Maeve nodded. Blake leaned in, entwining Maeve’s fingers in his. She whimpered as he pressed his mouth to hers.
I’d never paid much attention when Blake and Maeve worked their spirit magic before. I was usually too busy fighting the fae or burying my cock into Maeve. But this time, I was right up close and personal. The wave of magic slammed into me, knocking me backwards. Strange thoughts swirled in my head –flickers of memories that didn’t belong to me. Warmth spread up my arms and through my limbs, carrying with it a sense of serenity, of finality.Whatever will be, will be.
“It’s working!” Rowan whispered.
I crawled beside him and peered down. Sure enough, One by one people picked themselves off the ground and shook their heads, like dogs shaking off water. Eyes rolled, fingers twitched, and the inhuman cries turned into moans and sobs as the foreign powers were forced from their minds.
“What was that?” someone cried.
“There were voices inside my head!”
“I’m bleeding,” sobbed another.
“It’s the witches!” The vicar screamed. He sat near the inner doors, clutching his bleeding temple. “They sent demons to terrorise us, but the Lord has banished them. God will protect us as we perform his righteous works.”
“Get them!”
“Burn them all!”
“And we’re back to square one,” Flynn groaned. “Always with the burning.”
“Stop moaning and get to your battle stations,” Arthur growled.
Maeve elbowed him in the ribs. “You always wanted to say that, haven’t you?”
“A little bit, yeah.”
We spread out around the covered walkway and along the ramparts. Someone shoved a ladder up against the wall. Arthur threw it back down. “We don’t want to hurt anyone,” he shouted down.
“Then why did you plant evil demons inside our heads,” a woman with dried blood down her face called up.
“That wasn’t us!”
“Their tongues are red with lies,” the vicar called up. “Come down and face your judgement. Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live!”
Flynn groaned as he shoved another ladder off the wall. “They’re setting fire to the garage,” Blake yelled from further down the ramparts.
I ran across to the other side where I had a clear view. My heart sank as flames leapt across the buildings. The garage and workshop was a Victorian wooden addition, and it connected to the house via a small wing of servants’ quarters. Flynn had both hands trained on the blaze, jets of water battling back the tallest flames, but if he couldn’t hold it back…
Even if the fire doesn’t do much to the stone, it’ll tear through the interior and gut Briarwood.
Panic rose in my throat. I bit it back. Oxygen. The fire needs oxygen to breathe. I stood beside Flynn and pointed my palm toward the castle, calling up the air around me to shift and mutate. The flames petered out as I sucked the oxygen from around them.
“They’re using their foul magic against us!”
“The Lord is on our side. We will triumph!”
“Look what I found!” Three men ran up, carrying one of Flynn’s sculptures on its side – a large metal plate he used as a stand.
“Stand clear!” People flattened themselves against the walls of the courtyard. The men lined up the statue with the door of the keep, and at the count of three, they rushed forward, ramming the doors so they groaned on their hinges.
“Think about what you’re doing!” I yelled down at them. “No one in this house has hurt you. If you came here to do violence, then are you any better than the demons you say we are?”
“Silence, witch!” The vicar called up. “We answer to a higher power. I saw you at the church. I saw you call up those beastsfrom beneath the ground to steal away twenty-two innocent souls.”
“We didn’t do that! It was?—”
Maeve grabbed my collar and yanked me back. “It’s no good, Corbin. You won’t change their minds. Flynn did too good a job on the belief magic. It’s rolling off them in waves. It’s like talking to Flat Earthers. Even if we gave them a reasoned argument, they wouldn’t listen.”
