Chapter Twenty-Six
Walker
T he High Witch’s magic was just as terrible as I remembered it to be. Panic raced in my heart, and lightning crackled on my skin in response.
“The cave is no longer containing our magic,” I realized. “Freya, you can get us out of here!”
“It’s my fault,” she whispered, “this is all my fault.”
“We shouldn’t have taken the deal,” I said, “but there’s nothing to be done about that now. Sweetheart, we have to help them. Please, Freya.”
She inhaled sharply, and magic hummed in the cave.
“Hold my hand,” she instructed.
I reached for her fingers blindly. As soon as they clasped hers, air whooshed around us and picked us off the ground. As I balanced myself on the breeze Freya carried us on, I clutched her hand like a lifeline and willed my lightning not to harm her.
As we crested the mouth of the cave, screams pierced the whirlwind of air and magic. I blinked against the stark light of dusk and barely ducked out of the way of a throwing star.
Witches dressed in royal blue robes surrounded us. Ryder dodged their spells and swiped with his claws, but these witches were unlike any we had ever faced. As they attacked him with earth, fire, and water, they grinned wickedly.
They toyed with him.
My ears tuned to my sister’s earthen magic, and I spotted her farther into the jungle. With Elle at her side, they ran from the witches. Boulders popped up in the opposing witches’ paths, but Cady’s blockades barely slowed them down. As one of them launched a wave of flames at her, I bellowed, and lightning sprung from my chest. It struck the witch, but not before her flames seared Cadence.
Cady’s screams rattled the blazing jungle.
“No,” Freya whispered, “no.”
As I ran toward my sister to pry her from the fire, I sidestepped a bloody clot of fur.
Arion.
I ran past him.
Cady, Cady, Cady—
Something cold shackled my feet, and I hit the ground face-first. I tried to claw myself upright, but knees dug into my back and pressed me to the ground. Lightning spread across my skin, and my attacker hissed, but she didn’t loosen her hold.
With uncanny strength, my arms were shackled behind my back. All at once, my control over my magic was cut off. My lightning burned in my veins with nowhere to go.
More fire blasted into the jungle, and trees, grass, and foliage burned. Birds screeched and animals cried out, but Cady’s screams quieted.
My throat burned, and tears blurred my vision. I blinked them away and tried to wrench my hands from the cuffs. My shoulder popped, and smoke burned my throat, but the physical pain was nothing compared to my worry for my sister.
“This was not part of our deal!” Freya screamed. “ No one was supposed to get hurt!”
Through a haze of agony, Freya’s words registered in my mind. Freya’s panic in the cave hadn’t been lingering fear from her encounter with the ghosts. Freya wasn’t afraid of anything but losing her coven.
“You did not keep eyes on the chimera until our arrival,” the High Witch argued. I couldn’t see her, but I recognized her disgustingly smooth voice. “I was very specific in the instructions I gave you when we astrally projected last night.”
No.
Ryder roared.
Agony wasn’t a strong enough word for the pain in my chest. I shook from the force of my hurt and betrayal and helplessness. My magic seared my blood with nowhere to go. Sweat slickened my skin, and shadows danced in my vision. A figure silhouetted by flames approached me.
Death? I welcomed it.
The figure drew closer, and I realized it was Elle. Soot covered her skin, and her clothes were nearly burned to ash, but she carried a small, pale body in her arms.
Cady.
As Elle fell to her knees right out of reach of the fire, I struggled to rise to my feet once more, but the witch on my back kept me pinned. Ryder howled, and I didn’t need to be a wolf to understand the pain lacing his voice.
“There she is,” the High Witch purred. “The star of the show.”
Cady was mere feet away from me. Burns reddened her skin, but her chest rose and fell with the tiniest movements of breath.
“She needs healing,” Elle rasped.
She can be healed.
In that moment, there was nothing I wouldn’t do to save my sister. I whirled, and the witch on my back loosened her hold and hissed. I channeled every ounce of hot magic that writhed under my skin to gather where my wrists touched the cuffs. My skin burned hotter than the wildfire that now surrounded us, but the cuffs melted just enough for me to slip them off.
Lightning crackled on my skin, and my magic healed my burned wrists in an instant. I rolled to my feet and raised my hand at the blonde witch who had dared cuff me. Lightning spread from my palm and struck her squarely in the chest. The force of my magic flung her back, and she slammed into a tree.
With my magic pulsing in the air, I crouched in front of Elle and Cady. I wanted to hold my little sister and will her back into good health, but we weren’t safe yet.
The High Witch sauntered closer with a face as smooth as glass. She wore a gauzy white gown that repelled anything living on the jungle floor from sticking to it. Her magic made the air taut. Ryder snarled and thrashed, but the High Witch’s cloaked henchwomen kept him trapped within the confines of swirling fire, wind, and rock. As Freya crouched over the bloody remains of her familiar, the connection between us flared, and I felt her pain.
Had entering that cave changed something between us? Had it solidified the bond between our magic?
Ten minutes ago, the idea would’ve comforted me. Now, it turned my stomach.
“Run,” Ryder snarled and thrashed against his magical confines. His gaze bored into Elle’s. “Run, dammit!”
I rallied my lightning, but Elle stirred behind me.
“I will go with you willingly,” she said softly, “if you leave them be. Their debt is paid.”
As Ryder fought against the magic that ensnared him, his skin sizzled and his bones popped, but he couldn’t get through the cloaked witches.
“Interesting,” High Witch Cordelia mused. She tapped a finger against her burgundy-painted lips. “So interesting, I’m willing to agree to your terms.”
Ryder roared, and the trees shook from the force of his bellowing. Shock planted me in place. My mind was a flurry of one repeating thought.
Save Cady.
Save Cady.
Save Cady.
When Elle asked me to help her to her feet, I willed my lightning to quiet and did as she asked. She slowly made her way toward the High Witch, and I didn’t try to stop her. When she passed Ryder, who railed against the circling magic like a wild beast, she paused.
“Too many have already died to try to stop fate,” she told him and shook her head softly. “I’ll be okay, Ryder. I promise.”
As the High Witch gently took Elle’s hand and blipped them out of existence in a flash of golden light, I stood as still as death.
???
Freya
I pieced together the marred flesh of my familiar, and amethyst blood coated my hands.
All my fault, the thought echoed in my head, this is all my fault.
As Cordelia’s Handmaidens portaled after their leader, the spell holding Ryder back vanished with them. He howled, and every hair on my body raised. He charged me, but I didn’t move.
Whatever he wanted to do to me, I deserved it.
I deserved worse.
“Wait!” Walker commanded.
I looked over my shoulder. Ryder barreled toward me with his claws out, but lightning struck his path, and he skirted to a stop. He turned his glowing, animalistic gaze on Walker.
“You let her go,” Ryder growled. “You helped her leave.”
“I know,” Walker said quietly. “And I’m sorry, but I’ll do anything to get her back. I just need Cady healed first, and there’s only one of us who can do it.”
Ryder glowered at me, but a peek of his human side crept into his face when he studied Cady. With a howl, he shifted into his wolf form and ran into the jungle.
As Walker gently scooped his sister into his arms and laid her beside Arion, I couldn’t meet his gaze.
All my fault.
The least damaged parts of Cadence’s skin were covered in blisters, and the worst were charred down to her pearly, white bones and red muscles. Her clothes were tattered, and even the ends of her brown hair had burned above her shoulders. Her chest barely rose and fell.
Life clung to Arion. Despite the gaping wound in his abdomen, he still fought to live, but he didn’t have much time left. He needed me, but so did Cadence.
“What do you need?” Walker asked.
I stared at him blankly. There were too many answers to his question.
“To heal her,” Walker continued. His jaw clenched and unclenched. “What ingredients, Freya?”
Right.
I took a steadying breath. If Walker could be strong in the face of this, so could I. I had the rest of my life to be plagued by guilt, but right now, two lives were on the line.
I refused to let either of them go.
I scrambled for ingredients that would be available to us in the jungle, instead of in our native mountains. Ingredient after ingredient, I crossed off, until I thought of something that would be plentiful in the tropical forest.
“Aloe,” I said and slipped into the cool, calm mindset of Coven Mother. “I’ll use soil too. It can kickstart her magic into healing herself.”
As Walker stood to find what I needed, I spoke again. “And honey, but I’ll find it.”
As Walker searched for aloe, I forced my mind to calm and my senses to stretch. I listened to every rustle of leaves, trickle of water, and scuttle of animals. Finally, I heard it—the buzz of bees.
I pressed soil into Cady’s wounds, and she whimpered, so I whispered a Cooling spell, and she quieted. When her breaths steadied, I did the same for Arion, except I commanded the dirt to Mend. Though Arion had no earth affinity, I prayed the soil was imbued with its own inherent magic, considering the magic that emanated from the island itself.
I raced into the jungle, east of the cliffs, and toward the bees. A huge hive hung off a low branch. I tucked myself behind a tree and readied my magic.
“Sorry about this,” I whispered and used a harsh gust of wind to break off a piece of the hive and carry it to me.
When I reached Cadence, sticky hive in hand, Walker crouched over his sister protectively. When a twig snapped under my foot, he glared at me with lightning-colored eyes. His magic hummed in the air, but it quieted when he recognized me. Though he didn’t speak, he scooted out of my way and stared at his sister.
When I realized both Arion and Cady were still alive, I breathed a small sigh of relief and rubbed sticky honey into their wounds.
“You can apply that,” I told Walker.
He ripped open the uprooted aloe and smeared it on Cady and Arion. Their blood mingled on our hands, but there was nothing to be done about the contamination but hope their bodies could rid themselves of infection once magic restored their wounds.
“Okay,” I said in a forcedly steadied voice. “Take my hand. I’ll need some of your magic if I’m to save them both.”
Walker hesitated but held out his hand. I tried not to cringe at that fracture in trust and instead focused on the magic brimming under his skin. When I siphoned from my coven’s magic or even Arion’s, there was always a level of resistance, but Walker was different. Walker’s magic joined mine like a new instrument in a symphony.
As magic lifted my hair and thrummed in my bones, I snatched my hand out of his grasp.
“That’s plenty,” I gasped and laid my hands on Arion and Cady.
As I whispered the healing spell, I vowed to the Goddess this would be the last time I hurt those I cared about. I pleaded with her to save them, and that if she did, I would never let them pay for my mistakes again. Most importantly, I vowed to do everything in my power to take down the High Witch.
If it was the last thing I accomplished, Cordelia would regret crossing a Redfern.