Calli screamed as Malcolm and the hunter flew over the edge. Hades growled, keeping his grip tight on her coat, holding her in place.
“Hades! Let me go!” She shoved at the dog’s belly but a second later the dog simply vanished in a swirl of smoke.
“Hades?”
Oh God…
Her fingers trembled as she tried to summon her magic, but she felt dizzy, weak… Surely she had enough strength for a basic summoning spell.
She wept as she strained her fingers skyward, wisps of magic came off her fingertips like vapors of smoke.
A moment later, Malcolm’s broom shot up the cliffside and into her hands. If he wasn’t on the broom then… no, no no!
She climbed on the broom and flew down toward the base of the cliffs… where the two bodies lay.
Malcolm and the hunter.
Hades had returned to his master’s side, his body slowly turning to silver and glimmering like stardust. Hades was dying. They both were.
“No, please no.” Her voice cracked as she put her palm against Malcolm’s cheek. The faintest glow of heat, of life, met her cold, numb fingers.
Shimmering light appeared all around her as thirteen portals opened, and thirteen figures entered the clearing at the base of the cliffs.
“Malcolm!” One of the people raced over, falling to his knees next to Calli as he grasped Malcolm’s face, turning it toward him.
Reginald Wellesley threw back his head and made a sound that no one should ever have to hear, the anguished cry of a parent losing a child, a sound of raw, animalistic pain.
Malcolm wasn’t gone yet. A faint glimmer of life was yet within him, Calli could sense it. She just had to find a way to draw him back to the land of the living.
A witch Calli remembered from before, Lady Batsford, approached her and stared at Malcolm with a gleam of ancient knowledge in her eyes.
“We can restore the wards around the town, hedge witch. And, if you are brave enough, we can do what must be done to save him. A witch-locked warlock won’t die… if he’s tied to his healthy mate. Not if she can heal him in time.”
Calli didn’t hesitate. “Tell me what to do.”
“Only hedge magic can save him… only you will know how.” Lady Batsford grasped Reginald’s shoulder turning to him. “Let her save your son, Reggie. We need a thirteenth warlock to invoke the guardian spell around the town.”
Reginald struggled, pulling free of her hand as he grasped Calli’s arm, his eyes so green like Malcolm’s.
“Save my boy… save him. You have great power… use it to save him.”
Calli could only nod as she saw the apology in his eyes.
I can save him. Only I know how.
It was then she noticed the kitten tucked up against the fading figure of Malcolm’s familiar. Persephone trembled with the chill and mewled softly, mournfully.
“I need you, Persephone. You can help me focus my magic. Are you brave enough?”
The cat crawled toward her, leaping up onto her shoulder as Calli placed her hands on Malcolm’s chest. She covered the bullet wound with her hands, her blood mixing with his. The vine tattoos on her arms suddenly crawled out from her skin, wrapping around Malcolm’s body like a shield, connecting him to the earth, and to her. In that moment she knew she could forgive the past and move on and move forward with Malcolm. It was her choice. No prophecy, no fate, no destiny. Only her and her love choosing him.
The incantation she needed came to her unbidden. It was as if she’d been born knowing such a spell… the life-saving spell of a true hedge witch.
“Strength of the trees,
Come to me.
Root and thorn,
