Chapter 3
CHAPTER THREE
DAPHNE
We were fucked.
It wasn’t just any person. That was a mob boss inside this city who employed a lot of witches and other wolves.
No, it looked like the information Ryder saw was the witchy bodyguards defending whatever his business deals involved.
He wasn’t evil, per se. He was supernatural mafia with his hands anywhere and everywhere.
The middle of god and bad. Mr. Carville kept such a low profile that most people didn't know if he was a witch or a shifter.
I heard he had a daughter who was a witch.
But no one even knew if she was adopted, carried by a magical surrogate or what not.
No one knew. She was an impossible modern princess of the city.
Not that Ryder saw them do whatever they were doing on the CCTV he found.
No, he saw magic. My running theory was he wanted to nip it in the bud before he would have to contact the authorities.
Ryder already thought it was a movie. Why didn’t he just tell him it was a movie?
The government was always saying that UFOs were weather balloons. Why couldn’t he?
Which meant that getting him safe would be nearly impossible.
“Well, I’m going to run to my room and grab a few things before we leave,” I mumbled.
I was just a normal girl; I didn’t keep defensive or offensive charms on hand.
Most of the charms and spells I had on hand were pro-active cause a girl could never be too careful.
It’s not that I was a weak witch at all.
Sometimes charms were ideal when you were up against certain supernaturals.
I wasn’t even knowledgeable about his organization.
He existed in his world; I existed in mine.
I was no one. Upon opening my drawer, I reached inside and carefully extracted a small velvet bag filled with an assortment of mystical charms. Surely, they won’t f—
My magic sizzled on my skin, and a pull inside my body broke.
Someone broke my wards. “Fuck!” I screamed as I careened out of the room, face to face with another witch.
He threw an energy ball at me and I ducked.
As I tried to run past him, he threw me into the wall.
Pain seared through my senses as I struggled to figure out what to do next.
“Where’s the human?”
“What are you talking about?!” I screamed.
“The human! You were witnessed saving the human,” he growled.
I scrambled up and ran to the kitchen. I couldn’t pop to his mom’s house because I didn’t know the location. Magic had its limits. Warm liquid dripped down my neck as he stood up.
“Daphne, what’s wrong?”
“We got to go.”
He stood up, and his eyes drifted past me. He grabbed me and threw us on the floor. A fireball sizzled above my head. “Look, the human you denied having,” he said.
I sighed as I looked up at Ryder. I was about to make a terrible mistake, but there was nowhere else to go.
“Hold your breath,” I whispered. The magic bubbling inside me enveloped us and we popped across town to a park.
In a blink of an eye, we were pulled apart and put together again on the green grass.
I rolled out from under Ryder and sat up.
Inside my hands, I clutched the bag of charms. There was a small charm that could hide my magical signature, but it wouldn’t hide Ryder.
I wasn’t sure if they had tracked me or Ryder. What was I going to do?
“Daphne, how’d we get to this park?”
“I don’t know.”
His hand gripped my shoulder and turned me around to face him. “Tell me the truth. All you’ve done since I met you is lie.”
“I can’t tell you the truth. That’s why they are after you,” I whispered.
“What are you doing?”
I shrugged out of his grip as I pulled the charm out and placed it into my palm.
The small silver coin sizzled on my skin and sparkled as it dissolved into my skin.
I hissed as the pain spread through me. Ryder grabbed my hand and slapped my palm.
It wasn’t an expensive charm, and I whined as the pain made itself known.
Everything spun before everything went black.