Myth Bane (Waking Legends Book 1) Read online

  Myth Bane

  Kit Hallows

  Contents

  1. Into the trees

  2. The end of the beginning

  3. A half forgotten place

  4. Memories of magic

  5. Clayton

  6. Unsee me

  7. Underground

  8. The needle and the sphinx

  9. London past

  10. Mr. Green

  11. A pocket of time

  12. Contact

  13. Albion Street

  14. For a silver penny

  15. Hellion Parasites

  16. The Seven Stars

  17. Tanglewylde

  18. Middlewytch Crake

  19. Crippen

  20. ‘The Hobbe and Sixpence’

  21. Hinkiepunks

  22. Art

  23. A visitor at midnight

  24. Eyes half closed

  25. The wall

  26. Bad weather

  27. The lands of the living & the dead

  28. Bells beneath the earth

  29. Bloody Willows

  30. A dream to the past

  31. Dark harvest

  32. A conspiracy of myths

  33. Old Garrick

  34. Arabella

  35. High Tea

  36. Lost

  37. The ghost in the maze

  38. Exits

  39. The truth

  40. Bloody fruit

  41. Atropa B

  42. The wolf and fox

  43. Bait

  44. Alderhaigh Moor

  45. The circle

  46. Portal

  47. Oak, alder and birch

  48. A wall of thorns

  49. Aelther

  50. The dark mother’s gift

  51. Treasure

  52. Ursa Blackguard

  53. Of paintings and prophecies

  54. The night lands

  55. Darkness. Light.

  56. The cave

  57. Endings

  58. Invisible Roots

  59. Of magic and rage

  60. Isolde

  61. Keepsakes

  62. Home

  Epilogue

  Dark Covenant

  Read on for a preview of Dark City, the first in The Order of Shadows series!

  Dark City

  Book Two

  Also by Kit Hallows

  Afterword

  About the Author

  1

  Into the trees

  William Rose hadn’t died. That dark, momentous event was due in two days, but he felt dead. Like he’d passed from the earth and was little more than a cluster of particles hanging in the air.

  A part of him was aware he was asleep in an apartment building in London. But as the scenery shifted from an overturned pub, with the bar, beers and his friends suspended from the ceiling, to a midnight blue cloud of swirling vapors, he knew he was on his way to somewhere else. A place far from a dream.

  Terror punched through his gut as his surroundings darkened and his body solidified around him, like it had leaped from his bed and followed him into this impossible place. “No!” he shouted, “stop!”

  Slowly, the velvet darkness bloomed with dusky reds and emerald greens and Will found himself standing in a forest. A real life, knock on wood forest with giant, towering trees.

  The lush canopy of the leafy branches held the rich twilit splendor aloft while they cast their shadows upon the mossy dappled earth. Their trunks were high and round, the bark gnarled and ancient. Wreaths of mist hung in the cool, fresh air like ghostly shrouds and the earthy aroma was vivid, pungent and real.

  It wasn’t real of course, and yet it was there, right before him. And not for the first time. He shivered, and fought to quell his rising panic. There would be a way out. There had to be a way out.

  Will stumbled on, the drifts of russet leaves crackling beneath his feet as he wandered along a trail dogged by grasping brambles that snagged his hands, bringing a distinctly un-dreamlike throb of pain. “It’s not real,” he said as he glanced back, half hoping to find a door to return him to his dreams, but if there’d ever been one, it was gone.

  He rubbed the side of his pounding temples as the hangover that had thundered in the background like a silent storm as he’d slept, held him in its grip. His throat was as dry as bone and his twenty-five-year-old body suddenly felt older than time. Each joint was as stiff as the fallen tree before him with its unearthed roots hanging down like tendrils.

  “Hello?” he called. No one answered. As he glanced through the forest he realized he’d been there before, but the memory flickered like quicksilver and vanished from his mind.

  As Will spotted the large stone building nestled amongst the brambles he slowed. Its sloped roof was green and brown with moss, its leaded glass windows obscured by dust. Its heavy wooden door was ajar, and vivid silver beams of light blazed within. The place was a mystery his curiosity yearned to explore, but his instincts warned him to avoid.

  I need to go back, he thought, and closed his eyes. He willed himself to wake in London, back to the bed where Charlotte lay beside him, her soft arms entwined through his, her breasts…

  “You’re here. Finally.”

  Will opened his eyes to find a figure flitting out from the house. She was a sinewy woman with a long, angular face and with each indignant step, the frayed blue and mauve patchwork squares of her skirt seemed to shift and jumble. Then her piercing eyes glowed lilac as they fixed on his.

  “I need to get out here,” Will said. He nodded back the way he’d came. He’d had more than enough of the eerie looming trees, the overpowering scent of damp earth, and the strange metallic jingling tone that made him think of pockets full of old coins. It was impossible, all of it, yet it tainted the very breeze ruffling his dark unruly hair, making it even more vivid. Had someone spiked his drink? It was possible. Except…

  “Wait,” the woman called as she hurried to catch up to him.

  “I’m sorry,” Will called, “but I have to get back. This place is impossible. I can’t be here.”

  “How can you go back if you’re not here?”

  Will shrugged and was about to stumble away, to where he had no idea, when a thin, silver light that fizzled like a beam of electricity shot from the house. It pierced the woman’s chest like a javelin, and struck Will, bringing a flash of warmth to his heart and whispers in his ears, the words nonsensical. “What the hell’s going on?” He turned to follow the zig zagging line blazing through the trees but it vanished into the distant impenetrable gloom.

  “Faete!” the woman called, “and you’re as likely to take wing as you are to escape yours. Just as I can’t escape mine. But,” she held up a long, crooked finger, “we might change it still.”

  “Faete? I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about.” Will closed his eyes, his mind set. When I open my eyes, I’ll be where I belong, and I'll forget this ever happened.

  “You know exactly what I’m talking about. He hid you from us well, hid you from everyone, but the veil has been lifted. We’re in the gravest danger. You, me, everything.”

  “This is insane. It’s not real. It can’t be.” Will opened his eyes, hoping to find himself back in bed, but he was still in the forest.

  “Is that so?” the woman asked. “Then tell me, why can you feel the soft springy moss beneath your feet and smell the damp leaves and blackberries like you’ve never smelled them before. You know you’re here. You know you’re a part of this place and always have been, even if you continue to deny it.”

  “I don’t know anything. And like I said, I have to go. Take care.” Will closed his eyes again and this time he doubled his focus as he
imagined Charlotte, warm beside him and her…

  …and then he was gone.

  “Idiot. Sodden, willfully stupid fool! He’s as slow as dead eels and as stubborn as a bloody thorn.” She waved her hand and the silver beam that had connected her to Will and the heart of the forest began to fade.

  “You can hide it all you like, but they’ll know you meddled with the faetes, Morwen,” a slow, cautious voice said, as a stoat stepped from the gloom between the trees and joined her. It regarded her with its deep black eyes, shook its furry coat out and sniffed the air, its black tipped tail swishing the leaves.

  “So be it, Asral,” Morwen said. “Because either way the forest’s waking and things are about to change, and not for the better. That boy’s got serious trouble coming to him, and it’s going to shake his little boat from its stream and set it upon a stormy sea. Whether he wants it or not.”

  “He’s not exactly a boy.”

  “Five and twenty years should certainly make him a man, but he’s been cosseted and hidden away like a child. No, he should have listened to me. Does he want to die? Where will he be then?”

  “Dead?”

  “True,” Morwen conceded. “And then where will we be?”

  “Also dead?”

  “Indeed.” She frowned as she gazed into the trees. The forest was stirring, albeit slowly, but it was waking. She watched the bats flitting over the House of faete, a bad omen as if they needed one.

  “Maybe it’s time to wake the Court,” Asral suggested.

  “No.” Morwen shook her head. “That would break the accord. If we wake the Court, the other side will wake as well. And then we’ll have them as well as the humans to deal with. It’ll be a massacre. Far worse than the last.”

  “So what can we do?”

  “Hope the imbecile wakes up,” Morwen glanced back to where Will had stood mere moments ago. “He has the strength we need. If he can find it.”

  “You said he’s going to die the day after tomorrow. I’d say the matter’s already decided.”

  “It is. But I may have attempted to intervene.” The side of Morwen’s face colored.

  “When?” Asral gave her a doubtful look.

  “About a hundred years ago, give or take.” She was about to add more when a howl echoed from the darkness and as she gazed toward it she caught sight of a scrawny figure slipping behind the trunk of an old crooked tree. “Not good,” she said, keeping her voice low, “not good at all.”

  Together they hurried along the narrow, twisted path leading back to the House of faete. “Wake up, Will,” Morwen whispered, her heart racing. “Wake the bloody hell up!”

  2

  The end of the beginning

  “Wake up!”

  Gingerly, Will forced his eyes open, expecting to find himself in the forest, but he wasn’t; he was crammed in a broom cupboard, clutching a tin bucket that reeked of vomit. His head pounded as he sat up, and his stomach churned like it was full of curdled milk.

  Charlotte stood over him, her pretty face twisted with disgust as strands of her long black hair dangled over him like strips of seaweed.

  “What happened?” His ragged voice muttered through his cracked, dry throat.

  Thunk! A backpack landed between his splayed legs. “What’s this?” Will asked, as he gazed down at it.

  “Your things.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I already have a child, and I don’t have room for another. I don’t know how or why you did it, Will, but-”

  “Did what?”

  She glanced down the narrow hall toward the other apartments and dropped her voice to an exasperated whisper. “Snuck out of bed last night so you could sleep in this cupboard. Somehow that must have been really important to you.” She shook her head. “What’s the joke, Will?”

  “I didn’t-”

  “You did. And you’ve done it before, remember? And not only were all the windows locked when I got up but so was the front door. And it was bolted too. I don’t know how you managed it, and frankly I don’t want to either. It’s too much.”

  Will was lost for words. She was right, it had happened before. And on more than a few occasions, except he’d never told her that, and wasn’t about to. Not for the first time, he wondered if he was going insane, that some dark part of his mind was playing tricks on him and sabotaging his life.

  “I can’t have it,” Charlotte continued, “I’ve already got one crazy ex, and now you’re the second. What the hell was I thinking?”

  “No. We’re good together,” Will sat up, his head spinning. “Last night was a laugh. It was fun.”

  “It was fun, until you started on the absinthe. Do you remember that?”

  “No.” If he’d had absinthe, Danny must have foisted it on him like he usually did, and that never amounted to anything good.

  “Do you remember the cab ride home?” Charlotte asked, her voice laced with fury.

  “Did I do something stupid?” Will tried to remember what had happened, but everything came up blank. He didn’t drink much, and never that often, but when he did things often got pretty strange…

  …. a vision of trees filled his mind. Had they gone to a park?

  “Try, beyond stupid. Do you actually want to know?” Charlotte’s eyes flashed dangerously.

  “Not really.” As Will shook his head he winced as tiny explosions roared inside his skull.

  Charlotte glanced down at her buzzing phone. When she looked back at him, her face softened. A little. “Look, Will, I like you. You’re a good man, you’ve got a good heart…”

  “But?”

  “But it’s too weird, all of it. I can’t have you doing disappearing acts in the house, especially not when Riley’s around. He needs someone responsible in his life, and that’s about the last thing you are.”

  “I'm responsible,” Will said as he stumbled to his feet and the bucket clattered across the floor. “Let me-”

  “It’s too late.” She folded her arms. “You should go to your father’s house. I know it’s hard but you need to face up to it. And you need to get a job.”

  “I’ve been trying to get a job in case you hadn’t noticed.”

  “I know. And you’ll find one, you’re smart, resourceful. But you need to deal with your grief. Stop running away from everything, Will.”

  “I’ll deal with it, I’m going to-”

  “No.” Charlotte placed her fingers on his lips. “It’s over. You need to go.” She kissed him lightly on the cheek. “Take care, Will.”

  As she turned and walked back to her apartment, Will caught sight of Riley. His hair was wild and his hands and mouth were smeared with jam. He smiled at Will but before Will could return the gesture, Charlotte pulled him back inside and the door slammed shut.

  The late summer sun blazed down on London from a bright blue sky reminding Will of one of Riley’s drawings as he headed down the road, his earthly possessions slung over his shoulder. He glanced back at the apartment block and caught a glimpse of Charlotte looking down at him, which seemed apt. Then she vanished.

  Everything felt weird and unreal. Unlikely even; as if he was about to wake and find it had all been some terrible dream. They’d only been together for seven months, and he’d only been living with her for a few weeks, but it seemed longer. Much longer. In a good way.

  At first the idea of moving in had scared the hell out of him. It had felt like a commitment too far, especially when it included her noisy, wild, yet lovable son. But he’d grown to like it, to love it even.

  “Not a problem now though,” he muttered as he crossed the street. Of course he could try to mount an appeal, plea for a second chance, but there had been a terrible finality in her eyes, and he’d seen that look before.

  Discordant thoughts zipped through his mind; Charlotte, the black hole that was the night before, and something else… a nebulous concern that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. Something else had happened. He’d gone somewhere… again. Bu
t where?

  Will jumped as a car horn blared.

  “Wake up, moron!” a driver yelled from his van.

  Will lifted his finger in response but the van had already screeched away. “Whatever,” Will said as he concentrated on putting one scuffed shoe ahead of the other, unaware of the figure following on the shadowed side of the street.

  3

  A half forgotten place

  Will stretched back on the park bench in Golden Square as a squealing toddler ran past, chasing a limping crow across the grass. As entertainment went, it was pretty low grade.

  What he should have been doing, instead of lounging in Soho, was sitting in a coffee shop with his friend Natalie, who had a lead on a job for him. But she’d cancelled at the last minute, leaving him adrift in London with nothing else to do.

  Another roadblock, Will thought as he finished off his exorbitantly priced roast beef sandwich and wondered how many more he’d be able to buy before his bank balance hit zero. Maybe a few hundred, he calculated, if he was lucky. And what then? He glanced over at the painfully young couple laying in each other’s arms on the bench beside him. They were gaunt and wasted, and the piles of bags below them were stuffed with clothes and even more bags. A glimpse of the future?