Black London 05 - Soul Trade

sorry, Morwenna,” he said. “But she’s the Merlin. The Weir’s energies chose her.”
    One by one, the mages of the Prometheus Club turned to Margaret, some staring with blantant hostility, others with curiosity.
    “Guess that explains why you’re not a worm, luv,” Jack said, squeezing Margaret on the shoulder.

    “Please accept my apology,” Victor said, extending his hand to Margaret. “And consider this a formal offer to take your seat at the head of the Prometheus Club.”
    “Don’t do it,” Jack said instantly. “Worse than school. Make you wear an ugly suit like his. Install a stick up your arse on your eighteenth birthday.”
    Margaret just blinked, looking at her hands. “I feel weird,” she said, stickingherself to Jack like a burr. “I just want to go back to Manchester.”
    Morwenna dropped to her knees in the mud. Pete watched tears streak down her crimson face as sobs racked her body. “I’ve given my whole life,” she said. “I’ve given everything. Everything I had and more. Don’t I deserve something? Anything?”
    Pete managed to pull herself into a sitting position, which hurt but wasn’t impossible.She tried standing and found that wasn’t bad, either.
    “Donovan,” Morwenna pleaded, grabbing at Donovan’s hand. “You stood with me when everyone thought I was insane to try to become the new Merlin. You know it can’t be this … this … brat !”
    Donovan looked at Morwenna, then at Margaret, and gave a shrug. “Sorry, luv,” he said. “Tough break.”
    Morwenna leaped at his back faster than seemed possiblefor a sobbing woman in a tight skirt, and Pete shouted. “Donovan, look out!”
    Morwenna grabbed for the gun in Donovan’s waistband, but he knocked her back into the mud. Morwenna raised her hand and started to speak a word of power, but Donovan whistled, sharp and high, before she could get it out.
    Pete saw the shapes advance through the fog, cutting it like sharks in water, and she ran to Jack,pulling both him and Margaret into a crouch and covering the girl’s eyes.
    Only she had the vantage to see what happened.
    The wraiths flew at Morwenna, drawn by the energy Pete could feel crackling across her skin and pulsing through her blood. Donovan’s talent was in full force, and the wraiths found easy prey as Morwenna struggled to get up from the mud. She barely made a sound, could onlymoan and quiver a bit as the wraiths drank her dry.
    Victor and the other mages watched dispassionately, not blinking, Victor’s expression a flat slate of nothing.
    “We can go,” Pete said, releasing her hold on Jack and Margaret. It was hard to let go of Jack, but she made herself do it. “The well’s closed. It shouldn’t be affecting our senses any longer.”
    “No,” Jack said, harsh as the soundMorwenna had made. “We’re making sure she’s dead.”
    They watched as the wraiths drank, then drifted away, sated, at Donovan’s bidding. Pete tugged on Jack. “We really need to go.”
    “You’re not going anywhere,” Donovan intoned. “The Merlin comes with us.” He stuck out his arm to Margaret. “Come, child.”
    Margaret stepped back, shaking her head wildly. “Get away from me. I don’t know you.”
    “Eitherwe take the Merlin, or I leave your bodies for the ravens,” Donovan snarled. “Those are your options.”
    He fixed Jack with a look of utter contempt. “I had hoped you’d take up your seat, boy, but now I’m almost glad I’ll be disposing of you. You’re nothing but a disappointment, Jack, in every way possible.”
    Jack started to reply, but Pete all at once knew she’d had enough of Donovan Winter. Enoughto last her a lifetime, and then some.
    She set herself and hit him, in the soft spot just under his cheek. Donovan’s head snapped around as the sound of the punch echoed back from the hillside.
    Donovan dropped, mud splashing all over him, bruise already in full bloom. “You’ve seen what I can do,” Pete told him, keeping her eyes on the rest of the Prometheans. “You lot so much as send a straythought my way again and you know what’ll happen. I can light every last one of you ablaze with a finger snap, so I suggest you use those few brain cells you have, Donovan, and stay out of our lives from now on.”
    She glared around at the rest of the staring faces. “Anybody else got a problem with leaving the Weir to her business?”
    Nobody did.
    She took Margaret’s hand and started to walk away,but Jack