Faerie Magic (27 page)

Another lord. Right. “I’m Ivy. You already know more about me than I’ve told most people.” I shifted, trying to see beyond the smoke, but nothing remained but the pair of us. “Do you know what’s happening in the mortal realm?”

“A half-Sidhe is attempting to open a way to the Grey Vale by amassing energy. He appears to be harnessing it from half-faeries and humans.”

“Where? He’s not absorbing it. There must be a summoning circle somewhere.”

“The town is the summoning circle,” said Frank. “He’s warded the edges. Because the town lies so close to the Ley Line, he managed to hide this until it was too late.”

“What?” Shock jolted through me. “You’re telling me this now? Can you see everything? Couldn’t you have warned someone?”

He took my accusing questions with an expression of calmness. “My job is to police the dead, not the living. By the time I became aware of what he was doing, the circle had closed. If I send living necromancers to the boundaries to break the circle, they’ll die. The energy’s unstable.”

“Because he’s using his own magic,” I said. “He’s feeding on people’s misery, and I guess that’s fuelling the circle, too… because we’re standing in the middle of it. Well. I
was,
before I got disembodied. Shit.” Shock turned to panic. If I had a heart, it’d be racing at a million miles an hour. “We have to stop him. You at least need to warn people—the ones who haven’t been affected by the drug. He said he’d use it on every human.” With that much panic and misery, I could only imagine the havoc it’d wreak on the circle.

Let alone the amount of power he’d gain. More than a Sidhe. More than a Mage Lord.

“In order to stop the veil from opening, the half-faerie’s magic must be sealed,” said Frank.

“How am I supposed to do that?”

“You can’t. Only a powerful spell can seal magic away.”

“Great.” Damn. Surely Vance would know. He was the leader of the magical community, after all. “Are you sure that’s the only way? People are killing each other right now. Would sealing his magic stop the drug, too?”

“No, but the magical surge is making the effects worse, particularly for the half-faeries. Under the drug’s influence, they can’t use magic, but it fuels their anger.”

“Fan-bloody-tastic,” I said. “All this because he couldn’t be bothered to recruit the help of a necromancer.”

“No necromancer can open a path to Faerie,” Frank said.

“Right.” Damn, I was tired. As a ghost, that didn’t even make sense. “Of course not. Is using a magic surge and opening the veil the only way to get to Summer or Winter?”

“For anyone other than Sidhe lords, yes. I confess I don’t know too much about their system. I died before the invasion.”

I stared at his transparent form. “How long have you been here?”

“Long enough.”

“I can imagine,” I muttered, really glad I wasn’t a necromancer. “So Summer and Winter… they’re the same realm?”

“Summer and Winter lie on a single separate plane,” said the necromancer. “They occupy the same… I suppose you might say, layer of existence. Below is the Grey Vale, a piece of their world torn away by the magic of the ancient Sidhe when they exiled their gods.”

Whoa. “I didn’t know
that.”

“Few humans do.”

“I’m not a regular human,” I said. “I’ve
been
to the Grey Vale. I lived there for three years, and I never heard anything about exiled gods.”

“That’s because they’re dead,” said the necromancer. “The Grey Vale is… tied to Death, in a way. That’s why it’s possible to reach the Grey Vale by passing through the first layer of Death—an unintentional side effect of binding the two worlds.”

I shook my head. This was way too surreal for me. “So you’re saying there are
four
realms… but the Grey Vale is halfway between Faerie and Death?”

“In a way. Death itself forms the buffer between the Grey Vale and the human realm. The Sidhe lords know more than I do. I only know the information passed down to master necromancers when we’re allowed free passage between this realm and the human world.”

“And you stay here after death?”

“If we’re selected as Guardians, yes,” he said. “I’ve helped many, many souls pass through the veil, and I’ve
never
met one like yours.”

“My magic isn’t with me, though, is it?”

“No, but I assume the presence of faerie magic altered your physical body. That’s why you were able to open a way between the realms.”

“Damn.” Could ghosts feel dizziness? I needed to lie down. “So can I stop Calder? Because he’s trying to out-crazy the last guy who opened the realms.”

“You can stop him when you return to your physical body. Your friends are restraining you.”

“I want to see.”

“There’s nothing stopping you,” he said.

The grey fog turned transparent, and I choked on a gasp. We floated above my living room, where Vance and Isabel stood over my writhing body on the sofa. Isabel hovered, holding what I assumed was the cure in her hands, while the not-me did her best to avoid it. Vance held not-me pinned down in a way that made me absurdly angry at the force possessing me. Like hell would I die before he touched the
real
me again.

Vance managed to get Ivy’s mouth open long enough for Isabel to tip a bright green potion into it.
Hope it’s the right one
.

Ivy’s body jerked, then went still.

The spirit beside me disappeared, as did everything else.

***

Colour came back into focus, and my vision resolved itself piece by piece. My head rested against a cushion. Vance was holding my legs down. I lay there for a moment, out of breath like I’d run for miles.

“Ivy?” He let go. Dammit.

“This is really fucking weird.” I closed my eyes. “Sorry. I was a ghost for the last twenty minutes.”

“Is she still drugged?” Isabel asked uncertainly. “I thought the dosage was enough.”

“No, I just died,” I said. “Well. Hopped over the veil for a bit.” I decided against going into detail, because both of them were gaping at me. “Hi.” I waved at Vance, then passed out.

I woke again seconds later, feeling slightly less dizzy. “Sorry.” I shifted on my back. “I—thanks for saving me. Vance, I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

“No,” he said. “Wait a moment before you move.”

The world became clearer. Lights flared up around me—Isabel had put a healing spell over the sofa, surrounding me. I hadn’t realised how badly I ached all over until every pain disappeared in a jolt of energy. I lay there for a second, riding the high of not being in pain. And not being dead, either.

Isabel watched me with a look of concern, while Vance deactivated his own healing spell.

“Wait, I did hurt you.” Blood stained one of his hands.

“That wasn’t you,” said Vance. “I felt the mage mark respond, and immediately landed in the arena. A number of half-faeries waited to attack me. I put them down.”

“Shark? The guy with the freaky teeth?”

“He was responsible for this.” Vance held up his sleeve, which had torn open.

Oh. It hadn’t been me who killed the guy, then. Sure, he’d probably deserved it anyway, but I’d rather have had the choice in the matter.

“Sorry,” I said. “I wanted to—I wanted to stop her attacking you. I mean, me.” Awareness of Isabel watching me like she thought I’d pass out again stopped me from saying more.

“Believe it or not, I have experience dealing with out-of-control mages,” he said. “You’re hardly different.”

“Ha.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “Good job with the healing spell, Isabel. Does the cure work on humans, then?”

“I improvised,” she said, with a look at Vance. “I managed to figure out an antidote to the drug affecting the half-faeries, but humans—they react differently. Luckily, the drug he used has a well-documented cure. The coven leader gave me the ingredients list.”

“A well-documented cure,” I repeated. “That’d be because it had the same effect on necromancers…” I trailed off before I ended up admitting I’d just spoken to a dead person. I didn’t have time to recount that now. “I need to go and kill Calder.”

Isabel gasped. “You nearly died. You aren’t seriously—”

To my surprise, it was Vance who interrupted. “We need to shut down the drug’s effects on the others.”

“I—” Isabel looked at the mess of potions on the table. “There’s not enough for everyone. I can make up the difference, but there just isn’t time.”

“There isn’t,” said Vance. “But someone knows a way to stop Calder first. Unfortunately, he’s unlikely to be going anywhere soon.”

“Huh?” I said blankly.

“The Chief of the half-faeries escaped the same time as we did,” said Vance. “He was in the arena, but he’s still drugged. I had to leave him at headquarters. We’ll need to give him the cure.”

“You brought him out?”

“Of course I did,” said Vance. “The others would have taken him to pieces. The half-faeries need leadership when this is over.”

“But why do you need him now?”

“Because the Chief knows of magic none of the other half-faeries do,” said Vance, “including how to stop the magic Calder unleashed before it rips the veil apart.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

My heart missed a beat. “He knows how to stop Calder?” Er. So did I. Telling them I’d been talking to a ghost would be a good way to get myself left behind, so I decided to leave that part of the explanation until after this was all over.

“Yes. We’ll need to administer the cure first. He’s unconscious, so he won’t be harming anyone.”

I nodded. “Isabel—the cure for the half-faeries. Can we take some?”

“Sure, but… you just woke up from a near-death experience.”

Near death. She didn’t know the half of it.

“I’m fine,” I said. “You need to get on with the cure. We’ll need it.”

“The rest of the coven are helping,” she said. “Between all of us, we
might
be able to make enough, but with everyone attacking one another…”

“I’ll deal with it,” I said, a lot more confidently than I felt. “What happened back at the arena, anyway?”

“Chaos,” said Vance tightly. “I don’t think the entire audience was drugged, but they will be now. That, or Calder will have taken out his wrath on them.”

“Shit,” I said. “Guys, this is going to sound crazy, but I spoke to someone who told me the whole town’s converted into a giant summoning circle. Calder’s harnessing all the energy from the drug, using it to fuel his own magic, and it’s out of control.”

“The whole town?” Vance’s tone was sharp as a razor.

“I don’t know when he did it,” I said. “Maybe he’s been planning it the whole time—but it’s true, and the necromancers can’t stop it. We have to seal his magic away.”

Vance’s gaze pierced me, and he nodded. “Yes. That’s why we need to speak to the Chief of the half-faeries. He knows how to seal another Sidhe’s magic.”

“He’s out
there.”
I indicated the world in general. “How bad is it? The half-faeries… so many of them were underground.”

“My mages are dealing with the half-faeries in their own territory,” he said. “We warded the human houses nearby, but if the summoning circle covers the whole town, everyone this side of the Ley Line is in danger.”

I knew he was thinking of his cousin, Anabel, who lived right on the edge of shifter territory. Hell,
everyone
I knew lived inside the town. Nowhere was safe.

“All right.” I turned to Isabel. “It’s on you. If there’s anything you and the coven can do—”

“We’re ready.” She hugged me briefly, passing me my sword. “Calder must have taken the spells you had in your pockets, but here—”

“Thanks,” I said, gratefully taking the defence spells she offered me, ending with Irene. “You’re the unsung hero of this, you know that, right?”

She smiled at me, then Vance took my arm. The room disappeared in an instant.

We landed outside the mages’ headquarters. Scorch marks marked the site of the earlier battle, but nobody else remained.

“The building’s sealed,” Vance said. “The people inside are the ones who are injured or can’t fight. Every other mage is either on half-blood territory, reassuring the public or dealing with other situations.”

“Tell them not to go near the edges of the circle around town,” I said. “I don’t know whereabouts the boundaries are, but it’ll probably kill them.”

A chill wind whipped up in response to my words, a sure sign Vance was pissed off. He reached and pulled a key from nowhere. Then he walked around the fence. I followed, wondering where he was going.

Shouts and bangs drifted over the rooftops, and an explosion of fiery light flared across the sky.

Nope. No fireworks display. Just mad half-faeries throwing magic around. Presumably, the magic came from those unaffected by the drug, or maybe the mages.