Cage of Fire (Parallel Magic Book 1) Read online

  Harper hovered behind as I approached the door to the storeroom. Lifting the nullifying cantrip carefully, I slid it through the gap in the door towards the cantrip which had been wedged there. At once, the faint electric current humming around the door went dead.

  Next, I pulled the carving tool from my pocket and used it to pick the lock on the door. A clicking sound came from within, and I pushed the door inward, closing it behind me.

  Inside the room, several boxes contained heaps of cantrips and other confiscated items. I examined the box full of jewellery in search of my pendant and spotted another box filled with chocolate bars and crisps. They’d confiscated everyone’s snacks, too? That was unnecessary.

  I found the pendant and clicked it open to check the transporter was still inside before looping it around my neck, relieved to feel the cool touch of the inbuilt spell spreading across my skin. I then moved the box back into place and peered into the box of cantrips beneath it. I sifted out the bag of cantrips that Muller had asked me to bring him, examined the others in the box, and spotted a large, round coin marked with crude engravings.

  In the corner was the insignia I knew too well. It matched one of the cantrips I’d taken from the storeroom… and the only place I’d ever seen that insignia before had been on cantrips custom-made by a certain sect who definitely shouldn’t be making cantrips anymore.

  Once might be a coincidence, but this… this was different. On impulse, I picked it up and hid it among the others in my pocket. Then I left the room and carefully closed the door behind me. A locking charm re-sealed the door, after which I retrieved the neutralising spell. At once, electricity leapt to life on the door’s surface as the defensive spell kicked into gear again.

  I crossed the corridor to the spot where Harper waited. “Mission accomplished.”

  “Awesome.” She bounded down the corridor, turning off her own invisibility cantrip when we were within a safe distance from the storeroom.

  I followed more slowly, unable to get the image of the insignia on that cantrip out of my head. Who among the contenders could possibly have access to cantrips decorated with a mark which ought to have disappeared five years prior? How could the Death King, for that matter?

  I ran my finger over the pendant’s edge, tensing when two liches swept past the dorms. Soul amulets were the one kind of spell I hadn’t seen, which meant every single one in the castle must be in the hall of souls. It would take more than a deactivation cantrip to get through those doors, that was for sure… and yet Shawn had implied someone had recently tried to break in there. That thought unnerved the hell out of me, I wouldn’t lie.

  If the threat was real, it was a safe bet that the contenders didn’t know. Including Harper. Liv had told me, in a bid to get me to confess my own secrets, but I had zero intention of ending up being the last one standing. With the pendant back, I should leave as soon as possible.

  Not before warning Harper.

  Once we’d reached our meeting spot, I turned off the invisibility cantrip and handed Harper the cantrips she’d asked me to fetch for her.

  “Don’t worry,” she said. “Nobody saw you go in there. I think the Elemental Soldiers went to blow off steam in the training rooms.”

  “They deserve hazard pay from that dickhead boss of theirs for this.”

  Her brows rose. “You mean your potential future boss?”

  I hesitated, then said, “Not really. I have no intention of actually winning this thing. I’m just here to escape from someone. Like you.”

  Her surprise turned to shock. “You’re leaving? Now?”

  “Tonight.” An inexplicable feeling of guilt tightened around my chest. “If you like, you can run your plan past me before I go, and I’ll try to give you advice. I’m not trying to desert you or anything, but I have someone else I need to help.”

  Her expression softened. “Oh. I get it.”

  I didn’t doubt she did. Too bad I had to leave, one way or another. “Your plan?”

  “Win,” she said. “With these cantrips, I reckon I’m in with a shot. My power is boosted, so I shouldn’t have a problem with the combat rounds. All I have to do is watch out for Sledge’s cheating.”

  “And the Elemental Soldiers,” I added. “Liv, too. They’re sharp as hell, and between you and me, they’re less than happy about being left here while the Death King does… whatever the king of the liches does.”

  “He’s not here?”

  “It was implied, but I don’t know if it’s true,” I said. “Don’t go looking for proof. Focus on the contest.”

  She fidgeted. “All right. You have some kind of spell on you, too, don’t you? I saw how fast you moved during the first challenge.”

  “Something like that,” I said. “I’m trained in combat, but you probably saw I’m useless in the water.”

  “Pretty sure no fire mage isn’t.” She smiled. “Thanks for having my back out there.”

  “You’re welcome,” I said. “Please don’t get caught.”

  “You too,” she said. “If you do decide to come back, I won’t hold it against you.”

  “Hmm.” The sky had already begun to darken, and when night fell in the Parallel, monsters came out. I’d be hard-pressed to make my way from here to Elysium and not run into anything nasty.

  Shawn, on the other hand, had promised to show me the way to the spirit mages’ hideout in the citadel… and I had to admit I was curious as hell as to what they wanted to do inside one of the out-of-bounds magical monoliths which had survived the war even when the spirit mages who’d built them had perished.

  Harper gave me a curious look. “You never told me what you took from the storeroom for yourself.”

  I fingered the pendant. “Something that might save my neck.”

  That night, I walked out to the node, invisible, my rucksack slung over my shoulder. Shawn wasn’t around, but there were so many liches hidden in the night that it was probably better if I met him as far from the castle as possible.

  I stepped into the node’s path, turned on the transporter, and pain ripped up my limbs, dragging a gasp from my mouth. I landed hard, on my knees, and lifted my head. I’d come out through the node on the other side of the fence circling the Death King’s territory, but the castle still loomed overhead, even spookier than usual at night. My gaze skimmed the swampland in search of liches, but it looked as though they only guarded the front of the gates, and they hadn’t noticed my appearance outside.

  Now all I had to do was find my way to the Citadel of the Elements in Arcadia—assuming I found my way out of the swamp first. My knees were soaked through after my trip through the nodes, while the swampland had darkened so thoroughly that I couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of me. When Shawn appeared out of nowhere, I damn near fell flat on my face. “There you are.”

  “You made it out?” he said. “Excellent. I’m astral projecting because it’s easier, but I can still take you with me. C’mon.”

  I slipped and skidded through the swampland until I came to another node, surrounded by yet more unbroken swampland. Shawn drifted ahead of me, positioning himself in the centre of the current of energy.

  “I’ve got this,” he said. “Stay close behind me, and I’ll take you to the node closest to our base.”

  “All right.” Anything to get out of the bloody swamp.

  I stepped into the node’s path, and we vanished into the light. This time didn’t hurt, since we didn’t use the transporter, and we reappeared in a darkened street with shadowy buildings on either side. The starless sky nearly hid the spired shape of the citadel, which stood across a wide stone square. No streetlamps. Crap. Don’t the vampires come out at night here? There weren’t as many back home in Elysium, so I hadn’t thought of the possibility, but they were abundant here in Arcadia.

  “Creepy,” I muttered.

  “Isn’t it?” Shawn was barely visible, a transparent shape against the darkness. “But effective. Nobody will find us.”
>
  “I’ll take your word for it on that.” I had to get to the truth… and that meant going into the citadel.

  “I’ll meet you inside.” He vanished. Too late to turn back now. I crossed the square towards the towering form of the citadel—which, my brain chose that moment to remind me, was supposed to be haunted by the ghosts of the mages killed in the war—and looked for the side entrance Shawn had mentioned.

  Then I glanced behind me, feeling eyes on my back, and spotted Liv, of all people, watching me across the square. What the hell is she doing out here?

  I quickened my pace and halted beside the hidden entrance, hoping she’d think twice about following me in. Most sane people would, anyway. Liv remained still, so I knocked on the side door, my heart thudding against my chest. To my relief, it opened, Shawn beckoning me inside.

  “C’mon,” he whispered. “You’re safe.”

  “Someone’s following me.”

  “Don’t worry.” He closed the door behind me and then pulled a bolt into place. “They won’t get in.”

  A few seconds later, there came a jolt and a yelp from outside. It sounded like Liv had tried to follow me in and shocked herself in the process. Shawn laughed. “Yeah, we put up defences. Who is it, anyway?”

  “One of the Death King’s security guards,” I said. “Don’t ask me what she’s doing here in the middle of the night, I haven’t a clue.”

  “Well, we have more important things to discuss.” He beckoned me ahead, as I heard another crash and a yelp from behind. It seemed Liv was determined to get in. Ah, well. I’d have done the same in her place, and it wasn’t like she’d have the faintest idea what we were all doing in here. I’d think of a cover story later, if I needed to. It wasn’t like I planned to go back into the castle, after all.

  The entire lower floor consisted of a wide room dominated by a staircase which spiralled up to another door above our heads. The sounds of phantom whispers echoed in the air, though I didn’t see another living soul within the room.

  “Why pick this place as a meeting point?” I whispered to Shawn. “Isn’t it supposed to be haunted?”

  “Exactly why nobody will think to look for us here,” he informed me.

  “Aren’t you based in Elysium?” I asked.

  “We are in Elysium,” he said, in smug tones. “And several other places at once.”

  “I don’t follow.”

  “This way.” He hopped onto the lowest stair and led me up the spiralling staircase to the door at the peak. The whispers grew louder, as though the souls of the damned were trapped in the very walls. “Glad you could make it, anyway. Any updates from the contest?”

  “What if I think there’s a spy from the House of Fire among the other candidates?” I kept my voice low, caution urging me to tread carefully.

  “Do you know who?”

  I shook my head. “I managed to break into the storeroom where the Elemental Soldiers put the cantrips they confiscated from us earlier, and I found a cantrip marked by someone who had links to the House of Fire. But I don’t know whose it was.”

  “Can you try to find out?” he said. “You don’t have to hurt them, just get them kicked out the contest.”

  I said nothing, thinking of Harper and the trouble she might be in. More than me, possibly, because she didn’t have a group of vigilante spirit mages at her back.

  Yet Tay’s plight weighed on me as well. Especially when I thought of the marked cantrips, and the mystery of how they’d ended up in the Death King’s hands. Was now really the time to turn my back on the castle, when the key to saving her might still be inside it?

  Shawn reached the top of the stairs and opened the door ahead of us, revealing an equally wide room which looked too big to fit inside the building I’d seen on the outside.

  “Damn,” I murmured.

  “Yeah, it’s impressive,” he said. “The spirit mages created this place before the war. Nobody’s ever been able to tear it down, which is saying a lot.”

  “No kidding.” The spirit mages had lost the war with their fellow mages, but not without taking half the Parallel to pieces in the process. This place, though as grand as ever, was clearly abandoned. Pieces of inexplicable machinery littered the floor, and in the very centre, a raised platform gleamed with light around the edges.

  “Not only is this a good meeting spot, it’s also a way for us to travel between the cities without being detected,” Shawn told me. “That platform is like a node which links to the other citadels in the area. It’s how we’ve been getting back and forth between here and Elysium without being caught by our enemies.”

  “Meaning who?” I could guess. “The Houses, right? Why’re they interested in you?”

  “Because of this.” He indicated the room around us. “Did you know this is where the Order of the Elements executed the survivors from the war?”

  I hadn’t, but history wasn’t my forte. “They did?”

  He nodded, his mouth twisting in distaste. “They were unarmed, completely beaten down, but the Order didn’t want the spirit mages to rise again, in any form. So they had them line up over there, and…” He mimed cutting his own throat.

  My stomach lurched. “Lovely.”

  He nodded, his eyes glittering. “They think we’re all inhuman killers. Nothing we haven’t heard before.”

  He was starting to freak me out, I wouldn’t lie, but I’d heard similar things, once. “The person who followed me here is a spirit mage.”

  “The Death King employs spirit mages?” he said. “That’s new.”

  “I think she’s the only spirit mage he has on staff,” I said. “Why is it a surprise, though? He hires one person from each other mage class.”

  “For one thing, a lot of the liches were spirit mages,” he said. “When they were still alive. Including him.”

  Right… that’s why it made sense that he and Miles had once known one another. Spirit mages were all about life and death magic, so they’d certainly make the strongest liches. That must be why Liv was so concerned when one of them had ‘attacked’ the Death King at the node. While the lord of the liches must be more than a match for a regular spirit mage, someone as powerful as the ones who’d started the war could give him a run for his money.

  “Well, maybe he needed a living one for some reason,” I said. “Where are the others?”

  “They’ll be here in a moment.” He indicated the platform. “It took us a while to get the transporter working again, but it hasn’t been touched since the war, I think.”

  Being able to use its magic to hop around between cities must be handy. Nodes had the same purpose, but they were less easy to find if you didn’t already know their location. Everyone knew the citadels, but nobody ever set foot inside them. Until now, it seemed.

  “Uh-huh.” I couldn’t restrain my impatience any longer. “Can you use its magic to get into the place where Tay’s kidnappers are keeping her?”

  “No,” he said. “It only links to the citadels, and the others are empty.”

  I folded my arms. “Have you been looking, though? Or is that what you sent Miles to do?”

  “Miles is supposed to be on a mission,” he responded. “As for your friend… well, anyone can disappear if they want to.”

  His words carried an edge that made my chest tighten. Tay and I had done exactly that once already. Out of necessity.

  But she wouldn’t take off without telling me. Never.

  “It’s got to be the House of Fire,” I insisted. “Look, I should head off.”

  “Wait.” He stepped forwards as I backed towards the door. “You… I get it, Bria, I really do, but if this week goes the way I think it will, then Tay will be far from the only person to meet that fate.”

  “I’m not following.”

  He drew in a breath. “The House of Fire sent people into the contest, Bria, to ensure one of them wins. To ensure they have the Death King’s back when they…”

  “When they what?”
/>   There was a short pause. “We believe the Houses are going to make a new alliance which will see any independent mages forced to serve the Houses or submit to incarceration.”

  I gaped at him. “They can’t take in all mages, surely.”

  “They can try,” he said. “And they certainly have the resources to. Not just people with your history, either. Innocents.”

  I shook my head violently. “That can’t be why they took Tay.”

  She wasn’t innocent, though, not by their definition. And nor was I.

  He didn’t meet my eyes. “I’m not saying it is. I’m just saying it’s usually easier to lock up or murder troublesome mages than negotiate with them.”

  I glanced around the wide, empty chamber. “The spirit mages didn’t try to negotiate with the Council of the Elements. They slaughtered them.”

  He shrugged, uncomfortable. “Not quite what I was getting at. The original spirit mages are dead. The Houses survived, and they’d rather we didn’t, innocent or not.”

  “Well, what am I supposed to do about that?” I was starting to regret ever agreeing to this meeting. “I thought I was supposed to be a spy. I didn’t hear anything from the Death King that implied any involvement with the Houses.”

  Unless that what’s he did on his mysterious excursions. Who knew? He was equally likely to be off golfing. Whatever the case, I was wasting my time here when Tay needed me.

  “I’ll level with you, Bria,” he said. “Miles didn’t want me to tell you any of this. He preferred to keep you in the dark, but I had to tell you the truth. We’re safe as long as the Death King remains neutral, but once he has a House of Fire representative on his team…”

  “What, you want me to win the trials so nobody else will?”

  That was Harper’s plan, and she wasn’t with the House of Fire, but that didn’t mean I wanted to provoke the Houses any further.

  “More than that,” he said. “We need you to ensure that we can get into the castle when we need to and take the Death King’s soul amulet. That’s the best way—hell, the only way to kill the Death King and remove him from his position before he gets us all killed.”