Page 6 of Buzz Kill (Smoke & Mirrors Tavern #7)

Chapter six

ALWIN

Declan froze, barely daring to breathe. I took the book from his hand before he dropped it and quietly slipped it into the bag before pulling him away to another section of the archive.

I was an expert hunter who’d tracked and trailed far more capable prey than sorcerers, but I couldn’t sense where the person who’d entered had gone.

“Does your family excel in concealment magic?” I asked too softly for anyone but Declan to hear.

His eyes widened and he finally snapped out of his daze, snatching up more of the spelled items from the shelves and drawers. He wasn’t quiet and I knew the only reason Declan would act so recklessly was if it was already too late.

“She’s not family.”

A tinkling laugh rang out as a beautiful young woman stepped around the case we were hiding behind. She trailed her polished red nails along a line of books and flashed a bright smile of perfectly straight white teeth, but her blue eyes were ice cold.

“Now Declan, that’s not a very nice thing to say about your fiancee, is it? Have I not dedicated my life to you? Did I not spend enough time with you? Why must you act this way? Returning to steal from the family while your father’s away.” She tsked and shook her head, but then her smile returned. “Let me guess, trouble with The Council?”

She tapped her nails on the book spines next to her and only then did I realize we’d looped back to the section on the council.

Declan’s eyes narrowed at her comment. “What did you do?”

She pouted in mock innocence. “Me? Well, I’m certainly not the one who has so much sway with the council, but you didn’t think we would simply let you hide behind that traitor, did you?”

“My father sent the council after Eastbend?”

She scoffed. “Please, those idiots put themselves on the council’s radar. Your father simply urged them not to treat the situation so lightly. What did you think would happen when you involved yourself with those people? You always try to blame everything on us. When are you going to start taking responsibility for your own actions?”

“Have you also been aiding the dark mage?” I demanded. Her concealment magic was powerful, a skill that must have been honed over generations and not something that would be shared with others unless it benefitted them greatly.

She sneered. “This is a family matter, elf. Stay out of our business.”

“Answer his question, Acacia!” Declan snapped.

Her expression froze over at his tone, but her smile quickly shifted back into place. “You are the one who involved them, my dear Declan. Stalking that traitor for months before you made your move. And all that work didn’t do you any good, did it? Even if you knew exactly where he was, you were blocked the same as the rest of us. Did you think we didn’t know where you were the whole time? Did you think we would make it easy for you? You were so interested in that town, of course I had to check it out.”

“Are you the reason that dark mage is after Eastbend?”

“That man has his own grudge, I merely imparted a bit of wisdom in passing. It wouldn’t do to have you settling in too comfortably there, would it?”

“You bitch!”

Her smile finally fell away. “When will you be over this little rebellion of yours? We’ve been more than patient, it’s time for you to come home. You had the best of everything here, every luxury you desired was at your fingertips. Why are you still running? Aren’t you a little old to still be throwing this tantrum?”

“Every luxury,” he repeated woodenly. “Do you think I cared about the fucking thread count of the sheets while you were sending monsters after me?”

Acacia sighed. “You had everything you needed to eliminate anything you encountered the whole time. You refused to use your magic and then blamed us for the consequences of your own actions. Whether you want to admit it or not, you are, and have always been, a Prescott sorcerer. It would have taken nothing to protect yourself, yet you refused. Why do you still fight us? Why do you treat us like the enemy? Did we not tell you we loved you enough? Did I not show you enough affection?”

Declan’s face darkened and a shudder shook his shoulders.

“Love is not something you say,” I answered for him, noting the frost in my own tone. “It is something you do.”

Declan blinked and his stare turned my way. Similarly, Acacia finally paused to take a better look at me. Her eyes darted from Declan to me and back before a crease formed between her brows.

“Declan dear, who is this elf to you?”

Seeing that I’d captured Acacia’s attention, Declan grabbed my arm and dragged me back. He still had a number of magic items clutched in his hands and he tapped one with a spark of magic before tossing it at Acacia.

We bolted across the archive. A loud crash shook the bookcases and then another sweet laugh echoed through the room.

“Did you think that would stop me?” she called.

“Grab that and blow in it,” Declan instructed as we passed a shelf with some kind of viking-type horn.

I grabbed the instrument on our way past. “What does it do?”

“No idea.”

“It has a rather nefarious feel to it,” I warned him.

“Perfect.” He snatched the horn from my hand and blew into it.

A whirlwind of smoke poured from the end of the horn, condensing and taking form as a warrior dressed in primitive leather and smeared with black paint. Declan’s eyes widened. Clearly he hadn’t been expecting a warrior spirit to take form.

“Uh, I just summoned you,” Declan said. “Go stop the crazy woman that’s after us.”

The warrior heeded his command and we slipped down another section to head for the door. The sounds of a fight echoed through the room, and we were almost to the door when I stopped short and pulled Declan back a step. Magic sailed past right in front of us, but I belatedly realized it wasn’t actually aimed at Declan and the attack still hit its mark. The familiar hive on the case next to us tipped with the impact and the stasis spell on it crumbled.

I pushed Declan to keep moving, but one irritated pixie emerged from the hive, her wings struggling to hold her up as she shook off the aftereffects of the spell. She was hardly a threat, and yet Declan reeled back, pressing into me with a violent shudder.

Acacia’s laugh rang out. “Did you forget? I know you better than anyone, my sweet Declan. That elf will never compare to what we have.”

One of Declan’s dreams had involved a pixie hive. He was quite young and he’d been locked in a room with them, but in his dream I’d slayed every one of them before they could harm him. I didn’t know what truly happened, but based on his reaction, I could guess.

Pixies were from my world. They were a nuisance in large numbers, but one was hardly anything to worry about. They were carnivorous and would bite anything if they were hungry enough. If a child were to stumble across a large enough hive of unfed pixies, they could certainly be reduced to bones in a matter of days. But hives rarely got to that size before some larger creature feasted on them first. At least that was the way in Faerie. The hive on display must have been protected from predators for quite some time to grow so large.

I swatted the pixie away from Declan. “Go, before the others emerge.”

But my warning came too late. The others were breaking free and Declan was too terrified to move. Killing every pixie in a hive that size would take longer than we had, instead I picked up the hive and threw it in the direction the sorceress was hiding. A few pixies latched onto me in the process, but I quickly got rid of them and turned to check on Declan who’d buried himself in my back the moment I reached for the hive.

“They’re gone. Are you okay?” I asked.

Acacia’s frustrated scream echoed through the archive while blasts of magic shook the cases.

Declan’s shoulders relaxed and he let out a breath. “Yeah, sorry.”

“You have nothing to apologize for. Let’s go while she is occupied.”

A huge explosion rocked the room and I stopped just short of reaching the door. This was a trap. There was no way the whole house wasn’t aware of the fight in here, and yet, no one else had entered. They were waiting in the hall for us to exit. Declan’s hand hovered over the handle as he seemed to have the same thought.

“Think we can make it out the window?” he asked, glancing back at the large panels of glass on the other side of the room.

Without training or magic, Declan would surely break a leg from the fall.

“I will carry you.”

We ran back toward the wall of windows and I jumped up on the low ledge, pulling Declan up after me. He pressed his tattooed hands to the glass and muttered an incantation to break the protective spells so we could smash our way out. I was about to hoist him up onto my back when the windows in front of us shattered.

The spelled stone Acacia threw didn’t fall, but hovered outside the window emanating a strange glow. It slowly expanded, distorting the air around it and we didn’t dare jump without knowing what magic she’d activated.

I turned to backtrack and try a window further down, but Acacia and a large man now blocked our way. Her demon, I presumed. And the artifact he had aimed at my head was some kind of gun.

There were rapidly healing bloody bite marks marring her arms and face, and her fake smile was nowhere to be found. Her glacial eyes settled on our hands, still joined from when I’d pulled him up onto the ledge.

“Everyone in that town will blame you when they find out the truth. They may have been able to protect themselves if the mage hadn’t learned our tricks, or if the council hadn’t turned on them, but it’s hopeless now. There is no saving that place. They will never accept you once they find out it’s all your fault. Soon there will be nothing left to return to anyway. It’s time to come home, Declan.”

“Pfft,” Declan sputtered. “Jokes on you, they already don’t accept me. Guess you did all that work for nothing.”

But even as the words left his lips, his hand tightened around mine. A subconscious gesture that the sorceress didn’t miss.

“Declan dear, you are trying my patience. But perhaps I can find it in my heart to forgive you. I might even be able to convince your father to go easy on you when he returns. But you see, you’ve hurt my feelings.”

He snorted. “Why bother pretending you have feelings now?”

Her pout immediately fell away in favor of an icy glare. “You have two choices,” she snapped, gesturing at the gun in her demon’s hand. “You can stand there and watch his head explode.”

Declan ground his teeth. “You wouldn’t dare! Do you think his court won’t seek revenge?”

“Against the Prescotts?” she laughed. “You can’t be serious.”

“You are not , and will never be a Prescott,“ he seethed.

She paced to the other side of the case and picked up a crossbow, aiming it at my chest. “Push him, or watch him die right here and now.”

Declan was confused until he glanced down at the magic that had unfolded outside the window. The dark crystal hovered at the center of a break, its evil magic forcing the fabric of the very world apart. A tear in the veil.

“What is it?” he asked, though I was certain he already knew.

“Another world.”

“Which one?”

“Do you need to ask?” Acacia laughed.

Which world would a family of sorcerers have the most interest in? The demon world. A spelled item that could tear a hole in the veil was incredibly dangerous. If used more than once in the same location, it could easily cause a collapse.

The world as we knew it would change in an instant if demons of all kinds could flood into this world without being summoned and restrained by sorcerers. Demons too powerful to be controlled by anything on earth would surely reign supreme in this world as easily as they did their own. The only demons who left that world were those weak enough to be summoned here by sorcerers. There was no way out for the rest of them. A good thing. But it meant if I went in, there was also no way out for me.

Acacia retracted the bow and set the arrow glimmering with magic. “Do it. Or he dies.”

“You fucking bitch!” Declan hissed.

Acacia laughed. “Do you want to hurt me, Declan? Go ahead, use your magic. Get your revenge right here and now.”

But if the years of torture hadn’t moved Declan to use his magic, he certainly wouldn’t start now.

“I’m losing patience,” Acacia sang. “One little shove, and I’ll make sure your father doesn’t punish you for running away. You see, Declan? I’m on your side. I’ve always loved you. And all you have to do to prove you love me too, is push him.”

“Why don’t you do it yourself?” I interrupted, finding myself unusually irritated by her vile words.

“That won’t do,” Acacia laughed. “It’s meaningless if he doesn’t do it himself. Do it, Declan. Push him in and I’ll protect you from your father. He’ll never touch you again. We can move to the other wing and get married. All you have to do is this one little thing for me and I’ll forgive everything.”

Declan wouldn’t meet my eyes, but he dropped my hand and grabbed hold of my arm instead. His eyes swung from the door, to Acacia and her demon, to the unstable tear out the window and came up with no other solution. He had no choice, but that didn’t make this easier for either of us.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured, his tone heavy with guilt that echoed my own for forcing him back here.

“As am I,” I responded.