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

by Sierra Cross

  “I know that.” I looked away. “And I want to believe in us, but…” The crap that was floating around my brain was getting in the way. “I don’t know if I can trust my instincts,” I blurted out. “The thing I can’t get out of my head is how come you all knew Callie was evil? How come I didn’t sense anything?”

  Matt’s gaze zeroed in on me. “Didn’t you?”

  He was right. I did feel the sting of Callie’s dark magic as she got close to me. But I’d rejected the truth of it. It wasn’t what I wanted to see, to sense, so I shut it out. I saw it so plainly now. Like a pinball machine in my head, the thought bounced around and lit up. That reaction wasn’t just a one-off. It was how I dealt with things I didn’t like in my life. It was how I dealt with Randy at the bar. I pretended everything was fine until it blew up. How I dealt with all my friends moving on with their lives while I still hadn’t made a choice. And then another revelation hit me so hard it left me breathless.

  “She’s not in danger.” I grabbed Matt’s arm to keep me standing upright. “Never has been.”

  “Who?”

  “My aunt.” A sob escaped me as my past replayed before my eyes. “She’s always been on their side.” Her insistence on wanting me to train in magic, it wasn’t so I could feel close to my mother. She wanted me to match my mother’s strength and ability—so she could turn me. She’d always wanted me in Millennium Dynamics. She’d been talking Eric Starr up to me for years. She made it sound inevitable that I’d work there; as if it were my destiny and any other choice a failure. I clung to Matt as a shudder ran through me. The world tilted on its axis. A magical wind whipped around me as, all at once, the last of the veils on my magic tore away.

  This was the truth Marley was protecting me from—what she saved me from. This was what I needed to understand before I came into my power.

  Magic hummed in my blood. I was one with my calling. Things I’d thought I understood were now truly clear to me.

  “I know where they’re going. Where we have to go.”

  “Alexandra.” Matt’s voice was full of concern. “If you’re right, and your aunt has been able to hide her magical signature from all of us, then she must be a powerful dark witch. Tenebris is already one of the strongest demons in his part of the Regnum. We need to be certain. Let’s let Liv and Asher find it and we can—”

  “No. I already know where the tree is.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  By the time we had regrouped and geared-up, it was fully dark when we exited the greenway that bordered Caster’s Park. I pulled into the parking lot, and that’s when Asher did something he rarely did. Admitted he was wrong.

  He and Liv had been scrying for the tree for hours, driving, trying to find its magical signature. Coming up with nothing. Of course, Asher and Liv couldn’t find the tree because it wasn’t really in this realm. The high-tech greenhouse was never really at Millennium Dynamics. It had hit me with perfect clarity as I’d pictured that window in the lab, and the tree with the rock wall behind it. When I’d looked at that tree from a certain angle, it had a hint of the same shimmery translucence as Matt’s ethereal body had when he visited my realm. I rejected that information because it didn’t make sense at the time. Didn’t fit my assumptions. As my magic flooded me, though, it unlocked doors in my brain that made logical and intuitive connections I couldn’t have made yesterday. Not because I’d lacked the powers of observation…but because I’d lacked confidence in myself. The rocks behind the tree were similar to the walls of the cave in Caster’s Park—only these rocks had to be on the other side of the Demongate. The window in the lab must have been some kind of magic portal to the Demon Realm, where the tree actually existed.

  As we entered the park, its siren call was beckoning me louder than ever. No doubt the tree had grown even more in the last few hours and must be pressing up against the seal of the Demongate.

  Through the pine forest, I could see tiny flames of handheld candles flickered all the way up Wren Trail, to my mother’s—no—to our cave. Neqs and their allies—shifters and evil Wont wannabes. The park was teeming with them. We hid in the bushes and watched the procession go by. I looked at the four of us, outnumbered as we were, and realized we might be heading to our doom. The somber look on all my companions’ faces made me suspect they were contemplating the same thing.

  “No shame in bowing out now.” Matt looked to each of us in turn.

  “Not a chance,” Liv said, and pushed past him.

  Matt looked to Asher.

  “Oh please,” Asher scoffed and matched Liv’s stride.

  Then Matt looked to me.

  In answer, I patted my pocket in which I carried the equivalent of a magic A-bomb—the strongest known to magickind. Asher had paid a fortune for the specially cultivated form of the witch’s herb venenuum diabolic. If this couldn’t kill the tree, literally no substance could. I just had to get close enough to plant it at the base of the tree without actually coming in contact with any of the limbs or leaves. I also carried the spellbead Asher had charmed for me so I could, in theory, execute a homing spell to whisk us out of there as I planted the bomb. In theory, because that spell still eluded me, even in class. Matt, the only one who suspected how hard it would be for me to get close enough to the tree (without touching it) to bomb it, had offered several times to take my place. But I was the logical choice; I was probably the only one they might not shoot at. Not until it was too late. At least that’s what we were counting on.

  Frankly, the more I thought about it, we were counting on a series of miracles.

  “Whatever you do, don’t touch the tree.” Matt looked me in the eye. “It may try to touch you. Be on guard.”

  “Got it,” I said. “Come on, we’ve got a party to crash.”

  Invisibility wasn’t an option this time. We all knew it would be too much for me to try to resist the tree, call my fire, and hold enough concentration to use the control bead. So we were left hoping the element of surprise would give us an advantage.

  We hiked silently, keeping to the bushes to hide from all the invitees to this demon party that were making their way up the hill.

  As we approached the last hill before the cave’s mouth, Matt and I flanked right, Asher and Liv left. We climbed the hill on either side of the path. Right at the top of the path we burst from the dense brush. We were a lethal unit, hitting them from all sides, raining fire and lightning and blades.

  As we approached the outer ward, no spiney-sharp pain greeted me. Using my newly-honed ability to see magic, I could see that the ethereal golden veil was suspended ten feet in the air by Neqs’ green magic. Like the night I brought Matt through, the Neqs had figured out a way to prop up the ward like a curtain so they could pass under it.

  And they’d done the same with the inner ward as well.

  Standing just under the lip of the suspended outer ward, I could see purple light shining from the cave entrance, lending the night an eerie violet hue. Nequam stood shoulder to slimy shoulder, clutching their candles, ready for the mother of all marriage ceremonies. They were everywhere, outside, inside. They’d abandoned their glamours, revealing their dead-fish grey, pustule-covered skin. Their presence, along with the overwhelming smell of rot, defiled our sacred space.

  My magic bubbled forth, aching to spark out of my hands. I hurled bolt after golden bolt, dusting all the Nequam in my path. It took me a minute to realize the demons weren’t fighting back, they were clearing a path and letting us in. What was going on? Were they trying to lure us in?

  Like seas parting, the Neqs moved aside…until we stood just inside the entrance of the cave. Lurching forth together like a school of fish, the demons closed in. Corralling Liv, Matt, and Asher, but letting me through. Panic ignited in me as the separation between us grew. Their sheer numbers threatened to overwhelm the rest of my coven.

  Asher shouted, “Circumdate!” The tattoos on his hands flared bright for a split second, like a camera flash. The flash spread li
ke a net made of woven light and magic, forming a force field around them. Keeping the Neqs at bay.

  “Come,” the deep voice called from inside the cave. And I knew it was Eric in his demon form, Tenebris Stella, calling me to him, to the tree.

  He didn’t need to call me, my feet were moving on their own. As soon as the tree’s purple light hit me, the screaming morphed to the song I had longed to hear. Wrapping around me, filling me, calling me. Even in the tree’s thrall what I saw inside the cave twisted my gut so powerfully my breath caught.

  Gone was the golden light that danced the last time I was here. The cave was as bright as a purple day. And the worst part was the tree had already begun to invade this most sacred of spaces.

  Powerful branches were pushing their way through the Demongate. The metal and wards were failing in equal measure. Branches like tentacles had grown so large they snaked circles around the ceiling, laden with heavy buds that looked ready to burst open.

  Eric—or rather, Tenebris Stella in his human suit—held court at the center of the room. Next to him stood Aunt Jenn, dressed in flowing black and red robes, dark magic blatantly dancing on her skin. Behind Aunt Jenn there was a cluster of Wonts obviously there to support her. Front and center was Callie. At the sight of her still-sweet face, I gulped a sob I refused to let escape.

  Shimmering branches of the tree reached down to caress Tenebris, I noticed, but not my aunt. She must have so badly wanted to be his queen, I thought. The ultimate power. And had she intended for me to be the wedding sacrifice? Even now, it was hard to believe such a thing of my aunt. But it was time I believed my own eyes and ears, my own magic.

  The problem with my senses, though—magical and otherwise—was that right now they were totally overwhelmed by the Malum Osmium. If the magical projection of it I’d seen in the lab had been achingly compelling, the beauty and power it exuded in person was beyond anything I could comprehend. The tree’s pull was so strong I feared if I got any closer I’d lose my resolve to try to destroy it. I tried to move my feet the other direction, to back out of the cave. My muscles burned with effort but still I moved forward.

  The iridescent pods shimmered and hummed, as if each had its own tune. If the song before had been joy, this was ecstasy. My knob was turned up past eleven. No words to describe the dark beauty of the feeling. So much pleasure it was painful. I couldn’t let myself be dragged away from it. The seams of the bud-coverings looked ready to part, already there was a powerful energy emanating from them. I wanted to rip the clothes from my body and be bathed in the power and light of this magnificent force.

  “As I predicted.” Tenebris spoke with a perverse elation. “She has come of her own free will.”

  “She came to kill the tree,” Aunt Jenn said bitterly. “She thinks she’s following in her mother’s footsteps.”

  “Who cares how she justifies it to herself? She’s here.” A smile formed on his lips that was pure evil, and still I walked closer. “Her bloodline. The pain in her soul. Her malformed magic. Together they’ve formed her into something special. The call is so strong in her, she will answer.”

  Bile rose in my throat, but as much as I was repelled by him, I had to admit that at this moment I was hopelessly drawn to him, too. He and the tree shared the same energy, like the tree had anointed him, called him. Like it was calling me. I longed to stand next to him and let the branches caress me. To feel that glow in my veins. I forced myself to look away from the tree to Asher, Liv, and Matt. I held Matt’s gaze. This was exactly what we’d prepared for. There was no fear in any of their faces. They all had faith in me. But was I strong enough to follow through?

  “She is not worthy.” My aunt’s voice shook with a rage and contempt I’d never imagined lived within her. “I am the one who trained all these years. I’m the one with the knowledge.”

  “And yet, the tree has called her to be the mistress of its keep.” Tenebris licked his lips as his eyes raked over me. “Her magic has blossomed. It’s malformed in the most unique way. You’ve been a valuable consort for a time, but you are not my queen.” He flicked his hand in my aunt’s direction and two enormous Nequam pulled her from the center. She kicked and red fire danced on her skin, but the Neqs wouldn’t let go.

  I felt something soft and cool brush my face ever so lightly. The tree had grown down to touch me, with the tiniest of tendrils. With the black pleasure of its touch, my synapses exploded. Never had I felt so high, so free. As if I, Alix, were gone and in my place was pure desire. I wanted more—more pleasure. More darkness. With no muscle in me resisting, I moved forward to stand next to Tenebris. I turned to face the room, tree at my back. Its energy thrumming through me.

  “Alexandra, no!” Matt’s face twisted in desperation.

  A large, beautiful branch was bending down as if to greet me. Eagerly I reached up, and from several feet away, I was floored by the buzz of dark demonic magic swirling all around it. A tidal wave of energy—more powerful even than the song had promised—whistled toward me. I let my eyes flutter closed and shuddered in anticipation of what it would feel like when I actually made contact.

  Asher yelled, “Apertus!” The room exploded like the fourth of July as he obliterated the force field that surrounded my coven. Blasts of golden light gleamed from the tattoos on his hands and chest. Demons drew weapons and readied firebolts in their hands. But not before he’d aimed a blast at the Neqs’ green magic that had been propping open the inner ward at the cave entrance. Blocking any more demons from getting in.

  My opiate-saturated brain could barely keep up with what was happening. Asher was dusting Neqs, almost keeping pace with Matt, who was death in motion, slicing, throwing, carving, and forging a path to me. He threw three stars in rapid succession, his agile form spinning and leaping across the room so fast he was a blur.

  Vengeance burned in Liv’s eyes. With a snap of her wrists, fire sparked from her fingertips. But instead of fireballs, the golden magic morphed into flame daggers. With the staccato rhythm of a machine gun, she threw point after point of the burning blades at Tenebris. Not scoring blows, but keeping him occupied.

  Liv’s blasts weren’t the only ones aimed at Tenebris. Red blasts were hitting him as well. My aunt was gunning for him—trying to save me? Or would I be her next target?

  Matt was yelling in the background, but his shouts were lost to me. The tree and Tenebris, already wrapped in its branches, heavy buds hanging near his face, and I were the only things that existed, our energy syncing and twining just by proximity.

  I reached for the tree in slow motion and heard Matt shout, “No! Don’t touch it!”

  The fear and pain in his voice reached me through my trance. The agony of the countless others he’d lost in this very place was burning inside him. I felt the weight of the compact bomb in my pocket. The plan, follow the plan. Plant that bomb like I’m supposed to. But the tree, the tree, the tree. My soul burned to touch it—what if I couldn’t resist the temptation?

  Temptation.

  The words from the ancient tome came to me, Sacrifice must be displayed in the ultimate position of temptation… And as Eric had said, my magic and my pain put me in the ultimate position of temptation. No. Not quite. I managed a humorless laugh. The ultimate temptation would be to touch the tree and remain pure. Remain my mother’s daughter. Not turn like my aunt had turned.

  I’d never let that happen. I touched the venenuum diabolic bomb in my pocket. I’d sacrifice myself before I’d ever let the tree turn me.

  Sacrifice.

  The sacrifice in the ceremony was self-sacrifice.

  What if to kill the tree, I needed to face the ultimate temptation? And be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice?

  I propelled myself the final few feet toward the tree and reached out my arm with no hesitation. My hand open, not trembling. Matt’s throwing stars struck the branch but bounced harmlessly off. As my fingers made contact, a surge of violet light exploded into me like radiation passing through
my skin. Momentarily blinding me. Quick as snakes, branch after branch reached out, ensnaring me, lifting me off the ground. I heard a familiar demonic laugh and knew that Tenebris was in the same hold as me. We were being lifted, drawn in together. I didn’t just see him with my eyes. As my vision returned, an expanded awareness had also opened up to me. My senses perceived more than the Earthly Realm. I saw, sensed, felt, tasted dimensions of magic that I’d previously been blind to. I lapped it up, wanting to drown in its searing beauty. I felt the gateway between realms on the verge of tumbling. Hordes of demons chomping to get through. Giddy, chaotic energy, no longer content to be kept at bay, was hastening the gate’s destruction. The tree was heavy with burgeoning buds, the time of fruition was upon us. The planets aligned. Astrological power shifted, poised for release. This was the edge between pain and pleasure, light and dark. It was a wave so intense it called to every fiber of my body.

  Screw lapping it up, I guzzled.

  I heard Tenebris say, “Yes, my lovely, draw it in.” As he drew the tree’s purple magic in to meld with his own chartreuse green magic, I could feel his ecstasy.

  The ultimate temptation. I was there. And if I waited one more second, I’d be lost.

  I reached into my pocket for the bomb. I was resolved to throw myself at the tree and detonate it, making the world safe for my coven. I tried to ignore the part of me that was so entwined with the tree I couldn’t imagine harming its precious buds. I felt the power of the tree. It moved and surged, made of pure dark energy, its molecules cycling like pixels on a monitor, moving too fast for the eye to see.

  The bomb, I realized, would not destroy the Malum Osmium. Its energy cycled so fast it would be able to absorb the blast and re-form.