Dead Warlock: Arcane Inc. Book 5 Read online

  “Your laws don’t do a good job of protecting those who oppose you, but we’ll get to that later. Tell us now how you persuaded those less inclined to join your alliance?”

  “I have already answered that question,” she said agitatedly.

  “Well, I have heard that you used a variety of less than savoury tactics to convince them. Or force them would be a better descriptor. Witnesses have told me that dynasts who refused to join you were replaced. You inspired rebellions in covens to force them to appoint knew dynasts.” At this Clara shook her head, but Nick was not finished. “Those sorcerers who rejected your rule were imprisoned. Some forced to wear iron as a condition of their freedom. Effectively you took their magic. That was the choice you gave the rebels, their magic or their freedom. For some uncooperative dynasts you took hostages to ensure their compliance. It doesn’t sound like everybody agreed with your rhetoric,” he said, cocking his head to the side inquisitively.

  “Do you have any witnesses to corroborate these claims?” she asked quietly.

  Nick looked right into her eyes. “Yes, I do,” he said slowly, enjoying each word. He waved his hand and Ben escorted the witness out. I’d seen him before. He’d been present at the hearing I’d been invited to. He was one of the dynasts. He had thin grey hair and was balding in the middle. He was dressed in a tweed suit. He was escorted to the witness stand to the side of the patio. Once he was settled into his chair Nick continued.

  “Can you tell us how your coven came to join the alliance?” Nick asked in a gentle voice. He really was in his element bringing Clara down. I suppose if someone buried a knife in my heart and dropped me in a box in the ocean I’d be pretty pissed off too. Even if it was deserved.

  “Reginald, please,” Clara whispered, but he ignored her.

  “Initially I refused,” the man said. His voice was muffled but I could still make out what he was saying. “Clara took my… she took my granddaughter as a hostage. She still has her as a prisoner somewhere. She said if I cooperated then my Jenny would be okay.” He looked distraught as he told his story. I looked at Clara in disbelief and saw from the look of despair in her face that it was true.

  “What did she say she would do if you didn’t cooperate?” I asked, speaking for the first time. Nick took this as a good sign as he grinned lavishly, and his eyes twinkled.

  “Well, other sorcerers had been bound with unremovable iron bracelets. I guessed that she would do the same to Jenny,” Reginald said.

  “Did she ever execute any of the sorcerers from the covens?” I asked.

  Reginald glanced at Clara and then back at me. “It was mainly only warlocks she executed,” he admitted. “But there were a couple of our own she put to death.”

  “With good reason!” she shouted.

  “Order please!” Nick said.

  “I only executed those who had killed members of the Alliance. Reginald stop this farce. You cannot trust him no matter what he’s offered you,” Clara said beseechingly.

  “He’s only offered me my Jenny back. Only a monster would take her away.”

  “She’s not in prison, she’s living with my father, being taught the ways of magic by him. Isn’t that a good thing?”

  “Not when it is against the will of her family,” Nick explained. I was shocked that Clara needed that to be explained to her. I didn’t think my opinion of her could get any lower after she’d kidnapped me, but it was gradually plummeting.

  “Reginald, please tell us what you know about Clara’s plans for Eddie Lancaster,” said Nick, pointing up at me.

  “She’s already told me,” I said, waving the matter aside. “She wants me to de-magic all the warlocks so she can release them after they’ve been caught.”

  Reginald look up at me with pity. “There’s more to her plans than that, young man,” he said in a croak. Clara hid hear face in her hands as she accepted the fact that this trial had well and truly been lost. She’d had no hope from the start. And now I was starting to realise that Nick may have been right. My mind may well be about to change after all.

  “Tell me,” I instructed Reginald, my cold gaze never leaving Clara.

  Chapter Thirty

  Reginald looked up at me a little awkwardly. He could sense the shift in my demeanour. He glanced over at Nick who urged him to start talking. “The original suggestion was to employ you to de-magic the warlocks,” he said slowly. I thought maybe he was afraid that he would receive some of my ire for what he was about to tell me. “But it was soon agreed that it wasn’t feasible. Warlockry would always be a thing and you would eventually die. Not to mention it was improbable that you would be willing to dedicate your life to fighting the very thing that you are. So, a new plan was proposed.”

  “Proposed by whom?” asked Nick. The island was so quiet now. Even the wind seemed to have died down for this.

  “Clara. She proposed that we find a way to replace your ability so it could be done without you. She sanctioned experiments to be conducted on you in order to achieve this. It was then agreed that after your ability had been replicated you would be… neutralised.” He had difficulty getting the last word out.

  “Neutralised?” I repeated. Eyebrows high on my forehead.

  “You would be relieved of your ability and if that was not possible then you would be imprisoned for life or…” he left it hanging. He was too frightened of what I might do to him if he finished the sentence.

  “Executed?” offered Nick and Reginald nodded timidly.

  I sat glaring angrily at Clara, trying to decide if I was angry enough to sentence her to death. My feelings were such a whirlwind inside me. I knew that if I moved it would be in blind anger. I knew that I had to stay my hand until I was calm. That was what Ashley would tell me. Gabe would probably advise the same thing.

  “What were Clara’s plans for all the magic she took from the warlocks?” asked Nick.

  “It would be returned to those families it was stolen from,” she said before Reginald could get her into any more trouble. “Given to the parents or the children of those murdered by the warlock.”

  “If that was possible,” Reginald added. Nick looked at him inquisitively. I wasn’t that interested in what he was saying anymore, I was still hung up on the whole neutralisation plans. “It isn’t always possible to trace the magic back to its source family. Most of the time you can’t unless they recognise the warlock. In those situations the magic would be stockpiled for future needs.”

  “Such as?” said Nick.

  “There was a proposal to create a way to track warlocks.”

  “Any other proposals?”

  “There was a suggestion…” Reginald shrugged. Nick urged him on again. “With enough magic it might be possible to eradicate the… vampires.” That got my attention.

  “You planned to commit genocide?” I asked Clara in wonder. This trial was full of surprises. Clara was far more ruthless than I ever imagined.

  “No, it wasn’t my suggestion and I didn’t approve it,” she said testily.

  “But the rest is all true?” Nick asked.

  She was silent for several moments. She seemed to trying to figure out the best course of action. The best way to try and survive this. She drew in a long breath and then held her head eye. For a second the Supreme Dynast was back. “Yes,” she said calmly and decisively.

  I stood up, a blanket of rage had been thrown over me. Nick stepped away from Clara as I approached. Each step I took was slow but firm. My feet played out a heavy beat to a very dangerous song. “I have only ever been an ally to you,” I growled. “I’ve worked with you. Helped you. And this. This!” I stopped before her box literally shaking with anger. “This is how you treat me?”

  “Eddie--”

  I slashed my arm through the air and she flew out of her box and tumbled across the patio. She stopped rolling and slowly pulled herself onto all fours. I thrust my hand forwards and forced her back down to the ground. With her face pressed to the concrete I drag
ged her body across the patio, opening scrapes and cuts across her face. Her clothing tore and wounds opened up beneath. I released her at the edge of the patio where she lay panting, holding back tears. “No magic to heal your wounds now,” I mocked. “How would you like to be neutralised?” I approached her once again. When I reached her I dragged her up into the air so her face was before mine. A single tear rolled down her cheek. I walked forwards, pushing her back until we were right on the edge of the cliff. It was a long way down and the fall would be a very nasty way to die.

  “I’ve tried my best,” she sobbed. “All this was put on me. I never wanted it. But I took the responsibility I was given. I tried to keep everybody safe. Dean was right. He told me so many times. My motives were pure, but my methods flawed. I had a duty to my people to protect them from his people.” She pointed at Nick. “That meant rules, regulations, order. That meant punishments when those rules were broken. That meant doing questionable things when the good it would achieve outweighed the bad. Yes, I’ve made mistakes, but can you honestly say you would have done better?”

  She had me there. I was pretty certain I would have done a lot worse than she did.

  “Eddie stop listening to her,” Nick said brashly. “Kill her and be done with it.”

  I raised my hand and she floated a little higher off the ground. My anger was abating, whether it was naturally because of time or because of what she’d said I wasn’t sure. She held my gaze and all of her hardness was gone. She was just a woman now, a person just like me who had had a load of responsibility dumped on them and was trying to figure out what to do. If the look she gave me didn’t make me rethink my decision her words did. “Eddie, please,” she sobbed.

  I dropped my hand and she landed softly on her feet. She took a quick step forwards away from the edge of the cliff. “I will not kill her,” I said evenly. I turned to look at Nick but was unable to read his expression. “She has done wrong, but I believe taking her magic is punishment enough. As long as she steps down as Supreme Dynast and stays out of all supernatural affairs from now on I’m happy for her to live. Make her leave the country if that’s what it takes, but I’m not going to take her life.”

  Clara looked at Nick triumphantly. She’d won the impossible. She’d played his game, taken part in his farcical trial and she’d won. Sort of. She got to keep her life.

  “You look down your nose at us. All of you sorcerers do,” Nick said menacingly as he stepped forward. “Warlocks. Scum. Unnatural vermin. Let me tell you, Clara, we will not be pushed around. We will not be controlled. Detained. De-magicked. We will not bow down to anybody. We are warlocks. We are elite.” He stopped so close that their noses were almost touching. His furious face glared into her hateful one. I admired that she didn’t shy away. A powerless sorcerer was squaring up to the most powerful warlock in the world. “Unlike you we were not born with magic. We were born with nothing. We had to fight for what we have. We had to earn it. Something that you and your kind know nothing about. You entitled cretins think you’re so much better than us. You lord around telling us what to do and taking what we have earned. You are not better than us!” his voice rose to a shrill scream. His eyes began to redden as his rage grew. “I may have been born with nothing but look at me now. I have risen from the bottom to the top of the supernatural food chain. And look at you. You and your people are insects to me. I am your superior in every way. And it all started with this.” He held out his hand and the Ambrotos Dagger flew up from his boot and into his waiting grasp. He chuckled to himself. “It’s funny, how I came into the world with nothing and that’s exactly how you’re leaving it.” He stabbed the blade directly into her heart, forcing it in right up to the hilt, holding her by the shoulder to stop her from falling. Her eyes widened and let out a strangled sob as blood pooled around the hilt of the dagger. “How does it feel to be stabbed in the heart? Unpleasant, isn’t it? I don’t have a box handy for you, so you’ll just have to do without.” He brought up his foot and booted her in the stomach, forcing her off of the blade. I watched in horror as she tumbled backwards over the edge. Her body bounced off the cliff face on her way down leaving an ugly trail of blood. It landed misshapen and lifeless at the bottom where the tide caught it and dragged it out to sea.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  I had to take a minute to clarify in my mind what I’d just seen. Nick killed Clara. He stabbed her in the heart and then threw her off the cliff. That really just happened. I peered over the edge again, but Clara’s body was long gone. She was dead. There was definitely no going back now, that was the biggest declaration of war we could’ve made. But we didn’t make it. Nick did.

  “I said I didn’t want to kill her,” I said, breaking the silence. He was still staring at the place where Clara had been standing, the bloody dagger in his hand. He turned when he heard me speak as if being woken from a daze.

  “You didn’t seriously think she was going to accept your terms, did you?” He wiped her blood from his blade with the hem of his shirt and then returned it to his boot.

  “You didn’t give her a chance to consider,” I argued.

  “No. That’s because killing her was always part of the plan. I had hoped you would do it, but you couldn’t see the benefit, so I did it myself,” he said with a shrug.

  “You mean to say that was part of the plan? Because it looked like you just lost your temper and murdered her.” What shook me the most was that I knew I’d been in similar tempers in the past. I knew how it felt to get so angry you just killed someone. Two police officers at Mote Park, three-hundred people at the Hazlitt Theatre, Rachel.

  “Killing Clara was strategy,” he assured me. “With her death the Alliance will crumble. Those who remain to fight will die.” He turned to Reginald who was trembling on the witness stand. “Reggie! Head back to the AOC and deliver those sentiments to your people. Ben, escort him off the island.” Ben led Reginald away by the arm. Nick was not yet finished giving out orders. “Selina!”

  She appeared at his side in an instant. That was good service. Almost as good as Gabe. “Retrieve the body. Send it to Arthur Winters.”

  “So you’re planning on killing more people then?” I asked as we stepped away from the edge.

  “This is war, Eddie.” He sighed and turned to face me. “Have you changed your mind about things? These people knew the risk they were taking when they declared war on us. Remember that, the alliance came after the warlocks first. Everything is happening because of them.”

  “I don’t know. This all seems a bit much. Shouldn’t we try to come to some sort of truce with them?”

  “Ha! There’ll be no truce now. No, there is no deal they would make that will allow us the freedom we deserve. They would have us subjugated by them. I will offer them peace if they stand down and disband. That is the only offer they will get.” He looked at me with one of his hard, penetrating stares. Then he sighed in disappointment. “Clearly you need to think this through. Go home, Eddie. Come back when you’re tired of being pushed around.” Nick turned away and stormed off to the villa leaving me alone in the mock courtroom. He was right I did need time to think. I needed to figure out if I really wanted to ally myself with the guy who just murdered the head of the AOC. I closed my eyes and teleported home.

  “Jesus!” Gabe screamed when I appeared right next to him in the living room. He leaped up and shot across the room, clutching his heart dramatically.

  “Nick taught me to teleport,” I said quietly. I was still shocked by it all.

  “That was nice of him,” Gabe said as he regained his composure. By the look on his face his opinion of Nick had not improved. It wasn’t likely to if I told him what had just happened either.

  I looked out the window at the darkening street. It had been a long day. A busy day. A highly unusual day. Was Clara my friend? I felt like she might have been once, before she locked me up. Now she was gone. Because of me. I could hardly blame Nick when he would never have been able to get into
that building without me. He might have pushed the blade in, but I led her to the slaughter.

  “Did the plan work?” Gabe asked. I nodded. “Then why are you so miserable?” He sounded concerned. For now, he’d forgotten that he was angry about Sabrina. Or maybe he’d gotten over it.

  “Clara’s dead. Nick killed her,” I said, still staring out at the street. I was expecting the alliance to come for me at any moment. But they wouldn’t. They were trembling in Cedarstone, trying to hold it together. They weren’t even thinking about me right now.

  “I thought that was the plan? Kill the AOC?” he said. He seemed to have a better idea of Nick’s intentions than I did.

  I shook my head. “I don’t know. It doesn’t feel right. If Ashley was here she’d be yelling at me right now. Telling me to get out of her house.”

  “Ashley’s not here,” he said gently. “And I think she’d be more understanding, considering Clara kidnapped you.”

  “Ashley wasn’t always that understanding, actually,” I told him. There were times when she’d judged me for things I’d done whilst under the influence of a curse. Although she had helped to save me from that curse in the end. “I can’t be here.”

  “You just got here?” Gabe questioned.

  “Ashley would not approve of what I’ve taken part in. I can’t be in this house. Her sisters want it anyway. Call the others, move all my things to Sittingbourne Road, I’ll be living with you from now on. Put Ashley’s things in my storage unit. It’s empty now anyway.” I’d moved all my magic things to the house when I’d moved in.

  “Eddie, don’t be so hard on yourself. Part of war is making tough decisions. There will always be casualties, you just have to make sure it’s not your people dying.”