“It sure sounded like you.” He blinked. “Wait. That noise I heard before…” He stared into space for a moment.
“Wait—can you read the thoughts of the intruder?” I asked. “A faerie, hiding… looking for a way to sneak out without being caught? Or attacking someone?”
He kept staring. Then words tore from his mouth—“Meet your end, Gatekeeper.” He fell back to the floor, writhing and convulsing.
“Shit!” I yelled. “Someone help him.”
River grabbed Morgan’s shoulders to steady him, but Morgan pulled himself free, groaning. “Ow…” He squeezed his eyes shut. “You—it’s upstairs…”
“Upstairs? Where?”
He slumped back onto the floor. “It’s like… a library.”
“The library,” said River, backing away. “There’s a window up there the enemy might use to escape.”
I ran after him, ignoring the others’ shouts. I’d been too preoccupied with Morgan to notice we’d drawn a crowd. But I didn’t dare stop. If the creature knew Morgan had noticed it, it’d disappear, or worse, attack someone else.
“Where’s the library?” I asked River.
“First door ahead,” he said over his shoulder. I hadn’t a hope of keeping up with a half-faerie, but I kept moving, switching my spirit sight on the instant we reached the top of the stairs. Greyness overlaid everything, and within it…
“Sluagh,” I muttered. “I think. Some form of shapeshifter. Definitely fae.”
“No doubt.” River kept up the pace, heading down unfamiliar corridors. I gripped my iron knife and spirit sensor, which went off with a loud beep. Bit late for that.
A large room lined with bookshelves greeted us, and within, a shimmering in the air indicated a faerie glamour. A powerful one. I narrowed my eyes, tapping into the book’s power, and threw iron filings at the shimmering light.
The light split open, growing into the form of a giant shaggy beast. My hands glowed white, and the beast cringed away.
“How did you pretend to be human?” I snarled at it. “Who are you working for?”
“I can answer that,” said a soft voice, and a figure stepped out from behind the shelf. He was tall, with pointed ears and silver hair, and cold blue light flooded his hands. “That ability of yours is somewhat inconvenient, Gatekeeper.”
Winter magic streamed from his hands, icy cold, aimed at River.
10
I jumped in the way of the faerie’s attack, but collided with the sluagh’s huge dog-like body. Teeth clamped down on my arm, and the iron slid from my grip. Ow.
My sight flickered and greyness folded in. Three bright lights shone within the spirit world— River, grappling with the other half-faerie, and a horrible clawed thing trapped within the light. So that’s what a sluagh looked like without its shapeshifter form. Grotesque, trapped between life and death. I blinked away the greyness, hitting the spirit sensor with my left hand. A white mass exploded from its end, striking the sluagh. It recoiled, screeching, but didn’t disappear. Concentrated salt isn’t enough, huh. I grabbed my knife instead, white-hot bolts of pain making my eyes water. My right arm hung limply at my side. Not good.
I stabbed, but my hand sailed right through it. Bloody creature had turned transparent again. Swearing, I slipped out of my body, and the pain faded away. Both my hands worked just fine as a ghost. The beast yowled in surprise as I dived at it and dug my fingers into its fur, but its spirit remained stubbornly attached to its body.
I let go, floating out of reach. As it registered that my body was undefended, the beast’s attention slipped, and I crashed back into my body, lunging forwards. This time, my knife sank into its skull. The beast sank to its front, turning transparent, evaporating into wisps of smoke. The knife came free in my hand, and a fresh wave of pain shook my right arm.
Close by, River had managed to pin down the other faerie, both of them bleeding. As I watched, River slammed the heel of his palm into the faerie’s temple. His eyes rolled back in his skull and he collapsed. Gripping him with one hand, River hauled him to his feet. Blood dripped down his arm and face. “Bastard,” he said through clenched teeth. His face paled at the sight of my bleeding arm. “Shit. Hang on.”
“Can’t do much else.” I staggered to my feet, swaying a little. “Tell me sluagh bites aren’t as lethal as hellhound ones.”
“It bit you?” He tightened his grip on the faerie. “Can you walk?”
“Yeah. Ow.” My whole arm flared up with pain. “Got any healing spells handy?”
“Not on me, no. I should have brought my sword.”
At that moment, Lady Montgomery rushed into the room. “What in damnation is going on?”
“We caught the trespasser,” River said, indicating the half-faerie. “Ilsa is injured. This guy needs to be locked up and interrogated.”
“I’ll take care of that,” she said coldly. “You take Ilsa to the infirmary. How did you know he was here?”
“My brother picked up on him. Psychically.” I swayed, and River caught my non-injured arm. “Can I witness the interrogation?”
“Not until that arm’s taken care of,” River said, steering me away. Tension was palpable in his whole body, but it wasn’t until we were downstairs that he put an arm properly around me for balance. “You shouldn’t have gone up against that thing alone.”
“I could say the same to you. Where’s your talisman, anyway?”
“Stored upstairs,” he answered. “I don’t carry the blade here, unless I’m patrolling.”
“I thought you had to carry it everywhere.”
“Not in this realm,” he said. “Most Sidhe never leave theirs behind, but they don’t see an unsheathed weapon as a threat the way humans would if I carried it everywhere here. There’s too much iron to glamour the blade all the time, and this building is supposed to be safe.”
“I’m just surprised you can leave it behind. Talismans contain the essence of your magic… right?”
“In effect, yes. If anyone tried to steal it, things would end unpleasantly for them. Touching a talisman with the intent to claim it issues a challenge, and invites the talisman to test you. If you lose, you die.”
That snapped me back to alertness. “Wait—are you saying that if I hadn’t been judged worthy, the book would have killed me?”
“I suspect not, because it’s not a usual talisman. It’s in your family. I doubt they’d have wanted their descendants to meet an untimely death.”
“Holly wanted it,” I said. “She didn’t try to take it… nobody has. Maybe that’s why. They know it’ll destroy them.”
“Perhaps.” We reached an open door, where Lloyd and several others sat in what appeared to be a waiting room.
“Hey, Ilsa.” Lloyd waved at me. “Jas is recovering, but they got to her just in time… what happened to your arm?”
“Got bitten by a faerie creature.” I sank into an empty chair, wincing as pain jarred my injured arm. I bloody hoped it wasn’t venomous, because my family’s shield only worked on magic.
River crossed the room and knocked sharply on a door at the back. “Ilsa needs medical attention immediately.”
“Looks like you need it yourself,” said Lloyd.
“It’s just a scratch,” River said. His cloak was torn and his hands bloody, but he had healing magic, like some half-Sidhe did.
“Suppose he has faerie superpowers,” Lloyd said. “Like that thief. He knocked Jas down before I could even blink.”
A nurse handed River a witch spell and he walked over to me. “Sluagh bites aren’t deadly, so you’ll be fine once you use the spell.”
I turned the witch charm over in my hands. Like Agnes’s charms, it was shaped like a bracelet, but made out of beads. I slid the bracelet onto my limp wrist and turned it once. Sensation came back to my wounded arm, and I sighed in relief. Another perk to working with the necromancers: they must have access to a local coven’s supplies of handmade witch charms. Having a witch housemate who sometimes accidentally tu
rned people green was no substitute for the real thing, especially tricky and expensive healing spells.
River examined the wound through my torn sleeve. “Do you feel all right now?”
I nodded, getting to my feet. Normally I’d be completely okay with his fingers running over my arm, but not with several layers of cloak in the way and a dozen curious onlookers. “Do you need a healing spell? He cut you.”
“Minor wounds. He was carrying a knife, but I disarmed him.”
“Good. I need to find Morgan.”
I walked out of the room, River just behind me. “Your brother wasn’t hurt,” he said.
“No…” But the way he’d collapsed when he’d heard me, through the spirit realm, made me uneasy. I didn’t have psychic abilities. So could he sense anyone at any time? He’d tracked the faerie intruder… “What’ll happen to that faerie?”
“He’ll be interrogated, and if necessary, executed. It depends if he wakes up after I hit him. I’m not used to holding back.”
“Ah. Well, if he dies, you can talk to him as a spirit, right?”
“In theory.” He paused. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
“Me, too, believe me. I’ve had enough time as a ghost to know I don’t want to make it permanent anytime soon.” I looked at my newly healed arm and realised I was still holding the spirit sensor. I slipped it into my pocket. After all, I might need it later.
“I’m going to get my talisman,” he said, climbing the nearest staircase. “I won’t make the mistake of leaving it behind again.”
He led the way to a locker room I hadn’t seen before, down the corridor from more training rooms and what looked like a full gymnasium.
“Nice,” I said. “They really pulled out all the stops in this place.”
“I wasn’t joking about giving you swordplay lessons,” River said. “You’re accomplished enough at using your necromantic power aggressively, but it wouldn’t hurt to know how to counter enemies like that faerie.”
I shrugged. “Regular swords can’t hurt faerie ghosts like your talisman can.”
River pulled the talisman itself out of a locker, running his fingertips along the hilt. I recognised the unconscious motion from the way my own talisman demanded attention, but all my mind could conjure were images of those strong hands on my bare skin. Okay, that’s enough, Ilsa.
“Are you ever going to tell me how you got it?” I asked.
“It was a gift,” River said. “What’s your aversion to fighting with swords? You’re competent enough with knives.”
“Have you seen me?” I waved my newly healed arm. “I’m not exactly a faerie, let’s put it that way.”
He frowned. “Neither are most of the people in this building. Faeries aren’t born with the ability to fight with blades, either. I learnt here.”
Hmm. I’d be a fool to turn down any opportunity to spend more time with River. “I’ll consider it.”
“I’m told that I’m a good teacher.” River sheathed the blade, and slipped off his necromancer coat. Underneath, his arm was streaked with blood, but no wounds remained. His black T-shirt and jeans were human-style and shouldn’t have looked as good on him as they did, but that was faeries for you. He saw me looking and grinned. “See something you like?”
“You really want me to answer that? I don’t think you need another ego boost, Mr ‘nobody can execute people like I can’.”
He put the sword down and stepped closer to me, close enough for the scent of his magic to overpower the lingering smell of blood and iron from the fight. A curl of golden hair fell into his eye and I suppressed the urge to brush it out of the way.
River leaned in closer, and I forgot to breathe. His mouth came down on mine, soft and warm. My lips parted underneath his, inviting him in. I’d been right—this was a million times better as a living person, not a ghost. I wouldn’t be able to feel his warm body close to mine, or smell the earthy scent of his magic. Desire sparked in my core as the kiss deepened, his hands resting on my waist. My own hands moved to his bare arms, feeling the corded strength beneath the skin. He exhaled and stepped back.
“Sorry,” he said. “I’m the one who said to play it safe. I shouldn’t have done that.”
“Do you regret it?” I knew from the heat in his eyes that he didn’t, and he didn’t back away when I pressed my lips to his again. I shivered as his fingers brushed the back of my neck, slipping under my hair, steadying my mouth against his as I deepened the kiss, brazenly. I’d had enough of holding back. We’d both come within a whisper of death’s touch, and I wouldn’t let the opportunity slip away.
He groaned softly against my mouth. “Ilsa.”
There was a buzzing noise.
He let go of me, both of us flushed and breathless, and pulled out his phone. “Interrogation’s on. We need to go.”
“Dammit.”
We were definitely breaking the rules now, and I hardly cared. If I’d ever doubted he wanted me as much as I wanted him, seeing his faerie-bright eyes glowing with heat cured that notion.
“Later,” he said, retrieving another black coat from the locker and slipping it on, strapping the sheathed blade to his waist. “If you keep looking at me like that, I’m not going to be able to concentrate on the interrogation.”
“Serve you right for taking forever to get round to the point.”
He smiled. “You mean staying in Faerie? If I’d known you missed me that much, I’d have brought you a present. Maybe those cursed faerie ballads, since you like books so much…”
“Don’t you even think about it.”
His grin turned wicked. “I’ll have to think of something else.”
Oh boy. I was in deep.
“So I take it the way to your heart isn’t through private swordplay lessons?”
I’d take private lessons in almost anything else. “I wouldn’t object to another coffee date.”
“Tomorrow.” He brushed his lips over mine. “Perhaps somewhere further from the guild. We can’t sneak off together while we’re here. There are rumours… since it was just the two of us who fought the intruder.”
“They might think we’re behind it. Honestly, I was kind of expecting that after what happened at the summit. Since the enemy apparently hasn’t changed their strategy, I’ll probably have a murder charge on my head next.”
“Not if I have anything to do with it,” he said firmly, leaning forward to brush his lips against mine again. “We’ll finish this later.”
“I’ll hold you to that.” I walked after him downstairs, the warmth of his embrace fading as we drew closer to the cold testing rooms. A number of cloaked necromancers had gathered there, and drew back as River and I walked through.
The faerie sat within a circle of candles, hands and feet cuffed, gaze slightly unfocused. He wasn’t bleeding anymore. Maybe he had healing abilities. Healing magic was more common in Seelie faeries, but the magic he’d used had been unmistakably Winter. Still, whatever skills he had, nobody could leave a spirit circle. From my brief check of the spirit world, it wasn’t just his hands that were bound, but his very soul.
“What’s your real name?” River asked. The other necromancers moved to make room. Seven of them were gathered in the room, including Lady Montgomery.
“What’s it to you?” said the faerie. He glared at Lady Montgomery, then screamed as though in horrible pain, his body convulsing on the spot. Whoa. What’s she doing to him?
“Were you trained as a necromancer?” asked Lady Montgomery. “Records show you were only a member of the guild for a few weeks. If anyone trained you, I need to know who it is.”
He groaned and shifted back into a sitting position, his body shaking. “No.”
“Liar.” Lady Montgomery stepped in close and he fell back, his head hitting the stone floor as his body shook with spasms.
“I—” he coughed, lifting his head from the stone floor. “I wasn’t—not here.”
“Were you trained in Faerie?” I asked
, wishing I could question him alone.
He shook his head. I didn’t think so… but either that faerie beast had already been here, or he’d brought it from the Vale himself. But if he already had the skills, why would he need the guild? Unless… he was working for someone else who’d sent him in as a spy. He was a half-faerie, and could lie even under duress.
Lady Montgomery said, “What was your purpose in joining the guild?”
“Information.”
“Be more specific,” she said sharply.
“Information on…” He choked on the words.
“He’s under a faerie vow,” I said suddenly, recognising the desperate terror on his face as his mind fought the bounds of the person who’d cursed him to keep their secrets to the point of death. “If he can’t tell you the mission, the person employing him ensured it. Nothing can break a faerie vow.”
“Except death,” River said quietly. “Do you want me to?”
Lady Montgomery gave him a sideways look. “I’ll handle it.”
She produced a dagger and stabbed him in the chest. The faerie screamed, his body falling back—and his ghost came out of his body. There was a resounding snap through the spirit world, and the faint glow around his body died entirely.
Holy shit. Watching someone die as a necromancer was a hell of a trip. His body fell limply to the floor while his ghost floated above.
“Now you’re dead, you’re no longer bound to tell the truth,” River said. “I’m surprised your master didn’t think of that one.”
“He did.” The faerie smirked. “You’re all fools. The fetch signals your demise, and she’ll lay waste to this pathetic little organisation.”
“You’re still trapped,” Lady Montgomery pointed out. “Who exactly is ‘she’?”
He smiled, and evaporated into mist.
There was a long silence, in which everyone watched to see if he reappeared.
“He’s gone,” Lady Montgomery said, in a cold voice. “It seems he had one last trick up his sleeve.”
“I should have known,” said River. “The person he worked for plainly knows necromancy as well as they do faerie magic.”
The Gatekeeper's Curse- The Complete Trilogy Page 31
