Rise: A New Adult Urban Fantasy (Spelldrift: Coven of Fire Book 1)

by Sierra Cross

  Chapter Thirteen

  Every night that week, I’d been tense as I sat at Asher’s, waiting with him and Callie for Liv to show up. Tonight, as the clock inched toward 7:00 p.m., I could see him gearing up to get pissy. But once again, she strolled in at 7:00 on the dot. And she was, damn her, so gifted in magic—effortlessly, carelessly dripping with talent—that no one criticized her sloppy habits.

  Liv had always coasted on her natural advantages. But now it was hard not to resent her for it, just a little.

  Despite the magical advantage I’d claimed in the instant when Liv, Callie, and I formed a coven circle, lessons remained a struggle for me. Since Callie was doing a fine job and Liv was amazing, together our circle held—even if I felt like deadweight. Using the power of our coven, Callie and Liv cast spells that they couldn’t do on their own. Callie had translated several pages of spells from Asher’s ancient primary book, and she and Liv had learned to charm small objects together. Within a week, they’d already mastered three basic incantations: quelling (spells that blocked an uncomfortable body sensation), nullifying (spells that temporarily stymied technology), and minor protection spells—nothing that would stop a demon’s blast fire, but it could reduce one’s chances of being felled by lesser attacks. I, however, still couldn’t even scry with any consistency. My magic commanded me, not the other way around. I felt inadequate, hopeless. Like someone rehearsing to headline a concert at Key Arena after only a handful of guitar lessons. Only the stakes were so much higher than humiliation, so the anxiety made me overreach and under-perform even more. The painful disparity in our abilities was becoming more depressing each lesson.

  “Alix, I want to try a homing spell with you in the lead.” Asher started moving us around like pieces on a chess board. “Liv, stand up in the end. Callie, take a step back.”

  My heart drooped. I did not want to try a homing spell with me in the lead. We’d done it a hundred times, and not once had the four of us successfully disappeared from the lab to reappear, magically, in my living room—as was supposed to happen. I was tired of facing Callie’s patient smile. Of Liv’s bored eyes. Of Asher wasting hundreds of dollars of spellbeads. Tired of failure.

  I decided to zag. “I’ve been meaning to tell you. About the demon tree. Every time the door opens, the scream is getting louder. Like make-my-ears-bleed loud.”

  This totally caught Asher’s attention. “Might have been nice if you’d led with that small bit of information,” he snipped. He grilled me on the details and seemed miffed at how sparse my description was, seeming to not comprehend that I only saw the thing for a split second and my head felt like it was about to rip open at the time.

  But it was more than that. Something about that tree kept me from thinking clearly. “I’m sorry.” I hadn’t wanted to admit to my Coven members that the pull I felt from it was growing stronger each day, because I didn’t want to believe that it was true. “I should have spoken up days ago.”

  “Is it bad that it’s growing?” Callie ventured.

  Asher struck her down with a look that said Idiot. “Hmm, hey doc, I can see my cancer is growing before my eyes. Should I be concerned?”

  I glared and was about to throw some verbal daggers back at him, but Callie shook her head at me.

  “My apologies.” Asher had seen the silent conversation pass between us. “There’s a reason they won’t let me teach the primaries.” His regret felt genuine, and he took it down a notch as he continued. “Enchanted Life Forms 101, listen up. Normally, the more powerful they are, the longer they take to grow. With an enchanted object as powerful as this tree, you’d expect it to grow so slowly you couldn’t readily detect the change. But they must have found a way to accelerate its growth. That changes everything.”

  “Project Germination.” What I thought was a tech project was really all about the magic. “They’ve found a way to use tech to enhance the magic.”

  “We need to find out what it is and what they plan to do with it.” Asher sounded deadly serious. “I need to see it.”

  “How do you propose we do that?” I was praying he had some crystal ball spell up his sleeve. The magical equivalent of a baby sleep monitor, that could show the tree without us having to go to the scary building.

  “You need to sneak me in, of course. Tonight.”

  Liv pumped her fist. “Yes. Field trip.”

  Asher clenched his tea cup so hard that Callie flinched.

  My blood had gone cold. “But Millennium Dynamics’ Security is government-grade tech,” I protested. “Also, that thing…” Had scared the bejesus out of me even through a reinforced door—I had no desire to be in the same room with it. “Couldn’t we do a dry run first?” I licked my suddenly dry lips. “Like a rehearsal?”

  “How?” It was my turn to receive one of Asher’s withering looks. “What are we going to practice on? Do you have a full-scale model of Millennium Dynamics hidden in your purse?”

  He was right. There was no way to practice this. That terrified me more than anything. Well, anything but the demon tree. And Eric Starr. “We should get Matt in on this conversation.”

  “Why?” Asher’s lip curled into a sneer. “We already know what gems of wisdom he’ll offer. He’ll push you toward safety, away from your duty. Or perhaps that’s what you’re counting on?”

  “Hey, I’m not backing out of this mission,” I shot back. “But Matt’s our guardian. He’s part of everything we do. He’s coming with us.”

  Callie and Liv were nodding.

  “Fine.” Asher shrugged. “Given the dangers ahead tonight, we may be in need of cannon fodder.”

  The five of us stood at the edge of the Millennium Dynamics parking lot ready to follow what I considered to be a half-assed plan. The bright moon dimmed on and off as dark clouds drifted past it in the midnight blue sky. The air was crisp and heavy with moisture but no rain fell. One thing we had going in our favor.

  I handed each of them one of the silver beads that were from the bottom of my mother’s velvet bag. Asher explained they were aggregate charms, for working in tandem with a group. He walked Liv through how to put an invisibility charm on them. I held the control bead, slightly larger than the others that tied them all together. We could all see each other, but as long as they kept the small bead on their person, they’d remain invisible to others. The one tiny draw back was that I had to maintain the control bead with magic. Asher assured me it was like remembering to breathe while you’re talking, you just do it. But we’d all seen my magic control—or lack thereof. If they had doubts in my abilities, they didn’t show it. They were a brave lot.

  I would have preferred to try and sneak Asher in to look at it, but apparently, the answer to the joke was that it took five magicborns to change a lightbulb, so to speak. I would use my key card to get us into the building. It would take the coven—I had to remind myself that that meant us—to boost my magical strength and maintain the control charm. Asher would handle the lock on the lab. Matt, armed to the teeth with enchanted weapons in leather sheaths that crisscrossed his muscular frame, would do what guardians did—kick demon ass if we crossed paths. Asher would cast a nullifying spell on the security cameras. They would register nothing the entire time we were in the building.

  Until this point I’d kind of thought of myself as a tough chick; never one to back down from a bully or a barroom brawl. But as my shaking hand held the key card in front of the panel, I was rethinking that. Matt had drilled it in my head that I shouldn’t look at any of them, so I focused straight ahead. I pretended to dig through my purse looking for something as I held the door open and they all walked through.

  The heels of my boots made a racket as I crossed the lobby’s polished white marble floor, hoping it masked any noise the crew inadvertently made. There were two uniformed guards at the wraparound reception desk that spanned half the width of the lobby. One guard had his back turned watching a monitor behind him, the other’s head was down. He looked up as we walk
ed in. I nearly swallowed my tongue. As I got closer I could sense he was a magicborn, not the human he appeared to be. I could sense his animal nature. I wasn’t certain—it being the first time I’d ever sensed a shifter—but from the graceful, stalking way he moved I got a feline vibe. Not like house cat. Everything about him screamed “deadly.” Even in human form his powerful muscles tensed in unison like a panther as the slight twitch of his nose told me he was smelling the air. Could he sense the others? My stomach clenched. If he did, the best-case scenario would be that we’d end up in jail.

  “Awfully late to be coming into work?” he questioned.

  “Yeah, the fix to a problem that has been plaguing me all day popped into my head.” I hoped he couldn’t hear my teeth rattling in terror. “Gotta try it or I’ll never sleep.”

  He looked vigilant but didn’t move. I gave him my “cool, it’s all good” nod and thought we were in the clear. Callie sneezed. I did a delayed-reaction fake sneeze to try and cover. His eyes narrowed and he looked like he was going to stand. Matt’s hand slid down to a dagger sheath on his thigh. Asher and Liv froze in place. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Callie was going to sneeze again. This time I timed my head thrust and managed to sync up with the sound that came out of her.

  “Ack, these allergies.” I feigned a suddenly stuffy nose. “Killing me.” I rushed to the elevator and they all matched my pace.

  The elevator doors closed and we all let out a sigh of relief. “Let me guess, cat allergies?” I said, looking straight ahead. Callie nodded and wiped her runny eyes on her sleeve.

  Asher—sans gloves, tattoos roiling—waved his hand and tried to open the lab door with his ancient magic. “That was a less-than-pleasant sensation.” He grimaced, took a deep breath, and tried again. The pool of light at his feet sparked up and he grunted, taking a knee. “That really smarts.” With a flash of determination, he thrust his magic at the door. This time he was flung so far his body slammed into a desk. Gasping for breath, he stood, ready to try again, but the ends of his fingers were smoking and he was clearly in pain.

  The light on the floor was reshaped and pointing at me, stopping inches from my feet. “Let me try.” I surprised myself as I said it.

  “I’ll try it.” Liv stepped in front of me, excitement in her eyes. “I like a challenge.”

  “No, I can do this.” And I knew I could. Not because I felt confident in my magic, but because it wanted me to come in. I felt it in my bones.

  Matt bristled as he stepped in front of the door like he was going to stop me.

  “You have to let her try,” Callie said gently. “It’s our job.”

  Looking like he had to force himself to do it, Matt stepped aside.

  As I approached the door, I stepped into the pool of light and felt it beckon me through. I didn’t think, just waved my hand, and the door opened. I was afraid to walk in—to look in—because the tree’s pull on me was so strong. Instead, I motioned Asher in as I stood on the threshold, and that’s when the tree started screaming to me.

  So loud. So piercing. I slammed my hands over my ears but it didn’t lessen. The pain was excruciating. I wobbled on my feet. Matt grabbed my arm and pulled me back, but that only made it louder. The message was clear: the only way to stop the screaming was for me to get closer. To enter that room. I wrested out of Matt’s grip and crossed the threshold.

  And the screaming stopped.

  In its place was the most beautiful music, coming from the tree. A song for me. Calling me closer. I couldn’t take my eyes off it. The tree, ensconced behind the huge glass window, swayed as I entered the room. I heard a funny noise and realized I was cooing at the tree, as if I were looking at a baby through a hospital nursery window. The window, though clear glass, also acted as a monitor. Ticking along the bottom and up the right edge were numbers, percentages, and other figures I didn’t understand—at least not in my tree-altered state of consciousness. Some demonic growth chart grid was subtly displayed across the surface. Hints of an iridescent shimmer on the glass were visible if I turned my head at a certain angle. The rock walls behind the tree made it look strangely dark, for a greenhouse. I wondered how they got all that rock up here without raising questions.

  I heard a shout from outside the lab. “You’re not authorized to be in there!”

  I turned and saw a tall bald man in a security uniform. He was crazy, I decided. This was where I belonged. The music didn’t become words, but I was starting to understand it. It was singing to my core, saying, “You belong to me.”

  The Nequam in the security uniform leaped at me, but I didn’t care. Even as nausea rolled over me and my skin writhed at the by-now-familiar magical sensation of razors cutting me. All that mattered was I was with the tree. Matt slammed into the security demon, catching him off guard. But this demon was powerful. He flipped Matt onto his back, jaw open razor teeth aiming at Matt’s jugular. I smiled as these meaningless events washed over me; I just wanted to touch this tree, we were so much alike. I needed to get even closer. To be one with it. Matt raised a blade, the blue magic beaming on its surface. He plunged it into the demon’s ribs. I reached my hand to the closest leaf. A body slammed into me. Liv had knocked me down. It pissed me off. Then Asher flicked his hands at me and suddenly I wasn’t able to control my muscles. Liv and Callie were dragging me out of the room. Asher hurried out. As the door closed the tree screamed louder than ever and I couldn’t cover my ears. I felt a trickle of blood run down my neck before I blacked out.

  I came to on the couch in my apartment, to the sound of Matt and Asher arguing. Apparently my invisible coven had led me out of the building, but where were Liv and Callie?

  “Look, we got in and out undetected.” Asher sounded impatient, like they’d been over this multiple times.

  “Undetected?” Matt laughed joylessly. “We used her key card, warlock.”

  “Could have been working late.”

  “And coincidentally, they’re down a security guard the same night?”

  “Whom you dusted. We’re talking about a Neq; I’ve had goldfish that were cleverer. They’ll assume he walked off, got confused, and forgot his way back.”

  So that’s what they were fighting about. Whether or not I should return to work. I said in a raspy barely audible voice, “If I don’t go back, we lose the ability to monitor what’s going on with the tree.”

  “Hey, you’re awake.” Callie was at my side, her small hand squeezing my shoulder.

  “How’s your back?” Liv called from the kitchen. Right, she’d knocked me down.

  “Hurts,” I said.

  “More importantly, Alix, what the hell happened to you in that room?” Asher stood over me, his grilling face on. Apparently my agreeing with him just now had earned me no points. “And why in magic’s name would you reach out to touch it?”

  “I…well…you know, the music,” I stammered under his blistering glare. Why was he asking me to explain the tree’s dreamlike allure, when he was there? “I mean, you both heard it, too, right?”

  The two of them stared at me, for once in perfect agreement.

  Matt had pulled his hand away from me. “Heard what?” he demanded.

  “The screaming that turned into beautiful music?” A chill rushed down my back at the realization. No one else had heard the screaming, or the music. Only me. “Couldn’t you at least feel it?”

  Matt shook his head. “All I felt was some serious dark magic.”

  Asher was pacing around the couch. “What was it telling you?”

  You belong to me.

  I shrugged. “Um, it wasn’t exactly in words.” And I wasn’t exactly keeping secrets, I told myself. I just didn’t want to talk about how I’d longed to be close to its beauty, its power. To touch its impossibly bright leaves. Be bathed in its unearthly purple light. If I didn’t say those terrifying things out loud, some messed up logic in my head went, they wouldn’t be true. And I could not deal with them being true. So I hugged my knees an
d stayed silent.

  Matt narrowed his eyes at me and I felt like he could see right through me. He whirled to face Asher. “Tell her what you told us. The research you found on the tree.”

  Asher sighed. “From what I can tell, your creepy leafed friend is the legendary Malum Osmium. Mentioned only in the great tome.” At my blank look, he added wryly, “A big scary book all about myths and things that ‘don’t exist.’”

  According to the tome, he’d explained, the tree was an instrument used by demons to facilitate a union of power.

  “What the hell does that mean?” I said.

  Matt looked grim. “Usually it means some powerful demon gets even stronger.

  “It often requires the sacrifice of an innocent to complete the ritual,” Asher added helpfully.

  Aunt Jenn. I muttered a curse. “How do we destroy it?”

  Everyone looked to Asher. “I wanted to wait till Alix was awake to share this part with you all. Before it blooms, only a full coven in service to the light can destroy the Malum Osmium—if it doesn’t kill them first. After it blooms no magic exists that can bring it down.” He added, “The tree only blooms on winter solstice.”

  Callie gasped. “That’s only a week away.”

  “Six days.” Matt’s eyes met mine, and I could feel his pain as bitter and intense as my own.

  “I don’t know, guys.” Liv rubbed her temple and burrowed into my easy chair. “I mean, this is some serious shit…you know?”

  Asher let out an exasperated breath. “Is that your dilettantish way of informing us that you’re out, now that the novelty’s worn off?”

  Liv’s shrug looked more like a squirm, but she didn’t deny it. “We’re not ready for this, and six days isn’t going to get us there.”

  Callie looked to me in panic. I had nothing. Sure, without Liv, without the triumvirate and its most powerful member, we had no chance of success. Which meant Aunt Jenn was probably doomed. But the thing was Liv wasn’t wrong. And if she was backing out, I couldn’t say I was surprised. Her commitment had been dubious from the start. Maybe it had been too miraculous all along to get her back. To have our trio back together. I felt my mind drifting into an old place of grief and anger; people disappeared on me. They never stayed.