Dark Descent (Codex Blair Book 3) Read online

  Somehow, I didn't think that was going to go over very well.

  I had never been very good at being polite, and I had never even tried public speaking. I had no idea how that was going to go down, but I had a nervous feeling in my gut that it wasn't going to be good.

  "...and lastly, we have new faces to welcome into the fold." Lillai was smiling, her hands at her sides now, papers clutched in one hand. She had finished all her talking, and I wasn't sure how much time had passed.

  But now I was realising that my opportunity was presenting itself—she sounded like she was going to call out the new people.

  I was one of the new people, wasn't I?

  My heart began to pound, my mouth went dry, and my palms sweated. I tried to regulate my breathing, but the idea of getting up there and talking to so many people was enough to make me want to vomit.

  "Andrea Thomas, Ian Vincent, Henry Yewing, and Blair Sheach."

  Lightning seemed to jolt through me when she called my name, and I felt my stomach lurch.

  I sat up straight and watched as the other three people stood, so I did too. My limbs felt like wood, I couldn't get them to move where I wanted them too, and I seemed to have forgotten how to communicate from my brain to my body.

  I followed the trio up to the podium and took my place beside them.

  "It is always a joyous occasion to welcome new members of the community, to give them a safe harbour where they can rest their heads and relax from the tension that is our continued existence. I am pleased to welcome the four of you here today," she said, but when her eyes met mine her smile was tight.

  I tried, and failed to return it.

  I knew that woman didn't like me, but I had no idea why. I hadn't done anything to her to warrant such a reaction, all I had done was show up with Aidan. And it hadn't seemed like she'd disliked him, so why did she dislike me?

  The other three rattled off some canned thank you messages, then their eyes turned on me. Not in unison, but it was enough to freak me out.

  I should be speaking now, shouldn't I?

  Don't panic, Blair, you've got this.

  I took a deep breath and crossed in front of them to stand beside Lillai.

  "I have something I need to say, and I don't think you're going to like it very much," I said. Honesty is the best policy, right?

  Her features tightened even more, if that was possible.

  "It is normal to say thank you and take your seat." She hissed out the words from the corner of her mouth.

  "This situation is far from normal," I said, holding firm.

  The two of us stared at one another for several moments before she finally backed down.

  "It would appear that Ms. Sheach has something she would like to share with us," she said to the crowd, offering them a generous smile before she took a few steps back and to the side, freeing up the podium.

  I dragged in another breath—Gods, I was going to be lightheaded before this was all over—and turned to face the audience.

  "I'm sorry if what I'm going to say next does not have the poise you're accustomed to, but I'm not as good as Lillai." I might have meant more than one thing when I said that. "The night before last I encountered a succubus attacking a member of the community. I do not know who he was or even if he had connections to you all, but it is beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was a practitioner. There is evidence that suggests this succubus is acting outside of the norm, attacking in public without any caution. I'm not sure what you know about them, but I've been told that's fucking weird."

  There was a collective wince from the audience at my words, and I sighed. Way to go, Blair, ever the lady.

  "A succubus?" A voice called from the crowd. "Are you certain?"

  "I am," I said.

  "How can you be?"

  "It can't possibly be a succubus, that makes no sense."

  "She said it is one! We're all in danger if it's attacking members of the community."

  "We don't know that it's attacking members of the community, it only attacked one person."

  "That's what they said about the trials!"

  Panic began to take the crowd as they all threw their voices into the mix, crowding over one another to make themselves heard. I glanced back at Lillai and saw pure venom in her eyes—I hadn't handled that the way she'd wanted me to, that much was clear. Perhaps it would have been better to let her know what was going on and then have her handle informing the community.

  In retrospect, that would have been the much better choice.

  Sometimes I don’t make very good decisions. OK, more than sometimes.

  "Enough!" She called, sweeping her hands to either side in a definitive gesture, striding forward to stand beside me. "We cannot afford to fall into chaos and pandemonium, not if there is a true threat to our people."

  "But Lillai—"

  "The Order won't stand for us to be killed!" A voice interrupted the one that had started to speak.

  "The Order doesn't give a flying fuck about us," another responded.

  Well, that was interesting. I had always thought that the community of London would be deeply entrenched with the Order, but I was beginning to see that this was a mish mash of hedge witches and the like. People the Order wouldn't care about, people that would have to band together to keep themselves safe. That made so much more sense now that I thought about it.

  I should have reached out sooner; it had partially been my fear that coming here would reveal me to the Order that had kept me away. That, and the fact that I hate crowds, and I hate socialising.

  "Do you not trust me?" Lillai spoke with a gentle voice, and somehow, she brought the hall to silence. "Do you not believe that I will see us through, as I have always done?"

  "Lillai...you cannot stand before a succubus." The voice belonged to a gentleman in the front, and his face combined hope and fear as he spoke. It seemed that he wished she could do so.

  She drew herself up to her full height. "Together we are strong, as we have always been, and I will not allow danger to enter our doors. This…” she said, pausing to glare at me, “…is why we do not bring in those who have just shown up." She pointed at me, "This is why we are careful."

  "But I've heard of her." A woman stood at the far left of the front of the crowd. "She's, The Hunter."

  Lillai turned towards me again, shock in her eyes now. "You're the what?" She said.

  "Um. No, no, I-I, uh, I don't think I am," I said, stuttering a bit and lifting a finger up like a schoolchild who needed the toilet. "You must have me confused with someone else."

  "My brother told me about the girl with the blonde hair, wearing holsters like yours," the woman said, pointing at my thighs. "You've been fighting creatures. Defending the community. You've never shown your face here before."

  "You clearly have me mistaken," I said, shaking my head. "I'm not anyone special. These," I paused, lifting a wand. "These are mostly for show. To keep things at bay. I can't do much with them, I certainly couldn't hunt anything."

  Here my appearance worked against me. I was dressed in my normal jeans, t-shirt, hoodie, and leather jacket. I had my wands, my wind chain, my cuff, and my rings. Luckily, the dragon scale tattoo on my back that protected me from sneak attacks was not visible. If someone had seen that, I doubted I would have been able to talk my way out of this situation.

  But all of it together, with my platinum hair pulled back into a high pony tail, was enough to scream that I was a hunter. That I didn't have time for this because I had shit to do. And it was all true, but here I was desperately trying to persuade someone of the opposite—they might not be entrenched with the Order, but I didn't doubt that there was someone in the crowd who could get a missive out if they had a mind to do so.

  "Besides, if I was this mysterious hunter you're talking about, why would I come here to tell you about a succubus instead of just handling the damn thing myself?" I asked, and here the woman faltered.

  "That makes sense..." she said,
and other heads around her bobbed in agreement.

  "I'm sorry, I know it would probably make a lot of you feel better if you thought I was this person, but I'm not."

  I didn't want to take their hope away, I knew what a powerful tool it was, but I couldn't risk it.

  "Well," Lillai said, her gaze on me frosty before she turned a warm look out to the crowd. "Be that as it may. We must take this report seriously. No one should be out at night alone until we can figure out what is going on and what we can do to stop it."

  Well, fuck, I wasn't about to join any damn buddy system.

  "That's cool, well, I think I should go now. You all clearly have important things to work out. I think I'll be OK on my own. I have my own friends."

  "Indeed," she said, not looking at me. "You can go, now that you've dropped a bomb in my lap." Those last words she spoke very softly, so that only I could hear them.

  I had a feeling provoking Lillai was going to jump up and, as our American friends say, bite me in the ass.

  10

  Raven was waiting for me on my front porch; thankfully not just showing up inside the house after I was already inside.

  This time they had opted for their preferred form, the black raven I had first met on Tower Hill.

  “Blair.”

  "Hi, Raven," I said, aware that I felt more relaxed around them when they were in this form. When they were human I could see the disappointment in their eyes, in the firm set of their lips, in every movement they made. When they were a bird it was a lot harder to make out how they were feeling.

  I only had their tone to go by; but then again, that had a disappointed tinge to it more often than not.

  “Are you all right?”

  I tilted my head to the side as I walked up the steps and unlocked the door, running my hand along the wood as I muttered the necessary incantation.

  "You're actually asking how I'm doing?" They surprised me. They didn't do the whole 'human emotion' thing very well most of the time.

  “You have pointed out on occasion that my social skills are not what you would like. Your face has the markers of anxiety and tension. I am endeavouring to provide a more human experience for you.”

  "Funny you would do that as a bird." I chuckled at my own joke, waited for them to fly into the house, and shut the door behind. I raised the wards again.

  “I do not understand the joke.”

  I sighed. Of course not. Humour was often lost on Raven, either that or I was just not funny.

  "I just meant that it's a little funny that you would be trying to provide a human experience when you're in your bird form."

  A crackling sound exploded behind me, and I whirled around to find Raven in their human form. Their silver hair hung down to their shoulders, encased in a long sleeve grey button up. They tilted their head to the side as they looked at me, a small frown tugging at the corners of their lips.

  "Is this preferred? You know I do not like utilising this form unless it becomes necessary."

  "No, I didn't mean...I didn't mean you needed to be human, I'm sorry. It was just a joke, Raven."

  "You did not answer the question."

  "What?"

  "Are you all right?"

  "Oh," I said, blinking away the confusion. "Uh, yeah, I'm fine. I went to a forum for the magical community, warned them about the succubus on the loose, and it went as well as could be expected. A lot of panic, some of the people there are starting to figure out who I am, and that's dangerous. I don't think I should have gone." I took off both my jackets and the thigh harness, placing it on the table before I sat down on the couch, throwing the jackets onto the arm rest nearest me.

  "You are concerned that your reputation will catch up to you. Why?" They asked.

  "Oh, I thought it was obvious. If someone finds out what I'm capable of, they could report me to the Order, and I don't want to risk dying any more than I already do."

  They nodded their head. "That is very astute of you. The Order is not known for its kindness."

  "I know. You're the one who told me that."

  Raven had given me the low down on most of the magical communities currently active—the big players on the scene, not the little ones like I had just visited—back when I'd first met them. That was when Aidan was still alive and threatening to report me to the Order as soon as we finished with the necromancer that had been causing trouble at the time.

  Of course, he had never had the opportunity to do that. He'd died before he could.

  Silver lining? No. Not really. I would much rather have faced down the Order with Aidan at my side than to live in this confusing world without him.

  Had I attached too much meaning to a man I had only known for a brief amount of time? Who knows, but he was the first person who had understood all of me. He was the first person who had seen me for who I was and accepted me, even if he'd been an arsehole a lot of the time.

  Hey, foster kids have issues. Get over it.

  "How did the rest of the meeting go?" Raven asked, coming to stand in front of the coffee table between us.

  I shrugged. "I didn't pay attention to a lot of it, you know how I feel about people. Lillai was there—the shopkeeper Aidan took me to see two years ago? I think I've mentioned her. Anyway, apparently, she leads things there, and I'm sure she hates me. She couldn't have been colder towards me if I'd pissed on her dog."

  Raven blinked, one of their eyebrows lifting at the expression I used. Otherwise, they did not comment.

  "There were a few other people there that were new to the whole thing, but I didn't stick around for tea and cookies. I just went there, waited for my opportunity to tell them about everything, and then got the hell out of there. It was awkward enough standing in front of a big crowd and telling them that a succubus was sneaking around, ready to kill them."

  "Yes, I imagine most people would not be happy to receive such news." Raven took a few steps to the side, frowning. "You would think they would be grateful that you delivered the warning, though."

  "People in the middle of a panic don't have a lot of time to say thanks, I guess."

  "Mmm." Raven nodded. "Did you do your exercises this morning?"

  Ah, switching gears. Thankfully, I was prepared for this.

  "Yes, I did." I grinned, proud of myself. "It went rather well, I'd say."

  "Fantastic. Then you are up for a test."

  My smile died on my lips, and Raven's white teeth gleamed at me in their own version of a smile. I didn't want Raven to test me, but I was sure that they knew that. They knew how little I liked what we were doing, how much easier I thought Mal's lessons were than theirs, and I had a feeling they enjoyed that little comparison. As if somehow by having the harder lessons they thought that they were the better teacher.

  Hmph. In my opinion, the easier lesson is the better mark of a good teacher. But my experience was lacking in that regard.

  "Do you not feel up for a test, Blair? If you have been practicing, as you say, then it should be no problem for you," they said. I knew they were goading me but…this is me.

  I stood, glaring at them before I started for the basement. "Fine, we can have a test. But you're a dick."

  I heard them sneer, but they didn't say anything in response to my childish insult. We went down the stairs, I lit the candles, and we took our places sitting on the floor opposite one another.

  "What are we going to do this time?" I asked as I placed my hands on my knees.

  "I would like to see the strength of your shields." They watched my face for a reaction, but I was more than happy to keep that to myself.

  I didn't think my shields were up to Raven's standards, but that was the whole point of this. Nothing I did was up to Raven's standards, else they wouldn't be training me. They weren't the type of instructor that saw the point in praise, they saw the point in bettering their student. I should be grateful for that, but it could wear on a person if they didn't know better than to expect said praise.

 
"All right. We can do that," I said. I chewed on my lip for a minute, thinking about what I could do for that. Mental shields were a tough one, Aidan had practiced with me by trying to invade my mind and having me keep him out.

  A smile flirted with my lips as I remembered that memory. I had told him I'd hated him after he'd given me the mental walloping of a lifetime, but I hadn't meant it. Not all of it anyway.

  I wonder if he'd known that, or if he thought that I hated him. I felt a small twinge of guilt at the idea that Aidan would have thought I'd hated him at any point in time.

  "Close your eyes. Envision your wards, and I will attack," Raven said by way of instructing me, apparently having waited long enough for me to come up with an idea.

  I did as they asked, my eyes shutting automatically. Normally I wasn't so good at the following directions thing, but half a year of having a very intimidating immortal snap incessantly at you… well you would learn to do as you were told too.

  The first time I'd gone through this fight with Aidan, I had built a flexible bubble, designed to take in force and reflect it, so that it wouldn't wear out. But he had trumped that by slamming into it and letting the shield bend in on me, so that I felt the full force of the attack. I'd learned from that the hard way, and none of my shields had been flexible ever since.

  Now, I had a fucking fortress around my shields. Battlements and all, I even had a moat around the thing. You would think that was unnecessary, a simple decoration designed to make it easier to visualise. Well, that's where you're wrong. See, the moat was filled with energy that I had poured into it over time, and now whenever anyone tried to get near my walls, they were met with an attack of my own.

  I ran a mental check along my mental fortress, making sure every stone was in place. I didn't know how Raven was planning on getting around it, but I was ready.

  It should have been more obvious to me.

  They came in as a great bird of prey, swooping over my defences and flying right into the centre. I won't say I didn't have anything prepared for an attack of that nature, but I will say that I hadn't fucking expected them to come in as a Gods damned bird, OK.