Faerie Magic (20 page)

“Pretty sure he’ll have erased his traces everywhere else,” I said. “Sure would help to know where he’s hanging out, though.”

He must live somewhere in this realm. With the veil closed, there was no way Calder could have walked out of the Grey Vale into our realm without anyone noticing over at necromancer HQ. Certainly not after the other week. Every inch of the Ley Line was under close watch.

Had Calder even
met
his father? For most changeling half-bloods, their faerie parents rarely bothered to come over for a visit. The Sidhe who screwed with mortals didn’t go in for the whole regular family thing.

Isabel pocketed the remains of the spell circle with a nervous glance over her shoulder. “What even
is
this place? Can’t you shut it down?” She addressed Vance.

The Mage Lord approached the doors to the auditorium. I followed, one hand on the sword strapped to my waist. I missed Irene like crazy when fighting in the arena.

“There’s nothing in there,” I said. “I checked. If you shut the place, Calder will know I told you.”

“I’m aware,” said the Mage Lord. “As I said, it’s my intention to speak to the Chief of the half-bloods and find out if he’s aware
this
is going on.” He indicated the empty arena. “I didn’t bring the subject up at our last…
meeting.”
His voice dropped on the last word. “I’ll bring him proof this time.”

“It’s not illegal,” I said. “Like, you know, human street fighting. It’s a thing.”

“Is it, now?”

“I thought everyone knew.” Except the mages, apparently.

A shout from behind, accompanied by a familiar chill, made me whirl around. Isabel backed away from a giant, furred beast, which paced the top of the stairs, preparing to jump.

Like hell.
I’d get there first. Magic flooded my veins as I grabbed my sword and ran for the stairs.

Even with enhanced speed, I narrowly avoided tripping downstairs when I landed, bringing the blade in a wide arc. Blood spurted above the hellhound’s gaping mouth and I ducked to avoid those deadly jaws. My second swipe got it in the neck.

“There’ll be more of them,” I warned the others. “We should go—”

Howls echoed downstairs.

“—outside,” I finished.

With no choice but to run right into the hellhounds’ path, we made for the stairs, and the exit. Growls and scratching noises told me at least one prowled right outside the door. Vance moved in front, blasting the door wide open and knocking the hellhound aside. The second beast recovered, directing its fear-spell at us. At once, iciness spread through my limbs, but my magic pushed it back.

Vance raised a hand and sent the hellhound flying into the alley wall, apparently unaffected by its spell. Before the beast could regain its footing, a sword had materialised and pierced it in the neck. The sword reappeared in Vance’s hand. Isabel and I scrambled upstairs to join him. I scanned the alley for more hellhounds.

“They might be using glamour,” I said. “There’s usually at least four per pack. And they feed on death energy.”

“Lovely,” said Isabel, holding an explosive spell in each hand. “This Calder character keeps them as pets?”

“Pretty standard for the Grey Vale,” I muttered. Avakis had kept over a hundred hellhounds shackled around his manor, ready to bite into anyone who dared to attempt escape. “They’re rejects from the Wild Hunt. Too wild for Summer or Winter.”

A blue shimmer caught my eye. I moved towards it, sword at the ready, directing the blue threads of magic to form a shield around me in case I got jumped from behind.

Turned out my instincts were on the mark. A growl reached my right ear, followed by hot, stinking breath on the back of my neck.

I whipped around with magic-enhanced speed and my sword flashed out. Behind the hellhound’s collapsing body, Isabel and Vance confronted another of the beasts. I kicked the hellhound’s body down, approaching the blue light.
Is he here?
Or had he sent his hellhounds to root out potential trespassers? Might he be using glamour?

Avakis couldn’t use glamour.

The realisation flashed through my head at the same time as yet another giant hellhound appeared, this one twice the size of the others. Damn creature. Bloody teeth snapped at me, making me flinch—did this creature kill the half-faerie kid, or had it been snacking on humans?

Iron met flesh and the hellhound collapsed, its bloody mouth inches from my feet. Behind me, Isabel and Vance had brought down the last one. Vance appeared to be on his phone. Probably calling the mages to clean up the mess.
Oh, no. They can’t come here.

“Ivy?” Isabel waved me over.

“Look.” I pointed at the hellhound’s stained red teeth. “He didn’t chew on me. I reckon that’s our killer.”

Isabel blanched, but she passed me a small container. Nausea rising in my throat, I took a blood sample as quickly as possible and straightened up.

“I think we got the last of them,” I said to Vance. “I reckon that one killed the half-faerie.”

“I’ll set up a tracking spell, but not here,” said Isabel.

“Yeah… you didn’t call your mages, did you? We can’t let anyone else near here.”

“I’m not letting this incident slide by, unpunished,” said Vance, his voice low, dangerous.

“Won’t be, if we find him.” I waved the jar of blood. “Unless he left this behind on purpose. I wouldn’t put it past him to have set up a trap.”

Hell, I was pretty much counting on it. By this point, I’d be disappointed if he didn’t.

“I’ll bet those hellhounds were a message,” I said. “For me. He knows I’m alive.”

“The spell,” said Isabel, a nervous tremor in her voice. “Are you sure you want me to use it?”

I nodded. “Best get it over with. Er… not here.” I looked at Vance. I’d never seen him transport more than one person at a time, but he nodded to me, understanding my idea. I turned to Isabel. “Don’t panic—”

Vance transported the three of us away before I could finish my sentence.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Isabel broke away from me, making a small noise of fright. “What the—?”

“Sorry,” I said, giving Vance an accusing look. We stood in a field behind a row of dilapidated houses. A fence lay between us and the nearest overgrown garden, though large sections had collapsed. From the state of our surroundings and the unnatural quiet, this place was one of the areas that had been abandoned during the war.

Isabel turned around on the spot, staring at the grey sky. “Are we even still in the city?”

“Just outside it,” said Vance. “This is a field owned by the mage guild specifically for the purpose of using spells without being traced. We have several areas.” Vance moved to a spot where former spell circles had burned all the grass away, revealing cracked earth beneath. “Here will do.”

Isabel blinked at him, then me. I gave her a shrug that said,
yeah, he gives everyone orders all the time. You should probably get used to it.

While Isabel crouched down to set up the tracking spell, I approached Vance. “So hellhound fear spells don’t affect you?” I didn’t know anyone, human or faerie, who could resist that spell. Avakis had used hellhounds as pretty effective guard dogs.

He hesitated a moment before answering. “No. Shifter blood is immune to most spells of that nature.”

“Really? I didn’t know. I thought it was a kind of faerie magic.”

“Hellhounds are hybrids,” said Vance. “Faeries summoned with necromancy. I’d guess their magic is of a hybrid nature as well.” He paused. “For this Calder to be controlling so many suggests he’s buying necromancy supplies. Lord Evander tells me his necromancers are under close watch after Velkas infiltrated them.”

I groaned. “Damn. I should have figured. The necromancers were right at the centre of Velkas’s plan. I don’t trust a word
Lord
Evander says.”

“Hellhounds can switch loyalties,” said Isabel, who was listening in. “When Velkas left, they might have flocked to join Calder. The coven’s watching the Ley Line, too, and we’d know if someone had tried a mass summoning.”

“Hmm.” That made sense. Hellhounds obeyed the biggest dickhead, generally. “Maybe talk to the necromancers. I’m definitely not welcome over there, though.”

“I intended to speak to them anyway, as Lord Evander has a lot to answer for.” Vance looked sideways at me.
Oh. The money.
This week had turned into such a shitshow, I’d forgotten my dire financial situation.

“So does Calder,” I said. “But you said you were going to speak to the Chief of the half-faeries tomorrow.”

“I’ll do both.”

“Might as well piss off all the supernaturals in one go, right?” I flashed him a quick smile, wondering where we stood after last night. Maybe I’d blown my last shot at gaining his trust. “I want to come and meet the leader of the half-faeries.”

“He might recognise you. Your magic is distinctive, as you told me.”

I gave him an incredulous look. “What? I didn’t think it mattered. You said Calder would notice either way. Besides, what are you even going to tell the Chief? He refused to speak to you before, right?”

“I intend to tell him one of his half-faeries has gone rogue,” said Vance. “Not every half-blood is obligated to live in his designated territory, but he’s the person responsible for any problems they cause, even the ones that live amongst humans.”

“Hmm.” Few did. Most wanted to
avoid
humans, but a handful still lived with their mortal families rather than moving onto the half-faeries’ territory. “Can’t see Calder doing that. Wonder where he lives…” He must have grown up somewhere here, if not in Faerie itself. Not that I should be in the slightest bit curious about the childhood of a cold-hearted killer.

“Guys.” Isabel waved me over. “This is all set up.”

“Gotcha.” My heart began to thump against my ribcage. I almost hoped we
wouldn’t
find him… but that was a coward’s thought. I’d committed to taking down Calder now, or die trying.

I closed my eyes, taking deep breaths. Then I reached into the circle. Once again, I fell down the torrent of memory.

Seeing through a hellhound’s eyes turned out to be in black and white, which combined by the darkness of the setting, made it impossible to see where I was going. An open field spread in front of me, but not one I recognised. Trees and a footpath told me it was a park. Several other hellhounds appeared, too. Several were fighting one another. I winced inwardly as one hellhound tore at another’s throat.

Behind them, a faint glow spread. A figure stood within it, watching the fight. The light and the lack of colour distorted my vision, but I recognised the person. He stood wreathed in bright light—probably blue—thick tendrils streaming from the body of the fallen hellhound.

Shit. He’d set them to fight one another to give himself a power boost from their pain. If he had an infinite supply, no wonder he’d been so strong when I’d fought him.

The hellhound whose eyes I watched through prowled around the fighters until it stood right next to him. Calder looked down with an expression of anger mixed with something else. Fear? No way. Even though everything was black and white, the shimmering brightness flowing to him could only be magic. He glowed all over.

Calder’s face twisted and he shouted at the hellhound. His mouth stretched in an expression of absolute fury, and I froze, my body trembling. I’d seen that look on Avakis, too many times.

Calder kicked at the nearest hellhound, still shouting. The hellhound’s head dipped and I caught sight of a spell circle, a defunct one. Calder’s foot stamped down on it, over and over. His face came into view again, and this time I read the words on his mouth—
Not enough. It’s not enough.

I fell back into my own body. “He’s not here—or in the alley. Also, he’s a sick bastard.” Like I didn’t know that already. “He had the hellhounds killing one another to boost his own power.”

The question was, what did
not enough
mean? Had the crazy strength he’d shown when we’d fought been a temporary boost? If
that
was the source of his power, it wouldn’t last forever. What the hell was his game?

“So he feeds on pain, then?” asked Isabel. “I know you explained, but—how’s his magic different?”

“From his father’s?” I shrugged, looking at Vance. “It’s the same, but he’s only a half-Sidhe. If he was full-blooded, I guess he’d have some weird hybrid of both parents’. I think one side usually dominates. You don’t get Winter-Summer hybrids.”

“So who was his human parent? Is there any way you can check?”

“No,” said Vance. “I’ll ask the Chief of the half-bloods, but they don’t record births. It’d be too complicated, with some being born in Faerie and carried here later.”

“Abandoned,” said Isabel. “No wonder he’s so messed up.”

Messed up. Yeah. He’d been in control when he fought me, but the Calder I’d just seen was more like Avakis in one of his uncontrolled, irrational rages. Faeries didn’t age, and Avakis had likely been hundreds of years old, but his son couldn’t be older than nineteen. I kept thinking of him as ancient and invincible, when he wasn’t. Not at all.