Broken Bonds by Keri Arthur

Chapter Ten

“No!” I screamed, and threw the sphere of energy.

It hurtled across the room and flung itself over the child a heartbeat before the bullet hit. It flared fiercely, bending briefly to absorb the impact energy before rebounding. The bullet dropped harmlessly to the floor.

The man swung around to face me and suddenly all I could see was the gun barrel pointed straight at my face. Anger burned through my limbs, and without thought, I flung out a hand, spooling energy from my fingertips in the form of a rope. His finger twitched on the trigger at the same time as my rope ripped the weapon up and then out of his hands. The bullet meant for me smashed into the ceiling instead, and plaster dust rained down. I flung the gun away, then, as a look of sheer surprise crossed his twisted, ugly features, I launched forward, hitting the floor and twisting around in one smooth fast motion. My boot struck his shin hard enough to knock him off his feet and land him on his butt. He cursed, but nevertheless scrambled upright, his fists clenching and unclenching as he lunged toward me.

I pushed back and raised a hand, but before I could unleash another bolt of energy, a gruff voice said, “Drop low.”

I immediately pressed flat against the carpet, felt the wind of a leap high above me, saw Aiden land and lash out with a clenched fist, burying it deep in the stranger’s solar plexus. As the man gasped and doubled over, Aiden followed with an elbow to the head. The stranger dropped hard and didn’t move.

The woman made a garbled sobbing sort of sound and ran for her child. I quickly dismantled the shield so she could pick him up, then pushed into a sitting position.

Aiden squatted in front of me, his gaze sweeping my length and coming up relieved. “You’re okay.”

It was a statement rather than a question, and I smiled. “Yes, and so is the kid, thank God.”

“Yes.”

He rose, offered me a hand, and then hauled me upright.

“Where’s Monty?” I asked.

“Calling in reinforcements and an ambulance.” He brushed a finger down my cheek, as if in reassurance that I really was okay, and then turned to the woman. “Are you okay, Mrs. Lloyd?”

“Yes, but only thanks to the timely intervention of your witch, Aiden. If not for her—” She shuddered and hugged her son tighter. “Thank you. Thank you both.”

He nodded. “I’ll move your husband out of the room and send the paramedics in when the ambulance gets here, just to make sure you’re both okay. I’m afraid we will need a statement from you.”

She nodded and continued to make soft, soothing noises. The little boy had calmed down, though he continued to make hiccupping sounds that spoke of his distress.

Aiden pulled a zip-tie from his pocket, lashed the stranger’s wrists together, and then roughly hauled him from the room. I started to follow, then spotted the gun and moved across to pick it up.

“I can never repay what you’ve done for us,” Mrs. Lloyd said. “If you hadn’t intervened, if you hadn’t thrown that spell when you did, Robbie would be dead, just as that bastard wanted.”

“You’re able to see magic?” I said, surprised. There was certainly nothing in her aura or her energy output to suggest she was a witch of any kind, and we were generally the only ones who could see spell threads.

Fear and panic flashed through her expression and she said, the words tumbling out so quickly they practically ran into each other, “No, God no, I’m not a witch or anything like that.”

Which very much suggested that magic—or perhaps the suspicion of it—had in some way been responsible for what happened here today.

“I’m not implying you are, but just so you know, there is nothing wrong with being a witch or even magic sensitive. And they stopped burning us eons ago.”

She blinked, and then half laughed, though it came out more of a sob. “Not in Jim’s family, they didn’t.”

“Ah. I’m sorry.” And I couldn’t help wishing that I’d been a whole lot more brutal on the bastard; maybe it would have given him some inkling of what it meant to terrorize a real witch.

“No, no, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to react so badly. It’s just habit born out of necessity.” She shrugged and kissed her son’s forehead. “What I do isn’t magic, even if his family considered it so. It’s more a psychic ability—I can see energy, good and bad. In fact, it’s the sole reason I was even in Robbie’s room—I felt something very dark move past the house. If I hadn’t come in to check on my son, goodness knows what Jim might have done.”

Jim would have done exactly what he’d tried to do there at the end, and then would probably have tried to kill her for good measure.

“That darkness you sensed passing by the house,” I said. “I don’t suppose you have any idea which direction it was going?”

“It went through the side gate and was headed in a north-westerly direction. Beyond that, no. Sorry.” She hesitated. “Is that why you came in here? Because you were tracking that dark energy?”

“Yes, though it was your son’s screaming that brought us into the house. It didn’t sound right.”

“Then I thank the stars and good fortune darkness decided to walk past my house at that precise moment.”

I didn’t believe the stars or good fortune had anything to do with it. I really did believe that the hone-onna had sensed what was going on and had deliberately led us there.

Which was a weird thing to think about a creature of death, but a definite indicator that maternal instincts weren’t restricted to flesh-and-blood beings.

Two medics came into the room, so I said goodbye and followed the sound of Monty’s voice down the hall and into the kitchen.

He’d been talking on the phone, but hung up as I entered. His gaze swept me critically and came up … puzzled. “You’re looking surprisingly well, considering.”

I frowned at him. “Considering what?”

“Considering the force behind that bolt of energy you unleashed—you do know it was pure wild magic, don’t you?”

“It’s a part of my soul, Monty, so these days it’s a given that it’ll appear in any spell or energy I cast.” I walked over to the sink, then grabbed a cup and filled it up. The adrenaline of the moment was fading, leaving my throat parched and a deepening ache in my head. I had painkillers in my bag, but my bag was still in the truck. Water would have to do for the moment.

“It wasn’t your personal wild magic. It was the real deal.”

My gaze shot across to his. “Don’t be ridiculous—there has to be threads of the stuff nearby for that to happen, and there isn’t.”

But even as I said that, a soft glimmer caught my eye. A tiny thread of wild magic, lazily circling around the room, as if waiting for something.

Or someone.

Me, to be precise.

I held out a hand, and it immediately responded, wrapping lightly around my wrist. My skin tingled with power and awareness.

That awareness scared me, because it wasn’t coming from Katie. This thread of wildness wasn’t from her wellspring, but rather the main one.

Which could only mean it wasn’t her soul, her spirit, creating the growing cognizance in the main wellspring’s wild magic.

It was mine.

And it was all thanks to the magic in my DNA; it was forging an ever-deepening connection with the larger wellspring.

No wonder my psi senses had been warning that I’d never truly be able to leave this place. It wasn’t, as I’d been thinking, because I was Katie’s conduit to the people she loved, but the fact that, like her, I was becoming irrevocably linked to a wellspring. Perhaps not forever—not unless I wished it, an inner voice whispered, and I didn’t—but for as long as I lived, this place was now both my home and my prison. Leaving might have been possible in the earlier days of our arrival, but it wasn’t now.

“Liz, what’s wrong? You look … well, you look as if you’ve seen a ghost,” Monty said. “You’ve certainly gone as pale as one.”

“Sorry, just the aftereffect of using that much power.” I waved a dismissive hand. “I’ll be fine.”

His gaze narrowed, no doubt suspecting there was more to the story than what I was saying, but Aiden came back into the room, so he didn’t push the matter.

Because we both know Monty has every intention of harassing me with his questions later this eveningcame Belle’s comment. I’m not sure I see the point of keeping your silence now.

I don’t want to worry Aiden.

Bull. Besides, regardless of what might happen with you two in the future, you’re still currently in a very caring relationship with that man. He deserves to know.

Yes, and I will tell him. Eventually.

She harrumphed. The sound echoed loudly through my brain, making me wince.

“I take it,” Monty said, “that Belle is currently conversing with you and isn’t entirely happy.”

“Yes indeed, and no, you have no need to know.” I glanced at Aiden. “Where’s Jim?”

“The husband? Jaz is escorting him to the station and will take a statement when he’s conscious.”

“You might want to get the medics to check him out. I think he was high on something.”

“Already made the call. They’ll meet Jaz at the station.” He dug into his pocket and held out his truck keys. “You two might as well head home. There’s nothing more you can do here or over at Ms. Taylor’s.”

Monty frowned. “You sure you don’t want me to stay, just in case she returns?”

“How likely is it that she will?”

“Not very, but that doesn’t mean she won’t.”

A smile tugged Aiden’s lips. “Then your time might be better spent trying to track this thing down.”

“Yeah, because that’s been a success so far.” He pushed away from the counter and offered me the crook of his elbow. “Shall we go hunting, dear cousin?”

“Only if Belle doesn’t need me at the café—”

And she doesn’t.

“It appears that I am indeed free.”

I linked my arm through his, and we headed out the back door. I pulled free at the bottom step and bent to press a finger against the blood smear. It had well and truly dried, and the pulse of energy and life had long left it. I nevertheless called to a sliver of the inner wild magic and sent it into the smear, searching for a connection, a reason, or simply some sense of the monster that had cared enough to save the child.

All I got was an odd sense of dread. Her next kill would be far worse than anything we’d seen so far. And this time, it wouldn’t be a stranger who died. It would be someone we knew.

Unless we stopped her.

I glanced up sharply at Monty. “She’s already on the hunt.”

He frowned. “That makes no sense, given she’s only just killed.”

“Killed, not fed.”

“You think the next victim will be a feeding?”

“No, I think it’ll be a frenzy. We need to find her, and fast.”

“All we’ve got is my tracker, and that’ll only work if we’re in her vicinity.”

“I know, but we have to try. If intuition is right, her next victim is someone we know.”

Alarm crossed his features. “Someone close?”

I hesitated. “I don’t know, and in the end, that’s neither here nor there in the scheme of things.”

“True.” He motioned me forward. “Let’s go.”

We made our way back over the fence and then through Ms. Taylor’s yard. There were a couple more ranger vehicles sitting out the front of the house now, suggesting that Tala and Ciara had arrived. Monty headed over to Maggie’s SUV to grab his backpack and the tracker, while I climbed into Aiden’s truck, then leaned over to grab my bag and fish out some painkillers. I didn’t have any water, so I simply chewed and swallowed them. Not my favorite thing to do, but better than putting up with a headache.

“Where to?” I asked, once Monty was in the truck and had his seat belt on.

“You tell me. You’re the one who communed with the blood spot.”

“I only got a warning of danger, not a damn location.”

“And you really should work on that. I mean, what good is a psychic talent that doesn’t provide much in the way of usable information?”

I lightly slapped his arm, then put the truck into gear and headed back toward Castle Rock, though for no particular reason other than the fact it seemed to be the general direction our hone-onna had been heading.

We were on the outskirts of town when the tracker came to life.

“Well, fuck me,” Monty said. “The damn thing found something.”

I snorted. “I love how your certainty that a spell will work becomes surprise when the thing actually does.”

“Well, it was created from a vague memory of a long-ago lesson, so in reality, there was only ever a fifty-fifty chance of it working. Keep going on this road for a bit.”

We swept around several corners, turned right at a set of traffic lights, and continued on, quickly moving through Castle Rock and onto the highway.

“Next right,” he said.

I slowed and turned. “Isn’t this one of the roads that eventually leads up to the O’Connor compound?”

“I think so, but I couldn’t imagine she’d go after a werewolf. They’re a whole lot tougher to fool than a human. Besides, werewolves mate for life.” He paused. “When they actually do commit to a partner, that is.”

I smiled, even as my stupid heart ached. “I knew what you meant.”

“Good.” He motioned to the crossroad up ahead. “Keep on this road.”

There was no traffic coming in either direction, so I accelerated through the intersection. The tracker’s pulse continued to grow stronger, suggesting we were getting closer. “Aside from the O’Connor compound, is much else up this way?”

“Grazing lands and orchards, mostly.” He glanced at me. “Why?”

“If I’m wrong and she’s not hunting, then it’s an odd place for her to be. I can’t imagine a pine forest would provide much in the way of comfortable cover.”

“She’s a dark spirit. They don’t need comfortable. Left ahead.”

I turned. “We’re talking about a spirit that normally hunts in major cities. I can’t imagine she’d want to be hiding out in the open.”

“You’re applying human sensibilities to an inhuman creature,” he said, clearly amused. “But that aside, her movements aren’t restricted by daylight, and her magic affords her the resemblance of normality. In reality, she could take up residence in the busiest hotel, and most people would be none the wiser.”

“Would she risk that though? If she’s aware of my presence, then she’d have to be aware there are four other witches in the reservation.”

“Yes, but the reservation is large. The chances of one of us coming across her by accident are rather low, and she’d be aware of that, too. We’re not dealing with a dumb spirit here.”

No, we were dealing with one who saved children.

Which doesn’t mean she can be allowed to rampage through the reservation unchecked, Belle said. It only takes a sideways step to go from killing cheaters to wiping out the innocent.

I know. I suppose I just didn’t expect a dark spirit to react in such a caring manner to a human child, and now I can’t help viewing her in a slightly different light.

It’s not really surprising that there are differing levels of evil within the spirit world. They aren’t all the same, just as witches and humans aren’t.She paused. Hell, that statement might also apply to demons.

No one will ever convince me demons have a soft side.

And yet, until today, we both thought the same about dark spirits.

The large pine plantation where Byron—one of the rangers—had recently been murdered soon came into sight. I slowed and, without Monty needing to tell me, turned into the dusty road that ran between two orderly rows of pines.

“If we keep on following this track through the plantation, we’ll end up on the mountain and the outskirts of the O’Connor compound,” I said. “We can’t go in there, Monty. Not without permission.”

“I know, but hopefully she’s doing nothing more than just tracking through their territory, and we’ll be able to catch her again on the other side.” He shrugged. “I can’t see any reason for her to be hunting in the compound, given married wolves don’t stray.”

“You can’t make such a blanket statement when there are always outliers. Hell, take Mia as an example—” Horror surged, and my gaze snapped to Monty. “Fuck, you don’t think Mia could be the target, do you?”

“Why on earth would she be a target?”

“Well, she technically did cheat—she had a common-law husband when she became engaged to Aiden.”

“True, but she appeared in the reservation after the kills started,” Monty said, “She shouldn’t have been included in the scope of the spell.”

“Except we don’t know yet who created the spell or what its parameters were. Hell, the caster might not have set any limitations at all—it would certainly explain why the hone-onna is going after both the cheater and the lover.”

“There’s no indication as yet that Ms. Taylor was the lover of one of the victims. For all we know, she’s married, cheating on her husband, and we’re simply dealing with an equal opportunity killer.”

“We might not know, but that doesn’t mean the witch behind the hone-onna doesn’t,” I said. “She has to be using some kind of magic to locate her targets, so why couldn’t the same spell uncover whomever they were cheating with?”

“If we do work on that theory, Aiden could be a target as well.”

I blinked and, for a second, couldn’t breathe. I gulped and then said, “We can’t discount that possibility, even if he was an unknowing participant in the betrayal.”

While the charm he wore had already protected him from this spirit, now that she knew it was there, it wouldn’t take her too long to defuse it. “You’d better warn him. We need him to contact Mia anyway.”

Monty grabbed his phone and hit the call button. It rang several times before Aiden said, “I take it there’s a problem?”

“There could well be—do you know where Mia is?”

“No—why?”

Sharp concern rode his question, and something twisted inside. Which was stupid. Even if he didn’t love her, he certainly wouldn’t want to see her hurt or murdered.

“Because,” Monty replied, “we’ve tracked the hone-onna up to the Mount Alexander pine plantation. We believe she’s heading for the compound.”

He didn’t ask why we believed Mia could be the next target. He would have made the connection as easily as we had. “Give me a few minutes to get permission for you to enter, then I’ll contact Mia.”

He immediately hung up. Monty tucked the phone between his legs and picked up the tracker again. The closer we got to the compound, the stronger its pulse became.

I might have wanted Mia out of Aiden’s life, but not like this.

We came to a T-intersection, and I braked. If we went left, we’d end up in the O’Connor compound; going right would take us on a loop around the plantation and then back into Castle Rock.

The tracker was of course indicating to the left.

I was more than willing to risk going up there without permission if we were given no other choice, but I also knew the O’Connors would come down on us hard. If they did—if they delayed us for even a few minutes—it could have disastrous results. Not just for Mia but also for the longer-term relationship between the witches and the pack. For that same reason, we couldn’t use magic to clear a path through their ranks, not even in an effort to save a life.

But sometimes the quickest way to achieve a much-desired goal was by the slowest method available. Or so Belle’s mom used to say back in the day, when Belle and I were impatient teenagers wanting things done now rather than later.

It was a memory that made me smile. At least we’d be able to go visit Belle’s parents while we were up in Canberra, and that alone might make the whole trip worthwhile.

No might about itcame Belle’s comment. In fact, I’ve already contacted Mom. She’s invited the four of us for dinner the night we arrive in Canberra.

We haven’t even booked the flights yet.

We don’t need to. The Black Lantern Society has taken care of all that sort of stuff. Ashworth forwarded me the tickets about an hour ago.

I frowned. Why would they be paying for it?

We’re key witnesses to the case being brought against your dad, so why shouldn’t they? She shrugged mentally. But maybe they simply want to make sure we actually get on the plane.

I do believe that’s the reason Ashworth and Eli are coming with us. They want to ensure we get there in one piece.

That sounds ominous—intuition? Or did I miss something when Juli appeared at the café?

Not intuition, and you didn’t miss anything. But let’s be honest here—Juli’s sudden appearance was nothing more than a vague attempt at intimidation.

Very vague indeed. Her amusement swam down the mental line. He was never as good as your father at that sort of thing. He’s too soft to be scary.

He doesn’t have to be scary when he’s got the magical nous to back up any threat he makes.

So have you, now. Remember that.

Except we’re not exactly sure whether my personal wild magic will be functional outside the confines of the reservation. Without it, I remain an underpowered witch.

You can’t say that with any certainty, given the way your psi abilities are morphing. But I can’t imagine why the inner wildness wouldn’t be available—it’s part of your damn DNA.

A part that was inactive until I entered this reservation and came into contact with its unprotected wellspring.

That’s not exactly true. There was some leaching over to me—it was in the erectile dysfunction spell I unleashed on Clayton, remember.

Monty’s phone rang sharply, making me jump. He hit the answer button and quickly said, “Do we have permission to go in?”

“If necessary, but Mia’s currently on the way out of the compound. Do you want her to turn back?”

“No,” I said quickly. “The hone-onna is between us and her—she’ll get to Mia before we ever could.”

“Except this time, she’s in a wolf compound. Even a dark spirit as deadly as this one will have her hands full dealing with a pack of werewolves ready and willing to protect one of their own.”

“Oh, come on, Aiden,” Monty said, with a surprising amount of annoyance running through his voice, “you’ve dealt with enough supernatural entities by now to recognize the stupidity of that statement.”

“It’s not—”

“Aiden,” he cut in again. “The tracker is indicating the hone-onna is moving toward the residential hub—are you really willing to risk the lives of all those you care about on the off chance the hone-onna won’t cut a bloody swath through the pack to get to Mia?”

“Of course not, but—”

“Guys,” I cut in sharply, “can we argue over who’d provide the better protection after we actually save Mia from the hone-onna?”

“What do you want her to do, if not return back to the hub?” came Aiden’s curt response.

“She needs to hightail it out of the compound and meet up with us,” Monty said.

“She’s on the main exit road, which will take her onto the Faraday-Sutton Grange Road. If you’re at the pine plantation’s crossroad, it’ll take you roughly ten minutes to reach Faraday.”

I immediately took off; a wave of dust and stones bloomed behind us as I sped down the rough old road.

“We’ll meet up with her somewhere along that road then,” Monty said. “But there’s one more thing, Aiden. We think you’ll probably have to go into protective isolation with her—”

“No,” he cut in bluntly.

“Aiden,” I said, “you know it’s absolutely the last thing I want, but I really don’t think we have any other option right now.”

“There’s always another option,” he growled, “but that’s something you and I can discuss once she’s safe. Keep the line open. I’ll keep relaying her position.”

“Stubborn fucking man,” I muttered, my gaze on the road and my grip so tight on the wheel my knuckles gleamed white.

“Something you were well aware of before we ever got into a relationship” came Aiden’s curt reply.

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less annoying in a situation like this.”

He laughed, though it was a slightly brittle sound. “The same can be said in return, my darling witch.”

I didn’t reply, though I wanted to. How could he use an endearment like that and yet be utterly unwilling to admit the depths of his emotions? Emotions I could see in his eyes and his aura?

I flexed my fingers in an effort to release the frustrated anger. Right now, it was better for everyone—but especially for Monty, who was holding onto the grab handle in a white-knuckled manner—that I fully concentrated on driving.

Aiden kept us updated on Mia’s position, his voice tense and filled with muted, angry frustration. But then, he was an alpha, and it was part of their makeup to protect those they cared about. But this situation, just like that of his brother, was not something he could control or fix, and that grated.

The tracker’s pulse remained bright and steady, an indication that our dark spirit was moving in roughly the same direction we were. It wasn’t a direct confirmation Mia was her target; in fact, it could have just as easily confirmed we were.

She might have guided me to a kid in danger, but that didn’t mean she’d given up on testing her magic against the “strongest” witch in the reservation.

I glanced at Monty and murmured, “We need to be careful. She could be out to trap us rather than Mia.”

“I came to that conclusion several minutes ago.” He raised an eyebrow, amusement evident. “You’re a bit slow today.”

“I’ve only had one coffee so far,” I said, voice dry, “so I’ll blame it on the lack of caffeine.”

“Right,” Aiden said, “she’s just swung onto Faraday Road. How far away are you from the other end?”

I glanced at the GPS screen. “Two minutes? We’ve just hit Harmony Way.”

“Put the siren on and floor it,” he said. “Is the hone-onna still tracking her?”

“Unclear,” Monty said.

“What the hell does that mean?”

“Exactly what I said,” Monty growled back. “Don’t get all antsy at me, wolf man.”

I glanced at Monty in surprise, eyebrows raised. “What the hell has Belle been feeding you for breakfast?”

He grinned, though there was an angry light in his eyes that belied the mirth. “Bullshit intolerance pills.”

“That doesn’t explain this.” I waved a hand toward the phone.

“Maybe bullshit is the wrong term, then. Maybe it’s the lack of courage I can’t abide.”

“The line is open, Monty,” Aiden noted, voice dry.

“Oh, I know, but if my cousin won’t call out your bullshit, I’m legally obliged to.”

“What the fuck are you on about now?”

“Calling her darling but refusing to commit? That’s cowardice in my book, Aiden. And don’t give me the whole ‘she’s not wolf’ bullshit, because we both know—”

“Can we please concentrate on the hone-onna?” I said, even though I wanted to roundly cheer every single word Monty had said. “Aiden, where’s Mia?”

“About a kilometer away from the Harmony Way intersection.” He paused. “A car has appeared behind her.”

A car? Why would the hone-onna be using a car, given the speed with which she could move? I briefly hit the brake to take off some speed, then wrenched the truck left into Faraday Road, leaving a trail of black tire smoke behind me.

A silver car appeared on the road up ahead, headlights gleaming brightly as it approached at speed. There was no sign of a car behind her. Either it had turned off or the hone-onna was now using magic to conceal it.

“That has to be Mia,” Monty said.

“And the other car?” came Aiden’s question.

“Not currently visible,” I said. “But the hone-onna is still closing in.”

“We’ll pull over,” Monty added. “Tell Mia to stop opposite us and jump into the back of the truck.”

“Will do.”

I moved the truck onto the road’s gravel shoulder but braked too quickly, sending us into a brief sideways slide before I brought it back under control. Dust plumed around the vehicle, then fell away.

Monty peered through the windscreen. “I’m not seeing anything to indicate a concealing spell is being used.”

“No, but the tracker is still reacting, so she’s somewhere up ahead.”

“Maybe she’s just passing through. Maybe we’re overreacting.”

“Maybe.”

He glanced at me. “But you don’t think so?”

“Not given the premonition that someone I know would die.”

“You don’t know Mia.”

“On a deep and personal level, no. But I have met her, and that may well be enough. Remember, my psi talents aren’t always specific.” I paused. “Right now, I’m just hoping that I haven’t read this whole thing wrong.”

“You did say the dead person would be someone ‘we’ know, and that implies you and I aren’t her targets.”

“Unless this is one of those rare occasions my talents get it wrong.”

He returned his gaze to the road. “Let’s hope not. I’m really not in the mood to die today.”

The silver car was now throwing up a cloud of dust as Mia edged onto the shoulder in readiness to stop.

It was in that cloud that the outline of a second vehicle became visible. It was close to the tail of Mia’s car.

Tooclose.

“Oh fuck,” Monty said. “The bitch is going to ram her.”

“Yes, she damn well is.”

I scrambled out of the truck and hurled a ball of sheer energy at the dusty, semi-transparent vehicle … just as it plowed into the back of Mia’s, sending it sliding sideways over the embankment and down into the water-filled trench.

My bolt hit and punched the second car high into the air. It tipped over end-to-end several times then crashed heavily onto its roof and spun slowly down the road, well past us.

“Monty, see to Mia,” I yelled and ran back to the other car.

Though there was no immediate sense of evil emanating from the upside-down car, I nevertheless wrapped a cage spell around my fingertips. While I had nothing on hand that could in any way kill a spirit as strong as the hone-onna, Ashworth and Eli were only a phone call away. All I had to do was keep her contained.

The second car had come to halt sideways across the road. There was no movement inside, and for a moment, I wondered if she’d escaped us.

Then the back window shattered, and a spell that was little more than a mess of twisting threads of black foulness speared out and arrowed straight at me.

I didn’t need the charm at my neck burning to life to know that mass intended me no good. I slid to a halt, threw up my hands, and quickly wove a shielding spell—one that was interlaced with inner wild magic. The pulsing screen of silver and gold flared out in front of me, and the dark threads reacted instantly, sweeping to the left in an obvious attempt to get around the shield and attack from behind. I shifted with it, keeping the shield between us as I studied the threads, looking for a weak spot in the hone-onna’s magic.

There wasn’t one.

The bitch was strong.

An ominous prickle went down my neck.

The bitch was also behind me.