Natural Witch

I gritted my teeth and my heart sped up. My nails dug into my palms. The string in my middle yanked on my ribs. I let go of the spell and opened my eyes in anticipation.

The purple mages had their discovery spell hovering in the air. Ready to go.

My spell wrapped around me, swirling with purpose…and then bled into the ground. Gone.

“Uppity, gerbil-loving—” I clenched my teeth to cut off the words.

The mages bent to blow the spell at us.

Desperate, I punched the older woman in the face.

“We gotta go!” I grabbed Emery by the hair and yanked him up.

“What happened?” the man yelled.

“I saw a fist. Someone is there!” the younger woman hollered.

“My nose! My nose!”

“Run, run, run!” With a fistful of Emery’s hair, I took off.

“Let go,” he yelled, staggering after me. “What happened?”

“I created a diversion.” I let go of his head and put on the jets. “Keep up or this spell protecting us will pop.”

“I don’t think it works like that.”

“Who’s to say? Just keep up.” I turned a corner and hopped to the side at the last moment, nearly running full sprint into a guy with a huge belly. I would not have won that battle.

Emery tore around the corner right after me, not nearly as nimble. He bowled into the guy, the weight of his muscle no match for the other man’s fat.

The guy let out an “Arrrrgh,” which made me giggle manically, before falling backward and rolling twice. I grabbed Emery’s arm as he staggered back. I held on, staying with him as he caught himself and straightened. We picked up speed as the man yelled out obscenities behind us. Together we ran, Emery’s long legs the only thing keeping him in pace with me. We reached for each other at the same time, clasping hands right before we turned the corner, keeping close to stay in the bubble.

The pressure from above bore down harder and small points of pain tickled my awareness. The intent became clear. The blood we’d given was a guest pass, allotting us a certain amount of time.

Time had run out.

“Hurry, hurry, hurry,” I yelled, putting on a burst of fear-inspired speed. I yanked Emery to keep up even though I was pretty sure the guys in the movies didn’t do that to the girls. Call me a butthead, but I didn’t want to die.

“What is that?” Emery asked. We turned a corner, almost there. Two people in red robes stood in the way, magic stretched out in front of them. “Nope.”

Emery tugged me the other way. Sight was helpful, because I hadn’t been able to feel the spell. Had I been relying on feel alone, I would’ve sprinted right through, Red Rover style.

An invisible hand slashed my arm. The pressure from above throbbed in my chest, squeezing my lungs. Invisible teeth bit at my back thigh.

“Where is this coming from?” Emery asked, and then grunted in pain.

I cried out, magic stabbing down through my shoulder.

“Faster, Emery. Everything you have.”

He staggered. I grabbed his wrist with both hands, keeping us together (and yanking—once a butthead, always a butthead).

“Right.” His yank was much more effective. “We have to go right. Then left. Pain is better than death.”

Not always, but it wasn’t the moment to split hairs.

I followed his lead. Pain stabbed my leg. I wobbled, pulled upright by Emery. He staggered, but kept going. My breath wheezed out of my chest, my lungs closing down. His breathing was labored as well. My stomach clenched and sight left my right eye. Razors clawed down my arms.

“There. Just there.” The ward draped down in front of us, twenty feet away.

The air dried up in my lungs. I’d run out of time.

Chapter Thirty-Two

I pushed on with everything I had. Black spots danced in my vision. Agony welled up through my body.

Emery grabbed me by the back of my vest and flung me, trying to sacrifice himself to get me clear.

Over my dead body! Probably literally.

I twisted and reached back, catching hold of his wrist and refusing to release it. I did get a good yank in that time, ripping at my shoulder. He used the momentum, took a leap, and we rolled beyond the line.

Sweet air rushed into my lungs. The bone-crunching pain drifted away, leaving only an unpleasant memory in its wake. Gasping, Emery army-crawled toward me. He half lay on me, his hands on my face, looking worried.

“Are you okay?” He peered in my eyes before looking down over my body, touching gently. Back up at my face, he ran a thumb over my chin. “Penny, are you hurt?”

I breathed deeply, staring into those Milky Way eyes. “I’m okay. But that was a close one.”

His relieved exhale fell across my face. “Yes, it was. I couldn’t see any magic drifting down. I have no idea what kind of a spell that was.”

“It connected with something in the ground, I think. I can’t be sure, but in the beginning, that’s what it felt like.”

A small line appeared between his eyebrows and he shook his head. “I’ve never heard of something like that. But the guild has access to a lot of resources. With all their manpower, they could afford to keep a huge spell running.”

“Whatever this spell was, it must’ve created the dead feeling there. The lack of anything natural. Which will stifle their magic in the end, mark my words.”

His thumb still stroked a burning line along my jaw. His eyes roamed my face slowly, landing on my lips. “We should get going. We don’t want to be caught. Right now, they don’t know who was lurking around.”

I nodded, but my hand had its own ideas. I felt up his arms to his shoulders, the warmth in my chest intensifying.

His head bowed a fraction, his eyes glued to my lips. Someone shouted behind us. He jerked away and looked over his shoulder.

“We have to go.” He got to his feet and pulled me up with him. “Can you walk?”

“Of course I can walk.” Limping counted.

“Come on, Turdswallop.” He swooped me up, and for a second I thought he would carry me romantically in his arms. Instead, he flung me over his shoulder and hastened toward the tree line. “Let’s get you in that bath you were talking about.”

“Will you join me?” I hadn’t meant to say it. It just sorta fell out of my mouth.

I held my breath in the silence that followed, knowing I should retract the question…but I didn’t want to. The guy was way more experienced than I was. I’d probably make a fool of myself with whatever followed the bath. But for once, I was sure the result would be worth the embarrassment.

Finally, he answered, his voice thick. “I don’t think your mother would approve.” He pulled his phone out of his back pocket. I saw the crack in the screen from my dangling position. He’d obviously fallen on it.

I opened my mouth to argue, because really, what parent would approve of their unwed child’s naked activities, but I let it go. My mother had given him an awful lot of harassing about his life. He was probably still working through the sting. Eventually he’d get his confidence back, and I would awkwardly pedal myself out when the time came. No sweat.

The driver met us at the pickup point, and we gratefully fell into the plush leather seats.

“That ward’s going to be a problem,” Emery said softly, looking out his window. “It doesn’t give us much time, even if it would let us in a second time after overstaying our welcome this time.”

“If we think on it, maybe we can counteract it, like with the invisible bubble I created.”

“If that bubble fails, though, we won’t have time to get out.”

“Okay, well, then we’ll need to get in another way. Clearly the Looming Press of Death knew we were up to no good.” I saw his cheek lift in a smile, but he didn’t turn back my way. “Just look at where we entered the compound. If I were them, I’d leave all the non-access areas booby-trapped. So then, we get in through a normal access way. That should help us get around the problem.”

“Pardon me for interrupting,” the driver said. His eyes studied me in the rearview mirror. “But Mr. Regent has access to that facility during non-peak hours. He can get you into the compound, and into a couple of the buildings, too.”

This time, Emery did look away from the window. His expression said he was not amused, but he didn’t comment.

So I did it for him.

“And you only thought to mention this now, after we risked our lives to break in?”

The driver’s eyes flashed to me again, but they held no apology. “Mr. Regent’s orders.”

“They want control over the situation.” Emery looked back out the window. “And they want their magic.”

“What magic?”

“The magic you’re going to help me make.”

After we’d had showers and an impromptu nap, the driver brought us to a spacious, mostly empty warehouse near a shipping yard. The daylight hours were waning and I was exhausted, but we couldn’t stop now. If we wanted the vampires’ help, we had to play their game.

Or so Emery had said.

“Wow.” I widened my eyes as we approached the ingredient station. Every type of herb imaginable rested on the long table. Various stones, gems, and even sticks dominated the other end.