Page 57

Witches Burn

N elia sent her pet seer along for the ride. His powers are not useful for battle or capture, but I can understand her desire to trigger his gifts. Even if he is forbidden from directly impacting the timeline, he will report to his patrons and if they feel the Society needs certain details, they will share them.

Of course, that’s assuming the whims of the most powerful extranormals on the planet benefit us. Human myths speak of their volatile tempers and capricious emotions—they’re not wrong. The tales of triumph and failure because of their kind, regardless of affinity, are littered with subtle warnings about their lack of compassion for beings other than themselves.

The Society has an alliance with every major group of deities for hundreds of years, but that does not make them trustworthy. They exist for their own amusement and nothing more. Their glory days of being worshipped by humans and supes alike are long over and they no longer seek to protect or guide us. However, good relations with the pantheons are needed for us to function.

There’s also the minor matter of the Society taking the results of their ‘faux pas’ in enclaves around the world. It would be quite embarrassing if the many illegitimate hybrids were allowed to come into their powers without guidance. Our enclaves raise them, train them, and assign them to strategic positions all over the world without revealing their parentage unless specifically instructed.

There’s one such individual living and working in the Hollow as we speak.

“I see nothing,” Hugo says, emerging from the copse of trees to the south.

Kumiko swoops out of the forest to the east, materializing in front of me and fluffing his tail. Closing my eyes, I bond with him, absorbing what he saw on his flight. He did not find them, nor did he see any signs that the coven had been in that area. Unfortunately for us, we still have much ground to cover and not much time to do it. We could use Julia and her band of merry men to help find our targets before they can do any damage.

There are far too many extranormals in this town to allow them to set off the equivalent of a paranormal bomb. Unemerged supes, exiled demigods, and unstable magick users plus a building full of powerful alumnae make tonight the worst possible time for an attack from a rogue faction.

“Do you have a cell phone number for someone at the party who could pass a message to Julia?” I ask him as I stare at the vast fields and forest around us. “We need her people to assist us with locating the coven. We cannot do this alone.”

Hugo pauses, watching me for a moment. “I could call Boone and ask him to send them. They should be together at the ball.”

“Do it. Get Julia’s team here while I do a flyover. You’ll want to cover your ears until I’m out of range.” I whistle at Kumiko, letting the mist consume me as I take to the air with a wail that echoes off the hills.

Once he has the team in place, I can return and strategize. Until then, I will scan the landscape as I sing, hoping either my song or my eyes bring us the information we need.

* * *

“Where is Bane? If Peanut figures out we’re gone, it’s going to be pretty feckin’ suspicious. I don’t understand why the bloody h?—”

Swooping overhead with a screech that silences the bitching below, I land in front of the crowd dressed in Rocky Horror garb with a glare. Younger Guardians are always so feisty when they’re called to action when it’s inconvenient—dealing with beings younger than a century is tiresome. I feel like I’m herding cats, and I get enough of that in my day job.

“Silence, you twittering fools. Being conscripted to service is part of your purpose in this world and we have no time for whining. None of you missed the last party in Pompeii to serve your charge, nor did you miss visiting Atlantis before the great submersion. THOSE are events to be angry about missing out on—you are missing a ball full of teenagers and supes that occurs every year.”

Julia blinks. “Fucking hell, Bane, just how goddamned old ARE you?”

I snort, corporealizing inches from her face. “Old enough to tell you I have not always been in this form and you don’t want to know the story of how I joined the Shee. Now, focus!” I flick her nose with my fingers, making my point.

Tharin lumbers forward, always the peacemaker, despite the fiery legacy of his people. “Forgive us, Andromeda. We are in your service, as always.”

Hugo steps forward, rubbing the back of his neck as he looks around. “I feel something. I cannot say what… but you were right to call for reinforcements.”

“Well, let’s get this party started!” The Irish firebrand grins as her teeth lengthen and her body glows a bright golden color tempered with sea green.

Smirking, I nod at the others, pointing a finger at them as I shriek. “Change!”

I watch as Tharin’s bulk grows larger, scales covering his body until he shifts into the ten foot tall wyvern hiding beneath the guise of the gentle giant. His partner Zasha is next, glowing green and blue, until his half-shifted merman form appears clad in the armor of the royal Petrov family of the Bering Sea.

His trident shimmers in a brilliant silver that matches the color of his hair as he turns to watch Julia’s short locks turn into a mass of writhing snakes. Her scales are emerald green and the end of her tail rattles as she slithers backward towards her mates. The last to emerge is Saoirse, her wings bursting free as the gilded armor and sword common to her mother’s side appear like magic.

They are not an enormous army, but between the five of us, there are over two thousand years of experience. We have seen most of human history, and much of supe history. Our powers are formidable alone, but together, we harness the sea, the air, fire, and the earth. If this coven believes, they can defeat all of us, they are gravely mistaken.

“Kumiko!” I cry, raising my hand to my companion. He is a soul-eater, and he, too, will rise to the occasion. “Call their companions whence they hid them!”

I smirk as they give me surprised looks. As if I was not aware that Guardians always have companions and theirs must be hidden to keep their status relatively secret from the Irish lass’ charge. Kumiko raises his head and lets out a mournful wail that echoes over the hills like a soul screaming for mercy.

Good. I hope it scares the Hot Topic panties off those piddling witches.

The air is calm as we wait, tension filling the silence. Before long, a huge black winged horse with fire in its eyes swoops out of the sky. It lands like an earthquake, tossing its mane angrily. On its back is a small, chubby blue dragon and a large blue-ringed octopus with a bubble over its head. I turn to ask Zasha what in Zeus’ beard he’s done to his deadly friend when a roar announces the last of the companions. A large Nemean lioness comes rushing out of the trees, skidding to a stop in front of her mistress with a look of arrogant disapproval.

“I would ask why a dragon has a smaller drake as a companion or what magick allows an octopus to roam the skies, but the Nemean and the Aethon overshadow them somewhat,” I quip, arching a brow at the astonishing brood.

“We don’t have time for an old-fashioned story time, so I’ll cut to the chase: Zasha is bloody marvelous at poker. The Greeks… less so. We each were granted a boon to receive a companion, and we chose.” Saoirse lifts a shoulder carelessly as she hands the bubbled cephalopod to her mate and hops onto her horse as if it isn’t several feet taller than her.

“I’ll bet Ares, Poseidon, Hephaestus, and Hera never invited a Guardian to a poker game again.” My muttered response makes Zasha throw his head back and howl. No wonder most of them have been assigned to wander the planet, filling in after their charges have long since emerged. They pissed off powerful people.

“Indeed, Andromeda. We have paid for our hubris many times over. But our friends were worth the pain. Oliver is one of the most clever companions I’ve ever seen, and his bubble allows him to travel with me unaffected by lack of water.”

Sighing, I pinch the bridge of my nose. I may well regret involving this band of merry fools in this mission, but for the moment, I need them. I’ll deal with the political fallout later.

I fucking hate Olympus and it seems like I’ll be making a visit.

My brow arches when I realize the seer has been quiet, and no companion appeared to aid him when Kumiko called. How strange.

“I have not yet been blessed with the comfort of a companion. Most of my kind find theirs when their powers emerge, but sadly, I have not,” Hugo says, his eyes turning eerily white. “But that may change…”

Save me from the mysterious ramblings of soothsayers, I swear to Hecate.

“Fine. I will take Kumiko and scour the north. Tharin and Zasha head west. O’Flanagan, take Hugo on Aethon to the south. Julia, cover the ground to the east again. This time, you will use your powers to feel for magick. Each of you can make use of the tattoos to draw the lower tier extranormals hiding out of the dark to aid the search. Send the signal up when you find where they have set up their circle, but do not engage until we have arrived.”

“These bitches must have put on some big girl panties after Salem,” Julia hisses. “We almost wiped them out on their home turf. If the lost ones had emerged, it would have?—”

“Yes,” I cut her off. “It would have stopped this before it started. But those girls were not ready and nothing we could have done would force them to emerge until their time, Ricci. We must shut down this Samhain spell and find out who is pulling their strings. That is our mission for this evening. Now, go!”

The group splits, heading in different directions by land and sky. Kumiko and I fade to mist, soaring on the winds to the north.

The night is dark and foggy, so we blend as we fly over horse pastures, dirt roads, and farmland. I watch for telltale signs like smoke from a fire, sounds of voices, or the scent of herbs, but find nothing. I chose north because it has more open land with less population and I believed I would locate their secret spot before the others. My form is easier to hide and I might learn their plans before they realize I’m present.

It has baffled me from the beginning that a small group of unknown witches garnered enough power to threaten a historical stronghold. Magick users of all species have inhabited Salem since long before the human ‘witch trials’ and all of them survived that purge with help from shapeshifters. This coven has some sort of powerful ally and they are invested in destroying what the Society has spent hundreds of years building.

Their last attempt to remove the binding spells from all the magickal youth in Salem may have failed, but we never learned why they sought to release the veil. There is a much bigger plot at hand, and though the Society is not convinced, I feel a mutiny is underway. Only members with centuries of service are aware of how the spell is placed on the hybrids and how to remove it when they come of age. Whoever is directing this coven has inside information, and they seek to make the untrained young hybrids look dangerous.

At least, that’s the only conclusion I’ve been able to garner from these gambits. Deduction and riddles are gifts of my species and long before I joined the Shee, I was solving problems with others of my kind in Society salons. Half of the things humans think they invented were dreamt up by my people and whispered in their ears to allow progress to move them forward.

My inability to piece together their motives and endgame disturbs me. I only know that if we do not find out what the big picture is, it endangers all extranormals. Our treaties with the humans are as fragile as those with the pantheons, and breaching them will be bad for everyone.

It may be dramatic, but my gut tells me that avoiding a multi-species war may become our main objective if we don’t find out what these people are up to.

What does that human in the movies say?

Oh, yes. I’m too old for this shit.