I stop, eyes waiting for any stray movement, but the only motion comes from the snapping of the torch flames. I can feel Otto next to me, just as wound, and after a beat of nothing, we both straighten.
He doesn’t sheath his sword, but he takes a step toward the closest table, the one piled with jewelry. He lets out a low whistle. “How this place hasn’t been robbed is a testament to Perchta’s guardians.”
“Don’t touch anything,” I say quickly.
Otto gives me a look that says,Do you think I’m that foolish?
I wave my hand. “Sorry. This place just has me on edge. We’re at Perchta’s mercy. And I—”
No. I won’t panic.
Otto puts his hand on my shoulder. “Let’s do a survey of the room—without touching anything.” He smiles. “We need to know what we’re dealing with.”
I nod. Nod again. “All right. I’ll go—”
A shout jerks me around.
Something’s rushing at us, fast.
I scramble to grow a plant, or even grab at stone, but the shape moving at me is quick and determined and so I settle for flinging my hands forward.
Wind answers my call, grabs onto my wild magic surge andpushes—
—just as I realize who is flinging himself at me.
“Alois?”
But he goes hurtling through the air on my gust of wind and slams into the stones across from me with a startled cry.
He sinks to the floor, eyes wide on me—not in pain. In mixed fear and confusion andawe.
“What spell wasthat?” he chirps.
“I—” My hands are still out.
I used wild magic. In front of Alois. No attempt at murmuring a spell to cover me, no way to explain it off. And it wasn’t something I’m known for using, not plants or herbs.
Uncertainty and dread pin me in place.
Otto takes one of my outstretched wrists in his hand and looks at Alois. “A bonded ability we’ve been working on. For use against an enemy who tries toattack my witch.”
His last words end in an accusatory, expectant glare. It redirects the focus, and Alois rolls his eyes.
“To be fair,” Alois says, “I thought you were one of those goddess-damned horned monsters. Not that I’m not glad you’re alive, but how in the Three goddesses did you get down here?”
I lower my hands and grip them into fists against the relieved tremble that rushes through me. Otto throws me a quick reassuring look, and I smile gratefully at him.
He ducks around me and helps Alois to his feet. “How didyouget down here? We were corralled down a hole by Perchta’s terrors.”
Alois pulls back, scowling in confusion. “So were we. I didn’t see you—”
“We?” I cut in.
“We,” comes another voice. Cornelia moves in from the hall, a knife in one hand. She throws me a relievedyou’re alivesmile. “We gotseparated from you and the rest. Those masked creatures pushed us up the barrow hill, and we fell into a room—”
“—covered in moss?” I finish.
Cornelia’s frown deepens.
