“You’ll do no such thing,” a woman said, her heels clacking against the hardwood floor.
One of my eyes was completely swollen shut, and blood dripped into the other from where I’d hit the pool table, so I couldn’t see her very well, but I knew at that moment my plan had worked.
Make her angry enough, and she’ll find you.
Kristie had been right.
Every emerald gate Prima who had still been loyal to the Order was sitting in the dungeons of Harper’s castle, crippling the emerald gates. I guess I’d finally made the bitch angry.
As the woman stepped over the bodies of the dead and made her way toward us, I could just make out the fiery red of her hair and the green silk of her shirt. It wasn’t Priestess Evers, though. It must have been one of her daughters, but that was good enough.
I bent my neck toward my hoodie and wiped the blood from my left eye long enough to get a good look at her wrist. A smile tugged at one corner of my lips.
She was wearing a bracelet with a tiny emerald scarab beetle dangling from a loop in the chain.
As long as I made it out of this alive, I was finally going to find Harper. I was finally going to bring her home.
Game Over
“The deal’s off,” Jereth said, his chest rising and falling with great effort as he clasped the chains tighter in his hands. “There’s nothing you can give me now that would be worth giving up the opportunity of killing this demon myself.”
The red-haired woman curled her palm as if around a ball, her fingers more like talons with her long, manicured nails. She gathered a bright green energy in the center and stared at Jereth.
“You’ve seen what I can do,” she said. “If you lay one more hand on him, I swear you won’t live to see the sunrise.”
Giant veins on the side of Jereth’s neck bulged against his skin. “But—”
“No. We made a deal, and you’re going to stick to it, or I’ll personally hunt down every demon in your little gang here and kill them myself,” she said. “My mother wants this one. He’s ours.”
“And if I kill you first?” Jereth asked.
She laughed, the sound amazingly full and unafraid. “Feel free to try,” she said.
Jereth dropped his chains and shifted into a dark cloud of shadows. He swirled around the woman, the sound of steel hitting steel coming from somewhere inside the darkness.
The witch threw her ball of green energy into the air and spoke two words of magic. “Statuam lapidis.”
Jereth’s body dropped to the floor, his demon form gone and his human one returned in an instant. A chalky gray color crept along his skin, and his eyes widened into huge circles. He stretched his hands in front of his face as they solidified into pure stone.
“What have you done to me?” he screamed. “What’s happening?”
But before he could say another word, the spell had reached his mouth and completed its path along his body from head to toe. He’d become a statue, but I could still feel his frantic energy in the air around us. The demon inside was terrified.
I looked away, the image reminding me too much of the days when my power and my brother’s spirit were both locked away in stone statues back in Peachville.
The chains around my wrists went slack, and I worked myself free and glanced toward the door.
What remained of Jereth’s crew was gone in the blink of an eye. The three who were still alive left their leader there on the floor of his own bar, helpless and powerless.
So much for loyalty.
I could have gone, too, but I needed this woman. Unlike all the hunters I’d killed and all the Primas I’d thrown into the dungeon, this woman had something I needed.
It was so simple, it hadn’t even occurred to me. I’d been so focused on finding the emerald priestess’s home or hideout that I hadn’t realized there might be a more efficient way than searching every dark corner of the earth.
The door with the scarab beetle carved into its wooden surface was the only direct portal to the house of the emerald priestess. Every Prima and powerful member of the Order of Shadows had a Hall of Doorways in their house. And every one of those hallways held a door just like the one she had dragged Harper through.
The only problem was that it was locked.
I’d tried everything in the first weeks following Harper’s disappearance. We’d all searched for spells that might unlock the magic. We’d even tried to blow the door off its hinges. But nothing worked.
Once a witch had sealed her door with a particular type of blood magic, the only way inside was to either share that witch’s bloodline, or to have a key.
With Priestess Winter, her daughters and granddaughters hadn’t needed a key. The blood running through their veins was their key. Harper, however, had been given a special talisman that had served as a key. Zara, assigned to train Harper, had given her a sapphire butterfly pendant on the day of her Heritage Ritual.
Back then, the Order had believed Harper was on their side. What could be the harm in it?
That sapphire key had become extremely valuable to us over the past year, allowing us to travel to Winterhaven whenever we wanted.
Most of the time, however, keys were extremely rare. A witch usually had no reason to trust anyone but the members of her own family, so why put your home in danger by creating a key?
But the emerald priestess was a special case.
She was infertile, and even though she was rumored to have dozens of daughters, none of them shared her blood. None of them could pass through the doorway to her home without a physical key.
When the Prima of Alpine had told me about the priestess’s daughters, it all clicked. No shared blood meant there were dozens of keys roaming throughout the world. All I had to do was figure out how to get my hands on one.
The emerald beetle shimmered in the light of the witch’s green spell as she crouched beside Jereth’s statue.
“You didn’t honestly think we’d let you live once you captured him for us, did you?” she asked. “Not after you betrayed us once before, or don’t you remember?”
The statue had no way to respond, but I could feel his fear.
“Fifty years ago, my mother asked you to kill a woman—a new mother—and take her baby,” she said. “She was the prettiest little thing with a full head of red curls at birth. My mother wanted that baby more than you can imagine. All you had to do was kill a single witch. An easy task for a strong demon like you. But who knew a heartless beast like yourself would turn out to have a soft spot for new mothers?”
I swallowed back the taste of bile. How many children had been stolen in the name of the priestess’s collection? How many mothers had died over the years to feed her obsession?
“My mother never forgets, Jereth,” she said. “She needed your help setting a trap for this demon, and you did your job. Now it’s time for you to die.”
Jereth’s fear had risen to full-blown panic. I could smell it in the air like sulfur, burning my nostrils.
I didn’t know if it was the fact that my enemy was standing over him or if it was her story about the baby that caused me to do it, but I didn’t want to watch a five-hundred-year-old demon die at the hands of this witch. Even he deserved better than that.
The witch wasn’t paying any attention to me as she poured more of her power into the green spell hovering in her palm.
I only had one shot at surprising her, and if I missed, I would pay dearly for it.
My dagger lay discarded in a pile of bloody ooze ten feet from me. It was my best shot. I was out of dust, and it would take too long and draw too much attention to try to hit her with ice.
The swiftness potion was already wearing off, so I had to move now or Jereth would die.
I took a deep breath and focused on Harper’s face, letting the aches and pains that locked me in this form fade away so I could focus enough to shift. When I felt the power within my reach, I grabbed it, shifting to shadow and flying toward the dagger.
I gripped it tightly in my hand and aimed straight for her heart as I threw the dagger.
But the witch was too fast for me. The green spell dropped from her hand as she turned and caught the blade in her fist. Blood dripped from her palm, but she hardly seemed to notice.
She shook her head and made a clicking sound with her tongue. “Naughty, naughty,” she said.
I swallowed and tried to focus on drawing my power into my hands, but she had been the one to surprise me with her quick movements. I was in trouble, and just knowing that made it tough to cast.
She dropped the dagger to the ground and stepped aside as my ice spell reached her. I missed and cursed.
“Why is it that you demons always think you’re stronger than us?” she asked, shaking her head. She gathered another spell of green energy in her claw-like hand. “But don’t worry. I won’t kill you.”
She smiled and threw the energy toward me. I managed to shift and spin out of the way, but the spell didn’t simply fly past me and dissipate like most normal spells. It curved like a boomerang and slammed into my back, stealing the breath from my lungs.
I fell to my knees as pain blossomed through my body, radiating outward from the point of impact. I struggled to breathe, but only wheezed as a tiny bit of air made it through the muscles constricting my throat. My body was paralyzed, and I suddenly understood with great intimacy the panic emitting from Jereth’s statue.
The witch laughed and walked in a circle around me, her heels clacking against the floor as my vision blurred.
She crouched beside me, resting a hand on my shoulder as she leaned toward my ear.
“As much as I would love to kill you myself, my mother has something very special planned for you. Something she wants your precious Harper to see.”
I fell over, my face hitting the bloody floor. I was losing consciousness, but it wasn’t over yet. It couldn’t be. Harper was still alive, and I was so close to getting her back.
“She’s been a tough case to crack,” the witch said. “Every method of torture, every memory spell in the book, couldn’t break her. Sure, she lost most of her memories, but for some reason, she refused to let go of you. Mother thinks that if she sees you die with her own eyes, that will be the end of her. Game over. She’ll forget you to numb the pain, and we’ll start her torture all over again. When she’s fully destroyed, we’ll sweep in with new memories, giving her a new family and a new home. In six months, she’ll be a Prima, just as she was always meant to be. She’ll be working for us now, Jackson. Loyal to us. Poetic justice, if you ask me.”
My eyes closed, but I refused to give up hope. I refused to give up on us.
This witch thought that demons underestimated the power of witches? Well, witches like her always underestimated the power of true love and friendship. Their loyalty was bought with threats and tricks, but true loyalty came from love, not fear. That was the one thing the Order of Shadows would never understand.
I smiled as the darkness threatened to pull me into its embrace.
“Why are you smiling?” she asked, annoyance clear from her tone.
I didn’t have the breath or the energy to speak, but if I could, I would have told her that I was smiling because I had just heard the distinct flapping of crow’s wings.
The Only Way We Do This Is Together
Bright light exploded in the room, and demons swirled like shadows across the walls.
A crow landed two feet behind the witch and when it landed, the figure shifted into a teenage girl with pale skin and clear blue eyes.
The witch stood, her mouth open in a silent scream as Mary Anne gathered her magic in her hands. Red light shone from her fingertips. Demons shifted and walked to join her.
Essex, Rend, Joost, Mordecai, and everyone who’d been able to join us was there.
“Release him from whatever spell you have on him, or your life ends now,” Mary Anne said.
For the first time since she’d entered the room, the witch’s confidence disappeared.
“I’ll kill him,” she said, her voice wavering. “Drop your weapons and spells, or I’ll kill him so fast, you won’t have time to stop me.”
“Cut the crap,” Mary Anne said, rolling her eyes. “You and I both know what happens to you if you kill him. Even if we let you go, your mother would have your head for this, and you know it. Trust me, from what I hear, you’d rather die at my hands than hers, anyway.”
The witch began to sob, and she raised a trembling hand to her mouth. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll do it, but you have to promise not to hurt me.”
“I promise I won’t hurt you,” Mary Anne said.
The witch nodded and knelt down beside me. She placed her hand flat on my back. “Solvo,” she said.
Instantly, whatever magic had constricted my lungs and airways released. I gulped in air and pushed up to my hands and knees. Blood dripped from the wound on my forehead, and I swiped at it.
“What took you so long?” I asked, glancing up at Mary Anne. “I was dying over here.”
“I expected you to be able to hold your own for a little longer than this,” she said, reaching a hand out to help me stand. “All your big talk of wrath and making them pay. Sheesh.”
I laughed and pulled her into a hug. “Thank you for coming,” I said. “You were right. The only way we do this is together.”
“I wouldn’t have missed it for the world,” she said.
The witch took a step sideways, but Rend quickly sent a shadowy black rope streaming toward her. The shadows wrapped around her arms and legs and throat, stopping her in her tracks.
“I wouldn’t take another step if I were you,” he said.
Tears streaming down her face, the witch’s eyes darted from one person to the next. “Who are you all?” she asked. She looked at me. “You were told to come alone.”
“I did come alone,” I said. “I can’t help it if my friends decided to follow me.”
Mary Anne laughed and shook her head. “I have to admit, when you told me your plan, I thought you’d lost your mind,” she said. “All those Primas in the basement? I was scared you’d go crazy with rage and slit their throats overnight. But you were right. Hit them hard enough and they’ll come looking for you instead of the other way around.”
The witch shook her head. “I don’t understand,” she said.
“Priestess Evers is not an easy woman to find,” I said. “I’ve been searching for information on her house and her hideouts for months with no luck. Everyone was too afraid to talk to me. Even her hunters would rather die than face her anger. But then, thanks to a new friend, I started thinking what might happen if I made my actions impossible to ignore.”
I walked in a circle around the witch.
“Killing hunters was one thing,” I said. “Annoying, maybe, but not extreme. Not when the priestess could just make more. But taking away her Primas? Crippling her entire network of gates? Now that was something she wouldn’t be able to overlook.”
“You knew I would be here,” she whispered.
“After we’d captured all the most loyal and powerful Primas, it was only a matter of time,” I said. “I waited in the one place I knew would be safe. Venom. And sure enough, you came to me. You set your trap and foolishly expected me to come alone and vulnerable.”
“I’m not going to tell you where she is,” the witch said, lifting her chin. “You can kill me right now. I don’t care. I’ll never betray my mother.”
“You won’t have to,” I said. I lifted her arm. The beetle charm dangled just beneath the edge of her silk blouse. “I know exactly where to find her. I just needed the key to get in.”
The witch’s eyelids fluttered closed and she fell back against the leather couch as the truth finally sunk in.
“Now, if you’ll kindly release Jereth from that block of stone, we can be on our way,” I said. “I have someone very important to rescue.”
At Least I Will Die Fighting
Nurs
e Melody finished her rounds and locked us in our room, but I couldn’t sleep. It was too dangerous to sneak out tonight or even to use my astral projection. I was exhausted from the last time I’d used it, so I probably wouldn’t have gotten very far, anyway.
I turned my body toward Judith and our eyes met through the darkness.
How much had she seen earlier in the courtyard? Had she seen the tiny birds? Was she going to tell on me again?
It was stupid to risk it. I never should have cast my magic in the courtyard where anyone could be watching.
But Mary Ellen had looked so sad. I had the feeling she’d had a very hard life, but that inside her there was a sweet girl with a good heart. She didn’t deserve to be here. None of us did.
I had to figure out how I was going to escape this place, and if I had the chance, I would take as many girls with me as I could.
If Judith had seen me cast that spell, she was a ticking time bomb. One word from her to any of the nurses, and I would be in serious trouble. If the punishment for simply leaving my room in the middle of the night was shock treatments, what would they do if they learned I’d been casting magic?
The things I knew put everything they’d built here in danger. They wouldn’t allow it, no matter how important I was to them.
I needed a plan. Just in case. And if things got bad or it seemed someone knew what I could do, I would leave. I would find a way.
Heels clacked against the floor in the hallway, the footsteps fast and frantic.
I sat straight up in bed, my heart leaping into my throat.
“Judith?” I asked, my voice a strangled cry.
She pulled her covers up around her neck. “I didn’t tell anyone, I swear,” she said. “I didn’t say a word about what you did.”
I flipped my head toward Mary Ellen, who was now sitting up on the other side of the room. She shook her head furiously, her black hair flying around her.
“What’s going on?” Nora asked. “Harper?”
I closed my eyes and tried to think, but the footsteps were growing closer. Faster.
Forgotten Darkness Page 25
