Free Wintercraft: Legacy by Jenna Burtenshaw

Dalliah pressed her fingers firmly against Kate’s throat, forcing her to breathe in the black mist, then she thrust Kate’s hand deep into the hole in the wall.
    Kate expected the blackness to overwhelm her, but instead everything around her slowed and hung within one silent moment: Dalliah watching her; the spirit wheel illuminated in a blaze of orange, every symbol shining with a fiery light.
    ‘
Dalliah has returned
.’ A voice spoke within Kate’s mind, sad, yet proud, drawing her consciousness into the veil. ‘
She is ending us
.’
    ‘The veil is falling,’ Kate answered. ‘I don’t know how to stop it.’
    ‘
We know this
.’
    ‘What can I do?’
    The wheel’s glow faded from every tile except one.
    The snowflake symbol of Kate’s family. Then, on either side of the circle, two more illuminated. The bird and the bear.
    ‘I don’t know where Silas is,’ said Kate, recognising the bird’s meaning at once. ‘And Edgar . . . Edgar is gone.’
    ‘
No
,’ said the soul. ‘
You are three
.’
    ‘Edgar died. The Blackwatch . . . I couldn’t help him. I left him there.’
    ‘
He lives, as you do. His body lives on. He has returned to Albion
.’
    ‘Edgar is here?’ Kate could not contain the relief she felt as the burden of grief and guilt fell from her. Her energy sent a shiver through the stones.
    ‘
Dalliah knows her enemy is close by. She is ready
.’
    ‘I don’t know how to stop this,’ said Kate. ‘Tell me how to help you.’
    ‘
We are lost. You shall live on. You will be the first and the last
.’
    The blackness scratched at Kate’s back, like ants biting her skin. ‘The first what?’ she asked. ‘What can I do?’
    ‘
You will do what is necessary. Others shall show you the way. You cannot help me. Let me go
.’
    The wheel faded back to dull dead stone and Kate felt a tugging sensation in her chest as the spirit was drawn away, into the depths. Into the black.
    Kate’s soul was standing on the edge of an abyss. It would take only a slight touch to send her into it. She felt the creeping hands of the dark, the horrors of emptiness, the certainty of destruction.
    She pulled her consciousness back from the edge,dragging herself back into the living world. The darkness fell away. Her body ached and her hand felt heavy as she pulled it from the wall.
    ‘You are as ruthless as your ancestors,’ said Dalliah, who had not shared the conversation between Kate and the trapped spirit. ‘How do you feel?’
    Kate wanted to say that she felt dirty, sickened and hollow. She wished she had never stepped into that room, that tower, that city. The back of her hand had been sliced open and blood ran freely along her arm. Kate did not need to ask what Dalliah had done. Her blood had been used in veil-work before. Dalliah was not the first to recognise its power.
    ‘I was right about you, Kate,’ said Dalliah, her cold eyes bright with excitement. She took Kate’s hand again, and at her touch the cut healed perfectly. ‘Your blood is more powerful than I had hoped. You and I are going to achieve great things here.’

6
Traitor

    ‘Call the guards!’
    ‘Do not waste your breath.’ Silas marched towards a fresh-faced warden who was guarding the chambers’ main door. He disarmed the young man in two smooth moves and held the officer’s own dagger to his neck. ‘The High Council,’ he demanded. ‘Where are they?’
    ‘I can’t tell you that.’
    ‘Where?’
    Edgar winced as Silas dragged the warden’s head back, exposing the beating thread of the artery in his neck.
    ‘The meeting hall!’ said the warden. ‘They’ve been there since yesterday. No one goes in without authorisation.’
    ‘I do not need authorisation,’ said Silas. He pushed the warden against the wall and walked away.
    The warden watched Silas and Edgar leave, thenstepped outside and raised the alarm. ‘Enemy in the chambers!’ he shouted. ‘Ring the bells!’
    The sharp clang of metal echoed around the