“It’s a long story, Grams.” With a deep breath, I filled her in on everything that had happened so far. She looked pretty outraged through most of it, though I wasn’t sure if it was directed toward me for keeping her in the dark or directed toward the people who had been trying to trap me in an impossible mess. When I got to the part where Dorian and I escaped from the attacking vampires, her whole face went stark white. It had been a very long time since the Daywalkers had launched such an offensive, even toward humans they wanted for blood.
“Oh, Zoe.” She shook her head, her hands trembling in mine. “You shouldn’t be mixed up in all of this. You need to stay far, far away from the coven and these vampires.”
“I think it’s too late for that, Grams.” I gave her a sad smile. “Now, I’m on their radar, and the council needs my help. Plus, the vampires did choose me as their fall girl, for whatever reason. They had me picked out before this even started.”
Grams pressed her lips together, glancing away. “Because they probably didn’t realize you faked your mark.”
My vision tipped sideways, and all the air in my lungs disappeared. There was no way Grams could know. No one did, not even Laura. It was a secret I hid inside me so deep that I didn’t even dare think it to myself, much less voice it aloud.
“Grams,” I whispered, shaking my head. A tear dropped down my cheek. “No.”
“You’re Shadow Coven, Zoe.” Her voice was too loud, too harsh against my ears. “You’ve done a good job of hiding it, but it was going to come to light sooner or later. The Daywalkers were able to sniff it out of you, and I guarantee that they don’t plan to use that information for anything other than their own gain. They probably had no idea you had a fake bone mark on you or they might have left well enough alone. Or just picked some other poor witch to frame.”
“Stop.” With tears in my eyes, I jumped from the floor and paced back several steps while shaking my head. We couldn’t talk about this. I couldn’t even entertain the idea of believing it was real. Yes, I knew deep down inside of me that this is what I was: Shadow. But for the past year, I’d been telling both myself and the rest of the world that I was much better than that. I wasn’t full of dark magic, of twisted things that rot the soul. I was Bone Coven.
Even if my magic wasn’t totally the same as every other bone mage alive, it was who I was inside. So what if I had trouble casting the spells, so what if I had to fake my mark. I couldn’t be a Shadow.
“Oh, Zoe. I know it’s a hard truth to face.” Frowning, Grams turned toward the window, her eagle eyes latching onto the streets down below. “But you can talk to me about it, you know. I might be able to give you some tips and some advice on how to handle being different. Because different isn’t so bad unless you let it get to your head.”
“So, you don’t care?” I couldn’t help but ask. As much as I didn’t want to talk about my mark, I was surprised that Grams was so understanding about it. For any witch or warlock I’d ever met, members of the Shadow Coven were looked upon like lepers. Dangerous supernatural entities who didn’t even deserve to be called witches. They were almost as terrible as the Daywalkers, and sometimes even more so. Because shadow witches came with strong power that could rival vampires in almost every way.
“You are you, Zoe Bennett. My wonderful granddaughter.” Her eyes were glistening when she turned to look up at me. “Nothing will ever change that, whether you’re Bone, Blood, Rising Sun, or Shadow. That doesn’t change who you are deep down inside. It merely enhances it.”
“Enhances it?” I barked out a laugh. “I don’t see how being a Shadow could enhance anyone. Tear someone apart, maybe, but not build them up.”
“A witch’s coven does not the witch make.” Grams stood from her chair, and I reached out my hands to help her, but she merely swatted me away. With a deep breath and a shaking arm, she steadied herself on her feet, lifting her chin to meet my eyes. “I’m sorry I haven’t been in the frame of mind to teach you what you need to know, Zoe, but you hear me this. It doesn’t matter what coven you are. It doesn’t matter what kind of spells flow best from your hands. It doesn’t matter if you need aching bones, pooling blood, blinding light, or darkening shadows. What matters is who you are inside and the choices that you make. I am not Bone Coven either, my dear. I am a Shadow.”
Grams snapped her fingers, and we were plunged into darkness. Her hands began to glow black as she spread them high in the air. Electricity crackled around us, and the walls began to shake. And then just as soon as it had begun, everything went back to normal so quickly that I wasn’t sure if I’d hallucinated the entire thing.
My heart racing, I stared at Grams. All this time, I’d thought she was weak and helpless, when really she was more powerful than most witches combined. She sighed and sagged against the chair, her hands gripping the arms.
I helped her into her seat, and the frailty of her body was impossible to ignore. She might be strong. Hell, she might even be the fiercest witch I’d met in a very long time. But she was still weak. Whatever she’d just done, I couldn’t imagine she could do it again anytime soon. It had taken more out of her than she wanted to admit.
“So, now you know, Zoe. We’re the same, you and me. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, but I didn’t think it was important. Until now.”
“Grams,” I whispered and shook my head. “I don’t understand. Mom was a bone mage and so was dad, unless they were both lying all this time. I thought magic ran in the blood.”
“It does, my dear.” Grams turned her sharp gaze back at the window. “Your parents, goddess rest their souls, were both bone mages. So was your grandfather. It turns out you inherited your magic from me.”
Stunned, I sank into the armchair and dropped my head into my hands. All this time, I’d thought I was some kind of disease, a girl who didn’t belong in her own family. Now, it all made sense. And it was a relief, to tell the truth. I wasn’t an anomaly. My Grams was just like me. And what’s more, Grams was the best witch I’d ever met in my life. She’d never been dark, she’d never been wrong, she’d always been full of light. Could I be a Shadow and still be the kind of witch I wanted to be?
“Who followed you home, Zoe?” Grams asked, her voice tight. “I assume it’s the same person who tried to get in here earlier.”
My head popped up, and my heart thumped out a frantic beat. “Someone followed me?”
Grams lifted a hand and pointed out the window she’d been focused on ever since I got home. “He’s been out there watching us. I can’t tell much about him from this distance. Could be one of those vampires.”
I stood and crossed the room. Grams was right. A shadowy figure stood on the sidewalk below, leaning against the broken streetlamp. His arms were crossed over his chest as he stared up at the window where I stood. I couldn’t see his eyes, but I was sure they were locked right on me. Shivering, I stepped back. It wasn’t Dorian. It was the thin man who had been watching me before. The shadows completely obscured his face, making it impossible to tell whether he was human, vampire, warlock, or something else entirely.
“He’s been out there before,” I said as I turned to pace across the room. “For the past few nights, actually. I have no idea who or what he is.”
“Well, he can’t be anything good.” Grams frowned and tried to stand from her chair again, her entire body shaking with the effort. I rushed to her side, reaching out to stop her from falling to the ground. With a frustrated sigh, she slumped into her chair again, sweat glistening on her brow. “Damn demons. Look at what they’ve done to me.”
I’d never heard Grams talk like that before. Usually, she was so calm and measured, her thoughts and emotions wrapped up in a kind of patient acceptance of whatever came her way. But that was before her granddaughter had gotten caught up in a vampire conspiracy that might lead to another supernatural war.
“What’s going on, Grams?” I asked.
“You need my help, and I’m too weak to do a damn thing,�
� she said. “All I can do is sit here and listen to people trying to break through your wards. Or spot people spying on us from the street. And now he’s starting to leave.”
“He’s leaving?” I started to move toward the window, but Grams held me back. Her eyes turned dark and serious, and her grip went tight.
“Take this.” Grams pulled a small weathered book seemingly from nowhere before pressing it into my hands. “These are your spells. Shadow spells. Ones you don’t know yet, but ones you need to learn. You don’t have to draw runes to cast them. All you need is a shadow and your beautiful mind.”
The book was soft and heavy, and it hummed with power. Anytime I’d held a bone grimoire in the past, it had just felt like any other book. This one felt special. It called to me in a way that made my magic sing through my blood. The pages creaked as I opened the cover. I flipped past spell after spell I didn’t know. Seek, Speak, Listen and Smell were on the first few pages. I kept turning. Chain, Wave, and Bind. There was even one called Shadow.
“You’re more powerful than you realize. As much as I want to keep you safe, I know you’re capable of protecting yourself if you give into what you are. You need to find out what’s going on and stop it. The covens can’t survive another war. And if every last witch and warlock dies out, there’s nothing to stop the demons from overrunning this world.”
My entire body went cold, both from fear and the realization that what she said was right. Demons had tried again and again to break the veil between their realm and ours, and they’d come close many times. The only way they hadn’t succeeded was because of us. Our magic kept them at bay.
If the vampires started another war, it would only be a matter of time before our numbers dwindled to nothing. There would be no one left to stop the demons from breaking through the veil.
It wouldn’t just be the end of us, it would be the end of humanity itself.
Chapter 17
“I’m going to follow him.”
Grams watched me with eagle eyes as I grabbed my phone, my keys, and my leather jacket from the coat rack beside the front door. As much as it scared me, I needed to find out who had been watching me all this time. And why. It had to be connected to everything else going on. It was too big of a coincidence to be anything else.
All I had to do was follow him, see where he went, and try to get a look at his face. After that…I needed to warn the council about Dorian Kostas.
“Remember, Zoe,” Grams said as I moved toward the door, “your power is not limited to runes. Only shadows. If you get into trouble, your magic will come to your aide.”
Shivering, I shrugged my hands into my jacket pockets. I’d only just admitted to myself what I was. I needed much more time to be ready to use that kind of magic, if I ever did. Not to mention the fact I’d never tried. How did I cast a spell, if not by drawing a rune? And what kind of spells could I even do? Most magic wasn’t universal, and each coven had its own set of grimoires. It wasn’t like I could just wave a hand and decide to summon a demon whenever I wanted.
Or could I?
That was the problem. I had no fucking clue what I was even capable of.
But instead of saying all of that to Grams and making her worry even more, I merely nodded. “Thanks, Grams. And don’t worry, I’ll be careful.”
“I love you, Zoe,” she called out as I swung open the door.
With a smile on my lips and a tear in my eye, I said, “I love you, too.”
The city was eerily quiet when I slipped out the building’s front door. A tin can clattered across concrete from somewhere nearby, a sound that echoed through the narrow street. An evening wind whistled by my ear, sending the hair on my arms on end. I flicked my gaze to where I’d seen the hooded figure, but he’d already disappeared into the night. With the broken streetlamp and the cloud-covered sky, it would be difficult to spot him until I closed the distance between us.
Grams had said he’d headed left, so left I went. My footsteps fell heavy on the sidewalk. To my ears, they were impossibly loud. Surely he would hear me coming up from behind him, surely he would know where I was. As I kept moving, my heart joined the sound, a loud and heavy bass drum that drowned out almost everything else. Every tiny noise was thunder to me, even my sharp, quick breaths.
When I reached the end of the block, I finally spotted the figure. He’d made it past the crosswalk with his head bowed and his hands buried inside his jacket pockets. I could tell it was the lurker. The same slim build, the same dark clothes, the same hood hiding his features from view. My nerves trembled as I put one foot in front of the other in his direction.
At the end of the next block, the man paused and cocked his head, the flashing red light casting an eerie glow on his hooded face. Shit, had he heard me? He obviously knew who I was and what I looked like. All it would take was one glance in my direction, and he’d know that I was on his trail.
With my shallow breath forming clouds of smoke in the chilly air, I ducked into the closest doorframe, hoping my shadow nature meant I would blend in with the darkness. The man turned and stared down the street behind him. I inched a little closer to the edge of the doorframe so I could get a better look at his face. Most of it was still hidden by his hood, but the angular edges of his jaw peeked out. His lips looked familiar, and his skin held hints of a tan. Not a vampire then.
A human?
But what would a human be doing involved in all of this?
After a long and silent moment, the man continued down the sidewalk. Relief poured through me. I hadn’t been caught. Yet. I watched as he took a hard left into an alley, disappearing from my view. For a moment, I wasn’t sure if I should follow. Alleys were typically dead ends. If he’d gone in, he could only come back out the same way, and it would be a hell of a lot more likely that I would snag his attention if I followed him inside.
Grams’s words echoed in my ears. A warning I couldn’t ignore. The world was in trouble. We couldn’t afford a war. This wasn’t just about me anymore. I needed to suck it up and do what had to be done.
Gripping my hands into fists, I pushed out of the doorframe and followed the man into the mouth of the alley, dropping below a stack of old warehouse pallets when I heard voices drift my way. My hands tightened around my dagger as I took in a calming breath. Slowly and quietly, I crouched low and peered around the pallets.
There were two men. One was the man I’d been following. The other…
Shock poured through me, and I almost dropped my dagger. It was one of the Enforcers who had cornered me after the morgue incident, the one who I had assumed was the leader. Vincent, that was his name. He spoke quietly with the man I’d been following, and I held my breath to overhear their words. Only pockets of the conversation drifted toward me.
“…didn’t work out exactly as planned. The council thought the vampires tried to frame her…” said the man. “Luckily, the vamps took the bait and attacked when they found out two of their prize blood bags were killed by a bone mage.”
Chills ran through me, and I tightened my grip on my weapon. Was I hearing this right? I couldn’t be. A bone warlock couldn’t be the one behind the attacks. Why would he do this to his own people? But I’d heard the words come straight from their mouths. They’d set me up. They’d made it look like I’d killed the vampires’ blood bags, in order to initiate a fight.
They were trying to start a war.
“What is the council status now?”
“Many wounded, but the Magister and Summoner survived. They’re in…at a safe house now.”
The Enforcer tapped his chin, frowning. “Did you get the book before the fire caught?”
“I did.” The man shook his head, and his hood fell back to reveal a head of thick, dark hair. Still, I didn’t know who he was, even though I swore he looked familiar. “It’s not the one you want.”
“Fuck!” The Lead Enforcer threw up his hands and punched the brick wall beside him. I flinched at the exploding sound of breaking bon
e, but when he pulled his hand away, it wasn’t his fingers that were smashed to bits. It was the wall. My heart skittered in my chest. How had he done that? No warlock I’d ever met had that kind of strength. “Find it. Do you hear me? And do it soon or I’ll have to find someone else who will.”
“It’s a shadow grimoire,” the man said, his voice trembling. “They’re the hardest to find.”
“Find. It.” Vincent closed his eyes and sniffed at the air, cocking his head as a strange smile lifted his lips. “There is someone else here. Were you followed?”
My blood ran cold. He knew I was here. Somehow, even if it didn’t make any sense. Pressing my lips together tight, I began to back toward the mouth of the alley, keeping my footsteps as quiet as I could. I’d heard enough. As soon as I got out of here, I would go straight to the council and tell them everything I’d learned.
The hooded man’s back went stiff and straight. “Of course not.”
“Where have you just been?” the Lead Enforcer asked, his voice chilly.
“I tried to get into the girl’s apartment, like you asked,” the man said. “It was warded up tight.”
Vincent frowned. “You couldn’t get through an untrained witch’s wards? How pathetic. I bet you let her see you, too.” He stood straighter, his glittering eyes scanning the alley. “Zoe Bennett, step out of the shadows. We know you’re here. I think it’s time we have a chat.”
No fucking way. I wasn’t that stupid. From the sounds of it, this Enforcer had been behind everything terrible that had happened these past few days. The deaths, the vampire attack, even the target pinned on my back. And he’d been trying to get into my apartment for reasons I still didn’t know. I needed to get as far away from this alley as I could.
Crouched low, I took several rapid steps back until my boots slipped on a puddle of grime. I sucked in a breath as I tried to steady myself, reaching out to grab the nearest thing. My hand came into contact with the pallets, but they did nothing to slow my fall. Instead, the wood rattled and bucked until it all came crashing down.
The Bone Coven Chronicles: The Complete Series Page 13
