A Grave Magic: The Shadow Sorceress Book One

by Sheehan, Bilinda

  “Not until you, and, well, now I know just how careless I’ve been. It’s something I’m going to have to work on,” I said with a smile.

  “Right, so where do we get started?”

  I knew how uncomfortable he was. And if we were going to work together, it wasn’t something that could exist between us.

  “Graham, what is it?”

  “It’s nothing,” he said defensively.

  “It’s not nothing, so spill it. We can’t have this awkwardness between us. Everything has to be normal.”

  “Well you’re a witch and you’re an Irish one….”

  “Yeah….”

  It dawned on me then. He’d been fine with the thought of me just being a witch; the only real gift I’d displayed any ability for was visions. But now that he knew I was an Irish witch, it changed everything.

  There was a reason the Elite treated us as though we were boogeymen. It was the Irish witches that had brought about the birth of the Shadow Sorcerers, powerful beings capable of mass death and destruction with their magic.

  They’d been hunted to extinction because of what they had done, and it had created a distrust between any Irish witch and the rest of the world. How could we guarantee we weren’t one of the Shadow Sorcerers?

  We couldn’t. It was that simple.

  Places like King City, on the other hand, had taken it to a new level of extremism. Witches were not welcome citizens. It was an odd predicament, in a world where vampires, fae, and werewolves had citizenship, but to be born a witch was something no one could tolerate.

  “You’ve seen the spark of my power right?”

  Graham nodded and I could see the wariness that lurked in his eyes.

  “That’s it, that’s all I’ve got. I can do visions but only of the past.” I failed to mention the power Madeline had tried to suck out of me earlier in the night.

  I didn’t understand it myself; the last thing I needed to do was confuse an already nervous Graham. If he thought I was dangerous, then I knew what he would do.

  “But you’re an Irish born witch, how is that possible?”

  I shrugged and did my best to school my features into a completely neutral expression.

  “I’m a disappointment to my family. They’re all white witches and pretty powerful in their own right…. For some reason, it skipped me; maybe it’s karmic payback for something I did in a past life.”

  “Can that even happen?”

  I smiled then, a wide, genuine grin, “Graham, there’s an Irish-born witch standing in the middle of your living room in the centre of King City and she’s a member of the Elite…. Aren’t you starting to realise anything and everything is possible?”

  “Even finding Jess?” There was an ache in his voice and it hurt my heart to hear it.

  “Maybe even that…” I said. “So are you in, or….”

  “I’m in, but what are we going to do with everything that happened? We were kicked off the case and—”

  I cut him off. “I’m pretty sure I’ve got that covered.”

  Chapter 20

  Sitting in the passenger seat of Graham’s car once more, I stared out the window at the passing car headlights.

  This was the last thing I wanted to do, but we needed somewhere to start. I would help him find his daughter, but I needed to find Joanna’s daughter first. There was something niggling in the back of my mind that told me it was important.

  She was just a kid, one that needed protection, and if I could, I would give her mine.

  The car came to a halt outside the large dark house and a shiver raced down my spine. Was this the same scene the vampire had witnessed the night he came for Joanna and her children? Had he felt a tingle of excitement at the thought of what he was about to do?

  I didn’t wait for Graham to kill the engine. I pushed open the car door and stepped out onto the drive.

  The crime scene tape fluttered in the soft breeze and there was a chill in the air that raised goosebumps along my arms. I didn’t want to be here; the thought of hopping back into the car and having Graham drive me home seemed like the best idea I’d ever had.

  I could be home before midnight, curl up beneath my soft duvet, and close my eyes.

  But the things I would dream about…. Well, I already knew what awaited me, and it wasn’t a peaceful night’s sleep. This was where I needed to be, doing the things only I could do….

  Climbing the steps up to the front porch I paused and waited for Graham to catch up to me.

  “Explain to me again how you made Jon change his mind?” Graham asked. He was beginning to sound like a broken record. It had been the same question over and over from the moment I’d told him about Jon’s sudden and fortunate change of heart.

  I’d left out the bit where I’d nearly broken the boss’s arm. Graham didn’t need that kind of pressure or guilt. And I definitely left out the part where Jon had come on to me and insinuated that every woman on the force had had to put up with his creeping.

  “Graham, it really doesn’t matter. We’ve got the case back and we have a job to do. No point in questioning the boss, now is there?”

  “That ass,” Graham said. “I question everything he does.”

  I smiled and gestured to the door. “Care to do the honours?”

  Graham moved past me and slipped his pick into the lock. It was the one skill I hadn’t yet managed to master and, despite being eager to get started on it, I wasn’t in the mood to experiment with it considering what was hanging over my head.

  It took Graham a couple of seconds before he let out a satisfied sigh and pushed the door inwards.

  There wasn’t a sound as it opened, the house itself as silent and dark as the grave. I’d obviously lost my mind; this was the last place I should be. What I was about to do, well, it wasn’t going to do anything for my ability to sleep, and that was for certain.

  Stepping into the hall, I paused and tried to gather my courage. Right at that moment part of me wished I was stepping into a vampire’s nest. It would have been easier to deal with the physical violence of their presence.

  Rather than this….

  “What are we looking for?” Graham said, the closeness of his voice in the stillness of the house making me jump.

  “I need to go to the little girl’s room….”

  I didn’t elaborate; there was no point, he wouldn’t have understood it anyway. Trying to explain magic to someone who had none was a bit like trying to explain astrophysics to a baby. The comprehension level just wasn’t there.

  I moved for the stairs and a sudden vision of the man who had murdered Joanna shook me to my very foundation. My hand closed around the banister and I froze.

  Why hadn’t I seen any of this earlier? I’d been here, touched all the same things, what was so different this time to make me see more than before?

  “He wasn’t alone,” I said, more to the silence around me than to Graham.

  “He had a partner? Why didn’t you know any of this earlier?”

  “I could ask myself the same question. I don’t really know. But I’m saying it now….”

  Graham didn’t press me further, and for that, I was grateful. I’d missed something important; I didn’t need anyone else to make me feel guilty over it, I was more than capable of doing it myself.

  I took the first step on the stairs and a vision of the vampire filled my head. He was young, an immature creature, still far too attached to everything that had made him human.

  Her hand slipped into mine; the feel of her fingers, icy to the touch as they clasped mine tight, sent a thrill through me.

  “Baby, this is all ours…” I said as she moved up beside me, her heart-shaped face coming into view.

  The feel of Graham’s hand on my shoulder snapped me out of the vision and my body trembled. Shit, there was something about being here at night that amplified everything.

  Maybe it was the fact that this was the time it had all occurred at? Was it possible that the c
loser we got to the hour the atrocities had been committed, the more pronounced the vibrations became, strengthening the visions to the point where I was getting it harder to separate myself from the vampire?

  There had been something so familiar about the woman, a niggling thought in the back of my head that told me I knew her. But it wasn’t possible; I didn’t know any vampires in King City, and this was my first case.

  Had I seen her face in the file of another case? Was she involved in more than one crime? It would make sense, but I couldn’t place her.

  “Are you all right? Are you fit to continue?” There was a level of concern in Graham’s voice that I honestly hadn’t ever expected to hear from him.

  He knew what I was and, whether he admitted it or not, it frightened him. And yet, he was concerned about me—It didn’t add up.

  “I’m fine, Graham. Let’s just get this over with.”

  Picking up my pace, I climbed the stairs and paused on the landing. My legs didn’t want to cooperate. I could just claim I wasn’t capable of doing it, I could always come back in the morning. Of course it wasn’t going to work as well then.

  If I was going to do it all, then this was my opportunity.

  Suck it up, buttercup! One of my favourite phrases and one I tried to always take to heart.

  It had been one of the only things that had gotten through to me after my father’s murder. It had been one of the only things that had actually meant something.

  I wasn’t weak, I wasn’t incapable. I could do this, no matter what my mother or the rest of the coven had thought of me.

  Squaring my shoulders, I strode down the hall and ducked beneath the crime scene tape. My steps faltered the second my eyes adjusted to the room.

  I picked out the pale pink, pony-covered duvet cover, stained in blood. The drawings across the walls of happy times…. The scribblings of children who were well loved.

  But what had happened to ensure Joanna and her family was murdered, all of them, bar one?

  What made Christina special?

  What made her chosen, spared her the fate of her brother? He hadn’t suffered at the hands of the vampire, but he’d still met his demise at the bottom of the well.

  From everything I’d seen of the report, the coroner hadn’t been able to tell what had caused the broken neck. Was it the vamp, or was it the fall?

  Graham moved into the room behind me and paused. I could practically feel the tension humming through his body as he stared around at the scene.

  “What do you want me to do?” he asked eventually, breaking the silence in the room.

  “Honestly, there’s nothing you can do,” I said, pulling the small bag of premixed ingredients from the inside of my jacket pocket.

  If I couldn’t do the big spells the way my mother or the rest of her coven could, then I was just going to have to stick to the basics.

  Eyeing each of the stuffed animals on the built-in window seat, I dismissed each one of them out of hand. They all had that untouched, unloved vibe about them that suggested they were more for show than anything else.

  Christina certainly hadn’t spent any time with them and I needed something she had loved.

  Dropping onto my hands and knees, I crawled towards the small pink covered bed in the corner of the room and peered beneath the frame. Shoe boxes and other items normally hidden from view greeted me, a few broken crayons that had rolled into the darkness. She’d probably been too afraid to go after them. And then I saw it.

  Up against the wall, as though it had simply fallen down the side of the bed while she was sleeping, the teddy bear lay discarded. Even from my position on the other side of the bed, I could see he was a well-loved bear, his stuffing poking out the sides of the restitched seams and both eyes missing.

  Sliding underneath the bed, I grabbed its soft arm and dragged it out into the open.

  “What are you going to do with that?” Graham asked, but I was only half listening to him.

  The bear hummed with an energy all of its own; it wasn’t going to take much for it to spill its secrets to me.

  Laying the bear out in the centre of the floor, I carefully positioned him away from the blood stains. This in itself was nearly impossible, the vast majority of the floor was made up of blood stains. The last thing I needed was Joanna’s blood interfering with what I was about to do.

  Having her jump me once was certainly enough. I didn’t need her ghost following me home.

  Opening the pouch, I lifted it over the bear, but Graham’s hand clamping down on my shoulder made me pause.

  “What are you doing?” he repeated; this time there was no denying the uncertainty in his voice.

  “I need to know why they wanted Christina. I need to know what it was particularly about her that had them take her instead of tossing her in the well after her brother.”

  Graham studied my face for a second, his eyes darting from my face and then back down to the bear. He didn’t trust me. Perhaps he never would, and how could I blame him? Everything he’d heard about my kind told him to be wary, to turn us in, that we were dangerous and unpredictable.

  “Graham, if you don’t want to be a part of this, you don’t have to. I won’t think any less of you if you want to go and wait outside.”

  He shook his head and released his grip on me before taking a small step backwards.

  “No, you do what you gotta do. I’ll be right here in case you need me.”

  With a smile, I returned my attention back to the teddy. There was no point in questioning his insistence on remaining in the room. If that was what made him happy and comfortable, then so be it.

  I poured the contents of the pouch out onto my hand and sprinkled it down over the bear. The powdered herbs glittered as they poured through my fingers and into the moonlight.

  Sucking in a deep breath, I closed my eyes and let my head clear. I focused everything I had on the bear; everything that made me who I was, I poured it into the tiny body of the bear until there was no space left within it.

  Opening my eyes once more, I stared down at the well-worn toy. What exactly I was expecting to see there, well, that I wasn’t too sure about. All I knew for certain was that the powder, when used properly, would reveal the true nature of a situation.

  Nothing happened. The powder had settled onto the stomach of the bear and the air was still.

  “Isn’t something supposed happen?” Graham asked, leaning in over my shoulder.

  “Like what?” I asked, keeping my gaze glued to the bear.

  “I don’t know, like the bear should go poof, or maybe talk?” he volunteered helpfully.

  I rolled my eyes, but I couldn’t shake the disappointment I felt. Graham was right about one thing: something was supposed to happen, and yet there was nothing.

  Nada.

  Zip.

  How was I supposed to help Christina, how was I supposed to stand a chance of saving her, when I couldn’t even perform the most basic of magic?

  Reaching down, I scooped the bear up from the floor, the powder falling from its fur down onto the carpet.

  The powder began to glow once more, but this time it was obvious. The glow increased and I took a shuffling step backwards on my knees as the powder seemed to multiply on the floor, spreading out from where it had landed on the carpet.

  The distinctive smell of burning fabric tickled my nose and I vaguely heard Graham swear somewhere behind me.

  But none of that mattered. My gaze was trained on the floor and the pattern that was beginning to emerge from beneath the carpet. There was something etched into the floorboards, something I couldn’t quite make out.

  The powder died, leaving behind a small hole the size of a fist exposing the floorboards beneath. Gripping the edges of the carpet, I pulled it upwards, ripping it away to reveal the pentagram hidden beneath. Nothing like the ones I’d seen my mother use in some of her rituals; there was something about this one that was dangerous, something so terribly dark that it made
the air harder to breathe.

  “What the hell is that?” Graham said. I turned and stared up at him, a small portable fire extinguisher in his grip.

  “This,” I said, gesturing to the markings on the floor, “this is really bad news.”

  Chapter 21

  “What do you mean it’s really bad news? I was sure the body count was proof enough the news was already bad,” Graham said, the panic in his voice audible.

  “This is worse,” I said, glancing down at the bear.

  I jumped, my grip tightening on it as my eyes came into focus. I wasn’t holding a bear anymore.

  Christina lay across my arms, her tiny body limp, her blonde hair hanging loose over the arm that cradled her head.

  The front of her night shirt was soaked in blood and I could just make out the top half of a runic symbol etched into her chest beneath her night shirt. Her blue eyes were wide and terrified but there was no life left in her; they were frozen that way, staring accusingly up at the sky, letting the world know that her final moments on this planet had been terrifying.

  I’d failed her.

  I didn’t have visions of the future, only of events that had already come to pass. But then, what did I expect? I was weak, powerless, nothing like the line of witches I had come from. Everything about me screamed “failure” and everything I touched turned to crap.

  Tears of anger and frustration welled in my eyes, and I let them flow. What was the point in holding them back? What was the point in any of it anymore, if I couldn’t do my job and help those who needed my help?

  “Amber.” Graham’s voice cut through the thoughts swirling through my head, snapping me out of the moment.

  My vision cleared and Christina’s body turned to sand, slipping through my arms and onto the carpet.

  “Sweet Jesus, what was that?” Graham said, his panic unmistakable.

  Pushing up onto my feet I faced him. “What did you see?” I asked.

  My visions were normally my own; I’d never shared one before, but this had felt different. I just hadn’t realised how different it was until Graham had spoken.