Embracing Magick: an Urban Fantasy Novel (The Witch Blood Chronicles Book 3)

by Debbie Cassidy

  “Well, of course you do,” Honey said. “They’re an organization with goodness knows how many operatives, one less isn’t gonna affect them. I know you want to save the world and that’s noble and all, but what if something goes wrong, not just with the anchor spell, but afterwards? What if it burns you out too quick? Or the witches fail in creating the binding spell, or Garnet fails to un-anchor you?”

  “Then you die,” Urvashi said. “And I am not good with that.”

  “And if I do nothing we all die.”

  “We will find another way,” Honey said.

  “Maybe. But there is no time.”

  “You don’t know that,” Urvashi said. “The IEPEU mission must have weakened Malachi enough to slow him down. Who knows when this purge is coming?”

  But that wasn’t strictly true. “Two weeks.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “I just spoke to Melody. The surgery to insert the blocker into Aaron’s cortex was a success. He just woke up.”

  Urvashi’s face drained of color. “He knows, doesn’t he? He knows what’s coming and when.”

  “Yeah. The Purge is something we could never have anticipated and it’s coming in less than two weeks, the day of the eclipse.”

  Honey began to pace. “Two weeks. Yeah we can find...something.”

  I smiled. Her concern, her determination would have given me the warm fuzzies if my body wasn’t already filled with ice at the thought of what I’d agreed to do.

  “There isn’t enough time,” Urvashi said softly.

  “No, there isn’t.” I cleared my throat. “Garnet and Elora are preparing for the anchor ceremony. They’ll be ready in a couple of hours. Once they’ve anchored me, they can work on the binding spell.”

  “And how long does that take?”

  “A couple of days, maybe three.” I slipped into my coat. “I need some air.”

  “You want some company?” Urvashi asked.

  “Nah, I’m cool.” I left them in the lounge and headed out the front and around the side of the house. The air was chill and sweet, and the green grass of the neatly mown mansion lawn was crisp beneath my boots. The urge to ring Vritra was so strong I had to curl my hands in to fists not to reach for my phone.

  He wasn’t my lover. I wasn’t even sure we were friends. What we had was a convoluted connection of dragon and power. Right now my dragon was silent, as if pondering what we were about to do?

  “You know this is the right thing to do don’t you?”

  My dragon sighed.

  Yeah. At least we were on the same page. A shadow cut across the periphery of my vision. I turned my head and caught the dark flap of a winter coat as it disappeared into the tree-line. Intriguing. What else was there to do until the ceremony?

  I followed the figure into the canopied gloom of the forestland behind the mansion.

  “Hey! Wait!”

  The figure stopped with its back to me. Slender, long dark hair, definitely female.

  “Velomina?”

  She turned slowly to face me. “Hello, Carmella.”

  This was my mother. “You saved my life.”

  “Yes.”

  Should I feel something? A connection of some kind?

  Her smile was weary. “It’s all right, Carmella. I don’t expect anything from you. I’m a stranger to you, I get that. I just...I wanted to see you again.”

  The emotion I’d longed to see in my mother’s eyes was shining in Velomina’s. She hadn’t raised me and yet she looked at me as if she knew my every need.

  “I know what you’re about to do,” she said.

  “And?”

  “The mother in me is screaming don’t do it. The mother wants to bundle you up and run as far and fast as I can, to keep you safe. But the witch in me, the woman who’s looked into the void and seen the destruction of creation knows better. That woman is proud of you.” Her eyes glittered with moisture. “I may not have raised you, but I’m proud to have given you life.”

  A lump formed in my throat. “After this is all over...”

  “Yes. After this is all over.” She took a step back. “I should go. Malachi will be searching for me in order to get to you. We can’t be seen together.”

  “Wait. But once I’m anchored it won’t matter. He’ll be able to find me.”

  “Maybe, maybe not, but my being here will just increase the odds.”

  Neither of us mentioned that the ceremony itself could very well kill me.

  “When it’s over...” Velomina aka Velocity vanished into the trees.

  I turned and headed back to the mansion. The sooner we got this over with, the sooner I could get my life back.

  ◆◆◆

  A sleek black car was parked outside the mansion and a booming voice drifted out of the mansion’s entrance.

  “—even give a damn about her life?”

  Vritra? What was he doing here?

  I hurried into the foyer to find him facing off with Garnet and Elora. Honey shot me a sheepish look.

  So, that’s how he’d found out. His back stiffened as he sensed my presence, and then he turned to me, his face a mask of fury.

  “Are you insane?” he asked.

  He’d come and he was furious and, yeah, it was petty, but there was no denying the tiny thrill that shot through me, because it meant despite what he’d said, he still cared for me.

  “It’s our only option.”

  And from the flicker in his eyes he knew it too.

  He cupped my shoulders with his huge warm hands, his aura soothing mine. “Carmella. You could die.”

  I looked up into his beautiful primal face, my heart lurching with the beginnings of an understanding there was no time to examine now.

  “One life to save the many. I have to try, Vritra.” Giving in to impulse, I reached up and laid a hand on his cheek. “I don’t plan on dying, believe me. I have too much to live for.”

  His ember eyes flared with comprehension for the words unsaid. There would be time after all this was done. There had to be.

  His powerful shoulders rose and fell in a sigh of resignation. He gripped my chin. “Do not die, Miss Hunter.”

  I swallowed the lump in my throat, recalling the first time he’d said that to me. We’d barely known each other then, but he’d saved my life in this very mansion when we’d been chased by bloodthirsty Daayan. He’d ordered me not to die then, and I’d fought like a demon to survive.

  I would fight now.

  “Yes, sir.” I offered him a mock salute.

  “Are we ready?” Garnet asked. His tone strained.

  “Yes. Let’s do this.”

  ◆◆◆

  The gang refused to leave my side and when we stepped into the ceremony chamber I was kind of grateful to have them with me. The room was filled with robed witches. Probably the whole of the Mayfair coven and most of the Piccadilly. They were here to re-establish a connection to the skein through me.

  “Do we need all these witches to do the binding spell?” Honey asked.

  “Yes,” Garnet said. “More would be preferable, but this is all we could get at such short notice. The spell to bind Malachi is intense and extremely powerful.”

  The spotlight in the center of the room was a lonely place. Vritra, Honey and Urvashi stood on the outskirts. Vritra’s jaw was tense, his hands fisted at his sides as if battling to remain motionless.

  With a final nod I turned to Garnet.

  He ushered me forward into a circle surrounded by pretty symbols. I’d seen Loki do something similar a long time ago. In fact, I’d helped him paint the symbols that had sent Malina and Garuda back in time to another reality. And now, here I was, in the circle, waiting to be turned into a supernatural anchor.

  Garnet finished, stepped back, took a deep breath and began to chant. Something was going to happen any moment—

  Wow, where had all the light come from? Wait, where was I? There was nothing beneath my feet, just golden light and sparkles, but
I was moving. Yes. Floating toward a fizzling bubbling energy source and then there it was, emerging from the golden light like an Olympus torch.

  The skein pulsed and swirled, so many strands of energy knit together in what looked, for all intents and purposes, like a ball of yarn. I needed to touch it, own it, claim it. So close, just another inch toward the blinding beckoning radiance. Contact, fire and ice, and damn that felt good. It trickled into me. Testing at first, exploring, and then it began to flow. This was power, like a never ending flood coursing through me. It was mine. All mine. So bright, so pure and untainted, but wait, what was this...usurpers pricking at my skin, desperate to burst forth and connect to it.

  No.

  Mine.

  It was mine.

  I pushed back, swatting the intruders away.

  “No. Carmella,” Elora’s voice soothed. “You must let us through. Don’t fight it.”

  But I didn’t want to let them through. This power was mine—meant for me, to fill and complete me.

  “Carmella! Remember what the goal is.”

  The goal was power...No, not power. The goal was Malachi. The binding. Yes. I eased back, retracting my claws and they shot out of me—threads of silver and blue twining with the skein and becoming one while I hung suspended in between.

  “Good girl.”

  They kept coming, more and more, too many. The needles turned to knives. My body convulsed, and something wet and warm spurted from my mouth.

  “What’s happening?” Urvashi cried.

  “Stop it, stop it now!” Honey’s voice cried.

  No, they couldn’t stop. We were almost done. I could do this. My dragon rose out of its box and flooded my body with warmth. My skin prickled with my asura power. The witches continued to connect, to use me as a bridge to the source of all our power. And then it was over.

  I remained floating in an abyss of light and power.

  “Carmella, open your eyes,” Elora said.

  The real world came into focus, faces looking down on me—sharp and bright and ethereal. The world was so much clearer now.

  “Is it done?” Honey asked.

  “Yes,” Garnet said. “We have the skein. We have an anchor.”

  Vritra’s arms were around me, his body against mine. “You got what you want now get the fuck on with the damn spell. You have 48 hours and if she starts to show signs that this is hurting her then you have less.”

  So much power, so why couldn’t I move? He strode out of the chamber with me.

  My mind was whirring with activity—the imprint of the skein still bright in my mind’s eye and its essence pulsing in time with my heartbeat. There was so much still left to do. Aaron... I needed to see him, speak to him. He had information that could help us stop Malachi. Malina and Varuna would surely have a plan B by now. We needed to knock heads on that, get on the same page. We needed to be ready because the djinn were now our enemy and Malachi’s allies. The purge, whatever it was, was only the tip of the iceberg, and where the heck was Mira? My head swam with a to do list that just seemed to grow the more I dwelled on it. We emerged to a setting sun—a dying sky of red and gold.

  I pressed my cheek against Vritra’s chest and inhaled his cinnamon scent. “Where are we going?”

  “Home. We’re going home.”

  To be Continued…

  Flip the page read the first chapter of Unleashing Magick—the thrilling final book in Carmella’s story. Or Click the Image below to Preorder NOW!

  UNLEASHING MAGICK

  1

  Unleashing Magick

  The meeting room was silent as we waited on Varuna. Melody sat opposite me, her face a pale smudge beneath her red hair. Xavier and Nolan, two department heads, sat at the top end of the table, their expressions grim. Malina slipped her hand into mine, and I couldn’t help but glance at the empty seat to my right—the seat Mira would have claimed if she’d been here.

  But she was gone.

  I hated to admit it, but it was looking more and more as if she’d decided to take Paimon up on his offer of returning home after all. I swallowed the lump in my throat. Her rejection hurt, but I couldn’t blame her. He was all she’d really ever known, and honestly, she owed our world nothing.

  The large clock on the wall ticked, marking the passage of time. Time we were running short of. The eclipse was in four days. Four days for the coven to get the binding spell ready to stick Malachi in a box. Four days for us to come up with a plan to lure him out, and four days to figure out exactly how he intended to purge our world.

  Vritra was supposed to be here, but he was running late. I needed him by my side. The last couple of days, his presence had been the only thing that had kept me sane—stopped me from dwelling on the fact that I was acting as a passage for a bunch of witches whose connections to the skein flowed through me. When Garret had bound me to the witches, turning me into the anchor to the skein, he’d warned me of the possible effects, but I hadn’t expected to feel them so soon, or so keenly. I was tired, like all the time, and the needing was coming back.

  The inhibitor chip that Patrick had created for me was losing its effectiveness or malfunctioning. He’d told me it was a short term solution, but I’d expected it to last at least a few months. Being the anchor must somehow be disrupting it, and I was now on a clock before the devastating effects of the needing claimed me.

  The needing was stronger when Vritra was around but it was a steady beat in my pulse rather than a clawing inferno intent on violence. So, in a way he was helping me keep it in check.

  “How much longer are we going to have to wait?” Melody asked.

  Xander, one of the head honcho’s, sighed. “Not much longer I hope.”

  The tightness around his mouth smacked of agitation. Where the heck was Varuna? The door opened and Vritra slipped in. He inclined his dark head toward Xavier and then took the seat to my left. His dragon pressed against mine and I caught a flash of annoyance.

  I leaned in toward him. “Is everything okay?”

  “It’s fine. I got held up with asura business.” He offered me a quick smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes.

  Something was up, and once we dealt with this meeting, I’d weasel it out of him.

  Varuna entered a moment later. His usually relaxed gait was brusque. “Sorry for the delay.” He took a seat. “It’s not good news, I’m afraid. Our plan B has been shot down.”

  Xavier and Nolan exhaled in unison and then they broke into a low murmur.

  Melody and I locked gazes. What the heck had plan B been? I opened my mouth to ask but Melody beat me to it.

  “Well? Do we get to know what your plan B was?” she asked, not bothering to hide her irritation.

  Varuna’s eyes narrowed in contemplation. Was he seriously going to hold out on us?

  I sat forward. “Oh, come on. For all you know, our world could get wiped out in a few days. Everyone in this room has top level clearance, so spill it.”

  Varuna sighed. “Fine, but this is for your ears only. Vritra, this must not go back to the asura. Do I have your word?”

  Vritra inclined his head. “You have it.”

  “A few years ago, we discovered several overlaps between our dimension and other realities. We set up Division to monitor them, and then we found a wormhole to a place called Gateway.”

  “Another dimension?” Vritra asked.

  “You could say that, except Gateway is suspended in space. It’s a huge space station which monitors hundreds of wormholes. The Gateway is a library of information about the universes. A record of the rise and fall of hundreds of civilizations.” His eyes lit up. “And we’ve been working with them in a tentative alliance to learn more about existence in general. I’d hoped we could use Gateway to move our people to a safe zone through one of their wormholes, but they refused the request. They can’t afford to draw the cosmic god’s attention, and have shut down the wormhole until we’d sorted out this mess. It’s standard protocol with worlds that could
pose a threat to the Gateway.”

  A space station manning wormholes? Now that was something else. Did Aaron know about this? Of course, he did. He worked for Division, as did Loki. God, what a secret to have to kept. “Has Aaron been there?”

  Varuna blinked at me. “Mr. Black was our top liaison officer.”

  “Was?” Malina asked.

  He pressed his lips together. “Now that he’s been contaminated, we can’t risk having him work at Division.”

  Malina gripped my hand tight. “He’s going to be fine. Because you’re going to see to it that he’s fine.”

  Her amber eyes flashed, reminding me of the assassin that lurked under the mum she’d become.

  Varuna exhaled through his nose. “Of course, we’ll do everything within our power to free him from Malachi’s hold. But even then, we need to be sure that there are no lingering effects. Gateway won’t allow him entry. Their priority is the sanctity of their data.”

  If this Gateway was as connected as he said it was, then I could understand their reservations. Sucked for us, but there had to be another way. So, what now?

  “Malina,” Melody asked. “How did it go at Nagalok?”

  I glanced across at my friend. “You went back?”

  Malina shot me a sheepish look. “You were busy getting anchored. I dropped off the kids and Garuda and asked if we could bring some humans over.”

  “And?”

  “It’s a no from them too.” She winced. “Same reason as Gateway—they don’t want to attract the attention of the cosmic gods. But the kids are safe there, so I can focus here.”

  Her knuckles in her lap were white, and her back was ramrod straight. I’d known her long enough to recognize the signs of anxiety. This was the mum side of Malina, the side that was worried that her kids may never see her again. But the assassin side, the hero who’d saved our world five years ago, was in the driver’s seat, and it would make her stay and kick ass, because that’s who she fundamentally was. But if she seriously thought I’d put her in the line of fire on this case, she was delusional. Being pregnant didn’t make her redundant by any means, but being a mum meant she needed to think about those cutie pies of hers. But now wasn’t the time to bring that up. Malina was a stubborn cow, and she’d dig in her heels hard. If I was going to convince her to get to safety with her children, then I was going to need back up to do it.