Chapter 42

IneverthoughtI"d say this, but I could now see why some witches got drawn into black magic. Working so closely with Dyre, I saw the power he wielded with such ease. I got used to the visceral fear his presence evoked. And I saw clearly how little chance a normal witch would have against him if it ever came to a real fight. Given the constant power struggles throughout witch history, I could see the allure. I could see why my family wanted to keep his powers at hand in their little book—and why they"d found it difficult to use him.

And I was incredibly glad I still had the good sense not to want what he wanted.

Hasumi was right. There was something achingly sad about the redheaded witch. Not to mention his ill coloring and the way he didn"t seem to always be fully in control of his body. But even with all that, I couldn"t fear him. Healthy respect for his power? Sure. Not fully trust his motives, yeah. But fear him? Not unless that dark thing inside him was in control. Then it was a whole other story.

"Are you ready?" Dyre broke me out of my wandering thoughts, holding out a hand to me.

I glanced at the torn-apart basement laboratory and the bit of bone that was arranged in the center of the large worktable. We had drawn so many circles and sigils that my fingers were blistered. I had spent a truly sickening amount of money on ingredients. And I probably wouldn"t ever be able to show my face in the market again after I had a goblin jeweler fuse the finger bone and seraphinite together and combine it with the ghost berries to make a macabre little charm—but one glance at Elijah, hovering nervously nearby, was enough to make it all worth it.

I placed my hand in Dyre"s, his cold fingers wrapping around my own in a light grip. He could probably do this on his own, but he said I was more connected to the living plane, and to Elijah, so my magical contribution should help. There was also going to be a bit of multi-tasking involved. I reached my free hand out to Elijah, drawing my fingers through his misty form, through where his own hand would be if he were solid. One last touch. Just in case.

There was no guarantee that we would be able to successfully transfer his spirit from one anchor to another. It shouldn"t be possible at all, but we were hoping the angelic origins that had given his ghost such staying power up until now would help with this as well.

"It has been a pleasure knowing you, Oleander Lovell," the ghost whispered in his hollow voice.

I blinked back the stupid tears that wouldn"t stop cropping up from time to time. "You"re not going anywhere, so don"t start that goodbye bullshit," I said around the lump in my throat.

He drifted closer, merging with me for the briefest instant. Long enough for me to feel his love and longing, hopefully long enough for him to realize I felt the same way. He pulled away to go hover over the bone, and I wiped at my stupid eyes. "Okay," I said to the necromancer at my side. "Let"s do some black magic."

His violet eyes went black as his dark power surged to the forefront of his aura. "Close your eyes and concentrate, witch."

I did as he said, nudging my magic toward the circles we had drawn on the worksurface, the floor, and the bestiary. Dyre started chanting incantations, and I echoed him, following along as best I could.

I felt the magic flowing outward, felt my bright, living magic twining with something older and darker to create something new. Something that spoke to the dead and asked them to live again. It was necromancy. But directed, focused in a different way than when Dyre animated corpses.

I gripped Dyre"s cold hand, feeling his body temperature drop rapidly where my palm pressed to his—the cost of the black magic leaching his lifeforce away. I could feel Elijah"s aura fading to almost nothing as we broke his bonds to the bestiary.

Then, while I was still dismantling the last thread of that bond, Dyre began weaving the new bond to the bit of jewelry we had made from Cory"s donated finger bone. It was a delicate balance of timing—I had to work slowly enough to be sure I didn"t release Elijah before Dyre was ready. And Dyre had to be sure to be there at the right time to catch Elijah"s soul and trap it again before it faded completely.

We were both shaking a little by the time the spellwork was done. We cast the final binding and protections over the charm in breathless unison, my voice blending with the eerie dual voices that came from the necromancer.

And then…it was done. There was no bright light. No flashy magical explosions or noise. Just a waning of power as we pulled back to assess our work.

Elijah was gone, but the bone glowed faintly. I glanced at Dyre for permission, and he nodded, letting me know it was okay to reach through the circles. I scooped up the bone charm, surprised to find it slightly warm to the touch.

"Elijah?" I whispered. Goddess, please tell me we hadn"t just killed him for good.

The bone cooled in my hand as a misty form appeared. The mist slowly formed into the outline of a stunningly beautiful man. One who was still translucent, but detailed enough that I could make out blue eyes and golden hair, broad shoulders, and the undulating branch-like golden light of his wings.

"Andy? Can you still hear me?"

I gave up and let the damned tears fall. "I hear you. And I see you. Oh, Elijah, you"re beautiful."

He tilted his head down and lifted an arm as if trying to see what I saw. "I look different to you?"

I nodded. "Like you looked when you were alive, I think."

Dyre cleared his throat, and his voice when he spoke was his own. "I may have strengthened his connection to this realm while we were at it."

His cold hand slid from mine, and the hint of bashfulness slipped off his features, leaving him emotionless again.

"Well, that"s done," the necromancer said, moving forward to wipe the circles away and salt the place. "Let"s head upstairs."

I looped the chain of the finger bone necklace around my neck and helped Dyre clean up. I agreed with him—I did not want to spend one extra second down here in this nasty basement. It was better after lots of cleansings, but the place still held the echoes of every gross, awful experiment the Lovells had conducted here over the years.

At least it was down one corpse. With Zhong"s help, we had removed a section of the stone floor and dug up poor Cory. His remains were currently next to the pile of Lovells in the backyard, awaiting a nice funeral pyre.

Elijah hovered close behind me as I grabbed the bestiary and headed upstairs. The others had all been banished from the basement in case something went wrong. They were waiting in the backyard of the manor. The large open space had already been set up for our next little magic trick, with Aahil guarding the spell circles to keep them from being smudged or damaged, and Niamh and Zhong seeing to the herbs and crystals we would use for strengthening and stability. We had set wards in case the book decided to react to us removing the last protections on it by exploding or something.

I carefully set the bestiary in the center of the circle and stepped away, conscious not to smudge or disturb the lines that had been carved into the dirt.

"Hello, Elijah," Hasumi said, their fluid voice like a happily flowing river. "I"m happy you"re still with us." They tilted their head, their silvery hair falling forward to cover one turquoise eye as they cast a speculative glance between Elijah and Dyre. "I can see you more clearly. And feel you. Your joy is beautiful."

Elijah let out a ghostly chuckle and ran a hand through his translucent hair in a gesture that was so lifelike it was eerie. "Thank you, weaver."

Niamh and Zhong both smiled and nodded.

Ambrose walked a circle around the ghost, moving in and out of the shadows of the in between. "I wonder who moves faster now? Did you get stronger? Or are you just heavier and slower now?"

I rolled my eyes. "Now is not the time for an undead versus monster race."

The dark butler stand-in sketched a bow at me. "Maybe later."

"Can I burn Lovells yet?" Aahil prodded impatiently.

Dyre ran a hand over his face, then straightened to his full gangly height. "Andy?"

I put my hand in his. This time we were joined by the others, everyone linking hands in a circle so they could lend their magic to destroying the thing that had been the source of their imprisonment and torture for so long.

"If anyone feels anything that doesn"t seem right, speak up," I warned for the millionth time. I had broken their bonds, but as long as the bestiary remained, there would always be a little bit of residual magic there. It was possible it could cause them some damage when we broke it. A backlash spell to kill them all so they couldn"t go free if the book was destroyed seemed exactly like something my relatives would create.

"If this goes sideways—"

Aahil interrupted me. "Oh, for fuck"s sake. Do we have to listen to your sappy declarations of undying love now? Break that last spell so we can burn this fucking thing already."

I let out a long sigh.

"He"s just afraid," Hasumi said helpfully. "We all are. And we all care for you too, Andy. But perhaps it"s best to just be done with it."

Aahil grumbled about not being afraid. But the ruby at my throat flared with his unsteady power. I met each person"s eyes and knew they were all feeling exactly like I was. As if I was standing on the brink of a cliff about to jump. Everything could go horribly wrong, yes. But if everything went just like we planned? Then what? The bestiary would be destroyed. Our reason for being together would be gone. I could return to my life in the human world, and they could all go find their place somewhere else and live their lives without fearing the book.

That"s what I had wanted for so long. But now…now I kind of felt like this was going to end badly no matter what. I was shocked to realize I didn"t want to lose them. Any of them.

"Okay," I said, squeezing Dyre"s hand on my right and Zhong"s on my left. "Let"s get this over with."

I did the actual spell breaking, with a power boost from the rest of them, and Dyre"s occasionally whispered corrections in my ear. It was about a thousand times harder than breaking the bonds had been when I freed each creature from the book.

There was one hell of a boobytrap waiting for me at the end. I was right, making everyone explode just out of spite was the last failsafe. Thanks, great Granny. But, with a little push from Dyre, I made it through.

When the last of the magic faded away, we all let out a collective sigh of exhaustion and relief.

"It"s done," I said, still not quite believing it.

Then Aahil grinned at me, showing a hint of fang. He lifted one claw-tipped hand and snapped his fingers, and the bestiary that had ruined all their lives burst into fire, consumed by jinn flames. I half expected the damned thing to somehow resist the magic flames. But it burned to nothing in seconds.

Dyre stepped forward and salted the place where the ashes remained, just in case.

Then the pile of Lovells behind me also burst into flame.

"Aahil!" I snapped. "I was going to give them rites and bless them with herbs first!"

He narrowed his gold eyes at me. "Fuck that."

I sighed. But at least he hadn"t torched Cory yet. The young man"s body was laid out a bit apart from the others. I did the witch funeral rights on him before he was lit up too. "I hope you find peace wherever you are now," I whispered to the darkening night sky as the witch"s body burned to ash alongside my ancestors.

We salted and saged everything again when it was done. Thankfully, jinn fire burned so hot and so fast there was nothing left except some scorched grass to say that anything had happened out here.

Well, and the empty, half destroyed crypt. But whatever. No ghosts (besides Elijah) and no bodies. I was going to call this day a resounding success.

It was a happy day. And yet, I had a sinking feeling in my gut, and a weird emptiness inside me. I was glad the cursed book was gone. I really was. But…how could I ask them all to stay with me? How could I accept that if they said yes, I would need to fully give up on my plans of returning to a normal human life. I would have to live here, in the magical world, in this awful horror show of an estate filled with chilling childhood memories….

We had just trickled back into the house, and I was having dreams of showering off the smoke and ash and sweat, and maybe asking the others what they wanted to do now, if I could get up my nerve—when something big hit the remaining wards.

I stumbled to a halt in the open space at the foot of the stairs, trying to figure out what the fuck the wards were trying to tell me. Whatever was trying to get inside was powerful, dangerous. But probably not set on killing us, since the wards let it through.

The front door burst open, bouncing off the wood paneled wall, as a big, bald blue guy in a weird outfit of leggings and long tunic stumbled in and fell down to bleed on the starburst pattern on the floor.

"A jinn?" I muttered, watching as a bit of ice spread across the floor under him. Ice elemental. Had to be. His aura and magic felt similar to Aahil"s, wild and deep, but like polar opposites, burning cold instead of flaring heat.

"Junaid?" Aahil said, drifting closer to stand with his arms crossed looking down at the bleeding jinn.

The blue guy pushed himself up to a kneeling position, ignoring what looked like a pretty nasty stab wound in his abdomen. "Aahil. It"s true. You"re really free? Where is the Lovell girl?"

His searching silver eyes landed on me, and he held out his trembling, bloody hands. "Please. We need your help."

I looked between the two jinn. "With what?"

Aahil"s golden eyes were riveted on the jinn, but he looked away at my question, refusing to meet my eyes as he spun and walked away to skulk in the corner.

"Atropa," the blue jinn told me in a pleading voice. "I failed. They found us and they took her to use against their enemies. I tried to get her back, but I can"t do it on my own. You must help her."

I frowned at her. "I think you got the wrong witch. I don"t know any Atropa."

But my mind was already spinning, my chest clenching with some intuitive feeling of dread.

"No," the blue man said. "No, no, we erased your memory." His eyes darted to Aahil, who was leaning against the wall, staying in the shadows and being really quiet, for Aahil. "Brother? Tell her! Make her see. We must go."

I turned my gaze on the asshole fire elemental. "Aahil?" I said, the word a plea and a warning all at once.

Tell me what"s going on. But please, for the love of the goddess don"t destroy every bit of trust I ever had in you.

"Please, we have to do something," the new jinn begged. "They took her to use as bait against the Alliance. They"ll kill her when she"s served her purpose. Jacki said we could trust you. That you aren"t like the others. That you would help her."

I shook my head. "Help who? What are you talking about?"

Aahil stayed in the corner, his posture lazy and his gold eyes flashing with hints of flame. His voice was the old, familiar tone of dismissive scorn that I had stupidly thought hid real feelings. "Your sister. Atropa Belladonna Lovell. I helped him erase her from your mind."