Shattered Wards, page 11
Dante took the opportunity to kiss my cheek, “I did hear, and I’m afraid it’s something you’re going to have to work through. There’s only so much we can do from out here.”
Kane received a text that caused him to frown.
“Whispers down the grapevine say another stone is weakening from the extra strain,” Kane said.
“Where?” Dante asked.
“Two hours from here,” Kane said.
“I’ll book us accommodation in the closest town if you’ll drive,” Dante said.
TWENTY-EIGHT
The other stone was near Fort William, which provided a breath of fresh air. The landscape was a riot of green and well-worn yellows that coated the multitude of mountainous peaks. The rocky tops of the mountains remained stubbornly grey as they reached up towards the increasingly dark skyline. I held Gideon close to me in the back of the car as we got closer to the stone, which was out in the arse end of nowhere like the other stones had been.
“We’re going to have to walk a bit,” Dante warned.
“I assume you mean halfway up one of those huge hills,” I said.
Dante smiled. “Not quite halfway.”
Kane pulled the car to stop at the end of a short dirt track, and we piled out to find ourselves surrounded by short hardy grass and faced with a large steep hill.
Gideon practically bounced. He was very happy to be climbing up at that thing. I was less excited. We set off without a word, keeping a steady pace over the short grass and up the steep slopes. The footing wasn’t too bad, the grass was thankfully dry meaning it wasn’t too slippery underfoot, and there were enough short shrubs and rocky outcrops to grab onto if we did slip.
The stone didn’t come into view until we were almost on top of it. One moment, all I saw was more short grass and rocks, and the next there it was, a large, smooth sky-blue stone.
“I didn’t feel the weird magic shift around this one,” I said.
Where the other stone had felt like it wrapped me in clingfilm when I got close, this one just left a soft buzzing over my skin, and only when I looked at it.
“It’s cracked,” Kane said, worry threading through his voice.
Dante gestured at the thin crack running from the tip to the middle of the stone.
“How bad is it?” I asked.
Gideon sniffed the air and frowned. “I can smell shifters.”
“There’s shifter magic here, too,” Dante said.
“You think shifters damaged the stone?” I asked.
“Why? They have no magic outside of their shifting,” Kane said.
“And what would they gain from it?” Dante asked.
“The same as everyone else, power,” Gideon said.
“But they wouldn’t be able to shift harder… and they can’t wield magic. So what benefit is there for them?” Dante asked.
“We should go and ask them,” Gideon said.
“I know someone in the area,” I said.
I hadn’t spoken to Maggie in a few years; I hoped she’d forgive me. She was a hedgewitch my parents had been on good terms with, but we lost contact when I started wandering. Her number was still in my phone. My parents had told me to never delete a number; you never know when you’ll need it.
She picked up on the second ring.
I quickly explained that we were looking for a pack of shifters who might be interested in pulling down the veil. Dante shook his head. We were supposed to be keeping this all under wraps, but I didn’t have a good cover story.
“There’s a weird pack, a bunch of misfits, out near the loch. Call themselves the Black Briars, keep to themselves,” Maggie said.
“Can we get an address?” I asked.
“Black Briar Farm, you’ll find it easy enough. They’ll be running tonight, best go in the morning,” she said.
We made a little small talk about how nice it was to be back in Scotland and the weather before I hung up.
“I trust you heard all that,” I said with a smile.
“There’s a weird pack. They live in a farm near the edge of the loch,” Gideon said.
“They’ll be running tonight, so we’ll have to head over in the morning,” I added.
Dante looked at the stone with the clear crack, worry lines spread around his eyes.
“We’ll visit them first thing,” he said slowly.
“Early night then,” Kane said.
TWENTY-NINE
The front desk man gave us a very amused look when we showed up and collected our room key. Dante had booked us a room with a super-king-sized bed and shrugged when I looked at him with a smirk. We ordered room service, and I fell asleep with my head on Dante’s chest and Kane pressed against my back. Gideon had curled up on the other side of Dante with Dante’s arm loosely around his shoulders. It felt like home.
We made the most of the hotel’s all-you-can-eat breakfast the moment it opened before we headed over to the shifter house. Dante was driving, the small worry lines still present at the corners of his eyes. Gideon looked more relaxed than he had done in a few days as he watched the green scenery pass us by with a contented smile on his face. It was easy to forget that the fate of the world hung in the balance when the sun came out and made the grass shine like emeralds. The landscape was truly stunning and became even more so when the loch came into view.
The sunlight struck the expanse of dark blue water and gave it a rich jewel tone to match the emerald grass. The rocky hills thrust up towards the bright sky and gave everything a wild edge that brought a smile to my face. The splashes of lemon yellow from the gorse growing along the lower levels of the hills finished the picture. It looked like an artist’s painting. It was perfect.
Black Briar Farm was off the small road and down another dirt track. Dante’s car was going to need new shocks if we continued this, although I suspected he would just invest in a new SUV; he wasn’t exactly short of money. The farm boundaries were traditional stone walls made from stacking flat grey stones together in such a way that they slotted into each other and formed something solid and able to resist livestock. An eagle casually circled overhead as we slowly made our way down the track to the short cream- and grey-stoned buildings with the dark slate-grey rooves. They sat low, hugging the surrounding land and hiding from the elements that must have been harsh through the winters.
A collection of four buildings formed a U shape around the track with a rough courtyard full of older cars in the middle. Eyes peered at us from the windows and around the edge of the buildings. I could feel them, some twenty of so life essences and a mixture of blood songs. Some were high pitched flute songs that spoke of freedom and open skies, others were deep growling songs of loss.
“I thought shifters only stuck with their own kind?” I asked as Dante parked the car.
“They do; sometimes a cougar might allow a wild cat in, but you won’t mix types,” Kane said.
“I feel avian, lupine, and feline,” I said.
The threads of the avian life essence were wispy and delicate. It was harder to grasp onto them, but they tasted so sweet when I did. The moment I realised what I’d done, I dropped the thread and shut my magic back down.
“You’re in control, Wren,” Dante said as he squeezed my knee.
“Not your magic, you,” Dante said firmly before he gave me a brilliant smile and got out of the car.
I really hoped none of the shifters had been able to feel my magic as I got out of the car. Shifters only had their shifting magic; that meant I was safe, right?
Gideon was stiff-legged and uptight as we approached the front door where a wiry shifter with golden eyes waited for us. He looked to be my age, but the shadow of wrinkles was already forming around his mouth that sat in a deep frown. His blond hair looked like someone had washed all of the colour out.
“What do you want?” he growled at Dante.
Dante smiled a predatory smile. He and Kane both towered over the shifter. The shifter flinched and pulled away.
“We’re here to talk about the ward stone near here,” Dante said, a growl rumbling beneath his words.
Kane’s sword flashed into existence on his back, and he casually stepped away from Dante and gave a broad shifter a sharp-edged smile. The broad shifter’s dark brown eyes darkened and narrowed at Kane.
“Well, this is a delightful welcoming party,” I said brightly.
Gideon bit back laughter, and the shifters snarled.
“We don’t like strangers,” the wiry shifter at the door said.
“Then tell us why shifter magic was found around the ward stone, and we’ll be on our way,” Dante said.
A corvid shifter with long pitch-coloured hair and pale blue, almost white eyes stepped from around the corner of the building. She kept tilting her head left then right as she looked at us.
“Such beautiful magic…” she said.
“So very tasty,” a masculine voice came from my left.
“It’s been too long,” a deep rumbling voice said.
I unsheathed my daggers and began spinning them; Gideon bared his teeth and growled. They all skittered back. The corvid shifter giggled.
“What’s going on here?” Dante demanded.
The wiry shifter’s face split into a manic grin.
“We’re changing the way the world works.”
“Stop with the airy-fairy bullshit and give us a straight answer,” Kane said.
“They have been working with us to become something superior. Shifters are so weak, so simple. They rightfully demanded more, and we gave it to them,” a woman’s voice said from my right.
She wore a long blue dress with a delicate white floral pattern on it. Her age could have been anything from forty to sixty, and given she was a witch, I bet she was over a century. Her wheat-coloured hair tumbled over her shoulders in thick wavy layers, but it was her violet eyes that caught my attention. Gideon stepped between me and her, his lips pulled back to reveal increasingly sharp teeth.
“A new day is dawning,” she said.
“What did I say about giving us straight answers?” Kane snapped, his accent thick.
The witch glowered at him. Her bloodsong shifted gears to something rasping and insidious. It reminded me of zombies, but there was a thrumming beat at the heart of it.
“Necromancer,” Dante spat.
Something was beginning to feel very wrong. When I looked at the shifters out the corner of my eye, they seemed malformed somehow. Their limbs were slightly off, and their eyes had a faint glassy quality.
“What have you done?” Kane demanded.
The shifters were edging closer to us, surrounding us. Gideon snarled and fire burst out around his hands. We moved so that we were standing in a small circle with our backs to each other so we could watch over each other.
“Your magic is sweet nectar that I shall savour,” the witch said.
“Why couldn’t they be normal shifters?” Kane groaned.
“I blame Gideon,” Dante said with a smirk.
The hound glared over his shoulder at Dante.
“I didn’t do this,” he muttered.
I stroked the hound’s cheek.
“He was joking,” I whispered.
Gideon relaxed some just before the shifters started edging in closer. One was brandishing a wooden baseball bat, but the rest of them didn’t seem to have weapons outside of their claws and teeth. The raven shifter took small hopping steps towards us, her eyes glassy and hard. She squawked just before she launched herself at Kane, who cut her down in midair.
The witch cackled, and a feeling of electricity filled the air.
“Oh, fuck,” Gideon said.
Dante punched a bear shifter hard in the face. The shifter stumbled back, blood streaming down the remnants of his face. The electricity increased and buzzed over my skin.
“No, no, stop!” Gideon shouted as Kane was about to slice open another bear shifter.
Kane side-stepped the clumsy punch from the shifter and shot Gideon a confused look.
“She is demon bound!” Gideon shouted.
“Ah, fuck,” Kane said.
A wolf shifter leapt at me and almost suceeded in sinking her teeth into my arm. I kicked her off me.
“No, she’s feeding on the pain! Pain and death strengthen her!” Gideon said.
Electricity crackled in the air and the witch gave a manic cackle. It was something right out of a cheesy horror movie.
“We need to restrain them. This is on you, Wren,” Dante said as he wrangled a delicate fox shifter.
“Your magic is so sweet, my darlings will drink deeply,” the witch said.
“Straight talk!” Kane shouted as he wrestled a wolf shifter down to the ground.
“She controls the shifters! They will drink our blood and eat our flesh, and doing so will give her our magic,” Gideon said as he pinned a feline shifter against the silver car near us.
“Wren, use your magic, snap their connections to life,” Gideon growled.
“I don’t want to kill an entire shifter pack,” I said while I ducked under a punch from a feline shifter.
“Wren. We are outnumbered, and the more pain inflicted, the stronger that crazy bitch is going to be,” Dante snarled.
“Dammit, Wren, we need you to step up,” Kane said.
Gideon put himself between me and the shifters; Kane and Dante moved back and formed a wall around me.
“We’ll protect you,” Dante said, his eyes gentle despite the fierceness of his expression.
The witch laughed, and bolts of lightning started forming out of thin air. We ducked and dodged as a group, desperately trying to avoid the lightning and the shifters.
I took a deep breath and pulled my magic up. It burst out of me, and I could see the life essences within everyone. It was beautiful and creepy. The shifters had small, cracked black threads writhing within them versus the bright healthy threads in my guys. The witch had a mass of thick blood red threads that were warped and cracked.
“Do it now,” Dante said.
I ignored the feeling of being a goddess and focused on saving my guys. Reaching out with my mind, I grabbed onto the black cracked threads and tried to crush them in my mental fist. There was more than blood there, I couldn’t use brute force to destroy them. Chewing on my bottom lip I took the risk, and tore the black threads out of them. The shifters all dropped dead. They were empty papery shells. It looked as though they were empty skins. All human shape had vanished. The black threads hung in the air like black spun sugar before they fluttered away on the breeze.
That left us with a very pissed off witch.
“How dare you!” she roared.
“I could ask you the same thing,” Kane shot back.
She stood rooted to a small patch of scrubby grass, her feet spread wide and her hand thrust out towards us. That couldn’t have been a good thing.
The guys all shared a look before they ran at her. Gideon circled around behind her and caught fire as he did so. Dante went straight for her, a look of ferocious fury on his face, and Kane circled around the other direction with his sword swinging for her head as he got close.
They circled around her, trying to breach the lightning bubble that had formed around her. I remained back near the empty skins and reached out with my magic, trying to grasp onto her blood and or life essence. Her essence was buried deep within some warped black box, so I opted for the messier method.
Pushing aside the exhaustion that came from using my magic like this, I reached into her and tried to wrap my mental fingers around her blood. It squirmed and slipped from my grasp. I was tiring. Blood trickled down Kane’s face. Gideon’s fire had extinguished. They needed me.
Her blood was hidden beneath some black construct that felt crystalline under my mental touch. It looked like a web, or a loosely woven nest. I couldn’t break it with brute force, I needed to slip my magic through the cracks and press my mind around the warmth of her blood. I pushed harder and managed to find a crack large enough to squeeze my consciousness through giving me better access to her blood.
It took everything I had, but I grabbed hold of her blood before I wrenched it out of her. She screamed, an unearthly shrill sound that echoed around before she slumped down and her life essence shattered.
The blood disintegrated in a red mist, and I dropped to my knees, the exhaustion claiming me.
THIRTY
Kane handed me a chocolate bar that I ate without noticing what it tasted like. He handed me two more while stroking my hair, a frown on his face.
Gideon and Dante heaped the skins into a pile, and together they used infernal fire to incinerate them. The stench was unbearable, thick sulfur and rotting meat.
“Someone tell me what the fuck happened here,” I said as eyed the last chocolate bar, wondering whether I could keep it down.
Kane put his arm around my waist and helped me over to the car, which was thankfully downwind of the stench. All that remained of the shifters and the witch were a few small ashes that were already blowing away on breeze.
Gideon scooted into the car next to me and kissed behind my ear.
“Are you ok?” he asked.
All three of the guys turned to look at me.
“I’m fine, really. Tired and in need of something more substantial than chocolate, but I’m ok,” I said with a smile.
My magic had curled up deep inside of me, and there was none of the lingering desire to smite the world that had happened in the past. I hoped that meant I was getting a grip on things.
“You were going to tell me what the sweet blue fuck happened with the witch and shifters,” I said.
Gideon frowned.
“She was demon bound. Her life essence was tied to a demon lord that fed off pain and death. Every time someone tied to her was injured or died, the demon gained power. In return for that power, he gave her more magic,” Gideon said.
“And she wasn’t a witch, she was a necromancer. Those shifters were her puppets. They’d died months ago. She was using them to consume other beings’ magic. I’d read about it in old books but never seen it before,” Kane said.
