Witch-Mage Liberation, page 1
WITCH-MAGE LIBERATION
THE CHRONICLES OF THE WITCHBORN™
BOOK THREE
ISABEL CAMPBELL
MICHAEL ANDERLE
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This book is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.
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LMBPN Publishing
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Version 1.00, January 2024
eBook ISBN: 979-8-88878-767-0
Print ISBN: 979-8-88878-768-7
THE WITCH-MAGE LIBERATION TEAM
Thanks to the JIT Readers
Zacc Pelter
Wendy L Bonell
Jeff Goode
Editor
SkyFyre Editing Team
CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Note from Isabel
Books from Isabel
Books By Michael Anderle
Connect with the authors
CHAPTER ONE
“My writings are secured and hidden. I’ve placed them in three volumes, which make up the Ancient’s Grimoire. I refuse to send them with any of my followers but you. Only you can I trust to keep this secret. They are coming for me, as you well know. They will come for you after.
“You must follow all my instructions to ensure my writings survive. One day, someone of great power will arise, and if they do not have my writings to go by, they could create destruction like nothing we have ever seen. I beg you to be careful. I implore you to go to your grave with the secret of where my writings lay.”
—Excerpt of a letter sent by Grand Archmagister Ambrosius to one of his followers
“This place smells like shit,” Thea grumbled.
It was also dark and chilly. November nights in New Orleans weren’t as cold as they were up north, but Thea hadn’t liked having to put on layers before coming here. Another night in a graveyard. Terrific. She was beginning to wonder if her remaining time with AID would ever get her anywhere else. “It smells like someone took a giant bag of dog shit, dumped it in the middle of this place, and set it on fire,” she clarified.
Well, there are hundreds of dead bodies around us, a voice drawled into her mind.
That’s not what I’m talking about, Kira. Thea could not smell deteriorating bodies like Kira could. It was one aspect she liked about being a human with magic instead of an extra-dimensional entity. The smell is something different.
Maybe someone did drop a giant bag of dog shit in the middle of this place.
Thea shook her head. It’s not that either. The scent was strong with decay, but not from the bodies inside the tombs.
Kira fluttered close to Thea’s head in crow form. She gave an irritated flap of her wings but no verbal response.
Thea crept forward, keeping low and as quiet as possible. A swift, strong wind blew past, and Thea thought the hundreds of crumbling headstones and the cracked wall around the cemetery might blow over at any moment. So be it, she thought. If it meant she didn’t have to come to this damn place in the middle of the night again, she’d be happy.
The darkness of the night sky gave them no comfort, but at least the moon was almost full, so they had light to go by.
Thea took another step forward, careful not to crack a twig in her path. Where the hell are they? she wondered. She checked her watch. It was twenty after midnight, prime time for the spirits and specters of the cemetery to be out and about, taking their nightly strolls. It wasn’t her presence that deterred them. Something else had. A chill darted up Thea’s spine. I really wish I was at home in my own bed right now.
She strode toward a large headstone and skirted it with Kira close behind. They halted as the sudden sound of digging cut through the stillness of the night. The hairs on the back of Thea’s neck stood on end. There might as well have been flashing red lights all around her, warning her of the danger ahead. This wasn’t like last time when they’d dealt with wraiths like the Lancer and the Pale Stranger.
She crept closer, rounding another large headstone with Kira alighting on her shoulder. After stopping behind a large oak tree, Thea peeked out. What she saw confirmed her concerns.
Zombies! Kira exclaimed. Don’t they have shows about those things?
Zombies. The undead. A pain in my ass. Whatever you want to call them, Thea returned.
Undead creatures milled around a mausoleum, their eyes glowing with an otherworldly light. Others were clawing their way through the earth to the surface. Someone or something had awakened them, and Thea was here to find out what.
The undead weren’t her real concern. She had faced much worse. What worried her was the zombies disturbing the Garden District graveyard, yet none of the specters had responded to the invasion of their territory. Where was the Lancer and Whitney? Where were all the normal ghosts who glided through the cemetery at night?
Most ghosts couldn’t bother the living, but their spectral forms could hurt the unliving. The spirits often acted as the first line of defense against the undead, most of them swarming the likes of zombies before they ever got close to the level of desecration they were enacting now. Zombies and other corporeal undead went after the living because the spirits were typically intolerant of their presence.
So we could really use our ghost friends right now, Thea thought. She wasn’t sure she had time to summon them with scrying and was less sure any of them would heed the call. If they weren’t already here, they weren’t coming.
The undead being here without any ghostly resistance meant they had serious backing. I mean, if they’re willing to do this shit in the same graveyard where a potent wraith like the Lancer rides a horse made of blue flames…
She let the thought trail off. Another chill ran down her spine. Looks like it’s just you and me, Kira.
I’ll peck their eyes out, Kira replied.
If only it was that easy. Thea wasn’t sure that would work. Did the zombies have eyes, or was it light shining in the sockets where their eyes should have been? She shivered, glad for the hundredth time since beginning work at AID that she was not part of the paranormal bodies autopsy department. She could kill these creatures and bring them in if she had to. Someone else could dissect them.
What are they doing? Kira asked. Besides tearing apart that…thing.
She hadn’t learned the word “mausoleum” yet, and Thea didn’t have time to explain.
I wonder the same thing, Thea replied. They might be taking it down to bring out someone else. Someone dead or undead? Thea didn’t care. As rundown as the cemetery was, it didn’t need further destruction. Taking care of the zombies should be easy enough, as long as whatever was backing them didn’t show up to help.
However, she couldn’t question the zombies. Maybe it would be better if whatever was juicing up these creatures did show up. She would figure out how to fight it or get the hell away from it when that bridge came.
Ready? she asked Kira.
Been ready.
Thea summoned her magic, reinforced by Kira’s presence.
Draw more, Kira urged her.
I’ve drawn what I usually do, Thea protested.
For a fleeting second, Thea thought Kira might be getting a high through drawing from the Lake of Power. She quickly realized Kira was only concerned about her not taking enough to throw at the undead. Don’t worry, Thea assured her. This will be a piece of cake. Besides, if they hit the undead too hard and too fast, they wouldn’t be able to draw out whoever was empowering the creatures.
Two orbs of glowing white magic formed in her hands. Thea stepped out from behind the tree and hurled one, then the other, directly at the undead still clawing out of the ground. Her first blast hit. She’d become an accurate shot.
However, accuracy didn’t help her as much as it should have. The first zombie she hit wavered, knees buckling, but didn’t go down. The second orb didn’t even collide with the zombie. The creature waded through her magic as if it were nothing. They advanced upon her.
“Fuck. Kira? I might have misjudged this situation.” Thea backed up quickly, mind racing to devise a different plan.
Draw more power! Kira urged again.
Thea dipped deeper into the Lake than normal, drawing a singular orb of magic she formed with both hands. She spun and threw it. The magic blasted the two zombies coming at her, but they did not crash into trees or headstones as she had hoped. They simply got to their feet and roamed toward her again.
It’s not working, Kira!
Draw more!
If I draw more, I blow myself up! Self-implosion wasn’t on her list of things to do tonight or ever.
The next second, one of the zombies appeared in front of Thea. Right out of thin air! She didn’t have time to register his presence and cast her shield before he swatted out with a large branch, cracking across her knees and bringing her to the ground.
Pain barked up Thea’s legs. She flung up her shield as the branch came down again. It cracked across her magic, and it felt like being hit again. Her magic taking the hit affected her body. It had never done that before. Fucking hell, what was wrong with her?
The zombie raised the branch again. Thea prepared to launch the full capacity of her magic against it when the creature staggered back, and the top of its head vanished. Thea heard the echo of a tactical shotgun several yards away. The sound made her focus falter, and her shield dropped.
Thank God for Jax. The zombie, now headless, still didn’t go down but staggered long enough for Thea to scramble to her feet and run a short distance away.
She fled through the mist, Kira’s wings flapping wildly behind her as the extra-dimensional entity pursued. The grunts, snarls, and screeches of the zombies followed them. This night would be much longer than Thea had anticipated.
The mist was so thick by this point that she could only see a few feet in front of her. So when Brandon Cole stepped out from behind a tree, she didn’t realize it until she crashed into him. Being bigger than her, Brandon caught her, hands holding her arms as their eyes met. “I thought critical headshots were like an auto-kill with zombies.”
Thea pulled away from him enough to wipe the zombie brains off her shirt. She wouldn’t be wearing these clothes again, that was for certain. “How many times do I have to tell you this?” she replied. “This isn’t Call of Duty!”
“Call of what?”
“Ugh, tabletop nerds. Less D&D and more shooty-shooty!”
“I like the sound of that,” came another voice. Jax finally appeared beside Brandon, holding the shotgun he’d used to blow the zombie’s brains out. They would need more than Jax’s bullets, though. Hell, Thea’s usual magic tricks hadn’t done enough.
They’d have to combine their skills to stand a chance.
Brandon and Jax flanked Thea and wasted no time firing their guns as the zombies appeared from the mist. They blew heads and arms off, but still, the creatures came. Thea put up her shield around all three of them, urging them to stand close so she could keep it up. Then, using Kira to pull more power, she formed orbs of white magic with flames dancing around them.
Thea hurled her magic with the hope that setting the undead on fire would work. One went up in flames, but her magic seemed to do nothing. Brandon shot the creature multiple times in the chest, and the flames dove deep. Finally, the creature released an agonized scream and fell to its knees.
“Again!” Brandon called to Thea. The strain increased. She threw her magic but had to retain enough focus so the shield stayed up. Jax kept the oncoming zombies at bay while Thea and Brandon took down the others one at a time.
I need more power, Thea told Kira as she felt her hold on the magic slipping.
Kira gave her more.
Thea burned right through it. Again, Kira.
Thea, you’ll go too far. Blow yourself up, remember?
Thea had not sensed the buildup or coming backlash in herself, but somehow Kira had? She figured out why a second later. The feeling of that decaying, dark presence had grown almost unbearable. Thea’s head throbbed. Blood and magic raced through her veins.
“Fucking hell!” Jax shouted. “It smells awful here!”
Since Brandon and Jax were humans without magic, they could only sense it if a large amount was concentrated in one area. The fact that Jax could now smell the dark magic meant there was too much. If Thea wasn’t careful, it’d overwhelm her. It took pulling more and more power from Kira to keep that darkness at bay.
I can’t keep going! she cried out to Kira. The strain was too great. She felt nauseous, almost as though the surrounding mist was poisoning her. Her throat became tight, almost to the point of choking.
The increased dark magic around them meant they were close to seeing whoever was juicing up the zombies. However, the feeling was so overwhelming that Thea almost preferred not to see it.
Finally, the combination of her flames and the bullets from Brandon and Jax were enough. The undead creatures dropped, littering the ground. Thea’s vision had clouded with darkness, so all she saw was the mist.
A hand on her shoulder stopped her from throwing more magic. “It’s done, Thea. You can stop now.”
Thea dropped her shield. Slowly, her vision began to clear. Brandon stood in front of her, concern written all over his face. “Are you all right?”
Thea snapped out of her daze and nodded absently. She peered past Brandon. The mist was gone. No sign of something bigger lurked among the headstones. The undead had been reduced to giblets and twitching pieces. Finally, the oppressive magic was dispelled. The dark magic that had pulsed in the air eased off to linger in the background. The throbbing in Thea’s head faded.
“It was the dark magic,” she heard herself say to the men. She pointed at the remains of the undead. “It made them more resilient than they should have been, but I think the more it helped them, the faster it sapped their strength.”
“So it gave and took away strength at the same time?” Jax queried.
Thea nodded. “That’s my guess.” She told them what she had experienced and what Kira said during the fight. “I don’t know what happened to me. I’ve never felt dark magic that strong before.”
Brandon pursed his lips, and Jax swore under his breath.
Thea stood back, surveying the scene. She was breathless and still somewhat shaken. She scanned the graveyard and frowned. “Nice of you to finally show up.”
Appearing behind the headstones were several of the resident spirits. One in particular, who they knew as Whitney, glided toward them. His nervous face and voice were to be expected, but not like this. He was truly shaken.
“We don’t know what that was. The darkness…the foul magic. It’s made us unable to come out of the ground while they’re working.” Whitney, who had once been a groundskeeper when he was alive, gestured at the pieces of undead littering his graveyard. Now that Thea thought about it, Whitney and the other spirits looked more faded than normal.
“This isn’t the only place that’s been hit hard,” Jax informed him. “We’ve been dealing with this issue all over the city for two weeks now.” Tonight was the first time they’d actually seen and fought the zombies. The other instances had happened at smaller graveyards, eventually drawing AID’s attention to this place.
“Can you tell us everything?” Brandon asked.
Whitney spoke for a minute or two, and Brandon jotted down notes. Jax took the opportunity to gather a conglomeration of zombie parts into a bag to take to AID for examination. Thea wrinkled her nose at the thought of driving to the offices with a bag of decay in the trunk. Gross. She examined her clothes again. At least she hadn’t gotten any more brains on her.
Finally, Brandon finished with Whitney and signaled for the others to follow him out of the cemetery. Tonight’s work was done.
“Anything?” Jax asked Brandon.
“None of the specters know what might be causing the issue. They haven’t seen anything but that weird mist come up every night.”
Thea had been right about feeling like the mist was poisoning her. She shuddered as they passed the cemetery gate and headed for the parked van. “I have a feeling this is only the tip of the iceberg. Darker forces are at play in this city, and they have been for a while.”
