“What the hell are you doing here?” Jake demanded angrily. “You could’ve gotten yourself killed.”
“Gently, Jake,” Theo reminded him. “Can’t you see he’s in shock?”
“We don’t have time for this.” He scowled as his gaze scoured the heavily laden skies filled with the signs of snow.
Olivia’s bow dimmed and disappeared as she approached. Pulling a crisp white handkerchief from her coat pocket, she wrapped it around his hand to stop the bleeding.
“Are you alright, Chief McCallister?” She frowned in concern. “Are you injured anywhere else?”
He shook his head. “Mac,” he croaked. “Call me Mac. Did you just save my life?”
“Yes, I did.” A small smile played at the corner of her mouth. “Look, we don’t have time to explain, so I need you to trust me, and do exactly as I say, okay?”
He looked to Theo and then to Jake. “Is she always this bossy?”
They glanced at each other. “Yes,” they both answered in unison.
“I need you to stay with Theo or Jake. No matter what happens or what you see, do not leave their side, alright?”
He nodded mutely in agreement as Jake handed him the gun he’d dropped. His eyes glassy with shock as he watched the flaming dragonflies hovering at their shoulders, but he wisely chose not to say anything.
Suddenly Olivia felt a shift in the air as static electricity crackled along her skin, raising the hairs at the back of her neck. The atmosphere felt impossibly heavy, reeking of ozone and power. She looked deep into the tree line, her gaze distant, reaching out with her magic. “He’s casting the circle!” she gasped. “We’re out of time. RUN!”
She darted through the trees, running flat out with the others chasing behind her. The last of the cool winter sun plummeted below the horizon, bringing with it a blanket of darkness. She focused on the light ahead, and as the trees began to thin out, she could see the clearing and the hollow at its center.
Burning braziers were set up in a perimeter, about two feet in from the edge of the clearing, creating a smaller circle within it. She could see a hooded figure standing in front of the tree, and a body lying on the ground. Her lungs were burning as she pushed her legs faster.
A hazy, pale light pulsed at the edges of the circle, rising up unevenly from the ground and once completed it would form an impenetrable dome. Forcing one last burst of speed, she broke out of the trees and leaped over the wall of light that was forming. She hit the ground on the other side and rolled to absorb the impact, turning just in time to see the edges of the shield meet and form a solid barrier of power with her on one side and the others on the outside. Theo beat his fist against the transparent wall, but it was no good; he couldn’t reach Olivia.
She turned back to the hooded figure in front of her and pulled herself to her feet. The figure seemed content to just stand and watch as her gaze dropped down to the man staked out on the cold, snowy ground. Her mouth fell open in shock. Underneath the dirt and five-day beard, her eyes met the terrified gaze of Thomas Walcott.
He struggled against the huge, cruel looking iron pins that had been driven through his wrists and ankles, pinning him to the hard, frozen ground. He looked as if he was desperately trying to say something, but she couldn’t understand. His jaw had obviously been broken, and he could do barely more than make a mournful, moaning sound.
Suddenly he shrieked in agony, his back arching off the ground as his exposed chest began to sizzle and split down the center from his sternum to his navel. The stench of ozone and dark magic flooded the circle, making her retch. Biting back the urge to vomit, she turned to stare at the hooded figure in front of her. There was no time for a binding spell, so with steady hands, she raised her bow, satisfaction flooding her body and driving away the nausea as her flame blazed a bright sapphire.
“No,” she commanded resolutely, even as her voice shook. “As much as I hate him, you’re not taking his life.”
As the figure turned toward her, Olivia heard a familiar voice calling her name. It was coming from behind her, chilling her down to the bone. She turned slowly, and her eyes focused on the figure of her father standing on the other side of the circle, trapped behind the wall of magic. Next to him was the pale-haired man, Davis. An icy feeling of dread washed over her, locking her muscles as she twisted slowly back to the hooded figure in front of her. If her father wasn’t the killer…
The figure slowly pulled back its hood.
Olivia’s bow suddenly disintegrated, the fiery blue flames tattered, as if torn apart by an unseen wind. Her legs collapsed beneath her, and her breath rushed out of her lungs. She could feel her heart pounding in her throat as her mouth went dry, and when she spoke, her voice was barely more than a broken whisper.
“Mom?”
Isabel West was still a stunning woman as she towered over her daughter. Time had done nothing to diminish the beauty of her face or long dark hair that cascaded from her hood in silken loops. A raised red burn scar fanned out from her cheekbone in thin, spidery tentacles up into the hairline at her temple, turning a single lock of hair pure white. Even this did not mar her beauty as she watched Olivia with cold whiskey-colored eyes.
“Hello, Olivia.” Her mother’s voice crushed her heart and clamped her chest in a steel vice. The pain was nearly unbearable.
“No!” she whispered in horror.
Isabel regarded her with fathomless eyes before turning back to Walcott. Once again, his back arched, and his chest began to burn and split further as her magic tore him apart.
His scream of agony seemed to shake Olivia loose, and her lips thinned into a resolute line, her eyes narrowing as she rose to her knees and once again drew her bow, this time aiming directly at her mother.
“I said, you’re not taking him,” she repeated shakily.
Isabel threw her hand out toward Olivia, and she felt the full force of her mother’s power, but it barely nudged her. It seemed to split and run either side of her, as if something had deflected it. She watched as her mother’s gaze dipped to the moonstone at her throat, her eyes widening a fraction in surprise. Then Isabel reached into the fold of her dark cloak.
