Chapter Fourteen
Walker
I rolled my shoulders and squinted against the sunlight, which streamed in through the windshield. I gripped the steering wheel and shook myself awake. In the hours I had driven, I had turned the trolls’ words over and over in my mind, but I still couldn’t make much sense of them.
“Witches and wars,” Ryder repeated. “I mean, that could explain why the High Witch has been busy? Maybe there’s a civil war brewing?”
I nodded. “And maybe the chimera will act as some kind of weapon to help her win.”
In the rearview mirror, I watched Freya shake her head. “If a war is on the horizon, my coven—large, powerful, and influential—hasn’t been recruited by either side to act as an ally.”
I considered the next line in the trolls’ message.
“Bonded by blood and stronger than ore,” I said. “Is ore used in any specific spells?”
Freya twirled a curl around her finger. “None that I’m aware of.”
“And they mentioned a cave,” I recalled, “but the tracking spells didn’t show us any of those.”
Freya tapped a finger against her lips and studied her screen. “The part about stirring the blood and shaking the heavens, though, that reminds me of the dream Cady and I shared.”
Beside her in the backseat, Cady groaned.
“Totally,” she said, “but can I remind you all of something? I need to go to the bathroom.”
“For the third time in the last two hours,” I replied.
Cady sighed. “I told you drinking the mega-slush was a mistake. What am I supposed to do about it now?”
“Your brother is fighting like hell to stay awake anyway,” Ryder said from the passenger seat. “We’ll stop at the next gas station and switch drivers.”
It was testament to how deeply Cady had wedged her way under the wolf’s skin that he didn’t snap at her about taking too many breaks. The closer we had gotten to New Orleans, the more restless he had become. I had also noticed he stiffened every time we mentioned the troll’s line about the “wolf’s heart.”
I glanced in the rearview mirror, and Cadence smiled smugly. I shook my head, and my gaze snagged on Freya. As she struggled to stay awake, her eyes fluttered open and shut. Arion settled himself against her side as if to force her to rest. His amber eyes caught mine, and I focused on the stretch of highway once more. The demon-cat still creeped me out.
The endless expanse of land around us bothered me too. Without the mountains to cradle us, we were exposed on the never-ending horizon. The familiar scent of cow shit wafted in the air, which loosened some of the tension in my shoulders.
Maybe Amarillo isn’t so different from home after all.
When the next exit appeared on the outskirts of the city, I took it and pulled up to a dilapidated gas station. OP N, its sign blinked. Metal bars and cigarette advertisements lined the windows, and two black Kawasaki motorcycles were parked outside.
“Are you sure you don’t want to wait till the next one?” I asked Cady, but she was already jumping out the door. I sighed and followed her, while Ryder stayed with Freya in the SUV. She had succumbed to her exhaustion and was curled up much like her cat in the backseat.
As I followed Cady into the gas station, a bell chimed above the barred door. Mildew and greasy food saturated the air, and an older woman mopped the probably once-white, but now beige tiles. Cady spoke to the cashier, an older, thin guy with a neck beard and a frown. He crouched under the overhead shelf, which was packed with cigarettes, vapes, tobacco, and everything in between.
“Bathroom?” Cady said, hopping from foot to foot. “Can I use your bathroom?”
“Customers only,” he murmured in a low, gravelly voice.
I sighed. “She’s with me. I’m buying something.”
The cashier studied me for a moment, and I turned to the refrigerators lining the far wall. Amid the expansive variety of alcoholic seltzers and beer, I grabbed a Coke.
“Here,” he grumbled and handed Cady a key on a long, black string. She grimaced at what had to be a total cesspool of germs but accepted the key and hurried to the back of the store. I placed my Coke on the counter and reached in my back pocket, only to find it empty. I grimaced. I had gotten sick of sitting lopsided and left my wallet in the middle console.
“Wallet’s in the car,” I said. “I’ll be right back.”
He crossed his arms and muttered under his breath, but I ignored him and hurried outside. As I grabbed my wallet, Ryder frowned at me but returned to his brooding. As soon as I re-entered the gas station, the hair on the back of my neck stood, and magic heated my veins.
I breathed into the heat but kept my cool. Everything appeared normal—the older lady still mopped, and the cashier now spoke to a new customer.
I hadn’t seen anyone one else park.
I recalled the two motorcycles and realized they were way too expensive to belong to the people working here. I just hadn’t seen them inside moments before. I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself. Most likely, the behemoth of a man now chatting with the cashier had been in the bathroom earlier.
Everything really is bigger in Texas.
He was as broad as he was tall. His brown hair was gelled down under a crisply white felt hat, and his shoulders stretched the confines of a long-sleeved, beige shirt. Two belts stretched around his hips. One held up his dark brown pants, which stacked neatly over his alligator boots, and the other carried two pistols.
When he looked over his shoulder at me, I caught a flash of his shining badge. I studied the circle with the star in between. I didn’t get a chance to read the badge, but I didn’t need to.
It was my first time in Texas, and I came face-to-face with a Texas Ranger. My first instinct was awe, but I couldn’t shake my wariness. Cadence still hadn’t emerged from the bathroom.
“Excuse me,” a deep voice drawled behind me.
As another Texas Ranger walked past, a cold hand pressed against my arm. It was his piercing blue gaze, however, that made me recoil. There was something cold and lifeless in its depths.
He flashed me a pretty-boy smile, tipped his hat, and joined his colleague at the counter. I sighed. I had been trapped in a car for too long, and it had made me stir-crazy.
Still, Cadence didn’t come out of the bathroom. Worried she was sick from her mega-slush, I walked to the back of the store. I found a dirty, white painted door labeled ‘family restroom’ and knocked.
The door creaked open, and my stomach dropped.
Cadence was sprawled on her stomach across the cracked tile floor.
“Told you there was more than one,” a man grumbled.
As I stared at my sister in horror, someone shoved me to the ground beside her.
???
Freya
“What in the gods' names,” Ryder muttered, “is taking so long?”
I stirred in my seat but tried to tune him out. Sleep rarely came to me in the car, and I wanted to hold onto it with both hands. Apparently having other plans, Arion batted at me with his paws.
I blinked my eyes open and took in the run-down gas station in front of us. It needed some work, but it was innocuous enough. It didn’t explain the dread slithering down my spine. I glanced at Arion’s raised hackles and noticed the Reids’ absence.
“Something’s wrong,” I said in a rough voice and cleared my throat. “How long have they been gone?”
“Not that long,” Ryder said, “but I think you’re right. I caught an odd scent on the air earlier. Just for a second. It’s hard to smell anything other than cow crap in this place.”
I unbuckled my seatbelt. “I’m going in.”
“Wait,” Ryder said. “We need a plan.”
Familiar, potent magic called like a blaring siren on the wind. Something crashed. Ryder and I met gazes and leaped out of the SUV with Arion in tow.
Inside, knocked over shelves blocked our path, but Ryder and I sidestepped the debris. An elderly woman and a middle-aged man watched us from behind the counter. The woman’s wrinkled face was marred by disgust, but the man grinned, flashing yellow teeth, in wicked delight.
“Big catch today, boys!” he called. “There’s two more.”
Something in the back of the store crashed again. Walker grunted and cursed. Ryder, Arion, and I ran to the back of the store, where a dimly lit EXIT sign hung over a door.
“Call for back-up,” a deep, male voice drawled. “We’ve gotta bring this one in. I’ve never seen anything like him.”
We burst through the back door. With her eyes shut, Cadence was limp on the ground a few feet away with her arms bound awkwardly behind her. Though I couldn’t see the magic-binding titanium cuffs, I could sense them like a void of energy where Cady’s bright burst of magic usually was. With his back to us, a man in a tan uniform stood over her.
Arion hissed, and I whispered the spell to free him to shift. As a saber-toothed tiger reared beside me, his hiss transformed into a guttural growl.
A behemoth of a man had Walker in a chokehold. A syringe’s needle was halfway embedded in the cowboy’s neck, and Walker’s eyes shone like a summer storm.
The man standing over Cadence turned and revealed his Ken doll features. The star-shaped badge on his shirt glowed. As I recognized the Texas Rangers badge, I realized we had stumbled upon the most infamous legion of witch hunters in America. Beyond the Ranger, nothing but grassy, dirt plains stretched for miles. Upon our arrival, the blond, doll-like Ranger’s smug smirk faltered, and a feral grin spread across my face.
“Finally,” I said, “witch hunters I can actually kill.”
As I knocked Doll Man back with a gust of wind, Ryder shifted and lunged for him. Arion joined the werewolf, and I pivoted on the giant still clutching Walker. I muttered a relaxation spell under my breath, but he only bared his teeth.
Classic hunter, I thought, killing us for our magic but using it for defense charms.
With the dagger hidden in my combat boot, I lunged. The cowardly giant dragged Walker by the neck and used him as a shield. Walker was half-limp, presumably because of the injection still hanging out of his neck. Fast as a snake, I grabbed the injection and yanked it out of Walker’s skin. The needle was longer than I had anticipated, and blood spurted from the wound.
Walker’s magic, however, flourished in the needle’s absence. It raised the hairs on the back of my neck and made my magic thrum even louder in response. As lightning crackled over the cowboy’s body, the Ranger yelped and stepped back.
Ryder and Arion circled the other Ranger. What should’ve been an easy kill had left them both bloody, though I couldn’t spot any lethal wounds. Doll Man was quick as an asp and wielded two silver blades. His badge blazed with protection spells. Beyond them, Cadence lay so very still.
“Freya,” Walker said. Lightning still danced on his skin. “I can’t touch her.” His voice broke on the final word.
I nodded and looked at the large Ranger, who was shaking himself back to life after the shock Walker had given him. “Hold him off.”
Drawing his gun with inhuman quickness, the larger Ranger pointed the pistol at us. A gunshot boomed, but before it could even hit the forcefield of air I projected, it was shot down by a dart of blue lightning and sizzled out of existence.
Damn, I thought. In any other scenario, I might’ve congratulated the cowboy…or ogled him. Instead, I darted around the brawl and rushed to Cadence’s side. Her life force was still there, though muted, and her magic was snuffed out. When I crouched beside her, I noticed the small patch of blood on the back of her scalp and grimaced.
Though everything in me screamed to seek revenge on the monsters who would launch a sneak-attack on such a young witch, I instead ran a hand down Cadence’s back in an effort to comfort her. She groaned but did not open her eyes.
“Let’s get these cuffs off,” I said, “and make them pay.”
Careful not to strain her shoulder, I barely lifted Cady’s hands and gritted my teeth at the soul-sucking cold of the cuffs. These were more powerful than the standard ones used by my coven for punishments. They were not meant as temporary bonds, but permanent ones.
Why wouldn’t they just kill her?
The answer boiled my blood.
Someone had to conjure the protection spells the Rangers used to defend themselves from us. Given her young age, they had probably assumed Cadence would be an easy witch to control. They had planned to capture her, force her to design the spells they wanted, and discard her.
“They don’t know you very well,” I told the unconscious witch.
Desperate to free her, I tried an unlocking spell, but it was as if I did nothing at all. The cuffs were entirely immune to magic.
Behind me, feet stomped across the dusty ground, and male snarls filled the air. I twisted to study the two hunters and found what I sought. Clipped to Doll Man’s belt were a large ring of keys. I cast out my magic and sensed a distinctly cold, energy-sucking key among the normal ones. I tried to bring the key ring to me with a gust of wind, but the key was just as immune to magic as the cuffs.
It was not, however, immune to a werewolf’s teeth.
Ryder faked left then lunged for the key ring, tore if off the Ranger’s belt, and tossed it to me. I stood and caught it, but my relief was short-lived when a shot clanged through the air, and Ryder fell to the ground.
When the giant wolf’s amber eyes closed, my chest cleaved. The Ranger grinned wickedly and pointed his gun at Arion, but my familiar darted out of the way. With the big cat distracted, the Ranger pointed the pistol straight at the wolf’s head.
“Sorry, doggo,” the Ranger drawled. “This isn’t a no-kill shelter.”
I rallied my magic to burn the Ranger into oblivion, but before my flames could reach him, Ryder snapped back to life.
With a roar, he raised his head and closed his maw around Doll Man’s arm. Like a dog tearing up a chew toy, he ripped the Ranger’s appendage clean off. The gun flew through the air along with the Ranger’s arm. As Arion rushed to finish the screaming, bloody Ranger off, I was distracted by the rumble of approaching motorcycles.
Time to get the goddessdamned hell out of here.
I crouched beside Cady once more and snagged the ancient, chilling key out of the assortment on the key ring. As I unlocked the cuffs, Cady’s magic shimmered back to life, and she found the strength to sit up.
Cadence blinked rapidly, clearly trying to clear the cobwebs of her injured head. When her gaze locked on her brother, who leaped out of the way of an onslaught of throwing stars, her shimmering magic became an echoing thrum. Before I could stop her, she summoned a swirling, pink Portal and appeared at Walker’s side.