Witch's Fury (The Bone Coven Chronicles Book 4) Read online

  I barked out a laugh. “Not even close. I tried. Trust me, I tried. But my coven decided to take their pledge of peace and shove it up everyone’s asses. There was a huge battle. Tons of bone, sun, and blood mages died. And, so did plenty of rebels, since they decided to jump in with that weapon of yours.”

  “Weapon?” Belzus asked. “They weren’t supposed to use the weapon against mages. That weapon was intended for the demons.”

  “What?” Laura asked, stepping forward. “Well, regardless of what you intended, they already used it.”

  Belzus furrowed his eyebrows. “This is not good. Not good at all.”

  “If you weren’t aware of this, then I’m guessing you also weren’t aware that someone stole the Witch’s Blade,” Dorian said in a quiet voice.

  “Wait,” Belzus hissed, his voice turning to ice. “The Witch’s Blade has been stolen?”

  “Someone took it when we were all out there fighting each other,” I said. “And we believe it was a shadow mage.”

  “Of course it was a shadow mage, you idiots!” Belzus threw up his hands and stalked to the nearest crypt before turning to stalk across the dewy grass again. His usually flawless face was twisted into anger, his eyes flashing with the kind of emotion I didn’t think faes could have. “That was meant for you, Zoe. It’s a dangerous weapon. How could you have let this happen?”

  Frowning, I lobbed my own anger right back at him. “Well, maybe if you’d just come out and told me about the fucking blade and why you wanted me to go to the Sun Coven, then maybe things would have gone differently.”

  “Lies,” Belzus said. “I know you, Zoe. I’ve been watching you for years. You like to think everything is your idea. You like to be in control. If I’d approached you and told you what to do, you would have thrown it right back in my face. You would have been suspicious of my intentions. And you never would have gone for it.”

  “That’s not true. I—”

  “The fae has a point,” Anastasia said. “And anyway, what’s done is done. I think our focus should be on how to get the blade back rather than on whose fault this is. Yes?”

  I blinked at the vampire. Those words sounded so strange coming from her. Usually, she was all about plunging into situations fang-first. Not one for logic, peace, or patience. She’d rather throttle someone than give them a chance to explain. And I didn’t appreciate her taking Belzus’s side.

  “You’re both way out of line here,” I said. “That’s not me at all. I listen to what Dorian says. I do what he asks.”

  “Yeah, that’s not true,” Dorian said, quirking his lips. “You’re the most stubborn person I’ve ever met.”

  At the look on my face, Dorian coughed into his hand. Classic stalling measure, because vampires don’t cough.

  “But I agree with Anastasia,” Dorian continued. “We came here to ask you about the shadow mage who stole the blade, not argue amongst ourselves. Any idea who could have done such a thing?”

  “I’m not sure how much help I can be. I know there is another shadow mage with an illusion over her mark.” Belzus frowned. “One of my fellow fae helped her with it. That’s all I know. I have never met her, though I’m guessing she cannot be trusted.” Belzus’s lips formed a straight, pale line. “Other shadow mages are not like you, Zoe. They make no effort to control their darkness. It consumes them to the point where it controls them. If one of them is now in control of the blade, then they intend to use it to destroy the veil.”

  I shuddered. This was just what we needed. A mage controlled by darkness, unleashing demons upon this realm.

  “Could she have teamed up with Ivan Wagner?” I asked. “Do you think she intends to control the demons?”

  “That, I don’t know,” Belzus said. “But if I were you, I’d start with finding Wagner. Perhaps if you can, then you can find her as well. Try that tracking spell of yours.”

  “I’ve tried it. About a hundred times.” I shrugged. “It turns up nothing. Every single damn time. The magical rope thingy doesn’t even appear.”

  “Maybe that means he’s dead,” Anastasia said with a question-mark in her voice and her eyes.

  “He’s likely blocking it,” Belzus said. “Just keep trying. There will be a moment when his mind is at ease, and he won’t be able to keep you out.”

  “I can’t help but notice you’re using the word you instead of we.” A beat passed. “You aren’t going to come with us.”

  “Things are changing. The air feels strange. I must stay here and guard my graves.”

  “What about that fae who gave the witch her illusion?” Laura asked. “The least you could do is let us talk to him.”

  The fae laughed, a light tinkling noise that somehow sounded harsh and melodic at the same time. “Oberon never leaves the faerie realm. And he certainly wouldn’t start now to talk to some mages and a vampire.”

  I cocked an eyebrow. “He doesn’t have a graveyard to protect?”

  “Not all of us take these assignments or care about what happens in the human realm,” Belzus said with a tight smile. “Oberon is one of them.”

  “So, we’ll go to him. In the faerie realm.”

  “Zoe, no—” Dorian said just as Anastasia belted out, “Fuck that shit.”

  By my side, Laura swallowed hard but she nodded. “Zoe is right. If Oberon knows who this witch is, then we need to talk to him. It might be the only lead we have in tracking her down.”

  “Oh god, we’re doomed,” Anastasia said, slumping against the nearest tree and staring up at the skies as if they could save her from a trip into the faerie realm, a place full of dangerous fae who used deception even more than the shadow mages.

  Belzus smiled, but there was something about his expression that sent a shiver down my spine. “If you want to go into the faerie realm, then I will take you into the faerie realm. But it cannot be tonight. I need to guard my graves. Come back here at dawn and make sure you eat plenty at breakfast. You don’t want to taste any food in our realm or you might never be able to leave.”

  Chapter 4

  “This is a terrible idea,” Anastasia said as we huddled in another circle. Now that I could teleport anywhere in the world, I was going to use this spell as often as I could. Next stop: home. I needed to make sure Grams knew I was okay.

  “Do you have any better ideas?” I snapped. “Oberon knows who the witch is. Without that information, we’ll just be stabbing in the dark.”

  “Stabbing in the dark is something I assume a shadow mage is pretty good at,” she said, giving me a look.

  With a quirk of my lips, I smiled at the vampire. “Don’t tell me a Daywalker is actually afraid of something. Is the faerie realm too dangerous for a blood-sucking vampire? Well, if you don’t want to go, you don’t have to go.”

  “You must be insane if you think I’d let any of you go in there without me.” She scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Me? Scared? I’m just trying to make sure you don’t get your heads lopped off.”

  “Fae don’t lop people’s heads off.”

  “They might as well,” Anastasia said.

  When my apartment shimmered into view before me, everything appeared normal at first glance. The wards were still up around the perimeter, shimmering in the dark. Everything was quiet and calm. The back of my neck didn’t prickle in alarm. The only problem was—Grams wasn’t here.

  “Grams?” I called out as I padded down the hallway to her bedroom. The door creaked as I pushed it open, but my eyes were met only with darkness. Her bed was made, and her slippers sat on their spot next to her closet. The curtains were pulled back from the windows, as if she’d left before the sun dipped below the horizon.

  “She’s not here,” I said when I returned to the living room. “Bed’s empty but made. She must be running errands or something, though it’s not like her to go anywhere at night.” I moved toward the old landline that she insisted on keeping, despite my insistence that no one used those things anymore. For once, I was glad to see it, be
cause I hadn’t had time to replace my cell phone yet. “Let me try calling her.”

  But when I dialed the number, a low buzzing erupted from the coffee table. She’d left her cell phone at home.

  “Guys, I’m worried,” I said as I hung up the landline and cast a suspicious glance at her cell. “Why would she go out this late? And why would she leave her phone at home?”

  “You know Grams,” Laura said. “She was never a big fan of cells. That’s why she kept the landline all these years. She probably went out for groceries and just forgot to take the phone with her.”

  “Groceries?” I asked, arching an eyebrow. “This late at night?”

  “That’s when I like to hunt for food,” Anastasia said with a smile.

  “This isn’t funny, Anastasia,” I said.

  “If you’re that worried, why don’t you try to track her?” Dorian asked, giving my shoulder a squeeze. “If there’s anyone on this planet you’d be able to find, it’s your grandmother.”

  “Track her. Dorian, you’re a genius,” I said, grabbing my grimoire from my bag. Not that I needed the book to cast the spell. Something about having it in my hands made me feel more confident and capable in my magic, like I had something guiding me through all the unfamiliar sensations that came along with shadow powers. “Someone turn off the light.”

  As I settled onto the floor, the lights flicked off. Suddenly, I was surrounded by my familiar shadows. They pulsed around me, drawn to my power just as much as I was drawn to them. I’d only just begun to embrace the darker side of my nature, and already the universe was responding to me in kind. I’d never felt this way when I’d practiced bone magic. The bones never sang to me. They never felt connected to my mind, the way my body felt connected to Dorian’s.

  “Mabel Bennett,” I whispered into the apartment.

  A storm of shivers went through my body as the magic built inside my chest. It sprung up from the depths of me where I tried to hide it out of sight. The darkness threatened to whisper its sweet and dangerous words into my mind, but I kept my focus on the task at hand. Track Grams. Find her, wherever she’d gone.

  When I opened my eyes, the world was blurred like a smudged painting. Before me, a shimmering black cord hovered in the air. One tug, and it would take me straight to Grams. With a deep breath, I reached out and wrapped my hands around the magical rope.

  With a whoosh, my breath was knocked out of me, and I tumbled from the apartment and out into the cold Boston night. All around me, the bright lights rushed by in a twinkling splendor. The cord took me deeper and deeper into the city. Buildings grew closer and lights grew bright, and suddenly, my body jerked to a stop.

  Glancing around, I found myself in the center of the Bone Coven headquarters. Specifically, one of the offices used by the council for the day-to-day business of running a coven. But instead of finding Grams standing before me, doing whatever it was she was doing now, I found nothing but an empty, dark room. No sign of my grandmother.

  That was strange. I’d cast this spell several times before. Each and every time, the cord would take me straight to the person in question and I would see with my own eyes where they were, except in the case of Professor Wagner. When I tried him, a cord didn’t even appear, so this was odd to say the least. Why would it bring me here if Grams wasn’t in the building?

  Frowning, I returned to where my body sat waiting on the floor of my apartment. Dorian’s familiar face blurred back into focus. Behind either shoulder, Anastasia and Laura hovered with expectant expressions.

  “Did you find her?” Laura asked.

  “I’m not sure,” I said slowly. “The spell took me to the Bone Coven headquarters, but I think there’s something wrong. She wasn’t there.”

  Chapter 5

  “Looks like I won’t need to use my lock picking kit,” I said as we stood clustered in front of the open door that led into the dark depths of the Bone Coven headquarters. The hinges creaked as the door swung open on a light breeze that slid through a cracked window in the hallway. Inside, there was silence, quite the opposite of the usual bustle of activity as council members strode up and down hallways to discuss coven matters.

  “Do you think someone broke in?” Laura asked as she put a timid hand on the door. Closing my eyes, I took a sniff of the air. Nothing felt off. But the wards were down. Had they been broken? Or left down by the council? It was hard to say, but my intuition suggested there was no danger here now if there ever had been.

  “It smells like vampires,” Anastasia said, stepping through the open door as she took a deep breath in through flared nostrils. She whirled to face us, her phone’s light casting eerie shadows across her already-eerie face. “I think my Clan has been here. Recently. Maybe in the last hour or two.”

  My heart thumped in my chest, and I strode through the doorway without abandon. If the vampires had been here, there was no telling what they could have done to an old woman. “Grams? Grams, are you in here?!”

  Silence answered, and my heartbeat throttled into next gear. Nothing about this felt right. Grams had been here, and so had the vampires. Had they ended up in this building at the same time? If so, what the hell had they done to her?

  “I don’t smell your grandmother,” Anastasia added, as if it were an afterthought.

  “What does that mean?” I asked, whirling to face her. “She hasn’t been here?”

  “Well, no. She might have been here at some point,” Anastasia said, “but it would have been a couple of days ago. I can really only smell people who have been here recently. So, I’m getting a whiff of my Clan and a couple of bone mages. That’s about it.”

  I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, scarcely daring to ask the next question. “Do you smell any blood?”

  “No blood. Just Daywalkers. If there was a fight here, no one got hurt.” She glanced around the room, her eyes lighting on some tables that had been knocked to the ground. “It does look like there was a scuffle of some sort, but your Grams was most likely not involved.”

  A deep sigh exploded from my lungs, and I turned to the wall to flip on the light. Bright overhead bulbs flickered on, and blindingly yellow beams filled the room. The place was a wreck. Tables were overturned and chairs had been thrown against the walls. Chunks of plaster were missing, and bricks were exposed underneath. Every drawer and every piece of carpet had been ripped apart like a pack of wild animals had torn through the place on the hunt for food.

  Dorian let out a low whistle as his eyes scanned the room. “Seems like your Clan was definitely on the hunt for something.”

  “Any idea what it might be?” Laura asked as she fingered a patch of carpet that had landed on top of the nearest table after it had been ripped off the floorboards.

  Anastasia lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “I’ve been stuck with you guys and the rebels for the last week. I have no idea what’s going on.”

  “Do you think it has anything to do with my Grams?” I asked.

  “Doubtful,” she said. “Like I said, they weren’t here at the same time. My guess is your grandmother came here looking for you. But my family came here for something else entirely.”

  “Well, let’s take a look around,” I said. “There has to be a reason why my tracking spell led me here. Let’s split up. Anastasia and Laura, you can take that end of the hallway, and Dorian and I will head down this side. Check all the rooms. See if there’s anything at all you can find.”

  Anastasia and Laura nodded before disappearing down their end of the hallway. Dorian fell into step behind me, and I could tell by the quiet thrum that passed between us that there was something on his mind, something he didn’t want to say.

  “Out with it,” I said as I pushed open the first door. It was one of the meeting rooms, one we’d been in many times before. There was a single round conference table that squatted inside, surrounded by ten uncomfortable office chairs. A computer sat next to a white board that stretched across the far wall. It was just any old confer
ence room, boring and bland. Back when the coven had owned their own mansion, the decor had been a lot more elaborate. Chandeliers, antique tables, floor-to-ceiling windows with a gorgeous view of the lush gardens. Now, the council was stuck in a high-rise downtown and saddled with a corporate setting I knew they must hate as much as I did.

  My heart sunk when I realized that even that was no longer true. There was no council. Not anymore.

  “What do you expect to find here, Zoe?” Dorian asked in a soft voice. “A sign pointing the way to your grandmother? A map with an X to mark the spot?”

  “A sign would do just fine. Or a map,” I said, closing the door behind us with a click and moving to the next door on the hallway. There was nothing to see in that room. Even the vampires had decided it wasn’t worth the trouble.

  “She isn’t here, Zoe,” Dorian said softly. “Maybe she was at some point, but she isn’t now.”

  “She led me here for a reason,” I said.

  “You think she actually led you here on purpose? It wasn’t just your spell telling you she was here recently?” he asked.

  “Yes,” I said. “Actually, I do. If something was wrong, she would figure out a method for communicating in a way that she felt was safe. Obviously, at that point in time, she thought the coven headquarters was safe. If Anastasia is right, and Grams was here a few days ago, that meant she was here before the fighting started at the Sun Coven.”

  Dorian gave a nod. “Perhaps.”

  “You don’t sound convinced.”

  “I just don’t want you to get your hopes up,” he said. “There’s a strong possibility we won’t find anything here.”

  “Zoe!” Laura called out from several rooms down the opposite end of the hallway. “We found something.”

  Giving Dorian a quick glance, I smiled in triumph. He didn’t know my Grams quite the way I did, and she was unlike anyone else I’d ever met. Now that I knew she was a shadow, I couldn’t understand how I’d never seen it before. She fit the profile almost to a tee, minus the whole consumed-by-darkness side of things—she didn’t suffer from that the way other shadow mages did. But she’d spent her entire life masked as a member of the Bone Coven, hiding her powers not only from the council but from her family as well. Hell, I didn’t think even my mom or dad had been aware of Grams’s shadow magic. And only a shadow mage could pull off that level of deception.