Wild Hunt (17 page)

T
he house looked completely deserted
by the time the taxi dropped me back outside it. I hadn’t seen Nic before I’d left, but my mother had definitely been around.

Making my way to the front door, I paused and sucked in a deep breath. The air was crisp and calm, nothing like the air of King City. I’d missed Ireland, more than I’d ever admitted to myself. But what exactly I’d missed about the country, well, that was a little more difficult to put my finger on.

Perhaps it was just the simplicity of it all. The clean air, the lure of the wide open fields.

“Excuse me?” A woman’s voice broke through my thoughts and I spun on my heel to stare at her. It was way too early for just casual visitors and as I stared at her, something tugged in the back of my mind. Why did I know her?

“Can I help you?” I offered, glancing down forlornly at the empty travel mug of coffee. One cup was really not going to cut it, not today, and the distinct lack of caffeine flowing in my veins was making me cranky.

“I think perhaps I know you?” she said, stepping closer.

There was something about the way she said the words, “know me,” that set my teeth on edge. I’d left Ireland a long time ago, and I’d changed a hell of a lot since then. Her ability to simply know me didn’t seem particularly plausible.

And yet, I’d had the same thoughts about her….

“I used to work with your mother, I think…. Christine?”

“That’s not how I remember it, Tracey,” my mother said. Her sudden appearance made me jump; I hadn’t even heard her open the door behind me.

The woman she’d just addressed as Tracey sneered, her pleasant expression disappearing as soon as her eyes came to rest on my mother standing next to me.

“Yes, well, you were never truly one with the coven, now were you?”

Realisation dawned on me and I couldn’t help but feel like an utter fool. The woman standing in front of me was one of the witches from my mother’s old coven, the same coven that had tossed her out on her ass and demanded I be turned over to the proper authorities.

Rolling back my shoulders, I pulled myself up to my full height and met the older woman’s hard stare with one of my own. She had a nerve turning up here unannounced and uninvited. But then, I’d always known her kind to be brash and downright rude; witches’ superiority complexes made them almost impossible to deal with.

“You said she wouldn’t ever come back,” Tracey said with a small smile. “You said we were safe from her kind, that we didn’t need to worry….”

“She’s not here because of you,” my mother said, and I could feel her tension beginning to rise.

“Then what is she here for?”

“You do both realise that the ‘she’ you’re both discussing is standing right here?”

Tracey turned her attention to me, her eyes narrowing as she raked them over me, her gaze so hostile that I found myself taking an involuntary step back from her. She hated me; I could see it in her eyes. Why exactly she had such strong feelings toward me when she barely even knew me … well, that was something else entirely.

“All I can see is an abomination, something that needs to be put down at all costs before it destroys us all,” she said, taking a step toward me.

I felt the stirring of magic on the air before she’d even taken a step to cross through the garden gate. My mother might not have had her power anymore, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t cast one hell of a mean-ass warding spell.

The second Tracey’s foot touched the soil of my mother’s garden, she started to scream, the wards flaring to life with a blast of brilliant light that very nearly blinded me and left me with pinpricks of colour dancing in my vision.

“You bitch—you would defy me? The grand witch? Your life was spared once before, Christine, but not anymore, not after this.”

Tracey began to mutter to herself, the language I barely recognised as Gaeilge, but this was old. So old, many of the words were no longer decipherable as even being words.

She drew her arms up over her head and I felt the earth itself heave a sigh, the power she drew from its core causing me to shudder.

“Get inside, Amber. She can’t cross the wards no matter what else she does….”

Tracey released her magic, slamming them into the wards with enough force to send my mother crumpling to her knees.

“What have you done?” I asked, crouching down next to her as she dug her fingers into the ground.

“They cut my magic off, I had no choice….” She trailed off and refused to look at me.

“Your killing her, stop!” I said, shouting to Tracey, who continued to drive her magic directly into the wards.

“You tied them to you, didn’t you?” I asked, anguish causing my chest to ache.

“I didn’t set them up until I knew you were coming. I just wanted to keep you safe, and I knew if they ever found out…” she trailed off with a spluttering cough, blood appearing on her hands and dotting her lips.

“I can take care of myself now,” I said, but I wasn’t entirely convinced even by my own words. “Tell me what I can do to help?”

My mother shook her head, a pained shudder rolling down her spine as her hands spasmed and clutched at the ground. “I will not let you get caught up in this…” she said, her voice nothing more than a hoarse whisper.

“Too late,” I said, pushing up onto my feet and facing Tracey. “Leave her be,” I said, my voice quiet, dangerous.

Tracey smiled in response and I felt her power ratchet up my mother’s cry of pain enough to draw my own magic forth in response.

It curled up through my body and I imagined the wards, imagined them growing stronger. I imagined them fighting back….

Shoving my power out into the air, there was a moment of silence before the world once more heaved a sigh. Tracey’s magic faltered. The power she was pouring into defeating the wards shifted subtly and her expression grew panicked.

She was no match for me, that I was certain. Watching her panic satisfied me in a way that was utterly terrifying. I shouldn’t have been so happy about it, and yet here I was, enjoying every second of it.

Tracey made a last-ditch attempt at destroying the wards, pouring everything she had into them in one terrible blow that drew a scream from my mother’s lips.

“Mom!” I said, spinning around to face her as something shoved out past me, very nearly knocking me off my feet with the speed it moved at. Rushing to my mother’s side, I dropped down next to her and stared into her face. She was hurt—just how badly I couldn’t tell, but from the sweat beaded on her forehead, I was in no doubt that it was bad.

Tracey let out a long, blood-curdling scream and the magic on the air intensified, making it difficult to breathe past it. Glancing over my shoulder, I shuddered. It had been Nic darting out past me in a blur of speed. A triumphant shout ripped from his lips and Tracey dropped limply to the ground, her face a mask of slack-jawed bewilderment.

“Nic, what did you do to her?” I asked, fighting to keep the fear from my voice as he advanced forward slowly and deliberately.

His eyes had taken on the white-eyed stare of the Saga Venatione and my heart stuttered in my chest.

“Nic, my mom, she’s really hurt….” I trailed off as he moved closer and I felt his power wash over me. The demon mark wasted no time in flaring to life, fire burning through me, quieting my magic everywhere it touched.

“Nic?” I asked again, and this time he blinked at me in confusion.

“Amber, I….” He trailed off, shame burning in his face.

“I don’t care what you were going to do…. Help me,” I said, gesturing to my mom. Her face had grown paler, her breathing growing more laboured. “This isn’t right,” I said, cupping her face, “it shouldn’t be hurting her as much as it is.”

“The witch knew what she was coming to face and she came prepared to kill.”

I shook my head. “That’s not possible; she doesn’t have that kind of power. She never did.”

“Things change, Amber; you know this as well as I do,” he said, his voice still a little shaky.

“How do I help her?”

“There isn’t a way; it’s a hex. You and I both know the only way one of those breaks is with the death of the hexed.”

He was right; I did know it, but that didn’t mean I had to accept it. I had all this power; if I couldn’t figure out a way to break something like a hex then what use was there in being a Shadow Sorceress?

“I don’t accept that. We can save her. I just need to think of something and then….”

My mother’s breathing grew harsher and I could hear the fluid filling her lungs. Tracey had planned to kill her, bringing down the wards so she could get to me…. Had she been hoping to catch my mother here alone in order to have the element of surprise?

Carefully sliding my mother over onto Nic’s lap, I hopped to my feet.

“Where are you going?”

“To get an answer,” I said, crossing over to where Tracey still sat, her eyes wide and staring at things only she could see.

Grabbing her shoulder, I crouched next to her and shook her vigorously. “How do I break it?”

“Amber, I….” Nic trailed off as I shot him a harsh glance.

I shook Tracey again, but the only sound she made was a high pitched keening noise that pained my ears.

“What’s wrong with her?” I said, more to myself than anything else.

“I didn’t mean to. I just don’t have the control I need and….” Nic trailed off again as Mom started to splutter a pink-tinged white foam that flecked her lips.

“Shit, Tracey, tell me how to stop this!” I said, the desperation in my voice making my voice crack.

Tracey cried out again and curled into a ball. She wasn’t going to be any help, that I knew. Whatever Nic had done to her, she wasn’t going to be much use to anyone for a while.

“Amber, I think you need to get back over here.” The tone of Nic’s voice had me scrambling to my feet and racing over to where he sat. Mom’s lips had gone an unhealthy shade of blue that was rapidly turning black as the seconds ticked by.

I had once brought Mia back from the dead. I wasn’t sure how I’d done it, but it had worked. If I could do that, then this couldn’t be as hard, especially as I knew my mother was still clinging to life with everything she had in her.

Reaching down, I closed my eyes and pressed my hands to her chest. Lily had brought Graham back after he’d been attacked. It meant it was more than possible and I wasn’t going to give up until I had what I wanted.

I felt her heartbeat beneath my hands, weak and thready as it struggled to pump blood to the rest of her organs. Thrusting my magic into her, I imagined her heartbeat strong, strong enough to do its job. Tracey’s hex magic pushed back at me, and I could see it inside my mom’s body, its tendrils like that of a black vine that had well and truly wound its way around every inch of her.

I fought to crush the black tendrils, but every time I seemed to beat one back, two more popped up in its place. Her hand wrapped around mine and my eyes jerked open.

“Amber, it’s fine. I did this to protect you. I knew the risks; you can’t save me….” Her words choked off in another spasm of blood-tinged coughing that ended when she tried and failed to suck in a rattling breath.

If something didn’t change, she was going to suffocate.

“Not now, not like this,” I whispered to her before closing my eyes and driving my magic into her body.

The black tendrils recoiled before burning away completely beneath the power of my magic. Her heart continued to stutter along, its beat completely out of rhythm and sync with the rest of her body. This wasn’t supposed to happen; the hex was gone, so why did I have the feeling she was still dying?

Nic lifted her in his arms and carried her into the house. Her colour had improved, at least, but I’d felt her heartbeat; there had been no change in it. What wasn’t she telling me?

“Mom, what’s wrong?” I asked, kneeling next to her as Nic laid her out on the couch in the living room.

She smiled at me and shook her head. “You were always so determined; nobody could tell you anything because you always knew better.”

“None of that matters now—why are you still sick?” I didn’t want to ask the question but I was left with no choice.

“I’ve been sick for a while. I didn’t want to tell you because I knew you’d try and fix me….” She trailed off, her gaze dipping to where her hands had begun tugging at a loose thread in her jumper.

“I—” I stopped. She was right, I would have tried to fix her, I still would….

“See, I know you, I know what you’re like…. You’re like him in that way. No matter what anyone else said, he would always try to help others. He wanted to save the world, or at least, the man I fell in love with wanted to save the world,” she said.

“What is it?” I asked, wrapping my hand around hers.

“Congestive heart failure….”

I shook my head. “I don’t understand. How can your heart just decide to fail?”

“I developed a bad pneumonia a year and a half ago. Put me in the hospital and weakened me so much that this…” She gestured to her body. “…is the result.”

“Why didn’t you tell me, then? Why not let me help, instead of suffering like this….”

“Because the last thing I want, Amber, is to hold you back. If I thought for one second that I had burdened you with any of this….” She sighed. “I’d much rather fight it myself. And anyway, you weren’t ever supposed to know.”

“What?”

She reached up and grabbed my hand, drawing it down to her. Her expression shifted, growing more than a little concerned. “Tracey was supposed to kill me here today and she would have if you hadn’t stepped in.”

“Yeah, I do that all the time,” I said.

“No, not like this. Amber, it’s the balance—it’s out of sync, you weren’t supposed to save me; you shouldn’t have had the power to break a hex and yet you did. I don’t know how, and I don’t know why, but something has changed….”

“Why would you say that? I’ve saved others before and the balance has always been just fine,” I said indignantly.

“Not this time; I saw it all. I witnessed my end, and it was at the hands of Tracey. Why do you think I had the wards set up in the first place? I wanted to buy you some time to get away from here, from her….”