Page 4

CHAPTER 4

AISLINN

I absolutely hate it when Fiona's right. Standing in the freezing cold, watching mundane police officers examine what I knew was far from a mundane crime scene was brutal. My thoughts drifted to my warm, cozy home where Argies was probably trying to convince Kalli that pizza wasn't an appropriate breakfast food. How had our relaxing wine-tasting weekend turned into this mess?

"Ma'am?" The young officer's voice pulled me from my musings. "Could you please describe again what you saw?"

I put on my best concerned-mum face. "Of course, Constable. We were driving along when the weather turned absolutely dreadful. That's when we noticed the accident ahead."

Constable Peterson, according to his badge, scribbled in his notepad while I told him everything that had happened. Fiona and Violet added details here and there as well. My heart skipped a beat when I recognized the subtle shimmer in the air around them. Violet was weaving a spell. Knowing her it was a mild suggestion that would encourage him not to look too deeply into the death .

"And the bodies? Did you notice anything... unusual about them?" Peterson's hesitation made me wonder if he'd sensed something off about the scene. Even if his mundane mind couldn't quite process what it was seeing, he had some suspicions.

"I was only aware of the one victim?" I kept my voice steady, channeling every ounce of motherly concern I could muster. "It was rather dark, and the snow made it difficult to see much of anything clearly. Were more seriously injured?"

Peterson looked over his shoulder. “The couple in the first car claim the reason they swerved into oncoming traffic was because they saw a man in the road. And it wasn’t the woman under the vehicle.”

“That’s terrible but I don’t know anything about a man being in the road,” I said honestly. I had no idea who he had been, or what had killed him.

Violet caught my eye from where she stood, examining the body under the car. Fiona had positioned herself between Peterson and the rapidly forming magical symbols in the snow. The corrupted magic was spreading faster now and creating patterns that no mundane police officer should see.

My phone buzzed. Gadross had finally gotten through to us. "Excuse me," I said to Peterson as I held up the device, "I need to take this. It's about my daughter." He nodded and shifted his attention to Fiona. The mom card worked every time.

I stepped away, careful to stay within sight but out of earshot. "Gadross, please tell me you're close."

"I’m ten minutes out," he replied. His voice crackled as if there was significant interference. Was it the weather? Or something else? "The magical disruption is making travel difficult. What exactly are we dealing with?"

I filled him in quickly about the bodies, the symbols, and everything we’d learned. "And there's some sort of countdown involved. The magic feels malevolent, Gadross. Like someone's taken perfectly good spells and twisted them into something they were never meant to be."

"Do not, I repeat, DO NOT let the mundane authorities remove those bodies," Gadross instructed. "The magical signature you're describing matches a series of similar incidents we've been tracking. If it's the same perpetrator..."

"Let me guess. It's going to be a massive headache for everyone involved?" I finished for him.

"Worse. The last time we encountered something like this, three agents ended up shades. It took me weeks to finally find their bodies and put them to rest so they could move to the other side. It was not pretty." I shuddered at the mention of shades. Static crackled across the line, and Gadross's voice became urgent.

"Aislinn, listen carefully. If your phones start acting up worse than this, if the temperature suddenly drops enough to crystalize your breath get out. Don't wait, don't investigate. Look for people moving too smoothly. They’ll look like they're floating. If you see dark veins through pale skin, that's confirmation. I'm going as fast as I can, and-" The line crackled again. "Dammit. Just keep the others safe until I get there. And whatever you do, don't look them in the-" The call dropped.

A sudden gust of wind carried the smell of winter roses and something else. It was metallic and made my Fae blood stir uneasily. The temperature was dropping and I swear my breath was going to crystalize. That could have been my active imagination given Gadross’s warning. The symbols around the bodies were starting to glow with a faint purple light that the mundane constables somehow hadn't noticed yet.

I rejoined Fiona and Violet. The young officer was still taking notes. His writing had slowed, and his eyes had taken on a slightly glazed look. Fiona's suggestion spell was working its magic. However, the growing cold seemed to be making it harder for her to maintain it.

"The symbols match," Violet whispered as she pretended to examine her now-dead phone. "All three sites have the same basic runic structure. It's like they're pieces of a larger pattern." She rubbed her arms against the increasingly unnatural chill.

"Three sites?" Peterson perked up when he heard that. His pen was poised above his tablet.

"Three car crash sites," Fiona smoothly interjected. "We passed two other accidents on our way here. The weather's absolutely treacherous." She gestured to the snow and ice all around us.

I felt a familiar tingle at the base of my skull. My Fae senses were warning me of approaching danger. The magic in the air was becoming more concentrated. My phone screen went completely black, and the symbols around the bodies began to pulse in sync. It was like a heartbeat made of corrupted magic. Every electronic device within thirty feet was failing. That included dashboard cameras, phones, and even Peterson's digital watch.

My wandering gaze caught on the wrist of the body under the car. While Peterson was distracted by both Fiona's creative storytelling and his malfunctioning equipment, I crouched down for a closer look. There, partially hidden by a sleeve, was a tattoo. I recognized it from my studies of ancient runes. She had a binding rune on her arm. However, this wasn’t just any binding rune. It was specifically designed to contain a connection. And it was fresh, still glistening like it had been applied moments before death.

"Fi," I murmured, fighting to keep my voice steady as I noticed the dead person's skin becoming unnaturally translucent, "we've got a problem. We need to get Peterson out of here. Now."

Fiona glanced my way, keeping her expression neutral even as her magic probed the area around the body. "Well, that's just fantastic," she muttered. "We didn't have enough problems already."

The wind picked up again, driving needles of ice-cold snow into our faces. The magical energy was building to a crescendo and giving me a headache. Whatever was happening, it involved old magic. Something told me it predated modern magical theory.

"Ladies," Peterson said, closing his notebook, "I think we have everything we need for now. Though we may need to contact you for further questions."

"Of course," Fiona smiled, slipping him a business card that I knew would become conveniently illegible the moment he tried to read it later. "We're happy to help."

As soon as Peterson walked away, Violet dropped to her knees beside the body. "This is mental," she whispered, tracing the air above the binding mark. "These markings aren't just for creating shades. They're harvesting the death energy, too."

My stomach turned. The metallic taste in my mouth grew stronger, and the air felt thick with despair. "That's not possible. The energy from a forced shade creation is too volatile, too corrupted to contain." The words felt ashy in my mouth. I'd seen what happened when someone tried to control too many shades at once. Their mind fractured, and their humanity eroded with each new binding.

"Unless," Fiona mused, her breath visible in the freezing air, "you had some way to stabilize it. Something that could handle that kind of raw power without shattering."

"Like Fae wine cellars?" Violet suggested.

The pieces clicked together with a sickening thud. The Midnight Cellar, the corrupted magic that felt like twisted Fae energy, the bodies with their strange runes. It was all connected. Someone was trying to use the natural properties of Fae wine cellars to stabilize the volatile energy of mass shade creation. To bind more souls than should ever be possible.

A familiar black SUV pulled up. Its windows were tinted against more than just sunlight. Gadross stepped out, looking as impeccably dressed as ever despite the weather. His expression, however, made me wish for something stronger than the Winter's Embrace waiting in the car.

"Right then," he said as he approached us, "show me what we're dealing with."

We led him to the body under the car first, then described what we'd found in the woods. His face grew progressively darker with each detail. When we showed him the business card with its mysterious countdown and coordinates, he actually swore. Something I'd never heard him do before.

"This is worse than we thought," he said, pulling out what looked like a normal mobile phone but was actually a highly sophisticated magical scanner. That was new thanks to Phi, one of the six Twisted Sisters. She’d created the first magical tech devices and had shared them with the paranormal police a couple of weeks ago. The thing would change investigations for the better.

The screen flickered ominously and Gadross held it away from his body as if it might explode on him. "I have to thank you again for getting me one of these. It’s proven invaluable and it’s the only reason I can tell you the energy signatures match a series of similar incidents across Europe. Someone is systematically creating shades, but not just any shades. They're using the death moment to forge stronger connections, binding the souls before they even realize they're dead. "

"But why?" I asked, though the cold pit in my stomach already knew the answer.

"Power," Gadross replied grimly. "An army of perfectly controlled shades, bound so tightly they can't even attempt resistance. It’s the kind of force that could change the power structure of the magical world."

"Bloody hell," Violet muttered. "They're trying to become gods."

The wind howled around us, and for a moment, I swore I could hear screaming in it. I’m not talking about the warm, friendly kind. This was the sort that makes your soul want to curl up and hide. "We need to get to those coordinates," Fiona said, already pulling out her car keys. "Whatever they're planning, it's happening tonight."

"Not so fast," Gadross held up a hand. "This is now officially beyond what I can ignore. I'll have a team here in twenty minutes to secure the scene and remove the bodies before the mundane authorities can examine them too closely. We can leave after that."

"With all due respect," I said, channeling my best 'don't argue with mum' voice, "we can’t wait for that to happen. We have the magical expertise, and quite frankly, your teams tend to be about as subtle as a banshee at a funeral."

Gadross looked like he wanted to argue, but months of watching us succeed against all odds had taught him better. "Fine," he sighed. "But I’m going with you. And you need to follow my lead. And for the love of all things magical, try not to blow anything up this time. It draws too much attention."

"That was one time!" Fiona protested.

"I have incident reports suggesting otherwise," Gadross replied dryly. "Is your sensitivity to death magic picking up anything useful?" He asked Violet.

Her head jerked and she shook her head. “I don’t have a sensitivity to that.”

Gadross’s sigh sounded as if he was suffering greatly. “The phoenix in you does. It might be diluted but you should be able to pick up on more than others.”

“Oh. I had no idea,” Violet admitted. “I’ll give it a try.” She closed her eyes and went to work. She opened her eyes a few silent minutes later. "I can’t pick up a whole lot, but they are definitely creating shades and building toward something big. The energy patterns remind me of what happens before a major magical convergence."

"Like the one that nearly destroyed London a hundred years before?" Gadross asked.

"I’m not sure. I wasn’t alive then. My gut says it’s going to be bigger," she replied. "This isn't just about creating shades. They're trying to create something worse."

Gadross pulled out his phone. We were all fighting against the increasing interference. "I'm calling in every available agent. If this is heading where I think it is, we're going to need all the help we can get."

Fiona yelped and pulled the business card from her pocket. It had suddenly burst into purple flames. We watched as new text appeared: "The gathering begins. The vessels are prepared. At midnight, the old ways return."

"Well," Fiona said with forced cheerfulness, "at least we know when everything's going to go to hell. Saves us having to guess."

"We need to move," Violet said, already heading for Fiona's car. "Those coordinates point to a network of old wine cellars in the South Downs. It'll take us at least an hour to get there, and that's assuming the weather doesn't get worse."

"It'll get worse," I said grimly. The metallic taste in my mouth was getting stronger. "Whatever they're doing, it's affecting the natural order of things. Magic this dark and corrupted has consequences. "

"Aislinn’s right about that," Gadross said as he straightened his already impeccable tie. "You three head for the coordinates. I'll coordinate with my team here and meet you there. And please, try to be subtle for once."

"Us? Subtle?" Fiona grinned as she twirled her car keys. "Have you met us?"

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Gadross admitted ruefully.

As we headed for the car, I sent a quick text to Argies before my phone died completely. We might be late. Found some bodies. Investigating possible apocalyptic shade ritual. Don't let Kalli have pizza for breakfast.

His reply came just before Fiona took off down the road. Again? Be careful. Love you. PS: Too late on the pizza.

I smiled despite everything. Sometimes, it was the little bits of normalcy that kept you grounded when everything else was going mad. Even if that normalcy involved our daughter having pizza for breakfast while her parents dealt with magical mayhem.

The snow was falling harder now. Although, it wasn't natural snow anymore. Each flake carried traces of that corrupted magic. They were also forming patterns in the air. It was difficult to get a good look at them, but I thought they were the same binding symbols we'd seen on the bodies.

"Fi," I said as I broke the silence, "remember when you said at least it wasn't demons this time?"

"Yeah?" She looked up at me in the rearview mirror.

I grimaced and put a hand over my upset stomach. "I think we might be dealing with something worse."

"How much worse are we talking?" Fiona asked. Her knuckles were white on the steering wheel as she navigated through the increasingly treacherous weather. "Because I distinctly remember the last demon encounter involved actual hellfire and things trying to eat us."

"At least demons play by rules," I said as I tried to ignore how the temperature in the car was dropping despite the heater running full blast. "Ancient, twisted rules, yeah, but they dictate their behavior. Whoever's doing this is trying to break the fundamental laws of death itself. You don't mess with those without consequences. They’ve got to have some serious magical chompers."

“Or a big set of brass balls,” Fiona countered.

"Lovely," Violet muttered from the passenger seat. "Just what I wanted to hear. Any other cheerful observations?"

A ghostly whisper brushed past my ears, carrying echoes of screams that hadn't happened yet. "Yeah," I said grimly. "The killing is going to continue.”

"Bloody hell," Fiona swore.

The wind howled as if it was mocking us. It also carried with it the promise of chaos to come. Just another normal day in the life of the Backside of Forty crew. At least we had that bottle of Winter's Embrace for after. Assuming, of course, we survived whatever was waiting for us in those ancient wine cellars.

Fiona's car struggled through the worsening weather. The windscreen wipers were working overtime against the magical snow. It was determined to form unsettling runes all around us, even as it was swept away. Did the perpetrator know we were coming? My gut twisted into knots. We would be driving into a trap if that was the case.

"Anyone else notice how the temperature keeps dropping?" Violet asked. She was examining photographs of the runes on her phone. "It's well below freezing now, and my warming charms aren't doing jack."

"That's because the unnatural cold is following us," I explained, watching frost patterns spread across the passenger window.

"This is shade cold," Violet replied. “It’s seeping into my bones and trying to freeze my soul. Magically sensitive people feel it worst."

"I was trying not to think about the discomfort," Fiona muttered as she squinted through the windscreen. "Thanks for that.”

"Well," I pretended to think about it, "at least we know we aren’t losing our minds."

"That’s debatable,” Fiona teased. “We lost it months ago when we were stuck in those caves with the giant spiders.”

My phone buzzed with a message from Argies. Be safe, love. Kalli says your special job better not make you miss story time. She's got the dragon book ready.

Tell her she’ll get extra cookies if she's good for daddy , I typed quickly before the screen died again. And keep her away from my workroom this time !

"Your husband's too soft on her," Violet chuckled as I told her what he said. "Remember Greece last summer? He was worse than we were about sneaking into those ruins."

"Don't remind me," I groaned. "I thought he was going to expose us to the mundies."

"To be fair," Fiona called from the driver's seat, "at least he didn't start a food fight in the school cafeteria like someone I know."

"That wasn't my fault!" Violet protested from the back seat. "I told you I was dared to put the firecracker in Tommy Miller's pudding. How was I supposed to know he'd throw it at Jessica?"

"Because he was a teenage boy, and she'd just dumped him?" Fiona snickered. "Grams insists that the best part was Ms. Harrison's face when the custard hit her new blazer."

"I had detention for a month! And my mum grounded me until Christmas," Violet whined.

"You said it was worth it," Fiona reminded her. “You got back at the stupidest boy in class.” We all laughed at what was important to teenagers. That was a lifetime ago. If only life were that easy now.

Our laughter died as we passed another accident site. This one showed the same magical signatures we'd seen before. It even had the purple glow, the binding symbols, and the feeling of malevolent magic in the air. I sent another message to Gadross letting him know about the new accident.

"We should stop," Violet said, already reaching for her door handle.

"No time," Fiona replied, though I could tell it pained her to drive past. "Whatever's happening at midnight, we need to be there to stop it. Gadross's team can handle this scene."

“I’ve already sent him an alert,” I told them. I had to admit it felt wrong to leave potential victims behind. Sometimes being a responsible adult meant making difficult choices.

"Speaking of midnight," I said as I checked my watch, "we've got less than two hours. Anyone want to place bets on what we'll find in those wine cellars?"

"Ten quid says it's a cult," Violet offered.

"That's a sucker bet and you know it," Fiona snorted. "It's always a cult. Twenty says they're wearing dramatic robes and chanting in Latin."

"Thirty says we find out someone we know is involved," I added. "That's usually how these things go."

"Oh god," Violet suddenly sat up straighter. "You don't think... I mean, Elowen seemed nice enough, but..."

"It could be her. The Fae aren't exactly known for their straightforward dealings," I finished. "That doesn’t apply to all of them, mind you. Argies’s brother is making drastic changes that will minimize the coup by Vodor ever happening again.” Argies had helped his brother start reestablishing the Fae courts. At one point my family belonged to the Autumn court. I had no idea what life was like under that system because Vodor had abolished it long before I was born. When we went back for our next visit, I would get my first glimpse of what that would be like.

Fiona shook her head. "My money's on someone else. Did you notice how that young officer kept asking about unusual details? And his notepad – I caught a glimpse of what he was writing. Those weren't normal police notes."

"Bloody hell," I muttered. "Peterson's involved?"

"It would explain why he was so difficult to manipulate," Violet mused. "And how he got there so quickly after the accident."

The car's heater was losing its battle against the supernatural cold. Frost was creeping across the interior now and forming those same disturbing binding patterns we'd seen at the crime scenes. I pressed my hand against the window, pushing back with my elemental magic. The frost retreated slowly. It was reluctant. Like something was fighting to keep it there.

"Anyone else wondering about The Midnight Cellar?" I asked. "If it was shut down decades ago, how is it suddenly active again?"

"And why wine cellars?" Fiona added. "I mean, I get that they're good for storing magical energy, but there have to be easier ways to bind shades."

"Not if you're working with mass quantities," Violet said thoughtfully. "Think about it. Fae wine cellars are naturally equipped to handle and stabilize various magical energies. They're like magical batteries, but better because they can actually refine and enhance the power they store."

"Like aging wine," I realized. "The longer it sits, the more potent it becomes."

"Exactly. And if someone figured out how to modify those storage properties..." Violet’s words trailed off.

"They could use them to strengthen the bonds between controller and shade," Fiona finished. "Bloody hell, that's clever. Evil, but clever."

My watch suddenly frosted over. The hands spun wildly before stopping at midnight. A moment later, Gadross's voice crackled through the car's radio. "More bodies were found with the same bindings. Get to those coordinates FAST."

Fiona pressed down harder on the accelerator. Magic was shimmering around the car in kaleidoscopic patterns. Violet was reinforcing the protective spells that were keeping us on the road.

"Anyone else feeling like we're driving straight into a trap?" I asked, watching the shadows between the trees grow darker and more menacing. I swear they wanted to swallow our souls.

"Oh, it's definitely a trap," Fiona agreed cheerfully. "The question is, are we walking into their trap, or are they walking into ours?"

"Since when do we have a trap?" Violet asked.

"We don't. But they don't know that." Fiona sounded so confident that I almost believed her.

"Brilliant plan," I drawled. "Really inspiring confidence here, Fi."

"Hey, my plans usually work out... eventually." She lifted a shoulder.

"Like that time in Egypt?"

"We saved the city, didn't we?"

The banter helped ease the tension. We all knew what we were heading into was serious. "You know what really bothers me?" Violet said after a moment. "The timing. Why now? Why these specific victims? There has to be a pattern we're missing."

"The winter solstice is coming up," I pointed out. "Magic tends to peak around then. "

"And it's a blood moon this year," Fiona added. "Perfect time for binding rituals."

"Plus, there's an old prophecy about the alignment of the spheres," Violet mused. "It talks about the convergence of powers during the darkest night." We all fell silent, considering the implications. If someone was trying to create an army of shades during a solstice blood moon while the spheres were aligned... well, that was either going to end in godhood or catastrophe. Knowing our luck, probably both.

The coordinates led us deeper into the South Downs. Fiona drove down roads that became progressively narrower and more treacherous. The snow was falling so heavily that it was like driving through a tunnel of binding runes. Finally, we turned onto what might have been a driveway in better weather. Now it was just a slightly flatter patch of white leading into darkness. Ancient trees loomed on either side. Their branches were heavy with unnatural snow.

"Well," Fiona said as she parked the car, "this looks properly ominous."

"Should we wait for Gadross?" Violet asked as she checked her protection charms.

A distant sound caught my attention. It was something between a scream and a whisper that carried on the winter wind through the forest. It was the sound that only the recently dead should make. I shouldn’t be able to hear it at all. It made my skin crawl with the proximity of so many trapped souls.

"No time," I said as I reached for the door handle. "Whatever's happening down there, it's starting now."

"Right then," Fiona grinned. The familiar light of adventure was in her eyes. "Let's go crash an apocalyptic shade-raising ritual and show them not to mess with the Backside of Forty."

"Sometimes I really hate that name," I muttered as we stepped out into the magical storm.

"You love it, and you know it," Fiona replied. "Besides, we've earned it. Not many people our age regularly save the world from supernatural disasters."

"Not many people our age regularly need to," Violet pointed out.

I shook my head. “The need is there. They choose to ignore the obvious and leave the heavy lifting for us or our friends.”

We made our way toward what looked like an old stone building. It was half-buried in the hillside. The magical energy was practically visible now. Purple light pulsed from behind frosted windows. The wind carried fragments of chanting. It was Latin, just as Fiona had predicted.

"I believe you owe me twenty quid," she whispered as we crept closer.

"Let's survive this first," I replied. "Then we can settle all bets."

"Deal. Ready?" Fiona asked as she paused with her hand on the ancient wooden door.

"No," Violet and I replied in unison.

"Perfect," she grinned. "Let's go save the world. Again."

The door creaked open, revealing stone steps descending into purple-lit darkness. As we started down, my heart stopped along with my watch. It felt like we were freezing solid. The door closed behind us with an ominous thud. We descended into whatever chaos awaited below. Something told me we were going to need more than one bottle of Winter's Embrace when this was all over.