In seconds, we stood in a halo of ruined walls, surrounded by the gutted remains of the house. I released a shuddering breath, and only looked up again when the Death King stepped out of the circle and retrieved his soul amulet.
I picked my way out of the ruins, too, my legs shaking. My gaze landed on the gates, the only part of the house which was still standing, and where the others stood at a safe distance—Trix, Ryan, and the two sprites floating above their heads.
“Did you get Davies?” I asked Ryan.
“He ran,” they said. “Better than burning the place down while we were inside it.”
Brant lay unconscious next to the others. He needed to be handed over to the authorities before he followed Davies and ran. If any vampires had survived, they were without a sire, and without a master. Most of them had either run or knelt down in surrender, prepared to hand themselves over.
I was more than happy to oblige.
24
I was in a shitload of trouble with the Order. Again.
As it turned out, blowing up a house in the middle of the vampires’ district drew unwanted attention from all angles. The Order already had me on a watchlist after the incident at the airport, and since several of them also recalled seeing me enter the Order’s HQ when it was on fire, they’d showed up at the shop in my absence. Since Devon refused to say a word against me, they put both of us under house arrest upon my return.
The vampire council had handed Brant straight over to the Order on the grounds that the Crow was an ex-employee and so was Cobb. According to Ryan, the Death King was pissed that he didn’t get to handle the punishment himself, but I hadn’t been back to see him since I’d been placed under house arrest. Even astral projecting was risky when Order members kept showing up on our doorstep as though hoping to catch me in the middle of an illicit action.
While I’d told everyone who would listen about how the cantrips from the warehouses were being misused, they’d remained in full operation in supplying the Order, which left it up to Devon and me to salvage a way to save our business. Fast.
On the Friday morning after the battle with the vampires, the two of us were arguing over the merits of admitting defeat and quitting the Order to sell Warhammer figurines when two Order employees, including Judith, sauntered into the shop. They halted in front of the desk, looking Devon and me up and down.
“Your friend’s trial was this morning,” said Judith smugly.
My throat constricted. “Your point?”
Since the Order had been occupied in fixing the damage caused to their offices by the fire, you’d think they’d have better things to do than to come here and bother Devon and me.
“Brant Edwards was convicted for illegal involvement in dark magic, but not for starting the fire in the Order’s headquarters,” said Judith’s friend. “The perpetrator of that heinous act of arson has yet to be caught.”
I folded my arms. “And your point is? Did you want Brant to be the one who set your headquarters on fire?”
“You were there.” Judith looked me over. “Anything to say to that?”
Ah, hell. Of course she’d guessed I’d been into the building. “I know who started it because the Fire Element fled the Death King’s territory and went rogue right before it caught on fire, while Brant was imprisoned in the Death Kingdom at the time.”
“Convenient,” she said. “And you happened to be working for the Death King, too? Yet you still didn’t see Brant Edwards as a threat?”
“If you’re going to call me an idiot for trusting him, then get on with it.” The Order couldn’t punish me any more than I’d already punished myself. Despite everything Devon said to the contrary, I couldn’t help wondering if I could ever have stopped him from turning onto the path he’d ended up on.
No sooner than I could have stopped the girl in my memories from trusting Dirk Alban, I’d guess.
“You were at the Death King’s side when he destroyed the rogue vampire’s house, according to all these reports,” she said. “I find it interesting that you always end up at the centre of these incidents. Very interesting.”
“At the centre of what?” I said. “The Crow had his pet vampires leave me for dead. It was the Death King he wanted. I was only involved because we—”
“You were working together,” she said. “Despite our orders to the contrary.”
“You try disobeying an order from the King of the Dead.”
It was too late to dwell on what might have been. As my near-death experiences had shown me in a painfully clear light, life was too short for that. I’d made my choices, and unlike Brant, I had no regrets.
The door rattled inwards, and the two Order employees both startled as a shadowy figure passed into view. As though conjured by my words, the Death King strode between the two of them, wearing his human face and back at full power once again.
“Are you here to buy something?” he asked the two intruders.
“No.” Judith and her companion exchanged alarmed looks. “We’re going.”
“Good.” The Death King waited until the door closed behind them before approaching the desk. “You were somewhat difficult to track down.”
I didn’t move. “How’d you get my address?”
“Ryan,” he said. “They looked it up.”
“Great.” Now I’d have no way of escaping the King of the Dead, in this realm or otherwise. At the very least, though, it meant his people would stop unexpectedly walking out of the node in the middle of the house. “What do you want?”
“I owe you a payment,” he said. “It should be in your bank account within a week.”
My mouth fell open. “What? But I didn’t solve the murders.”
Devon rammed an elbow into my ribs, and I bit my tongue. I got the message. Don’t turn down free cash, Liv.
“You led me to the right solution,” he said. “I apologise for the delay, but I was beginning the preparations of looking for a new Fire Element.”
“Oh. That’s… no problem.” An apology? From the King of Death? Maybe I’d slipped into some bizarre alternative universe at some point in the last week. “By the way, the Order is angry with me for not taking their advice to stop working with you, and they’re trying to find a way to pin the arson on me. If you hadn’t already guessed.”
“I expected they wouldn’t let the issue drop,” he said. “So I left them a message.”
“Of what sort?”
The phone started ringing. Devon walked into the back to answer it, while I stared at the Death King. The guy had some nerve. But then again, given his position, there was little even the Order could do to challenge him.
“What did you do?” The words came out more accusing than I’d planned, but I couldn’t suppress my irritation that I always had to fall back on the King of the Dead to get me out of trouble. For all the times he’d saved my neck of late, he had more secrets under wraps than the vampires did, and I could never be sure he wasn’t pursuing some other agenda.
“I merely gave the Order a reminder of who is to blame for the current situation, and that they do themselves a disservice by ignoring what they have at their disposal.”
That doesn’t tell me anything. I heard Devon speaking on the phone and I wanted to listen in, but more questions that had sprung up since the battle sprang to mind. I’d had enough time to form a long list of queries concerning the stunt he’d pulled at the house, and why he’d seemed so certain the two of us could overcome the vampire. So many questions, I hadn’t a clue where to start.
“You need to stop putting your soul amulet in peril like that,” I finally said. “Why’d you do it?”
“I’m lucky to be more flexible with what I do with my soul than most,” he said.
“And it almost killed you.” I shook my head. “I’m beginning to think you became immortal because you’d have died otherwise.”
“That’s not far from the truth,” he said.
Right… he’d already hinted that he�
�d had no choice in the matter. “Brant said… he said you turned the other liches so that they’d have to obey your every command.”
He arched a brow. “And has anything in recent times compelled you to trust his word?”
Ouch. Guess I deserved that one. “I’m just saying, this spirit mage business has done a fine job of wrecking my life without turning me into the living dead on top of it. And you seem to have a short life expectancy, too.”
Stop talking, Liv. I wasn’t doing myself any favours by needling the Death King, yet he continued to watch me with nothing more than mild surprise in his expression. Or indifference. I really couldn’t tell, even when he wasn’t wearing his usual mask.
“I already told you I have no intention of turning you into a lich.”
“The Crow ended up as a vampire, and Cobb ended up with no magic,” I said. “Like I said… people who dedicate themselves to spirit magic seem to have a short lifespan whether they’re dead or alive.”
“What do you want me to tell you?” he asked. “You chose to continue practising spirit magic.”
“I did.” And despite the Order’s attempt to put a new stranglehold on my life, the glimpses into my own history I’d seen refused to leave me be. “That doesn’t change the fact that I don’t know who you really are. Was that your name? Grey?”
“Does it matter?” His tone was non-confrontational, but it brought a chill to my skin all the same.
“You were a spirit mage,” I said. “So how…?”
“A curse.” He spoke in a low voice. “Not something that is likely to affect you.”
A curse, which forced him to turn lich or die? “How? I mean—when?”
“It originated in the spirit war,” he said. “I wasn’t alive in those days, so I can only guess at how it started.”
“You weren’t?” I had it wrong. I’d assumed he was centuries old, but he wasn’t, not at all. If he hadn’t even been born before the war had started, that would make him close to my own age. He’d died young. Really young.
Sadness swept through me, inexplicably. The murmur of voices from the back room died down, and he shifted position, clearly ready to leave. “Your sprite is still at my castle. Does that bother you?”
“He is?” I frowned. “Why?”
“Ryan has taken a liking to him, along with the air sprite you rescued,” he said.
“Oh.” I didn’t know what to say to that. “Good. Uh. I’ve been thinking about your offer…”
“And?” His tone was expectant, his stance still indicating he intended to leave.
“I… might need lessons in spirit magic,” I admitted. “After the Order takes away the house arrest order on me, I mean.”
“I wouldn’t trouble yourself by worrying about the Order,” he said. “But yes, my offer stands. If you are willing to risk that step.”
“I think I’ll have to.” As recent events had proved, I wasn’t alone as a spirit mage, and my lack of knowledge had cost me. If my history contained any more lessons which were essential to survival, I’d need to be ready.
Devon walked back into the room. “We got a mass order for cantrips from the Order. Apparently, the fire destroyed most of their stock.”
“And you’re ready to make more?”
“You bet.”
I looked up at the Death King, only to find he’d vanished before I could ask if he was responsible for this new development.
Not that I needed to ask. The Death King strikes again.
I wouldn’t grow complacent. He might be on my side for now, but when he’d stopped thinking he owed me a favour, things would go downhill fast. But I was content to enjoy the rewards of our near-death experience. Elements knew I needed them.
It was D&D night, and our team was assembled and ready for action. Devon sat in the prime position at the head of the table, and I found myself missing having Dex around to play NPCs. He’d been a real riot during our last game, and while I was glad that he’d made a home for himself in the Parallel, I missed his company all the same.
With luck, the Order would cave to the Death King and lift the house arrest directive by early next week, and then I could get back to work.
Trix was back in the game, while the others gathered around the table with cartons of takeout and stacks of character sheets. Just as Devon called the game to a start, the doorbell rang with a strident incoming!
“I’ll get it,” I said.
If the Order had come to crash our games night again, I’d be having words with them. Same with the Death King, for that matter. He might have pulled us out of dire financial straits—again—but D&D night was serious business.
I opened the door. It wasn’t the Death King, or even the Order. Instead, Ryan of all people stood on the doorstep.
“Oh, you do know how to ring the doorbell,” I said. “Word of advice—knock in future. You might have guessed there’s no volume control on that thing.”
“Hey, Liv!” Dex flew in circles around Ryan’s head, accompanied by the air sprite. The second sprite already looked much happier than it had when I’d found the cage in the vampire’s basement, and now resembled a humanoid figure surrounded by a halo of greenish light.
“What the…?” I stared between the two sprites. “What are you two doing here?”
“I invited the air sprite to stay with me,” Ryan explained. “She was terrified after being trapped in that cage. Dex helped her get settled in, and in the end, they both stayed. I didn’t throw them out, so they took that as an invitation to make themselves at home.”
“Your boss said they were both staying with you, but I didn’t know.” Despite my bad experiences at the hands of Elements lately, I didn’t think of Ryan as a villain. Not like the Fire Element. On the other hand… I knew why they were here. This was the Death King’s doing. He knew I wouldn’t work for him, so he’d sent one of his people over to convince me instead. “Did the Death King send you? Because we have a new job from the Order which is going to take up all our time for the foreseeable future.”
“I know.” They peered over my shoulder, gaze snagging on Trix. “What’re you doing in there?”
“Playing D&D,” I said. “You know what it is, right?”
“Of course I do,” they said. “I did grow up in this world, but I never had a regular gaming group I could meet up with. Since taking on the job as Air Element, I’ve had even less time.”
I hesitated, feeling the others watching me. Even Dex. I’d never been a fan of mages, and after Brant’s betrayal, I had even less reason to trust them. And yet. “You want to play D&D with us?”
A smile formed on their face. “If it’s okay with your friend.”
I went into the back room, where Devon gave me a questioning look. “Ryan’s here to play, believe it or not. Do we have room?”
“The Air Element wants to join us?” she said. “Sure, we have room. But they’ll have to come up with a character.”
“Not a problem.” I beckoned to the two sprites to follow the Air Element into our house. “You two can’t hold dice, but Dex had a great time playing a fire demon last time. What do you think?”
“You bet,” said Dex, and the air sprite nodded vigorously.
It looked like we had enough room at the table for a few more.
Thank you for reading!
The story continues in Trial of Shadows, Book 3 in the Order of the Elements series.
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About the Author
Emma is the New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author of the Changeling Chronicles urban fantasy series.
Emma spent her chi
ldhood creating imaginary worlds to compensate for a disappointingly average reality, so it was probably inevitable that she ended up writing fantasy novels. When she's not immersed in her own fictional universes, Emma can be found with her head in a book or wandering around the world in search of adventure.
Find out more about Emma’s books at www.emmaladams.com.
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