Blood Tied (13 page)

Gerald grabbed my forearm with a firmness I hadn’t expected in a man of his age. The force of his grip tore my hand from Aiden’s. “What did you say?” he asked as he stood.

The Conclave drew closer until they stood directly behind him.

What had I said to produce this bizarre reaction? “We can’t just stand here and do nothing. We have to go to Otherworld. The light fae most likely need our help.”

“Not that,” he said, waving my previous words away like a bad spell. “Did you say he spoke Greek?”

I nodded.

All the color drained from Gerald Wa’s face. He turned to gape at the Conclave, and they nodded in unison. When he returned his attention to me, he licked his lips before speaking. “Greek is the language of blood magic.”

I barely heard what anyone said after that. Their voices turned into background noise as I processed the revelation. Blood magic was an ancient power that hadn’t been practiced for centuries. It predated the spells we cast today and was considered the most powerful type of all. With it, the practitioner could do almost anything, and it was why the Conclave had forbidden its use.

If the shadow weaver, who had already harnessed the power of darkness, also managed to learn how to cast blood magic, his power not only surpassed ours but rivaled the combined abilities of the Conclave.

“BLOOD MAGIC?”
Pierce asked. “That’s bad, right?”

I didn’t possess the energy to respond to my brother’s understatement. I was too upset at being escorted out of the library while the Conclave spoke with our parents.

“Well, it sure doesn’t sound good,” Mason answered.

Miranda leaned against the wall and glared at my brothers. “Did the two of you hit every branch of the stupid tree on your way down?”

“Miranda, please,” Charlotte said to her sister. “You’re not being helpful.”

“Yeah, well, neither are Dumb Ass number one or number two,” she said with a scowl.

“Fuck you, Miranda,” Mason said. “If you’re so damned smart, why don’t you tell us what you know about blood magic?”

She waved Mason away as if he were a mosquito. “I don’t have to tell you shit.”

“That’s what I thought,” he said with a smirk. Drake held him from behind, trying to calm down his boyfriend with his touch. It seemed to work. “You have no clue either.”

“I’m smart enough to realize whatever can spook the Conclave is not exactly rainbows and unicorns,” Miranda replied with a slow eye roll.

“Will the two of you
ever
stop fighting?” Edith Stonewall asked. As always, she stood next to her twin, Elliot, and their younger siblings stood in front of them.

“Yeah,” Kate said with a nod. “You fight more than Keaton and I do.”

“You start it,” Keaton replied.

“Nuh-uh,” she retorted.

Keaton’s rebuttal was to stick out his tongue and shout, “Yeah-huh!”

That’s enough
, Elliot said. Evidently, now that he’d used a wide telepathic link once, he felt comfortable enough to use it to broadcast his thoughts. Too bad it still hurt like hell.

“You’ve got to know somethin’ about this, Thad,” Drake said.

I didn’t even know where to begin.

“It’s an ancient and forbidden type of magic,” Ben replied from where he leaned against the wall. “The Conclave forbade it because its power derived from blood sacrifices that were used to control others.”

Everyone, including me, gaped at Ben. “How the hell do you know that?” I asked.

A grin stretched wide across his lips. He clearly enjoyed surprising me with his knowledge. “I read,” he said, repeating the words he’d spoken to Hannah in Salem.

“Is he right?” Adam asked me. I’d clearly become the resident expert on all things magical for everyone.

“He is,” I said with a nod.

“Sacrifices?” Aiden asked in disgust. “That’s vile.”

Ben shrugged. “At the dawn of our species, it wasn’t. Human sacrifices were pretty common back then. Using blood magic from those rituals was one of the first ways our kind learned to protect ourselves from afar from the humans who wanted to kill us. Sure, we had access to our typical spells and active powers, but with blood magic, we were able to wipe out whole tribes without breaking a sweat.”

Aiden’s features hardened. He clearly didn’t like Ben’s comment. Truthfully, neither did I. “A cavalier attitude toward mass murder.”

“Murder?” he asked. He chuckled at what he perceived to be Aiden’s naïveté. “I’m sorry if our history offends your sensitive fairy feelings, but what we did back then wasn’t murder. It was self-preservation.”

“Perhaps,” I replied. “But it went too far, and you know it.”

“What do you mean?” Charlotte asked. Ever the peacemaker, she hoped to steer the conversation away from conflict.

“Blood magic was used to manipulate others without their knowledge. Fathers were made to slaughter their wives and children.”

“That’s awful,” Adam said.

“And that’s not even the worst of it,” I replied. “Its potential remains fully untapped, and that’s why it was stopped. With the proper training and spells, someone using blood magic could not only kill us with the proper enchantment but the Conclave as well. And the Gate?” I stopped. The full weight of the implication crashed down on my shoulders as if I were Atlas supporting the world. “Well, the Gate would be in grave danger.”

“That’s unacceptable,” Edith said. For the first time since I’d known her, anger flashed in her eyes. “We must do something.”

“And we will,” Mr. Stonewall answered after he swung the library doors open. He motioned for us to enter the room.

As I crossed the threshold, our parents’ solemn gazes greeted us. They eyed my father with eyes filled with regret.

“So?” I asked. “What’s the plan?”

Dad sucked in a deep breath and said, “You and your brothers will accompany Aiden back to Otherworld. Alone.”

A quick gush of air could have knocked over Adam, Charlotte, and Miranda, while Edith and Elliot’s wide eyes communicated their shock. The Conclave was sending us into battle with a powerful enemy with no backup and little support.

My brothers reacted as they typically did—with anger.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding,” Pierce said. “
This
is your decision?”

Gerald Wa nodded. His downcast eyes told us he wasn’t pleased either, but he’d clearly been outvoted. He took a deep breath and schooled his face, ready to toe the party line. “It is, and we expect you to comply.”

“And what if we don’t?” Mason asked. He clenched his fists, and the shadows within the library gathered around him in writhing tentacles. They slithered and tensed as if they were ready to strike.

Gerald’s expression didn’t betray his emotions. He regarded my brother kindly for a moment before Mason flew into the air and spun around in circles. Pierce and I stepped forward to intervene, but my father flicked his wrist in our direction, and we suddenly found ourselves immobile. The pain in his eyes communicated he was stopping us for our own good.

“Stop it!” Drake called from where Adam restrained him. “You’re hurtin’ him!”

“I’m doing no such thing,” Gerald replied as my brother’s spinning body slowly came to a halt. “I’m merely reminding him I’m
not
to be trifled with.”

Without a gesture or a word, Mason slowly levitated toward Gerald Wa. He fixed his gaze upon Mason and sighed. “And you wonder why we are leery of your powers? At the first hint of disagreement, you summon your shadows with every intention of using them against us.” A sudden frost flashed across his gray eyes. “Did you truly think we would allow it?”

“I wasn’t going to attack,” Mason answered. “It was a knee-jerk reaction because your decision pissed me off.”

A few seconds later, his feet once again met the floor. “And that is why you must learn to control your temper,” Gerald said.

“You’re right,” I said, finally finding my words. My voice trembled not in fear but in complete exasperation. “My brothers, like most warlocks, lack the restraint of the other magical orders. That is a well-documented fact.”

The Conclave nodded in unison.

“But it’s the nature of our species to react. It’s what makes us formidable protectors of the Gate.” I addressed the three members of the Conclave in black robes. As warlocks, they knew that better than anyone else. Their slow nods acknowledged my words. “When we fight, we fight to win, and your decision puts that in jeopardy.”

“Our decision ensures that the Gate, which is our primary concern, remains protected,” Gerald said as he once again took his spot with the other members of the Conclave. “You wanted answers and the means to find them, Thaddeus. You now have both. In the next few days, you and your brothers will find some way to infiltrate Otherworld with Prince Aiden. The other members of the protector covens remain here.”

Without another word, the Conclave vanished.

The Proctors and the Stonewalls gathered together in their respective covens, and their combined gazes switched from our father, who’d turned around to face the wall, to my brothers and me. The emotion behind their expressions told me what my brothers and I had already concluded.

No one expected us to make it back alive.

AFTER EVERYONE
left, my father quietly excused himself and shuffled up the stairs. He’d been unable to speak after the Conclave’s decision. He was a strong warlock with power that could make the earth tremble, but when faced with a mission that might steal his sons from his life, all that power meant nothing if he couldn’t use it to protect his children.

“I should go after him,” Pierce said, glancing up the staircase after Dad shut the door to his room.

I shook my head. “He needs time to process this. We all do.”

“I’ll tell you what we need to do,” Mason said, his face flushed with anger. “We need to summon the others back here and make them go with us.”

“They won’t disobey the Conclave,” I reminded him.

“This is a fool’s mission, and you know it!” Mason railed. “We’ll be facing a shadow weaver wielding blood magic, banshees, possibly more vampyren, and who knows what fucking else.”

Drake clutched Mason, as if his touch would somehow prevent what we all feared. “How can they do this?” he asked. “It doesn’t make sense.”

“The Conclave doesn’t make sense,” Aiden added. His scowl communicated his dislike of our governing body. “After all these years, they remain as foolish as ever.”

“How old are you?” I asked.

A sly grin briefly spread across his lips as he rubbed his thumb across my chin. My brothers and Drake glanced sideways at each other in disbelief at the display of affection.

“Older than you might think,” he finally answered. As quickly as the smile appeared, it vanished. “But I don’t speak from personal experience. My father has told me stories that his father’s father’s father told him about our great migration to Otherworld. Only their pride can rival the power they possess.”

What did that mean? What did Aiden know about the Conclave we didn’t?

“We can stand here insulting the Conclave all night. I’m sure as hell game,” Ben said. He sat back on one of the leather couches, extending his arms along the top of the cushions as if he had no care in the world. And really, he didn’t. He wasn’t the one being sent to his death. “But you guys need to spend less time bitching and more time coming up with a plan.” A cocky grin spread across his lips. “Lucky for you, I’m good at strategy.”

“You aren’t a part of this,” Pierce said. “I’d leave now while you’ve got the chance.”

“Fat chance of that happening.” Ben’s gaze lingered on Aiden when he next spoke. “I’m ready to get my hands dirty.”

Aiden replied to his comment with an arch of a bushy dark eyebrow. Why did I get the feeling Aiden had just told him to “bring it”?

“Strategizing is all well and good,” I said, interrupting the stare-down between Ben and Aiden. “But we need to understand what we’re up against first.”

“The banshees obviously know somethin’,” Drake said. “Or the shadow weaver wouldn’t have killed them. Maybe all you have to do is capture one and get her to talk.”

“That would likely get you nowhere,” Ben said. “The shadow weaver would just kill her like he did the others. You need to break into Otherworld without alerting the dark fae or the shadow weaver. If you take them by surprise, you can get the answers you need.”

Aiden chuffed. “That’s impossible. Our land is protected by enchantments that would kill you if you tried to cross over uninvited. I can take us there through my portal.”

Ben regarded Aiden as if he were a simpleton. While I didn’t appreciate the look, I understood where Ben was coming from. The fae could obviously sense Aiden’s magic, which was why they attacked him when he tried to get home. We’d lose the element of surprise if we went that route.

“How do you suggest we sneak in?” I asked. Ben clearly had an idea he was just waiting to lord over Aiden.

“I’m glad you asked,” he replied. He sauntered over to me, making a big show of walking around Aiden. “It’s Samhain. The veil between worlds is thin, right?”

Of course. Fae often stumbled into our world during this time of the year. Chances were we could do the same. If we could somehow find a weak spot between our planes, we could cross without alerting anyone on the other side what was happening, but we had to act fast. The barriers separating us from Otherworld grew stronger each day after Samhain. In a week’s time, it would once again be impregnable.

“I’ll start researching the Grimoire,” I finally said. “There’s got to be something in there to help us.”

It was definitely a way into Otherworld without immediately getting us killed, and if it worked, we might even make it back alive.

Chapter 6

I WOKE
with a start. I’d been poring through our Grimoire and every magical book I could find, looking for a solution after everyone else went to bed. As usual, they’d left everything up to me. The jerks!

All my research had gotten me nothing but a headache. I had closed my eyes for a few minutes, just to rest enough to continue, but I’d evidently slept through the night.