She’d finally crossed the line. Cole whirled around, arm outstretched and slapped Lydia across the face with the back of his hand.
‘I told you to ignore her,’ Astrid snapped when he followed up with a boot to the guts. ‘This is what she wants. She’s new and weak, she doesn’t have the same magic as the other one. They’re trying to distract you.’
Still half delirious under the fog of her spell, I felt Lydia’s hand encircle my wrist and squeeze. Astrid would regret underestimating my friend.
‘Bloodstone,’ she shouted at him again before approaching me with a pair of gold scissors and a glass vial. ‘If you don’t mind, Emily, I would like to take a memento.’
‘By all means,’ I replied, my eyes still on Wyn and Alex as Astrid snipped off a chunk of my red hair before unbuttoning one of my sleeves, sucking in her breath as the aconite in the fabric burned her skin. I waited, holding my own breath untilshe was close enough, until I could feel the blade of her scissors cold against my throat. Looking deep into her violent, violet eyes, I jabbed the silver pin into her thigh as deep as it would go.
‘Lydia!’ I yelled over her howl of pain. ‘Now!’
A clap of deafening thunder shook the park and a bolt of lightning split the sky in two. As the heavens opened and rain poured down, I saw the precision of her strike. The lightning hit the lock on Jackson’s cage and the door swung open. He rolled out onto the wet grass, tearing the tape from his mouth and stumbling straight over to the other cage where Wyn and his mother were beginning to stir.
‘Cole!’ Astrid’s wail was almost as loud as the thunder. ‘Help me!’
But he couldn’t see her. Lydia’s storm thrashed down and the two of them covered their faces with their arms, ducking from raindrops as hard as bullets, rain that saturated Astrid’s suitcase, soaking the notebooks full of stolen magic, sweeping the piles of wood at our feet off into the river, and washing away every trace of her spell from my skin. The confusion cleared, searing agony replaced with white-hot anger as I peeled the wires away from my limbs like pieces of wet tissue paper and stepped down from the pyre. I raised my arms to the sky as my magic returned thanks to the rush of the river and thrash of the rain, and stood in front of Astrid Hansen, a witch reborn.
Chapter Forty-Four
‘Get your mom out of that cage but if you can, keep Wyn locked in, then get Jackson the hell out of here before that wolf wakes up,’ I told Lydia, never taking my eyes off Astrid as she lowered into a crouch, her strange face more lupine than before.
‘Only on the condition you kick their ass,’ she replied, pushing her sodden hair away from her face.
It was a bargain I was happy to make.
Out the corner of my eye, I saw Cole charge but before he could reach us, I flicked my wrist and a snare of Spanish moss caught him by the ankle, dragging him away, scratching and clawing.
‘I know you better than you know yourself,’ Astrid said, a threatening bark in the back of her throat. ‘You won’t kill me.’
‘You put people I love in cages and tried to burn me and my best friend alive,’ I replied. ‘I’m not about to give you a hug and send you on your way.’
‘We had nothing to do with the cages. Take that up with the wolves.’
‘Oh, I mean to,’ I assured her. ‘After I deal with you.’
Ready for her attack, I silently brokered a deal with the river and the trees. The rain continued to hammer down but I had never seen anything more clearly, the solid sheet of water that blinded Astrid, magnifying the situation for me. My silver pin lay on the floor beside her. It hurt, I was sure of that, but hadn’t had the same effect it had on Cole. When he attacked me in Bonaventure, he was a wolf, she was still human. Around her neck, I saw a moonstone necklace, the stones glinting a sickly pink as they caught the light. The moonstones she soaked in the witch’s blood. That was how she controlled her phase. I had to remove the necklace.
As I was about to make my move, a huge black blur knocked me off my feet, lunging straight for Astrid. It was the wolf from Jackson’s cage.
As strong and as brave as they may be, Astrid was smarter, prepared for a fight in a way the Were wasn’t. Flat on her back, sacrificing her forearm to hold its jaws at bay, she drew back her other hand, another piece of jewellery glinting in the moonlight. Five delicate silver rings connected to a bangle around her wrist by fine, sparkling chains. When the wolf raised its head to prepare for the death blow, she thrust her hand upwards, punching through its fur and flesh, through muscle and bone, deep into its chest. The wolf stilled at once, eyes growing large as they realized what had happened far too late to do anything about it.
Not that there was much anyone or anything could do about having their heart torn from their chest.
The wolf fell, body first, head hitting the wet ground with a thud, and Astrid rose. In her hand she clutched their heart, steaming in the pouring rain.
‘The wolves would have eaten your heart, Emily Bell,’ she said, approaching me with renewed confidence. ‘Would you like to taste theirs instead?’
‘Thanks but I’ll pass,’ I said, scrambling to my feet.
‘You’re my guest. It’s only polite to offer you the first bite before I dig in.’
When she opened her mouth and tore into the still-beating organ, blood spurted everywhere, coating her face, her hair, her clothes. I looked away, revolted, and full of pity for the fallen wolf. Astrid tossed the rest of the heart aside like a toddler with a toy she had already tired of, and advanced. I held my ground, one eye on Lydia and Jackson as they pulled their mother out of the cage and dragged her away, the other on Wyn. The sky was black, the moon almost fully risen and his phase would be on him very soon. I took the deepest inhale and pleaded with the elements. My lungs filled with air as I begged the earth, doused in rain, and with fire running through my veins I lifted my arms to the line of trees at the edge of the park. They understood. They agreed. As soon as the Powell family stepped off the grass, their branches wove together to form a boundary, keeping Lydia, Jackson and Alex out, and me, Astrid and the wolves, in.
‘For all your magic,’ she said, with blood dripping from her mouth. ‘It is still so easy to kill a witch. You bleed, you break, you need help to heal. In nature, you are inferior to a Were. You are so fragile.’
‘Just because something is fragile doesn’t mean it can’t be strong,’ I told her, forcing myself to stand still, holding my position as she came closer, even as every living thing from the earth to the sky screamed at me to run, run, run.
‘Look at you!’
