“Thank you.” Tad patted their hands, leaning heavily on his staff, a soft familiarity between them all. He turned to me. “Come.”
I bounded up, eager to see the nectar with my own eyes. To be near it.
Warwick was right behind me. The heat from his body and the nearness of his massive frame sent warmth skating down me.
Eliza told Simon to stay inside as Tad led us out the back kitchen door. The rain had turned into a misty haze, and clouds rolled past the moon in slivers of light. It was enough to see a large stone firepit with chairs and benches around to enjoy the blaze on a nice night.
When I got closer, I noticed the firepit was boarded over, a thick wave bubbling the whole thing. Magic.
“You have the nectar outside in a firepit?” Warwick’s deep timbre raked across the ground, his cheek twitching.
“It is heavily spelled.” Tad frowned, still holding onto Eliza’s arm, stopping at the lip of the firepit. “That was the compromise.”
“Compromise?” I stepped next to him.
Ignoring my question, he muttered a chant under his breath, the spell over the pit dissolving at his command. The instant it dissolved, the magic hammered inside my chest. Sucking in sharply, Warwick grabbed onto me, keeping me steady.
“Shit...” I breathed, my limbs quaking under the intensity. It was at least double the power I had felt from it the first time.
Zander shoved the wood plank off, displaying a scorched wooden box lying in the middle.
Struggling to capture air, I gulped a few times. The lure to it now was almost painful.
“Wow.” Tad blinked at me, awed, and fear sprang in his blue eyes. “You recall how I could see a hint of your aura last time?” Tad turned his head to me.
Again, another ball of nerves swayed my stomach. “Yes?” I swallowed nervously. “Is it gone again?”
Tad stared at me for a moment, then moved to Warwick. “Yes and no.”
“Huh?”
“Individually, I can’t see either of your auras, but the aura between you two? It’s the same gray reflective color I noticed before.” He nodded at Warwick and me, a strange chuckle in his throat. “They are so thick it’s impossible to see anything else. I think they’ve been there for a long time, but it wasn’t noticeable. Not like they are now. But it’s nothing compared to what you have with this.” He motioned to the firepit, moving my focus to the power I could hear thumping from inside, no longer a whisper, but a cry.
“The power between you and nectar is unbelievable.” Something in his tone jerked my head back to Tad, his throat bobbing.
“What?”
“It’s as though you are its battery source. The more you connect, the stronger it gets.”
All liquid evaporated from my mouth, my chest clenching.
He didn’t need to tell me the most desired object in the world, one which could crumble civilizations if put in the wrong hands, was the last thing you wanted to get more powerful.
“What does that mean?” Warwick’s shoulders hunched forward, his lids lowering in a glower.
“It means stop discharging the grenade launcher, big bad wolfie!” A voice came from my pack. Hands and feet climbed up onto my shoulder. Opie’s outfit and hair were in disarray, a bit of mushroom and poppy flowers stuck to his cheek, looking like he just stumbled back from an all-nighter. “Wow, I’m already out of breath. That was a steep climb.” He leaned over his knees, sucking in and out dramatically.
Everyone stared at the brownie on my shoulder.
“What?” He stood, straightening out his kimono. “Am I wrong? The legend’s got too much punch in his spunk. Cake in his snake. Too much batter going into her vatter.”
I cringed.
“Nizzle drizzle in his—”
“Oh, my gods, stop.” I palmed my face.
Opie shrugged, peeling the bit of mushroom from his cheek and eating it.
“As disturbing as that was, he might not be too far off,” Tad replied.
“What?” Warwick huffed. “This is my fault?”
“No.” Tad shook his head. “It’s the energy you create together, which strengthens not only your bond but fuels the nectar as well. As if there is too much, so the nectar siphons off what you can’t hold.”
“They do pump their magic juice into it.” Opie plunked down on my shoulder, snickering in my ear, completely loopy. I really had to cut them off of drugs. Though it actually made sense. Our energy together affected everything around us: ghosts, humans, fae, electricity, the air.
“You’re telling me we have to stop having sex?” Warwick snarled, his neck straining. “Not gonna fucking happen.”
“I’m just telling you what I observe.” Tad shrugged his shoulder.
“What about when I burn through the magic? It’s happened a few times now... and our connection goes quiet.” I gestured to Warwick. “Does it lessen its power?”
Tad tilted his head. “We noticed it wane and go quiet, but each time it flared back, it was even stronger.” Tad shuffled on his feet, a nervous tick stressing his eye. “You both are growing more powerful. I can feel it.” Tad’s hand squeezed his cane until his knuckles were white. “But the nectar is growing much faster. I think it’s siphoning the magic your body can’t handle and taking it on. Just as it did when you were born.” Tad’s wariness was written on his face, peering down at the nectar, studying it as if it would unlock its riddles to him.
The nectar thumped like a heartbeat inside the box, pulling me closer to it, whispering to me. I needed to hold it, to have that part of me back. Maybe it would tell me its secrets. I could understand what this all meant.
Leaning, my hand reached for the box, a jolt going up my arm, my finger about to skim the lid.
“Do. Not. Touch. It.” An emotionless voice said every word as though it were a battle. I jerked my head up with a gasp, my eyes taking in the outlines flittering out from the forest trees, their cloaks the color of the shadows.
“When I spoke of compromise?” Tad gripped his staff harder. “They were the concession. They wouldn’t allow me to bring it here without them.”
I stood immobile as seven figures moved in as silent as ghosts, the woman in front taking my attention. Her skin was pallid and thin, boney hands holding on to her scythe.
“M-mom?” I stared at her, panic and fear gripping my gut. My mother and her clan stood before me; the life in them drained away, leaving what was left...
Necromancers.
Chapter 18
“Br-ex-ley.” Eabha struggled over my name, her mouth moving stiffly as if it took all her concentration to speak.
Emotion choked me, making it hard to swallow. “I-I don’t understand.” I scanned through the entire clan, seeing the small differences. The life which warmed their cheeks and plumped their flesh was evaporating. The fact my mother spoke at all told me they weren’t completely gone.
Yet.
“What is happening to them?” I bounced from them to Tad, demanding an answer.
Tad sighed, his spine sagging more under the weight.
“They are returning to their original state.”
“But how? Why? I brought them back. My magic saved them.”
“Black magic is conjured from the darkest of magic. It goes against nature. Goes against a Druid’s magic. To use it... there are consequences. Ones that can never be erased.” His hand rubbed at his twisted spine, reminding me my mother had struck Tad with black magic the night of the fae war. He was the most powerful Druid alive, and yet he could not fix his condition. “What their father did is a sin they will carry forever.”
“But I thought...” I stared back at my mom, grief knotting my heart as she watched me blankly.
“I don’t know all you are capable of, my girl, but you shouldn’t have been able to alter the scars of black magic at all. The fact you did?” He shook his head, keeping the rest of his sentence to himself.
My eyes welled with tears. Before I even got to know my mother, she was being taken from me. As a kid, I dreamed of her being part of my life, of knowing her.
“You bring people back from the dead,” Tad said.
“Exactly!” I screamed, anger climbing up into my chest, ready to explode. “Then I should be able to save them!”
“They were never alive or dead.” Tad’s statement slammed into my gut. “They are in the in-between.”
Like the ghosts who slipped away from their bodies. I couldn’t bring them back or conjure a person from the grave back to life.
I shook my head in denial, moving to the pit where the nectar was. “I don’t care. I will try again. I will do it every day if I have to!”
Fingers wrapped around my wrist, boney but firm. I sucked in sharply at my mother’s sudden nearness. How quickly she moved.
“N-o. Dau-gh-ter.” Her expression was blank, but I noticed a flicker of sorrow float through her eyes. “Thhiss iss our currssse to bear.”