The Bitter Seed of Magic (A Spellcrackers Novel) (44 page)

But there was on the right side of the room. About halfway down was a modern pine grandfather clock dripping with spells. It clashed with the whole mediaeval look – suits of armour would’ve been more in keeping – but then, the clock had to be what was stopping the time – literally. Next to it was a door. I doubted it was the way out: it didn’t look large enough to get the hospital beds through, and they’d definitely been imported from the humans’ world—

‘You are now looking at the Merlin Foundation’s newest initiative to produce the next generation of wizards,’ Helen said, interrupting my escape-planning, ‘all done through a combination of IVF, magic and surrogate mothers. Craig has developed a method of creating test-tube babies that consistently produces powerful wizards, through sex and gene selection. A lot of wizards, especially those older ones whose chance at marrying a long-lineage witch disappeared when the Bride-Price was abolished, are happy to pay his fees.’

‘
Dr Frankenstein Does Designer Babies
, in other words,’ I muttered in disgust as I tried to
focus
on the far end of the room . . . there was something hidden there, behind a massive, curtain-like Look-Away veil. It had to be the way out, or at the very least, worth investigating . . . once I got out of the Witch-bitch’s evil clutches. ‘What’s with the Doppelgänger spells?’ I asked, more to keep her talking than any real interest.

‘They indicate who the baby’s biological mother is,’ she said coldly.

I shot her an appalled look. ‘Surely the biological mothers haven’t agreed to that many babies?’

‘Apparently yes.’ She stared impassively at the Stepfords. ‘The witches are being very well paid for their eggs. He’s even paying the faelings for their surrogacy services; they’ve all signed contracts; they’re here by choice.’

I snorted. ‘So he’s killing them to save himself a bit of money? Nice to know he’s got absolutely no ethics at all.’

‘He’s not killing them
per se
,’ she said, turning back to me, her blue eyes as cold as her voice. ‘The majority of them just don’t have enough fae blood. They die not long after giving birth – incubating baby wizards and then breastfeeding them sucks all the magic and life out of them.’

I stared at her, shocked. ‘But he’s a doctor; didn’t he work that out before he did his test-tube thing?’

‘He did trials on Ana. The daughter is hers and her husband’s, but the sons are all Craig’s, both biologically, and by way of being his experiments. Ana is strong enough to survive the surrogacy because of her sidhe blood, but he wasn’t successful with any of the other faelings, until he put together this set-up’ – she indicated the large stone-walled room – ‘here in
Between
. It keeps them alive just long enough.’

‘Fuck,’ I said in revulsion, ‘I don’t know which of you is worse, him for killing them off, or you for covering up their deaths. And all because you didn’t want anyone to know that you had a child with a vamp.’

‘Despite what you think of me, Ms Taylor, I don’t condone the death of innocents. I didn’t know the full extent of what was happening until recently, and Jack’s birth is only a small part of it.’ She cast a poignant look at the still sleeping Jack. ‘Did you know vampires are infertile?’

‘Well, Maxim isn’t, obviously,’ I said, ‘otherwise your boy wouldn’t be here.’ Not to mention me. ‘But what the hell’s that got to do with anything?’

She laughed. ‘You really don’t know, do you? I always wondered if you were actually that clueless, and now I see you are. But then, you wouldn’t have spent all this time looking for a way to
crack
the fertility curse if you’d known the truth . . .’ She trailed off, giving me a sly look.

I narrowed my eyes suspiciously. ‘You’ve got my full attention. What truth?’

‘Jack is Clíona’s grandson,’ she said, giving me a self-satisfied look. ‘His father, Maxim, is Clíona’s son – the one the vampires took from her.’

I gaped at her in astonishment for a moment, then it clicked into place. ‘Maxim’s the reason why she laid the
droch guidhe
curse – but he’s supposed to be
dead
?’

‘Which is what she and the vamps wanted the rest of the other fae to think.’

‘She?
Clíona
knew her son wasn’t dead?’

‘Not immediately, but by the time she found out the truth, it was too late. She’d already
laid
the
droch guide
.’

I frowned down at the stone-flagged floor, trying to see the whole picture. ‘So he was a vamp, and not dead, but why keep it a secret?’

Helen’s lips thinned in derision. ‘Don’t you mean: why didn’t she tell the fae that she’d been so blind that she’d fallen in love with a vamp’s blood-pet, had a son with him, and then blamed the lesser fae when the vamps took her son from her and made him a vampire? And then cursed them to know the grief in her heart, a curse which made all their faeling children into vampire victims? A curse she could not remove?’

Ok-
aay
, so I could see how Clíona owning up to that
so
wouldn’t go down well.

‘Instead,’ Helen carried on with an air of imparting great news, ‘she tried to break the curse by having another child.’

‘Yeah, I heard,’ I said, remembering what Grianne, my faerie dogmother, had told me during my side-trip to Disney Heaven, why Clíona had given birth to Angel. ‘
A child for a child.
’

‘Oh, so you do know some of the story then.’ Helen sniffed. ‘Of course, actually producing another child was where Clíona ran into difficulties. The vamps hadn’t just given the Gift to Maxim, but they’d given it to his father too, so of course he’d been made infertile.’

‘Look,’ I said, ‘you keep saying that, but you only have to look at your own son to know it’s not true.’

Helen’s superior expression reached new levels as she shook her head. ‘Unlike you, I do know what I’m talking about. Vampires
are
infertile. The only way a vampire can make anyone pregnant, including a sidhe, is by using a lot of concentrated fertility magic. Clíona isn’t a fertility fae, so when it came to having a child to break the curse, she entered into a bargain with the Morrígan for a Fertility spell.’ She gave me a smug look. ‘Where do you think they got the fertility from?’

Horror seeped into me as I realised what she was saying. ‘Clíona and the Morrígan stole the fae’s fertility?’

‘They borrowed it,’ she confirmed briskly. ‘Clíona was supposed to give it back, but when she sent her daughter Rhiannon to return the Fertility spell, the spell was lost.’

Rhiannon was Angel – and she’d
lost
the spell! Fuck, no wonder London’s fae were dying. And everyone was blaming it on the curse – which was sort of at fault – but if they didn’t know their fertility had been stolen, they couldn’t look for it. That was a huge secret Clíona – and anyone else who knew about it – was keeping. Only why would they? Why not tell everyone and get them searching?

But as I thought about it, the tail-end of Helen’s memory replayed itself in my mind:
Angel kissed baby Jack’s head . . . and a pendant was hanging round her neck
. . . The huge sapphire pendant that Helen always wore. The one that was even now shining like a captive star beneath her blouse. Damn. No one who knew about the Fertility spell needed to find it, because they all knew where it was.

So the million-pound question was: why hadn’t anyone taken it back?

‘You’ve got the Fertility spell,’ I said slowly, itching to reach out and rip the pendant from her neck.

‘Yes.’ She cradled the sapphire in her hand.

Finn’s words came back to me when he’d told me about Helen getting pregnant with Nicky: ‘
We were just fooling around . . .
’

‘You used it to trick Finn, didn’t you?’ I accused, then a disturbing thought hit me. ‘He doesn’t know about the pendant, does he?’

‘No, of course not—’ She paused, then sighed. ‘I did consider telling him, but I had a baby daughter, a new husband, and status in the Witches’ Council at last . . . and then Craig demanded to know how I’d had another child. He blackmailed me into telling him. Since then he’s been using the Fertility spell in his experiments.’

‘You selfish bitch!’ Bile rose in my throat. ‘London’s fae are
dying
. Faelings
have
died, not just the two most recent ones, but all those who ended up as vamp victims. Don’t you
care
?’

‘Faelings have always died at the hands of the vampires, Ms Taylor,’ she said bluntly. ‘It’s sad, but no one can save them all. But what’s more important now is saving my daughter.’

‘You do know that there’s no way out for you in all this, don’t you?’ I gave her a frank look. ‘It won’t be long before the police know all about Dr Craig and his experiments, and your involvement in them. The note you left me indicates you’ve got some connection to the vamps, so you’re finished with the Witches’ Council.’ And Finn will probably never forgive you for putting his daughter in danger – but I kept that comment to myself. ‘But you could make it go easier if you help me. All I need to do is find the entrance, then I can
crack
it open and let the police in to rescue Nicky and all the other faelings.’ I waved at the Stepfords. ‘Then they can all have their babies with a lot more care than this.’

‘No, Ms Taylor,’ she said firmly, not even considering my idea. ‘The Time-sync spell means it will be another twenty-four hours before any help can get here. By then it will be too late for Nicky. This way you’ll end up as Craig’s next experiment, and not her. I’d say I’m sorry, but I’d be lying. But I will sweeten the deal for you,’ she added. ‘If you’ll give your word to do what Craig wants, I’ll tell Nicky about the pendant, so she can tell her father.’

I did consider her proposition. It would save Nicky, and Finn and the rest of London’s fae would know their fertility had been stolen and where it was – and where it had been. And unlike Nicky, Dr Craig’s experiment wasn’t going to end up with me pregnant, not with the Morrígan’s Chastity/Contraceptive spell Tavish had sicced on me. But the spell was also the reason I couldn’t agree to Helen’s terms, even if I wanted to. I couldn’t give my word to let myself be impregnated, or even act as a surrogate, or whatever Dr Craig wanted, not when I knew it to be impossible, and when I couldn’t lie.

Damn. It was a no-win either way.

I needed an Option Three.

Helen leaned towards me. ‘Oh, and if you’re worried about having to have sex with him,’ she said, ‘don’t be. One: you’re much too old and flat-chested for his tastes, and two: he’s a scientist, and his experiments have to be done just so. So do you agree, Ms Taylor?’

I took a deep breath, looked at Jack, still curled up asleep on the floor—

And I punched Helen, a hard uppercut to the jaw. Her head snapped back and, satisfyingly, she crumpled like yesterday’s news.

Spell shackles might stop you using magic (not that I had any), but they don’t stop you using your fists.

Yep, Option Three worked for me.

‘S
o, has she told you, my lady?’ Jack’s question startled me and I almost swallowed the key I had between my teeth, the one with which I was trying to unlock the shackle on my uninjured arm. I looked up to find him regarding me gravely out of his indigo-coloured sidhe eyes. Damn.

I spat the key out into my palm. ‘I knew I should’ve clocked you one on the head while you were still asleep.’ Trouble was, I’d been worried I’d wake him up, rather than knock him out.

‘Glad you didn’t, my lady,’ he said, casting a concerned look down at Helen, whose head I’d pillowed on her large leather bag (which contained nothing more useful than water, veggie sticks and cereal bars; I’d drunk the water). ‘Don’t worry, I’m here to help,’ he added.

I narrowed my eyes, wondering exactly how helpful he was going to be, and who he was really working for. Only one way to find out. I held out my shackled arm in invitation.

He reached out cautiously and took the key from my palm. I stifled a relieved sigh as he unlocked the shackle. It fell on the stone floor with a clang.

‘Proof enough?’ he asked. ‘Now, has my mother told you?’

‘If we’re talking about the Fertility spell, then yes.’

He took a deep breath, then asked earnestly, ‘Do you have it?’

I went to open my mouth . . . and then gave him a horrified look.

‘By the goddess.’ He raked his hands through his blond hair in frustration. ‘She promised she would tell you if you agreed.’

I grabbed his jumper. ‘Tell me
what
?’

‘There’s a Protection spell on it,’ he said, clenching his fists, ‘one that ensures anyone who knows about the Fertility spell can never find it, even if they’re staring right at it. And they can’t use force to get her to give the spell up, otherwise it will destroy the fertility in the spell.’

‘Fine, I get the picture,’ I interrupted. So that was how the Witch-bitch had managed to keep hold of it all this time: she’d booby-trapped it. And why no one, like the goddesses, or Tavish and Malik, would talk to me (I mentally forgave them both), and why the only clues anyone would give me were as cryptic as Hell’s worst crossword.

It also explained the pendant’s highly confusing flickering in and out of sight during the dozen tries it’d taken for me to remove it from Helen’s own neck – and why I couldn’t see – or
see
– the pendant even though it was nestling between my breasts, unless I concentrated on the sad memory of Helen losing the baby Jack. But Jack was Helen’s son and the Morrígan’s bird, so I kept all that to myself.

‘Crap,’ I muttered. ‘How the hell did she manage to
cast
such a complicated spell? It must have taken her years. But there has to be a way to get it.’ I glowered at Helen, lying on the stone floor. ‘She has to have at least a hundred spells on her.’ Blinging herself up like a goblin queen had no doubt been extra camouflage. ‘It’ll take days to go through them all. But if you can fly her out’ – I looked hopefully at Jack – ‘and take her to the police, then—’