Faerie Magic (26 page)

I wasn’t kidding. Humans could technically survive there, and even age like normal as I had during my three-year captivity, but the air was tainted with magic. A lot of the other prisoners had got sick while we were held captive. Not to mention the fact that ninety percent of the wildlife enjoyed the taste of human flesh.

“You’re lying,” he said.

“I’m not. Also, the lords of the Grey Vale won’t see you as one of them. They’ll take your skin off and wear it as a coat.” I wasn’t kidding about that, either. Luckily, I hadn’t met that particular faerie before Avakis had killed him.

“Stop,” hissed Calder. “You won’t dissuade me. The damage is already done. The half-bloods are fighting amongst themselves, the mages are overwhelmed, and the veil is on the brink of opening.”

“And how would you know?” There’d be a power surge across the Ley Line, like last time, but I doubted he even knew about the Ley Line. It depended how much Velkas had told him—and it sounded like the Sidhe lord had left Calder to stumble around in the dark.

“Because I gave it my magic.”

Shit. That’s why he’d seemed weaker earlier. Calder had fed his own magic into the spell, and his magic had the same effect as mine. He didn’t need me at all.

“So why’d you bring me here, then?”

“I want everyone to know when I open the veil,” he said. “Summer and Winter, too.”

Huh?
“You want them to know you’re throwing a tantrum because Daddy abandoned you?”

I anticipated his attack and ducked, so he hit me with magic instead. The flesh on my bones burned with cold, and I couldn’t hold back my scream. I slumped down the wall, head lolling on my shoulder. Through blurred vision, I saw the other prisoner start upright, looking around. The Chief of the half-faeries had woken up.

“I’ve had enough,” said Calder. “You’ve told me everything I need to know. The rumour about pure faerie blood might be a lie, but it’s rooted in truth. I
can
find immortality, but only on the other side of the veil.” He approached me, and I managed to tilt my head upright in time to see him holding a thorn the length of my finger.

“The hell’s that for?” I shifted on the spot, wishing my legs didn’t feel so numb. His magic had dampened mine. Again.

Calder’s hand shot out and grabbed my arm, and he stabbed me with the thorn. Blood welled up on my wrist. He then lifted a small container seemingly out of thin air. Inside was a clear liquid.

Oh, shit.
He planned to drug me.

“That only works on faeries,” I said.

“Not this batch,” he said. “I’ll test it on you. If it works, I’ll put it in the town’s water supply.”

“You’re fucked up,” I said.

Ignoring me, he continued, “I need to get as much energy into the spell as possible. It’s not enough yet. The veil is close, but something’s holding me back.”

Yeah. The necromancers.
Damn. Did he not know about them, either? I was dealing with a kid who couldn’t be bothered to do his homework. Calder planned to throw everyone into chaos and feed on the misery unleashed to give himself an unlimited power boost, slicing open the veil in the process. Oh, and poison all the humans, too. Because why the hell not. And I couldn’t do a thing to stop him.

I gave him an insolent stare instead.

“Stop looking at me like that,” he demanded. “I’m going to drug you, and feed on your pain. His, too.” He jerked his thumb at the Chief half-faerie. “How do you think the half-bloods will react when their Chief turns on them?”

“Why bring him here?”

He bared his teeth. “I wanted to leave them to do a little damage of their own, first.”

“You’re
just like him,”
I spat. What the hell, I was going to die anyway. Might as well piss him off and go down fighting. “Except you’re stupider.”

“This new drug will make you lose all sense of self,” said Calder. “As for your mage friend—” He grabbed my arm and yanked my sleeve down, exposing the mage mark on my shoulder—“I wonder what’ll happen when he hears you call for help?”

No. Vance, no.

He tipped the container over my bleeding arm. My vision went fuzzy, my body jerking. A weightless sensation took hold of me, but my body continued to move even though I hadn’t consciously planned to.

My body stood. I didn’t. Whatever I was, I lay where my body had been, watching Ivy—or whoever controlled me—move towards Calder.

Shock rang through me, and I faded away.

CHAPTER TWENTY

The roar of a crowd brought me to my senses. I stood in the centre of the arena, where I’d left off. But there was something… disconnected about the way the world moved. Like I watched it through a sheet of distorted glass.

And facing me, my opponent was… Vance. Oh, shit.

I didn’t see Calder, but he’d be amongst the crowd somewhere. Everything looked weird, like a grey film covered everything. Like… like I was outside my body.

I swore, loudly. Nobody reacted. Vance stalked closer. Holy shit. He was in full-on verge-of-shifting mode. Power crackled off him, and though I wasn’t sure I even had a body, every part of me that remained froze in terror.

My body, however, moved like a puppet pulled by strings. I even had my sword, though I couldn’t feel the weight of it. I watched like an observer. Damn. Had the others who’d taken the drug been in the same position? How the hell did I stop Ivy-that-wasn’t-me from attacking Vance? Blood spattered the ground, suggesting more than one fight had taken place since I’d last been conscious. My heart dip-dived when I caught sight of the limp body of a contestant lying in a pool of blood. Shark. He hadn’t been my favourite person, but had
I
killed him, while not in control of my body? What else had Calder made me do?

I fiercely concentrated, trying to will myself into my physical body.

“You can’t.”

I nearly jumped out of my skin—if I hadn’t been disembodied, that is. Another figure floated alongside me, and in my shock, I’d somehow drifted a good ten metres above the scene, on a level with the balconies.

“Shit. Am I
dead?”

No way. If I
was
dead, I’d haunt Calder until he died of fright, the bastard.

“No,” said the transparent figure. “The veil is fracturing, and you disconnected from your body.”

“I’m aware of that!” I said. “I want to
reconnect
before whoever the hell’s controlling my body kills anyone else.”

Vance.
I was hard-pressed to land a hit on him in training, but the person controlling my body wasn’t me. Vance wouldn’t want to hurt me—right? I’d wring Calder’s neck the instant I returned to my body.

A shout drew my attention back to the scene below. Vance’s sword pointed at my neck. Well, my body’s neck.

“Fuck,” I said. “Hey! I’m here.”

“It won’t work,” said the spirit. “You’re detached from your body.”

“So what the hell’s possessing me, then?”

“Mindless anger. The drug was once used amongst necromancers, for easier access to the spirit world, but the side effects were too severe.”

“Seriously?” I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye, unable to take my gaze off my human body. I—
she—
didn’t dare move for fear of being skewered on the end of Vance’s blade. Stalemate. He spoke to her, but I couldn’t hear a word.

I risked another look at the spirit who spoke to me. I’d thought he sounded familiar—he was the guy who’d let me over the veil from Faerie after I’d killed Velkas. The necromancer. He was so faint, I could hardly make out his features, but the fuzzy edges of his outline suggested he wore a suit.

“For crying out loud, tell me how to get back to my body. Please,” I amended. Though I didn’t have a physical presence, I swore I could feel my heart beating quickly where my chest should be. Like a phantom limb. “I can’t die here. I have to stop that guy.”

“The drug’s too powerful,” said the spirit.

“I have faerie magic,” I said. “You’re the one who let me over the veil last time. Please—please help me. You’re a necromancer.”

“The veil is thinning. That foolish half-faerie is going to cause irreparable damage.”

“So let me stop him.”

Ivy had managed to avoid the blade and was now back on her feet, duelling Vance again. Damn. Could I really move that fast? She wasn’t using magic…

“Where
is my magic?” I asked. “Don’t tell me he’s feeding on it again.”

“The drug prevents magic use.”

That explained why none of the murders had been committed with magic. Sure as hell didn’t help me now, though.

“Please,” I said, all but begging this time. “You don’t want the veil to open. Right?”

“No,” said the necromancer, “but nobody listens to us spirits when we offer warnings. I told Lord Evander another threat to the veil existed.”

“Figures,” I muttered. “Someone needs to depose him and elect a leader who gives a shit.”

I winced as Vance knocked Ivy down with a sweeping kick. “I can’t use magic here. What the hell
can
I do?”

“Communicate through the veil.”

“With necromancers. Bit late for a warning now.” If they had any sense, they’d be preparing for the second round of Faerie Armageddon.

“Anyone with spirit sight or who has contact with the veil.”

Wait. “Calder. He’s practically feeding his life force into the spell to break the veil.” And he couldn’t harm me in this form. Sure, I couldn’t do much to him, either, but right now, it was my only shot.
Prepare to be thoroughly haunted, you sick bastard.

I drifted—somehow. Calder stood apart from the crowd on the highest balcony. Well, it wasn’t much of a crowd. No more than a handful of battered-looking half-faeries.

“Am I a poltergeist?” I asked the other spirit. “Can I affect the physical world at all?”

“No.”

Dammit. I’d have to improvise.

I floated until I stood beside Calder. Then I shoved my hand through his chest.

Calder stumbled back with a startled gasp. His mouth moved, but I didn’t hear the words.

“You killed me,” I said, inspired. “Call off the fight or I’ll take you over the veil with me.
Without
your physical body.”

I punched him in the chest again. My fist sailed through thin air, but his expression distorted with fear so acute he looked almost human. Behind, the fight had stopped. Vance held Ivy pinned down, and I hoped she’d stay that way until I was back in my own body.

“Break the wards on this place,” I told Calder. They must be keeping Vance from teleporting out. I was running out of ideas by this point, and not having a real body was a pain in the—not literal—ass. But Calder seemed thoroughly spooked. He’d definitely never dealt with the necromancers, or seen a ghost.

To freak him out even more. I stood on top of his body so our feet were in line with one another, and moved my arm when he moved his. Then I turned, my head coming out of his neck, and grinned at him.

I didn’t need to hear him yell in shock. Laughing, I pretended to shake his hand. Anger contorted his face, but he was still scared shitless. I wished I could punch him for real.

I turned to the arena to find Vance and Ivy had disappeared—Vance must have taken the opportunity to get out.
Damn.
Calder was right here, but I couldn’t kill him, or stop him from influencing the other half-faeries.

I hope Isabel’s cure works.

With one last kick at Calder, I floated to join the other spirit.

“What now?” I asked the necromancer. “Can I stop him?”

“If you can, the knowledge is out of my hands,” he said. “The veil is fracturing already.”

“And you’re going to just stand there and watch?”

“I’m not standing anywhere. Technically speaking.”

I groaned. “Where the hell is my body?”

“You should be able to find it, if you concentrate hard enough.”

Great. I had nothing to lose by this point. I closed my eyes, and the world faded out.

***

Spirits surrounded me on all sides, appearing in the thick grey fog.

“No,” I said, loudly. “I’m not dead. I’m here—I shouldn’t
be
here, but…” I trailed off as the other spirits faded away until it was me and the necromancer.

“Did you do that?” I asked him.

“Necromancers on this side of the veil retain some control over spirits,” he said. “But not nearly enough.”

“I’m a spirit, then.”

“You aren’t dead,” he said. “You’ll remain in limbo until your earthly body regains control of its senses.”

“Good.” I sighed in relief. “I never got your name.”

“I was Lord Sydney. I rarely bother with the title these days. You can call me Frank.”