Shocked joy surged through me, and I looked between Cordelia and Michael.
“She was paying my chickens a visit when she sensed you were in danger,” Michael said. “She dragged me along.”
“Thank you.” I stumbled upright with Grey’s help, taking in our surroundings.
The battle was slowing, but Mac was still on the ground. Two shifters as well. I spun back to Michael. “Will you help them? Please?”
He nodded and ran toward Mac.
The sounds of battle raged as I searched the darkness for Rasla. He’d retreated when we’d started to gain the advantage.
“He’s by the tower.” Grey pointed.
“I’m going for him.” Magic surged inside me. The connection between us burned, strange and unholy. I needed to get rid of some of this power, shove it into him until he exploded. I was an atomic bomb ready to detonate.
I sprinted toward Rasla, and Grey joined me. “Let me. You were just wounded.”
“It has to be me.” My power pulsed inside me, drawing me toward him. Rage boiled in my veins.
Grey took out two Obsidia as we neared the sorcerer.
Dark magic pulsed around Rasla, and the tower that loomed at his back seethed with the same darkness. I was determined to drive it from Guild City. From the Shadow Guild tower. From my friends.
I could grab a potion bomb from my bag, but it would do no good. I was sure of it. The power was within me, the magic of Orion’s Heart, and it needed to go somewhere. The atomic bomb feeling intensified.
Rasla saw me and charged with a roar. I hurled myself at him, grabbing tight to him as my magic erupted. His grip sliced at me, sending electric pain through my limbs, but I was stronger. My power blasted into Rasla. He shrieked, flailing backward.
Before my eyes, he turned to ash and blew away on the wind.
But the Shadow Guild tower still vibrated with dark magic. The curse was alive and well.
“Why didn’t it work?” I cried.
The sounds of battle around us faded. The Obsidia had disappeared along with Rasla, but some of the dark magic remained, polluting the tower in front of us.
It called to me, singing a siren song that I couldn’t resist. Desperate, I hurried to a window on the first floor and scrambled through it, cutting my hands on the glass shards. I barely registered the pain.
“Wait up!” Mac’s voice sounded from behind me.
But I was already inside. Grey followed. We stood in a large, empty room that looked like it had housed only rats for the last four hundred years. Dust and barren stone walls echoed with Rasla’s evil curse.
Mac climbed in behind me, then Seraphia, Quinn, and Eve.
“I feel drawn here,” Quinn said.
“Me, too.” Eve stepped deeper into the tower.
“I feel better.” Mac’s voice had brightened. “The curse. I don’t feel it as much.”
“Neither do I,” Eve said.
“We had to come in here,” Mac said.
“It’s still polluted, though,” I murmured. I could feel it like I could feel the pull of gravity. “His stain is still on this place.”
I walked forward, searching for the source of whatever called to me. An enormous fireplace beckoned from the far side of the room. A black gem was set into the stone mantle,
gleaming dully with evil. My magic surged to the surface, and my palms itched to touch it.
“Your eyes are going wild again, mate,” Mac said. “Neon green.”
The black stone beckoned. When I pressed my palms against it,
I could feel the darkness inside the stone, inside the walls. But goodness, too. I pushed my magic into the gem, willing it to drive the curse away. Warmth flowed through my muscles and bones, along with a sense of rightness.
“It’s working!” Mac said
I studied the stone in front of me, watching in awe as the gem began to turn dark red again. Slowly, the curse leeched from the walls, until the entire building felt…normal.
Exhausted, I pulled my hands away.
“Are you all right?” Grey gripped my shoulders, supporting me.
I leaned into him. “Yeah. Tired, but fine.”
“Your eyes look normal again.”
“I feel a lot more normal.” Finally, I was able to look at Grey properly for the first time.
He looked like hell. Pale and covered in deep gashes, blood covering most of his clothing and skin. His eyes were dull from pain or blood loss. Or both.
Fear shot through me, and I spun. “Where is Michael? We need a healing potion for Grey.”
“It’s—”
“Not fine.” I cut him off, knowing what he would say.
Michael shoved his huge body through the window and climbed inside. He took a potion from the cuff at his wrist and handed it to Grey, then disappeared again with some muttered words about seeing to the rest of the wounded.
Grey took the vial and drank it. The wounds knit themselves back together, and the color returned to his skin.
“How do you feel?” I asked.
“I’m all right. Don’t worry about me.”
How could I not, considering what I knew about us? About our fate?
I turned to Mac and Seraphia. “How do you feel?”
“One hundred percent.” Mac frowned. “That was so strange. Maybe I wasn’t really cursed at all, like the Curse Diviner said. Maybe I just needed to come here.”
“This place called to me,” Seraphia said. “It was trying to bring us here. We felt the effects of Rasla’s curse because this place was cursed. Not us.”
I spun in a circle, looking around at the dusty old room. It looked like a castle. A freaking dragon should appear any minute.
“So, what does this mean?” I asked.
“I think you have a guild.” Mac grinned widely. “And so do we.”
18
Carrow
The next day, I stood outside of Black Church with Mac, Seraphia, Quinn, Eve, and Grey. Cordelia sat at our feet, sunbathing on the stones. The morning was clear and bright. If I tried hard enough, I could pretend that yesterday had been a dream.
Only, it hadn’t been.
We really did have a guild. And fortunately, no one on our side had died in the battle.
Now, we were waiting for our meeting with the Council.
And this time, I’d been the one to call the meeting. I looked at Mac.
“Ready to go tell them who’s boss?” she said.
I nodded.
It’s you. Cordelia grinned up at me.
“Shhh. We can’t be so cocky about it,” I said. “I’m still the new girl in town.”
“Powerful new girl,” Eve said. “You’ve only been here a couple weeks, and you’re already a guild leader.”
After the battle yesterday, they’d all voted. The Shadow Guild tower had made it clear that the five of us were meant to be members. We still had no idea how the practicalities were going to work out, but the Council would require a representative.
My friends had chosen me.
I didn’t want the responsibility, but they wouldn’t take no for an answer. I’d driven the curse from the tower. In their eyes, that made me qualified.
I looked at Grey, and he gave me a nod. “It’ll be fine.”
The thing with the Shadow Guild—yes. I’d see to it.
The thing with him?
I had no idea.
“Let’s go,” Mac said. “It’s time.”
The six of us strode into the church. Though Grey wasn’t a member of our little guild, he was there as backup. I had no complaints.
In the main meeting room, the entire Council was waiting. When they caught sight of our group, they frowned. Only Cartimandua smiled. The leader of the Witches’ Guild looked more intrigued than confused, and it reaffirmed my decision that she was my favorite.
“Carrow Burton, I thought you were here to reapply for a guild?” asked Mateo, the leader of the vampires. Leader of all except Grey, of course. He didn't join anything—not even my guild. “Why do you have these people with you?”
Something flickered in Ubhan’s eyes. We hadn’t spoken to him since we’d broken into his office, but he knew things had changed. The entire Council knew about the tower on the far side of town—it was hard to miss, now that it had appeared—but Grey’s contacts said they were still uncertain about it.
I was here to enlighten them.
“As it happens, I have a guild.” I gestured to my friends. “The Shadow Guild. The tower that has reappeared after a long absence is ours.”
Murmurs rose, and several guild members stood. Ubhan stayed seated, his jaw set.
Cartimandua leaned forward. “You’ll have to start from the beginning.”
So I did, omitting the part about Orion’s Heart. We still weren’t entirely sure what role that power played, and it didn’t matter right now. I even confessed to breaking into Ubhan’s office, since I didn't want that hanging over my head.
I finished, and Nyla, the leader of the Mages’ Guild, turned to Ubhan. “Is this true?”
He nodded. “What they found in my office, yes. Their interpretation? I have no idea.”
“It’s sounds true to me,” Cartimandua said. “It makes sense that there would be a guild for those with unique powers. After all, we have members of our guilds who don’t quite fit.”
“This Rasla…” Nyla said. “He was a zealot?”
“As far as I could tell, yes,” I said.
“He was,” Grey said. “I knew him then, and I can confirm it. He’d likely have destroyed the tower altogether if it wouldn’t have weakened the city’s defenses to have an enormous hole in the wall.”
“Yet, you defeated him,” Cartimandua said. “And defended Guild City once again.” She turned to look at her colleagues. “I vote to accept Carrow as a member of the Council and to fully reinstate the Shadow Guild.”
There were some grumbles, primarily from Ubhan, but the vote went in our favor. When it was over, Cartimandua looked at me. “Congratulations. Now you get to come to meetings.”