Hereditary Power

by Emma L. Adams

  “Yes,” River said quietly. “They’ve been escaping into this realm for some time. Even within Faerie itself. It was the first sign of the conspiracy in the Vale, but the Sidhe won’t believe they’re a threat.”

  Ivy gave him an assessing look. “That doesn’t surprise me. So you can destroy them?”

  “Most human necromancers can’t,” I said. “And my talisman is the only thing I know that can kill the worst type.”

  Ivy nodded. “Then I’ll help you find the records. If we end this conspiracy, we end the wraith problem along with it.”

  “There’s just the slight issue of one of the most powerful people in the Seelie Court being involved,” I said. “Don’t tell anyone the full story until we have proof.”

  17

  To my surprise, Lady Montgomery waited for us outside the meeting room when the gathering drew to a close. A stern-looking woman with her grey hair pulled back in a bun, she looked us over with an expression close to relief, particularly River. At her side stood Jas, who looked almost as out of place as we did.

  “I’m glad to see you made it back,” said Lady Montgomery. “I wasn’t aware all four of you had security clearance at the council’s meetings, however.”

  Ah. “Er, the Gatekeeper’s family has authorisation,” I improvised. “While our mother is occupied in Faerie. And River’s our companion.”

  Jas’s eyes bugged out, and I could tell she wanted to ask a bunch of questions. I assumed she’d been given some level of security clearance to be here at all, even if her only job was to translate the boss’s notes into legible English. We really should have rehearsed a cover story beforehand, but I hadn’t realised the guild’s top ranked members would be here.

  Lady Montgomery waved a hand. “Never mind the reasons. River told me you were in your family’s home, but he didn’t mention you’d be coming here this soon. I assumed you had family business to take care of first.”

  “We sort of do,” Morgan said. “It wasn’t meant to take this long, but Faerie took two weeks from us.”

  “I understand how Faerie works,” she said. “What I don’t understand is why none of you asked me about the Gatekeepers’ involvement with the council sooner. I might have been able to help you find the information.”

  “There was no time,” I responded. I decided not to add, and you thought we were villains at the time. “All along, I assumed one of my ancestors worked for the necromancer guild. Then that ghost showed up. What she said implied the Gatekeeper at the time when she was alive was just passing through. But when I was looking for records at the guild, I should have been checking the mages’ records instead. Most Gatekeepers weren’t necromancers.”

  Lady Montgomery nodded. “Lord Colton was right to say that many records of the original council were lost in the invasion, but they had a working partnership and shared resources, which is a position we’d like to return to.” She beckoned us into the room behind her, a dusty library filled with tall shelves. “Jas can help you find what you’re looking for. The first council worked on a large number of missions concerning the supernatural community, many of which also involved the necromancer guild.”

  “I thought so,” said Hazel. “Honestly, we’d like to know if there were any Lynns connected who weren’t Summer or Winter Gatekeeper. We’re trying to find out which generation first started using the book.”

  Perhaps it didn’t matter. What we faced was on a scale beyond anything we were equipped to deal with, and even the necromancers’ records likely wouldn’t tell me where the book had originally come from. Considering none of my ancestors had been thoughtful enough to leave instructions behind, I doubted anyone else would have admitted to making a deal with the gods. If they’d even lived to tell the tale.

  Lady Montgomery took a stack of papers and passed them to me. “These are the names of previous council associates, as a starting point. I looked them up when Ivy told me you were coming.”

  So even she was on speaking terms with Ivy Lane.

  I took the papers in hand. Names, names… Lynn.

  “Great-Grandma,” said Hazel, reading over my shoulder. “She died before we were born, when Morgan was a baby.”

  “I don’t remember her,” Morgan said. “I do remember Grandma, but she wasn’t Gatekeeper like Ilsa.”

  “And the generation before was the one who trapped the ghost, right?” I said. “So there have been at least four generations who wielded the book. Do you know all the past Lynns on Winter’s side, too?” I asked Hazel.

  I’d once had the family tree memorised, but memories faded with time, and I’d always harboured a sense of resentment towards them for banishing the non-Gatekeepers from the records.

  “Not Winter,” she said. “Not a Gatekeeper. But maybe she was from Winter. The sister of the current Winter Gatekeeper. Dammit, I wish someone had an actual family tree…”

  I thought back to the names on the walls of the mausoleum. I’d walked through there enough times, seen the names engraved deep into the stone.

  “The book passed from Winter to Summer,” I said. “They wielded it first. Maybe one of them was first to claim it. No wonder none of our history books mention it.”

  And no wonder Holly had felt entitled to its power.

  I looked down to see Jas watching me across the table. “You weren’t kidding about that power you have, were you?”

  “No.” She also wasn’t supposed to know about it, but I was pretty sure everyone at the necromancer guild knew my magic was an unconventional type by now. “I didn’t know you knew the council.”

  “I don’t. Lady Montgomery requested I search the archives on your behalf, since I’m already here and I’m familiar with how the necromancers’ archives work.”

  Hmm. Before, the idea of letting yet more people in on our family’s secrets worried me, but at this rate, it’d all go public soon enough.

  “Okay,” I said. “I guess I can read this, but knowing Aunt Candice, she dragged her top-secret family information right into the afterlife with her.”

  Jas paled. “What?”

  There was a tremendous screeching noise from outside, and Ivy ran into the room, her talisman gleaming blue. “That was the emergency alarm. Someone breached the security.”

  Lady Montgomery moved swiftly out the door, pausing in the entrance hall as the rest of us hurried out of the library behind her.

  “Jas,” she said, “take a warning to the council.”

  Jas’s eyes widened. “But—"

  “Go. Someone has to.”

  She took off, while I tapped into the spirit realm. There was an odd shimmer when Jas ran past that caught my eye for a moment—before my attention was drawn to the greyish light up ahead.

  “It’s in the spirit realm,” I warned. “The Ley Line. Something’s coming through.”

  As we ran through the open doors of the guild, the air split apart in blue light. Solid-looking ghostly shapes blotted out the sky, and I stopped running. “There’s too many.”

  Too many wraiths to count, and they all hovered directly above the crowded tourist district. Oh no.

  Lady Montgomery ran to the guild’s exterior walls. The air above them shimmered with light as protective glyphs activated, and a grey filter indicated a powerful iron spell on the gates in addition to the iron built into the building itself. Behind the shields, we were safe. Outside the walls, the first screams rent through the air along with the smell of undead and burning.

  I dug a hand in my pocket, pulled out a knife, and checked the spells Agnes had given me were within easy reach. Panicked people ran down the street, away from a group of undead lumbering along, some glowing with the taint of those possessed by wraiths.

  Ivy ran out to meet them, her talisman flashing bright blue. Apparently her faerie magic came with grace and speed to go with it. River ran alongside her. Within seconds, all the undead lay in rotten pieces, the wraiths’ lights extinguished.

  “Guys, River and I will lure down the
ones in the sky,” I said to Morgan and Hazel, passing by the wards. Lady Montgomery took off in the opposite direction to Ivy, a blade in her hand and determination etched on her face.

  “I can help.” Morgan pulled the iron band off his wrist and ran past the wards. He halted, his gaze turned to the sky. He’s using his psychic abilities.

  “Any luck?” said Hazel, moving in behind him with a witch spell gleaming in her hand. “I’m going after the undead.”

  Morgan shook his head. “No. I can’t reach those bastards. But I can get the ones on earth.”

  Three more undead ran around the corner. Hazel threw the witch spell at the nearest, and its head exploded. Nice one, Agnes. Before they could reach the crowded streets, the other two collapsed, screaming, the wraiths torn from the physical bodies. Morgan must have blasted them with a psychic shock. River moved in to cut their bodies to pieces.

  I stood on tip-toe to check the best route to reach the wraiths—and a sudden roaring noise rent the air. “What in hell is that—hellhounds?”

  “Shit,” said Ivy. “Attacks on the Ley Line have negative effects on shifters, too. It forces them to transform and lose all reason.”

  “You’ve got to be bloody kidding me. We can’t deal with both.”

  “We’re too far from them.” River took a step back, necromantic energy lighting his hands. “And there aren’t enough necromancers.”

  The meaning was clear. I pulled the book from my pocket. Power hummed to my fingertips almost instantly, and the world turned transparent.

  The first wraith descended from the sky, yowling, my spirit sight showing me its miserable trapped form caged in death. I shouted the banishing words, as loudly as possible, but it didn’t slow. Winter magic shot from its hands, aimed at both of us. I lunged in front of River, and its magic bounced off my shield, disappearing into the clouds.

  “You’d think they’d have told one another that doesn’t work by now,” I gasped, conjuring another necromantic attack. The air shimmered as my attack joined with River’s, passing straight through the wraith without so much as stirring the air. Worse, the rooftops trembled, not designed to repel magic, and several tiles came loose, swept into the breeze. Horror took hold of me. The last time I’d seen a wraith create a tornado, it’d nearly caused terrible damage on a much smaller scale. “There are people in the streets who might get hurt. Is there a mage with a shielding ability or something?”

  “On it,” said Ivy, one-handedly sticking her phone into her pocket while wielding her blade with the other. “Vance is a displacer who can move the air around to make a shield, but he doesn’t usually deal with things that volatile—”

  A second current of air smacked into us, damn near sending me pitching sideways. Lord Colton had appeared from thin air.

  He can teleport? Holy crap.

  “Can you do it?” Ivy asked.

  “Possibly,” he said. “But you’ll need to finish them fast.”

  “Yeah, slight problem,” I said. “There are less than five people in this city with the ability to banish one wraith, let alone fifteen. Ivy and I are two of them.”

  Lord Colton swore under his breath. “Then I’ll give you all the time you need.” He nodded to Ivy, then disappeared again, reappearing on the rooftop directly beneath the swirling mass of roof tiles. My heart dropped as they fell onto him—and rose again, repelled by the air current from his hands. Whoa. The whole storm continued to swirl around, but harmlessly held out of reach. He must have a high control level to be able to do that.

  More undead lumbered around the corner, wrists gleaming. Shit. “They’re wearing strength enhancer charms!” I shouted to the others, running in to help. River lunged with inhuman speed, his blade rending the undead to pieces. Hazel ran past, urging terrified onlookers to move to safety. Morgan blasted his spirit sensor into the crowding undead, but there were too many for anything other than a faerie talisman to fight.

  Ivy, however, backed away from the battle, her eyes on the wraiths in the sky and the Mage Lord below. Several other mages were ascending the buildings to join him. “Air mages,” Ivy said. “Not great. They have the potential to make it more volatile. We need to get up close. You can banish them, right?”

  “Yes, but I can’t kill them. Only the book is powerful enough to banish them all, and if I open it down here, innocent people might get caught.”

  “Got it.” Ivy headed down a side road. “We have to get away from the fight if we’re going into the spirit realm. Get up close.”

  I spotted Lord Colton and the mages beneath the wraiths, hands splayed, power pushing the torrent of fallen roof tiles into the sky. As I watched, every piece of debris vanished into the air. Lord Colton’s arms dropped to his sides.

  “Did he displace them?” I caught up with Ivy next to the wall at the alley’s end. Here, the wraiths couldn’t see our physical bodies, and with any luck, we’d be able to bring them down before the enemy realised where we’d run to.

  “He can’t do that indefinitely,” said Ivy. “Ready to go in?”

  “Yeah.” I gripped the book in my hand, and stepped out of my body. All around the sky, wraiths flew around, throwing handfuls of magic at the panicking crowds below. I aimed for the nearest, keeping both eyes on its shimmering magic-infused form. Throughout the spirit realm, other necromancers did battle, too. They must be projecting from within their own spirit boundaries, but even the top-ranked ones would stand no chance against faerie magic.

  “All right, Ilsa?” Jas waved at me, ducking a magical attack from one of the wraiths, her hands glowing. I guess I’d been wrong to think necromancers couldn’t face up to faerie magic.

  The book gleamed in my hands, but the wraiths remained distant, refusing to get up close and personal. They wanted me to come to them. The magic flying around Death blurred the fog to a darker grey, but the air around Jas’s shimmering spirit form flickered oddly for a moment, and a brief shiver of inexplicable fear traced down my spine. The feeling vanished an instant later as Jas blasted the wrath with kinetic power, and the wraith’s attention turned towards me.

  “Get over here!” I yelled. Damn. The closer I drew, the further away the wraiths appeared. They were miles above the city, and we were too close to the Ley Line to open the gate.

  “They’re trying to trick me into breaking the veil,” I said aloud into the fog. “Guess I’ll have to take them down the other way.”

  I held onto the book’s power and shouted the banishing words at the top of my lungs. My voice echoed in the empty space, with no result. Worse, the wraith which had conjured up the tornado turned to me, flinging debris in its wake. Blue light exploded over the rooftops, smothering the houses in icy rain beneath the fog of the spirit realm. Winter magic. Threads of light connected the wraiths, wreathing the sky like vibrant blue tinsel. By the way they were all glowing, there ought to be a dozen tornadoes up in the air, but there was still only one of them. Huh. Wait a moment.

  “Ilsa!” River shouted, seeing me floating above him with the book in my hands.

  Another whirling tornado shot past him—at the alley where my body was hidden. Oh hell.

  I checked back into my body as the building crumbled on its side. Screaming came from inside. I ducked, arms over my head to shield myself. Ivy shouted a warning, and the tiles slid out of reach, disappearing before they hit us.

  “Damn,” she said, on her feet, her fists clenched. “I don’t suppose you have faerie healing powers?”

  I clambered to my feet, hoping that the other necromancers had been projecting into the spirit realm from a safe distance. “No. Do you?”

  She nodded, moving down the alley away from the half-collapsed building. “Vance saved our necks—but his shield’s down.”

  The building the Mage Lord had been standing on had been hit. He must have teleported out of the way, and dropped the shield in the process. Debris flew wildly, breaking windows, growing in strength. A monstrous tornado, ripping into anything it touched.r />
  A whirl of air struck outside the building, and Lord Colton appeared from thin air.

  “Thank god,” Ivy breathed.

  “There seems to be one wraith controlling the others,” said the Mage Lord.

  “Because there’s only one wraith,” I said. It was more obvious from the ground, where the tornado’s path remained below the wraith which had attacked me. “The others are an illusion. Its magic must have been able to create illusions when it was still alive. I need to get to the spirit realm again—”

  Alarming creaking noises came from the collapsing building next to us. Bricks crumbled inches away, and everything vanished in a whirl of air. The next second, Ivy and I had appeared where the zombies had been. Apparently the Mage Lord could displace other people, too.

  River ran in front of me, bits of undead dropping from his sword. “There you are,” he said breathlessly.

  “I need to get to the wraiths,” I said. “They’re clones—fakes. There’s only one genuine wraith, and its magic is controlling the others. Kill it and they all die.”

  The spirit realm would take me back to the target—but tapping out of the battle would put me at the mercy of the murderous wraiths.

  “I’ll check,” River said. His body stilled, and I swore, moving in front of him. “River, don’t—”

  The wraith turned on me. I both saw it in the sky and felt it in the spirit world. Icy power gathered in its hands, forming spear-sharp icy blades.

  I threw myself over River’s body, and the magic hit my shield with the force of a car collision. A current of air flung me off River, throwing us apart, smashing the glass in the nearby windows. I climbed to my knees. My teeth rattled with power, and I called on everything the book had. My body left the ground as an uncontrollable rush of energy alighted the book in my hands. The wraith flew back, roaring in anger. I didn’t know I’d drifted into the spirit realm until its magical blast shoved me back, into my body. I half lay across the cobbled pavement. And River…

  He lay on his back, hands shielding his face. Blood soaked his side, and between strips of torn clothing, a deep wound lacerated his ribs.