Consort of Light Read online

  Chapter Two

  Jin

  “None of the elemental spells our enforcers attempted have resulted in any noticeable effect on the demon’s behavior either,” said the older guy who seemed to jointly rule over this room—Mr. Northcott, one of the other officials had called him. He and his wife had been doing most of the talking during this meeting. The other people they’d pulled together seemed to mostly be there to nod and murmur agreement whenever those two weren’t completely sure of their assessment.

  “None at all?” Rose asked. She’d been given a seat at the table—and the other officials had rearranged themselves to offer us seats around her. I wasn’t sure how much that’d been in deference to her and how much because they didn’t really want to be mixed in with us intruders.

  Lady Northcott shook her head, her light gray braid swaying against her back. “No change in the direction it was moving, no change in its speed, no sudden reactions. The enforcers might as well not have been magicking at it at all.”

  The woman who’d earlier tried to argue that none of us consorts should be in the room piped up, her gaze carefully avoiding me and the other guys. “The squads out there have attempted to record video of their attempts for the rest of us to try to analyze, but something about the demon’s presence seems to affect the equipment badly. The images are too blurred to be useful.”

  Rose nodded, and I remembered the garble that was all Gabriel had managed to get on his phone’s recording. Too bad, or we might have avoided ending up at this point altogether.

  “What about glyphs?” my consort said. She glanced at Kyler beside me. “Didn’t the files say something about a few different glyphs the Frankfords and the others had been using?”

  “I think there were three,” Ky said. He’d spent more time pouring over those files than the rest of us combined. “It sounded like at least one of them was used to strengthen the barrier around the portal. I didn’t pay a lot of attention to that part since it wasn’t going to help us expose what was going on, but if I can get access to the files here, I should be able to find the reference quickly enough.”

  The skeptical woman exchanged a glance with the man who’d also been hesitant about us being here. They had no idea how much a bunch of unsparked people really could contribute, did they? I fished my protective pendant out from beneath my shirt and displayed it for the officials to see, offering a faint grin at the same time.

  “I’ve been pretty impressed by what your glyphs can offer. I made these for all of us as protection, and it only took Rose a few minutes to magic them up.” I traced my finger over the glyph hidden in the miniature painting. “We completely fended off an attack from a bunch of enforcers who were working for the Frankfords’ faction thanks to work like this inside our vehicle.”

  “Those defended you against witching magic,” the hesitant guy said. “A demon is something completely different, as we’re already seeing.”

  I held up my hands. “Oh, I know, and I know that it’s a lot more Rose’s magic than my painting skills that do the trick anyway. But… we got pretty far just by making use of every strategy we could, when we were up against a much more powerful force. So maybe the same approach will work here.” I shrugged, still smiling. I wasn’t going to tell these people what to do, but they should know we were willing to pitch in.

  The gazes on us five guys felt a little less hostile and a little more curious now, at least.

  “We can certainly try to make use of the glyphs mentioned once we’ve read over the notes regarding them,” Lady Northcott said, with a slight bob of her head. “Given the speed with which this situation has developed, we haven’t had time to fully assess the records you passed on. This is exactly why we needed you.” She turned to Kyler, motioning to one of the officials near the end of the table at the same time. “Can I get you started pulling up the relevant documents right away?”

  Ky’s narrow jaw gave a nervous twitch, but he nodded. “Sure. Just show me where I can get to work.”

  “He should be given as much respect as any member of witching society,” Rose said warily as the lesser official came around to escort Ky out of the room.

  “Of course,” Mr. Northcott said. “We’ll set up a full office for your use here, as long as you need it.”

  Rose squeezed Ky’s hand before he left, her gaze trailing after him for a moment before she turned back to the table. Damon jumped in before anyone else could speak.

  “You’re all talking as if we’ve got to start from scratch here. The Frankfords and the rest of those assholes were controlling these demons, keeping them in that cave, for decades, weren’t they? With the witches they were roping in to do their dirty work? They should know how to push this thing back.”

  Lady Northcott rubbed her mouth. “We’ve started reaching out to the witches from the families mentioned in the records to try to determine who has been involved and to what extent. Before we’d heard of the demon’s escape, we’d already called a few of the witches closer by to meet with us here so that we could remove the spells preventing them from speaking up and to take their accounts. But the experience seems to have… affected them badly. I’m not sure they’ll be ready to take up any sort of fight as quickly as we may need them.”

  Rose frowned. I’d bet she was thinking about that older witch, Thalia, who’d joined us on the estate and come with us here. I remembered how worn down the woman had looked when I’d first seen her, drifting along as if she were more a ghost than a living person.

  “They’ve been through so much already,” she said. “It doesn’t seem fair to ask even more of them.”

  I set my hand on her arm. “You could always just talk to them. There doesn’t need to be any pressure involved.”

  “They know what those demons are like better than anyone,” Gabriel said. “Most of them must want to help, even if they don’t want to be on the front lines.”

  “You have seemed to present yourself as a safe presence to those in need of one, Lady Hallowell,” Gwen Remington said, her silver-blond hair glinting as she dipped her head. “It might not be a bad thing for you to talk with them and simply see what they’re able to contribute at this point, once it’s morning.”

  I could see the hesitation still in Rose’s stance. My consort had tried so hard to protect the few witches who’d come to her for help and felt so horrible when she couldn’t completely. Did she think she might somehow hurt these poor women more than the demon would if it unleashed its full powers on the world?

  Maybe she just needed the reminder that she wasn’t in this alone—not in any way.

  “I’ll come with you,” I said. “I can make them all their own pendants, whatever glyph they’d like incorporated. It might not protect them from everything out there, but it’s a start, right?”

  Rose relaxed a little and shot me a smile. “That sounds like a perfect idea.”

  I might have been in a building owned by a secret society I hadn’t even known existed a few months ago, surrounded mostly by people who saw me as something less than them, but there was something about the tangy scent of paint that always made me feel at home. One of the officials had found a flip chart display stand I could use as a makeshift easel, and Rose had somehow convinced another to do a quick run to a local art store. Now I was setting up my materials in the brightest corner of the lounge room where we were meeting with the formerly demon-enslaved women the Assembly had collected.

  Mid-morning light was streaming through the room’s two windows now, traffic sounds from the busy street outside carrying faintly through the glass. The four women the Northcotts had ushered in had stopped in a cluster by one of the sofas. They ranged in age from a wan young woman who looked younger than Rose to an elderly lady whose hair was a pure ivory-white that my fingers itched to commit to canvas. But all of them looked drained, even though they’d just gotten up for the day.

  “You’re going to paint us… necklaces?” the youngest witch, who’d been introduced as C
rystal, asked in a thin voice.

  “Pendants, like mine,” I said, showing off my own like I had in the meeting earlier. “They’ve gotten us through a lot of messes.”

  “It’s like wearing a bit of magical armor,” Rose said, tugging out her own so they could see it. “Jin’s gotten a lot of practice incorporating the glyphs into his art. We could do a standard protective one, or if there’s one you feel would make you even more secure against the demon’s influence…?”

  “I’d like one like yours,” Crystal said. “Blue and purple, if you can customize the colors.”

  “Of course.” I twirled my paintbrush. “I might not be magical, but I’ve got to think the spell will work better if the painting itself speaks to you too.”

  “That makes a certain kind of sense,” the elderly woman—Selena—said. Her voice was paper dry.

  “Have the Assembly officials told you much about the current situation?” Rose asked tentatively as I got to work. All four of the witches had expressed relief at being rescued and contentment with how the Assembly had handled their cases so far, but it also didn’t take magic to tell their experiences had taken a huge toll on them.

  “One of the demons got loose from the Cliff,” Crystal said with a shudder, hugging herself.

  “Bloody Frankfords,” Selena muttered. “Messing with forces they couldn’t possibly fully comprehend, let alone control.” Her hand shook as she smoothed it over her pinned-back hair.

  “We’re hoping you won’t ever have to be anywhere near the Cliff or the demons again,” Rose said. “But we figured some extra magic to ward off ill-intent couldn’t be a bad thing.”

  A murmur of agreement passed through the witches. I paused as I finished the last curve of the glyph. The acrylic paint needed to dry before I could incorporate the rest of the design.

  “There were some glyphs mentioned in the Frankfords’ files,” I said in as light a tone as I could manage. “If any of those helped hold the demons on the other side of their portal, I should probably be painting that all over this building.”

  A halting giggle escaped Crystal. “That would be an interesting look.”

  Eloise, a middle-aged witch whose hands were nearly as weathered as Selena’s, shook her head. “We never used the glyphs they’d constructed for that purpose,” she said hollowly. “Those symbols… They were meant to transfer power. From us to…” Her mouth twisted.

  “It’s okay,” Rose said gently, touching her elbow. “You don’t have to talk about it.”

  “We should, though,” Selena said, squaring her shoulders. “We don’t have time for weakness, not if one of those fiends is rambling around. They stole our magic, and then the men claimed some of the demons’ power for themselves. That’s what she’s talking about.” The words came out firmly, but her chin wobbled at the end of her declaration.

  “So you and they didn’t use any glyphs as part of securing the portal?” I checked.

  “Not that I remember,” Crystal said, and the other witches shook their heads in turn.

  “Well, that’s too bad,” I said, still lightly but softer now. “Here I was hoping to add demon-banisher to my resume.”

  Crystal giggled again. She looked down at her hands. “The magic they had us do to hold the portals in place… It wasn’t like anything I ever got taught. No one does spells like that these days.”

  “Barbaric,” Eloise bit out.

  When they didn’t continue, I went back to dabbing color on the wooden token that would become Crystal’s pendant. Rose waited too, giving them space to decide what and how much to say.

  “We don’t have a binding stopping us from talking now,” Eloise added finally. “But even so, it’s not easy.”

  “That’s fine,” I said. “We’re here to offer something to you, not to take.”

  Something about those words seemed to unlock Crystal’s limbs. She shoved the filmy sleeve of her blouse up her arm in a jerky motion. A raw red line, only recently scabbed, stood out against her pale skin.

  “Blood,” she said. “Skin and hair and nails too, sometimes, but mostly blood. That’s how they had us seal the demons in.”

  Chapter Three

  Rose

  “How close will we be able to get to the demon without provoking it?” I asked.

  Investigator Ruiz glanced back from where she was sitting in the front passenger seat of the jeep. The breeze from the partly open window ruffled her black pixie cut. “The enforcers who’ve been in the field monitoring the demon have managed to stay within about a hundred feet. I wouldn’t recommend getting any closer unless you think you’re ready to take it on.”

  Beside me in the back, Justin Brimsey made a faint snorting sound. The head of Unsparked Relations had opted to come with me on this scouting mission, and I was getting the impression it was because he didn’t entirely trust me to handle myself properly out there. As if it were so bizarre to say I’d like to get a look at the thing we were trying to stop before making definite plans to tackle it.

  At least I was pretty sure Ruiz was on my side. We’d first met when she was inquiring about the witches who’d suddenly left their homes to take shelter on my estate, and I hadn’t always been capable of being up front with her. But when I’d needed back-up on the Frankfords’ property by the Cliff, she’d come. She was the one who’d arrested Charles Frankford.

  Pebbles rattled against the jeep’s undercarriage. The driver wasn’t pushing our speed on the country lanes near the coast where the demon was still lurking, but the roads weren’t the best maintained I’d ever driven on. The breeze was warm and slightly damp, even though the sun was shining overhead. It carried a bit of ocean salt.

  “You said you wanted to observe the thing, Lady Hallowell,” Brimsey said. “I hope you intend to restrict yourself to that. You can hardly be prepared to engage.”

  “I’m not planning on trying to ‘engage’,” I said, suppressing a prickle of irritation. “I know my limitations.”

  He made another of those derisive sounds. “Oh, do you?” he muttered.

  I shifted in my seat to face him. We had farther to go before we’d be in sight of the demon. Maybe it’d be better to tackle this problem before it went any farther, and without my consorts here to have to listen to whatever garbage he was going to say about them.

  “If you have an issue with me, why don’t we hash that out now, Mr. Brimsey?” I said. “The Assembly called me here asking for my help. I’m not sure what I could have done wrong before now in your eyes. I did everything I could to expose the Frankfords’ crimes to the Assembly as soon as I knew about them. I didn’t take any risks without feeling they were my only real option—you can be sure of that.”

  Brimsey eyed me warily for a moment, his lips pursing. He had a burly frame, but it wasn’t all muscle by any means. Jowls were starting to form on either side of his rounded jaw.

  “It’s not clear to me that your decisions in regards to your consorting stayed within the realm of necessity,” he said.

  I would have liked for him to have said something different, but I couldn’t pretend I was surprised. “You lead the Unsparked Relations Division,” I pointed out. “Out of anyone, shouldn’t you have a little respect for the unsparked?”

  He grimaced. “I maintain the divide between witching society and theirs—and that is out of necessity. Do you have any idea the complications that arise when they come across proof of our activities?”

  “My consorts haven’t caused any complications.”

  “Yet.”

  “And it didn’t use to be unheard of for witches and unsparked men to mix,” I said. “There’s been a campaign, probably involving the Frankfords but going back at least a few generations, to destroy all evidence of those relationships. But the history is there. I’m not the only one who’s seen scraps they missed.”

  “That may be the case,” Brimsey said. “I doubt there have been many witches at any time who took not just one unsparked consort but five, though
. What necessity prompted that?”

  I opened my mouth, paused, and closed it again. What could I possibly say that would make him understand? Maybe nothing.

  I gave it a try anyway. “Are you consorted, Mr. Brimsey?”

  His eyes narrowed. “I am. To one woman, who has no other consorts.”

  “Do you love your wife?”

  He stared at me for a moment before sputtering, “What does that have to do with anything?”

  “Just answer the question,” I said. “Hopefully it’s not too difficult.”

  “Of course it’s not. I wouldn’t be consorted to her if there were no love between us.”

  “All right. Can you explain exactly why you feel that way about her? The feelings that made you want to tie your life to hers?”

  His jaw worked. He looked away from me, scowling. “We’re well-suited for each other. I’m not going to get into private details.”

  “I’m not asking you to,” I said. “But you couldn’t really explain the feelings even if you wanted to, could you? There’s something at a gut level that you can’t simply lay out with logic.”

  “Where are you going with this?”

  My mouth twisted into a crooked smile. “That’s why I can’t justify to you why I have five consorts, Mr. Brimsey. It felt right. It would have felt wrong to not be with all of them. I could give you a long story about childhood bonding and trust and finding strength in each other, but in the end it’d still come down to that. I love all of my consorts. We all know it’s best when the six of us are together. I don’t really see how our decision is any business of yours when it hasn’t hurt you or the Assembly.”

  “It’ll draw attention from your unsparked neighbors.”

  “Oh, I’m sure it already has. But, you know, that kind of distracts them from thinking about what witchy things might be happening on the estate. There were plenty of rumors about the mysterious Hallowell family before I ever laid eyes on any of the men I’m consorted with.”