CHAPTER 6
DREYA
“ A t least we aren’t going into the demonic underbelly,” I observed as we squeezed through a passage that was narrower than my hips were in high school.
Lia chuckled and shot me a smirk. “That’s only better if the critters down here aren’t as hungry as the demons.”
I snorted at that and continued. Holy mother of everything magical. I was getting tired of crawling through places that smelled like something had died there a century ago. And yet here we were, squeezed into tunnels beneath the French Quarter like rats in a maze. Except the rats we'd met earlier had better fashion sense than whatever lived down here.
"Tell me again why we couldn't just blast our way in through the street?" I asked as I ducked under yet another cobweb. The thing was practically prehistoric. I was pretty sure it had been around since the Battle of New Orleans. "I'm pretty sure my dry-cleaning bill is going to be higher than our fee for the Light Fae party."
"Subtle is better than creating a sinkhole in the middle of tourist-central," Lia replied from ahead of me. Her voice echoed weirdly in the narrow space. "Plus, do you really want to explain to the mundane authorities why we're excavating without a permit?"
"Point taken." I grimaced as something squishy smashed under my boot. My stomach roiled. "But I'm billing the Lost Legends for these shoes. These were my favorite pair of ass-kicking boots. They were worn in perfectly and everything."
"You say that about every pair of boots," Kota called from behind me. "Remember the ones you wore until they got ruined when we dealt with that lake monster?"
"Those boots saved my life! They gave me the purchase to keep it from dragging us into the lake!" Since moving to Willowberry, I’d discovered there was nothing better than a trusty pair of boots.
We'd discovered the entrance to these tunnels behind a false wall in one of the old buildings near Jackson Square. The kind of discovery that would have been way more exciting if it hadn't involved moving aside a bookcase that probably weighed more than all six of us combined. After nearly breaking our backs to move it, we encountered our second problem. The tunnel entrance had been sealed with magic that felt older than dirt and was twice as stubborn.
"This is definitely not on any city planning maps," Phi muttered. Her phone's flashlight beam swept over ancient brickwork that definitely predated modern building codes. "Some of these passages look older than the city itself. Look at these markings. They're not French or Spanish. They might even predate European settlement."
Dani ran her fingers along one of the walls. She was tracing symbols that seemed to shift under her touch. It was reacting to her magic. "These aren't for decoration. They're old magic. Like, 'make Sanité DéDé look like a first-year student' old."
"Ah, splendid," I drawled. "Because grappling with magic from the last century was just too straightforward. Now we've got prehistoric hoodoo to worry about. Perhaps we should check if any pterodactyls left behind their spell books while we're at it.”
" Guys ," Adèle's voice slid into our minds. " I'm picking up residual magic. It’s incredibly strong. And it feels familiar ."
That got everyone's attention faster than a two-for-one Hurricane special. Our familiar rarely admitted to recognizing magical signatures. The few times I could recall, it had been connected to some seriously bad news. The last time she’d used this tone, she was leading us through the swamps. We’d been searching for someone trying to steal the magic of our city and leaving bodies in their wake.
"Define 'familiar'," I prompted at the same time I reached for my dagger. My hand settled on the grip of the weapon Fiona’s mate had made for me. It hummed with protective magic and responded to my unease.
" It's like ," Adèle paused, and I could practically feel her trying to put the sensation into words. " Remember earlier at Marie's when Kaitlyn found traces of vampire magic? It's similar to that, but twisted. I can’t quite grasp it, but it almost feels like someone took protection spells and corrupted them. It feels wrong, like hearing a jazz band play rock music. It’s possible, but fundamentally incorrect. "
"Wonderful," Kota muttered. "Because we needed another challenge. Hey Phi, remember when we thought the scariest thing we’d face was that Skinwalker the first time around?"
"Don't remind me," Phi's voice went hard. "That bastard's still out there. Manipulating one of my students into becoming a killer isn’t the last thing it’s going to do here. I should have ended it when I had the chance."
We rounded a corner and found ourselves in what had to be the creepiest ritual space I'd ever seen. Given our line of work, that was saying something. The chamber was circular. It also had sigils carved into every available surface. They glowed with a sickly green light that made my magic want to curl up and hide. There was also a macabre altar. Why did evil insist on using altars so much? I couldn’t think too much about that because the power surrounding us made it feel like trying to breathe underwater.
"Are those our wards?" Dani asked, leaning closer to examine one of the symbols. "They look like the ones we used around the plantation. Only these are wrong somehow. Like someone took our protection spells and ran them through a demonic translation program."
" No one should have access to these ," Adèle replied. Her voice was tight with concern. That didn’t bode well. " We designed these wards ourselves. The only people who know the exact configurations are me and the six of you. "
"Sweet baby Jesus on a beignet," Kota whispered, her voice barely carrying in the heavy air. "Please tell me that's not blood on the altar."
Phi moved closer, her scientist brain clearly overriding her survival instinct. "It's not blood," she said after a moment. "Well, not just blood. It's some kind of magical construct."
"That's not making me feel better," I muttered as I scanned the chamber. Every instinct I had was screaming that we weren't alone. "Anyone else notice how the temperature keeps dropping?"
As if on cue, our breath began fogging in the air. And I noticed the footprints appearing in the dust. They were fresh ones materializing with no one making them. "Incoming!" I shouted, just as the first cultist stepped out of literally nowhere. One moment there was empty air, the next a robed figure stood there.
More shimmering began subtly. It was like the air above the hot pavement. The mirage-walkers, as I’d dubbed them, emerged through the distortions. Their bodies cycled between states of matter. One moment solid, the next translucent as mountain mist. Their robes rippled with impossible geometries, patterns that made my eyes water just looking at them. There was a familiar edge to them. It was our new wards. They were using them against us. That was how they were changing so rapidly. It was like seeing your reflection in a funhouse mirror powered by dark magic.
The fight exploded around us like a magical Mardi Gras gone wrong. I rolled under a particularly nasty curse and came up beside Lia who was back-to-back with Kota. "We need to get to higher ground!" I called out, noticing a partially collapsed staircase along one wall. "That platform up there would give us better coverage!"
"On it!" Phi shouted. She was already moving. Her hands glowed as she cast a quick levitation spell. "Dani, cover me!"
The chamber erupted in a magical crossfire. Our spells collided with their corrupted versions, creating showers of sparks that rained down like deadly fireworks. I caught a glimpse of Kota literally drop-kicking a cultist who'd gotten too close. Her combat training with the werewolves was definitely paying off.
"Watch the ceiling!" Dea warned as chunks of ancient stonework began raining down. Her shield spell expanded just in time to deflect a particularly large piece of masonry. "This whole place could come down!"
"That might be an improvement!" I shot back as I launched myself over the altar to tackle a cultist who was about to blindside Lia. We went down in a tangle of robes and curses. Both the magical and profane variety. Up close, I caught a whiff of something familiar.
"They smell like the French Market!" I called out as I rolled to my feet. "That weird spice shop by the coffee stand!"
No one responded. They were too busy fighting. These weren't amateur-hour cultists who'd learned their craft from TikTok tutorials. The mirage-walkers moved like liquid mercury. Their forms were constantly phased between dimensional planes. Each strike they landed felt like being kissed by liquid nitrogen. They left elaborate frost patterns of corrupted magic that spread across the skin like dark fractals. It also hurt like a mother trucker.
I spun away from a mirage-walker's grasp. The arctic burn where their fingers had barely brushed my forearm nearly put me on my knees. I threw a frantic spell at it and encountered a twisted mockery of the defensive magic we’d created with Adèle’s help. It wasn’t anything the world had ever seen before. We were the first to create it and the only ones who could cast it because we were special magical mutts.
“ Use inverted energy ,” our familiar advised us. “ Don’t let them get a grip on you. Their power will kill you. ”
"Move your ass!" I body-checked Kota out of the way as a dark crystal exploded against the wall. The impact spread like sacred geometry gone wrong. Each line and angle created micro-tears in reality. Through the gaps, I caught glimpses of somewhere the physics made my brain itch.
"Since when do protection spells try to tear holes in the fucking multiverse?" I called out. Channeling my magic into a counter-ward felt like pushing molasses uphill in January. Adèle had said inverted energy. I focused my intent on those instructions.
"Since these assholes decided to try and turn our wards dark!" Phi shouted back. Her hands were weaving complicated patterns of light that seemed to temporarily anchor the mirages to our dimension. "Our magic was never meant to be part of anything so malicious. It’s even causing problems for them."
The air grew thick with dimensional static. Every spell cast left traces of frost in the air. Crystalline structures that refracted light in impossible ways. Worst of all, my magic felt sluggish. I would think it was fighting against the thinning barriers between realities. The reality was it wasn’t easy to invert your magic.
"Gather the council!" I yelled, barely avoiding a crystalline spike that would have rearranged my internal organs in unpleasant ways. "All of them! We need to meet and discuss this now!"
Lia had her phone out and was managing to text using the voice controls while deflecting reality-warping shards. "No, this isn't a false alarm!" she snapped into the speaker. "They're walking between... Dani, nine o'clock!"
A mirage-walker materialized inches from my face. Their form flickered like bad reception between stations. Up close, I could see through their semi-transparent flesh to the complicated lattice of crystallized magic covering their skeleton. I immediately cast a protection spell. I wasn’t fast enough. Their touch sent cascading patterns of frost racing up my arm.
A scream left me as I slammed my free hand into their chest. I was protected from the freezing pain, which allowed me to channel the full force of my magic. The mirage-walker's form rippled like a stone thrown into a pond. Concentric circles of their being spread outward until they literally fell apart into nasty pieces. Knowing how to beat them gave us the edge we needed. I told my sisters what to do and we ended the rest of the assholes trying to take us out.
When the fight finally ended, the chamber looked like a physics textbook had a nightmare. Body parts and dark crystals jutted from every surface. Patches of wall flickered between states of matter. The air was thin like we were standing on the top of a mountain.
"Everyone alright?" I called out, gathering healing energy into my palms. Golden warmth spread through my fingers, ready to repair whatever multidimensional damage our reality-bending friends had left behind.
"Define 'alright'," Kota groaned from where she lay sprawled near a crystallized column. Frost patterns covered half her face and were spreading down her neck in elaborate fractals. "I’m pretty sure my internal organs just took a guided tour of the quantum realm."
“I’ve got you, sestra,” I promised as I healed her. I thanked the gods for giving me this ability every day. I didn't do well when my sisters were hurt, and I couldn’t do anything for them.
I moved through our group and kept my healing magic flowing like summer honey. The frost-burns from the mirage-walkers' touch melted away under my hands. The bone-deep chill of dimensional exposure faded to manageable levels. Though I could still feel echo traces of other universes clinging to everyone's aura.
Phi was sporting a nasty set of crystalline burns along her left side where a shard had caught her. My healing magic had to work overtime to convince her cells they existed in only one dimension again. Lia had somehow avoided the worst of the physical damage, but her magical core was churning with dimensional instability. I spent extra time smoothing out those metaphysical wrinkles before they could cause problems.
Even after healing everyone's immediate injuries, I sensed lingering traces of dimensional frost in their systems. It was like a spiritual freezer burn. It would take time to fully thaw. But more worrying than the physical damage were the implications. Whoever these cultists were, they were copying our protective magic and twisting it into something unnatural.
"We need to get to Sunwhisper Sanctum," I announced and then headed for the exit. "The council needs to hear about this. Plus, we're going to need help searching these tunnels properly. Whatever's going on here, it's not waiting around for us to figure it out."
An hour later, we gathered in the council chambers. I felt right at home thanks to Kota and Dani's recent redesign. Gone were the crumbling walls and cobwebs. In their place, sleek dark wood paneling complemented the preserved historical architecture. The massive conference table dominated the center of the room. Its polished surface was embedded with subtle protective sigils that glowed faintly under the modern pendant lights. Dani had somehow managed to incorporate the traditional magical elements without making it look like a movie set for "Generic Witch Council."
Viktor cleared his throat from his position at the end of the table. His expression was annoyed. "Would someone like to explain why I was pulled out of a rather delectable date with a beautiful elf? I'm hungry, and she was offering herself."
"Trust me," Phi said as she sent a collage of photos to the flat screen on the opposite wall. "This qualifies as an emergency. The Lost Legends’ power is growing. They’re a major threat to every supernatural in the city. They're able to use a person’s power against them. They just twisted our security measures and used them against us. They can even take protection spells and turn them into weapons."
Kaveh paced the length of the conference room. His usual casual demeanor was replaced by focused intensity. His black boots made no sound on the marble floor. It was a djinn thing I'd never quite gotten used to. "Show me exactly what you've discovered," he asked.
Each of us pulled out our phones and pulled up photos we had taken. Phi also placed the notes she made after our visit to Marie on the table. Kaitlyn joined Kaveh and leaned over the evidence to examine it. Today Kaitlyn had opted for ripped jeans and a vintage band t-shirt that somehow made her look both professional and ready to hit a rock concert.
Kaitlyn tapped Dea’s phone. "These sigils. They're definitely corrupted versions of your wards. Someone with intimate knowledge of your security systems modified them. The magical signature is complex. They've layered corrupted magic over the original spells."
"But who would have access to that kind of information?" Cyran asked from his position near the window. The Light Fae leader's gray eyes were stormy with concern. He'd traded his usual designer wear for simple black jeans and a t-shirt, but somehow still managed to look like he'd stepped off a runway.
Kassandra adjusted her colorful muumuu as she studied the photos. The gargoyle leader's bright blue eyes narrowed as she pointed to one particularly nasty-looking sigil. "More importantly, why go through the trouble of corrupting existing protections instead of creating new spells? This took time and serious magical know-how. It would have been easier to use something else."
"Because it's personal," Talindra said. Her white-blonde hair caught the light as she moved closer to examine the evidence. The elf leader's crop top and heels seemed out of place in the serious atmosphere, but no one was about to comment on her fashion choices. "They're sending a message. This isn't just about breaking through our defenses. They want us to know they can turn our own magic against us."
Molvith, the ice demon leader, remained silent but the temperature in the room dropped several degrees. Next to him, Tanarak, the rage demon leader, practically vibrated with barely contained fury. The two of them were like a supernatural weather system. Thankfully they kept their ice and fire in check. Getting a reaction out of them was rare.
Viktor shook his head and had a disgusted look on his face. "The Lost Legends are adapting and using modern magical innovations against us. The question is whether or not they’re working alone."
I caught Lia's eye across the table. We were both thinking the same thing. A vampire had been in Marie's library, studying those journals. His tone made me think he wasn’t really wondering because he already knew. The coincidence of now having our magic used against us was about as subtle as a drunk tourist on Bourbon Street.
"We need to secure every anchor point we can find," I said, laying out the map we'd pieced together. "We need to do that from the tunnels beneath the city. The six of us have to focus on finding the Lost Legends and the relic they stole. The city is unraveling too fast for us to handle one and then the other.”
Kota leaned on the table and speared the council members with a glare. “That means we are going to need help with this.”
“Kota is right,” I agreed. “And we need to figure out who's helping these assholes before they completely destabilize the city's temporal framework. I don't know about you, but I'm getting real tired of explaining to tourists why there's a Civil War regiment doing drills in their hotel lobby."
Dani cleared her throat and took a deep breath. "We are also planning a premating celebration for a Light Fae couple in two days. We've got two hundred guests expected. That includes delegations from the Fae court. Canceling isn't an option. It would raise too many questions. We also don’t want them to be attacked while there."
I almost laughed at the absurdity of it all. Here we were, trying to prevent reality from unraveling. Yet, we still had to worry about fairy lights and floating lanterns. Sometimes, I wondered if the universe just liked to see how many plates it could make us spin at once.
"The party goes on," Kaveh said firmly, placing his hands on the table. "We'll need additional security measures. Ones they haven't had a chance to study and corrupt."
"I can help with that," Kaitlyn offered as she pulled out her tablet. "I've been working on some new protection spells that combine different magical traditions. They won't be expecting that. We can layer them with some of Molvith's ice wards and Tanarak's fire barriers."
As the council members discussed strategy, I couldn't shake the feeling that we were missing something obvious. The tunnels, the corrupted wards, the vampire magic – it all connected somehow. But how? What were we missing?
"Dre?" Lia's voice pulled me from my thoughts. "You've got that look."
"What look?"
"The one you get right before something tries to eat us," Kota supplied helpfully.
I rolled my eyes but couldn't deny it. "Something about this feels off. The tunnels were too easy to find. The cultists knew exactly where we'd be. It's like..."
"Like we're being played," Phi said, cutting me off. "Like someone wanted us to find those tunnels and see our corrupted wards."
"But why?" Dani asked though I could see she was already working it out. "Unless... unless they're trying to divide us. Make us question who we can trust."
The answer was probably staring us right in the face. Knowing our luck, we'd figure it out right about the time everything went spectacularly sideways. Because that's how things worked in our lives. The moment you thought you had a handle on the situation, reality decided to throw you a curveball.