The american book of the.., p.22
Shattered Reflections (The Excommunicated Witch Savant Book 5), page 22
Get it together!
“There’s another thing,” Ezra murmured. He sighed. “We can’t keep the thieves here for long. They need to be taken into official custody.”
Regulus nodded, but Hester and Jo shook their heads. “How will you explain what happened here?” Hester demanded.
Ezra’s jaw tightened, but he kept his cool. “You can charge for trespassing and breaking and entering.”
“And what happens when those four claim you knocked them unconscious?” Hester followed up.
Before Ezra could answer, Jo pleaded, “I know you need to do your job, but could you wait until tonight? We might be able to talk some sense into them.”
Hester snorted.
Regulus interjected, “I agree with Josephine. Those thieves are young. Two of them are practically kids. I want to hear what they have to say for themselves.”
Jo gestured around. “This whole ordeal has involved a minor now too. We have to keep that in mind.” If only Syl had stayed where she was supposed to.
Ezra nodded curtly, as a deputy, but his eyes were sincere and warm. Concerned. That was her friend. “Okay, tonight.”
Jo stood, pushing emotion away. It was time to focus and find out whatever she could. “I want to talk to them. All four. Maybe they’ll feel better if they aren’t being interrogated one-on-one.”
“It might not be safe,” Regulus started, but at a look from Jo, added, “Let me stand outside and protect you.”
“Me too,” Ezra added.
“I doubt you’ll need my help,” Hester interjected.
“Okay.” Jo would not have them brought to her office. Instead, she would go to them. They were in a bedroom on the highest floor with the doors enchanted to keep them in.
Regulus unraveled the wards so she could step into the room. Priscilla had dosed them so they couldn’t use their magic at the same levels they had the night before. Nevertheless, Jo raised a shield of warded magic around herself as she stepped into the room. They were awake.
They turned with the alertness of stray cats. The oldest, a young man with necromantic powers, glared at her from a shadowed corner. He sat in a chair with his arms banded across his chest. He wore a bandage around his head. He had a nasty bump under it, and while he was unconscious, Priscilla had tended to him. We’re not monsters here.
The slim woman who had brandished the knives at Hester leaned against the wall. She looked like a panther about to pounce. The stocky woman sat on the end of a bed, and the fourth, the girl who had rushed into the house, stirred. She’d been asleep.
“How long ya gonna keep us caged up in here?” the stocky woman sneered.
Jo dragged a stool into the room and sat, signaling for Regulus to shut the door. The warlock and deputy stood in the hallway, listening for any signs of trouble. Jo eyed the slim girl. “Evie Manning, is it? And Elliot over there, he’s your brother?”
“Don’t talk to her,” Elliot hissed at his sister.
Jo’s gaze slid to him. “I’d only met one necromancer before last night. He’s standing outside in the hallway. He’d be impressed with your skill.”
Elliot’s eyes narrowed.
Jo remembered what Ezra had told her. The brother and sister had grown up on a farm but ran away when their magic made them no longer welcome in their family. They were all each other had. They’d committed small crimes, then met Mr. Spencer, who had offered them cash for the job. Jo didn’t blame them for taking it.
She laid a hand on her chest. “My name is Josephine Locket, but I think you four already know that. I was excommunicated from my coven nearly two years ago. I’m what they’d consider a rogue. I’m sure the four of you are also considered rogues. Outcasts, whatever you want to be called.
“Point is, I know what it’s like to be shut off from a community of people who know what you are. Who are the same. I also know what it’s like to rebuild.”
She gestured at their surroundings. “That’s what I did here. This is a school where we teach the magically inclined how to use their powers safely, for their own benefit and others.’ I bet Mr. Spencer didn’t tell you any of that when he gave you the job, huh?”
She crossed her arms, eyeing each of them in turn. They still looked like they would bolt if given the chance. “I don’t know why each of you took the job, but I’m guessing you did it because you felt you had few other options. I want to give you another option. Leave here with no charges, and we’ll forget it ever happened. If Mr. Spencer contacts you, don’t answer.”
Jo paused, weighing her next words. She knew Regulus and Ezra would think her insane for what she was going to say next.
“Or stay here.”
The slim girl against the wall blanched. “And what, be locked up?”
Jo shook her head. “No locks. You can sleep in the cabins. You probably saw them when you crossed over. It’s where the students live, those who need to stay here while they’re training.”
She gestured at Elliot. “That girl who distracted you last night? She’s one of our students. Pretty good, huh? We could help all of you. Not just have a home and rebuild your lives, but learn how to use your magic well.”
“We can use our magic just fine,” the stocky girl gritted out.
Jo slid off the stool and shrugged. “Very well. Whatever you want. I won’t allow for further crimes, though, and if there is anything else you can tell me, please do.”
The four glanced at each other, weighing everything they’d heard. Jo still didn’t know the names of the other two girls.
“Please,” she repeated, allowing urgency in her voice. “An entire coven north of here was killed last night while you were here. You four were a distraction while other witches were murdered. Mr. Spencer and whoever the hell he’s working with were using you. They don’t give a shit about you guys, only hurting me and others.”
Their expressions shifted to surprise, alarm, suspicion, and worry. They were beginning to thaw. “Think about it,” Jo went on. “I want to protect my friends and my land. I need to know who is behind this so I can get it over with, once and for all.”
The group stirred. The man in the corner looked between his legs at the floor as if ashamed. The slim girl against the wall hung her head. The girls on the bed glanced at each other.
Jo wasn’t sure what else she could say. She had offered everything, so it was up to them. Before she could think of what to do next, she felt something shifting in the ley power. A tugging on her magic. Her heart skipped a beat. Something powerful was tugging on the lines. There it was again, this time a strong yank.
The door burst open. Regulus appeared. “Jo, quick. Malvin called in. The borders are being attacked!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
What happened went so quickly that Jo barely noticed it all.
Regulus threw up wards over the room the thieves were in as Jo descended to the main level, commanding Esme, Syl, and Priscilla to go into the library with Belle and Mrs. Wilby. She did this without Mrs. Wilby hearing her, not wanting the older woman to grow more worried.
“I can help—” Syl started.
Jo cut her off with a sharp look. “Stay in the library this time.”
When Syl’s face fell, Jo laid her hands on the girl’s shoulders and added, “Protect them. Keep the wards intact. If anyone breaks in, I know you’ll take care of it.” Jo saw the group into the library as Regulus joined them and threw a new set of wards around the doors.
Esme reached for Jo’s hand and squeezed once. “Don’t die out there.”
Jo forced a fierce, roguish smile. “I’ll see you soon, Es.”
Ezra and Hester were already in the garden by the time Regulus and Jo joined them. “Malvin’s at the clearing, holding the ley power steady. He said they’re at the boundaries on the far side of the property.”
No doubt unraveling the wards as they spoke.
“Where’s Arthur?” Jo demanded. The words were barely out of her mouth before a crow flitted over her head and landed in a patch of moss. Arthur appeared in his human form with his mouth in a tight line. “I’ve seen five, and they’re all above savant.” He paused, the words heavy in his mouth. Jo knew what he was going to say before they were out. “And wielding dark magic.”
She could feel it. The pulsating sensation spread through the land like poison trickling into the ley lines. It wasn’t quite as strong as what she felt around the Mystic’s Mirror, but it was damn close.
Regulus turned to Meredith, hovering in the doorway. “Keep watch here.” The lore keeper nodded before slinking back into the darkness of the house. Twilight descended, the sky riddled with strange shades of blue. Shadows grew longer, and stars began appearing. It would have been a beautiful night to stand in the garden and watch, but that was not their lot.
“Let’s do this,” Jo declared.
They reached the clearing in record time, where the druid stood in its center, face and body strained from keeping the ley power away from the intruders. “Necromancers,” Malvin gritted out. “They’re pulling.”
He was on his knees with his hands extended over the ground. He was as close to the ley power as he could get.
Jo glanced at Regulus. One word Malvin had spoken rattled around in her brain. Necromancers. There was a reason her coven had outlawed the use of necromancy. Although it could be used for good, those who practiced dark magic understood its allure more than others. If spirits were wandering among the ley lines, the necromancers could bring them up to fight for them.
Or employ dark magic as Elliot had done. Either way, they were in deep shit.
“Come on,” Jo told the others. “Malvin will stay here and do what he can with the ley power.”
“I’ll stay with him and help,” Hester volunteered.
Jo cast her friend one last look before nodding, then heading off into the trees. Regulus and Arthur were already ahead. Ezra was at Jo’s side. “I don’t want you engaging in the fight,” she told him. “Bullets won’t do much against their magic. Hang back and help if it comes down to it.”
Ezra didn’t look happy that he was helpless in this situation, but he didn’t argue.
Jo surged through the trees, knowing every turn in the path, every root that protruded from the ground, every stone and fallen log. She knew this land as if she’d been born of it. That was her advantage over these fuckers trying to cross the line.
She broke through the tree line seconds after Regulus and Arthur. She had barely skidded to a halt before she watched Arthur take crow form and soar over the cabins toward the boundary line. She felt the presence of dark magic stronger here. Instead of wards, she saw darkness. It was not the encroaching night but a wall of pure, ebbing darkness. Something other. It was like a moving, cresting wave.
“Shields!” she shouted. Their wards were up half a second before the dark magic descended. It erupted against their shields, and Jo poured everything she had into reinforcing hers.
Arthur appeared beside her, back in human form. Her shield covered herself and him while Regulus’ covered himself and Ezra. “They’ve broken through the wards,” Arthur reported.
“No shit,” Jo replied as another wave of dark magic slammed into her shield.
“I’ll fight better on the other side.”
Jo thought Arthur was talking about the other side of the property, but that didn’t make sense. Finally, she understood. “Arthur, no. I won’t lose you again!”
“You won’t. I’ll slip past the Veil and do what I can there. If they plan to raise spirits along the ley lines, I can stop them.”
What was he going to do, tell the ghosts beyond the Veil to stay put? Jo didn’t know, but she trusted him. “Come back to us, Arthur.”
He nodded once before he vanished.
That left Jo and Regulus to combine shields and reinforce them. Jo did this as Regulus gathered his shadows and sent them toward the necromancers. He was outnumbered five to one and would not be able to hold them off for long.
Jo cast orbs of light into their shadows, then runes to blast at them. Their shields were also strong. It would take a lot more than this.
She didn’t know where to begin with her illusion magic. She couldn’t discern the attackers. She finally glimpsed them through the shadows. They were hooded and masked, even wearing gloves. Jo noticed bands of iron around their wrists.
“Conduits!” Regulus called to her.
Well, fuck.
Arthur had been right. These were no mere savants. The pressure of dark magic built around them, and Jo’s head throbbed. Don’t give in.
Jo threw up illusions of trees, casting them toward the ebbing darkness and the figures beyond. She might not be able to strike back at them, but she could confuse them with a whole new forest. The trees were solid enough projections to stand long enough to reinforce the shield.
Regulus’ shadows lurched toward them and slammed against their shields. “Let’s keep pushing them back!” he shouted to her.
Jo sensed Malvin and Hester regaining control of the ley power. Another wave of dark magic came at them. Jo gritted her teeth as she slammed a small wall of light toward them. The magic collided and erupted upward. Her illusory trees vanished, and she threw them out again.
While doing this, she lost focus on her shield. It dropped as another blast of shadows came at her. It would have hit her—would have done her in for good—if not for the shield that appeared. It wasn’t Regulus who had done it. He was still throwing everything he had at their attackers.
Jo turned. Hester was at her back, ward magic gleaming. “Malvin?”
“He’s got it.”
Yards away, a cry followed a small explosion. Hester’s rune blast.
The witch threw another one.
Jo kept their shield maintained and illusions running while Hester cast her runes and Regulus flung his shadows. Jo made more and more faux trees appear, then sent real vines slithering across the ground to attack the necromancers. Malvin handled the ley power, and Arthur, who was somewhere beyond the Veil, kept the rising spirits at bay. Ezra was waiting in case they needed his help.
Jo was beginning to think they might have this.
We can’t deflect forever. We need to get in a winning blow.
Regulus thought the same thing. “We need to reverse their power and throw it back at them!”
A backlash, Hester had called it. Jo had practiced, but she wasn’t a pro. Hester and Regulus were.
“Hold the shield,” Hester told her. Jo wished there was more she could do.
They waited for another wave of dark magic—the spells of all five necromancers at once. Jo wished they could take down one or two. That way the blasts would be less powerful. When they could no longer pull from their personal stores, they would have to rely on the ley lines. That would be difficult with Malvin and Arthur combating them. Jo hoped this backlash would work.
The blast came, but Regulus and Hester threw everything they had against it. “Now!” Regulus cried.
Jo watched with amazement as that wall of ebony wheeled back and hit the shields of their foes. What happened next was too fast for her to register until it was over.
One moment, the shields around the necromancers guttered and rune blasts beneath them went off. Regulus’ shadows surged toward them again. One of the necromancers couldn’t keep their shield up, and Hester’s strike sent them flying against a tree. Jo’s vines attacked, keeping the unconscious opponent where they were.
Jo thought they were finding their footing until the darkness descended again. She felt rather than saw it. They must have managed to grapple with the ley lines because the next thing she knew, her shield was down. Jo expected a blow, and it came like pinpricks of ice. They stabbed through her magic, but she felt it in her flesh. Shards of darkness, manifesting into ice appeared. She heard a low cry and turned.
Hester collapsed to her knees with a shard of the ebony ice embedded beneath her ribs. Blood was already pooling as her face paled. A scream tore from Jo’s throat, but she had no time to reach Hester’s side before Regulus threw up a shield upon seeing shards come at Jo too.
Wrath rose in Jo like a wave and turned into a forest fire. A wall of light blasted out from her. The necromancers stumbled back, blinded. Jo was also blind, but not with her eyes. She knew Regulus and Ezra were shouting at her, but she didn’t hear what they said. Rage overtook her, and her feet were moving. Her shield thrummed around her, maintained by Regulus as he watched her do the insane—the impossible.
She kept throwing light, pulling from the magic inside her until it was gone. She went for the ley power next. If she took too much, it could kill her. Jo wasn’t being careful. She knew it and didn’t care.
Another wall of light went out, flared, and exploded. The necromancers reacted, but they were almost cornered.
“Jo, stop!” That was Arthur. He materialized in front of her, looking pale and exhausted in his human form. “You’ll burn yourself out!”
She barely heard him, but he was right. A backlash, then.
Jo waited for the cresting dark, then took hold of it. It was almost more of a risk than pulling from the ley power. This meant touching the dark magic. Her shield was down for a second, and that darkness greeted her with a cold, savage kiss.
She took hold of it as a wrathful cry tore from her lips. She spoke the spell to reverse as pain lanced through every limb. The wall of darkness turned back and careened into those who had sent it. Jo touched the ley power again, sending more light to chase the darkness.
Regulus was there again, to her left. Arthur was on her right. They cast spells. Hester was somewhere behind them. Ezra might be with her. Jo wasn’t sure whose strike had done it, but two of the necromancers fell. Her vines did the rest. Arthur threw binding cords over them as Regulus continued chasing the others. The necromancers who were left reached the property line, and to Jo’s horror, a portal opened. They jumped through and vanished.
Jo didn’t remember turning back and running to the spot Hester had last been in. Tears streamed down her face, and her heart threatened to beat out of her chest. There they were—Ezra was at Hester’s side. Her blood coated the leaves before her, and her glassy eyes beheld the branches above. It was too late.
