Forbidden


 Contents
 Cover
 Also by Davis Bunn
 Title Page
 Copyright
 Dedication
 Chapter One
 Chapter Two
 Chapter Three
 Chapter Four
 Chapter Five
 Chapter Six
 Chapter Seven
 Chapter Eight
 Chapter Nine
 Chapter Ten
 Chapter Eleven
 Chapter Twelve
 Chapter Thirteen
 Chapter Fourteen
 Chapter Fifteen
 Chapter Sixteen
 Chapter Seventeen
 Chapter Eighteen
 Chapter Nineteen
 Chapter Twenty
 Chapter Twenty-One
 Chapter Twenty-Two
 Chapter Twenty-Three
 Chapter Twenty-Four
 Chapter Twenty-Five
 Chapter Twenty-Six
 Chapter Twenty-Seven
 Chapter Twenty-Eight
 Chapter Twenty-Nine
 Chapter Thirty
 Chapter Thirty-One
 Chapter Thirty-Two
 Chapter Thirty-Three
 Chapter Thirty-Four
 Chapter Thirty-Five
 Chapter Thirty-Six
 Chapter Thirty-Seven
 Chapter Thirty-Eight
 Chapter Thirty-Nine
 Chapter Forty
 Chapter Forty-One
 Chapter Forty-Two
 Chapter Forty-Three
 Chapter Forty-Four
 Chapter Forty-Five
 Chapter Forty-Six
 Chapter Forty-Seven
 Chapter Forty-Eight
 Chapter Forty-Nine
 Chapter Fifty
 Chapter Fifty-One
 Chapter Fifty-Two
 Chapter Fifty-Three
 Chapter Fifty-Four
 Chapter Fifty-Five
 Chapter Fifty-Six
 Chapter Fifty-Seven
 Chapter Fifty-Eight
 Chapter Fifty-Nine
 Chapter Sixty
 Chapter Sixty-One
 FORBIDDEN
 
 Davis Bunn
 
 
 
 Also by Davis Bunn
 Speculative fiction 
 BURDEN OF PROOF
 PRIME DIRECTIVE
 ISLAND OF TIME
 Novels
 THE GREAT DIVIDE
 WINNER TAKE ALL
 HEARTLAND
 LION OF BABYLON
 UNSCRIPTED
 Miramar Bay series
 MIRAMAR BAY
 FIREFLY COVE
 MOONDUST LAKE
 TRANQUILITY FALLS
 THE COTTAGE ON LIGHTHOUSE LANE
 Published under the Pen Name Thomas Locke
 TRIAL RUN
 FLASH POINT
 FAULT LINES
 EMISSARY
 MERCHANTOF ALYSS
 THE GOLDEN VIAL
 RECRUITS
 RENEGADES
 ENCLAVE
 This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
 
 
 First world edition published in Great Britain and the USA in 2023
 by Severn House, an imprint of Canongate Books Ltd,
 14 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1TE.
 Trade paperback edition first published in Great Britain and the USA in 2023
 by Severn House, an imprint of Canongate Books Ltd.
 This eBook edition first published in 2023 by Severn House,
 an imprint of Canongate Books Ltd.
 severnhouse.com
 Copyright © Davis Bunn, 2023
 All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. The right of Davis Bunn to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988.
 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
 A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
 ISBN-13: 978-1-4483-0941-2 (cased)
 ISBN-13: 978-1-4483-1011-1 (trade paper)
 ISBN-13: 978-1-4483-1010-4 (e-book)
 This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Except where actual historical events and characters are being described for the storyline of this novel, all situations in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is purely coincidental.
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 Falkirk, Stirlingshire, Scotland
 This book is dedicated to 
 Emily Gottlich
 Keeper of the flame
 ONE
 The day was perfect. The timing, the empty audience hall, everything about it was exactly as he had planned, as he had imagined.
 Chad tried to tell himself there was no reason to feel so sad. After all, he had been planning this moment for almost two years. It helped. Some. Not a lot. Because his sorrow had little to do with his own state. Or the fact that he was creating a diversion so he could escape. Finally.
 The Sardinian Institute’s audience hall was a chamber so vast some first-time visitors often suffered from vertigo. Sunlight through stained-glass windows created a silent melody as clouds passed over the sun. It was a lovely place, with the blue ceiling and the swirling gulls magically carving the sky. But Chad’s years as an acolyte had revealed the truth. This beauty was a mask. A means of hiding the dark currents, the self-indulgent and willfully blind Masters.
 Chad despised them all.
 He reached into his backpack and extracted the first plastic pouch, the one he had hidden away for almost two years. Waiting and planning and studying and preparing. For this moment.
 He whispered the spell as he opened the pouch, and instantly she was there with him. A sorrowful agony threatened to overwhelm him. Chad’s best and only friend. Lost to the dark whims of the mage he despised most of all.
 The audience hall was his for at least another twenty minutes. Then the acolytes would gather for the weekly parade of snobbish Talents. A Master would stand at the lectern and dictate the students’ duties and assignments. Chad was supposed to be with them. But the previous evening he had entered the infirmary with a magically inspired fever. His golem now slumbered peacefully in the hospital bed.
 Chad wove his spell around the ribbon his dead friend had worn in her hair the night she committed suicide. The force gathered into a swirling mist of tearful regret, until the lovely young woman took full form.
 When it was time, he wished her yet another broken farewell. Done in secret both times, for the entire matter had been instantly hushed up. The acolytes ordered never to mention her name. The Institute pretending it had never happened. Forgotten. Dismissed.
 Until now.
 Chad lifted her golem higher and higher, until her lifeless corpse swung from a noose. One suspended from the audience hall’s central rafter.
 He pulled the knife from his pack and cut his middle finger. Not deep. All he needed was a drop of his blood. Enough to begin the second spell, drawing it out and growing it into a vast red cloud. One that he flung against the side wall. Letters as tall as he was.
 Serge did this to me.
 When he was done, Chad hesitated. The moment had been so long in coming, the way so hard, he felt anchored to the