Chapter Forty-Two
Freya
L ike a thundering cloud of death, the High Witch’s magic washed over us. She raised her hands, and the golden ceiling opened into a skylight. Through the clouds and setting sun’s light, two moons appeared.
We were far, far from home.
My knee swelled and throbbed. I couldn’t walk, much less run. My only weapon was my magic, which the cuffs kept firmly out of my reach.
Under her breath, the High Witch chanted a spell, and her magic hummed in the air. When her followers echoed the incantation, its force rattled my chest. Handmaidens arranged the bones around us in strange, angular shapes. Too slowly, I recognized the ancient symbols.
Ignite.
Extract.
Entomb.
As Cordelia continued her chant, the Handmaidens drew small daggers from under their cloaks and wrapped their palms around the blades. The witches circled the bones, and their blood dribbled onto them. Where blood met bone, light shone, and shadows spread across the floor like spilled ink.
The shadows stretched until they shrouded Elle in their darkness. The High Witch’s chant grew louder, and pain sliced through my chest. It was as if something cut me, but no wound marred my skin.
I threw my head back, as if I could escape the anguish, and movement caught my eye. Perched on a ledge in the domed ceiling, Ryder hid. I had spotted him moments ago and barely bit back a smile. His eyes blazed a vivid amber, and he was partially shifted into his wolf form. As his gaze met mine, I gave my head the tiniest shake.
Ryder was the one variable in the High Witch’s plan that she had not been able to control. His distraction needed to be perfectly timed. The ripple wasn’t far—if Arion was freed, he could get there in seconds, closely followed by Ryder. If mine and Ryder’s distraction worked, Elle would make it too.
I, however, couldn’t stand.
I couldn’t walk.
Walker’s and my Anchor bond zapped to life. Lightning and wind and water and flame arched between us, over Elle and her bed of shadows. Our bond surged between us and warmed my chest with its magic but remained entirely untouchable. Our magic was a puppet whose strings were pulled solely by Cordelia.
Amid the chaos, Walker held my gaze like a lifeline. No one had ever looked at me the way he did.
What forms an Anchor bond? I thought. Walker’s answer had been quick.
Love.
As the pain worsened and our bond flared brighter, I gritted my teeth and studied the brilliant blue of his eyes, the sharp angle of his jaw, and the barely-there softness of his cheeks. My cowboy was kind and good and beautiful, and he would never leave me behind.
Though he didn’t believe me capable of returning his love, he wouldn’t abandon me here. It was a fact I knew in my bones.
As Cordelia’s spell dug its claws into our bond, I couldn’t defend us with magic or combat. The only things left in my arsenal were my mind and my voice. Mabel’s words echoed in my memory.
And you must never, ever say that name again.
Unfortunately, I needed to disobey my Elders one last time.
I inhaled deeply and shouted.
“MEDEA!” Tears burned down my cheeks. “Medea!”
The High Witch stuttered, and the shadows stilled. Terrible, wild magic cut through headiness of Cordelia’s spell. As Ryder spoke, his voice boomed with the authority of an Alpha.
“ Medea!” he cried out. “ Medea!”
Light, as brilliant as the sun, burst from Elle, and the shadows slithered away from her like scared animals. Walker’s and my Anchor bond snapped back into our bodies, and the arch of our magic dissipated. As Elle sat up, her eyes glowed red, and her braided locks lifted on a phantom wind.
“Don’t say her name!” Cordelia roared. “Somebody stop them—”
Ryder and I shouted again. “Medea!”
The guards descended upon him and turned their backs on Elle. As she rose to her feet, it would be their lethal mistake.
Elle shuddered and glowed, and Cordelia’s spell faded to the background. Bones crunched, and Elle’s pretty face elongated and sprouted golden tufts of hair. Huge canines descended from her wide jaw. Her shoulders broadened and slouched to the ground.
While golden fur sprouted down her front legs, and her hands shifted into clawed paws, silver hair grew on her widening torso and down her legs. Ropy muscles and silver fur formed across them. Her feet transformed into thick hooves, and an emerald, serpentine tail trailed behind her. Leathery, bat-like wings sprang from between her back.
With her lion’s head, Elle roared and leaped upon the guards.
My mother’s words echoed in my mind.
To lead is to sacrifice.
As I gripped the dredges of magic summoned by our bond, I realized what she had really meant was that to love was to sacrifice.
And I loved Walker.
I had been a coward and a fool to think otherwise.
Cordelia had thought herself clever by crafting cuffs that allowed our shared magic to flow, but without her to guide it, I commandeered the Anchor bond and sent some of its power to Walker. The rest of our combined magic simmered in my blood and buzzed in my ears. I hadn’t salvaged a lot, but I had salvaged enough.
It would have to be enough.
“ Stop the chimera!” Cordelia demanded.
Alongside his mate in his enormous wolf form, Ryder ripped through guards and held back Handmaidens. His dominance thickened the air and slowed the enemy witches. Cady rushed to her brother and freed him from his cuffs with a key she had apparently managed to steal.
Smart witch.
She was too smart to die in this far away world.
Cordelia launched wind at the Reids, but the Entombment attempt had weakened her. While his sister shielded them with impenetrable stone, Walker countered the High Witch’s attack with a wicked bolt of lightning.
I smiled and did the thing that had gotten us into this mess.
I crafted a lie.
It was the simplest of spells and the easiest of illusions. I couldn’t heal myself and Arion with the power I had left, but this spell could be performed with the remnants of magic I gripped.
I astrally projected myself to stand in front of Walker.
Though I didn’t have enough power left to project myself to the entirety of the room, I held onto enough to trick my friends.
“You don’t know what you’ve done!” Cordelia shrieked.
She wasn’t wrong. As Elle tore through guards and Handmaidens with Ryder at her side, she was a force to be reckoned with. I couldn’t, however, worry about that now.
“Let’s get out of here,” I said and sent my projection barreling forward before Walker could study it for long enough to notice its flaws.
Like I knew he would, Walker followed me into battle.
***
Walker
Only Freya could’ve found a way to free herself and heal so quickly. High on the return of my magic and the rush of hope, I raced after Freya through the frenzy. Guards and Handmaidens reached for us, but my lightning and Cady’s magic kept them at bay. Freya must have scared the snot out of the Handmaidens she faced earlier because none of them lunged for her.
“Arion,” Freya said and nodded toward the trapped familiar. “Can you blast the cuffs off with your lightning?”
Before I could ask her why she didn’t free him herself, she disappeared into the fray of battle.
“I’ll hold them off,” Cady promised.
“Easy, buddy,” I said and approached Arion.
The familiar was especially fearsome in this form, but his amber eyes were dulled by pain. I patted an uninjured patch of fur on his shoulder and studied his collar. It was so tight, there was no way to melt it off without electrocuting his skin, but Freya wouldn’t have trusted me with this task if there wasn’t a way for me to complete it.
I laid my hand on the collar and sent a tentative jolt of lightning, but my nerves were too frazzled, and it packed far more of a punch than I intended. Terrified I had just killed Freya’s beloved creature, I drew my hand back.
Arion peered down at me and nudged my shoulder with his big head, as if to tell me to keep going.
“You’re immune to lightning,” I realized.
Of course . He travels with lightning speed.
I stared into Arion’s big eyes and found a mirror of my own rage.
“Let’s make them pay,” I said and sent all that bottled anger and power into his collar.
My lightning rippled across the collar, until it gooped off Arion’s skin and pooled at our feet. Though my head swam from the exertion of magic, I sent twin blasts of lightning into his shackles. As soon as they melted to the ground, Arion glowed with familiar magic—Freya’s magic—and his wounds healed.
Arion shifted into his horse form and whinnied.
“Get on!” Freya screamed from the crowd.
Cady launched a final wave of rocks at the nearest three guards and jumped onto the familiar’s back. When she was safely on, I mounted behind her, and Freya got on behind me. As soon as her warmth settled against me, we took off.
“Come on!” Freya yelled at Ryder and Elle.
As we winded through the court on Arion’s back, Elle and Ryder trailed after us in their beastly forms. We entered an opulent white hall, which Ryder and Elle crashed into a moment later. Footsteps and rolling waves of magic boomed behind them.
“Through the painting!” Freya yelled.
We rushed into a bedroom and leaped toward a vibrant painting of a water droplet hitting a pond. As the we were sucked into the ripple, Freya pressed a kiss against my neck and whispered words I never thought I would hear her say.
“I love you, cowboy.”
Shocked by her admission and overwhelmed by the wave of power we faced, I braced myself for impact and tried to wrap my arm around Freya and Cady, but when I reached for my Anchor, she was gone.
***
Freya
As the High Witch towered over me, heinous rage marred her pretty, pale face. Her minions—bloodied and bruised by my friends—gathered closer. Each of them wanted to kill me.
“You will pay for this, Redfern,” the High Witch vowed.
I didn’t care.
Walker, Arion, Cady, Ryder, and Elle—all the people I had hurt by trusting the monster before me—they were a world away. They would tell my coven of what had happened here, and they would do something to stop it. They would be able to do something to stop it because they were alive.
I had made sure of it.
“To lead is to sacrifice,” I murmured.
The High Witch grinned, and the scent of sickly-sweet decay overwhelmed my senses.
“Then sacrifice, you will.”