Chapter 30

Chapter

Thirty

Power stirred in the circle, blending the scents from the bowls and making the candles flicker. I sensed a strange crackling overhead, but I couldn't see anything.

Carly caught my eye and winked. "Umbrella."

She knelt opposite me and set the athame on the cloth in front of her. "Let me explain the wards on the box," she said.

Malcolm and I listened and watched as she walked us through the spellwork on the outer box. Matthias paid close attention too, though he didn't have magic. Like me, he knew knowledge was a weapon—he'd said so explicitly just the other day. So of course he'd want every weapon in his arsenal.

When Carly opened the outer box, she revealed a smaller, flatter box inside. It too was covered with spellwork. All of the spells were for containment, nulling energy directed at the box, or hiding the contents of the box. She walked us through all those spells as well.

Inside that box lay the mirror, wrapped in linen with amulets tucked between the layers.

"The spelled linen keeps her from seeing anything if she surfaces and hides the mirror from all eyes," Carly explained. "And the amulets are backup protection and magic to keep the mirror intact."

I had never seen anything with so many layers of protection and concealment. Not even my warded storage here in my workshop had that much. My tummy roiled.

Carefully, Carly unwrapped the linen, setting each amulet aside in the box, until she revealed the mirror itself. I braced myself to see Valas, but the glass was dark and empty.

I'd been too distracted earlier to really study it closely, but despite what it contained and being made of broken pieces of ancient stone, the mirror really was lovely. Carly had somehow fitted the stones together like a mosaic in a ring around the glass. She'd also inscribed spellwork on every square inch of the glass. Her spellwork was beautiful, like a spiderweb strung across the surface. I liked to think of the runes as fancy prison bars.

Beyond the glass, darkness yawned. The abyss reminded me of the mirror in Valas's chambers I'd used to travel to and from the Broken World, but that glass had felt miles deep—so much so that I experienced vertigo just standing near it. This darkness didn't feel as deep, but when it came to magic and portals, looks and impressions were absolutely deceiving.

"The stones are pieces of lapis manalis , as I already told Alice," Carly told us quietly. "You can research those on your own. The spellwork is the strongest, most powerful, and most deadly spell I know."

Both Matthias and I moved back.

"Where does that mirror go?" Malcolm asked, also in an undertone. Something about looking at that mirror in those boxes made speaking in hushed tones feel necessary, like we were afraid we'd wake something, or were in the presence of something that was fragile in a very bad way. "Is she trapped in the mirror itself, or is that like a pit on the other side of the glass? Or is the glass a portal to what I hope is a super-duper nasty place she can't get out of?"

I'd very much wondered that myself .

Carly's smile made the little hairs on the back of my neck prickle. "It's a pit, and it's a portal," she said. "Minerva forgive me, I'm rather proud of what I made to hold Valas."

I made a sound that was definitely not a gulp. "Yes?"

"You know of Tartarus?"

"The land of the super-damned?" Malcolm flitted. "The Hell that's below Hell? That Tartarus?"

"That one," Carly said, with more than a little smugness.

My eyebrows shot up. "You sent her to Tartarus? "

"I haven't sent her anywhere." She indicated the mirror. "On the other side of this glass is a pit. Its bottom is very fragile, like an eggshell. Any violence, any magic, any anything will break it. Beyond it lies Tartarus."

"Valas is in this pit," Matthias rumbled. "But if she attempts to escape it, or attack us, or do anything besides exist, she'll break the barrier. She'll cause her own fall."

"Not just fall," Carly said, with a smile like a cat who'd just cornered the tastiest of mice. " Fall ."

We all stared at her.

Malcolm was the first to regain his power of speech. "Damn, Carly. Nice. I didn't know you had it in you."

"I contain multitudes," she said. Her smile faded. "I was inspired by our situation involving the necromancer and their spirit, who they've called back across the abyss from the land of the damned to cause suffering here. I don't send anyone to those depths myself, but I can put the choice in her hands. She may exist for eternity in this pit if she behaves. If she doesn't…" She pointed down. "It's a long, long drop to the bottom."

"I don't know anyone who deserves this fate more than her," I said. "Except maybe this necromancer and their spirit."

"I'd certainly be happy to cast that spirit back to Tartarus." She reached for the linen wrapping.

Valas's face appeared in the glass.

I jumped. Magic coiled around my arms .

Malcolm flitted back so quickly he almost hit the circle Carly had drawn. He stopped himself just in time.

Matthias snarled. Golden shifter magic seared my skin. I heard bones crunching as his wolf tried to force him to shift. Somehow he maintained control and stayed human. But his fists clenched until his knuckles popped and turned white.

Carly didn't so much as twitch.

The last few times I'd seen Valas, she had been in various stages of nightmarish decay because of the sorcerer Mira?'s curses. I'd nearly died trying to remove those curses when I returned from the Broken World. In fact, I thought I had gotten them all out of her, but either I'd missed some or he'd hidden additional spells designed to activate if someone managed to remove the first set. Mira? had been highly motivated to ensure Valas suffered greatly and for a long time before her final, true death.

Valas's long, black hair swirled around her narrow face, stirred by the powerful magic on the mirror's reverse side. Her dark eyes reflected the glowing symbols and glyphs of Carly's spellwork. She would forever appear to be in her mid-twenties, but no one would ever mistake those cold eyes for anything but ancient. In spirit form, she wore no clothing, and her pale skin stretched over her bones. I couldn't see anything of her body below her collarbone, but she appeared whole, intact, and as powerful and deadly as ever.

To see her beautiful and predatory again, as if Mira?'s curses had never reduced her to scraps of flesh on bone, and as if Vlad hadn't staked her with her own arm, left me gutted. But because she would use my despair against me, I fought to hide my reaction.

Malcolm kept his distance near the circle's perimeter, but both Matthias and I stayed put once the initial shock of Valas's sudden appearance wore off. Meanwhile, Carly's streak of staying utterly unflappable in situations that caused the rest of us to become highly flapped continued.

"Caroline Althea Reese," Valas said, smiling to show her unusual upper and lower fangs. "High Priestess of the Emerald Star Coven. I must congratulate you on such a fine entrapment. In a thousand years, no one has caught me so well. I never thought anyone would have the skill or the gall."

"The long-lived always do tend to underestimate humans, regardless of our knowledge or skill." Carly's expression gave nothing away—no fear, no anger, nothing for Valas to feed on. "You understand your situation?"

"I do." Valas's smile hadn't waved. "It is a fine puzzle. I shall enjoy solving it."

She didn't say she'd kill us all if she escaped, and yet the implication was clear. A lesser vampire would have threatened, but Valas promised.

Her dark gaze went to Matthias. They locked eyes for a long time, as Valas tried to intimidate him with her unblinking stare and my new pack mate and his wolf beheld their longtime tormentor in her prison. I wanted to take his hand, but I got the sense he wanted to do this on his own.

"I have made few mistakes in all my long centuries," Valas said at last. "I see much, Matthias Albrecht, but I did not see your depths. I cannot help but wonder why."

"Your field of vision is wider than most." Matthias's voice was heavy with more emotions than I could identify. He probably felt about Valas much the same way as I felt talking to my grandfather. "But you aren't without blinders. You're so sure of yourself and what you know of the world that you miss what's right under your nose, such as Charles Vaughan's ambition."

I wondered why he'd chosen not to reply to her comment about his potential and strength and instead redirected the conversation toward Charles. To make her angry so she'd break the barrier and fall to Tartarus? Or because he wanted her to know what she thought of him no longer mattered? Maybe both.

If he'd wanted to get her to lash out, however, it didn't work. She simply smiled and moved her gaze to my face. "Ah, lovely Alice. My chariot. "

As if my existence was merely for her use and she hadn't violated me in the worst, most despicable way.

Rage made me want to throttle her through the glass, but that wasn't possible—and like Moses she'd just use my anger against me. So I kept my expression blank and promised myself I'd get to punch the heavy bag later.

"What a divine experience, sharing your body and mind," Valas purred. "So many secrets you carry. And so many fears."

Maybe she knew all my secrets and fears—and maybe she didn't. She lied even more smoothly than I did. The fact she bragged about it made me wonder if it was true, or if this was just a bluff to mess with my head. Could go either way.

"Is this where you tell me you'll use them all against me when you escape?" I asked, feigning boredom. "How cliché."

"No. I am not as simple at that. I am fathomless." Her smile grew. "No one in all existence knows you as well as I, mage who calls herself Alice. Imagine what I know." She drew so close to the mirror's surface that I almost expected her breath to fog the glass. "Imagine what I will do with what I know, and what I know you are capable of."

Really, if she'd seen my memories, she knew I'd faced things in the Underworld and the torture of a sorcerer and I wasn't easy to intimidate, even by her. And she might think she knew me, but like Carly, I too contained multitudes. I wondered if that was a line of poetry. Carly had a habit of quoting poetry. I'd have to ask her.

"That knife cuts both ways, Sala Veli," I said, and gave her a smile of my own. "I know some of your secrets too now. But before I put you at the back of the closet under a bunch of shoe boxes, I have one question." I leaned over the mirror. " Who's the daddy? "

Her eyes went full black, and her mouth opened as if to scream. And then she vanished.

"Did the barrier break?" Matthias demanded. "Did she fall?"

"No." Carly drew the linen across the mirror's surface, placed an amulet on top of it, and continued the wrapping process. "She controlled herself enough to keep it from breaking, or the spellwork would have let us know she'd fallen." She glanced at me. "Did you intend for her to break it?"

"Not necessarily." I shrugged. "But I wouldn't have shed a tear if she had."

We watched as Carly re-wrapped the mirror and closed both boxes before blowing out the altar candles. She opened the circle, then placed the box on the work table.

Meanwhile, Malcolm had stayed quiet since Valas showed her face. Maybe seeing her spirit trapped had unsettled him more deeply than us. I'd have to talk to him about it when we were alone—that and why I was going to Merrum Manor this afternoon. That was going to be a tough conversation on multiple levels, but apparently this was the day for difficult talks.

"Where will you keep the box?" Carly asked me.

"Somewhere very secret and safe." I pointed to my cabinet with the strongest and deadliest black wards. "I'll keep it in there until we make a plan for its permanent location. My first thought is to put it in a safe, fill the safe with cement, and drop it dead center of the Bermuda Triangle."

"That is one option, but not one I'd recommend." She started to pack up her altar. "So, she had a child?"

"I think so. I had dreams that were actually Valas's memories. There was a son."

"Oh, dear." Carly heaved a sigh. "We'll have to deal with that then, won't we?"

"Probably," I admitted.

As she put her things in a bag, Carly asked, "Any questions before I leave?"

Malcolm cleared his throat. "Yeah, I have a question. Caroline? "

Once we saw Carly off, I discovered Sean had channeled his frustration into digging into the mysterious Disciples of the Sun Moses had claimed were responsible for attacking us on the highway. The briefing didn't take long.

"Not much out there but rumors," Sean told Malcolm and me over coffee at the kitchen island. Matthias had gone outside to walk around and work through some emotions on his own. "No website, no social media presence. They don't seem to have much interest in recruiting new members publicly. I reached out to several people I thought might have information and all they've heard is whispers. They're like shadows, this group. I'd give a lot to know how Moses dug this up—if he really did."

"I hate to say it," I said slowly, "but my gut says he was telling the truth about who he believes is responsible. Now, whether he's got reliable intel, I don't know."

"Well, we know they came for, uh, her ," Malcolm said, gesturing at the basement. "For whatever reason, she didn't want to be taken by them—at least, not like that."

"What kind of group is this?" Sean wondered. "The name sounds like a cult, but we don't actually know."

"They're definitely occult practitioners," Malcolm said. "When Alice tracked the magic we got from Mr. Touchy, she saw occult magic and arcane rituals that looked ancient. And we saw that magic in action on the roadside."

Again, I closed my eyes and tried my damnedest to recall that face, but all I got was a vague shape. Only their fury was clear in my memory.

"I really don't know," I said finally, my shoulders drooping. "It might have been whoever leads the group if they sensed me nosing around. They made it clear I was trespassing in their lair. I definitely got booted out abruptly and with considerable oomph ."

My skin prickled with Sean's angry reaction to my description of how the tracking spell ended. He loved me completely and he had my back no matter what, but neither he nor his wolf liked anything about the danger I faced daily as a mage PI—much less the unique and increased dangers of adversaries like necromancers, Dark Fae, and sorcerers.

"I'll keep looking for information," he said, and rubbed my back. "If my sources all come up dry, we can see about casting a wider net, but we need to be careful. Six people died last night trying to ambush us, but we don't know how many people are involved in this group. We can't assume they won't try again, or know how they'll react if they find out she's no longer—" he growled "—within you."

I can guess , I thought. Judging by their expressions, Sean and Malcolm could too. Once they regrouped from the ambush, these Disciples of the Sun might be really pissed off—and highly motivated to find Valas.

Malcolm wanted extra hazard pay. I probably deserved some too. Too bad I was the boss in this setup and the boss wasn't currently offering raises or bonuses, even if we had more danger circling than usual.

Best I could do was a reassuring smile for Malcolm and a couple of ibuprofen and another cup of coffee for me.