Necromancy was strictly forbidden, no matter if you were a demon, a mage, or a witch. The practice went beyond evil to immoral and often destroyed the minds of those attempting the dark magic.
The witch nodded, seemingly indifferent to her danger. “They’re on the other side. If I can get through the barrier I can bring them home. Then I won’t be alone.” The whispered words were still hanging in the air when a violent tremor rippled beneath the earth. As if the ground were trying to split in two. Books tumbled into messy heaps and the bottles of potions crashed to the flagstone floor. “There,” Charlotte hissed, releasing Wynn’s arm as she stumbled back. “You see? They’re angry.”
Wynn coughed, waving away the dust that rained from the thatched roof. The earth continued to tremble, threatening to bring the cottage down on their heads. She didn’t know what was causing the quakes, but she didn’t intend to stick around and find out.
“Listen to me,” she commanded, holding out her hand. “You need to leave this place. It’s not safe.”
“No, no, no.” The witch shook her head, her eyes wide with fear. “I have to stay. They need me.”
Wynn’s lips parted, but before she could continue her plea for the woman to leave, the sound of Azh’s voice thundered through the air.
“Wynn!”
Chapter 19
Wynn bolted out of the cottage, awkwardly stumbling as the ground continued to surge and heave beneath her feet. It was like running on waves that were about to crash into the shore.
Passing by the overgrown hedges that blocked her view, Wynn had a glimpse of Azh battling against a blinding silver light that burst out of a crack forming along the edge of the circle.
“Azh!”
Her heart squeezed with terror as the crack widened and Azh was sucked into the pulsing glow. Scrambling forward, Wynn desperately sorted through her strands of magic, seeking something that could wrap around Azh to hold him in place until she could reach him.
She was still futilely racing forward when the light abruptly disappeared and the crack snapped shut. Wynn cried out as she reached the spot that Azh had disappeared from and fell to her knees.
Pressing her hands against the ground, she could feel the searing heat from the powerful magic, but there was nothing to reveal that the earth had been split open. Not unless you counted the charred bits of grass.
“Azh,” she rasped, swallowing a sob as the tremors beneath her slowly faded.
A second later the night was silent, as if the violent quakes and blinding light had never happened.
Wynn resisted the urge to frantically dig through the dirt in the hopes of locating Azh. As desperate as she was to reach him, she clung to enough sanity to know that the magic that had taken him wasn’t a common protection spell created by the witches. Azh wasn’t being heldin a pit a few feet underground. Whatever had captured him was powerful enough to trap a full-grown dragon. He could be anywhere.
The question was how did she follow him?
Wynn straightened, grimly refusing to give into the panic. She couldn’t follow Azh through the closed crack, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t another entrance. And she knew exactly where to start looking.
Without giving herself time to consider the wisdom of running through the dark in search of the creature responsible for kidnapping Azh, Wynn headed into the nearby woods. The light that she saw wrapped around Azh reminded her of the glow that had split open the ground when she’d been attacked by the coven. It couldn’t be a coincidence. Now she just had to find the spot where she’d fallen into the pit.
With no idea what she intended to do after she got there, even assuming she could find the precise location, she raced up the slope of the hill.
Right now this was her only plan. It made the decision easy.
Tripping over a hidden log, Wynn reluctantly slowed her hectic pace. She wasn’t going to be any help if she broke her stupid neck. Besides, the rich scent of moss and thick green vegetation was starting to stir her faded memories.
They were nothing more than flickers of visions that danced too fast for her to entirely take them in, but she could catch images of herself as a child, walking among the trees to gather the mushrooms and herbs that grew wild in the fertile soil. There was a tall, stern-faced woman standing behind her, but Wynn didn’t recognize her. Was this her mother? Possibly. She didn’t feel any emotion as the woman waved for her to join her.
The memories flickered to an older version of herself as she secluded herself in the shelter of a blackberry bush, ignoring the sharp female voice calling out her name. Another flicker and she was dressed in a long robe, walking up a narrow pathway. She was carrying a basket of flowers to place on the altar at the top of the hill.
Yes. That’s where she wanted to go.
Zigzagging through the trees, Wynn used the fragmented images to lead her to the narrow trail that carved through the woods. The ground was uneven and overgrown with weeds, but she picked up her pace. She trusted Azh to be able to defeat whatever magic had snatched him, but the fact that his presence had been muffled was unnerving.
Not that long ago she’d been furious at the sensation she was being followed by a mysterious stalker. And even after she’d accepted she needed Azhto get rid of the destructive magic ruining her life, she hadn’t realized how accustomed she’d become to the constant pulse of his thunderous power.
Now her heart instinctively clung to the distant connection, as if he were a vital part of her soul.
Continuing upward, Wynn was huffing and puffing as she charged out of the trees and climbed the crest of the hill to reach the top of the peak. It was one thing to scamper through dark alleys and down city streets; it was another to battle against mother nature and a steep incline that made her calves burn from the effort.
