Black Hat, White Witch by Hailey Edwards

15

The phone rang.

Ten hours and change after we arrived at the store.

I had been staring at it, willing its display to light. For a panicked heartbeat, I couldn’t decide if it was real or wishful thinking. The handset slipped across my damp palm when I grabbed it and answered.

“Hollis Apothecary, Rue Hollis speaking.”

Asa ducked into the office, mop in hand. Clay was right behind him. Both were listening in.

So was Colby, who was cuddled into a jacket Arden had left in the office, her dark eyes wide with worry.

“You have something I want,” a quiet, male voice informed me. “And I have two somethings you want.”

“You’ll have to be more specific.”

“I want the loinnir.” He paused. “Give it to me, and I will return the girls I took from your store.”

The long wait had cured me of any urge to play games. “I want proof of life.”

Twin screams pierced the air behind the caller, and he sucked in a breath, as if savoring their pain.

In a blink, Colby shot off the desk, shrank, and nestled down until my hair hurt from her yanking on it.

“There is your proof of life.” His voice grew huskier. “Meet me at Tadpole Swim.”

The lack of qualifiers stumped me. “When?”

A soft laugh flavored his tone. “Now.”

The call ended before I could ask more questions. No doubt that was the point.

“He didn’t tell me to come alone.” I flung the phone at its base. “That’s not a good sign.”

Villains loved their catchphrases, and that had to be number one.

Maybe number two, right behind don’t call the cops.

Which, now that I thought about it, he hadn’t used that line on Miss Dotha either.

“He knows you won’t come alone.” Clay didn’t sound worried one bit. “Why bother lying about it?”

Apparently, he appreciated a criminal willing to cut through the BS to the meat of the problem.

“He wanted off the phone as fast as possible,” Asa murmured. “Check the caller ID.”

“Maybe he worried we used our spare time to tap the line.” Clay shrugged. “Paranoia does that.”

Magic created too many loopholes for old school tech to be anywhere near reliable in these situations.

“He used Arden’s cellphone. It’s on. It’s turned on.” A drum beat in my chest. “Call the Kellies.”

There was every reason to believe the copycat had used a spell to conceal his location, but hope was like a weed. Hard to kill.

“We need to move.” I pushed from the desk and stood. “They’ll have to track on the way.”

Clay left the call to Asa. “How far is this Tadpole thing?”

“About twenty minutes outside town. It’s a popular swimming hole for teens.”

The girls met their boyfriends up there in summer, sneaking around like they invented skinny-dipping.

We burst out the back of the store, and I didn’t bother locking up behind us. We climbed into my SUV, and I drove the exact posted speed limit to give the Kellies more time to hit us with some good news.

“What will we do when we get there?” Colby’s quiet voice rang clear in the silence.

“Not hand you over, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

A shiver rippled through her I pretended not to feel. “You love Camber and Arden too, so…”

“I do, but me and you?” I reached up to scratch her head. “We’re in this together.”

“Okay.” She nestled back down. “I believe you.”

“You better.” I glared at her in the rearview mirror. “Or I’ll have to spank your fuzzy butt.”

A teeny-tiny laugh escaped her, and it was good enough for me. The kid didn’t deserve this. She survived the Silver Stag, but she lost everything. Her life, her family, herself. She got stuck as a moth. For eternity. Now her very existence was a temptation to those who practiced dark arts.

It wasn’t fair to force her down memory lane, but life wasn’t fair. Never had been, never would be.

About ten minutes out, Asa’s phone rang, and we all held our collective breath.

“They have a general area,” he reported, then waited on the line. “They have a location, one mile east.”

“No wonder he didn’t bother concealing himself,” I muttered. “He was calling on his way to Tadpole.”

“Probably,” Clay agreed. “What’s our plan?”

“There’s no time for a plan.” Asa stared out his window. “We don’t even know who or what to expect.”

Hard to plan a strategy with so many unknowns up in the air. “We’ll wing it.”

Colby stomped several of her tiny feet on my head. “I hope that wasn’t a moth joke.”

As much as I wanted to smile at her attitude coming back to her, I couldn’t get my mouth to cooperate.

“The black witch will be there,” I said instead. “As to the who, I guess we’re about to find out.”

Might be Kidd, might be something that looked like Kidd. Might be whoever cut off Olsen’s face.

Variables were endless, but our time had run out. The killer had his goal in sight and wanted to score.

I parked where the pavement ended, and we sat there while I lined up my thoughts.

“Clay.” I held my hand out to Colby, she climbed on, and I passed her to him. “Protect her at all costs.”

Burnt-crimson eyes bored into mine as Asa growled, “Who’s going to protect you?”

“I can take care of myself.” I twitched my lips in a smile Asa didn’t appreciate. “But I wouldn’t mind if you followed me in, say, five minutes. That’s how long it will take me to get to the pond.”

His lips parted, but whatever he planned to say died on a soft exhale of breath.

“Colby, listen to Clay.” I twisted to face her. “Do whatever he tells you, okay?”

“Be careful, Rue.” She climbed up his arm to sit on his shoulder. “Promise.”

“Cross my heart.” I made the motion. “And cross your fingers.”

I slid out before I lost my nerve, shut my door like it would protect them, then set off down the path.

The pond was how I remembered it the one time Miss Dotha sent me to fetch Camber after a missed curfew. It wasn’t wide, but it was deep. It saw too much action for scum to thrive on the surface, but a green tint colored the water when sunlight hit it just right. Tonight, with the new moon, the water loomed as black as pitch.

“You did an admirable job of hiding.” The same quiet voice from the phone rode on a warm breeze. “I’m embarrassed how long it took me to find you.”

As far as I could tell, I was alone, but I heard him clear as a bell. “You didn’t find me, though.”

“True.” Distaste twisted the word. “I was forced to get creative.”

“Creative?” I aimed straight for his artist’s ego. “You think killing all those girls makes you creative?”

“The Silver Stag went down in history as one of the most notorious serial killers of our time, but that title was earned on sheer numbers alone. There was no art in what he did. There was only hunger for power. But he lacked the stomach for the job. He transformed his prey into animals to strip them of humanity.”

“Nice theory.” I tried homing in on his voice. “I read his profile too.”

A crow’s loud cawing rent the night and blasted shivers down my spine.

“I elevated his primitive methodology but was forced to retain certain key aspects to guarantee that the director would reach out to you. See, I had a theory. I believed the director knew exactly where you disappeared to all those years ago. But he proved resistant to involving you. I had to resurrect the killer all fae parents had come to fear in order to force his hand, and here you are.”

“You got me.” I spread my hands. “Now what do you want?”

“Colby Timms.”

From high above me, mocking laughter rained down from the crow.

Normal crows didn’t laugh in perfect sync with villain monologues. “Nice familiar you’ve got there.”

The killer wasn’t in the mood to be distracted, but all I had to do was find the right topic. Talking kept him from wrapping this up, and that was the best I could do until Asa got in place. Backup wouldn’t cure all my woes, but it would give me a morale boost to know I wasn’t alone.

“Why the processor?”

“Hearts aren’t the only parts of the body rich in nutrients and power. Thaddeus has a taste for livers.”

The crow squawked in eager agreement, or at the sound of his name. Either way, it was creepy as heck.

Wrong topic.

This one made my stomach turn when I needed to be ice cold, not fever hot with rage for his victims.

“Why wait ten years to get creative with finding me?”

“I invested several years in staging my death. The director is a cautious man, and he held my true name. I had to be careful when I orchestrated a fitting end in the line of duty so that I would be clear for recruitment under a new face. I would have preferred thirteen years, as I’m sure you would have guessed, but I grew impatient.”

“You made mistakes.”

“Agent Kidd noticed Thaddeus was present in all his films. I got close to Kidd, to determine what he knew, but I overplayed my hand. He began to suspect me. I had no way of knowing if he shared his suspicions with anyone else, and I couldn’t risk it. He hadn’t been in the system long. He was eager to please. Eager to belong. He thought the Bureau would provide him with a surrogate pack.”

A twist in my chest allowed the floodgates of guilt to swing wide open.

His use of the past tense told me all I needed to know about Kidd.

He was dead.

The copycat had killed him.

And we hadn’t even tried to save him.

I wrote Kidd off as a bad apple at the first opportunity then left him to rot in the barrel.

One more sin added to my black soul that I would never wash clean.

“That bird…” Pieces of the puzzle snicked together in my head. “You sent it to harass Colby.”

“My familiar,” he corrected me. “With you away, there was no harm in him testing your defenses.”

“With the added benefit of scaring the bejesus out of Colby,” I snarled, too late to quiet my rage.

With that outburst, I told him all he needed to know about our relationship. She wasn’t only a familiar. It wasn’t just her magic that made her special to me. He knew now I cared about her. I loved her. And that made me more vulnerable than I was already. Gone was any hope of convincing him she was a means to an end. I might have sold him on me using her as a power source otherwise, but my heart spoke loudest.

Life had been so much easier when I lived like I didn’t have one, didn’t need one, didn’t want one.

“Colby Timms,” he repeated. “You brought her with you. I can sense her. Where is she?”

Wings fluttering over my head made me twitchy, but I held my ground. “How did you know about her?”

“Thaddeus told me.”

The big-mouth bird squawked at the compliment, and I understood my mistake. “You were there.”

“I was a senior agent, but I wore my true face then. I got called in as backup along with my partner.” A scratching noise warned me the crow was still above me. “I sent my familiar ahead to scout the location. I can see through his eyes when I choose, and what I witnessed that night changed everything.”

Everything had changed. He was right about that. But it changed for all of us, changed us, not just him.

“I thought you would consume the loinnir, I expected no less from a Báthory, but you didn’t. You tucked that little moth girl in your pocket and vanished without a trace. I thought at first you meant to feast on her in private, but I scented your magic at the scene. You bonded her to you. Saved her. She’s your familiar.”

Limbs shook overhead as the blasted crow took flight, and it leaving was somehow worse than it staying.

The scabs over my heart bled to recall that night. “Where are Arden and Camber?”

“The humans?” He hesitated. “I did promise to return those to you, didn’t I?”

“You did.”

“You know what I want in exchange.”

“Show yourself,” I ordered instead. “I’m tired of talking to shadows.”

An unassuming young man stepped from behind a tree too thin to shield him without magical help. I had only seen him once, for a few minutes at the third crime scene as I unraveled the spell, but I recognized him.

David Taylor.

The junior agent Kidd introduced to me as Taylor wasn’t a warg after all, but I bet the real one had been.

The masque Taylor wore emitted the same paranormal frequency as its original owner. It was enough to fool most people. Me included. If you didn’t know to look.

“There were two possibilities for how this would end,” Taylor said with an air of resignation. “You were this great and terrible creature once. Men trembled before you. You were a feral and depraved beast contained in the skin of a woman.” He wet his lips. “I idolized you. When Black Hats came for me, I let them take me. I wanted to join the Bureau, to be your right hand, but you broke before I got the chance.”

“Who were you?” I squinted at him, knowing it would tell me nothing. “I don’t remember you.”

“Everyone was beneath your notice then.” He smiled in remembrance. “Gods, you were a sight.”

A hollow sensation carved out my stomach as another thought occurred to me, worse than the others.

“You targeted Colby to punish me,” I realized. “Did my defection wipe the stars from your eyes?”

“Yes,” he growled, stepping closer to the water. “As a matter of fact, it did.”

Sparks ignited in his palms, dark purple and midnight blue, and he raised his arms out to his sides.

“You taught me a valuable lesson.” He shot a bolt of magic at my feet, and I leapt back with my boot tips singed. “No matter how humble or highborn our origins, we can rise above them…or sink below them.”

The magic he was tossing around far outclassed what I had on tap, but I palmed my wand all the same.

“Ah.” I kept on my toes as his strikes landed closer and closer. “Tender about our humble origins, are we?”

He was wearing me down. I knew that. He would keep me dancing until he decided to cut my strings.

Colby would be free of her familiar bond then, and her soul would leave her body.

There was no doubt in my mind he planned to consume it, consume her, as I died bearing witness.

The pointed caw of a crow drew his attention skyward, and he held out his hand.

A hank of long, black hair slid through his fingers. In the dark, it dripped black and slick like blood.

The bottom fell out of my stomach at the sight of Asa’s beautiful hair.

“Your daemon won’t interrupt us.” He let the wind take the strands. “The golem, however, is nine feet behind you to your left. Thaddeus tells me he has the loinnir with him. Kind of him, to bring her to me.”

I whirled around to find nothing but forest behind me, and I had only seconds to grasp my mistake.

A bolt of magic struck the top of my head like lightning and zinged through my body into the ground.

Coughing up smoke and blood, I hit my knees, and Taylor was on me in a heartbeat.

“Think of it like this…” he fisted my hair and cranked my head back until our eyes met, “…your death will seal your reputation. Your legacy will survive untarnished by this pathetic attempt at redemption.”

From the moment Miss Dotha whispered in my ear, I had known my troubles would be over tonight.

A white witch couldn’t beat him. I couldn’t beat him. Unless I was willing to die for it.

And take Colby with me.

Had she been here to ask, I knew the path my brave girl would have chosen.

Fingers tightening on my wand, I began a low chant that swelled in volume until the warmth of my power filled me to overflowing. Light blossomed under my skin, the glow a beautiful white that swelled until it spilled from my pores in a pulse that blinded me.

“Stop.” He cupped my jaw, seconds from snapping my neck. “You can’t defeat me.”

He was wrong, and I was about to prove it to him with deadly consequences for us both.

“Rue might not beable to defeat you,” Clay rumbled at Taylor, “but she can.”

She? She? The only she in his care had no business charging to my rescue.

I would strangle Clay for this. I would have to survive it first, yeah, but then it was on.

Why on Earth would he bring Colby straight to the man whose obsession had cost so many lives?

A featherlight touch anointed my forehead, and more of that sweet, bright power flooded me.

The brightness in me hadn’t been my burgeoning death curse burning up my throat. It was all her.

Of all the hearts I had eaten, none had given me this potent rush. It left me…cleansed…somehow.

And terrified to my core what I might be willing to do to feel this way again.

“Me and you.” Colby’s soft feet brushed tears from my cheeks. “We’re in this together.”

“You…” I breathed as my vision cleared. “Your power is doing this.”

Colby shone, radiant and powerful, a star fallen to earth.

“It’s us.” She fed more of her strength into me. “We can do this.”

“Gods,” Taylor marveled. “I knew she would be magnificent.”

Releasing my hair, he swooped his hands in to cup Colby and scoop her off my face.

The tips of his fingers burned when he touched her wings, and he howled with rage.

Freed of his clutches, I braced Colby with a hand then rolled aside to put distance between us and Taylor.

“Where are the girls?” The wand singed my palm. “What have you done with them?”

“Give me the loinnir,” he snarled, fingers curling into his palms. “She was never meant to be yours.”

“Colby belongs to herself,” I informed him. “She just lets me hang with her.”

Incredulity darkened his eyes, and he flung out his ruined hands to summon more electric magic.

Heat engulfed every inch of my skin, tightening it until I felt ready to burst, and then I shattered.

A wave of power blasted out of me, washing through the clearing and immolating Taylor.

The world turned white and too bright for my eyes, but I willed my vision to return, panic coasting down my spine. I wanted to see Taylor’s ashes. I wanted to kick them. But mostly I wanted to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was dead, and Colby was safe from him.

Sweaty and shaky, I sank to my knees to keep from tipping over onto my face.

As shape and color returned, I located the pile of gray dust and breathed a sigh of relief.

Colby, still in beacon mode, shone from the tree limb over my head while she kept watch over me.

“Okay, glowworm.” I threw up a hand to shield my eyes. “Dial it down a few notches.”

“How cool is this?” She twirled in the air. “I’m totally a light mage.”

“Very cool.” Clay stepped up beside me. “You’re absolutely a light mage.”

Too bad her MMRPG friends could never know what a true badass they played alongside.

“Yes, well, use your newfound powers for good.” I squinted less as she dimmed. “Do you hear…?”

An earsplitting caw lodged my heart in my throat. Thaddeus. I had forgotten about him.

“Come here.” I held my hand out over my head. “Now.”

Too late.

I was too late.

Fast as a bullet, Thaddeus swooped toward Colby, his aim perfect.

“Colby.”

Flaring his wings at the last minute, Thaddeus slowed his descent and extended his taloned feet.

A thickly muscled arm shot up as the crow closed in and yanked it out of the air in a tight fist.

With a bestial roar in its face, the daemon that was Asa bit off its head with a crunch.

Colby, distracted by the daemon, smacked into the side of my face then slid down onto my shoulder, where it was safe.

Relief that had nothing to do with having Colby warm and safe in my arms shuddered through me.

Asa was okay. Better than okay, he was alive. He was…really going to town on that crow.

“You’re scaring the kid,” Clay warned him. “Spit that out and throw the rest away.”

The daemon growled low in its throat, chewed a few more times, then sighed and did as he was told.

Adrenaline could only keep you going for so long. As it flushed out my system, I was forced to accept the truth that my actions carried terrible consequences. Taylor was dead, as in pile-of-ash dead, and we had no idea where he’d stashed Arden and Camber. He had held them captive for ten-plus hours. It was far too easy for me to imagine what he might have done to the girls during that time, what he left for us to find.

“Where do we start?” I spun toward Clay. “What did the Kellies say?”

They hadn’t gotten back with us before I went to meet Taylor, but any location information they gave us was more critical now than ever.

The girls were on all sorts of social apps that fed their location information to their friends and followers. For once, I was grateful they had ignored Miss Dotha’s—and my—warnings about making them so easy to find. Surely Taylor wouldn’t have bothered disabling them when he called me right to him.

“Fan out.” I made a circular motion with my finger. “Let’s search the perimeter for any surprises.”

We broke apart and combed the area. Aside from a rusted chain strung from a limb that hung into the water, we found nothing in the immediate area. The chain was peppered with rotting wooden dowels. Teens swung from it over the water then let go with a splash. It had been here last time, and I saw firsthand how it was used then.

After we regrouped, I told them, “We need to search the spot where Taylor called me from.”

I didn’t have to remind them of the screams he offered as proof of life. They would have heard them.

“Agreed.” Clay began walking, phone in hand. “It will give the Kellies time to work.”

Asa elected to remain in his daemon form. How he kept his thick horns and hair, which was too thick to tell me if he had a bald spot, from snagging on low-lying limbs mystified me. He moved with an easy grace through the trees that could only stem from his fae heritage.

“Here.” He thrust a hank of his long hair at me. “Pet.”

“I have other things on my mind right now.” I swatted his hand. “No thanks.”

“Pet,” he growled at me. “Now.”

On my shoulder, Colby snickered and snorted with no attempt to hide her laughter.

“Fine.” I held the lock of hair like a leash and kept searching. “Happy?”

The daemon rumbled and puffed out his chest as if me leading him around was the best thing ever.

The hike took no time, but the coordinates gave nothing away. Nothing but trees, trees, and more trees.

“Everyone, stand clear.” I used the excuse to return the daemon’s hair to him. “I’m going to—”

“We.” An insistent foot tapped on top of my head. “We are going to…whatever you were about to say.”

“Colby…”

“Don’t Colby me.” She stomped again. “I’m your familiar.” Her voice softened. “Let me help you. Please, Rue.”

After everything she had been through, I should have known how much it mattered to her that she help break the cycle. She didn’t want any other girls to end up like her or worse. And I…I had to respect that.

“Okay.” I took out my wand. “We’re going to douse the area for residual magic.”

“Ready.” Her wings fluttered overhead. “Let’s do this.” She sank to my eye level. “How do we do this?”

“I’ll use a spell.” I exhaled my frustration. “You can feed me a tiny bit of power to extend my range.”

“I can do that.” She blinked a few times. “I think.”

At the pond, she had acted on instinct. Fear for me had guided her. This was different. It required intent.

“Don’t sweat it.” I smiled at her. “You’ve already saved the day. I don’t mind pulling my own weight.”

The praise lit her up from the inside. Not literally this time. Thankfully. I needed to see what I was doing.

Eyes shut tight, I held my wand in a loose grip and chanted under my breath while turning a slow circle. I made one full rotation before nodding to Colby, who zipped over to land on top of my head. She gripped my hair with her hands and began to hum a little ditty.

No.

She wasn’t humming.

Her power was buzzing along her body and vibrating through mine in an audible harmonization.

Shutting my eyes again, I dowsed for signs of magic. A quiver shot down my arm, alerting me to residual energies. Taylor had concealed whatever spell he cast, but Colby’s light magnified its stain on the earth. I focused on Camber and Arden, their faces, their voices, their laughter, and swept my arm in a wider arc.

A pulse shot up my arm, straight to my heart, and I gasped as my eyes opened on a new direction.

“We just came from there.” Clay rubbed his nape. “Are you sure you’re not picking up on the fight?”

A lot of magic had been thrown around near the pond. It was a miasma of dark and light energies.

“Probably.” I rubbed my face with my hands. “Any word from the Kellies?”

“I’m sorry.” Colby snuggled against my scalp. “I thought I could help.”

“You did help.” I patted her. “Your magic is unlike anything I’ve ever felt. I must be channeling it wrong.”

“We’ll figure it out.” She crept forward then leaned over my forehead. “We’re a team now, right?”

“Taylor held the girls captive for hours before he called,” Clay cut in, sparing me from explaining to Colby how tonight made it that much more dangerous for people to discover her existence. “What was he doing?”

“The magic here is faint.” I thought about how it felt. “He might have been meditating.”

Black witches tended to require time to come back to themselves after large expenditures of power.

That, or the darkness they unleashed within themselves turned them stark raving mad.

“What was he doing at the pond?” Clay glanced back the way we had come. “For eight hours?”

The better question was what had he done there to expend so much power he had to recenter himself.

“Nothing good,” the daemon rumbled. “Go back?”

“I’m going to dowse and walk.” I pointed to each of them. “Don’t let me smack into a tree.”

“Where’s the trust?” Clay laughed. “You know I won’t let you kiss bark.”

Allowing my eyes to close, I extended my arms and addressed Colby. “Ready?”

Wings aflutter, she yelled, “Ready.”

Careful not to burn her out, I modulated the flow of power from Colby into me, and we got to work.

Deep within my casting, I was aware of the occasional nudge or bump to prevent me from crashing, but I ignored the physical contact to focus on the destination. Until a wide palm wrapped around my arm and stopped my forward motion with gentle insistence that caused me to open my eyes.

We had arrived.

And by arrived, I meant we had walked a perfect circle right back to where we started at the pond.

The daemon holding on to me studied the area but shrugged when he discovered nothing new.

“Don’t let me tip into the water,” I told him, then nudged Colby. “Let’s dial up the juice.”

“Okay.” She jittered with excitement. “I’m ready.”

Before I got my arm lifted, she channeled a flood of white light through me that spat out my wand to fizz and pop on the surface of the pond. I honed my focus, but her power was insistent. We had found them.

Calling upon my will, I broke the connection between Colby and me then staggered back.

“They’re in the pond.” I wiped my sweaty palms on my pants. “There was too much residual energy after the battle for me to sense them, but this is it. The girls are here. They have to be.” I hit my knees in the mud. “I can’t believe…”

A firm hand landed on each of my shoulders as Clay and the daemon comforted me.

Grief roiling through me, I tipped back my head to stare at the night sky and spotted the rusty chain.

“You don’t think…?” I lurched back to my feet and fisted its taut length. “We have to check.”

Until we exhausted all leads, we weren’t going anywhere. I couldn’t face Miss Dotha or the girls’ parents otherwise. The girls couldn’t have survived this long underwater without help, but Taylor was a skilled witch. There were several ways he could have submerged them long-term while keeping them alive to use as bargaining chips, and that would explain where he spent his magic.

“There’s tension on it.” Clay sounded surprised. “The way it hangs into the water makes it hard to tell.”

The thick links made for a sturdy but heavy chain one of the teens must have pilfered from a parent.

“Pull,” the daemon told him, gripping the chain. “For Rue.”

The guys put their backs into hauling the chain out of the murky pond, link by slimy link, while I kept a wary eye on the water for any traps Taylor might have set. Colby peered over my head, helping, though I wanted nothing more than to send her up to a high limb to watch from there or even back to my SUV.

But the familiar was out of the bag now. Good luck stuffing her back in it. I would have to allow Colby to make her own decisions about how—and if—she used her powers. To rob her of choice would make me as bad or worse than the Stag or Taylor.

“It’s stuck.” Clay braced his legs. “There’s definitely something down there bumping the sides.”

“Then I’m going in.” I lifted Colby in the air. “I hope there aren’t leaches.” I shuddered. “Colby, you’re my lookout.” I stripped down to my bra and panties, grateful the daemon saw the floorshow instead of Asa. “Guys, I’m going to lower myself using the chain. Don’t panic if you feel it jerking.” I hesitated. “Actually, do panic if you feel it jerking, but light wiggling is fine.”

“Bad idea,” the daemon grumbled. “New plan.”

“We don’t know what shape the girls are in.” I refused to voice my darkest worries. “I have to do this.”

“She’s right.” Clay looped extra chain around his fist for a better grip. “The time to act is now.”

Taking his advice to heart, I followed the chain into the water, my hand sliding over the slick links. Fear I might drop my wand into the abyss forced me to leave it behind, but I wasn’t happy about it. After murmuring a spell for illumination in the hopes the burning globe would light my way, I filled my lungs with air and let myself sink.

Hand over hand, I hauled myself into the darkness with my eyes slitted against the filth of the water.

The ball of light drifted slowly ahead of me, but visibility was low. I didn’t see the cage until my guide dipped between its wooden bars and bounced off a pale shoulder.

Scooping the light into my palm, I shone it side to side until I located a thick root piercing the enclosure. I braced a hip on the wall, dug my toes into the muck to brace myself, then jiggled until the cage jerked free.

Once I verified it was clear of entanglements, I gave two hard pulls to signal to the guys I was done.

A hard yank knocked me into the opposite wall as the cage shot past me. Shoving off the packed mud, I hooked my fingers into the bottom of the cage and rode it all the way to the surface.

The second air hit my face, the daemon was there, his arm an iron band around my waist as he dragged me to shore.

Coughing and spluttering, I watched Clay secure the chain to hold the cage above the water.

Now that I could see the whole picture, I wish I hadn’t opened my eyes.

Camber and Arden huddled together, their fingers laced, and their heads bowed until their hair tangled.

“Are they…?” Clay stepped into the water. “Did you check for a pulse?”

“No,” I rasped, my throat sore like I had been screaming. Maybe I had been.

Slow to leave my side, the daemon joined Clay in pulling the cage onto shore and unhooking it.

“There’s no door.” Clay scratched his head. “The bottom must be hinged.”

On trembling legs, I stood and joined them. Upon closer examination of the cage, I wanted to kill Taylor all over again. “He grew it around them.”

There were no hinges, no seams, no doors. No escape. The entire piece had been twisted from roots and vines that had slithered under and around the girls until it finished weaving the spoked dome over them.

No wonder they had been screaming. They were terrified. He had sealed them in and made me listen.

The spell he used on the fae girls he preyed on wouldn’t work on humans. Their souls were too faint, too ephemeral, to make consuming them worthwhile unless there was no other food source available.

But there were petrification spells, freeze spells, sleep spells, any number of vicious options that killed their target, if they remained in stasis for too long. Hard to believe, but those were the best-case scenarios.

Before I understood her intent, Colby flew between the bars to land on Camber’s shoulder.

Eyes shut, wings flexing, Colby’s power lit her tiny body.

“They’re alive.” She shot up over to me. “I don’t know what’s wrong, though.”

Sweet relief crashed through me. “We can work with that.”

“Want me to crack it open?” Clay tested the bars. “They seem flexible enough.”

“Yes.” I didn’t waste more time dressing, just retrieved my wand. “We need it off them.”

The daemon gripped two thick vines and strained with all his might. They bent, but they didn’t break.

Clay tried his luck, but he might as well have been wrestling with a ball of rubber bands.

“It must be part of the spell.” I touched my wand to a vine for a reading. “It’s definitely part of the spell.”

“Rue.” Clay rushed to my side. “Don’t move.”

Heart kicking up, I froze in place as he cupped my shoulder. Jerking my head toward his hand, I watched as Colby’s legs buckled. The stubborn girl hadn’t warned me she was fading, but Clay had been keeping an eye on her. She slid off me into his waiting palm with a sigh and didn’t so much as twitch afterward.

“Colby.”I grasped his hand, yanking it to me, certain my worst fears had come true. “Are you…?”

I knew I shouldn’t let her help. I knew it. But I did it anyway. I even liked it.

No, no, no.

“She’s asleep.” He smiled softly down at her. “Her battery is empty.”

For several long seconds, I watched to be sure she was breathing easy. “I think you’re right.”

“Of course I’m right.” He cradled her gently. “Look, I’ve known a lot of familiars in my time. A hundred or more. I’ve seen burnout before. Many times. This might be my first loinnir, but I’m telling you that’s what this is.” He scanned the pond. “She threw around a lot of magic. Probably discharged an accumulation since she’s never functioned in her familiar capacity.”

The cage waited beyond, but this was Colby. “You’re sure…?”

“I’m sure.” He held her close in a gesture of protection. “I’ve got her. You work on the girls.”

“Let me grab my kit.” I needed all the help I could get without Colby. “I should be able to do this solo.”

The idea of leaving the girls stuck as they were until Colby recovered was out of the question.

I started by pouring a salt circle around them and sealing it with three drops of my blood. From there, I burnt herbal offerings in a caldron the size of my palm. I lit a bundle of dragon’s blood sage for potency and protection and walked a slow circuit around the cage, filling the air with its heady smoke and earthy fragrance. A few blood crystals placed and blessed at the four corners gave me another boost.

I just hoped it was enough.

With enough preparation time, I could work minor miracles even on my new diet. I prayed to any and all gods and goddesses who listened that this unraveling revived the girls, but they rarely favored me. I made my own luck.

Pressure built behind my breastbone in stark contrast to the easy flow I channeled earlier, but this magic came from me. It was all mine. What remained of it. I could do this, but it would cost me. Lucky for me, I had Clay here to catch me if I fell. And, though ours was a new and tenuous trust, Asa too.

And his daemon.

He would probably save me for the sake of having someone to pet him.

As my chant built to a crescendo, I aimed my wand and unleashed my counterspell on the circle with a tap.

A beat before my eyes rolled back in my head, I swore I heard twin inhales that exhaled on screams.