Malignant Magic Page 15

  “This is as far as we can go.”

  “Because we’ll get caught by the shifters?”

  “Because there is a barrier preventing us from going any further,” John said. “It’s already begun.”

  I glanced back at John as I crawled out of the car. If there was a barrier in place, either the shifters knew we might come after Ariel or this was all part of the process used when sending someone across the Veil.

  Grabbing the sword, I crawled out of the car. I didn’t feel any sense of magic, which surprised me. Most of the time when magic was used around me, even if it was used in a way that simply created a barrier, I could feel it.

  Stretching my hand out, I approached slowly, feeling for the edge of the barrier.

  Aron grabbed my arm, halting me from moving too far.

  “Be careful.”

  “It’s not a physical barrier?”

  “Not quite the same as the barriers you place. The barrier that’s out there is meant to detect magic crossing, and to prevent it from coming out.”

  “And by that you mean that it’s designed to catch anything that might slip out while they have an opening created for the Veil.”

  Aron nodded.

  “Great.”

  What else could come out of the Veil while it was open? The shifters obviously believed they would be able to control whatever it was, but crossing through it placed us in danger of impacting their magic. I wasn’t sure we should risk that, especially if doing so meant we would disrupt the barrier—and the protections—the shifters had placed around here.

  “I can help,” John said, coming up behind us. “I can seal you within, but I won’t be able to go with you if I do that.”

  It might allow us to cross, but it would take away the advantage that having John with us provided. “We need you to guide us to Ariel.”

  “Once you cross this barrier, you won’t need my help finding her.”

  I looked over at Aron and then glanced at Gran and Gramps.

  “Is this really what we’re going to do?” Gran asked.

  “You don’t have to come, but I intend to. I know you don’t want to upset the shifters. You don’t have to do this.”

  “The council can’t get involved,” Gran said.

  “Then don’t. Offer me protection.” I glanced at Aron and he nodded, as if that distinction would make it better.

  I wanted all of them with me, not certain that I could do it alone. The grim look Aron watched me with told me he was willing to come regardless. Having two more mages—and powerful ones at that—would give us a better chance of escaping.

  “It’s not an attack. It’s a rescue mission,” Gramps said.

  “I know what it is, Veran.”

  He smiled and patted her hand. “I was just reminding myself, dear.”

  She shook her head and stepped toward me. “Let’s get this over with.”

  “Can you do this with… you know?” I asked John.

  A pained expression worked across his face. “I don’t have to shift for this. You’ll have to move quickly, though.”

  As magic built from John, it started slowly, a chill that worked along my spine and gradually spread outward, reaching my neck and then down my arms. Somewhere within the forest, birds chirped, making a peaceful and serene sound that seemed out of proportion with the danger we headed toward. The sky was clear—cloudless—and a gentle wind blew through the trees, sending the branches swaying, as if the forest itself had taken on a life of its own.

  “Are you sure you’ll able to hold onto this?” I asked John.

  “This doesn’t require as much magic as transforming. Be ready.”

  He started toward us and the pressure from his spell curved, raising the hair on my arms. I felt it differently than I felt spells of other types, and it surprised me that I should feel it in such a way. It wasn’t unpleasant, and there was almost a warmth across my skin that contrasted with the cold along my spine.

  “Step through,” he said.

  “Are you sure?” I asked.

  “Go. Get to my alpha. Bring her back here.”

  I took a step through the barrier. It tingled along my skin, burning where John’s spell had been warmth. It lasted only a moment, the briefest amount of time as we stepped through the barrier, and then it was gone. I tested my connection to magic, half afraid there was something on this side of it that would prevent me from reaching it, but I was still able to draw upon that magic, and did so, pulling through my connection to the sword, releasing it with a sigh.

  When everyone was through, I looked back to see John standing at the edge of the barrier. He held his hands out, and magic pressed out from him.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I have to hold this.”

  “That wasn’t what you said.”

  “The barrier hasn’t reformed. I will hold this until it does.”

  “And if it doesn’t?”

  “Then I will continue to hold this.”

  My gaze dropped to his shoulder. “How long can you hold it?” We needed to know how much time we had before he couldn’t hold out any longer, and with his injury, it might not be nearly what we needed.

  “I can hold out as long as necessary for you to return with her.”

  There was tension at the corner of his eyes, and they wrinkled more than I remembered them having done before. He might believe he could hold out, but I had the sense that there would be a limit, and not the one we would want or need.

  “We should hurry,” I said to Aron.

  “I agree.”

  “Do you have any idea where to go?”

  Magic built behind me and I looked back to see my grandmother with her eyes closed. Her spell swept out from her, a gentle sensation, and different than other spells I’d felt from her before. It surprised me that I would be so aware of the nature of her magic. Could it be that wrapping myself within my own magic, holding onto the sword, allowed me to detect what she was doing as well as I could?

  “We need to head there,” Gran said, pointing straight ahead.

  Would I be able to feel anything? It was possible that I wouldn’t, especially with the fact that my magic might require much more force and because it was so different, more destructive and brutal, then what Gran was able to do with her spells.

  I decided not to test it.

  “You should guide us,” I said.

  “This is your mission, Kate,” she said. “We’re here for protection.”

  “So protect me by leading me safely.”

  Gran frowned as she slipped past me, heading toward the trees towering before us. A pair of them were shaped differently than the pine trees scattered all around the forest. These were deciduous, and they still hadn’t grown their leaves this spring, though buds had begun to appear. They were tall—much taller than any tree that surrounded us—and carried with them a sense of power I didn’t remember from my visits here before.

  “What are those?” I asked Aron.

  “Those are the Sentries,” he said. “I’m surprised you recognized them.”

  “They’re different than the others. That’s why I recognize them.”

  Aron stopped at the first of the trees and held his hand just above the bark. “This is part of the reason the shifters prefer these lands. There is something about these trees that provides a certain safety. They call them the Sentries because they feel as if the trees watch over them.”

  “Just these trees and not the rest of the forest?”

  “These are unique. You can find them scattered throughout the north woods, but most never see them. Occasionally they come in pairs such as these, and those are felt to be even more powerful, a way of ensuring the safety of the pack. It’s why Ariel chose here to settle.”

  “Come on,” Gran urged, pulling my attention from the trees.

  I might want to remain, looking at the trees and trying to figure out what power they had, but that wasn’t why we were here. Maybe when this was all ov
er and after Ariel was rescued and restored as alpha, we might have time to come back and understand what it was that was special about these trees, but for now, we needed to find her.

  Aron and I followed Gran deeper into the forest. She followed a path that she must have detected with the spell she’d used. The farther we went, the harder it would be for me to know how to find my way out. If we got separated, would I be able to figure out how to escape from the forest?

  Gran began to slow, and as she did, the faint stirrings of magic along my back began to increase. This was different than the protective spells Gran and Gramps pulled upon—barriers of a sort they held in front of them, and probably behind us.

  Should I have been holding a barrier as well? I hadn’t been. My energy had been spent on simply keeping alert, not on trying to provide protection, but maybe that was a mistake.

  “You detect anything?” I asked as we continued forward.

  “We are close to whatever it is that’s happening,” Gran said.

  “And what is it?”

  She looked over her shoulder at me. Her deep blue eyes blazed with intensity. “There is power out here, Kate. It’s more than just shifter power, but you know that, don’t you?”

  I couldn’t pick up on that, at least not well. I was aware of magic, but the magic I detected was from Gran and Gramps, and for that matter, from Aron. That magic was familiar. The kind of magic I could detect. And now that we had stopped, I was aware of shifter magic, something that I hadn’t detected until now.

  Anything more than that escaped my notice.

  “I don’t detect anything,” I said.

  “How is it she doesn’t detect anything? With what she can do—”

  Gran shot Gramps a withering look and he fell silent.

  “Do you all detect this?”

  Aron nodded slowly. “There is power ahead of us. It’s something of a void. I detect the void, but not what’s within it.”

  Gran nodded slowly. “That’s what I detect, as well.”

  “And by void, you mean the Veil?”

  If they were detecting the Veil as an emptiness, did that mean a connection was open?

  A different concern came to me. Could our crossing over the barrier have somehow disrupted the protections the shifters had placed to avoid anything else coming across the Veil?

  The pinch around Aron’s eyes and the set of his jaw told me that he was concerned. Could John hold the barrier long enough for this to be completed? But even when it was done, we had to get back across it, and when we did, we had to somehow get away.

  All of that without releasing the potential nastiness that might come through the Veil.

  “What if we’re too late and Ariel has already been sent across the Veil?” I asked.

  “Then we are too late,” Aron said.

  We could go across the Veil, and even if it were possible, I wasn’t willing to do that for Ariel. I wasn’t prepared for anything on the other side. I doubted any of us were.

  There was nothing for us to do other than head toward the void they detected and see if we could reach Ariel. If not, then it would be time for us to turn back and return to the city.

  I pulled on magic, reaching deep within myself, and sent it out through the sword, strengthening my connection to it. Holding onto it in that way augmented my magic and gave me greater strength. I wrapped a barrier around all of us. I’m wasn’t sure whether that was necessary, but Gran and Gramps seemed not to notice what I did. Maybe the combination would be enough to help protect us from whatever we might encounter.

  “Aron, can you mask us as we approach?”

  “I think my potential would be better used in another way,” he said.

  “I can hold a barrier. I’ll protect us, if you can mask us.”

  “Doing so while we move is difficult, even for a powerful mage.”

  “Then all of you need to do it,” I said, looking from Gran to Gramps and then to Aron. “Holding on to magic through the sword strengthens me enough that I can hold this barrier.”

  “Katie…”

  I shook my head at Gramps. “You’re going to have to trust me. You saw that I can do this. You saw it with the gorgon, so you have to know I can do it now. We need to be able to sneak in, and we can’t do it openly, and I don’t know enough about my magic to know whether it’s possible for me to even hold some sort of concealment spell. That is something you have to do. What I can do is hold this barrier.”

  Gramps smiled tightly at me and his magic shifted. In a flash, he disappeared. Aron did, too. It left only Gran holding onto her spell, watching me.

  There had always been a different relationship between Gran and me. She had been the one to push me, always wanting me to try to understand my magic, and when it had become obvious that my connection to magic was different than what hers was, I had the sense that she had been disappointed.

  “Gran. I can do this. I won’t let anything happen to either you or Gramps. I care about the two of you too much.”

  Her jaw clenched and for a moment I thought she might argue, but she nodded. “I know you will.”

  Her spell shifted, and she disappeared.

  “Am I concealed?”

  “We will need to work together to conceal you,” Gran said, standing in front of me but completely invisible. “Holding onto a spell like this while moving is difficult.”

  “You have to do more than make us invisible,” I said. “They can smell us in here.”

  “That will be your spell, Katie,” Gramps said. “You need to firm up your barrier so that it restricts anything from getting through it, including smell and sound.”

  I thought I could do that. Pushing more energy into the barrier, it solidified around us. I’d already discovered I could hold a barrier and move at the same time, so I didn’t have the same struggles they would in holding onto the masking.

  Could my barrier be used to mask me?

  That was a more complex type of magic. Not only did it have to make us invisible, but with the trees and the forest all around us, it was something more than simply reflecting light.

  We started forward. With each step, my heart raced faster and I worried we made too much noise. My connection to the barrier had to be strong enough to prevent the sounds of our passing from detection.

  As we went, the sense of magic near us intensified.

  It seemed to happen rapidly. Power surged through me, sending my entire body tingling with cold. It was more than simply the magic I detected from Gran, Gramps, and Aron. It was like being dipped into a bath of icy water.

  I gritted my teeth and hurried. What choice did I have otherwise? We had to plunge onward, and if we failed at this, we’d lose our chance at getting to Ariel—and figuring out what else might be happening.

  We reached an edge of the trees and a clearing opened up before me.

  A circle of shifters ringed the clearing, all of them in wolf shape. All pressed shoulder to shoulder, hackles raised, and power emanated from them.

  “Is this their attempt at creating an opening in the Veil?” I whispered.

  “This is where I detect the void,” Aron said.

  “How are we going to get to Ariel?”

  For that matter, how would we find Ariel? I don’t know that I would recognize her in wolf form. I had seen her in that form before, but recognizing her among an entire pack of shifters was something different entirely and beyond what I thought myself capable of doing. Perhaps if John were with us, he would be able to sniff her out, but without him, we either had to guess or we had to hope Aron and his connection to her would grant him a familiarity with this form.

  “She’s up there,” Aron said.

  “You know what she looks like in wolf form?”

  “She’s not in wolf form.”

  I stood on my toes to try and see what he did. Aron was a good six inches or more taller than me and had a better vantage, but even standing on my toes, I could barely see what he did. If I could jump, mayb
e I would be able to see more, but jumping would only make it more difficult for the three mages to maintain the concealment spell around me.

  “I don’t see her.”

  “She’s lying on the ground inside the ring.”

  “Is she alive?”

  “I can’t tell. From what John said, they wouldn’t send her across the Veil otherwise.”

  I steadied my breathing. This wasn’t going to be anything like what we had hoped. This was supposed to be a rescue, but how were we going to rescue her if it meant breaking into a pack?

  “I don’t know that we can do this, Katie,” Gramps said. “There are too many. Even if we could get close enough to them, I—”

  A low howl split the silence of the forest.

  The shifters all froze, ears turned toward the sound, almost as if they were one. I had thought their hackles were raised before, but fur stood on end, and they turned.

  None of them broke the circle.

  If they would have, we might’ve had a chance of getting in there and getting to Ariel, but when the sound didn’t return, the wolves’ magic built once more, rising in a steady crescendo. The cold washing over me became almost unbearable. Whatever we were doing would have to be done soon. Much longer, and not only would they succeed in completing their spell, but I wasn’t sure how much more I’d be able to tolerate.

  “This is a suicide mission,” Gran said. “This shifter isn’t worth our lives.”

  I breathed out. She was right. We had come all this way, risked all of this, and for what? I wasn’t willing to sacrifice myself for Ariel. I was willing to help, but that was when there was a chance of us succeeding, not when doing so would lead to our deaths.

  “We can go back,” I said.

  I started to take a step back, and as I did, there came another howl, this one louder and more pronounced.

  Magic surged, exploding outward.

  A cluster of wolves broke off, heading away from the circle and toward the sound.

  “What was that?” Gramps asked.

  The cold washing through me eased. “Something that’s giving us a chance. Could it be John?”

  “It’s not John. He’s not in that direction,” Aron said.