“Like necromancy.” I put the book away in my pocket. How my clothes still existed here, I had no idea. “To summon a person, you have to add their name to the summoning spell. Same with dark magic, Vale magic…”
“Dark magic?” echoed Ivy. “You didn’t. Did you? Tell me you didn’t summon worse than a hellhound.”
“No. Why, is there worse than hellhounds?”
“Yes, but I think you need a different spell for the really nasty sort. Not just the Vale. There are whole dimensions with no life in them… I shouldn’t be giving you ideas.”
“I’m not the sort of person who summons monsters without a plan, don’t worry. Things have a tendency to spin out of control wherever the book’s involved.”
Her mouth quirked. “I can tell I’m going to have my work cut out helping you.”
“Did you just volunteer to train me?” My voice rose in surprise. Not that I didn’t want to work with Ivy, but I’d assumed by default that I was way out of her league as far as possible mentees went.
“Sure,” Ivy said. “There was no one around to explain this shit to me, and I spent ten years running from it. You should get back to River. He seems to really care about you.”
“Yeah, he does.” Wow. Ten years? That’d teach me to make assumptions.
She smiled. “Treasure it. Trust me, there are some things better than all this power.”
The realm of death faded around us, bearing us back to the land of the living.
19
I blinked awake. I was cold again, but not unbearably so. I lay on my back, on a fold-out bed. The room appeared to be an infirmary, and the bustling noises around me and strangers hurrying in and out told me the injured from the battle were being brought in. Not the necromancer guild, but the mages’ headquarters, judging by the wood panelling on the walls. Beside my bed lay the rucksack I’d brought with me containing my spare clothes, which Morgan or Hazel must have fetched from the library. I didn’t see either of them in here.
A loud commotion drew my attention to the corner. Bloodied and injured shifters were restrained and strapped to the hospital beds. Ah. They’re still out of control. Most were wolf or fox shifters, but some were larger, unfamiliar furred animals. Others were partially shifted with their hands or feet wrapped in claws or paws. Anger simmered in the air, almost a kind of magic itself.
I managed to sit upright, my body aching like I’d run a marathon.
“Nice to see you in the land of the living,” said Jas. She and Lloyd sat at another of the fold-out beds—or rather, she half-lay on one of them, while he applied a healing spell to her injured leg.
“You too. I thought you were probably too close to that wraith.” I grabbed the water glass someone had thoughtfully left on my bedside table and downed it.
“No fatal injuries this time, eh, Jas?” Lloyd said.
Jas swatted him in the arm. “Cut it out. People are hurt.”
“Including you,” I said. “How did you fight that wraith? What was the…?” I didn’t know how to explain what I’d seen. The weird shimmering around her spirit that seemed oddly different from the other necromancers.
“The what?” she asked. Her tone, however, suggested the subject was closed—and more to the point, there was no sign of River.
“Nothing. Where’s—?”
‘There.” She pointed feebly over Lloyd’s shoulder at another bed, where River lay unconscious.
Lady Montgomery stood beside him, her gaze catching mine as she realised I was awake. “You killed it?” she asked.
I hurried to her side, the best I could with my legs still shaky. “Banished it. Ivy helped. Is River okay?”
“He’s still healing. The person who summoned the wraith was found dead at the site of the summoning,” Lady Montgomery said. “It seems he was used as a sacrifice in the summoning.”
“Blood magic,” I said, before remembering I’d never actually told her about the times I’d used it in crisis. “Half-faerie?”
A moment passed, in which she gave me an assessing look. “Yes. Your brother has been helping to track potential suspects.”
“Are he and Hazel okay, then?”
“Yes. She’s helping him with the tracking.”
I breathed out. Everyone was safe. Nobody had died. Yet why did I feel like this was a prelude to something worse? If only I knew what was going on in Faerie.
I sat down on the bed again, reaching to squeeze River’s hand. No response. I slipped into the spirit realm. There, I could see the glowing outline of his spirit.
“River?” I reached out and my hand passed right through him. “You scared me.”
“Don’t worry about me.” The glow died down so I could focus on his face. Death’s light made his golden hair look like a halo.
“I couldn’t not worry about you. Why are you here? You can’t be…” I couldn’t say dying.
“I’m checking this realm while my body is resting.”
“How do you do that?” I waved a hand at the spirit realm in general. “You’re sound asleep in the waking world. When I do the same, I start floating off.”
“You haven’t had as much practise,” he said. “I don’t mean skill, I mean spending days or nights wandering this place. You learn how and when to disconnect. But I think the problem with that book is that it pushes you to the brink every time you use it. You burn out.”
“Maybe you’re right.” I reached for his hand, slipping my fingers through his. I concentrated on the sensation, and he felt more solid by the second. At the same time, I became conscious of the book’s presence glowing in my pocket.
The spirit realm changed, showing forested paths, transparent and empty.
He hissed out a breath. “The Vale.”
“The place itself isn’t scary,” I said. “It’s kind of sad. Empty. They made it this way on purpose. Maybe there’s a way to undo the damage. If they can make themselves immortal, they can fix their own realm, right?”
“I don’t think so,” said River. “They have no desire to face their own shameful actions.”
I blinked, then thought back. “Lord Daival?”
“He’s one of the most respected members of the Court. He captured and tortured humans openly and suffered no punishment for it. This is what we’re up against. If we expose the Seelie Queen… I’m not sure even her guilt will be enough.”
“Then I’ll show them this.” I held up the book. “The talisman scared them. It’s all we’ve got. They only understand power.” I quickly told him what Ivy and I had discussed. “Its power isn’t Sidhe—it might not be superior, considering the Sidhe killed and kicked out their gods, but it’s terrifying to them, and that’s enough.”
“The Sidhe kill what scares them. Even death.” His eyes flickered with emotion. “I have faith in you, Ilsa, but the Sidhe—when I was first invited into the Court to claim the talisman my father wished to offer me, I was eighteen, and my head was full of ideas and impressions of the Summer Court and what I could offer it. The Court shattered those illusions within minutes of my arrival.” He took in a breath. “They have no need to desire change, only fear it, and the best we can do is protect ourselves and those we care about from the aftershocks of their selfish decisions.”
“We can do more.” I remembered Ivy’s words, and imagined a shattering cauldron of blood. “They’re not the only ones with magic. And they’ll never be able to do this.” I gripped his half-transparent hand tighter. “You wanted to give them the truth, right? Prove how powerful the Vale is? This is how we do it. Get straight to the Seelie King by any means possible.”
He looked down at our interlocked hands. “We’ll discuss it later. I think I’ve worried my mother enough.”
“You worried me, too.”
“I never thanked you for saving us,” he murmured, his free hand trailing down my arm. I felt the flicker of his touch before it faded, and so did we.
A moment later, I blinked awake in my own body. The shifters’ yowling ha
d quietened down, at least, but there were far too many people around for my liking. River sat up and walked to Lady Montgomery, where I took a moment to reorient myself in the land of the living. By now half the hospital beds were empty, witch healing spells having taken care of the worst injuries. The raging shifters had mostly left, too. I got to my feet, looking down at my clothes. Muddy, stained with River’s blood, but I’d suffered no injuries of my own. River’s clothes were in a worse state, shredded and streaked with blood. He looked like he’d been wrestling with the shifters, and had won.
“Is your wound okay?” I asked, as he turned away from Lady Montgomery and walked to me.
“Yes, of course it is. I keep spare clothes at the guild, but my place is closer.”
“Your flat?” I hadn’t seen it, because we’d never even had a proper date. “Can’t you just glamour it off?”
He gave me a tired smile. “Honestly, I’m all out of glamour for a while. Come with me? My shower has warm water.”
“Warm water. Tempting.”
So was he. Without Death clouding my vision, I could see him, clearly as he saw me. Battered, tired, and so damn tempting. Death had come too close to cutting him off from me forever.
I grabbed my rucksack and hurried after him out the doors.
Outside, you wouldn’t have thought a wraith had tried to lay waste to the city. Most of the debris had already gone, while the damaged buildings were surrounded by cloaked figures I thought were necromancers until I got close enough to see them levitating the damaged bricks. Telekinetic mages. Must be a useful power. There wasn’t much River or I could do to help with the clean-up, so we made our way from the mages’ guild to River’s ground-floor flat.
“I still haven’t told my housemates where I’ve been for the last few weeks,” I said, following him inside. The single-room flat was a little small but otherwise cosy. A bookshelf stacked with paperbacks also housed several withered plants, while dust covered everything in a faint layer.
“You can shower first,” River said.
“Thanks.” As much as my head had been filled with different ideas about what we might do in there, there was nothing remotely sexy about mud, blood, and bits of zombie.
Clothes discarded, I stepped into the shower. Not quite as intense as the house’s one, but I’d take what I could get. I let the warm water soak into me and exhaled in a sigh.
“Should I be joining you in there?” River’s voice came from outside. “I’d like to know what you’re doing that makes you feel that good.”
I tipped my head back and moaned. “Nothing makes me feel as good as a warm shower.”
“Is that a challenge?”
Grinning, I finished rinsing my hair and switched the water off. “Maybe. Want me to clean your wounds?”
“There aren’t any. There’s a lot of blood.”
I grabbed a towel. Flirting was one thing, but the shower was barely big enough to stand in. “Sorry, River, but anyone who’s had sex in here must be a contortionist.”
“Who said anything about sex?” He arched a brow as I walked out wrapped in a towel. “I was thinking more along the lines of me touching you. Massaging the pain away. Making your toes curl with pleasure. That type of thing.”
“You mean, what you did in the forest, but with fewer clothes and no interruptions.” I strode all the way to the bed. “Then you’d better hurry up and wash that blood off.”
He groaned, but ducked into the bathroom. I shamelessly admired the view from the back, inhaling the earthy scent of his magic. The formerly decaying house plants had come to life again, sprouting flowers I didn’t know. Summer magic—pretty but deadly sharp. And so much more.
I moved my blood-soaked clothes to my rucksack, and the talisman fell out. Water dripped onto the book from my wet hair and disappeared as though sucked into nothingness. I’d gained more control over it in the last fight, but not enough. I closed my eyes and tried to push the thoughts away. I was here for River. The damned book didn’t matter a bit.
River reappeared in the blink of an eye. His hair was wet and tousled, falling over his pointed ears. Not so much as a blemish touched his lightly tanned skin, which was fairly noticeable because he was wearing only a towel. My mouth went dry and I folded my arms across my chest, suddenly overcome with self-consciousness.
He reached out, grabbed the book, and tossed it onto the bedside table.
“River, that thing contains the power of an ancient god.”
“It’s getting in the way of the view.” He ran his hand lightly through my hair and kissed me on the mouth. Oh. “As I said…” His hand slid down my spine, under the towel. “Touching you.” Both hands dug into my shoulders, kneading the cramped muscles. “Massaging the pain away…”
“Can we skip straight to the pleasure?” I let the towel fall and wrapped my arms around his back, pressing my damp skin against his. It was his turn to moan, kissing me back, fiercely, deeply. His hands explored my skin, not pausing, stroking the fire inside me. He nudged my legs apart, working his way up my inner thighs. I tried to hang on, but he was relentless, each stroke bringing me closer to the brink, each soft tease threatening to destroy my grip on sanity. Slowly, mercilessly, until my bones turned to water and I writhed beneath him, gasping for breath. As his fingers delved into me, pleasure exploded up my spine and I cried his name into the pillow.
Then I saw the towel had fallen away, revealing every inch of him. I reached for his erection and he groaned. “Ilsa.”
“Condoms?”
“Top drawer.” He spoke through clenched teeth.
“You knew you’d have me here eventually, huh.” I one-handedly opened the drawer and removed a condom, momentarily letting go in order to slide it onto him.
“I was counting on it,” he breathed, positioning himself above me.
“Then I’d better make it worth your while.” My fists clenched on the bedsheets as he thrust into me.
We found our rhythm, and time disappeared, leaving only pleasure, a warm hot tingling sensation running from head to toe.
We lay tangled together, and he kissed the top of my head. “I wish we could stay here a week.”
“I don’t see why not.” I stretched out on the bed, wrapping my legs around his. “There. You can’t move.”
He twitched, then effortlessly slid one leg free, gliding on top of me.
“Cheater,” I murmured against his mouth. “I’ll make you scream this time.”
There was a buzzing noise. He leaned and picked up his phone from the table. “My mother is rather perturbed by my sudden absence.”
“Crap. I bet Hazel and Morgan are, too. They’ve been playing their part at making this city safe while we’ve been…”
“Taking care of important business.” He rolled off me. “Unfortunately, the Mage Lords seem to have decided we’re to accompany them to dinner with the council tonight.”
“Yeah, it’s not a date if there are a dozen terrifying mages around,” I said. “Might be a good time to announce our relationship to your mother…”
“She knows,” he said. “I told her.”
I tilted my head. “Before you told me?”
“You told me yourself, not in so many words.” He kissed me on the mouth once again and walked to the closet in the corner. “We can’t get out of this one. Sorry.”
“And then we’re coming back here?”
He grinned. “I’m frankly intrigued to find out what I can do to you in that shower.”
20
I didn’t manage to corner Hazel and Morgan until the following morning. The council had called another meeting, more exclusive this time, so the four of us weren’t invited. We met at the witch-run Cassandra’s Cafe instead, where I picked the table in the far corner so nobody would overhear us.
“I can’t believe they didn’t invite us to the meeting after all we did in the battle yesterday,” Hazel said, her mouth full of pancake. “Dicks.”
“Actually, I think that m
ight work in our favour.” I poked at my food, my appetite noticeably absent. “The council… I’d say they’d work great as a backup force if this goes wrong, but none of them can actually set foot in Faerie without being at a huge disadvantage. Except Ivy. But I think the Erlking will only speak to Hazel or me alone.”
I’d thought it over. One Sidhe had authority over all the others—and was also in a position to send the Summer Gatekeeper off to the Vale without anyone else knowing about it. He might be hidden behind layers of security, but there must be a backup measure put into place in case anything happened to the gate. How the enemy had stolen it in the first place was still a mystery to me.
“He won’t speak to—” River began.
“Any of us,” I said. “We’ve been through this. Trust me. Ivy will come and help us after the meeting.”
I hadn’t told them my plan yet, mostly because I wasn’t sure it’d work myself. Just getting into the faerie realm itself seemed a tall order. And I wasn’t the only one who’d been scheming.
“Necromancy,” said Morgan.
“No,” said Hazel. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“It’s a good plan.”
“No, it’s reckless and suicidal.”
I rolled my eyes at them. They’d been arguing over the same points since after the battle yesterday. Morgan had decided that since he’d raised the dead in the Grey Vale, the Courts could use a shock of their own.
“I didn’t mean zombies this time,” Morgan said. “Someone died there, right? Can’t we bring them back to testify?”
“You think the Sidhe would stop screaming at the sight of a ghost long enough to listen?” said Hazel. “That’s if they don’t turn you into a hummingbird.”
“Actually…” I began.
“Don’t encourage him.” Hazel swiped the remainder of my pancake from my plate. “Hey—Ivy’s here. Must have been a quick meeting.”
I climbed to my feet, spotting Ivy weaving her way through the café. She turned heads even in here, probably because she hadn’t bothered to disguise the fact that she was heavily armed.
The Gatekeeper's Curse- The Complete Trilogy Page 61
