Knight's War: A Witch Detective Urban Fantasy (Alice Skye series Book 5)

by Taylor Aston White

  Peyton appeared in a burst of light. “Alice, what?” He recognised Chester, his hands glowing as he helped her to her feet.

  Chester stepped back, teeth bared. He spun on his heel, running further down the tunnel towards the waiting train.

  Both Alice and Peyton ran after him, but from the rush of wind she knew it was too late. They skidded to a stop just as the train disappeared into the black hole, leaving the platform empty.

  “Shit, I need to call the next station!” Peyton looked around.

  “There’s no point, he’s long gone.” Alice paced, realising he had cut her across her arm. A thin slice, barely a graze. She wiped at the blood, the wound already clotting. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”

  “Alice, who was that?” Peyton asked, anger hardening his gaze. “And don’t tell me he’s nothing. We’re connected, remember!” He thrust their connection open, his power causing her to stagger.

  Alice grit her teeth, stepping closer to the wall to allow the new crowd to wait patiently for the coming train. “He’s a Knight,” she said, keeping her voice low.

  “A what?”

  “They’re called The Knights,” she said slightly louder, the platform becoming busier once again.

  “And you’ve kept this from me?” He thrust a hand in his hair, tugging at the strands until his ears appeared. The pointy tips red.

  “It doesn’t affect my job, and we have other important things to deal with.”

  His eyes narrowed, tone hardening. “You think I care just because of Spook Squad? You insult me.” His voice seemed to growl, his faint accent thickening. “Alice, who are they? What do they want?”

  Another train arrived along with a gust of air. She waited until it had left, and the crowd had dispersed enough they had a gap until she spoke again.

  “They’re assassins dating back to King Arthur…” the rest of the words caught on her tongue. They were still in a busy train station with hundreds of people flowing around them. “Look, this isn’t the time or place to discuss this.”

  “Hey,” he growled, “we’re connected. If there’s something you need to tell me…”

  Alice clenched her jaw. “Another time, Peyton.”

  He caught her arm in an iron grip when she turned away. “No, if this is important to your safety you need to tell me.”

  “Why? This is my problem to deal with.”

  He strengthened their connection, reminding her about the vulnerability between them. A vulnerability that she had created by accident.

  “Shut it off,” she said, facing away. “I said, shut it off!” She closed her eyes when he strangled the link, her chest aching at the sudden loss.

  “Your problems are my problems.”

  Alice clenched her jaw. “I’m sorry.” He was her familiar whether either of them wanted it or not. “They’re after me because I’m an Elemental.”

  Peyton frowned, shoulders tight. “An Elemental?”

  She bit her bottom lip. “I’m a true descendant of one of the original witch families. Draco.”

  Peyton paused, his blue eyes meeting hers. The intensity of his gaze was hard to decipher. “Fuck!” he finally said when the silence stretched. “You’re destined to become War.”

  He pushed her gently back, her spine curving along the wall and out of the way of the commuters walking. An old lady sat alone on a bench beside them, her attention snapping up from her knitting. She glowered at them until Alice smiled and waved.

  “There are things you keep a secret,” Peyton whispered against her ear. “And admitting you’re an Elemental is one of them.”

  Alice shoved him back. “Don’t you dare talk to me about secrets.”

  Peyton laughed.

  “Hey, there you are!” Brady shouted, appearing beside them. “What are you doing?” He looked between them with a scowl. “Is there something going on between you two?”

  Peyton shook his head. “No, sir. We chased someone suspicious, but unfortunately they lost us on a train.”

  “Alice?” Brady asked, brows crossed. “Do you have a description?”

  “No, sir, they were too fast.”

  Brady growled. “Then stop train watching and get back to work.”

  Chapter 18

  Alice could hear the shouting from the drive, her car barely parked before their voices carried through the house.

  “Why are we even having this conversation?” Sam screamed from the kitchen when Alice pushed open the front door.

  “Because we need to talk about us!” Ash cried back. “I told you I can’t do this anymore.” Something slammed on the counter. “I don’t want to share you!”

  “Let me repeat myself then, I don’t want to be exclusive!”

  A loud bang, crash as something else clattered to the floor.

  “Now look what you’ve done!” Sam shouted once more. “Stop trying to change me, Ash. I am who I am. I’m not a one person man...”

  Alice pulled the front door closed again, leaning her forehead against the cold wood.

  She was tired.

  Her shoulder ached.

  Her chi pulsated. Underused, or overused, she wasn’t sure. But she hadn’t felt the need to recharge in months. Knees weak she slowly slid onto the floor, sitting on the step. Exhaustion was a vacuum, both physically and mentally.

  There was no break, no holiday or pause. Everything just kept coming. It was if the universe hated her, or, at the very least disliked.

  Chester was a warning she couldn’t ignore. If he had hurt someone it would have been her fault.

  The Knights were waiting for her to find something, but find what?

  “You giving up already?” A masculine voice asked. “Pathetic.”

  Alice snapped her head to the side. She hadn’t heard him walk up, but Jax stood to the side of her car, arms folded across a barely covered chest.

  Alice stuck up her middle finger. “Fuck you.”

  What’s with these men? she thought as she glared. Have they ever heard of modesty?

  “What an original come back,” he sniggered. “A car has been watching this house for the last few hours, and you’re sitting out here with a ‘kill me now!’ sign flashing above your glowing blonde head.”

  “Do you know what Jax?” she said as she stood. “For a man of few words, you sure have a lot to say.”

  Jax was one of the Guardians she didn’t trust, not that she trusted many of them. He was always quiet, a constant controlled anger that seemed to hate the world.

  He jumped over the bonnet of her car in a burst of speed, eyes turning liquid silver in his anger. On Riley it made her excited, on him it made her nervous.

  “Does Riley know you’re here?” she asked, stepping away from the door. She didn’t want to be cornered... just in case.

  Jax’s eyes narrowed at her movement, the colour returning to normal. “You’re going to destroy everything.” He pulled something out of a bag, throwing it at her.

  The box hit her chest, her arms scrambling to catch it. In her hands was the box found at the bottom of Dread’s things. It felt… heavier than she remembered.

  “It took me some time to unlock it, the language,” he hesitated. “It’s difficult, as were the documents I had to translate. I warn you it may not be what you expect.”

  Alice sighed, hugging the box to her chest. Pressing her ear to the door she heard silence, not the screaming match only minutes before.

  “Do you want to come inside?” She had questions, ones she didn’t want to ask out in the open.

  Jax nodded his head, his beautiful honey brown hair covering the single scar that split his face.

  The kitchen was empty, the floorboards upstairs squeaking as Alice collected the plates and cutlery from the table and stacked them on the counter. Dinner had been abandoned, the hob still boiling the water until she turned down the dial.

  Jax quietly sat down, his hands carefully placed palm down on top of the kitchen table. So she was able to see them? She wasn’t sure.
Once Alice had sat opposite, the box placed between them did he start.

  “Before I open it, I need to explain the story behind it.”

  Alice licked her dry lips, remaining silent. Nerves fluttered in her stomach, and for why she didn’t know. It was just a box, what could be in it that made a Guardian of the Order look so uncomfortable?

  “The reason you couldn’t read the letters was because it was written in Celestrian.”

  “Celestrian?”

  Jax nodded. “The humans also have another name for them, angels.”

  Alice dropped her eyes to the box before returning them to Jax.

  “Celestrials are from Aetherna, the fourth realm.”

  “Wait, there’s a fourth realm?”

  Jax sat back, the chair squeaking beneath his weight. “Aetherna is the true realm, the one that created Earth Side. At least, according to the celestrials, the pretentious bastards. Celestrian isn’t a language you can learn, only be born with.”

  Which meant Jax had been born of a celestrial.

  “Wait, then how did Dread…”

  Jax pulled out a single feather, the colour a soft dove grey. “I believe he was a fallen celestiral, also called a fallen angel. Those cast out of Aetherna to live amongst the humans as one of them. The Fallen retain some of their power, but their genetics are almost identical to that of a human…”

  “And therefore can be turned into a vampire,” Alice finished for him.

  “Exactly,” he agreed. “Celestrials are watchers, the keepers of history. They believe they were the first true consciousness, even before the Fae.”

  Alice thought back to the poem. “’The watchers,” she quoted, “’the winged gods observed from a height…’”

  “Winged gods? Maybe once they believed themselves to be gods, but that’s long been forgotten,” he sniggered. “The prophecy was written as a warning, one that was ignored.”

  “What started it? The Gemini twins...”

  “The Gemini twins tore a hole in the veil between Earth Side and Far Side. It allowed wild magic to leak into this world, but also allowed the first twin, Lorelei to gift humans the power of the elements. Aerwyna, the second twin then gifted the same humans the power to amplify their new magic through blood and death. In doing so it unbalanced everything.”

  “That’s right, the twins were punished by The Creator, as were the humans with ...”

  “The Creator never punished the humans,” Jax interrupted. “In creating the original hole it disturbed the whole fabrication of the veil which separated, at the time, the three realms. The effect was cataclysmic to the natural flow of magic, and threatened to devastate everything. It was The Creator who was the watcher of the veil, and so he needed to restore balance. He had no choice but to allow the humans of Earth Side to retain magic that was not meant for them.”

  “The Creator was a celestrial?” Alice asked, leaning forward.

  Jax ignored the question.

  “Aerwyna in a fit of rage constructed weapons for the Elementals, and encouraged them to follow the path of destruction. She would whisper and urge, but again, this was against the balance of everything. So another celestrial, another watcher was sent to stop her permanently.”

  Her blade burned against her back, as if it knew it was being spoken about. “Jax, how do you know all this?”

  He ignored her once more.

  “Hadriel, instead of destroying her, became her lover. Together they stole beasts from Far Side and corrupted them, twisting their image into something from nightmares. They created their own creatures who could drift through the veil with ease, wreaking havoc amongst the people and absorbing souls. Aerwyna and her lover wanted to rule, not just Earth Side, but all three realms. She was powerful, a dark princess, sorceress and along with his celestrial magic they almost did.”

  “Except she was banished back to Far Side by her sister.”

  “Right again. Lorelei, the light princess in atonement for her sisters deeds used the last of her remaining power to create one more realm, The Nether. She would imprison everything her sister and her lover created, forcing them to live in darkness. But to do so she needed something powerful at its core, and the celestrials were all too happy to give over their traitor. They threw Hadriel down into the darkness, his own power trapping him inside it forever.”

  “I don’t know why, but this story seems familiar to me.” Alice touched the box, the wood hot beneath her fingertips.

  “Like I said, the prophecy is a warning that can be interpreted many ways. But in the end it depicts the fall of the veil. Seals were crafted by The Creator, designed to mute the Elementals magic to the point they were not at risk and therefore restoring balance once again. It would be up to the individuals to decide whether they accepted it or not. However, Aerwyna’s influence was still there, and the seals would eventually corrode or break. It all pointed to the inevitable, so throughout time it would be reset.”

  “Reset? How can they be…”

  At Jax’s expression she understood what he meant by ‘reset.’ She knew Elementals were descendants of the original witch families, and only one from each would inherit the curse. When one died the magic would be passed to another descendent.

  But who said she had to embrace the power of War?

  “Your seal was what Dread was searching for, it’s what all his research was about. If someone were to break it by mistake it would unlock your full power, and then you could potentially destroy everyone.”

  Alice sat quietly for a moment.

  “How do I stop my seal from breaking?”

  Where the fuck was her seal?

  “According to the scribes, You don’t. It will always break unless reset.”

  “I don't believe in fate.”

  “Then you better figure it out, because we won’t let the prophecy happen.”

  Jax stood, the chair scraping against the floor. He leant across to the box, surrounding it with his palms. A glow appeared beneath his skin, so bright Alice squinted.

  “This is a memory box, and Dread made it for you.” Emotion in Jax’s voice, intense and rich and something she could not quite put her finger on. “Celestrials have the ability to remove or copy memories, and so Dread left you this. To unlock it you just…” His fingers pressed into two spots on each side. The box clicked open, and Alice lost her sight.

  He calmly barked out orders into the handset, fist clenched as the lights flashed past the tinted window as his driver expertly manoeuvred the tight suburban streets.

  He was going to be too late.

  He knew it.

  Knew it the second he received the voicemail in the middle of the night. He had warned his friend about the consequences of dark magic, had experienced it himself in his other life. Had lived with his mistake for close to a millennia. Yet, his friend ignored his warning, and now he was racing across the city hoping he was wrong. That his friend hadn't done something he would regret.

  “Faster,” he growled to the driver, knowing the car was going as fast as the machine possibly could. His back twitched, long unused muscles forgotten as instincts called for him to call his wings, to fly faster. But they had been stripped long ago, and because of it he knew he was going to be too slow, too late.

  His frustration turned to worry, then vaulted into anger. Closing his eyes he concentrated on the subtle rumbles of the car against the road, on each tyre screech as they turned towards the nicer neighbourhood in the human district. Preparing himself.

  The night was silent when they pulled up outside the house. No alarm, no movement or even a breath other than from his own team. Men, hired specifically for their loyalty to him. He knew they would do as they were told and ask no questions. It was a favour they owed him, and he always collected.

  It was the Breed way, and he had been Breed for more lifetimes than he could truly remember.

  The subtle scent of mugwort brought his attention towards the front bedroom, the window wide open, but no-one wa
s inside. His chest ached, strong enough he would have thought it was a heart attack if he wasn’t already dead.

  “Caution, red,” he warned his men as they all slowly approached, muscles tensed as he fought the urge to run through the house. The front door was smashed, his eyes able to pick up the glass shards across the floor with precise detail, even in pitch-black. He smelt the blood before he turned his head, his throat burning at the proximity of the life source. It was a reaction he hated, but he couldn’t control the carnal urge as his fangs punched out from the top of his gums, growing until he struggled to close his lips.

  His eyes tracked the droplets, leading into what he knew was their kitchen, and with a shallow nod he allowed one of his men to push at the door, his gun drawn as light flickered beneath the frame.

  “Clear.”

  He walked into the kitchen, taking in the broken cupboard under the sink, the door hanging off its hinges while bleach bottles decorated the floor. A pool of red was to his right, the moonlight through the window causing it to glow.

  He heard a heartbeat.

  “Stay back,” he growled to his men, holding his fist in the air as he carefully made his way into the garden. The backlight brightened at his movement, settling on Lily who was hunched forward, her once white nightdress tinged with pink. Beside her was the heartbeat, little Alice who sat on her heels, eyes wet, but vacant.

  “Alice?” he said, softening his voice as he slowly approached, not wanting to spook her. He knew Lily was already dead, but gave her a cautionary glance anyway. “Alice? It’s me, it’s uncle Dread.”

  She didn’t look up, just continued to stare at her mother. The wind whipped at their hair, tangling the pale blonde strands together. At her feet was a teddy bear, the fur ruined.

  “Sir, the house is clear,” Nix, one of his men said.

  He nodded in acknowledgment, knowing the answer before he even asked the question. “Jackson and the boy?”

  “Not inside.”

  Zeph clutched a sword in a tight fist. “Is the child okay?”

  Alice looked up at the mention of her father and brother, her bottom lip trembling. As he had done hundreds of times before, he reached down and picked her up, her skinny arms wrapping around his neck instantly. He settled her head in his neck, her breath cold against his throat.