Shadow Mage: (Witchling Wars: Luxra Echelon, Book 1) Read online

  I pushed by him and walked a few steps down the street.

  “Because you know for a fact that he would tell you everything?” he called out to me. “Even the darkest of secrets?”

  I stopped dead in my tracks. Marek knew as well as I did that there wasn’t any possible way for me to know certain things or to tell who was being honest and who wasn’t. I had to go with my instincts. Which, unfortunately, weren’t all that bright these days. My initial instincts told me to run away and get on that airplane. I placed nearly a hundred lives in danger.

  I huffed and turned around to face him. “You want to tell me something. If you didn’t you would have left me in that alley and not looked back. I thought William was a creep for following me but maybe you’re the real creep.”

  “This creep was once one of your mother’s most trusted allies when it came to vampire activities in Scotland. And eventually, all of England and Ireland. I want to help you, Kayla. If I didn’t have a vested interest in your future, I would have let you attack that demon, expose yourself, and get yourself killed. You don’t even have the skills to control your magic, let alone take on a demon by yourself. You need help. And not just from your own kind. You need someone who had worked with the luxra witchlings for centuries. I knew many shadow mages throughout the years. I made it my business to stay aware of what the local covens were up to. Now that you’re here you are officially my business. And if you let me, I will permit my business to become yours.”

  He drew closer to me, refusing to let my gaze leave his. There was something about the man that captured my attention. A commanding presence that few men had and those who did usually used to take advantage of those weaker than them. I was most definitely weaker than him. But he wasn’t out to prove it to me. He wanted to warn me. I could sense it.

  “Why would I want to know vampire business? I’m not exactly being given a good first impression. You’re the first vampire I’ve ever met and you’ve already tried to bite me.”

  His lips curved into a twisted sort of smile. “I’ll show you the things William is hesitant to even admit to himself. If you permit me.”

  He extended his hand out to me. I looked from right to left, trying to weigh my options. I could turn away from him and call William to come get me, or I could take the plunge like I seldom did in my life. Taking chances wasn’t my specialty, but I was determined to break my cycle of running away from things that scared me.

  I loosened the tension building in my shoulders and let out a deep breath. “Lead the way,” I said, refusing to take his hand.

  He lowered it and tilted his head for me to follow him. I did so begrudgingly and watched his backside as we walked down the street. I remained silent and promised myself that if he tried taking me down another dark alley that I would call William immediately. But he didn’t. What he did was even worse.

  He took me directly to Greyfriars Kirkyard cemetery.

  12

  My second night in Edinburgh, Annette booked a haunted ghost tour of the underground vaults. Only she refused to go alone. Being the eternal skeptic until a matter of days ago, I went willingly on the condition that she would buy me a beer afterward. The tour ended in Greyfriars Kirkyard cemetery. I managed to keep it together until the tour guide brought us inside the gates and I began seeing the names of people who lived and walked these streets so many years ago. There was something about Greyfriars that I found unsettling. Something that reached inside me and never really left.

  I stopped just outside the cemetery, seeing the gray and black gravestones peeking out over the hilly grass. Some were so old they tilted in the grass with green staining the engraved names so terribly that I couldn’t even see what they said.

  Marek heard my light footsteps stop behind him and turned around to face me. “Come little demon. There’s more for you to see.”

  “Don’t call me that.”

  He lifted a brow once he realized I was taking offense. “I think I might use it all the time.”

  I crossed my arms over my chest and lowered my eyes. “Why did you bring me here?”

  “The luxra are known for meddling in dark forces.”

  “What? Like the dead?”

  “Far more than just the dead. The demonic, mystical realms, and forces so evil that the luxra don’t even give them a name.”

  “Is this supposed to make me want to go in there?”

  “No,” he answered, his voice taking on a much more somber tone. “Wanting to discover the truth about what happened to your friends in that car wreck should make you want to go in.”

  A surge of energy shot through my spine and made me stand up a bit straighter. This asshole knew something about the accident.

  “Now that I have your attention, let’s see if I can keep it. You’re a good learner, I imagine. Much like your mother. And a natural student. Follow me and learn something.”

  Against my better judgment, I did exactly that. I followed him. A vampire I had only met a matter of minutes ago. A man who my mother dealt with in the past. Someone who was probably as deadly as he was gorgeous.

  ‘I’m not like Annette or those other girls. I won’t lose my senses over a handsome face.’

  I stepped over a few tombstones on the ground and nearly tripped over a branch or two. The long and narrow branches of trees stretched out over my head as if they might reach out and grab me if I dared look away. As the moon rose higher, I felt a twinge in my skin. Almost like I was gaining more energy as the night grew darker. The clouds parted ways long enough for the moonlight to touch my skin. I was still nervous as hell, but I could handle this. For whatever reason, the moon gave me a strange sort of strength. A reassurance that I didn’t feel I had when the sun was high in the sky.

  Marek walked right up to a crypt with a heavy doorway. A skull with crossbones stared down at me. I didn’t recognize the name engraved on it nor did I care to. Marek didn’t seem the least bit bothered either when he shoved his hand into the iron railing and yanked away the lock as though it was nothing at all, revealing what he intended to do. That was when I realized the lock was just for show. He knew exactly how to get the tomb open. He’d been here before.

  “You can’t honestly expect me to go in there,” I cried.

  “What?” he asked, amused by my hesitation. “Do you think a poltergeist is going to come after you?”

  “You’re the one that stated the luxra witchlings meddle in dark things. Not me.”

  He shook his head. “Definitely not your mother’s daughter. Perhaps I was wrong to think otherwise when you had the courage to elbow me.”

  He was trying to play me. Seeing if taunting me a bit further would make me do what he wanted. Playing to my weakness and maybe already learning that I didn’t like appearing as cowardly as I often felt.

  “What’s in there that you want me to see?”

  “You’ll have to come in to find out. The choice is up to you.”

  He disappeared behind the door. I was left with yet another choice. Turn back or go inside where a vampire might very well murder me and seal the doorway shut where no one would ever find me.

  I rocked back and forth on my heels, weighing the pros and cons. I already died once this week. Maybe my magic would do more to protect me in the future.

  I stepped inside the tomb lined by two vine covered gray pillars and walked a few steps forward, fully expecting Marek to wrap his arms around me again and perhaps dig his teeth into my skin.

  Hardly. A small ball of light appeared in the pitch-black darkness. It glowed so brightly that I nearly had to cover my eyes while they adjusted.

  I walked toward it. The light expanded until I could see on the other side of it. It didn’t just light up the enormous rectangular stone crypt. It lit up something over the wall. A view of a much larger space filled with grass, lamps, large trees, a lake, and candles lighting a narrow pathway. As I got closer I realized I wasn’t just seeing a mirage or a sort of illusion. I could walk on the other sid
e of the light and step right into the scenic space. The tomb was a magical entrance to an entirely different area. An entirely different…. Cemetery.

  I walked down a few stone steps and onto the narrow path through a few trees. Birds flew overhead as I went by. An owl hooted in the distance. Ripples from the lake wafted over the shore and left bubbles behind. Lanterns shined only a short distance away. I continued walking until I saw endless gravestones. Only these didn’t look old like the ones in Greyfriars Kirkyard. They looked new. Like the marble had only just been carved and engraved with gold. Candles floated in the air around the gravestones, sending the smell of sulfur through my nose. Not a single drop of hot wax fell to the ground. This place, whatever it was, had some sort of enchantment around it.

  “This is where members of the Roganach-Ciar coven come to an end,” Marek said from behind me.

  I turned to see him leaning up against a tree. He motioned for me to continue looking at the line of gravestones. When I did I noticed a single line with a name I had only recently become acquainted with.

  McKenna.

  It was a line of my mother’s ancestors. Her mother and father, my grandparents, and a distant uncle I never even knew I had. But there was more. When I looked closer, the stones all had a single trait in common. The key. The same key from my necklace and my tattoo was etched in the gravestones of my grandfather, his mother, and two more from several generations back. The key only appeared on the gravestones of a few more people from various family lines with names I didn’t recognize.

  I rolled up my sleeve and held it up to the gravestones to compare. “What does it mean?” I asked him. “Why did my grandfather have this too?”

  “Because the true key, as your kind calls it, is always carried by the shadow mage of the Roganach-Ciar. You come from a long line of luxra witchlings in the most despised coven in all the witchling world.”

  I rolled my sleeve back down and stared at him. He moved away from the tree and circled me as if he was a vulture and I was his prey. Only I got the distinct feeling that his hunting face and courting face bared a striking similarity to each other. The man had an alluring yet threatening appeal about him. And he knew it.

  “The most despised?” I asked, willingly taking the bait.

  Marek stopped a few paces away from me and put his hand in the deep pockets of his long black coat. “What? You sound surprised. William didn’t mention that part?”

  Heat curled inside my stomach, daring me to let it out. “I only met William seventy-two hours ago. It’s like you were expecting him to give me a manual on all of this from the start. I’m still trying to accept that I haven’t completely lost my mind. I’m standing in some sort of realm inside a tomb with a vampire. Forgive me if I want to take the learning curve a bit gradually.”

  “You don’t have that kind of time. Whoever caused the car wreck did this to you on purpose. They wanted your magic to reappear, they wanted you trapped in Scotland, and they will hunt you down. I wouldn’t be surprised if William’s home isn’t the first place they look.”

  I didn’t know what to say. All I could do was try to prevent my mouth from opening wide and my jaw from falling to the ground in shock.

  “Your mother was a friend of mine,” he went on, coming in closer. I backed away for each step he took forward. “I tried to convince her to stay, fight back, and continue the line of the shadow mage here in Edinburgh where it belonged. She and I are the only reason the Roganach-Ciar has survived as long as it has. The Roganach-Ciar made a mistake many centuries ago. A mistake that turned every single witchling coven against them and made vampires the lowest and most hated creatures in the world. Your mother was one of the few who realized that bringing back her coven’s former glory was only possible if we worked together. I’m offering you my help. My guiding hand in this world you’ve found yourself in. One day you will need a favor. Witchlings always do. And when that happens, I want you to come find me. Knock on the stone wall behind the iron rail of the tomb five times at midnight. I will hear it and I will come.”

  I found myself looking all around me. At the lake, the trees, the enchanted candles, and lanterns lining the rows of gravestones. “Do you live here?”

  He didn’t answer me. I eventually backed up so far that my heels were getting wet from the water flowing in from the lake. He took my arm into his icy cold hand and rolled up the sleeve once more.

  “Where is the key, Kayla?”

  I yanked my arm away. “Somewhere safe.”

  “You don’t know that. Many would love to get their hands on it. People who would do anything to kill the one who possessed it.”

  ‘Good God.’

  My eyes shifted from right to left.

  He sensed my uncertainty immediately. “Tell me where it is.”

  I shook my head. The pieces came together as he stood there staring me down like a disobedient child. “It was you,” I muttered. “You broke into my residence hall back at uni. You were looking for the key.”

  His face froze. Guilty as charged.

  I swerved around him and headed back down the path where I came from.

  “You don’t give a damn about helping me,” I shouted back at him. “And who knows what kind of relationship you had with my mom. You just want that key for lord knows what reason.”

  He moved so fast that I bumped into him. I looked up to see his face towering over me once more. He took my wrists into his long fingers and curled them around my naked skin.

  “Your mother meant a great deal to me. To a lot of people. Her loss to the Roganach-Ciar was devastating. For all we know their fear of what she did made them lash out at you. It could be the Roganach-Ciar that tried to kill you that night. It wouldn’t be the first time that they murdered innocents to protect their own. Being widely despised and universally distrusted can make people do things completely out of character. You must tell me where the key is. It’s the only way to make sure you stay safe.”

  I wasn’t about to bring Fiona into this. She was safer back in Texas than she ever would be here.

  “I don’t know where it is,” I said to him in the sternest voice I could manage. It wasn’t a complete lie. Fiona could be at home, she could be at school, or she could even be out with friends at the diner where they got together on weekends. I didn’t know where the key was outside of the fact that it was around her neck.

  His eyes bore into mine, trying to see if I would flinch or if I had any tells. If there was one quality I had that was to my credit since my whole world changed, it was my ability to hold a straight face when I needed to. I was the best poker player in my family. He wasn’t going to get one more word out of me when it came to my sister’s well being.

  “You know you terrified me with what you did to my room, right?” I pulled my hands out of his grip. “If you bring me my passport from the wreckage along with some of my clothes I will consider trying to remember where I placed the key. But not a single moment before.”

  The phone buzzed from inside my pocket. I pulled it out to see William was trying to reach me. I answered it only for the call to drop. I took a wild guess and assumed that cell phone signals in mystical realms weren’t the most reliable.

  “If you’ll excuse me, I best be headed back.”

  Marek snatched the phone right out of my hand. I nearly yelled something profane until he began typing into the keyboard.

  “What are you doing?” I demanded.

  He handed me back the phone. I saw my contacts list had a new number in it. The name was labeled only as M.

  M for Marek.

  “I mean what I said,” he weaved around me and began walking down the path leading back to the witchling cemetery. “Call me when you need something. Which you will. Witchlings always do.”

  13

  A stumble, a fumble, a few curse words later, and I was out of Greyfriars Kirkyard cemetery and walking back toward uni. I took out the cell phone William gave me again once I had a signal and called him ri
ght away. He was there to pick me up within ten minutes. I took the time I had while waiting for him to dial my sister’s number. Three calls later and she didn’t pick up.

  ‘Damn it, Fi! Pick up!’

  I wrote a text in case she was screening the call, thinking it might be spam. “It’s Kayla,” I typed on the keys. “I got a new phone. Call me ASAP!”

  Just as I was about to call again and leave a voice mail telling her not to book a flight for me like I asked, William pulled up to the curb sending splashes of water from a fresh rain over the concrete, narrowly missing my toes. I sighed and pushed my aggravation deep down inside me. I’d try her again later that night.

  William filled the air with a few casual pleasantries as we drove back. Was I alright? Did I need anything? He hoped I liked beef stew for dinner. I wasn’t the best with small talk but I tried to answer him calmly.

  He and Liam would handle the shop once it opened in an hour so I needed to be tucked away upstairs and relatively quiet during business hours.

  I sat in the car with my head running wild with everything that had happened. Did I owe it to him to say that I met the man from the photograph he showed me? Should I ask William why the Roganach-Ciar were so despised? Did he think the Roganach-Ciar were behind the car wreck too? There were too many questions running through my head for me to pick only one.

  When we got back to their home above the shop I got out of the car in silence and followed William inside where a slow cooker was heating up an amazing smelling beef stew. I spooned out a large bowl of the large beef chunks in thick savory sauce and sat at the kitchen table while William went downstairs to open up the shop. Liam walked in, saw me sitting there, rolled his eyes, and took his meal back to his room to eat in privacy.

  ‘Fine by me. I’ve done nothing to you to deserve the evil eye like that.’