Page 1 of Adepts and Alchemists

Chapter One

Indigo

Life sucks and then you die.

Or, in my case, life sucks, you blow into smithereens in proximity to a poor, hapless traveller woman and you end up viewing life in the back of her head like a grainy television special, complete with a commentary track you didn’t like and didn’t ask for.

Was it my fault entirely? Yes. Was I still bitter about it? Also yes.

At least Checkers had been spared the painful process of being torn apart, atom by atom. I wasn’t sure even a hardy familiar with power and poundage to spare would have withstood the intensity of Murrain’s attack. Murrain hadn’t just meant to end me. He’d assaulted the very magic that made me a witch, trying to strip it from me in one, big bite, absorbing it into himself in an effort to keep me from moving on to the next life, where I was sure to be more of an inconvenience than I’d been to him before.

When that failed, he’d sentthingsafter me. Things so evil and malformed, they’d been able to kill even the strongest of monsters a Hollow had to offer. The Manananggal was the latest in a line of attackers, but she’d come closest to ending my half-life in recent memory. I’d been almost certain she’d be the one to take my soul for good.

Instead, I woke on an overstuffed couch, my face jammed uncomfortably into a pillow. Some well-meaning passerby had pushed it under my head, catching my hair in such a way that the roots ached. I fought back a groan and gave Lydia a mental shove, grumbling about the crick we were sure to get if she keptlying this way. Rough and tumble with her incubus boyfriend was one thing. She’d finally gotten laid, and that was a good thing. And the fact that she’d asked to be tied up or manhandled beforehand? Well, that was her business. But we’d both suffer if she slept the wrong way, and I was not in the mood to bite my tongue about it when she complained later.

My shove met only empty air. In response, my stomach lurched in sudden fear, as though I’d missed a step on the staircase. It was a struggle not to pitch forward. The barrier I’d been pressed against for so long had vanished. I could already feel myself healing, my magic surging forth like a torrent now that there was no other occupant to take up space. The partial transformation Lydia had undergone came surging forward, firmly imprinting my soul onto the nearest hollow vessel, like a parasitic ghost. I wasn’t the soul meant for this body, but survival necessitated that there besomethinginside, and the body had decided I’d do.

But it wasn’tmybody. It was Lydia’s. But she wasn’t in it.

The scream that had been building since Murrain’s attack finally left me in an inhuman wail. The magic, so long pent up and unable to be utilized by Lydia, poured out of me. I was vaguely aware that I’d fallen off the couch, but the stinging of my knees was a distant thing. Every ounce of fear and agony I’d gone through pulsed through the room like a note from a bass drum.

“What in Hecuba’s name was that?” Wanda demanded.

I wanted to turn and look at her, but I couldn’t force my arms or legs to move. I’d ended up curled in the fetal position, making myself as small as possible. I’d died this way, folded like an origami crane in an attempt to escape the pain. I’d come back to life the same way I’d left it. Screaming.

Broad, calloused hands fell on my shoulders, guiding me gently from the floor and into a jean-clad lap. I didn’t have to look up to know who held me. I knew the feeling of his hands onme. Knew what it felt like to be curled around him, breathing in his almost edible scent. I’d watched TV with my head on his lap before. I even recognized the shirt he wore by the texture of the fabric.

Anthony.

“Magical feedback,” he answered. “Lydia’s body couldn’t handle expressing both her magic and Indigo’s. Most of the time, control over the power in the body defaults to the original owner.”

“Which means?” Wanda demanded, tone making it clear she was already at her wit’s end with this whole situation.

“Which means there’s a lot of power inside Lydia that can’t be easily expressed. Sometimes Indigo can let it out if Lydia’s life absolutely depends on it, but otherwise, it’s been building under the surface like magma. Without Lydia there to stop it, it can finally escape the body.”

The words took a while to sink in, panicked as I was. When I finally realized what they were getting at, I wanted to vomit. Without Lydia. I was in her body,butwithout Lydia.The truth was like facing a burning stake. It was unjust. Too much to bear. I hadn’t wanted to die badly twice. That didn’t mean I’d wanted to inflict a messy end on her either. I was only able to move because Lydia no longer resided in this body. I was now the only one here.

I was only vaguely aware of the scream tapering off to a few pathetic whimpers. I couldn’tnotmake noise. I’d been without a mouth of my own, fully under my own power, for so long. Just the very fact that Icouldvocalize was wrong. Wrong because it meant that it was true. That Lydia was gone and I was now puppetting her abandoned shell. It wasn’t right. Wasn’t fair. I thought I’d trade everything to have my own autonomy back, but I’d been wrong. I’d been willing to trade everythingexceptfor her. Somehow, despite everything, she’d become important tome, and I wasn’t going to let Murrain or his pet vampire get away with their latest atrocity.

Anthony’s hand brushed my hair away from my face. No, it wasLydia’s hair. Lydia’s face. If my soul had flown apart and been reincarnated into bits of other people, he might have recognized me in them. I’d pasted myself onto Lydia’s body and soul in an unconscious and desperate attempt to survive being eaten. It was effective camouflage for someone who was looking to find my soul. I was all but buried beneath Lydia’s much milder flavor and temperament. No one would expect her to be harboring a convicted witch.

“Shh,” he urged, tucking a glossy black strand of hair behind my ear. “Shh, Indigo. It’s okay. You’re okay.”

No, I wasn’t. This situation was completely, and unenthusiastically fucked. Andrea Reyes had Lydia’s soul inside her stomach. It would take a while to break down, so I had time to find and force Andrea to regurgitate it before too much damage occurred. The problem was what happened after. If I didn’t have another body handy, Lydia would just be a ghost, which seemed even more unjust than simply leaving her where she was. I didn’t want to flip our positions at her expense.

Control of her body came back in increments. No, control ofthebody. I had to think of it that way.Thebody, notherbody. Thinking of it as hers made me feel like some reeking revenant. Like I was waking up in control of a body that was ostensibly dead, without its guiding consciousness. In the end, though, I had to box the revulsion away and accept my new, terrible lot. Lydia was gone. Not dead, but definitely gone, and it was up to me to retrieve her. It was one of my enemies that had taken her. So, it was my responsibility to figure out how to make the soul-sucking vampire upchuck my annoying mental companion so we could go back to being a double act.

I managed to rise up on my knees with difficulty. I felt like a newborn foal, uncertain on my legs, fear thrilling through me as I struggled to relearn basic motor function. Like a baby animal, I could easily be eaten by something bigger and stronger than I was unless I built up the coordination and stamina to run. In fact, Andrea might be here at any moment. If Anthony had worked out that she’d taken the wrong person, taken Lydia instead of me, it stood to reason that our enemies would realize that truth soon too.

We had to run. All of us. We had to escape.

Murrain would take out anyone he perceived to be a threat, and Scapegrace Coven knew entirely too much about the Masked Lords for his liking. He had contacts who could bring down storms or plagues of locusts to scour the house free of life. I didn’t know any of these women personally, but I’d observed them often enough with Lydia’s assistance. None of them deserved the collective punishment that I was sure was coming for this place. They’d be punished simply for being a group of witches willing to help me.

“Out,” I mumbled when I could finally locate my lips. They felt thinner and also wider than I remembered mine being. Wearing Lydia’s skin had been disconcerting on the rare occasion I could manage it. Now, with the former occupant gone, it settled around me like an ill-fitting suit.

Anthony leaned away from me. For a second that felt longer our eyes met. He looked haunted and hopeful in equal measure. Haunted, because I’d finally voiced the pain he’d feared (but hadn’t known for certain) that I’d been in since that fateful day in the book shop. Hopeful, because I was here. Finally. As present as he was. He hadn’t lost me. Yet.

His eyes were as sharp and discerning as his mother’s. He read the expression on my face and backed up a few paces, letting me find my feet. He knew me well enough to know thatsome aspects of my pride had to be coddled. I might need the help up, but I wasn’t about to ask for it. Lydia would have called me stupid, and I’d have shot back something venomous in reply. Now the place where her thoughts were had gone silent, leaving me in charge. And I didn’t like that. Not one bit.