Magic Rising

by Jennifer Cloud

  “I know what you’re up to Scorpion.”

  “I told you, that was my old life. The house means everything to me now.” Scorpion’s voice held strong but Deirdre detected fear under the surface. She was hiding something.

  “Prove it.” Niam’s voice was a whisper with a hint of humor. “Dragonfly disobeyed orders. She didn’t kill the mark as she was told. She warned him. That treachery must be dealt with.”

  “She’s still a child.” This time the fear came out clear. Scorpion must’ve suspected what was coming.

  “The Council will rule for punishment by oil. They’ll make you pull the lever. If you obey, then you’ll be a trusted member of the house again. Fail and you’ll face certain death.”

  Scorpion closed her eyes, hiding tears that glistened in long trails flowing down her cheeks. “Not my baby. No.”

  “She’s not yours. She belongs to the house. You own nothing, you are nothing. Everything is for the house.”

  Then Deirdre’s mind went black, switching slowly to the night she’d failed. The time she couldn’t stomach her fate or the sin her soul would have to bear. She chose a different path, one that had cost her mother dearly.

  “I didn’t want to be a murderer.”

  Why?

  “Because he hadn’t done anything deserving of death.”

  So you ignored an order.

  “Didn’t you ever question a command? Didn’t you know something was wrong in your heart?”

  There was silence in her mind for a moment.

  Yes. I suppose I have. I really didn’t want you to die in the oil. I couldn’t stand the thought. It seemed wrong.

  In this moment, she knew he wasn’t lying. Whatever strange bond they shared, she knew his truths just as she couldn’t hide anything from him. As the realization flowed through her, the past continued to play.

  A taxi had dropped her off at a hotel in Detroit. It was cold there, she remembered that more than anything. There was a doorman who opened the door to the lobby, showing her the fanciest place she’d ever seen. A long green counter with well-dressed men and women waited for people to check in. Deirdre had to walk by them, pretending to know where she was going. She found the elevators and hit the button for the eleventh floor.

  She’d been given the room number along with clear instructions on what to do. Government officials couldn’t bother Stone House and she was supposed to teach one particular group a lesson by killing the official. She wasn’t sure what he’d been at the time but senator seemed right.

  Deirdre had walked to the door, and knocked. Hidden in her purse was a knife. When the door had opened, she acted confused, pulled the knife, but instead of jamming it into the man’s chest, she chose his leg and ran from the building.

  Niam had been especially cruel when he found out. He’d made her hang above those hot coals until her skin burned from the heat. When they went cold, he refilled the bowl and she hung there for a full day before he finally let her come down. One shoulder had been dislocated from the ordeal.

  I did that in the hope that the leaders would spare you death. I always cared about you. You didn’t know that. It’s true though.

  “You killed my mother. You killed her.”

  You thought Scorpion had died on the field. She didn’t Deirdre. I found out the truth. Your mother was a spy for the FBI. They were going to bring it all down. Her backup was Mercury. He helped her escape.

  The movie playing in her head switched again, this time to the funeral pyre. Everyone else had gone and she found herself staring at the ashes. Niam held a piece of paper up and Deirdre read it through his eyes. Scorpion was still working for the FBI and had been pulled out through a faked death orchestrated by another member, Mercury.

  It wasn’t all her fault that she lied to the house members. Your father was a priest, a witch, some say a madman, others say a demon. His name was Colinster. I don’t even believe he was really human. Your mother fell to his charms though. Don’t be angry with her. He had ways. He knew what he was doing. She didn’t discover how terrible he could be until she had you.

  Deirdre hissed unable to stop Niam’s information from flowing through her. Last night he’d tortured her with images of the funeral pyre, with her mother’s death, but today facts strung through her. She had no idea who her father had been or that she was Tamara Haas’ half sister.

  Scorpion was a good witch in her own right. Certain abilities she possessed made Stone House an easy assignment. No one knew that Colinster would bed her. Some say you were conceived in rape, others claim Scorpion was a whore. I don’t know which it true, but your mother wasn’t an immoral woman. I know that Colinster didn’t want to let you go after his other daughter, Tamara, contaminated herself by letting a black man touch her. He wanted you. He created a situation where Scorpion had to play along or lose you altogether.

  “How did she die?”

  The fire. Everyone thought you’d caused the blazes, the bombs so strategically placed around the compound. The moments before everyone died, they cursed you. No one knew that Scorpion had used her skills to tear apart Stone House. I knew it was her though. I knew she’d come back for you. You’d already escaped. She went to your room, I guess figuring you’d return there to escape the smoke. I followed her and finished the job.

  “I thought I heard her in the flames, but I thought it was a ghost willing me to burn.” Sobs racked her body. “You killed my mother.”

  I’m sorry. I was angry with her. He seemed to absorb her emotions, feel the loss with her. I never knew my parents. I didn’t understand. I just saw a traitor. She was a woman willing to kill hundreds of people just to save you.

  Niam relived the scene with her. Scorpion entering the room with her sword drawn, searching frantically for her Dragonfly. Niam saw it all from the closet, stabbing her before she saw it coming and then shoving her into the closet to die.

  “Mommy.”

  The fire ate through all the halls going to exit points. The smoke hung in a curtain too heavy to endure. The spices and chemicals stored on the property had caught making a poisonous gas that flowed through the building. There was only one way out or Niam would suffocate. He charged forward, stepping into the blaze, counting on his magic to keep him safe. It was too hot though. Although a single flame didn’t touch him, the heat on one side of the building cooked him as he passed. The pain was excruciating, and Deirdre felt it, writhing in her ropes like her skin cooked, pealed from the bone. She smelled the burning flesh and it was more awful than the fire. It was her body cooking.

  “Stop it, please.”

  Of course. My own thoughts strayed. I didn’t intend to share my pain. Again he grew quiet, contemplating things that she began to understand. Niam wasn’t that different from herself. He was a product of a difficult upbringing. An orphan baptized in the occult and taught the darker arts. He didn’t know better. To go against his upbringing would’ve been to betray everything he considered family.

  I tried to teach you as I had been taught. It was never meant as torture.

  “I forgive you, Niam. I can forgive the harsh lessons. I can never forgive you for what you did to my mother.”

  Thank you for that.

  “Now how do we get out of this?”

  She tried to focus, find her center. Everything was about finding the center. They had to get free or that little girl would die.

  There’s only one way. Let me in. Accept me or die.

  Niam wanted control. That was it. He’d possessed her somehow, although she didn’t feel his total presence connected with the cruel thoughts. She couldn’t let him in, couldn’t let him see into the parts of her mind he hadn’t already permeated. She had a bad feeling that it would become his body and her nothing but a spectator to the world around her.

  The leaders at Stone House loved the basement, the rites of power. She heard them talk about their conquests, their sacrifices. This had to be dealt with but she’d never paid enough attention to know how. It wa
s another thing she’d shut out at Stone House, another troubling fact she ignored to get through another day. She’d denied magic even existed, simply because it was too horrible, too powerful to control.

  You can’t block me, just like you can’t block your feelings. True being is giving up of one’s will, if only long enough to unite the powers in you.

  “No. I can’t do this.”

  Something hot ran into her hands and she registered the scent of blood. It mixed with the memory of burning flesh and she wasn’t sure if she’d torn open her wrist or experienced another Niam moment.

  Magic is real.

  “No it’s not.”

  Accept me inside you. It’s the only way.

  “Never!”

  Lora will die if you don’t.

  “You never wanted her to live in the first place.”

  More ideas flooded through her. He tried to show her magic, the rites, the rituals, and the power they produced. She didn’t want to know though. She didn’t want to accept the fact that any of it could exist.

  Deirdre flailed harder. She had to break the ropes, had to get free. She’d deal with Niam later. However, he didn’t want to be dealt with later. He came through shouting, blurring her memories, mixing his with hers like some unholy marriage.

  “I am Deirdre. I am Deirdre.” She screamed the words trying to hear her voice over the foreign thoughts. “I am Deirdre.”

  Then she realized something else. She wasn’t just Dragonfly. She was Deirdre Flye, daughter of Scorpion. She was more than what Stone House had wanted her to be, but something grander, something more dangerous and not subject to Niam’s whims. Scorpion had never abandoned her.

  “I killed her. Niam may have drawn the sword but I caused her death.”

  She would’ve gladly spilled that politician’s blood if she’d known her mother would be punished instead of her. There would’ve been no warning. She would’ve obeyed.

  “No more. Please.”

  You’ll only win with me.

  His thoughts held truth. There was no way to find peace with this. The elixir made things worse, giving him dominance, making her feel like she’d gotten on a roller coaster with no one operating the controls. She wanted her body back, her mind, and she feared that even her soul had been touched by the monster who reveled in spilled blood. Every sight, smell, sound, even taste was corrupted by Niam.

  “I hate you, Niam.”

  She cried hard and long. If she could’ve risen from the bed then she’d be tempted to throw herself out that window just to stop the commotion in her head. This was hell. Tamara had forced her into hell.

  “I hate you.” As much as she spoke to Niam, she was admitting her self loathing. “I hate both of us.”

  Deirdre hadn’t been aware that someone had entered the room until she felt a hand on her wrist, checking the rope. Niam’s thoughts held in control, but she was vaguely aware of another.

  “Tamara Haas is my sister.”

  That was the only thing Deirdre could say, not that it mattered. They wouldn’t develop a sisterly bond making Tamara change her mind for all the sins she’d committed. None of it mattered but that’s all she could say.

  “Are you ready to give me your allegiance?”

  Deirdre rocked back and forth, unable to say anything more. Niam kept his show going. He showed her women he’d tied and whipped, showed her his students crying on the floor, and kept making her live through the ceremonies, the basement trips that had made Niam who he’d been before joining to her body.

  You have to understand, Dragonfly.

  She saw him as a boy. He endured beatings. He’d committed his first sacrifice at the age of twelve. Magic flowed in his veins or had before he’d entered her mind. It had been part of him, something as easy as breathing.

  The images rushed too fast, not making sense in some manic collage of life and death. In the end, it was what had made Niam the man she’d grown to hate. She had every reason to fear him. He was powerful and there was one truth she could no longer deny, the souls had given him strength. The logical side gave way to the things Niam showed and Deirdre finally admitted that magic existed. It was real and it lived inside her.

  “It’s real,” she whispered. “I admit it.”

  “Can I relieve you of this burden?” The voice seemed to come from an angel. Deirdre turned her head and saw no angel, but any savior would do.

  Again Niam showed Scorpion’s death. This time Deirdre felt like her hand held the blade, shoving through soft flesh as surprise filled Scorpion’s face. Bits of blood speckled her hand, Deirdre’s hand.

  She died for you. Don’t let her sacrifice be for nothing. Fight this. Don’t turn into what she feared.

  “I will kill Lora, just make it stop.” She was vaguely aware that her voice was a mix of painful shrieks.

  “Do I have your word?”

  “Yes, anything.”

  Tamara touched a cool hand to Deirdre’s head and the sight of her mother’s dead body fell to the back of her mind. “Tonight I will make sure that the nasty thoughts don’t come back, but if you lie to me or break our deal, I’ll make them more horrible than you can imagine.”

  Deirdre nodded. She was born evil, raised in hell, and had committed murder. One more death wouldn’t matter. Another day of Niam and she’d kill herself just for a moment of peace.

  The cold from Tamara’s hand spread through her head until Niam was nothing more than a buzz in her ear. Niam shouted, ranted, and Deirdre smiled at his fit of temper. Whatever skills Tamara possessed, she couldn’t be as terrible as Niam.

  “Do we still have a deal?” Tamara lifted her hand for a moment and Niam came back in a torrent of anger, yelling and screaming at a deafening level.

  “Yes!”

  Tamara touched her again and this time when she removed her hand, Niam stayed in the back. Deirdre’s head felt a little numb, like she’d been drugged but it was bliss compared to Niam battering her mind.

  “If you leave these grounds, or disobey me, I’ll let Niam rule you.”

  “Please destroy Niam. I’ll do anything.”

  The thoughts grew even milder by the time Tamara’s people came into the room and untied her arms and legs. At first Deirdre lay there, unsure if she should move. Nothing hurt for the first time in days, except for the emotions, the past, and the deal she’d made for her peace of mind.

  Another woman entered the room from the side. Deirdre didn’t turn her head to see her, but the smell of food came with the door opening. Time seemed to stand still as someone tended to her wounds.

  “I will leave you here until the proper time. Don’t disappoint me.”

  Then everyone left and Deirdre was alone. Niam still lurked somewhere deep inside, pitching fits in whatever corner Tamara had locked him. At least he couldn’t bother her.

  It took her a minute to find the will to move. She curled into a ball on the bed wondering how she could’ve done things differently. Trying to see where her choices had caused her mother’s death.

  You couldn’t have changed things. Niam shouted but it sounded like a whisper. That was her fate. Now what will yours be. Give me control and we’ll both live to see another day.

  “Shut up!”

  His awful voice, his polluted mind was too much to bear. She wanted him out, not just jailed. She needed him away from her. He’d killed Scorpion. He’d done it. Niam tainted everything. He’d certainly destroyed anything good in her.

  Deirdre had always wondered if she were evil, doomed, and now she knew. There was nothing good in her. Children shouldn’t cause the death of their parents. It only proved that she was beyond salvation.

  She opened her eyes and looked around the room. The stench from Stone House clung to her, making her long for a bath. A worse thought surfaced. If she bathed, Niam might see her naked. He’d be there every time she took a shit or blew her nose.

  No, that wasn’t right. She would be free of him tonight but she would have to spill Lor
a’s blood. Her only salvation lay in the death of a little girl, one who never harmed anyone. Her only sin was being born into this family.

  The sun on her face made her move. Deirdre sat up, dangling her feet off the very tall bed. She slid to the floor, surprised by how weak her legs had grown. The last thing she remembered before waking in this room was Farmer. Was it possible that he worked for Tamara Haas too? At this point, nothing would surprise her.

  She took a few steps, trying to feel like the old Deirdre again. It was no use. She might never feel like that woman again. Niam had left bits of information, magic, incantations and other things throughout her brain. It made her afraid to daydream or even hold a bit of hope. Even if Tamara could extract him from her brain, she would still know what it felt like to enjoy another’s suffering. Niam had fed into her dark side and there was no way to undo the damage.

  Deirdre touched the curtains and looked out the window. It was a lavish estate with woods surrounding on every side. In this section of town, land like this cost millions. It also bought privacy. Below she saw what that privacy created. There were only a dozen people in the grassy area below but they were training, learning their weapons.

  Some things could never be destroyed. Stone House was one of them. It was eternal and there was nothing a single person could do to stop them. Even as she stood there, smelling her own sweat, she knew that this was the future. She wished she could go into oblivion and leave Niam’s ghost in this world. She didn’t want to endure the next few hours or see what this new batch of recruits could do.

  “Maybe Lora is better off dead.”

  No. You don’t believe that. Give me control and we’ll survive this.

  “I can’t.”

  Think about this. You are condemning all of us. That includes your friends.

  “You might be right but there has to be another way. After everything we’ve been through, I can’t give you control.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  The moon rose in the sky, bright white hanging in the center of blackness. A few clouds passed overhead, but even in the clear spots no stars showed. Everyone was in attendance, grouped on the edge of the stone circle. A symbol had been laid out in the center in small round pebbles. It wasn’t a pentagram and Sabrine had never seen anything like it before tonight. The most ominous thing was the altar, consisting of a flat stone slab. Inscriptions and symbols covered it, none of which Sabrine could read. It had to have taken days to carve it though. The details, at least what she could see beneath the unconscious Lora, were amazing.