Faerie Magic (12 page)

Hmm. I didn’t want to read too much into
that.

My jacket was hung over the back of a chair by a cherry wood desk. My shoes lay nearby, and my sword and other weapons were lined against the section of wall next to the door. A mirror over the desk reflected my sorry self back at me. Blood stained my injured arm, my clothes were a ragged mess, and my hair was damp with blood and dirt from where I’d fallen in the alleyway. When I opened the wardrobe in the corner of the room, I found nothing but dust and moths. Great.

The room had an en-suite bathroom, at least, so I could wash my face and clean the worst of the blood off. Couldn’t do a thing for my clothes, though. I’d have a proper shower when I got home. For now, I shoved my feet into my boots and picked up my daggers, replacing them in the pockets of my leather jacket. I froze when the tinkling sound of a piano reached my ears.

Every muscle in my body locked into place.
It’s not them. It’s not.
But my body reacted all the same—breaths coming short, an ice-cold sensation flooding me, and not of the pleasant, magic-related variety. The tune continued to play, eerie and haunting—too reminiscent of another. The faeries’ orchestra had played without end, beautiful and deadly at the same time. Once you were caught in the spell, you danced until your feet were bloody, or until one of the crazed faeries sucked your life essence out, leaving you to rot in a corner.

“Stop,” I moaned. “Make it stop.”

My head felt too heavy to move, and panic spread through every inch of me even as I knew the music was no spell. I just reacted the same, after all these years, like I hadn’t changed an inch from the kid they took into Faerie. Now the shock eased away, it didn’t even sound like the faeries, more like an old piano piece, vaguely familiar. Seeing as I hadn’t so much as switched on a radio since the faeries took me, I didn’t know which it was.

The music stopped, abruptly. I remained hunched on the floor, shivering uncontrollably.

Fucking faeries.

The door opened a minute later. Out of my peripheral vision, I saw Vance.

Goddammit. The person I least wanted to see me in this state. I straightened upright with as much dignity as I could scrape together.

“What are you doing?”

“Nothing,” I said.

“You’re crying,” he said, his expression bemused.

No way.
I touched a hand to my face and it came away wet.
Dammit, Ivy.

“What was that?” I asked. “Were you playing the piano?”

“Yes.” His forehead crinkled. “I’ve heard my notation is sometimes off-key, but I’ve never made anyone cry.”

“I hate the sound,” I said.

He raised an eyebrow. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Heat rushed to my face. So much for maintaining my professional reputation. “I’d like to be alone for a minute.” More like an hour. Actually, I wouldn’t have minded climbing out the window.

“If you insist.” He gave me another scan, like he was checking me for new injuries, then turned and left. “Call Quentin if you need anything.”

“I have to go home,” I said. “Isabel’s probably… shit. Where’s my phone?”

But he’d gone. Dammit.

I checked my pocket for my phone, then I spotted it on the desk. The battery was dead, which meant I probably had a dozen missed calls, but at least I hadn’t permanently broken it when I’d dropped it in the alley. Shoving the phone into my pocket and grabbing Irene, I all but ran from the room. And then stopped at the end of an empty corridor. How the hell did I get downstairs from here?

Not only did I have no ride home, I had to walk around this maze of a manor in clothes that were falling apart. I’d already left my dignity behind in the alleyway, so I zipped my jacket and took off down the corridor. Three wrong turns later and I found a small staircase leading downstairs. I half-ran, finding myself in the corridor near the conservatory. Doubtless the Mage Lord would be in there, so I went the opposite way and promptly found myself lost again.

Vance probably had a hell of a fun time in here as a kid. A game of hide-and-seek would last for hours. Did he have friends? Most of his family had died in the invasion, so I guessed someone else had raised him. But this place seemed deserted. No sounds of voices followed me. This place was… kinda empty, really.

Why was I so interested, anyway? He was part shifter, charismatic and a crazy-powerful mage. He’d probably had tons of admirers.

Like you.

No. I wasn’t blinded by his offer of a job. I owed him a debt, there was no way around that, but it didn’t mean I’d be kneeling at his feet anytime soon.

Lost in thought, I walked smack into Wanda.

“Shit! Sorry.”

“Ivy.” Wanda blinked at me. She was Vance’s assistant, a frost mage apprentice with a kindly expression and her long dark hair pulled back in a ponytail.

“Oh. I know I look like shit.” Apparently, my filter had gone walkabout along with my dignity. “I was—lost. Vance disappeared.”

She raised an eyebrow.

Oh. Crap. What with my dishevelled appearance and the fact that I’d zipped my jacket to cover the bloodstains, I probably looked like I was doing the walk of shame. Heat crept up my neck. Who was I kidding, thinking he’d singled me out? Of course he’d brought other women back here.

“I got stabbed yesterday,” I said, completely unsubtly, revealing the blood staining my sleeve. “And he disappeared before I could get a change of clothes. I’m heading home.”

“I can lend you a shirt, if you like,” she said.

I smiled. “Thanks, but really—I need to go. My phone’s dead, and my flatmate will be worrying about me. Where’s the way out?”

She pointed. “Left. You’re almost there. If it helps, the main corridor goes in a square.”

“Ah—okay. Thanks.”

“What happened?”

“A half-faerie,” I said, pulling my jacket tighter. “Thanks again.”

“Let me know if you need anything,” she called after me as I ran down the corridor.

I wondered how much she knew about the nature of my work for the mages. I was the only ‘witch’ employee, and it wasn’t like I’d had ample opportunity to speak to the others.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I found the exit and slipped outside. Nobody seemed to be around, so I relaxed a little. I’d go home, properly clean up, and Isabel’s magical cookies would make everything better.

Once I reassured her I was alive, and that I planned to have another battle with a half-faerie tonight.

CHAPTER NINE

The wards around our flat flared as bright as ever, but the door lay open. Not a good sign. I half-ran across the lawn, Irene at my side, and halted as Isabel came outside.

“My phone died,” were the first, stupid words to come out of my mouth. “I’m sorry.”

“I thought they killed
you.” She hugged me back, shakily. Her eyes were underscored with dark circles. “Where the
hell
have you been?”

“I’m sorry,” I said again. “It was… a pretty bad job.” I waited until the flat door closed behind us to unzip my jacket. Isabel gasped at the sight of my shredded clothes. “I need a shower, but I promise I’ll tell you everything in five.”

“You’d better.” Her words followed me as I pushed my bedroom door open. I considered my wardrobe and grabbed a fresh outfit, and made for the shower. I shampooed my hair three times, scrubbing every flake of dried blood from my skin, but I still felt the taint of…
him.

“I won’t lose next time,” I whispered, my words lost in the pounding of water.

I dressed and swept my hair into a ponytail, then went to join Isabel.

It didn’t take too long for her to be shaking her head at me. “Ivy, I know you’re reckless, but sneaking into an event for half-bloods only? That’s…”

“Mad. I know.” I took a half-hearted bite of the pasta meal I’d heated up in the microwave. “But people are dying. The leader of a mage council was murdered. And…” The words stuck in my throat.
And
his
son nearly killed me.

Isabel looked at me curiously. “The leader of a mage council. Whoever it was, they probably got taken off guard. I can’t see a part-shifter Mage Lord who can defy the laws of physics getting beaten by a half-faerie.”

My mouth fell open. “Uh.…” She thought I meant Vance might be targeted next?

“Ivy, if you’re worried about the Mage Lord, I’m sure he has his own security team.”

“I’m not worried about him.”
Maybe I am, now.
It sounded like the half-faerie who killed the leader of the other mages had been half-crazed, drunk on the aftereffects of the drug. Didn’t sound like he’d planned the attack, and Calder hadn’t mentioned him either.

“You were at his house last night, weren’t you? You don’t have to hide anything from me.”

Those words were the final trigger that burst the dam. I blurted out the real truth—everything from Calder attacking me, dampening my magic, and leaving me to bleed out in the alley. Her expression grew more alarmed with every second until she stood up to pace around the flat.

“Shit, Ivy.”

Now I’d told her the full truth of my experiences in Faerie, she knew how much damage Avakis had done. How tenuous my grip on my own magic was.

“I’d drop out of the contest, but people are dying.” I set my mostly untouched meal aside. “I can’t let this slide.”

“You
nearly died,” she said. “Do you know how it felt when you didn’t come home? I thought they’d abducted you again.”

“I’m sorry,” I blurted. I’d already apologised twelve times, but guilt twisted through my guts. “I’m really, really sorry. I never expected I wouldn’t make it back. The illusion spell worked perfectly, but I stayed too long. It was fading on the way out. I guess that’s why he saw through it. He’s half-Sidhe, too. But the way he used magic… it shouldn’t be possible in this realm.”

He maintained a level of control over his power I’d never seen before, because he’d had the magic his whole life.

Who trained him?

He’d looked just like Avakis when he’d faced me in the shadows, except… not. He had silver hair, not black, for one thing. His fighting style hadn’t been the same.
You killed Velkas by a fluke,
he’d said. Not
you killed Avakis.

“He met Velkas,” I said. “Maybe they went to Faerie together.”

He’d worn armour and carried a powerful tree-forged blade… neither of which was easy to get in this realm.

“Velkas had help, right?” said Isabel. “Not just from the necromancers.”

Good point.
“The people we questioned when we were trying to find out who took those kids kept mentioning a half-faerie with silver hair and an ash blade,” I said. “A
half-faerie.
Velkas was a pure-blooded Sidhe. Maybe this guy used to be his lapdog.” It explained a lot. He was carrying on with Velkas’s lies. Immortality. Did he want to open a way back to Faerie, too? Most likely. Velkas’s ultimate goal had been to build an army and make even Summer and Winter bow to him. He’d wanted to steal Avakis’s power long before he’d set his sights on the mortal world.

Calder, on the other hand… he wasn’t pure faerie. No matter how much control he had over his magic. If I wanted to beat him, I needed to learn the heart of my own magic and use against him. I wouldn’t be blindsided again. Assuming I survived the Trials without anyone realising who I was, I might be able to sneak up on him.

I drew in a breath. Isabel watched me with a worried expression.

“He’ll think I bled to death in the alley,” I said. “If my half-faerie disguise is good enough, he won’t guess it’s me when I show up tonight. I can wear a costume. Some of the half-faeries did.”

Isabel shook her head. “You aren’t going to back down on this, are you? Can… can you at least not walk in there alone? The Mage Lord wants you to stay in one piece, right?”

“He’d never be able to sneak in,” I said. “Unless you made two disguises, but I’ll need one every night this week if I make it to the final round of the contest.”

“I don’t have enough ingredients for two people.” Isabel shook her head again and crouched beside the spell circle set up on the floor. “I
might
be able to do you a fancier design, but you’ll have to tell me what you want to look like.”

“I will do. I should probably call Vance. I kind of freaked out this morning and ran home without telling him I was leaving.”

She turned her head to me. “Hmm. You were at his house… alone?”

“In a guest room,” I said. “And probably not alone. His place has enough rooms to host every mage in the whole town. I had to wait to heal up before I left. Nothing happened with us.”

Nothing aside from him seeing what a wreck I really was, under the surface. Getting close to him, letting the lines between professional and personal blur… even if I was okay with it, part of me belonged to Faerie. Last night had reminded me just how deep its influence ran.