I shuddered.
I just need a way to dampen her song.
I glanced around the room, briefly wondering if there was anything small, fluffy, and preferably not taxidermy that I could shove into our ears, before rapping my fist against my temple in frustration.
Of course, Caitlyn.
We had two pairs of magical earbuds upstairs literally designed to drown out all magical sound and spellwork, as well as my snoring.
“Creep? Hushbuds, please.”
Creep offered another salute, and both unopened pairs appeared on the coffee table in front of me.
I tossed one to each of my mates. “Stick these in your ears and let’s pray they actually do what they say they’re supposed to.”
“You wear them,” both of my mates said at the same time.
“Nuh-uh,” I said.
Both of them let out synchronized growls of frustration.
“Put them in,” I demanded. Then, realizing we had only seconds before the sirens were on top of us—and that our plan currently amounted to sticking untested magical earbuds in their ears and hoping for the best—I added, “If she gets to either one of you, you could kill me in a heartbeat with your shadows. If she gets tome, sure, I can fire off a hex or two. But I’m an alchemist. Unless I’m standing next to my cauldron with a few hours to spare, I can’t just magic up potioned horrors out of thin air.”
My mates glanced at each other, then finally seeing sense, unwrapped the boxes and slipped the earbuds into place.
“Can you hear me?” I asked, and both nodded.
Okay, you know they let in ambient noise, don’t panic. You just need to see if they drown out spellwork like they promised.And suddenly my mind purged itself of every magical word I knew to try and test them.
Fuck.
But I’d run out of time, and all I could think wasPlease, please, pleasework.
A sing-song voice drifted in from outside. “Come out, come out!”
It was an odd feeling, being under the influence of a siren song. My mind knew that I didn’t want to do what I was being told. But my body didn’t care. It simply sprang into step with the song and went ahead and obeyed.
Worst of all, I could feel the wrongness begin to ebb from my thoughts, as if my mind were being gently persuaded that this was all fine.
My mates, both wearing identical looks of worry on their faces, reluctantly followed me through the house, their shadows spreading thick across the floor, stirring with every step I took.
Were they following because the earbuds didn’t work?
Creep was waiting for us in the hallway, her glass eyes whirring in their sockets as if she were desperately trying to come up with a way to help.
When I crossed the threshold of the front door and stepped onto the porch, the house let out a lamenting creak, the wood beneath my feet almost begging me to turn around and stay inside. But it was no use. My entire body quivered with a phantom itch, a restless, crawling need to go outside.
The moment my Converse sank into the grass beyond the porch, relief flooded my body, the task complete.
An odd sensation followed, as if my mind and body stitched themselves back together again, both parts momentarily stunned, like neither could quite believe I’d just done something without my consent.
Maybe I was only aware because I knew what Isadora was. But even then, I could feel my mind scrambling to rewrite the truth. To insist I hadn’t been violated at all—that I’d stepped outside because I’d meant to.
It sickened me to my very core. Not just for myself, but for my mate—who had endured over a week under her influence, his mind and body splintering with every command, only to knit themselves back together again and convince him to do whatever that vile creature asked of him.
Finally, I lifted my eyes to the pair of witch-sirens ahead of me—just close enough that I could make out the light mottling to Priscilla’s skin.
Priscilla wore her familiar mask of bored disinterest. The phantom of what looked to be an angry bruise lingered on her cheek and left eye, and a small pang of pity curled in my chest. Witches didn’t heal as fast as incubi, but we still healed fast. It must have been a nasty blow to her face to have caused a bruise in the first place, not to mention one so large.
