Page 9 of Whispers of the Magical Forest

“Oh, bloody hell,” I whispered as the pieces clicked into place. The pendant, the strange resonance in the air that hinted at Fae magic, The Midnight Cellar. It all traced back to a scandal from nearly twenty years ago. A group of kitchen witches tried to harness primal magical forces that should have been left untouched. It had gone about as well as you'd expect.

The third body made my blood run cold. She was young. Barely out of her teens. She was wearing the distinctive robes of a student from Blackwood Academy. It was one of the most prestigious magical schools in Britain. Her robes bore the silver trim of a seventh-year student. Pinned to her collar was the symbol of the Advanced Alchemy Society.

"What were you doing here, love?" I murmured. There were fresh ink stains on her fingers and an experimental potions kit still strapped to her belt. "Wrong place, wrong time? Or were you part of this?"

The symbols carved into their skin formed a pattern when viewed together. It made me think of a complex circuit board designed to channel magical energy. But channel it where? And for what purpose? There wereelements from various magical traditions. Celtic knots were intertwined with Egyptian hieroglyphs. Sanskrit mantras were woven through Nordic runes.

The overall pattern was familiar. It resembled the theoretical frameworks for immortality rituals I'd studied during my time at university. This was more complex. Whoever had done this was trying to harvest immortality from others. They were using innocents to pay the prices of eternal life so they could steal it without having to experience the repercussions. The gods were the only beings capable of giving that particular gift. The cost for mortals to try it was too high to pay.

I heard footsteps crunching through the snow and whirled around. A defensive spell was forming on my lips. Fiona and Aislinn appeared through the trees. They both looked grim. They had their hands raised slightly as well. Fiona was no doubt ready to cast. Aislinn looked ready to unleash her elements.

"Police are dealing with the accident victims," Fiona said as she brushed snow from her hair. She scanned the scene with the kind of focused intensity that reminded me why she was usually our leader in situations like this. "We've got maybe ten minutes before they start widening their search area. Please tell me this isn't as bad as I think it is."

"It's worse," I said, gesturing to the bodies. "Look at the arrangement. This wasn't random. Someone knew exactly what they were doing. The symbols, the positioning, and even the timing. It's all part of something bigger. And these aren't ordinary folk. They're practitioners."

"Brilliant," Aislinn muttered. "Just brilliant. Because magical murder is so much better than regular murder."

"That's not even the worst part," I said, pointing to the Guild's pendant. "Remember that scandal with theexperimental magic twenty years ago? The one my gran used to warn me about?"

"The one where they tried to use the primal forces of magic?" Aislinn's eyes widened. "But that was shut down. The Guild made sure of it. Half the people involved either disappeared or ended up in St. Mungo's Psychiatric Ward for Magically Induced Madness."

"Well, someone's trying something similar," I said. "And they're using blood magic to speed up the process and avoid the cost to themselves. Look at these symbols. They're designed to harvest magical essence. They're using these people to obtain immortality and then taking it from them"

"Setting aside the news that there is a magical psych ward, and this is the first I’m hearing of it, I understand the gist of what you’re saying. Why do this now?" Fiona asked, though her expression suggested she didn't really want to know.

"If I'm right," I said, "they're trying to create immortality potions on steroids without the cost to them. These equations and the way they're structured makes me think they're trying to distill the essence of magic."

The wind picked up suddenly. It whipped the snow around us in a frenzy. The whispers returned and were louder now: "The old ways return... the price must be paid..."

"Tell me you both heard that," I said, not really hoping for a no.

"Unfortunately," Fiona confirmed. She looked sick to her stomach. "Come on. Help me hide this before Detective Constable Nosy decides to take a nature walk."

I joined her, and our magic wove together to form a formidable glamour. Aislinn kept watch. The concealment spell was complex. We had to hide an entire ritual setup complete with active magical signatures. "Bloody hell," Aislinn whispered suddenly. "The temperature just dropped ten degrees in thelast minute."

She was right. The cold had taken on a sharp, aggressive quality that had nothing to do with normal weather. Ice was forming on the trees around us and spreading in patterns that looked suspiciously like the symbols carved into our victims. Fiona pulled out the business card again. The countdown had nearly reached zero. Additional text was appearing beneath the timer.The first phase is complete. The vessels are prepared. The harvest begins at midnight.

"Right," Fiona said decisively. "New plan. We finish the concealment spell, get back to the road, and call Gadross again. This just went from 'magical murder mystery' to 'potentially apocalyptic ritual site’, and we’re not dealing with that without backup."

"Or wine," I added, which earned a snort from Aislinn.

"We're going to need something stronger than wine," she muttered as she watched the ice spread. "Maybe that vodka we got last Christmas?"

"The one that amplifies your magic but leaves you with the worst magical burnout?" Fiona shook her head. "Let's save that for real emergencies."

"Three dead magical practitioners arranged in a ritual circle isn't an emergency?" I asked as I added the final touches to our concealment spell.

"For us?" Fiona grinned, but it didn't reach her eyes. "This is an average day."

The spell settled over the scene like a blanket. It hid the bodies and supernatural elements from mundie eyes. The symbols faded from view, though I could still feel them pulsing beneath the magical camouflage. I cast a magical marker so we could find the victims again. As we headed back toward the road, I couldn't shake the feeling that we'd stumbled into something much bigger than a few dead bodies in the snow. The magic in the air felt expectant. Like the pause before a thunderclap. The whispers had faded, buttheir words still echoed in my mind: The old ways return... the price must be paid...

"So," Fiona said as we emerged from the trees, looking perfectly innocent for any watching police officers, "anyone else thinking we should have gone with Aislinn's spa weekend suggestion?"

"Don't," Aislinn warned. "Just don't."

I pulled my coat tighter, trying to ward off a chill that had nothing to do with the weather. "Hey, Fi?"

"Yeah?"

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