Trials (Rogue Mage Anthology Book 1) Read online

  I shuddered, fighting for control. Her presence filled me and I exhaled, long and slow, a pleasant warmth building deep inside me. One by one, I filled my amulets, starting with my prime. The moonstone warmed against my chest as she charged and I spent extra time caring for her, checking for surface scratches and cracks in the stone. I ran my thumb across her rounded edges a final time then tucked her back inside my shirt.

  When my amulets were charged, I drank in Her power. She tingled across my skin like the caress of a lover. My toes curled and my body trembled, overcome with sensation. I didn’t want to stop, even when I knew I should. I was full of her, but She was so close. I could handle it—I knew I could. She felt so good, one last pull couldn’t—

  I tore my eyes away from the eyepiece and slumped onto the concrete. Heart pounding, I shivered from my core as the feeling subsided, leaving me breathless. I rolled onto my back, panting.

  “That was close,” I whispered. A lingering flash of pleasure shuddered through me and I closed my eyes.

  Metal grated on stone in the darkness and I snapped my eyes open. I drew my kukri knives and stood, looking out into the night.

  In the distance, a figure shuffled toward me.

  “Javi!”

  I sheathed my knives and hesitated. I didn’t want anything to happen to my telescope. If it fell and broke . . .

  Hating myself, I took a minute to properly stow my telescope in its bag and then raced for the hangar.

  “Mack!” I shouted, setting the bag with the rest of my gear. “It’s Javi!”

  I led Gary and Mack at a run back into the darkness. When we found him, Javier bled from dozens of cuts and bites and I wrapped a Healing amulet around his wrist as Gary and Mack carried him back to camp.

  “Set him there.” I pointed to a patch of hangar floor and went to my gear. I’d need a Charmed Circle for a proper healing. Celeste whickered nervously at the scent of blood, but I couldn’t spare more than a quick word of reassurance. I pulled a lump of chalk from my bag.

  I ran back to Javi and drew a wide circle with the two of us inside of it.

  “Derek,” Javi moaned. He tried to raise his head.

  “We’ll find him,” I said, easing him back. Javi’s forehead was warm, and gritty with sweat and dried blood. “You rest.”

  “No.” He shook his head, his voice strained. “Derek . . .” he trailed off. The timbre of his voice changed. “He fought, Elise.”

  I turned, looking at his face with mage sight. An opaque mask clung to his face and head. A chill ran through me. He had some kind of conjure on him.

  “He fought, but, in the end, he told me what I wanted to know of you.”

  I swallowed. “Who are you?”

  “Call me Anette.”

  “What do you want?”

  “You.”

  Javier grabbed my wrist with one hand and his other arm shot toward me. I grabbed his wrist, stopping him.

  Gary lurched forward.

  “Don’t break the circle! I’ve got him,” I said.

  Javi held a black stone pinched between his fingers and he tried to force it at me. In my mage sight, the stone lay in the center of a seething black cloud. Flashes of red, like lightning, traced over its surface.

  Outside the hangar, devil-spawn howled. Sandra cursed and a gun fired.

  “Elise?” Gary asked, urgently.

  “Go!” I said through clenched teeth. Gary drew a claymore that was at least as tall as I was and ran to the wagons. Scowling, Mack followed him. More gunshots ripped through the night.

  “Don’t worry, Elise,” the voice coming out of Javi’s mouth said. “It’ll all be over soon.”

  “Fight her, Javi.” I panted. He was stronger than me, and pushed the stone closer. “She’s in your head. Fight!”

  “He has been, sister. He struggles even now.”

  Gary bellowed and the gunfire increased. I had to get out there.

  I twisted my wrist and jerked against his thumb, freeing my arm. Desperate, I reached for the circle.

  My fingers touched the line and I cast a conjure, sending power through the chalk line. The Charmed Circle flared to life, sealing Javi and me off from the outside world, cutting the connection between Anette and Javi. He collapsed and the stone hit the concrete with a soft click.

  Panting and trembling, I stripped off Javi’s boots. I pulled the laces out and tied his hands and feet. I scooped the stone up into a boot and got as far away from him as I could before I dropped the Circle.

  He didn’t move.

  I stepped over the chalk line and raised the Charmed Circle again. I set the boot down, drew a quick circle around it, and conjured another ward. I drew my kukris. The curved blades felt reassuring in my hands as I raced outside.

  Gary, Mack, and Sandra were surrounded by dead and dying spawn. Sandra favored her left leg and leaned on Mack. Gary was decapitating fallen spawn. Black blood spattered the concrete as he moved. When he saw me, Mack slung one of Sandra’s arms over his shoulder and helped her toward the hangar.

  “Javi?” Mack asked.

  “What about Javi?” Sandra left bloody footprints behind her.

  “Bound and contained.” I took up Sandra’s other arm. “He was possessed.”

  “Possessed by what?” Gary looked at Javi, laying where I’d left him. He bent down toward the boot. “What’s—”

  “Leave that!” My voice cracked through the hangar and Gary straightened. “I don’t know what it is, but she sure wanted me to touch it.”

  We got Sandra settled in a chair and propped her leg up. Something had taken a bite out of her. I gave her a Healing amulet, then turned to Javi. He still needed help.

  “Who did this?” Mack asked.

  “She calls herself Anette. She’s a mage.” I looked at Mack. “Ready?”

  At Mack’s nod, I dropped the protective circle. Javi lay limp, but he was still breathing. Gary and Mack got him into Mack’s wagon and Mack went to work on him, cleaning and bandaging his wounds.

  I filled a tin cup with water, dropped the second Circle, and picked up Javi’s boot. Sitting next to the fire, I poured the stone from the boot into the cup. Part of me expected the water to hiss and boil, but the stone dropped in with a quiet plink and sank to the bottom of the cup. When I looked at the stone with mage sight, the cloud was gone. I took the stone, water, and cup well outside of camp and buried them.

  I came back and found Mack bent over Sandra. The smell of coffee drifted to me from a pot near the fire.

  “How’s Javi?” I asked.

  Mack dabbed at Sandra’s leg and she hissed. “He’ll be out for a while. With those spawn bites, it’s a miracle he wasn’t poisoned.” He taped a bandage around Sandra’s leg. When he straightened up, I handed both of them coffee.

  “This Anette is a mage?” Mack asked.

  “Like you?” Gary said from the hangar door.

  “I don’t know.” I shook my head. “Not like me.” I stared into the fire. “She knows everything Javi knew.”

  “What about Derek?” Sandra asked.

  I exhaled. “She needed Javi to get close to me.” I glanced at Mack. “She must’ve countered the poison.” I paused, turning back to Sandra. “She’d have no use for Derek.”

  Sandra closed her eyes. “The Lord rest his soul.”

  I stood. “Anette knows where we are, so we need to move.” I went to the wagon and got out the map while the others gathered around.

  I pointed to an unmarked spot a couple of miles from the airport. “The college had an observatory. Might be it’s still there.” I glanced up. “I’d been planning to check it out on my own, but from what I’ve read, there’s room for the horses and it’s defensible.”

  Instead of splitting up watches for the remainder of the night, I let everyone else sleep.

  Guilt gnawed at me and I would have almost welcomed a second attack. I’d’ve been glad for the opportunity to hit something, to distract myself from my failure to protect the ot
hers.

  I’d failed. Derek was dead and an evil mage had used Javi to try and get to me. What was Anette doing out here? And what did she want?

  When the sun rose, Gary grumbled about not being called to watch, but Sandra looked better for the sleep. Mack nodded his appreciation to me as we struck camp. He let me tie Celeste to his wagon so I could sleep in the wagon back as we moved. I drifted off to the feeling of my power evaporating.

  The observatory complex was a ruin. Even day-blind, I could see that. A wheeled chain-link gate once guarded the entrance, but it had long ago collapsed to the street. To the right was a large silo, a building attached to it. Ahead, on the left, were two smaller silos. Taking Mack with me, I checked them out.

  A tree had fallen into one of the silos, caving it in. The other had a ten-foot-wide hole in its wall, and had a small meadow taking root where dirt had worked its way inside. Both contained ruined telescopes.

  Beyond the silos was an open-air observation platform floored with wooden planks. Sixteen concrete posts were spaced evenly across the deck. I stepped onto the platform. The wood was old and sagged under my feet. I wasn’t more than a foot off the ground, but seraphs only knew what was beneath me. My mind conjured up images of rusty nails and enormous wasp nests and I repressed a shudder. My steps made tiny creaking sounds as I walked to the nearest post. A telescope had been mounted here and its remains lay on the deck. Seeing the cracked barrel and the broken glass gleaming in the sun was heartbreaking.

  “Elise!”

  I jumped. Sandra leaned out from a doorway, face grim. “It’s Javi.”

  Stomach sinking, I followed Mack toward the building. When the sounds of struggling reached us, we ran inside.

  Our gear was strewn everywhere. Gary had Javier’s arms wrapped behind his back, fighting to keep him still. The three of us wrestled Javi into a chair and tied him down.

  “Elise,” Javi purred, “you never told me you liked it rough.”

  “I’m going to get you out of this, Javi,” I said.

  “You’re assuming that he wants to be free of me. Taking control was so much easier this time.” A soft laugh bubbled up his throat. “I’m only going to make this offer once, sister: Come to me and I’ll let your friends leave this place with their lives.”

  I scowled. “Even Derek?”

  Javi shrugged.

  I leaned down, my head only a few inches from Javi’s. “Leave him alone.”

  He sucked a breath between his teeth. “Wrong answer.” He turned his head and I grabbed his chin, forcing him to look at me.

  “An observatory.” Javi’s smile widened until a burst of laughter ripped out of him. The insane sound bounced around the room like a ball bearing in a tin can. “Clever. Especially after what happened to your little toy there.”

  I jerked my head away in a panic, following Javier’s glance to our scattered gear, to my telescope bag. Crushed.

  “I have such use for you,” Javi said and I snapped my eyes back to him. His expression changed. “They’re going to die, Elise,” he snarled. “All of them. And when I’ve broken you, the last thought you’ll have is that this was all your fault.”

  I looked away again.

  “Are you paying attention, Moon mage?”

  I stood, trembling. I wanted to punch him. No, not him, Anette. I pulled the chalk from my pocket and drew a circle around him.

  “That won’t keep me out forever.”

  I bent to touch the circle, looking him in the eye. “Good-bye, Anette.”

  The Charmed Circle flared to life and my friend went limp. I made sure he stayed down with a Sleep conjure.

  Anette would come for us as soon as the sun went down. Without my telescope, it would take much longer to recharge myself—time we didn’t have. I headed for the last silo.

  The room was maybe thirty feet across, and the telescope took up most of it. It was mounted on a thick, metal shaft sunk into the cement floor. Long-dead computer equipment surrounded it. I stepped forward, crunching glass underfoot, and climbed the steps leading up, getting close.

  The telescope had several holes in it and a crack ran almost the length of the barrel.

  “Stars and feathers.” I rested my head against the barrel. All of them were useless.

  I exhaled, turning to go. Something caught my eye and I looked through one of the holes. An idea hit me and I ran to get Gary.

  The Moon rose. The sky was clear. A breeze rustled through the trees, bringing the smell of warm grass and earth to me. It was quiet and as I sat on the observation platform, I had an unobstructed view of the sky in every direction. I felt Her on my skin. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. Exhaling slowly, I reached for Her.

  She wrapped me in Her cool embrace. I laughed softly, drinking Her in like pure water after weeks in the desert. The flow was gentle and slow—and frustrating. I couldn’t draw what I needed as fast as I needed it. A flash of anger ripped through me and I nearly lost touch with Her. It had been a long time since I’d been forced to recharge unaided and Anette was already on her way. I forced myself to relax, to open myself fully to Her, and absorbed the power as She was willing to give it.

  When I had enough to work with, I touched a conjure-less amulet and focused on its structure. I layered protective conjures within the stone. When activated, it would shield Javi’s mind. Anette wouldn’t be able to possess him.

  “Do you think it’ll work?”

  I jumped, startled out of my near-trance. Sandra stood at the edge of the platform. At first, I thought she was asking about the charm, but she was looking at the array of mirrors we’d hastily erected. Gary and Mack had salvaged every mirror they could find, including from our personal gear, and Sandra had fashioned mounts for them.

  The mirrors were arranged in a crescent at one end of the platform. Each was aligned to face the Moon at different points of Her journey across the night sky, and to reflect Her light at a large mirror at the opposite end of the platform. That mirror would catch the light, concentrate it, and send the beam of reflected Moonlight along a single path. If I stood anywhere along that path, it should give me a boost during the fight. And at midnight all of the mirrors would have Her at least partially in their frames, all would be reflecting Her, and the beam’s strength would peak.

  “It will.” I hoped.

  We went inside. Gary had lit two lanterns, filling the interior with a wan light. He frowned, drawing a whetstone along the blade of his sword.

  Mack nodded at me and went back to repacking his medical kit, a brace of pistols and a longsword close to hand.

  Sandra limped to her gear and sat. She tied her long, brown hair back with a leather strip—better for fighting. A machete lay next to a shotgun on her bedroll. She reached over them to pick up a pistol and check it for the third time since the sun had started setting.

  I looped the amulet around Javi’s neck and he groaned in his sleep like he’d just set down a heavy burden.

  “That will keep Anette from reaching Javi again.” I looked at my friends. “It’s safe to untie him.” I glanced over my shoulder. “I need to get back out there and charge some more.”

  “What can we do?” Mack asked.

  “Take care of Javi.” I said, walking toward the door. “I’ll be back in a little while.”

  A curious expression came over Mack’s face, and he started to rise from his bedroll. “Elise?”

  I slipped through the metal door and activated a Locking conjure. A second later, the handle rattled. “Elise!” Mack roared. “Let us out of here. Now!”

  Something hit the door and it shook in its frame. I backed away.

  Sandra’s voice drifted through the metal “What are you doing?”

  “Keeping you safe. Something I couldn’t do for Derek.”

  “Elise!”

  I left the silo.

  A gibbering screech sliced through the night. Another. They were coming.

  I rose from where I sat, lotus style, at the center
of the platform. I drew my kukris, and walked to the gap in the fence.

  Spawn flowed over the ground like an oil spill. One of the largest skittered on top of a rusted-out car. It roared and charged at me.

  “Adonai Yir’eh!” I shouted, activating an amulet. The world blurred for an instant, fracturing into possibilities as the Precognition conjure spread over my sight. Potential actions the spawn might take appeared simultaneously, with the most imminent retaining clarity and the others fading to near-transparency. A grin spread across my face as I charged the Darkness.

  We came together in mid-air, my kukris driving into the darkun’s eyes. I rolled over its back, ripping my blades free, and landed in a crouch, facing the oncoming horde. Behind me, the corpse of the monster came to a tumbling, skidding stop before it reached the fence.

  For a second, the charge broke. I stared at them, the blood of one of their champions dripped from my blades, the droplets hissing as they hit the earth.

  “I will fear no evil,” I said.

  Howls exploded from the spawn and they swarmed forward.

  They came at me by the dozens and I met them, my body bathed in the fullness of Her light, my limbs singing with Her strength, and I cut them down like grass.

  It wasn’t enough.

  Teeth snapped all around me. Claws ripped and slashed. I took heads and limbs with every turn, carving a ring of death.

  They kept coming. There were so many that my precognitive battle sense was nearly overwhelmed. I triggered a Strength amulet, then lopped the head off a spawn and kicked it in the chest, sending it into the three behind. There were too many of them and I was no battle mage. But I had to keep my friends safe. Stepping back, my boot caught on chain-link. I lost my balance and fell backward.

  Spawn surged forward, but I turned the fall into a roll and came up on my feet. A wide double-swing of my kukris claimed more of them and bought me a precious second. I leaped into the air, flipping backward, and dropped a one-use amulet—one I’d bought before the trip and had saved for a special occasion—into the mass of spawn below me.