His next words turned my blood to ice. “I’m afraid that won’t be possible. This concerns all three of you. Let’s not make this any more difficult than it needs to be.” His expression was still easy and casual, something about it made my skin crawl. “If you cooperate this will go as smoothly as possible. Now, Miss Laffay, how about that tea?” He held up an arm, gesturing for us to go inside. I hesitated, my mind scrambling for the best way to escape what was about to happen. As I saw it, I wasn’t getting out of this, but with any luck I could give my sisters enough time to get far away and rebuild their coven somewhere safe.
“Sheriff,” I began, my heart thundering in my chest. “Whatever this is, it doesn’t concern my sisters. Please, let them go inside and we can talk out here.”
He let out a low chuckle that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. “I don’t think so. Perhaps we should take this conversation somewhere a little more formal? Say, the castle dungeons?”
The sheriff only smiled, eyes glittering darkly as the whole world came crashing down around me—silent but catastrophic. I opened my mouth, not knowing what would come out.
In a streak of blonde hair and unintelligible screaming, Rosemary burst out of cottage. She sprinted at the nearest guard—a tall, bearded man, who baulked as the whirlwind launched herself at him, a shrill “No!” erupting from her.
In a flash, the guard raised a hand and deflected Rosemary’s attack, knocking her to the side. She was thrown to the ground, and a sickening crack echoed through the silence as her head connected with a large rock. All the air was knocked from my lungs as I looked down at Rose’s crumpled figure. The other two guards lunged for Sal and Lavender, who had both flown at Rosemary and the wide-eyed guard.
I couldn’t hear anything over the rushing in my ears, but the contorted faces of my sisters as they were bound and forced to their knees told me they were screaming. They mouthed Rosemary’s name over and over. I wanted to join them, wanted to fall to my knees and howl into the wind, but I felt frozen, paralysed.
A hand gripped my upper arm like a vice and the ice finally cracked. I lashed out, palm pressed to the sheriff’s chest, fingers splayed. All of my grief and rage and pain pouring out of me into the man responsible for this. The man who had brought his witch hunters here and murdered my youngest sister, my sweet Rosemary.
I screamed as my power flooded out of me and into his body, crackling like lightning under my skin. The magic travelled through him, found his heart and stopped it dead. He collapsed to the floor, breaking our contact, a look of surprise on his slackening features.
The third guard took one look at what I had done and fled, unhitching the horses and climbing into the saddle, yelling at his comrades to hurry. They practically ran to their mounts, dragging Sal and Lavender and forcing them up into the saddles before leading them away as fast as their legs could carry them. Afraid I would turn my magic on them next.
They needn’t have worried. I didn’t care about anything but saving little Rosemary. I sprinted inside the cottage, ripped the rug aside and lifted the trapdoor to the hidden compartment where we kept our most precious, forbidden books. I pulled the Book of Enchantments out of its hiding place and ran back outside, dropping to my knees in the dirt, beside Rose. I threw the book open and turned its pages until I found what I was looking for. The life bond enchantment. The only way to bring Rose back to me from the brink of death.
I pressed my hands to Rose’s chest, feeling her cool skin beneath my shaking fingertips, and chanted the words written in the book. I shouted them until my throat turned raw and I could only whisper them. Still I chanted, willing Rose’s heart to beat. Giving my own life force to revive her, bonding us together for eternity.
I collapsed onto the ground, my energy completely drained, my heart and soul torn to shreds. I leaned over Rosemary’s small frame, my tears soaking into her filthy gown. She lay perfectly still. The spell had not worked.
I couldn’t leave Rosemary out here in the cold, alone and afraid. I went inside and took two blankets from beside the fireplace. As I opened the door to head back outside, something dark and quick-footed darted out ahead of me. Kipper. He ran over to Rose’s unmoving form, mewling piteously.
Girl. Hurt. Kipper’s distress bled into my consciousness unbidden.
Fresh tears spilled down my cheeks as I knelt beside Rosemary and draped one of the blankets over her, tucking the other under her head as a pillow. I smoothed her hair out, brushing the strands away from her face. She looked oddly peaceful, despite the blood drying on her temple. I pulled the blanket up to her chin.
There was nothing else to be done.
Unable to bear the pain in my chest at the sight of her, I transformed, becoming a red squirrel, and leapt onto the fence, darting away into the forest and running as far and as fast as my feet could carry me.
7
STEFANO
Igroaned and rolled over, feeling the rock-hard mattress of the castle bed beneath me. The prince had clearly mis-sold the comfort of his royal abode. Or, perhaps the people of Great Britain had never experienced true luxury like that I had known back in Sicily.
I’d been having the most unusual dream; only, now I tried to remember it, I found I couldn’t. I cracked open my eyes and almost hissed at the brightness of the sun directly above me.
That couldn’t be right. My room at the castle didn’t have a window directly above the bed.
I looked to my left and saw a small, ivy-covered cottage with a barren flowerbed. Turning to my right, I gasped. The body of a small girl lay covered in blankets, a black cat curled beside her head.
I pushed to my knees and crawled over to her, shooing away the cat as I felt my eyes begin to itch. I could see from the pallor of the girl’s skin and the dark red blood soaking into her pale hair that she was dead.
My memories crashed into me all at once, painfully vivid. I had ordered my men to join me in a visit to the witch from the market, intending only to take her and her sisters in forquestioning. A child—the girl whose body lay before me—had unexpectedly appeared from within the cottage, shrieking, and barrelled towards Peter. The fool had panicked and knocked her down before I could order him not to harm her. She had hit her head and been killed, and all hell had broken loose.
I pressed a hand to my chest then, remembering how the witch had used her magic to stop me from arresting her. I looked down, pulling my leather jerkin to the side to inspect my chest where her hand had lain.
My breath caught; a spidery, red mark had appeared over my heart, where none had been before. What had that evil crone done to me? It was like no witch’s mark I’d ever seen. I would have to keep it hidden, and hope that it faded or disappeared before anyone could take notice.
My men may question why if I refused to change or bathe in their presence, but I would think of something. It would be harder to hide from the servants, who in my experience knew every piece of idle gossip in a royal household, and could only be relied upon to keep a secret for the highest bidder. Fortunately, I wasn’t short of coin.
I knelt in the dirt and looked around. My horse was missing, presumably taken back to the castle by Nico while the brothers escorted Miss Laffay’s sisters to the dungeons.
