Turning my back on Vance, I searched for Isabel, hoping she was safe. The circle remained shrouded in grey smoke. Damn. I stepped towards the circle, to be pushed back by an invisible barrier. Spirits—too many to count—thickened the air. If it was this bad here, a total shitstorm must be erupting on necromancer territory. No wonder they’d sent their worst members.
It was up to us to stop it.
Snarling sounded within the circle. Hellhounds. Isabel lay defenceless, and I had no way to cross over.
Except one.
I pulled one of the explosive spells from my pocket and aimed carefully at the point where two parts of the summoning circle converged in a beam of light. Then I ran like hell.
The explosion tore up the grass, sending fragments of earth surging into the air. I yelled at Vance to run, too, but I couldn’t hear my own voice over the racket. A second explosion triggered another, then another, and the lights were obscured in dust and earth and smoke. A familiar smell caught in my nostrils. Decay. Death.
Faerie.
A snarling noise. I froze, muscles locking in place. Hellhounds.
The smoke cleared as faerie magic swirled around me, blue light illuminating the darkness. The lights of the summoning circle were gone, snuffed out. I’d blasted a hole into the field and knocked out two lights. Behind the wreck, Isabel lay, surrounded by hellhounds.
No. It’s too late.
This time, no circle blocked my way, because the earth had been torn up. I leaped over the gap, feet skidding in the mud. Isabel stirred, and relief seeped through me—she was alive.
“Hey!” I yelled at the hellhounds, brandishing my sword.
I ran, using the faerie magic to propel myself forward. I flew a good ten feet, slicing a hellhound’s throat in the same move. I’d have been proud of the achievement if I hadn’t unintentionally launched myself right into the path of a second beast. Ducking a giant paw, I brought my sword in a slashing motion across its nose. Then I caught it in the mouth. My blade sank through the roof into the monster’s brain, and it collapsed.
Three more leaped in, but a handful of fire flew past and knocked one of them into the other. I glimpsed Drake running towards what was left of the circle before a third tried to bite my wrist. I dodged and stabbed it in the neck.
Drake hurled a globe of fire so intense, I had to jump aside, but it sent the hellhounds scattering. I crouched beside Isabel, confident Drake could take care of the rest for now.
“Ivy,” she groaned. “I’m okay. I—”
“Don’t speak,” I said, slipping my arm around her head. “I’ll get you out of here.”
“It’s too late.” She swallowed. “The spirits are gone. They went back. I heard them… they opened a way.” Her hand pointed, wavering.
Dread punched a hole in my chest. I looked up.
Across the path, where the back of the circle had been, a haze of grey smoke obscured whatever had been there before. The lights marking the circle had gone out. Instead…
A chill blast of wind struck, like I’d summoned it into being myself. Faces began to appear in the smoke, but indistinct, and fading by the second.
“What… what happened?”
“They set up a trap.” Isabel attempted to push herself up onto one elbow. “Mad guy said he only wanted to lure everyone here—that he already had everything he needed.”
“Who. A faerie?”
“I think he was.” She rubbed her eyes. “I was kind of out of it. But he mentioned your name.”
“I thought he needed my magic.”
No. Any magic would have done. What with the spiritual energy going haywire enough to solidify a thousand spirits, of course there’d been enough energy to open the veil.
The smoke. It’s through the smoke.
The tall, beautiful man had appeared right there. I relaxed my grip on Isabel, letting her balance on my knees, as my arms went weak. So did my legs. I wanted to curl into a ball and scream.
Instead, I remained kneeling, and watched, and remembered.
“Come with me. I’ll take you home.”
When he’d spoken, every instinct, every single story about not following strangers had fled from my mind. People were dying all around me. There was nowhere left to run. This stranger had given me an ultimatum.
I’d taken it. I’d followed him into the smoke.
“Isabel,” I whispered, closing my eyes. “Are you okay to stay here?”
She groaned a little. “Yeah. Give me a minute. The healing spell did work, it’s just slow as shit thanks to those bastard creatures.”
I opened my eyes. “Drake over there—he can be trusted. Get to him. I have to go and find those missing kids. They’re behind that smoke.”
In Faerie. Part of me wanted to tell her this was a last goodbye, but if I did, I’d never leave.
I stood. Magic wrapped around me in tendrils, perhaps meant to be reassuring. I didn’t know. I didn’t understand my own magic, but right now, that and my weapons were the only thing standing between me and a faerie invasion.
The iron. You have iron.
I gripped Irene and stepped forward. Then again. One footstep followed the next, the dead grass disappearing, the smoke growing closer. At the same time, the blu
e smoke around my own body thickened.
Blue light spilled down my wrists, turning to smoky tendrils that fanned out from my hands. My own magic spilled through the haze, lighting the dark, until an opening became visible. A grey-tinted path into the dark.
I knew what waited on the other side was bad news.
And I knew the children were over there, too.
The gate had opened. They hadn’t needed my magic to do it, after all.
I chanced one brief look over my shoulder, but couldn’t bring myself to meet Vance’s eyes. I had to do this alone. I wasn’t strong enough to stop and say goodbye.
I won’t die. I’ll come back.
A tearing sensation tugged at my heart, until the sound of faint screaming chilled my blood. Children screaming.
For them.
Quiet voices, crying out for help.
I walked, then ran, for the gap, magic surging around me, and disappeared into a familiar darkness.
Chapter 23
“Welcome to your new home,” a voice whispered. “I’ve made it comfortable for you."
No. Not again.
I lay half in shadow, half in light. Thick trees obscured the view on either side, silvery leaves catching the sunbeams filtering through the canopy. All else was smothered in shadow. The path ahead beckoned, enticing and light.
Behind lay death and confusion. Ahead lay uncertainty. But someone stood there on the path.
Avakis smiled at me with perfect white teeth, and reached for my hand. His pointed ears, porcelain-pale skin and glistening dark hair painted him as far from human. He was too perfect to be anything but a prince from a storybook. The armour he wore was right out of a book, too—silver and black, a sword sheathed at his waist.
I’d never thought I’d ever need a fairytale prince to rescue me. At least, not before the world outside had turned into a horror story.
His smile widened as I took his hand. The skin was surprisingly soft, and up close the armour didn’t appear to be made of metal at all. The texture was wrong. Like bark, maybe. But I was too captivated by his eerily handsome face to do more than follow.
No. Don’t do it. Please.
My past self blurred before my eyes, but in place of the image came worse memories.
It didn’t take long for Avakis to show his true colours. And by then, I was already ensnared in his trap.
Stop. Stop.
Whatever faerie trick this was, they were using my memories to trick me. Ghosts didn’t exist here.
This was all inside my head: nothing more.
And I had one memory I didn’t mind reliving.
I watched myself stand before Avakis. A different day. We no longer stood in the forest but inside a high-ceilinged hall. Like every part of his house, shadows crawled from corners and masked everything but the area we stood in. He liked to keep the place dark, so we’d never be able to see anything creeping up on us.
“Avakis,” I’d said. “I challenge you.”
He’d squinted at the dagger I held in my hands, and laughed. “You challenge me with that pathetic excuse for a weapon?”
I nodded, head bowed. I’d played my part well for three years. Meek. Obedient. Helpless.
But I’d lived.
Iron was the only way to kill a faerie. It went without saying that Avakis didn’t allow one single fragment of iron to enter his house. He’d been bringing humans into his home for three years now. I’d figured out where he brought them to, where he stripped them of everything they owned and threw their belongings into the dust.
A single, rusty nail was my salvation. The boy it belonged to was long dead. Why he’d been carrying it, I hadn’t known.
Now, of course, I knew it was because the faeries had taken over our world, and the survivors had swiftly figured out the best way to defend themselves. At the time, that small piece of metal was my lifeline.
I was an untalented human, not even a witch or mage with any dormant skill. All I had were my wits and a hell of a lot of luck.
I concentrated on the memory above all else. Savoured the taste of the triumph as I held the faerie’s sword in my hands, looking down at him.
“You traitorous bitch.”
I brought the blade across his throat in a crimson smile.
His head fell back, blood spilling out—and blue smoke, too. Magic. His magic, the energy he’d drawn from all those tortured souls for the past three years—and god knew how much longer.
The magic wrapped around me, and I cried out. Not that it hurt, but because the magic was inside me. And I couldn’t make it stop. I screamed as the walls of the grand room fell apart on either side of me, screamed as bars fell off cells and dazed humans stumbled free, crawling into the sudden burst of blue light flaring from every part of me. I felt their pain, their fear, and yet I still couldn’t make it stop.
He’s powered by it. That’s why he needs us.
The thoughts had crossed my mind, but I was too busy running to dwell on it. I ran harder, bare feet pounding on the leaf-strewn path, heart thudding. Please let me escape. Please. There must be a way out.
The smoke formed threads like fabric, stretching up through the trees and twining around my wrists.
“Let me go!” I screamed. “Let me out! I shouldn’t be here. I’m human, mortal. Please let me go back home.”
The magic writhed and tangled, forming a wall between the trees. I didn’t know how to control the magic, only that he gained more power the more people he captured. The more misery he caused.
I thought about the misery, all the years of pain and suffering at his hands. I thought of the pain, and the blue smoke thickened around me. Faces began to appear in the fog.
“Please.” I reached out a hand. “Let me back. Please.”
Hands grabbed me, and an unimaginable coldness numbed my whole body. The forest was replaced by a torrent of smoke filled with indistinct faces and whispers.
“You don’t belong here,” one of them whispered.
“It isn’t your time.”
The faces faded in and out. Am I dead?
“Please,” I moaned. “I want to go home.”
Magic was a light in the dark, a blue cocoon protecting me from those nebulous, floating figures. Ghosts. Even then, I knew what they were. I even thought I recognised some of them. Are my parents here?
I spun around, desperate, but the faces faded away, and the numbness became complete.
Then sensation rushed back. I lay on the ground. No, grass. And above… Sunlight. Real sunlight. I ran, not caring about the magic anymore—because here was a path, a way I’d opened, and I needed to get out—to get home. Home.
My eyes flew open.
I lay on a path shadowed by trees with silvery leaves. All was silent.
Here we are. Here I was. The same place I’d landed. The same place I’d escaped.
But were the children here? Or were they still in Death? Either way, the person responsible must be here. He’d be waiting for me.
He’s not Avakis.
Avakis. His magic… no wonder it had always felt so cold. From the other captives, I’d learned he was a Winter Sidhe who’d committed the ultimate crime and murdered a fellow lord. As punishment, he’d been exiled.
Others had been here, of course. The place between had had other lords divide up territory, but not in an organised way like Summer and Winter. Any lord could kill another, and when they did, they took their power. Avakis had killed both Summer and Winter. His magic was incomprehensible.
And, thanks to the vow I’d made when we’d duelled, his magic was mine.
I pushed all thoughts of Avakis away, concentrating on the path. I never did learn the way around here. Faerie didn’t go by the usual rules of directions, shaping itself around whoever entered. It gave you what you asked for… at a price.
When I’d escaped… I knew how I’d done it now. But not why Faerie had let me escape, and nobody else. Nor why the doors had closed behind me, cutting off the faeries
forever.
Nor why this Velkas seemed to be the single exception to the rule.
I walked down the path, turning a corner into a clearing, and sure enough, someone waited ahead.
This faerie had jet black hair at shoulder length, and piercing blue eyes. Like most faeries, he wore armour. As he belonged to neither Summer nor Winter, his armour was jet black edged with silver.
I knew that armour. He must have stolen it right from Avakis’s corpse.
He smiled. “Ivy Lane,” he said. “I thought you’d come to me. What kind of creature are you?”
“Human. You know that.” I glared at him. “Why bother waiting here for me, if you can walk into my world whenever you feel like it?”
The faerie laughed. The sound was like tinkling water, like the gentle pressure on piano keys, and my magic blazed brightly in response. He smiled and shook his head. “Surely you’d have worked out that this is my territory. I’d rather have the advantage. Wouldn’t you?”
Not when you’re at the mercy of my iron blade. I gripped Irene tightly. He must know I carried a hell of a lot of iron weapons which could reduce him to ash in a second. What was he playing at?
“So what’s the point?” I asked. “You promised half-bloods immortality, right? Your blood. Any reason? Or were you just fucking with them, like every goddamn faerie I’ve ever met?”
He laughed again. “You know a lot about faeries for a mortal. I shouldn’t be surprised, seeing as you killed Avakis.”
“Yes, I did,” I said. “And I’ll kill you, too.”
“I don’t think so. Avakis might have been blindsided by a mortal, but I’ve spent a lot of time amongst your kind. You’re weak. Even that Mage Lord of yours.”
I blinked. “So you’ve been spying on me. And trying to lure me here. You’ve succeeded, haven’t you? There’s a path open between here and the mortal world, just as you wanted. The summoning circle took care of it for you. You never needed my magic.”
“You believe that?” Velkas smirked. “You believe I wanted your magic to open the ways between our realms? I intended to take Avakis’s magic for myself long before you were born, human. You aren’t worthy to wield the power of a Sidhe lord.”
“What, a lord of nowhere?” My heart thudded faster. He didn’t want to use my power at all. I’d been so fixated on the idea that the faeries wanted me, I hadn’t stopped to think of the value of Avakis’s power itself. Of course I hadn’t. I’d never, not in ten years, stopped to think what having their magic meant. The way I’d won it was unconventional as hell. Only powerful Sidhe could steal magic from another faerie. Unless a promise was involved.
Paranormal Magic (Shades of Prey Book 1) Page 21
