She takes a deep inhale of breath, clutching the table in front of her as she blinks at me.
“Fuck,” she curses, grabbing her wand and grabbing my wrist.
She turns the store sign to closed and locks the door, her grip on my arm impressive as she glances over at me.
“We’ve got to reverse this spell on Ember and get to Violet quickly.”
“Do you know where she is?” I ask, wanting to get back to Violet as soon as possible.
“No, but I know if we don’t figure it out soon, there might not be much of her left,” she says.
Before I can answer, everything is going black. It feels like I’m being whipped around in a tornado of smoke before I fall promptly on my ass in front of a cottage covered in florals. There are a million toadstool statues scattered around the gardens, with multiple appearances of frogs. I swear I hear little bugs or whisperings, but I ignore them as I glance over at the witch who brought me here.
“Hurry up,” Iris snaps, as I get off my ass and dust myself off as Iris flings the door open.
Ember yelps and clutches her hand to her chest.
“Holy Hecate, you scared the fuck out of me. Don’t you knock?” Ember says and Iris sighs.
“Violet needs us. High Priestess fucked with our minds.”
Ember looks between the two of us.
“Who’s he?” Ember asks.
“Not totally sure, but mawmaw trusted him enough to give me a vision. Then I realized time is missing, don’t you feel it?” Iris asks Ember.
The redhead’s eyes look over her friend and she’s contemplative as she nods. “You’re right,” she says with a gasp.
“I guess now is as good of a time as any to fill you in?” I say.
“Not necessary,” Iris says, holding out her wand and pointing it to Ember’s temple. The other witch winces, but gasps as all her memories come back into her mind.
She returns the favor, holding the wand to Iris’ head, and then they both turn and face me.
“She must have been quick with making us forget, the spell was nowhere near as strong as Violet’s mother’s,” Ember says.
“Let’s just be glad we didn’t need another witch to get this done. Did Violet get the magical items?” Iris asks.
“She sent them to Walter. I don’t know how. Your mawmaw is headed to New Orleans to reinstate Lavender’s magic and Oberyn’s wolf.”
“We’re going to need more witches to take on Aster. She’s too fucking strong,” Iris says.
“I think your mawmaw might have us covered there,” I say.
Iris nods, clearly trusting her mawmaw’s ability.
“We need to find where she took Violet,” Ember says and I groan.
“We’re doing a seance, aren’t we?” I ask.
“Best we do it at Violet’s house,” Iris says. I just hope I don’t find myself trapped in a room again, and that Atticus Collins will lead us to his granddaughter before anything unrepairable happens to the woman I love more than anything.
Chapter 41
It feels like someone is taking an ice pick to my head as I crack open my eyelids. I have to blink away the blurriness and the dryness in my eyes as I look around.
I go to lick my lips, but I can’t.
