Blaze: A New Adult Urban Fantasy (Spelldrift: Coven of Fire Book 4)

by Sierra Cross

  I blinked. Who could that report have come from? Did my aunt set us up? We’d just about finagled a tentative peace with these witches. “Um.” Great answer. Way to reassure them. Liv would be so much better at this than me. My technical understanding of the wards’ construction was rudimentary at best. “I can tell you that both inner and outer wards are at nearly full strength,” I said.

  “But it’s true there has been degradation between your visits?” She sounded downright hostile now.

  “Well, yes.” Of course there was, idiot. That was the nature of wards. Even I knew that much. “It’s all been within acceptable parameters—”

  “And you’re no closer to mastering the incarnation spells?” Assemblywoman Rogers leaned in. Incarnation spells? I saw Asher wince and realized my confusion must be showing on my face. Assemblywoman Rogers spoke slowly and clearly, as if to a first grader. “That means, rebuilding the wards from scratch.” A few chuckles from the peanut gallery. So, I’d never heard that term before. Sheesh.

  “No, we’re currently not in possession of that knowledge. But the wards are maintaining—”

  “Resolved, the Witches Assembly will make a site inspection,” she said. “Your coven will walk us through your current protocol. We’ll observe your repair casting.”

  “Of course. We can schedule—”

  “We’ll be there tomorrow,” she said with finality.

  “What? No?” I felt completely blindsided. Was this my aunt’s idea of payback? I glanced at the back row to see if she was there laughing her ass off but didn’t see her. “We’ll be out of town. Can we schedule it for the following week?”

  “Really, some vacation trip rates higher than your sworn duty to protect the Demongate?” Assemblywoman Rogers whipped off her stylish glasses and gave us a scornful look. “After the attack on the Council Suprema building—”

  Self-righteous busybodies, I thought. With nothing better to do. “An attack my coven saved you from. Your glorified PTA bake sale meeting wouldn’t be possible if it weren’t for us.”

  “You, child, have overstepped,” Assemblywoman Hicks hissed. The room went eerily still. “May I remind you you’re already on thin ice. You show up late with an incomplete—dare I say, misleading—report, and now you refuse to comply with our simple request? One more transgression and we’ll hand this matter over to the Council. Your coven charter will be—”

  “We’ll schedule. The site visit. When we get back.” Smoke was probably pouring out of my ears. If these women knew anything about sacrifice and what was really important in this world I could explain our trip to them. But they were so petty and small-minded, they were liable to call up the Fidei’s Northern Branch to tattle on us for not reporting the Splinter. I glanced at Matt, whose stoical face gave nothing away. The old Matt would be having a conniption over us being in trouble with a magicborn authority—I wondered what the new Matt was thinking? Maybe this wasn’t the wisest course of action. Wisdom had never been my strong suit, yet for some reason, the magic had chosen me to be coven leader. I had to trust in that.

  “Miss Hill.” Assemblywoman Rogers’s icy voice intoned behind me. “I urge you to reconsider your inflexible position. If you know what’s good for your coven’s future…”

  I spun on my heel and called over my shoulder, “Next week. We have a plane to catch!”

  And we had a witch’s soul to free.

  Chapter Three

  Wellspring Academy was truly off the beaten path.

  From the driver’s seat of our rental car—a mid-sized import whose trunk barely fit our duffel bags—I peered out my window at the endless line of evergreens that crowded the landscape. Their needled-branches were dotted with fluffy white snow. On either side of the narrow, paved road that led to campus, a foot of snow carpeted the ground.

  Liv blurted out what we were all thinking. “This place is a pimple on the ass of nowhere.”

  If Callie hadn’t made that phone call, we would never in a million years have tracked the Splinter here.

  As we approached the enormous wrought iron gate, I read the words “Wellspring Academy for Girls” in tall block letters on the arch above the path. The entrance had probably looked the same for the past hundred years. The gate opened automatically for our car, and I felt the slight pinch of wards letting us through. I zeroed in on the wards with my newfound abilities. From the way they resonated, at low power level, recycling energy rather than spinning at a constant rate, I guessed they’d been set to allow entry to all light magicborn. In other words, a very basic spell. Definitely could use some modernization. I wondered if they were even strong enough to fend off really determined humans.

  Look at me, all experty on wards. Maybe I really did know this stuff? Take that, Assemblywoman Hicks.

  The cold crisp wind burned my lungs as soon as we stepped out into the parking lot. My leather jacket was under-qualified for this weather. Matt wrapped his arm around me, catching me mid-shiver, and rubbed briskly. His body radiated heat even at these temperatures.

  Walking briskly, the four of us cleared a ring of Jeffersonian-style brick buildings and saw a center quad teeming with students. Young, fresh-faced witches, all sporting backpacks and knit caps in a rainbow of colors, scurried on the brick paths between buildings. Not unlike Red Square, aka Central Plaza, on the UW campus.

  On the quad, a few rowdy students were having a playful snowball fight with the freshly fallen snow. The sounds of laughter and happy conversation surrounded us. A light blush of gold magic washed over us. So many witches in one place created an aura of buoyant energy. As I passed students hustling to classes I felt light tugs of energy signatures...like gossamer threads of fledgling magic rather than the mature signatures I was accustomed to sensing. But as I made my way across the quad, I noticed sections where the signatures were so slight I almost felt nothing, as if I were moving in and out of a good cell phone coverage area. Maybe it was because they were students and not full witches? I’d never been around novices before, so I had nothing to compare it too.

  A snowball whizzed right at Liv’s face. Reflexively her hand shot up, gold magic popping from her fingertips. The snowball fell as water drops to her feet.

  “Paige, you almost hit that lady!” The intended target, a dark-haired young woman, stepped forward and stared at Liv. “How’d you do that so fast?”

  “Lots of practice.” Liv shrugged. “With things that would fry my face off.”

  I chuckled. Talk about trial by fire. Been there, done that.

  “Luv,” Asher interrupted her stupor. “Can you point us to the administration building?”

  “Oh, you bet.” Paige, the thrower of the snowball, pointed across the plaza to yet another brick building with tall white columns. “It’s that building. Hamilton Hall.”

  “Thanks.” I smiled at her. These novice witches were bright and eager…all the things I wasn’t at their age. A twinge of jealousy ran through me. If life had taken a different turn, would my parents have steered me toward a campus like this?

  “Hamilton Hall is the athletics building.” A slight girl in a long dark wool coat and thick scarf trudged up the path from the gardens down by the outer fence. “So unless you want to lift weights or go to the gym…”

  Paige cackled at her attempt to lead us astray.

  “Hilarious.” The small girl spoke in a monotone that reminded me of Eeyore. What had she been doing in the garden in this cold? And from what I could see from here, the garden was nothing now but cement benches surrounding black twigs sticking out of the ground. A snowball flew at her, catching her right in the ear.

  “Lighten up, Baby Bethany,” Paige snapped back. Well, so much for all of them being bright and eager. I guessed we’d just met the mean girls on campus.

  Bundled up the way she was, I almost didn’t notice that Bethany was really scrawny and tiny. From her makeup-free face and chestnut ponytails, I gauged her to be no more than fourteen. Magical prodigy?

  “Yo
u’re looking for Fredrick Hall,” Bethany said, brushing snow out of her reddening ear. “You’re standing right in front of it.”

  The heat in the administrative office was so dry it made the air feel brittle. Static electricity crackled as I pulled off my knit gloves. I shifted from foot to foot trying to get the circulation started again as we waited for the prim receptionist to end her call.

  “Damn, time warp.” Liv’s eyes widened as she took in the Colonial decor around us. Chair rails topped with the painted gloss finish of oil-based paint. Slight imperfections in the walls’ surface showed where the plaster had been meticulously repaired over the lath structure below. Portraits of past deans decorated the wall, the framed witches—and the occasional warlock—staring out at us from history. The paintings were enchanted to move like a snippet of video. In short, this room was exactly how I’d expect the administration office of a magical college to look.

  “May I help you?” The receptionist cocked her head and looked at us through narrowed eyes. Apparently, she was not used to getting visitors. Though she worked for a witch’s school, my radar picked up no magical signature from her. Well, every magicborn family had some duds—er, Wonts—and this would be an ideal job for one.

  “Yes. We’re here on a rather…sensitive matter,” I said, trying to convey importance without raising an alarm bell.

  “We need to speak with the dean,” Matt said. “Is she in?”

  “Yes, he is.” Any illusion that we might belong there was gone with that one slip up. “Do you have an appointment?”

  “He, that’s what our guardian meant to say.” Asher took a step closer to the desk. “Is he available?”

  Behind the receptionist, a movement captured my attention. Through the partially open office door, I caught a glimpse of a slim leg in high heels. Without registering why, a tiny alarm queued up in my head. But the woman reached out and closed the door so fast I didn’t get a good glimpse.

  “Do you have an appointment?” the receptionist repeated, irritated.

  For a split second, I felt the sensation of barbed wire raking across my skin. And then it was gone. I didn’t need to see a face to know who was behind that door.

  “Callie,” I said. At that one word, my coven was activated. I flung my hands, and golden magic bloomed on my fingertips. We muscled past the receptionist as a unit. We’d set Callie free right now. End her pain.

  “Stop right there!” she called to our backs.

  I kicked the office door with my boot, and we poured into the room, burning with the collective power of our magic.

  Sitting behind the dean’s enormous antique desk was Tenebris.

  Terror welled up from the pit of my stomach.

  The demon was still wearing Leonard’s body. But the lanky young frame that had looked awkward on its original owner now gave the impression of a lean, distinguished intellectual. The right angles of his sharp jawline softened as a smile formed on his handsome face. Next to him, standing behind the desk, was Callie. Or should I say, the Splinter. She didn’t look in our direction. All her attention was on Tenebris, her hand on his shoulder, fingers drawing slow circles on his tweed jacket.

  How on earth did these two monsters infiltrate a light witch school?

  Tenebris focused on me and inhaled a long, languid breath. Then he rolled his eyes back slightly in his head as if breathing me in had sent him into throes of pure pleasure. I felt none of his prickly dark magic. Just the opposite…he was throwing off a warlock vibe.

  The vampires’ amulet was glowing faintly from behind his chalk-white shirt. Was that how he’d masked his signature? Whereas if I concentrated, even from this distance I could pick up Callie’s barbed wire aura. Tenebris must have to wear a jacket every day and keep his personal assistant far from all the students.

  “I’m so sorry, Dean Weller,” the receptionist called from behind us. “They just barged right past me.”

  Tenebris flicked his finger, and the door behind us slammed. The receptionist, now shut out on the other side of the door, jiggled the knob and then knocked feverishly.

  “Dean Weller?” I heard her muffled voice saying. “Are you all right? Dean?”

  The knocking stopped and I figured she’d gone to call security. I had just enough time to wonder why Callie and Tenebris weren’t calling their putrid green magic to attack us when the side door of his office opened. A dozen young witches—all looking eighteen or nineteen at most—entered, forming a half circle in front of the Caedis and the Splinter. Essentially, they had formed the world’s most foolproof human shield. I looked at their faces. They were eager and bright and impossibly misguided. What the hell did that demon do to them? I recognized the young witches from the snowball fight dead center, smiling at us.

  They clasped hands and knelt, chanting a spell I couldn’t understand. It sounded too guttural and harsh for the magic of light witches. A wisp of red haze seeped out of each of their hands. And, like a crimson tide, it swelled and twined together forming a shimmering translucent wall. They’d practiced this. Protecting Tenebris.

  “Well done, ladies,” Tenebris said, and the glow from the amulet swelled. “I couldn’t be prouder.”

  A couple of the young women noticeably shone at the praise. Rage streamed through my body. He’d taken a position of authority and tricked all these young women into following him. He’d brainwashed them. Had the amulet’s power made it easier for him to sway these young witches? I looked at the girls’ faces and saw for the first time that Bethany was at the far end. She had a frantic look on her face. Was she nervous at being tested? Or was it genuine fear? I couldn’t tell, but she held the line.

  “Hi, guys,” the Splinter said, with Callie’s southern lilt. “So good to see you. Guess I’m not too surprised after that…unfortunate…phone call.” Her gaze darted to Tenebris, then downward as if in shame. Was she wincing?

  “Perhaps it’s not as unfortunate as you think, Callista.” Tenebris’s gaze never left me. Callista? How ironic that the Splinter went by Callie’s full name. The real Callie hated it with a passion. With a salacious smile, Tenebris stood. I saw Matt silently reach for his daggers. “So lovely to see you, Alix.” His creepy tone made my breakfast churn in my stomach. “In person is even better than our dreams. Wouldn’t you say?”

  A muscle in my throat clenched, and I gagged involuntarily. Matt let his daggers fly, aiming at the Caedis’s head. But the blades sparked on contact with the force field and flew right back at us. I ducked just in time to avoid having my right ear pierced again.

  “Arrg!” Matt let out a hoarse bellow.

  “Ladies,” Tenebris barked to the young women. “Beta formation.”

  Like a precision unit, the novice witches moved in tandem. Every other girl in line lurched forward, careful to join the hands of the witches on either side, so the connection was not broken for a second. The red haze was attached to both lines of women, a synergistic pool of energy. Within an instant, the girls in the front row all bore red firebolts on their fingertips.

  “Shit. That’s real firepower on their fingertips,” Asher whispered. “And they are no longer behind the barrier.”

  Bethany was one of the girls that stepped forward. She was holding her hands, ready to call her magic but she hadn’t yet.

  “Come on, full effort from everyone.” Tenebris was using a coaching voice, like he’d done this with them a thousand times. “Snap to it.”

  Bethany called a small bit of red magic but still seemed to be holding back. Was she having second thoughts?

  “Come on, peak strength,” he said. “Steady.” A twisted smile washed over his face. Whoosh, my stomach dropped as if I were on a boat on a roiling sea. Liv grunted. A wave of nausea swamped me. Sharp edges of dark magic scraped across my skin. Tenebris had uncloaked his magical signature. It was so horrifyingly familiar and at the same time sharper and stronger than ever. “Fire!”

  Simultaneously, a dozen hot bolts flew at us. My coven mates and I be
came a flurry of deflection. Absorb and contain. The girls threw the blasts with vicious tenacity and deadly accuracy. I felt certain it was the girls’ combined energy that was being used to sustain the barrier and fuel the blasts.

  The smell of burning hair filled my lungs. I must’ve let a blast get too close. We dodged and weaved, waiting for the force field to show signs of weakening. It might have been the most frustrating moment of my life. Here we were, inches from setting Callie free, but the inches may as well be light-years. And I wanted to take Tenebris down so bad I could taste it, but that too was way beyond our reach at this moment. A hail of red pummeled us, wave after wave. Sweat rivered down my back.

  By the time the novice witches were starting to slow, smoke filled the ruined office. Another few volleys and I thought their ebbing strength would have to impact the force field. I threw a few blasts at it, to test it. It wasn’t as taut, and my firebolts sizzled a path, sliding down rather than bouncing back. But Paige and the other snowballers, who were right in front, caught the flak off the burst. They let out little shrieks but didn’t lose focus. Damn. Now what? I refused to hurt these women.

  “Snap to it,” Tenebris encouraged with a smile. This was a game to him. A practice exercise.

  Their power wasn’t really in danger of failing. He was just toying with us. The realization came too late. The amulet lit up like a switch had been flipped. Megawatt brightness obscured his skinsuit face in the glow.

  “Together!” As he shouted the word, he pushed a blast of magic into the witches surrounding him—not unlike what my coven and I did with our bond. Like breath on a flame, their magic swelled and brightened. Their speed increased, double-time. I couldn’t believe these novice witches could achieve this pace—even with Tenebris’s assistance. Their magical signatures were faint, barely perceptible. It had to be the amulet that was helping them.