“Go get our pal back.”
I nodded and turned to face the circle, meeting the eyes of the creature that had tried to take Willow from me.
“Ready for me, creature?”
The thing used my friend’s mouth to hiss, and inky foam bubbled on her lips.
That was all the invitation I needed to step into the circle.
Alexa Play: Burn Your Village by Kiki Rockwell
As soon as Luna plucked up the oak branch, the angel launched Willow’s body toward the opening. I cringed at the unnatural way the creature forced my friend’s body to move, and I worried again that Willow might not come out of this alive.
Luna slammed the oak branch down behind me, and as Willow’s body crashed into me, I slammed into the invisible barrier of the circle.
The air inside the ring was sickly. It was almost too heavy to breathe, and the sinister energy the creature was exuding suffocated me as I struggled to get the creature under control.
“Sinner! Vile, disgustingwitch!” itspat as I forced it down onto its stomach, working quickly to unbind its hands.
The second the noose was free, it pushed up off the ground with surprising strength and attacked me. Cold, bony fingers tore at my hair, yanking my head back, and I grunted as it forced me to the ground.
Willow crawled on top of me, shrieking loudly. Her mouth unhooked again, and I screamed as that bone-chilling cry echoed through the confines of the witchwood circle.
My coven linked hands, and as each hand clasped, the good magic of the coven swelled and pulsed around us.
A golden, healing light enveloped the circle, and with each pulse, the monster that crouched in my friend’s chest winced and weakened.
The coven began to chant.
The powerful voices of my sisters and brothers filled the air with a potent mix of their unique magics.
Each of them brought something different to the spell, their strengths twining together and overlapping each of their weaknesses.
Much like a single piece of string, we weren’t enough to bind the creature alone.
But woven together, we were enough.
We were aforce.
“Bound by light, stripped of will,
By our power, you are still.
Shadowed wings, fall and fade,
In this circle, you are stayed.”
Over and over, they chanted. The words grew with the power of thirteen, and Willow screamed on top of me, her back arching at a painfully violent angle, causing me to flinch at the cracking sound that exploded from her spine.
Using the creature’s inability to fight the power of the spell, I pushed it off me and reversed our positions. I could feel the angel fluttering in my friend’s body, and I could literally see the thing beating on the inside of her chest, trying to escape.
Fuck.
This wasn’t good.
“Willow!” I screamed, straddling her sternum and using my fingers to force her mouth open. I fumbled with my free hand for the potion, ripping the stopper off with my teeth before dumping the liquid into her gaping, inky mouth.
Once the potion was emptied into her, I forced her mouth shut and curled my entire body around her head.
