26. Chapter 26
Chapter twenty-six
SAGE
My stomach twisted. What Keir was describing was barbaric. It was something a terrible sorcerer might do to his enemies.
“Why?”
“Do you really not know?”
“No, I really don’t. I don’t know why they attempted it at all. They all sacrificed too much. So many lives traded for mine. It wasn’t worth it. I’ll never be able to make up for what the world lost when they chose to save me.”
Keir scoffed. “Do you think they saved you just to set some burden at your feet? That they expected you to pick up the fight they left behind on your own? Is that why you’ve been so reckless?”
“Whether they chose to leave this at my feet or not, it’s now up to me to deal with it. Why would they save me if I wasn’t supposed to do something with the life they gave up their magic to protect?”
“How you could be the revered descendant of Rosemary is beyond me. It must be your mother’s fault.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“It means the decision to keep you away from Eastbend was the wrong one. You inherited all of Rosemary’s stubbornness and defiance, but none of her sense. Without her influence, you grew up not understanding anything at all! Let me spell it out for you, because it’s really quite simple. The coven doted on you like a little prince. Every one of the coven witches adored you like you were their own. You were their sun, full of light and warmth, and they honored you as much as they did the moon. They braided flowers into your hair for every ritual and showered you with protection charms. They shared their own family stories and magics with you, passing down their knowledge as if you were their own blood.
“The day you nearly died was a living nightmare. The idea of living in a world that you had been so violently torn from over some monster’s quest for power was unbearable. We gave up so much to save you because there was no other way. Even the witches who hesitated didn’t give a second thought to whether we should sacrifice everything to save you, only to the way we had to do it.”
My eyes burned and I swallowed around the lump in my throat. “We?”
“Did I not sacrifice as well?” he snapped.
“Obviously,” I agreed weakly.
“Rosemary was badly hurt, I feared that leaving her would mean her end. But even then I could never say no to her. The idea of losing you broke her. If she survived the attack and you didn’t, she would never have been the same. She didn’t need to beg me, but she did it anyway. In all our years together, I’d never seen her cry until that night.
“The truth is, even Rosemary would never have been strong enough to bind a demon against its will. The secret she carried to her grave was that she’d never summoned me in the first place. She found me badly injured and tossed out with the trash. I was cut loose by a sorcerer who’d deemed me a waste of his magic after I lost too many fights. He left me to die and Rosemary took pity and saved my life. I was young when we met, and all those years I stayed with her by choice. She never once asked more of me than I was willing to give, and that night was no different, though I knew letting go hurt her deeply. As it did me.”
I couldn’t breathe. It was so much worse than I’d even imagined. “Then why?”
Keir’s annoyance flooded up inside me. “Have you been listening to a word I’ve said? Family was not something I ever viewed kindly, mine cast me out when I was young. Had I not been dragged into this world, I likely wouldn’t have survived much longer on my own. To consider Rosemary family would be an insult, but she was far more important to me than family ever was. A teacher, perhaps. The only being I ever cared about until you were born.
“Like most witches, Hazel never trusted me. She resented my presence in her home, so I kept my distance, only interacting with the others when it was necessary. But, much like your grandmother, you were a relentlessly curious child. Pure in your intent to discover everything the world had to offer, including me. I admit I was curious myself, wanting to understand what Rosemary was so enchanted by, and in time even I was charmed by your mischievous nature. For the record, I find it far less charming now.”
“You’re saying we knew each other back then?”
I didn’t remember anything from my time in Eastbend other than my visits to my grandmother after we’d moved away. I was pretty young, but playing with a demon seemed like something that would’ve stuck with me.
“I did everything I could to protect you and Rosemary that night, but I failed on both counts. The sorcerer who cast me aside was right, I was a waste of his magic. And yours, I suppose.”
“It wasn’t — Wait, what? I don’t have magic.”
“Why do you think that is? The spell binding me to you consumes every bit of magic you cast. Those simple daily rituals your grandmother taught you? They do nothing but feed the magic binding me to you. That’s not their purpose, but it’s the result never the less. You’re not even casting that spell in your hands, but it’ll never last more than a few minutes because you’re consuming part of the magic it’s putting out. It’s why you can’t even use cheap pre-made spells, the magic is consumed too quickly. Only the expensive ones with significant power will hold up against the drain of magic. Even my powers are severely limited as long as I am trapped within your body.”
“So if we find a way to destroy the spell, I’ll be able to use magic?”
“There is no way to destroy the spell, it is carved into your body and anchored in your bones. The spell was never meant to have a reversal, it was a last-ditch life saving spell they didn’t have time to revise. If I tried to force my way out, it would likely kill us both.”
Raised voices coming from the spell in my hands cut the conversation short and drew our attention back to the reason I was there.
“Your men are failing! Those idiots let the power of their position go to their heads and lost sight of the bigger picture,” Mars snapped.
Graves gritted his teeth. “They acted on my orders. Those freaks may support the other candidate, but when they’ve never been involved in human politics it means nothing. That registration event was more of a problem than you realize. If the fireman they’re running actually ends up with a registered voter base, then everything we’ve done will be for nothing. We needed to shut them down!”
“So you sacrificed half the plan for your own gain,” Mars concluded, venom lacing his tone. “Then it’s your fault they’re all under investigation. Clean up your own mess, wiping the amount of memories it would take to deal with this would cause problems.”
“You can’t do it?” the third man asked.
“Who’s fault is that?” Mars hissed. “They let themselves be recorded and too many people have seen it now. Tampering with their memories at this point would only draw suspicion.”
Graves snorted, addressing the third man. “Geez Cranson, from the way you talked, I’d nearly gotten the impression he could do anything. Looks like you thought too highly of him.”
“So that’s Michael Cranson,” I muttered, trying to get a better look. He was near the top of the hunter hierarchy, even higher than Graves. Though Graves didn’t seem especially deferential to either of the others. In fact, his tone was downright mocking.
Apparently Mars picked up on that as well and he slammed one tattooed hand down on the table. A black mist swirled around his arm and Graves merely arched an eyebrow until it started creeping his way.
“What the hell is that?” he demanded.
To a human who couldn’t see magic, it appeared as nothing more than a shadow, and even then, I was pretty sure it was only visible at all because Mars intended it to be. A threat wasn’t very effective if the person you were threatening didn’t even know it was there.
Graves was clearly growing nervous, but he clung to his composure. “We both know you can’t harm me, I’m a public figure. You have no chance of taking over Eastbend without me.”
Mars ignored his posturing and the black mist circled Graves’s neck, cutting off his air. The man scratched at his throat, his fingers sliding right through the offending magic. Panic finally lit in his eyes, and Cranson stepped in as if he’d been waiting for that sign he'd been put in his place before lazily waving a hand in their direction.
“If we can get back to business, please? Unfortunately, Tom is right, unless you want to postpone the plan for four years, we need him alive for now.”
It wasn't an order to stand down, more like a request to be reasonable. Cranson didn't seem to hold authority over Mars, but he wasn't exactly acting like he answered to him either.
Mars’s expression hardened while Graves turned purple, but he must have decided he wasn’t willing to wait and finally withdrew the spell. Graves gasped in air, completely missing the sneer the mage shot his way.
“That excuse will only protect you for so long. It is only a matter of time before I have enough power to tear your soul from your body and make the husk my puppet. And I can do the same to the other one if you lose. Don’t think yourself so important.”
Graves finally had enough sense to be scared, and he wasn’t the only one. Even if Bastian won, it seemed our fight wouldn’t be over. We couldn’t let Mars gather that kind of power.
“This will never be over as long as that bastard is alive,” Keir seethed as if reading my mind.
“Then how do we get rid of him?” I answered. “According to Luca, the only reason he let us go last time was to save Cassandra. I was originally hoping the council would deal with him and the rest of the hunter organization would fail without his magic to help them. But now…”
“We can’t risk them gaining an interest in him,” Keir concluded. “The council cannot be trusted.”
“I want to disagree with you, but Luca said Mars seemed pretty confident and after researching the things they’ve done, we can’t afford to find out if he’s right.”
“Necromancy is something only found in the oldest of grimoires,” Keir explained. “Many have tried over the years, but no one has succeeded in centuries. The last anyone even breathed of resurrection was the seventeen hundreds and by the time word got around and anyone was able to reach the town to verify, the sorcerer was already dead. Never have I heard of a witch attempting such magic.”
I shook my head. “But he’s not exactly a witch. According to Mars, he’s an archmage. For him to take on a title like that would mean he’s setting himself apart from mages. He’s putting himself above them.”
“Dark magic certainly does that,” Keir agreed. “He could never claim to be a sorcerer, but he’s probably close to their power level with the magic he’s acquired. And power level aside, the biggest thing that sets sorcerers apart from mages is the ability to bind demons. We know he’s been obsessed with the idea since he discovered Rosemary was able to do it.”
“If he was able, he would have used his demon to attack us when we set his house on fire,” I argued.
Keir snorted. “You think he would have revealed all his tricks to those he deemed so insignificant he let you simply walk away? We’ve barely scratched the surface of what he can do. He wants to add me to his collection and he needs you alive until he figures out how to do it.”
“But you just said there’s not a way to do it.”
“What I said was the only way to do it would likely kill us. Do you think that’s a challenge for someone using necromancy? All it would do is take away our free will and make us his puppets.”
Icy cold terror filled my chest making me shiver.
“You’re finally starting to get it,” Keir said, telling me he was picking up on what I felt. “We are that man’s target. You’re alive because he isn’t ready to kill you yet, but that protection won’t last forever. And yet you keep dangling yourself in front of him like a steak in front of a starving dog. Even if you refuse to see your own worth, like it or not, we’re sharing this body. Do you think I want to end up bound to that monster? Do you want to force Luca to fight us as well? Do you even care what that would do to him?”
A shocking amount of anger bubbled up in side me at the accusation. “Of course I do!”
“Then act like it!” Keir snapped back, surprising me with his own anger at the idea of hurting Luca.
I actually felt Keir draw back at his own reaction, like he was retreating within me, leaving confusion and suspicion in his wake. The sound from my hands cut off abruptly, but I was too distracted to notice.
“What are you so angry about?” I demanded.
“I thought you said no one else would be on this floor,” Mars hissed.
“It’s closed this week for painting, but the painters won’t arrive until tomorrow,” Graves answered as the spell fizzled out.
Shit! Could I make it to the end of the hall before they came out of the room? Not likely.
“Keir, you need to get us out of here.”
The words were barely out of my mouth before the door to the room burst open. The blood that had been in my hands a moment before seeped through my clothes as I scrambled to my feet to face down the terrifying man blocking my escape.