Magic of the Void: A Reverse Harem Witch Series (Winslow Witch Chronicles Book 1)

by Lena Mae Hill

  Twenty minutes later, Sagely’s eyes snapped open. A strange smell had entered the trailer, damp and scorched at once, but it was not in the air around them. It was inside her, bubbling up. The smell of Viziri. The bound parcels of magic strained inside her, yanking her to her feet. She was being sucked in, as if he really was a black hole. A black hole intent on consuming her magic and leaving her for dead.

  “Sagely,” Ingrid cried, leaping to her feet. But she was already opening the door, stumbling out into the hot, dry yard. She managed to overcome the pull and stop, grinding her heels into the red dirt. It was not just Viziri. The whole coven was in the yard, but she couldn’t sense a single one of them. He’d done something to them.

  Quill started down the steps behind Sagely but she held up a hand, warning him and the others. As soon as she saw Yordine’s eyes, she knew that she was no longer on their side. Her eyes met Sagely’s, but there was nothing behind them, just a blank, black stare with no recognition.

  “He’s controlling them,” she yelled. One of the shifters leapt from the bed of his truck, whipped his shirt over his head, ripped off his shorts, and turned into a stag. As his huge antlers pierced into the nearest witch, Sagely tried not to cry out. That was someone from her coven. One of her friends, her sisters. But she was now controlled—an empty-eyed zombie and an enemy.

  The witches started throwing magic at the shifters, who began shifting into animal form and charging. None of the witches had their familiars, so it was animal against human. Screams and snarls echoed through the yard. Yordine bared her teeth and leapt for Sagely. Sagely spun away, delivering a side-kick to the Majori’s head before she was thrown to the ground. Quill leapt in front of her to protect her while she clambered to her feet. She couldn’t see what had knocked her down, and a second later, she was slammed down again.

  “He’s controlling you,” Raina screamed behind them. “Resist his magic.”

  “Help her,” Quill shouted, throwing Majori Romero across the yard with a volley of fire. “I’ll hold them off as long as I can.”

  “How?” Shaneesha asked, leaping from the door to crouch over Sagely.

  Suddenly the Wise One’s voice slipped into their minds. “Void magic can be combatted with all magic and no magic.”

  “How?” Sagely cried as she was jerked to her feet. She slammed into Quill’s back, and he stumbled forward, just enough to be hit with a blast of gravel that pierced into his flesh like shrapnel. He sucked in a breath and steadied her with one hand.

  “She’s telling us to fight with all magic and no magic,” Shaneesha said. “What the hell does that mean?”

  “Use all our magic?” Raina asked, looking frantic as she grabbed hold of Sagely to stop her from pitching forward.

  Something dark descended over her mind like a funeral shroud. His magic surrounded her, sank into her.

  No, no, no!

  She didn’t want his magic, but her void magic sucked it up like a hungry sponge.

  Suddenly, her fist flew out and punched Quill in the gut. He doubled over as she fought against her own body. Viziri was a puppet master, and she was now one of his puppets.

  Oh, hell no! She would not be controlled, would not be helpless.

  “All the magic,” she cried. “All the elements. Let’s see what happens.”

  A look shot around their little circle as the puppet witches advanced on them.

  Seven of us, a small army of them.

  But she could tell she was on to something.

  “We’ve never done it with a void in the circle,” Shaneesha said. “But that bastard isn’t getting one more witch tonight. Let’s do this.”

  She grabbed hold of Raina’s hand, and they began to chant an incantation.

  Sagely swung around, a knife-hand strike ready for Quill’s throat. He ducked under her and gripped her in a bear hug, pinning her arms.

  “Willow,” he yelled. “You said you’d always help. We need you.”

  Two trucks bounced into the drive, slamming to a halt in a spray of gravel, and a dozen more witches jumped out. To Sagely’s relief, they had clear, normal eyes, and their familiars in tow. They honed in on the circle around Sagely, and she felt a surge of power as they joined their familiar magic with hers.

  Suddenly, clouds appeared out of nowhere, roiling across the sky. Ingrid and Eli huddled close, holding hands. Ingrid took Raina’s free hand, joining the chant. Quill leapt in front, blocking a ball of magic from one creepy-eyed warlock after another.

  As the storm swirled overhead, they came faster, angrier, agitated by the chant. A charge built in the air, and the trees whipped in a sudden wind. Like the feeling they’d had earlier, the day had gone dark and cold.

  “Let ‘em have it, Shaneesha,” Quill yelled over his shoulder, ducking a witch’s fireball. “Hurry, I can’t hold them off much longer on my own.”

  Out of the tossing trees, a dozen tiny people floated down, as light as dandelion fluff. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” Fox said, leaping into the air and crashing his heel into a warlock’s blank, black eyes.

  “The void is in them,” the Wise One said in Sagely’s head. “Unlock it within yourself, and you can share their magic once again.”

  Anyone with void magic could share with her. Almost all the witches had drunk the brew with her magic. She’d be like them, sisters again. If only she could unlock it.

  Shit. This was her fault. They’d drank the brew at her initiation, taking a tiny bit of her magic. That was why Viziri could control them, and he wasn’t controlling the group around her.

  Except Willow.

  When she looked back, Willow’s eyes were rolled back in her head, flickering from white to black. Her pure, untouched goodness was now polluted with the void.

  Sagely fought against her puppet-body. “You’re part of this,” she yelled to Willow as her hair whipped across her face in the swirling wind. “Without you, the circle won’t be complete. We need you. You’re the fourth element.”

  Willow blinked dumbly at her, sight coming back to her eyes after a moment. “And you’re the fifth.”

  “Complete the circle,” said the tall guy from the vision in the mirror. One of the boys who’d attacked Willow. He sets a hand on her back and pushed her forward. “Show us what you can do, Goldie.”

  Willow hesitated, then stepped forward. Eli, who had been working on the wind with what mastery of the element he had, fell back to let Willow take his place. She clasped hands with Shaneesha on one side and Ingrid on the other.

  But as soon as Eli dropped the hands of the others, his eyes darkened.

  “No,” Ingrid screamed, letting go of the others’ hands.

  “There’s no time,” Raina said firmly, grabbing her hand again.

  “But it’s Eli,” Ingrid said.

  “It’s too late,” Shaneesha said as Eli mechanically walked into the skirmish.

  “Let’s hope this works,” Raina said, resuming her chant.

  As Willow began to chant with them, the wind, which had been kicked up by the other witches, quadrupled in strength. Dirt seared into their skin, and Sagely struggled to keep her eyes open. The four elemental witches circled her, their hands locked together so she couldn’t step through to join Viziri. Their chant seemed to hypnotize her.

  “Four is the perfect number. Four is whole and complete, the square of a square. Four directions, four seasons, four elements. Join to protect our sister who is without element, without season, without direction. Make us five, a circle instead of square, as our earth mother is a circle, the true perfection and union of all.”

  A bolt of lightning seared from the sky, blinding white as it ripped the trees and fried the road at the end of the drive. Several witches screamed. The wind ceased, except for around the circle of chanting witches, where it began to spin like a cyclone. Something inside Sagely cracked, and she screamed, too.

  From what seemed far away, Quill’s panicked voice asked if she was okay. Her body was under h
er control again, collapsed to one knee on the ground. Inside her, she could feel the void magic loosening, stretching out into every limb, every pore. She stood, blackness swirling around her, radiating from her in every direction. For one moment, the power of it surged through her, and she almost choked on it. She felt invincible, as if she could squash everyone on the planet like a bug. Giddy laughter threatened to bubble from her lips.

  Her friends gasped and dropped their hands from the circle as she stepped forward. The sea of hypnotized witches parted, and a figure stepped through to meet her. Not only were his eyes void and black, but his entire figure was, just as she remembered. Even in broad daylight, he was so dark that she could see nothing but his shape and the black cloak whipping behind him in the wind. He wasn’t radiating power, as she was, he had consumed it, and it had all turned inwards.

  Dark clouds roiled overhead, and thunder cracked, shaking the ground beneath their feet.

  “So you’re the one with the void magic,” he said, his voice a leathery hiss. “I’ve come for what’s mine.”

  “Come and get it, you coward.” Sagely spit the words at him. “You killed my pregnant mother to get the magic that she possessed. Now you turn my coven into your sheep and send them to the slaughter instead of fighting one small woman by yourself. What kind of warlock are you?”

  She was yanked forward by a vortex of blackness, as if he would vacuum her into the void of himself. But she ground her heels in and remembered the words of the Wise One. She called upon the other elements she’d learned, on the earth to hold her firm.

  “You won’t even show your face,” she snarled at Viziri.

  “You want to see my face?” he asked, sounding amused.

  Around him, all the witches in Sagely’s coven had gone preternaturally still. He had stopped using them as puppets so he could focus on her. But she was not alone in this fight. Behind her, she could still feel the swirling, buzzing magic of her friends, her sisters, her coven. Her family.

  Suddenly and without warning, the blackness that enveloped Viziri flickered. Then it began to melt away, and he came into view like a polaroid photo. He looked…familiar.

  He was aged, but she recognized the square jaw and dark blonde hair combed back into a widow’s peak. She’d seen him kill her parents. That was why. And then she felt a wash of red fury flash across her field of magic.

  A ball of pure black emptiness shot from Viziri’s hand and crashed into Quill’s chest, and he fell to his knees. With a squeal, his mink fell to the ground, limp as death. Quill’s magic went completely dark, as if a light had been extinguished. Not like the void magic the others had, but the darkness of a dark warlock full of shame and hatred and murderous intent.

  “What’s the matter?” Viziri sneered. “Stand up and fight your father like a real man.”

  But Quill didn’t move. He had fallen to one knee, his head bowed, shaking slowly back and forth. Sagely could see the muscles in his arms straining against what he wanted to do. She could feel the infinite depths of his rage and shame. And she could see the ball of void magic searing into his chest, towards his heart, like a coal burning through his flesh. Blood seeped from the wound, and she crouched beside him.

  “Oh, this is just too pathetic,” Viziri snarled. “Give me your magic and I’ll go. You’re not worth it.”

  “Quill,” Sagely gasped, taking his face between her hands. His magic only flickered towards hers. His eyes were still green, though. He was still himself. He hadn’t been controlled, just injured.

  “What’s happening to him?” Willow cried, hovering with her hand over her heart. “His magic is dark. He’s completely consumed.”

  “He’s not consumed,” Sagely said firmly. “He’s still himself.”

  Himself, but without magic that could help them.

  “Go,” Quill said through clenched teeth. “You’re a fighter, Sagely. You have the void magic to defeat him. You’re the only one who can.”

  “But you’re hurt.”

  “Don’t stay for me,” he said, his fingers straining until they cracked the dirt apart under his feet and crumbled the hard-packed soil. Pitch black smoke swirled from the symbols on his ring. “I can’t protect you. My magic can only destroy something now.”

  “So help me destroy him.”

  He clutched the dirt swallowing his hands like it was the only thing saving him right now. “If I failed, I’d destroy you instead.”

  “Then don’t fail.”

  “I don’t have void magic to fight him with. If I kill my own father, I’m no better than he is. Maybe worse.” He tipped sideways, clutching at the black nothingness eating into him. Raina and Shaneesha rushed to hold him up.

  “Go,” he said again, wincing above the pain. “I’ll never forgive myself if you don’t at least try. But don’t you dare die on me.”

  “Then you can’t either,” Sagely said, tears streaming down her cheeks. “You better not. Promise.”

  “I’ll hold on.”

  Without another word, Sagely stood to face the father of the man she loved. “All right, old man,” she said. “It’s me you’re after. So fight me.”

  Forty-One

  Viziri’s magic wrenched her forward, and this time, she waved the other witches back when they reached out their magic.

  “That’s more like it,” he said. “I knew you must have a little faerie in you.”

  “Less talk,” she growled, raising her fists and getting into fighting stance. “More action.”

  “That’s cute,” he said. “Just like a faery. For a minute, I thought the daughter of that bitch I married might be the fae-witch who had it. But I should have known she could never raise a warrior with all that peace, love, and happiness bullshit. Even my own son cowers like a beaten dog before me.”

  “Stop hurting my friends,” she said. “Now you deal with me.”

  Striking out with faerie swiftness, she slammed her fist into his jaw. He stumbled back, shock crossing his face. Apparently, warlocks weren’t used to physical attacks. He expected her to fight with only magic.

  “And now look at him,” Viziri said, spitting blood in the dirt at her feet. “He’s a dark warlock, just like his father. What is it they say about apples falling far from the tree?”

  “He’s nothing like you,” she growled, striking out again. This time, Viziri was ready, and he grabbed her arm and slammed her to the ground. Suddenly, she was back on the roadside where he’d first attacked her. Completely bewildered and injured, expecting help, not an attack. She was not that naïve anymore.

  She leapt to her feet, but he hurled her down again, his magic crushing her into the dirt. Squirming and then kicking in fury, she tried to rise, but she couldn’t. He held his hand over her, pressing her into the dirt with some invisible force. She was a butterfly, trapped under the pin of his magic.

  All around them, the witches and warlocks of her coven stood motionless, silent witnesses. Shifters, including Willow, were nursing the wounded. The fae stood guard, knowing they couldn’t help in a battle of magic. And Quill. Quill had collapsed into the dirt. Raina was kneeling over him, trying to bring him back.

  Fury boiled through Sagely.

  “You killed my parents,” she said. “Uselessly! You didn’t even get their magic, because they already had a child. You’re nothing but a sick, power-starved psychopath.”

  Something flashed across Viziri’s face, but she couldn’t read the expression before it was replaced by a sneer. “Power is everything, foolish child,” he said. “Don’t you feel it? When the void magic was unlocked within you, didn’t you want to use it? That’s power. Your coven may simper on about love and peace, but the reality is, power runs this world. The powerful have always risen to the top, and they always will.”

  Viziri leaned over her and grasped her throat, his grip crushing. He was right. He was powerful, and he was going to kill her. All the love on earth couldn’t save her now. Sucking in a deep breath, he flickered to pitch black
ness again. In answer, the blackness swirling around her streamed into his mouth. He was literally consuming her magic. Though she tried to hold back, after a minute, she couldn’t. She screamed.

  Just as she thought she’d lose her mind, something dark and urgent pressed into her. Instantly, she recognized it. Fox’s energy. She grasped at it, opening herself to their connection while trying to stay closed to Viziri. A rush of Fox’s naughty, playful, fierce energy washed over her, and she found a dark hole in it. One of the bound magic parcels. She pull one into herself. But just as quickly, something ripped a hole inside her, and the parcel was gone. She screamed again.

  “That’s a neat little trick,” Viziri said, his voice echoing from inside the swirling black of his form. “Where’d that magic come from?”

  She shook her head, grasping at his iron hand, but his fingers tightened further. She was losing consciousness. The words from the book came back to her, floated through her head along with what little else she knew about this magic.

  Void magic can be battled with all magic, and no magic.

  Every magic can be defeated by its opposite.

  The opposite of nothing is something.

  The opposite of struggle is surrender.

  The opposite of dark is light.

  Suddenly, she knew what he was doing. He was trying to piss her off, to make her void magic dark like his. Like he’d made Quill.

  Quill. Her magic pulsed weakly in his direction, searching for his familiar, comforting presence. His strength that could save her, like she’d saved him once, when he’d become her intended. Could he send her some of his magic now?

  Raina’s words were faint, faraway. “It’s not working,” she cried, panicked. “He has no magic left that responds to mine. It’s all dark.”

  “Help him,” Ingrid cried.