“I tried to be nice!” he roared.
A third strike sent me into the brightness at intense speed. Spinning, my eyes closed, screams tearing from the depths of my core.
“No!” I wailed uselessly.
Too hot. Too bright.
Slimy fingers wrested control of everything, taking the wheel, leaving me out in the cold. Well, the heat more like.
“Stop this, Tony! Stop this!”
He laughed at me with an arrogant hoot. “Buckle up, babe! Things are about to get ashy!”
Chapter 35
OLLIE
Alice and April opened the gates wide enough for me to slip through. Along with some witchcops on the mansion side, they stood guard against the tide of people gathered in the road.
Man, there were so many of them.
Photographers snapped pictures, while idiots pressed against the witchcop barriers hurling all sorts of abuse and demands to see the Aurora witches. I headed for the dark, swirling line of shadow magic further down the sloped road.
Isaac…
Don’t let him hurt Isaac.
The swirling magic formed a floating barrier of inky clouds between the witchcops and the shadow witches. Marcus stood at the front, a tall, muscular man with a silver buzzcut, a light golden complexion, and unnerving green eyes that didn’t ever seem to blink.
Rhianna, his daughter, stood beside him with a sneer on her face.
They both wore black, as did the army of witches gathered behind them.
“Ah, a familiar face,” Marcus said upon seeing me. “Please tell these buffoons the attack on The Coral had nothing to do with me.”
My attention snared on Tony standing behind a different barrier before I could speak, dressed in white, the people around him wearing matching clothes.
His coven?
Who was this washed-up celebrity who’d somehow become a wereleopard and a witch at once?
“Oi!” Rhianna bellowed. “You listening, wank stain?”
My head snapped around. “I’m busy!”
“Tell them,” Marcus spoke calmly. “Tell them we made a deal not to attack you.”
“Unless The Moon and The Sun join you by next Thursday,” I countered. “You meanthatdeal?”
If it wasn’t for the barrier, my fellow witchcops would be flinging spells in their faces. Arresting the Kingwoods had been at the top of the High Coven’s agenda for years. The family were public enemy number one, having hidden their identities up until now.
Another mystery out in the public sphere, just like the return of the Auroras.
Marcus’s fury swam in his eyes. “Where is my love?”
I froze as I went to stride off. “What?”
“Preston. Where is he?”
