Page 4

CHAPTER 3

W ith a steady hand, Xavier finished the final rune. Each symbol was placed at an equal distance from one another to form the perfect healing circle. As he tended to his cut arm, Xavier admired the design. Years of careful work had gone into this idea. His final project for his Blood Mage Mastery depended on it working. If it didn’t… well, he didn’t want to think about what Master Melcori would do. His mentor didn’t suffer fools lightly, and Xavier didn’t want to extend his apprenticeship another year and miss out on the title of the youngest Blood Mage in a century.

For years, he had worked diligently through good and bad times, and he refused to fail during the final weeks of his apprenticeship.

One more month to go.

He could do this.

Bang! Bang!

The loud pounding on his door broke his concentration. If this weren’t an emergency, they’d find themselves the guinea pig of his healing runes.

He yanked the door open. “What?”

Zabria, his best friend and Blood Seer, smirked at him. “Sorry to interrupt you, oh mighty Blood Mage, but your master is calling.”

“Ugh. What does he want? He was the one who told me to work on my project and ignore any interruptions.”

“I somehow doubt he meant his.”

“Serves him right if I did,” he grumbled. “Sorry I snapped at you.”

“It’s all right. I’m used to your surly company by now.” She pinned Xavier with a serious look. “I want you to agree with whatever Melcori tells you, even if it sounds like he’s lost the plot.”

“Why?”

Zabria bit her lip, and Xavier sighed. “Are you scheming against me again?”

“When have I ever done that?”

“How about when you broke Master Jans’s favorite crystal ball and claimed my project caused it to shatter, even though they had nothing to do with each other?”

“I just wanted to see who would win in a drag-out fight between Jans and Melcori. I didn’t know Melcori was so protective that he would stab her and then use her blood in a ritual to blind her for a week.”

“It almost got you kicked out.”

Zabria laughed. “I’d have to do something much worse for that to happen. I’m the best seer in the history of this place.” She flipped her hair and planted her hands on her hips in a dramatic pose before giggling and dropping her hands.

“They might prefer three mediocre seers to all the trouble you cause,” he teased.

She sniffed and gave his statement the attention she felt it deserved.

After a minute, Xavier continued his interrogation. “So, you don’t know what this is about, or you just want to torture me?”

“I–“ She wrinkled her nose and gained that familiar faraway expression. “I can only see bits and pieces, but in the end, you’re the happiest I’ve ever seen you.” She shook her head as if to reset her vision. “I did hear in the rumor mill that Melcori kidnapped some dryads.”

Xavier groaned. “That must be why he had me read that book on nature magic. If he drains a Grove of dryads, I’m going to use the ritual knife he gave me and stab him myself.”

A snort escaped Zabria despite her stoic expression. “I don’t think he’s going to bleed them. They appear relatively healthy in the future.”

“Then what does he want with them? Wait, I might know.” His mind raced as he remembered the section on dryad gems.

“What?” Zabria leaned closer. “I can’t see anything.”

“Hmm, I’ll find out and get back to you. I don’t want to say anything and be wrong. You know what that’s like.” He gave her a pointed stare.

Zabria folded her arms, and her lower lip puckered into a pout that would’ve been devastating to anyone who wasn’t one hundred percent immune to her wiles.

“Fine,” she sulked when she saw it wasn’t working. “You’d better hurry if you don’t want your master to get angry you’re taking so long.”

“Ugh.” He cast one more look over his rune work, then stepped outside the room. Before closing the door, he pressed the preservation rune and sealed it with his magic. Now, no one could mess up his hard work. There was more than one person in the castle who would’ve destroyed it just to stop him from becoming the youngest Blood Mage. Professional sabotage at its finest. If that happened, the other Masters wouldn’t do anything about it. The assumption is that if he were a better mage, he would’ve been able to protect his work.

Sometimes, Masters were a bit fucked up.

At eight years old, he’d been surprised that the others were angry at him about his apprenticeship. Years later, he realized that his cranky mentor was the highest-ranked Blood Mage in the world. It had been a minor miracle that Xavier had been granted the spot days after Melcori’s last apprentice had graduated.

Others who had waited years for the position to open, only to be snatched up by an unknown child, made their displeasure known. After the third assassination attempt, Melcori placed hidden runes on Xavier’s clothing, turning back spells to their attackers.

Four deaths later, the most he had to contend with were sneers, and the occasional verbal abuse said far from his protective master. Not to say things were perfect, but they were far better than they could’ve been.

Xavier tried to think of what he could’ve possibly done for Melcori to demand his presence. It had been his master who told Xavier to spend the next month getting the kinks out of his project.

“Is he in his lab?”

“His office.” Zabria skipped beside him as he changed directions.

Xavier was happy to catch up with his friend during the long walk.

“You’re almost done with your official studies, right?” Blood Seers had different training than mages, but Zabria had been at the castle a few years longer than Xavier. There was only a year between them, and they had become fast friends. They had bonded since everyone else was older and insanely jealous of the talented youths.

“Yep. Master Jans said she was impressed with the accuracy and frequency of my visions.”

Xavier frowned. “Doesn’t it hurt when you have visions?” She’d scryed for him a few times when he needed insight into what paths to study. Although he’d paid her for her time with his hard-earned cash, he had regretted making her bleed.

“Yes.” She held up her hands. Light scarring went from the sides of her palms to her arms, where they vanished beneath her shirtsleeves. “But if I didn’t use it, I’d already be dead.”

“True.” Xavier sighed. “If people understood our burden, maybe they’d be less likely to pillorize us.”

“Or, they’d say the gods are punishing us by making us bleed for our magic.”

“That’s because other magic users have forgotten that all magic demands sacrifice. Just because they use their internal magical energy instead of blood doesn’t mean nothing is sacrificed.”

“Preaching to the choir, my friend.” Zabria took his arm as she continued to dance and skip down the hall beside him.

“What are you going to do when you finish? We haven’t talked about after.”

‘After’ was the nebulous phrase they used to discuss life after training and after they were done with their tests. The magical after.

“I’ll probably stay here and concentrate on special projects. Master Jans said I could remain as long as I wanted.”

“She means that, you know.” Xavier squeezed her hand.

“I know.” Zabria ducked her head. “I just don’t want to be one of those academics who never leave the castle. I want to see the world, but I need a partner, so I won't be injured if I go into a vision.”

“I’ll go with you,” he offered.

Zabria laughed. “That’s sweet, and I’d take you up on it if I didn’t know you’re going to be very busy in the future.”

“Doing what?”

Zabria smiled but didn’t offer anything more. Like Xavier, Zabria didn’t have a family. Unlike Xavier, hers died instead of abandoning her. She had come to Master Jans’s attention when her school called about Zabria’s powers freaking out the other kids. From what Zabria had said, it only took Jans a few hours to determine that Zabria was a Blood Seer and immediately adopt her. Leaving a Blood Seer with regular magical people was a recipe for disaster. They would either ignore her need to bleed for her visions or bleed her dry and force her to tell them what she saw. It had happened more often than historians were comfortable recording.

“Don’t worry, Xav, good things are coming for you. It might not seem like it immediately, but it will work out in the end.”

They parted ways before Melcori’s door with a quick hug and a ‘see you later.’

Xavier took a deep breath before knocking. Melcori’s tendency toward chaos made him almost afraid to find out what his Master wanted.

“Come in.”

He opened the door, peeking in to find Melcori sitting behind his desk and frowning.

“Don’t hover. Close the door behind you.”

Now more worried than when he got the message, Xavier hurriedly obeyed and sat in the visitor’s chair. “You called for me?”

“Yes.”

Xavier tried to sit still as his mentor stared at him. He broke after a minute. “And what can I do for you?”

“You’ve been a good apprentice, Xavier. Far better than I expected when you came to me all those years ago. I think we’re both surprised you survived your childhood.” Melcori smiled.

Xavier obligingly smiled back, even though it wasn’t a laughing matter. Those other mages had been quite intent on killing him to take his spot.

“Thank you, Master.”

“I understand you’re preparing for your final presentation, but I need your help. I’ve made a choice you won’t approve of, but it’s done, and I can't undo it.”

Xavier frowned. He’d helped Melcori with many things he disapproved of during his apprenticeship, but he’d never seen him so hesitant. Before, he just brushed off Xavier’s concerns and told him to do what he was told. This new caution sent warning alarms blaring in his head.

“What do you need help with?”

“I burned down a Grove and kidnapped some dryads. I need you to find a child who went missing. His mother is the priestess in charge and is quite distraught over losing her son.”

Her son?

Xavier waited to see if Melcori had finished his absurd explanation and only spoke when it appeared he had nothing further to add.

“Why did you burn down a Sacred Grove?” He was proud that his voice didn’t reflect all the shock and anger burning him.

“Did you not read your book?” Melcori snapped.

Xavier dug his nails into the palms of his hands. A technique he’d used many times over the years to ground his thoughts and not strangle the man sitting across from him. You could see crescent-shaped scars on his palms if you looked close enough. “You’re going after the gems?”

Melcori grinned. “You always come through in the end, my boy, yes, the gems. I need them.” He abruptly lost his smile. “But we lost track of the leader’s child in the fire.”

“You don’t think he burned?” Xavier’s stomach swirled queasily at the thought of a child burning to death. A dryad would burn even faster.

“His mother is quite certain he’s alive. She can still feel him. We must find him so I can bargain with her.”

“Why would they negotiate with you? You burned down their homes. Can they even grow new trees? Are they old enough?”

Melcori’s eyes took a flinty hue. “Do you think I didn’t do my research?”

“Sorry, Master.” Xavier immediately backed down. He might soon be the youngest Blood Mage ever granted the title, but he wasn’t anywhere near as powerful as the ancient being who mentored him. In a battle between them, he would be no match for Melcori. “I do have a few questions.”

Melcori leaned back in his chair and waited. Xavier took that as permission.

“I wasn’t aware there were male dryads. The book didn’t mention them.”

A wide smile crossed his master’s face. “Good catch. Male dryads are rare. Although there aren’t any laws against growing them, they are forbidden in most Groves. Talula, the Grove’s priestess I mentioned, grew a son. The other dryads weren’t pleased, which led to one of them partnering with me. I get the gems, and she gets to be the leader of the new Grove.”

“I had no idea dryad politics were so cutthroat.”

“You have no idea.”

“What about the backlash?”

“Backlash?” Melcori rolled a pen between his palms. “In what way?”

“You burned down a Sacred Grove. You’ve often mentioned that there are repercussions for acts against fellow magicals.”

“But I got permission.” Melcori’s gleeful smile only made Xavier more anxious. His Master, who had trained Xavier in extinct and obscure magic and the effect specific actions had on his magic, had lost his damn mind. Melcori must know the curse that would befall anyone for daring to destroy a Sacred Grove. Dryad magic was nature magic, and Mother Nature was a vicious bitch.

He held back a frustrated scream. This wouldn’t be the first time Melcori had outsmarted himself. “Do you think that will be enough? Permission from one dryad?”

“It should be. It was enough for me to overpower the runes. Besides, I’m only following your rule.” Melcori’s self-righteous tone distracted Xavier from the subject of imprisoned dryads and his Master’s lack of morals.

“My rule?” Since when did he have rules? “What rule?”

“The one you insisted on when you were ten.”

Xavier, not surprisingly, couldn’t remember demanding anything that long ago. Instead, he lamented that Melcori couldn’t wait until after Xavier’s apprenticeship ended before losing his tiny connection to reality and trying to drag Xavier along with him.

Melcori sniffed. “I remember it clearly, brat. You looked at me with those big doe brown eyes and said in a snotty tone that if I were to gamble to make sure and not lose your only home.”

“Oh, fuck!”

“Language,” Melcori taunted gleefully.

Xavier sighed and concentrated on not strangling his master. It would look bad in his recommendation letter. “Who did you gamble with?”

Melcori winced. “I might have lost a large sum gambling at the Chimera’s club.”

“No!” Xavier didn’t have to fake his horror. No one knew where the Chimera had come from. Still, rumors abounded that he was the result of a failed experiment and had escaped from being destroyed by killing everyone involved in his capture. Whether those rumors were true or not, everyone agreed that you didn’t cross the Chimera or cheat him and survive. “Why would you gamble with him?”

“I had a good hand,” Melcori whined.

Xavier groaned and tugged at his hair. It was moments like this that he wondered which of them was older. When he was a traumatized eight-year-old, Melcori had seemed like an all-knowing mage. At twenty-three, he was now convinced that his mentor was a child in a man’s body—an immature child with a gambling addiction.

I must not punch my Master. Xavier chanted in his head while his magic bubbled beneath the surface of his skin like a cauldron primed to explode.

He wanted to be supportive, but at that moment, he only wished to hide in his workshop and not come out until this situation was resolved. Deep down, he knew that without Melcori’s impressive blood magic experience and groundbreaking spell work, the ancient mage would’ve been drummed out of the Blood Mage Guild years ago.

“Do you remember the rules for a Grove?” Melcori asked as if he hadn’t upended Xavier’s plans to work on his project for the next week.

“Mostly,” he muttered. Whenever Melcori gave him a book, practical lessons soon followed. He’d been dumbfounded at the enormous volume of Nature Magic Melcori had given him two weeks ago. He’d wondered at the time why he had been given such a pointless text to study, even as he read it thoroughly. It now made horrifying sense.

“The rules?” Melcori’s smug expression grew stern, a sign his patience was wearing thin and would soon result in punishment if Xavier didn’t come up with the correct answer. He had to clean the novice ritual room without magic for his last punishment. He still had nightmares over that.

Novices were idiots, and demon blood was hard to get out and smelled terrible.

“I’m assuming you mean the ones regarding leadership.”

“Stop stalling, or I’m going to think you haven’t read it.”

Xavier shifted from foot to foot. “If I remember correctly,” he stalled further while mentally sifting through the facts he’d absorbed. “If you remove all the dryads without killing any of them and have permission and voluntary blood from at least one member, then you can create a new Grove at an appropriate location, and whoever’s blood you add first will be the new Grove priestess.

“If the old Grove were at least one hundred years old, the dryad magic would replenish at the new location, and Mother Nature would grant them enough extra magic for a one-time tree replacement. The Old Grove would remain barren, and its magic would recede after roughly seventy-two hours, upon which it will spark and transfer entirely into the new Grove.”

“And what else will happen at the Old Grove,” Melcori prompted with all the patience of a mentor with his student.

“It will be clear of dryad protective magic, leaving you free to mine the site after the new Grove is established.”

“Excellent. And what should we find?”

“How old is the Grove?” The book had a chart denoting when magical energy was transformed into precious stones. Gems created from magic were always valuable to Rune Masters and other Mages who used them in their work. The older the grove, the more powerful the stones.

Melcori’s smirk widened. “Five hundred years.”

“Wow.” Xavier cleared his throat and tried not to give Melcori too much satisfaction over his shock. “Probably emeralds. Dryad emeralds.”

Melcori’s maniacal laughter echoed around the office. “Exactly. Dryad emeralds. That can only be formed by stones absorbing centuries of built-up magic between a dryad’s tree roots. It has been almost a thousand years since any have hit the market. If I can mine those, I’ll be rich, and I can pay off the Chimera, and you, my apprentice, will get your fair share if you help me.”

Xavier raked a hand through his hair. If he were to be honest, this entire situation sounded terrible. Melcori had burned down dryad homesand, if he had understood the situation, part of their bodies to get money. “Why do you want to find the child if the Grove doesn’t like men?”

“I can’t keep Dryads prisoner forever. They will need to be free to start a new Grove. If I don’t find their kid, Talula will kill me as soon as they are free. I can’t enjoy my gems if I’m dead. Besides, if we have the kid alive and well, Talula will be more willing to step down from leadership if we hold him until she agrees.”

The holes in this plan were larger than the castle, but Melcori wasn’t in the mindset to listen. Still, he had to try. “You think she will listen after you burned down their Grove?” If he were a dryad, he’d never forgive someone who torched his home.

“Semantics.” Melcori airily waved his hand to dismiss that little detail. “She’ll get over it if we return her child. Octavia will be the new leader, and we will have our gems. Talula will agree to the new leadership if she wants her son back. It will be a win-win all around.”

He had no proper response to this level of unhinged optimism. “The son we don’t have.”

“We will.” His glare told Xavier that failure wasn’t an option.

“I’m still surprised that male dryads weren’t mentioned in that big book.”

“Like I said, there’s a stigma about growing them due to the dryads’ history of being the playthings of men. Octavia confirmed the rumor that males are expelled from the Grove when they reach sixteen. I suspect this one is getting to be about that age, and she wants to be the new leader before he ages out. They can only grow one child with each Grove. Even if he leaves the Grove, the nutrients won’t be enough for a new child, at least according to what I’ve read.”

Xavier picked up on what his mentor was saying. ”Then, with a new Grove, she has a second chance, but only if she’s the leader.”

“Exactly. Find him and secure him. Talula will make trouble if we don’t have something to hold over her head.”

“Where will he go when he reaches sixteen?”

Melcori shrugged. “Dryads aren’t like other people. He’s part tree. He doesn’t need his mother to coddle him into adulthood. He’ll be fine.”

Xavier rubbed his hands along his arms. He recalled being sixteen, a vulnerable age this kid hadn’t yet reached. Kicking him out alone into the vast, frightening forest was a terrible idea. “Do you think his mother will want to start a new Grove with him?”

Melcori shook his head. ”That’s why we need the kid, to persuade her not to. If they split the Grove, there might not be enough magic to form two, which could backlash and warp the forest.”

Xavier shuddered. A warped forest was an eldritch horror that would drain the magic around it and continue draining until nothing lived. “What do you want me to do when I find him?”

“Call me. After you hunt him down, we can decide the best place to stash him.”

Xavier scowled. “Shouldn’t he be easy to find? How fast do you think a tree moves?”

“I spotted him outside his tree before the flames separated us. After he vanished, I didn’t see any signs of his tree. I’m certain he’s alive.” He handed over a vial of blood. “I’ve taken this from his mother for tracking purposes. She agreed.”

“Good.” It was best to have donated blood. Blood taken unwillingly could make even a positive spell backfire. “If you give me the directions, I’ll go this afternoon.”

“Here.” He slid a paper with the coordinates to Xavier. “There is one other thing.”

Melcori’s pause only added to Xavier’s worries.

“The Chimera gave me a month to pay my debt.”

“That’s a long time for a mob boss to wait.” Xavier frowned. Something wasn’t adding up. Mob bosses weren’t known for their patience.

“I might have promised him free access to a young Blood Mage until I pay him back.”

“You didn’t!” Even as he said those words, his stomach sank. “You sold me out. I only have one month left to finish my Master's project. I don’t have time to cater to a mob boss.” He’d worked damn hard for fifteen years, and now, just a month before his completion, Melcori was throwing him under the bus?

“You should know me better than that,” Melcori scolded. “I told him you would do nothing illegal. I refuse to ruin your reputation before you become independent. Besides, if he likes your work, you might already have a job lined up when you leave your apprenticeship. I only promised him three projects, which all must be finished within the next month.”

“You don’t think being tied to the Chimera will damage my reputation?” The thought of working for a criminal sent his stomach acid spiking. If this continued, he was in for a month of indigestion.

“Did you want me to sell the castle?” Melcori raised an eyebrow at him. “I’m certain no one will mind moving out, so you can hold onto your principles.”

Considering almost everyone resented him for being Melcori’s only apprentice, he doubted they would take it well, and from his Master’s expression, he knew it too.

Xavier groaned. He wouldn’t be able to change Melcori’s mind, not if he had already told the Chimera that he would have access to Xavier. “How did you pull this off? You would’ve needed help to capture all the dryads.”

Melcori smirked. “Several people are hoping to take your place when you leave. Let’s just say I’m taking advantage of their eagerness. Don’t worry about them. They’re not important. Focus on your task.”

“Hunting down a missing tree?” Xavier taunted.

A zap on his leg had him jumping in his chair. “All right, I deserved that.”

“Yes, you did.”

“Out of curiosity, why aren’t we immediately returning him to his mother? You’d still have them both captive?”

“I don’t trust Octavia. She hates the kid. When she talked about him, the look in her eyes made me look sane. Frankly, I’m surprised he’s made it to fifteen.”

“You think she’d kill him?”

“She did agree to burn down a forest to have a kid.”

“Good point.” Xavier shared the unease in Melcori’s expression. If Octavia was willing to destroy her old Grove to keep one kid out, what would she do if she had to deal with him again?

“Why did the current leader create a male if they’re so against them?”

Melcori shrugged. “She claims Mother Nature asked her to.”

“And the other dryads don’t believe her?” From the book, it sounded as if dryads were devoted to Mother Nature; why would one denounce them? Or maybe it was one of those things where they believed deities existed, but only crazy people talked to them.

“Octavia claims Talula made the whole thing up because she wanted a boy.”

“Hmm.” It wasn’t his business if two factions wanted to battle for power. It still sat poorly on him to support a back-stabbing traitor, but like every other time, Xavier pushed away his worries, no matter how valid. It would do no good for him to oppose Melcori. His mentor did what he wanted regardless of anyone else’s opinions. Not that he was a terrible person. Melcori had taken excellent care of Xavier. He had taught and trained him until he was soon to become the youngest Blood Mage in the country.

Still, this was morally wrong on so many levels, and there was nothing Xavier could do about it.

“I know you disapprove, but I can’t default on my debt, and we don’t have enough reserve to cover the cost.”

“I know.” Xavier sighed. Melcori had shared the accounting books with him two months back. They had lost a significant portion of their Mage funding through underhanded political backstabbing and bad investments, and that was before Melcori’s gambling debts were factored in. “Are all of them old enough to grow new trees?”

“Except the boy. Talk to him and see if he needs a tree. His mother had said something about making his portable.”

“I’d love to see how she did that. Do you think she used runes?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe I’ll ask her when she isn’t threatening to impale me.” Melcori’s grin held the joy of learning new magic, something the two of them shared.

“Once you discover the boy's fate, we can discuss the best location for the new Grove.”

Xavier stood and slid the vial of blood into his pocket. “I’ll let you know what I find.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow morning. I’ve got a meeting with the committee tonight about some bullshit regulation they want to enforce and how they want me to take on more than one apprentice this next time. They don’t remember how much work you were. Maybe if they are older and needed less care…”

“Good luck with that.” Xavier offered a cheery wave on the way out.

Serves him right.