A Tithe of Blood and Ashes (The Drake Chronicles Book 7) (7 page)

“I have ever been the Cailleach, but you would have the Black Annis, who eats children and sucks their bones dry. I didn’t
take
your parents’ future children,” she added. “They were
given
to me, without my consultation. The spell was cast before I was summoned.”

I didn’t know if that made it better or worse.

“They assumed, but you at least, have asked directly. You are fierce and brave enough to be my daughter.”

I swallowed thickly, waiting for her to continue. What if she asked for something I couldn’t, or wouldn’t, give? How did you tell a goddess ‘thanks but no thanks’? I hadn’t exactly thought that far ahead.

“I prefer whiskey,” she cackled.

I blinked, wondering if I’d heard wrong. Could old lady goddesses go senile? “Um, that’s it? Whiskey?” I’d anticipated something more. Something
gross
, to be honest.

“On every new moon, poured over a grey stone. For as long as you expect the shield to hold, for as long as you call these mountains home.”

“Deal,” I said, quickly before she changed her mind.

“Deal,” Nicholas agreed. “You’ll have twice the whiskey.”

The Cailleach began to fade, turning to snow and wind and ice.

“Wait,” Rosa said frantically, shoving closer. “Wait, we need another shield.”

“You can summon Black Annis,” the old woman smiled, her teeth suddenly smeared with blood. They were the last to vanish. “If you dare.”

And then the Hel-Blar were back.

This time they were drawn to the blood Rosa had tossed everywhere, not to me.

I didn’t know that at first. Adrenaline sparked through me, bright as fire.

Nicholas paused. “Um, Lucy?”

I blinked away the tiny blue fireflies floating in front of my eyes. Adrenaline had never done that to me before “Yeah?”

“You’re kinda going invisible.”

The lights exploded into fireworks when I looked down.

“I can sort of see your silhouette,” he said. “But only if I focus really hard,” he continued. He turned away to stake a Hel-Blar.

Another wave of adrenaline crashed against my bones and breath. The fireworks intensified. “Is this the shield spell?” I murmured. “I go invisible when I’m scared now.”

The stars were bright and curious as cat eyes overhead, but they had no answers. Neither did the standing stone or the mountain. The Winter Hag didn’t show her blue face to offer any convenient explanations. As the anxiety faded, so did the flicker of tiny lights. I was sharply delineated against the snow once again. I was a little lightheaded.

I didn’t just go invisible.

I drooped like a wilting tulip. My eyes were open, tracking the fight, the ashes, the grinding of fangs. I could see it all, even as it loomed over me, but I couldn’t react. I couldn’t speak, couldn’t move, could only lie there invisible, purportedly safe, but more vulnerable than I’d ever been in my life. Someone’s boot slammed into the snow right by my face. They couldn’t see me either. It wasn’t just the Hel-Blar. I fought against it until a scream built in my lungs, but even it wasn’t released.

I wanted to fight but I could only lie there.

When the last Hel-Blar was finally dispatched, I felt myself shimmer back into view. I choked on the scream and my own breath.

It was just like I’d told my parents.

Magic always has a price.

***

It had been a full month since the night of the shield spell.

I hadn’t seen Hel-Blar except on patrol when I actively sought them out. It was the new moon again and even though I could have poured the promised whiskey on a stone in our garden, which my parents were doing right now, it seemed more appropriate to return to the standing stone.

I wasn’t surprised to find Nicholas by a little fire he’d started for me. He didn’t need it, of course, even with the frigid crunch of ice falling from the bare branches all around us. I was wearing every sweater I owned.

“Are you ready?” He asked, handing me a bottle. “Bruno sent this. He said it’s the best whiskey in Scotland.”

“It’s weird to have a problem that isn’t caused by vampires,” I teased him.

“Give us time,” he smiled back. “I’m sure we’ll come up with something.”

“You always do,” I agreed.

A crack of a branch sent adrenaline soaring through me. I reached for a stake. Maybe the shield hadn’t worked as well as we thought. Maybe the Hel-Blar had just been waiting to descend as an army. Blue lights shimmered and sparked around me.

“It’s only my brothers,” Nicholas said softly.

I took a deep breath, willing the adrenaline to peter out. Mom had finally got her wish: I had to take up meditation. If I got scared, I went invisible, slipping into that fugue state that was far more terrifying than any vampire attack.

“Did you just disappear?” Logan asked, crossing out of the woods.

“Only a little.”

“Get bitten by a radioactive spider lately, kid?” Duncan asked.

“That’s Spiderman,” Connor said.

“I’m Invisible Girl,” I added. “Ms. Shield? I’ll work on it.” Hunter and I could roam the streets like sister superheroes.

“I’ll get you a cape,” Logan hugged me with a grin.

“And a theme song,” I said, concentrating on my breathing. “I totally need my own theme song.” I stared at my hand, hoping it wouldn’t vanish. It stayed just an ordinary hand. It took a lot to scare me when I was with all seven Drake brothers.

“You’re all here,” I said, more touched than I’d like to admit when I realized there were seven ridiculously handsome brothers circled around me. “It’s like I have my very own vampire army,” I said. Quinn winked at me. “Or my own vampire boy band,” I amended.

Duncan snorted. “If you ever want your car to run you will never say that again.”

I grinned. He was the only one who was able to coax life out of my car’s pathetic engine. “Don’t worry, you’d be the rebel.”

“Just pour, Invisible Girl.”

I tipped the whiskey bottle over the standing stone. The whip of alcohol burned my nose.

Nicholas, Logan, Quinn, Connor, Duncan, Marcus, and Sebastian all followed suit. I coughed. “Magic smells like a frat house.”

“You’re thinking of beer,” Quinn corrected me.

“Hanging out at frat houses, are you?”

“I’ve been to a sorority house or two,” he said primly.

“In Violet Hill?”

“They’re the real secret society of the Violet Hill. Other towns have conspiracy nuts and we have cheerleaders.” He kissed my forehead. “Don’t tell Hunter.”

I pulled his hair, knowing he was kidding. “Like she doesn’t already know.”

“Speaking of whom, I have a date. See ya.”

The brothers all drifted away until it was just me and Nicholas and the fire and the stars. His arms slid around me, tugging me closer. “Don’t disappear on me.”

“On you? Never.”

His lips were cool, like the best ice cream on the hottest summer day. The kiss was long and dark and deep. It consumed us until I was tingling all over and wishing I could lose a few of my confining sweaters. Snow fell lightly, melting into prisms on my eyelashes. Nicholas kept kissing me, dragging his mouth across my throat until my skin hummed. My tongue darted out to slide along his in the most fun kind of revenge.

We finally pulled apart when the wind blew the fire into coals.

There was a strange sound in the darkness, reminding us that this was Violet Hill.

Nicholas’s nostrils flared. “I don’t think that’s a Hel-Blar,” he said tightly. “But it’s definitely unfriendly.”

Blue fireflies danced around me as my edges blurred out like I was being erased. I made my breaths even and slow until they faded. The cure was worse than the medicine. I’d rather fight exposed, than not at all.

I grinned at Nicholas, a stake in each hand. “Here we go again.”

About the Author

Alyxandra Harvey lives in a stone Victorian house in Ontario, Canada with a few resident ghosts who are allowed to stay as long as they keep company manners. She loves medieval dresses, used to be able to recite all of The Lady of Shalott by Tennyson, and has been accused, more than once, of being born in the wrong century. She believes this to be mostly true except for the fact that she really likes running water, women’s rights, and ice cream.

Aside from the ghosts, she also lives with husband and their dogs. She likes vanilla tea, tattoos and books.

Alyxandra can be found on the web at
www.alyxandraharvey.com

Fun Facts

- Favorite food - Gingerbread! I especially like Gingerbread People so I can bite their heads off!

- Favorite movies: Pride and Prejudice, The Mummy, Lost in Austen, Harry Potters...

- Favorite time to write - Lately I’ve been writing longhand in a notebook at night. There's something about the quiet and the sleepy dogs all around.

- Hearts at Stake was nominated and won the award for the Ontario Library Association's White Pine Award, and Haunting Violet was the Honourary Book for the OLA Red Pine Award.

- Favorite book of all time -The Wood Wife by Terri Windling. I’ve read half a dozen times! I also adore Maggie Stiefvater’s The Scorpio Races and Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone.

Also by Alyxandra Harvey:

The Drake Chronicles:

Hearts at Stake (Book 1)

Blood Feud (Book 2)

Out for Blood (Book 3)

Bleeding Hearts (Book 4)

Blood Moon (Book 5)

Blood Prophecy (Book 6)

A Killer First Date, Corsets and Crossbows (novella)

Haunting Violet

Stolen Away

A Breath of Frost (Lovegrove Legacy #1)

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

A TITHE OF BLOOD AND ASHES

All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2014 by Alyxandra Harvey

http://alyxandraharvey.com/

Cover by: Kelly Crimi

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Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.