Hidden Magic Trilogy Box Set

by Jayne Hawke

  Cade walked with big deliberate steps as we headed to the safe house library first. This was going to be a very long day.

  ***

  I was looking into spell breaking, and Cade was ostensibly digging around for something on resurrected necromancers. The spell breaking seemed to be a very instinctual type of magic, which was fantastic because I didn't have any time to learn some fancy rituals or anything. I just needed to do what I did previous times I used it, reach in and snap the magic with my mental fingers. I wasn't too hopeful, given the chances of him being made of spider webs and cotton candy was pretty slim.

  "It appears that a resurrected necromancer is far more magical than a normal necromancer. He's stolen all of the essences, souls, whatever of those people and woven them into himself. That means that he's something like 87.45% magic now."

  "Don't get too vague on me there," I said with a laugh.

  Cade grinned at me, finally looking like he wasn't going to phase out of this plane.

  "That also means that he's going to be stronger, faster, and more able to control his necromancer creatures. Zombies, liches, whatever. Oh do you think there'll be more gator liches? I want to wrassle one."

  "You want to wrassle one...? Have you been watching those shows about red necks in America again?"

  Cade grinned at me unrepentantly.

  "Alright, so, I break all of his magic, you break all of his bones, and we're good to go. Right?"

  "Sure, sounds good to me."

  I rolled my shoulders. We were reasonably sure we knew how to put him down. Now we just needed to find him and my father. I really hoped Ryn and his lackeys were going to be able to handle Liam. Although not too quickly. I wanted to kick him in the balls a couple of times. That was the least he deserved.

  FORTY

  "Kit, tell us what we're up against," Ethan said.

  We were sitting around the kitchen table with a buzz in the air. I wasn't sure when I'd last slept. We'd been taking shifts of touring the city trying to stop the shades from killing people. Matt had refined his alchemical caffeine boost so we were functional, but the gods knew I missed my bed.

  "My father is a sadistic asshole with far more speed and tactical understanding than one being should have. He is brutal. He will put you down in the most savage way he can conceive just for shits and giggles. Be prepared for throat punches, pelvis breaking, and spine shattering. He can see your attacks coming before you know you're going to make them. The only progress I made was to turn his own magic against him. I don't know if your death magic will do anything against him, given his own death magic."

  "Any weaknesses besides the blood magic thing?" Dean asked.

  "None that I managed to find. Punching him felt like hitting a bar of steel. It's like he's wearing an impenetrable armour, and he doesn't show any sign of tiring, so I don't think we'll be able to wear him down."

  "So how do we handle him?" Dean asked.

  "We attack him from all fronts and try to draw his blood as quickly as possible so Kit can weaken him with her blood magic. Once he's weakened, we'll be able to use our own death magic to weaken him further. Of course, we shouldn't need to worry about it as Ryn and his people should handle Liam for us. What do we have on the necromancer?" Ethan asked.

  "We believe he's going to attack the town square. The shades have been moving in closer to the square over the past day. The most brutal attacks were located near there. That would give him a central point to perform something big, something that could kill the entire city," Kerry said.

  "And we're pretty sure that he's mostly made of magic at this point. We're going to need to turn that magic to dust, and then his body along with it. We'll have to block his access to any of the underworlds and destroy him on the molecular level," Cade said.

  "Matt, what can you give us to help?" Ethan asked.

  "All I have is healing potions. I'm not far enough along to have anything really cool."

  Ethan nodded.

  "We appreciate whatever you can give us. This is going to be a big battle, and we'll need whatever edge we can get."

  "Dean, Sin, go and do your shift with the shades. If you can capture some of the essence from one of them it could give us a tie to the bastard to help us take him out. The rest of us will get six hours of sleep. When you return, you'll get six hours of sleep while we brief Ryn and get everything pinned down. This will be over in no more than twenty-four hours."

  I'd never been so glad to head to bed before. My sweet, comfortable, bed with my fluffy duvet and blankets. There was no place like bed.

  Sleep passed by far too quickly. Ethan stated that I would be staying home digging into the magic-breaker things again to make sure that I hadn't missed anything. This was going to hinge on me. I skipped the magic breaking part and pulled out Mom's grimoire on Liam. I barely thought of him as my father anymore. He was the monster that had given me my war magic, but I was going to be the one to remove him from this plane of existence.

  Mom's words stung, but I used the anger that came with the pain to fuel me. She didn't detail her methods for binding him all that closely, but I read it over three times anyway to try and understand the finer points. It looked as though Liam's god magic flowed through every inch of him and through his cells. It wasn't contained to a central area like mine. That made it far more difficult to restrain. Mom had chosen to insert shards into his magic and use those to break down the overall flow of it. I was hoping to make use of the scars Mom's magic had left behind and leverage them.

  FORTY-ONE

  The time of the battle came around all too quickly. News came that an army of zombies was growing in the main town square. Kerry pulled up a livestream someone was filming from a window overlooking the square. Liam and the necromancer were casually leaning against a wall as the necromancer called more of his minions from the realm of the dead.

  "We can't afford to screw around here. We'll get up on the roof and make our plan from there," Ethan said.

  "My father will expect us to come. This is partly to draw us out. He wants me either at his side or dead. There is no other option in his mind. The gods only know how long it'll take for Ryn and his people to rock up. We cannot just race in there blades drawn. We'll be slaughtered. I agree with Ethan. We go in quietly and get up onto the roof so we can see exactly what we're up against," I said.

  My war god blood was singing in my veins. This was what I'd been made for.

  Matt gave Kerry a deep and passionate kiss as I passed them. A bitter sense of worry rolled off Matt. This wasn't some drunk pixie, this was war, and we were up against one of the most skilled warriors in the Fae Isles. I swallowed down whatever fear I might have had and focused on dressing in the best armour I had.

  Ethan handed everyone a small vial of deep purple liquid.

  "This will enhance our magic. We'll need every advantage we can get."

  We knocked the liquid back without a word. Understanding hung heavy between this. There was a very real chance that one or more of us wasn't going to make us out of this alive.

  FORTY-TWO

  The square was classic York. Three storey buildings, cobblestone, an army of the undead moving in lock step like it was a tiny parade ground. Well, mostly classic. My father and the necromancer were standing together with their backs to the wall, the necromancer guiding his troops in manoeuvre exercises while my father whispered in his ear like a scheming vizier. As we watched from the rooftops, a perfect rectangle of zombies marched in unison with skeletons on each flank and, if the glimpses of grey were any indication, liches at the rear of each rank.

  It was clear who the brains of this outfit was. If we could hold the undead in check long enough for Ryn’s people to drop dear old Dad in his hole, this army would be back to the shambling horde we knew and loved.

  In the meantime, we were massively outnumbered and fighting what might well have been the greatest general on the earth plane at that exact moment. The obvious answer was to wait for Ryn, but t
here was no doubt in our minds that the warmup march would end soon and then the mass murder would begin. That is, if we didn’t take the hit ourselves.

  “Alright, here’s my plan,” I began, not letting Ethan get started on his so as to minimize the obviousness of my takeover. Usually his point-and-stab leadership was enough, especially since I could nudge the battle where it was needed, but this was starting to look like real war and it needed a war demigoddess.

  “Cade and Dean, you’re going to be at the centre, holding the zombies. Recognize that these are not your standard movie zombies – with him in close proximity and Liam to devise tactics, they’ll be serious soldiers. Nonetheless, save your death magic as much as possible for when he commits his liches. Kerry, you’re in reserve to bring in your death magic when that happens. Stay in the shadows as a cat, use your size and stealth. They probably won’t think you’re making tea at the pack house, but if they don’t know where you are, that’s a start.

  “Sin, you’ll be back to basics doing your assassin thing. I want you to move around the square without being seen. I recommend the rooves, but you’re not new to this. When Ryn’s people hit my dad, you hit the necromancer. He’s going to be mostly magic, so I don’t expect miracles, but you’ve got the skill to keep him out of their way and put some hurt on him in the process.

  “Ethan, you and I have the flanks. If we can break through the skeletons fast enough, we can take down the necromancer before this gets ugly. If we can’t... then this gets ugly.”

  “Wouldn’t it make more sense to put both of you on one flank so you can get through quickly? You said yourself that if you get bogged down, we’re dead,” Dean said, saying what I thought only I was thinking.

  “Yes... it would,” I said, pausing before adding, “but I’m not going to sacrifice anyone on that altar.” I gestured down at my father. “He’s a god of war, and that’s what he’d do. I’m a member of the best pack in the world, and I’m putting my chips on the square where everyone comes back alive.”

  “We live together, or we die together,” Ethan said with quiet finality, dropping from the building with his sword and dagger combo at ready.

  “Together!” the rest of us shouted in unison, less Sin and Kerry who had already slipped off into the shadows.

  We all landed together and took our spots. I could tell Ethan wanted to be at dead centre, big and bad with head held high, but that’s exactly why he wasn’t making those choices today. Dean took his place, looking cocksure with claymore dragging along the stone behind him to draw attention. Cade was half a step behind him, a small shield on one arm and a long sword in the other, the same matte black as everyone else’s.

  Ethan and I shared a look before I brought out my wrist blades, showing for the first time the colour change I’d put more work into than I cared to comment on, a shining deep-sea black that gave them every appearance of pure obsidian. I wasn’t really a “matte” kind of girl.

  The army had turned the moment we touched the ground, and it wasn’t a full second before they began to advance on us. It was more than a little intimidating to watch a real fighting force come down on us for the first time, but I trusted my pack. Besides, they couldn’t match our sex appeal. If nothing else, we had skin.

  The skeletons advanced ahead of the zombies in the centre, which means I got to strike the first blow. I swept my swords across the skeletal front lines as broadly as I could, bringing down as much of the wall of bone as possible. They’d be reformed very soon, but every calcium-rich blade I could keep out of my gut counted. The threads on these skeletons were far stronger and more intricate than the ones we’d fought before. Their summoner’s return from the underworld had given him every bit as much of a power boost as we’d feared – and I was the one that was going to have to tear through it all.

  Swords still flashing, keeping the skeletons from moving in on Dean’s flank, I started reaching out to the magic holding them up with my own power, gripping onto everything I could and yanking. I didn’t have the focus to carefully tug and snip the way I would otherwise because every one of them that broke away put the team at risk. All I could do was pull in every scrap of energy I could from around me and throw it into swiping at the magic like a mass of spiderwebs.

  It was surprisingly effective, if a bit slapstick. I kept my blades moving as I worked, but many of the skeletons were losing control of chunks of themselves and toppling over, and once they did I could move onto the next. I wasn’t killing all that many, but I was making progress through the mass, and that was far more critical. If we could cut through on both ends, pressure on the necromancer would be enough to make the remaining skeletons manageable. I hoped.

  I heard Ethan’s black dog form yelp even over the clash of battle, but all I could do was hope that he had the strength to push on and push my fear into my spellwork. I had to keep one focus and one focus only, and my lover’s safety wasn’t it.

  It wasn’t long before I couldn’t see any of my people, the sheer numbers of the enemy engulfing us. I couldn’t shake the feeling that Dean was going to push too hard and get surrounded instead of holding as I’d instructed him, but that was his problem. I swept through the skeletons like a goddess of vengeance, shredding magic and severing bone in equal measure, putting everything I had into each swing even as I let my body move on autopilot.

  I was free of them far faster than I’d even hoped, the mess behind me a juddering mass of debilitated bone trying to form itself into something coherent and failing, draining away at the necromancer’s magic one drop at a time. It wasn’t enough to ruin him, but it was enough to make our jobs just the tiniest bit easier.

  When I got through, I found my father and the necromancer both unmolested. Ryn’s people weren’t here. And I had both of their attentions. I dropped back into a defensive stance, swapping my weapons out for a shield and spear and preparing to stay alive at all costs. Ethan would be there soon, and Ryn’s people had to be around somewhere. I didn’t know what Sin would do, and I had no time to hope. I was either going to hold off my father and his apprentice on my own, or I was going to die buying every second I could. Either way... eyes up.

  My father rushed me like an anime character, rage and resentment in every movement. He clearly hadn’t forgotten our last encounter, and that meant he was going to be running on emotion. That gave me an advantage, but this was going to be a very quick fight if I failed even one block. He slammed into me, sword still at his side, and gripped onto the edge of my shield. He was strong, but not that strong. I had leverage, and I used it to throw his momentum behind me, leaving him to tumble into the pile of reanimating skeletons like a screaming bowling pin.

  Now for contestant number two. The necromancer, whose name I just then realized I still didn’t know, was tugging at the ground like something out of a cheap horror film, and shades were coming up with every gesture. That meant he could have summoned reinforcements and didn’t. My father was badly on tilt. I rushed the summoner, shield at ready and spear smashing against it, a war cry on my lips and the fear of a non-combatant under extreme threat registering in his eyes. When I hit his shades, they were still half summoned, their semi-corporeal forms barely noticeable. He cringed back for the fraction of a second he had to recognize their uselessness, and then I slammed into him. Or rather, I slammed straight through him and into the underworld he used to divert attacks.

  On every side were tall cave walls lit only by the blackbody glow of the portal that was his body. Kneehigh water broke my charge, and I fell to my knees in the hypereutrophic filth. I turned to find the necromancer’s silhouette gone, and with it the only exit from this hellhole. I felt the magic closing in, death magic so dense that it had no threads. It was the thread, the pure essence of death on such a scale that it was like looking for an ocean from halfway to the bottom.

  I panicked, spinning around and around in the dark, begging the universe for anything at all to show me that I wasn’t dead and gone, my eyes wide with fear. I h
ave no idea how long I stayed like that, maybe only seconds, before I found myself again. If the magic was everywhere, then I could break anything I wanted. All I had to do was reach out with my mind and grab onto something.

  The sensation of breaking a thread I was inside was exhilarating, powerful. I swept my hands around in long, slicing arcs, picturing the realization on the necromancer’s face when he saw that he’d put me in a place of utmost safety where the only thing I could do was hurt him, obliterate the underworld that my father had given him to make him something more than a pretty face with enough magic to get him into a stud farm.

  Before long, I saw the portal reopen in long, straight lines, a dozen centimetre-thick apertures opening and closing. I heard Ethan’s voice shouting my name, Sin’s much calmer one explaining what had happened in the tone you’d use to teach a grade school class about an especially cool insect.

  “I’m aware,” I shouted sardonically, not pausing my work for a moment.

  “Are you aware that when his magic collapses you’re going to be trapped in a dying underworld for as long as it takes for you to turn into the world’s tiniest breaker?” Ethan asked.

  He had a point. I moved towards the opening, not knowing what I was going to do when I got there given that I wasn’t going to fit through a sword-sized hole until well into that ‘world’s tiniest breaker’ thing. I got there and started tearing at the opening, magic breaking like my life depended on it, and quickly realized that the more his magic broke down the less likely he was to be able to open a portal big enough for me to get through anyway.

  I stared at it, helpless, not bothering to try and stick a finger through the quarter-second gaps that showed up. I listened to the battle, sounds of clashing weapons and unfamiliar voices shouting imprecations of command and contempt in equal measure for minute after endless minute, and then the portal was wide open, every inch of the necromancer’s body passable. I didn’t need encouragement to throw myself through it, but when I came to the other side I was engulfed in agony, hellfire agony covering every inch of my body.