The Joy of Hex Read online

  He took my hands in his. “When Felix asked me to heal you, I didn’t make a bargain with him intending for it to benefit me. I made one with you in mind. I poured all my energy into healing you, and you still didn’t wake. When my father saw what I’d done, that I’d wasted my magic on you and refused to collect my payment while you slept, he disowned me. He thought he could force me into exacting my payment.”

  “He didn’t disown you because of Quenylda?” Because of what I had done to his sister-wife.

  “Not precisely. Though I daresay, that is why my father would have you suffer. Fae can be a spiteful lot. He’d cut off his son to spite his enemy.”

  He’d punished Elric for making the compassionate choice to wait until I’d woken. It only made me respect Elric even more. I squeezed his hand. “I will give you an heir, and then the agreement will be fulfilled.”

  “Clarissa, I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this if you haven’t realized it already. Your magic is spent. You can’t have another child.” He swallowed. “This isn’t like last time. Your magic isn’t coming back. And if it is, I will probably be dead before that happens. Having this bargain open and unfulfilled is weakening me. No amount of creativity and muse magic is going to sustain me.”

  His words sent a jolt of fear through me. I didn’t believe that. I didn’t want to believe it. “But I’ve been improving. I know my magic is coming back.”

  “No. What you’re feeling is the ghost of a phantom limb. It’s as though your arm has been chopped off, but you think it’s still there. Every time we use pleasure to sustain you, it gives you false hope that the connection between your body and affinity is still intact. It’s only filling a void temporarily.” He stroked my back in a feeble attempt to be reassuring. His usual optimism was spent. He didn’t try to pretend to be hopeful.

  I couldn’t deny that his words struck a chord of truth in me.

  “I thought perhaps your magic would return, but it hasn’t, and there’s a reason for it. Thatch kept that reason from me.”

  Felix Thatch had kept secrets from Elric. Those secrets had hurt him. I would make it right. I would have to. “I know the truth now too. I can fulfill my bargain to you, and everything will be fine. Felix and I amended our oath to include you as someone I can make love to in order to give you another heir.”

  “Perhaps it isn’t clear to you yet, but this is about more than an oath.” The sad smile that laced his lips didn’t touch his eyes. “Now that I know what happened to you, I can see no amount of Fae magic can heal you. You’re going to need magic for the rest of your life to stay alive—not so different from Odette relying on the Raven Queen to sustain the absence of a beating heart. You need me or another Fae to sustain you. Felix Thatch’s magic won’t be enough. You’ll drain him until nothing is left.”

  Just as I had done when I’d been asleep, and Thatch had tried to revive me. No amount of magic he poured into me truly satiated the void of my affinity.

  Elric swallowed. “I don’t know what you’ll do when I’m gone.”

  I would not accept defeat, nor would I allow him to do so. I needed to prove to him I could restore my affinity.

  I needed to prove it to myself.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Ten Ways to Tell Whether Someone Is Obsessed with Necromancy

  My footsteps echoed in the silence as I held a candle to light my way. The stairs to the crypt in Elric’s estate were steep, built for tall people. I touched the stone wall for balance. It was a long way down, past Thatch’s dungeon.

  Vega sat alone on a bench next to a coffin on a table. It was a gaudy coffin encrusted with jewels that the dead would never see. She held the hand of the dead child she had adopted. A child she hadn’t appreciated when Dora was alive. The Raven Court had attacked her, though I didn’t understand their motives other than being cruel. They had killed Constance, Elric’s elderly wife. They had injured children and abducted Imani.

  I hated the way the Raven Court made me feel, helpless and afraid.

  I would never be safe. Thatch would always be tied to the Raven Court. His sisters were bound to the Raven Queen. My fairy godmother would be trapped in the form of a tree—if the Raven Queen hadn’t chopped her down to further spite me. Odette had left Thatch a cryptic message that sounded less evil and more depressed. It sounded like she needed to escape and find a safe refuge for her baby.

  And ours. Aubrey. The name was like salt in a wound.

  I was tired of living in fear of when they would next attack. I was done being another one of their victims. The world wasn’t safe so long as the Raven Queen lived.

  It was time to take matters into my own hands. I wasn’t fully recovered, but I needed to regain my magic if I was going to defeat the Raven Queen and get back what I had lost.

  Vega shifted in her chair when she heard the scuff of my feet on the floor, but she didn’t greet me.

  If I was going to take on my enemies, I was going to need the help of the wickedest witch I knew. And I was going to have to rise to her level of callousness and practicality if I was going to earn her respect.

  I embraced my inner Vega. “Get up,” I said.

  She wiped away her tears. “I’m not done mourning.”

  “Do you want to sit around and mope all night? Or are you going to do something about it?” It was what she would have said to me. “Do you want tears or revenge? Your choice.”

  “Elric said revenge is pointless. There’s no way we can make the Raven Queen pay for what she’s done.” She replaced the little girl’s hand on her chest and kissed her forehead.

  “I think Elric is wrong. I think we can make her suffer.”

  My frenemy turned to me. “What do you have in mind?”

  “You need a dragon egg, right? To bring back the dead?”

  “Yes.”

  “So do I. And I know where to get one.” Her reasons for wanting a dragon egg were for death; mine were for life. Neither of us could get what we wanted without assistance. “It’s going to take an incredible amount of energy to travel there to get it.” If “travel” was the right word. “Transcend” was more accurate.

  “Sounds . . . dangerous.” She looked me up and down, her lips pursing. “You do realize you’re in no condition to go anywhere.”

  “Yes, but you are. With electricity.”

  She crossed her arms. “I can already tell you this isn’t going to work. I’m better at my Celestor affinity than I am with my Red affinity. I’m better at Elementia and Amni Plandai magic than I am at harnessing electricity.”

  “That’s because you haven’t had an adequate teacher. Are you ready for your first real lesson?”

  Her lips curled into a mirthless smile. “This sounds like something Thatch would disapprove of. Already I can tell I’m going to like this.”

  “We need to leave the Faerie Realm. Can you get us to Eugene, Oregon?”

  She tilted her head to the side, as if trying to fathom what kind of stupid idea I had now. “The Raven Court will be watching your fairy godmother’s house in the Morty Realm. They might suspect you of going back.”

  “I’m not going back. I need you to use your Celestor magic to transport us to an electric station. We need a serious amount of magic. Can you do that?” Now that I had the full extent of my memories, I knew what I needed. I would restore myself, using the skills I had developed previously.

  Vega’s eyes narrowed. “This sounds like a bad idea.”

  “Of course it is. There’s a reason the Fae want us to fear electricity. It just happens that what’s bad for them is good for us.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Don’t Try This at Home, Morties

  Vega’s transportation spell circled me in swirls of mist. The air was sucked from my lungs, and fireworks flashed behind my eyelids. As always, my stomach churned, and I felt dizzy coming out of it. Vega grabbed my arm to keep me from falling into a ditch. Her wand flared to life, nearly bli
nding me with the sudden brightness.

  I gasped in cool night air. “Can you tone that thing down a little? We don’t need a beacon calling every Fae to us to let them know we’re using magic.” I shielded my eyes from the suddenness of the light.

  She lifted her chin, her expression as haughty as ever. “Don’t worry. I warded my magic.”

  “Okay, but at least use a glamour to make it look like a flashlight. A Morty might see.” I waved a hand out at the darkness.

  “If it isn’t one thing you’re fretting about, it’s another.” She twisted her wrist, and the wand became a lantern. It wasn’t a flashlight with a focused beam, but it worked. “Which way?”

  “More like witch way,” I said, pointing in the direction where I felt electricity calling me.

  She didn’t laugh. She never got my jokes like Khaba did.

  Our feet crunched over a gravel service road as we approached the electric generating station.

  Using her Celestor transportation spell, she hadn’t been able to drop us off too close to the place I wanted to go. The electrical transformers contained far too much electricity, so we had to arrive half a mile away. I didn’t relish the idea of walking on a deserted road away from houses and Morties if the Raven Court could be waiting for us in Eugene, Oregon. I would have selected a power plant in a different city if I had an address or a landmark, but it wasn’t like I had access to Google maps in the Faerie Realm.

  The wind rustled trees, and an occasional twig crunched off the road.

  “Is someone following us?” I whispered.

  “Yes.” Her eyes flashed yellow like a cat’s as she stared out into the shadows. “It’s just a dog.”

  “Not any boys or ghouls?”

  She rolled her eyes. “We aren’t on our way to the cemetery. We’re safe.”

  I listened for the sound of a jingling collar or panting at our heels, but I didn’t hear anything out there.

  She jabbed her chin in my direction. “I want to know more about this plan of yours.”

  “So that you can tell me how I’m going to fail?”

  “No. Thatch can tell you that.” Her lantern cast her features in an eerie light that made her ghoulish lineage apparent. “I just want to know whether it’s actually worth my while.”

  “You said you needed a dragon egg. I know where the dragons dwell. I think you do too.”

  Her brow furrowed. “What’s that supposed to mean? Do you think I’m like those fucktards keeping secrets from you?”

  Surely she couldn’t be serious. She didn’t look like she was lying, but she was always the more accomplished of the two of us. I couldn’t believe she hadn’t made the connection. “Do you remember the moment you conceived?”

  “Not precisely. I can guess which time it was that Elric and I were together, but I don’t know for certain. Elric is quite attentive in bed. Sometimes we make love twice a day. Or we used to.” She looked me up and down, resentment clear in her expression.

  I stumbled in a dip in the road. “Think back. Wasn’t one of those times different from the rest? Can’t you remember transcending your body and becoming one with the stars? Do you recall feeling like you were all-powerful and primal? Were you aware of the Red affinity awakening inside you and connecting you with your partner?” I thought about how Zen-like that moment had felt.

  She turned her face up toward the night sky. “Several times I experienced an out-of-body moment—like I was flying through the stars—but that’s a Celestor trait, not part of the Red affinity.”

  “I think it is. I’m not a Celestor, but I experienced it.” I watched her face for guile but saw none. “Do you remember becoming a dragon?”

  Something rustled out in the bushes somewhere in the darkness, but I didn’t see anything.

  She snorted. “No. You’re joking, right?”

  “I’m not. Do you remember seeing a nest of dragon eggs that looked like rubies?”

  She stared at me incredulously. “No.” From the way she bit her lip, staring off into the darkness, I could tell she was trying to remember.

  Vega hesitated—something she rarely did. “Sometimes I felt like I slipped away while Elric and I were making love, like I might have fallen asleep. I had the sense I was dreaming, but I never recalled many details afterward.”

  Perhaps it would have helped Vega to practice lucid-dreaming techniques as I had. “What do you remember?”

  “Sometimes I thought I might have dreamed I was a cat. I remember a necklace made of red pearls, clumped together in a heap. One of them was glowing. I felt as though I were under a Fae enchantment, my will stolen away. I wanted to pluck up one of those pearls and eat it. Sometimes I have other flickers of visions, but mostly of the stars. These dreams are fleeting. I only remember bits and pieces. But it wouldn’t be unheard of for a Celestor to have visions of the cosmos.”

  I could see how she might have mistaken the faceted ovals for beads. I hadn’t felt compelled to eat one of them. The instant I had touched the ruby with my nose, it had filled me, and I had woken. That had been the moment my Red affinity had allowed my Witchkin body to conceive.

  There was so much for my brain to process. I thought it over out loud. “Witchkin schools teach us to separate our affinities, to label our magic as plant, animal, element, or stars. Maybe it isn’t as separate as we’re taught. A mermaid or selkie uses the element of water but also has a tie to an animal. A shifter might be strongest during a full moon, which would imply an Elementia trait, but also there is a tie to an animal. Someone with a plant affinity might be drawn to a particular kind of tree, but also needs sun, water, and earth.” I thought of my fairy godmother with oak as her affinity.

  The memories of her final days were a burden on my soul, just as Thatch had feared. Her death weighed heavily on my heart. At the same time, the knowledge of what had happened gave me a different kind of strength. It gave me a drive to do what I knew needed to be done. I needed the Ruby of Divine Wisdom to help me turn her back. With the ruby, I would know everything.

  But before I could help her, I needed to destroy the Raven Queen.

  “Witchkin can have more than one affinity,” Vega said. “And a Merlin-class Celestor usually excels at all the affinities. Look at Gertrude Periwinkle. She’s a siren and a Celestor.”

  “I’m not talking about a double affinity,” I said. “I’m talking about a synthesis. I think the reason a Red affinity can go undetected is that we’re able to use so many other kinds of magic. In the beginning, when my magic went out of control, I used to burst out rainbows. It was like the energy inside me couldn’t decide how it wanted to manifest.” With Imani it had been the same.

  “Your point is?”

  “Anyone can learn an Elementia spell for wind, some affinities just don’t have to work as hard at it. What if anyone can use Red affinity magic?” I asked. “That might have been what Alouette Loraline wanted to do. It would keep everyone safe from Fae and make Witchkin feel empowered. The Reds would be less likely to be ostracized if other Witchkin could learn their magic and see it wasn’t bad.”

  “Slow down, Clarissa. Before you decide to pick up Alouette Loraline’s experiments and lose your soul in the process, let’s focus on the task at hand.” She stood. “You are going to show me how to get a dragon egg so I can resurrect the dead. Is that correct?”

  If I helped Vega resurrect the dead, I had a bad feeling this would open up a whole new can of worms. She might intend to do good—to heal and bring life back to a dead child—but that would only be the beginning. There were students who had died at the hands of the Fae: Chase Othello, Martin, and Pierre. I would love to bring back Brogan McLean and Camelia Llewelyn.

  I thought about Galswintha the Wise. She might have been smart, perhaps smart enough to defeat the Fae, but that didn’t mean I wanted her alive. She was bloodthirsty and would do anything to serve herself. Jeb had been the same way. And Quenylda. There were those like Derric
k who hadn’t been a bad person to start off with, but a curse had made him into a different person. Was it safe to bring him back to life? Was it dangerous to bring back a person like Alouette Loraline?

  Who got to choose who stayed dead and who was resuscitated?

  With the power of necromancy, Vega would be able to reawaken armies of people who could serve Vega—or serve the Fae. She would become a powerful weapon the Raven Queen would want.

  “You do realize the danger of being able to bring the dead back to life?” I asked. “‘With great power comes great responsibility’ and all that jazz.”

  She sighed. “Are you going to show me or not?”

  “I will help you gain knowledge, and you can use it as you see fit. In return, you are going to help me restore my powers so I can gain knowledge. Together we will destroy our enemies.”

  She grinned. “Now you’re talking.”

  Some of my trepidation slipped away as we approached the electricity. I inhaled the scent of ozone as we grew closer. The very air tasted like sugar and lightning, sweet on my tongue. I didn’t know whether it was because I was so depleted or I was more attuned to magic than usual, but I sensed more than saw where to go.

  Vega’s eyes were bloodshot from staying up all night. Probably from crying too, not that she would admit to expressing sorrow like a normal human being. She probably had fatigued herself using magic to fight off the Raven Court the previous day, which was why she had to resort to a special brew to stimulate her magic to travel.

  The brew had smelled a lot like coffee.

  Vega’s voice came out as a quiet purr. “I don’t like that sound. It’s too quiet. Like a graveyard without the benefit of the dead.”

  “Right,” I said. I wondered whether she had grown up in a real-life version of The Addams Family.