‘Inesh,’ the mother whispers, her cloud of dark hair bobbing as she casts her gaze down. Nova was right: she does look haunted, as if she’s never learned how to sleep. ‘My daughter, or what was my daughter. Her name is Inesh.’
Dreska sits down beside her, taking her other hand. ‘I know what this is, the crushing weight of it, and I hope we can help you.’
The woman’s head bows, as though the weight truly is pressing down on her, the knowing that her daughter may never return. That she could live out her days with her ghost. ‘Thank you,’ she whispers. ‘Please. Please save her.’
Brielle glances at Nova then at Dreska. ‘I accept the assignment. I’ll do all I can for Inesh.’ Then she moves to the staircase, Nova at her heels. ‘Dreska, stay behind me, no sudden movements. If the wraith lunges for you, you block her, yes? Just like we talked about.’
‘Yes,’ Dreska says, curling her hands into trembling fists.
Brielle slips up the cramped staircase, following the scent of burning and the sound of pitiful crying. When she opens the door to the girl’s bedroom, she finds the wraith, crouched on a faded rug. Inesh is a pale apparition, a shadowy form of who she once must have been. Dark hair like her mother’s in a crop above her shoulders, a blue gown, thin shoulders. She glancesup as Nova slinks towards her, freezing as the familiar winds her tail round her knees. Her gaze is pinched, as though hungry, and sadness leaks from her, tendrils of it latching on to Brielle, dampening her mood instantly. She falls into her training, drawing up a mental barrier between herself and Inesh. A wraith cannot help but create misery, consuming all hope like a flame devours air, suffocating all the happiness you hold in your heart.
‘You’re not a cat,’ Inesh says, voice sharp and serrated. Then her eyes meet Brielle’s, before straying to Dreska. ‘You – you’re all so bright. Like walking stars …’
Now, Hunter, you will see why I’m of use. Tell the young one to shield herself and, if I forget who I am, bring me back.
‘Nova? What do you mean?’
Brielle blinks down at where the familiar was, and in her place she finds something monstrous. Fangs and claws and smoke, all in a tiny, vicious storm … A storm that is growing, expanding.
We familiars form a bond with a witch for a purpose, Hunter, and I’m afraid that my witch has been gone too long. I will try not to take too much.
‘Nova, talk to me,’ Brielle says, trying to still the shake in her voice as she steps in front of Dreska, shielding her with her own body. ‘What are you doing?’
Feeding.
Inesh snaps into full focus, eyes widening in terror as her gaze meets Brielle’s. ‘Please,’ she manages, before she’s engulfed.
Brielle freezes, heart pounding like a fist. Then it hits her, what a familiar is, what it … whatNovawants from this wraith. What feeds her.
‘Nova, no!’ cries Brielle as she leaps for the tempest of chaos and magic. She’s aware of Dreska, aware of the room, then almost at once, all there is around her is storm. Magic engulfs her, seemingly endless, depthless, a twisting swirl of night and stars and colour. She can barely see, barely breathe, as the world the wraith and familiar have made seems to expand and contract, where the rules of time and distance do not apply. ‘Nova!’
I’m here, Hunter, and nowhere, Nova purrs in her mind like the scrape of teasing claws.This wraith is a well of magic, almost depthless. Do you want to save her?
‘Do you?’ Brielle thunders, turning this way and that, ribbons of light and shadow and chaos dashing across her vision. ‘Did you ever intend to?’
Of course. Why do you think I suggested this assignment?
Then Nova is beside her, twice as big, all edges and sharpness, with none of the fat folds and feline fur of her usual form.
If I feed, I am no longer hungry. And the wraith no longer has an uncontrollable outpouring of magic. She’ll gain some control, enough to be a witch once more. One you can train. One you can ensure doesn’t become a wraith again.
Brielle narrows her gaze on Nova. ‘Have you been feeding off me? Dreska?’
A little, I admit. But you don’t taste right. Neither does this wraith, but food is food and hunger is hunger.
‘You like the taste of Lowri’s magic,’ she says with a shudder.
Nova, in her true form, turns to her, revealing rows of jagged teeth and eyes like the night.Yes. And now you know our secret. The greatest secret of our kind. What we only ever reveal to the witch we bond with, that we sustain ourselves by feeding on their excess magic. In your world, at least. Now, please…help me detach from this young witch. I cannot take too much.
A sudden surge of magic knocks Brielle backwards, and Nova whips round, facing the wraith, who is now once more in the shape of a girl.
Inesh.
Nova stalks forward, tail lashing, and pounces at the witch. Brielle gasps, staggering back as waves of magic explode and pummel her, Inesh’s cry a deafening roar.
Brielle blinks rapidly and throws out her hand towards Nova, speaking a word with the command of a witch.
‘Dimmita.’
