The witch’s foul energy shivered violently before recoiling from the radiance blazing off my body, her dark magic peeling away from the ground in oily tendrils that hissed and withered.
Samuel’s breath shuddered in and out of him as the forces overwhelming him began to subside. Barney shook his head dazedly, his pupils flashing scarlet once more.
On the porch, Melody jerked violently. So did the three Ashgrove witches.
I could see their subjugation bindings clearly now. The dark threads wrapped around their wrists and throats like barbed wire and fed back to the woman in front of me, the sinister lines pulsing with the same tainted energy as the rite.
I scowled and focused on the threads, my heart racing.
“Break!”
Just like that time in the Holts’ ballroom, the command came from a place deep inside me I was barely aware of most days. The authority it carried resonated through the ley lines and into the earth and the very air itself.
The bindings on Melody shattered first. The fae-witch gasped, her back arching as the dark threads disintegrated in a flare of white light. She collapsed forward onto her hands and knees, sucking in air like she’d been drowning.
The Ashgrove witches followed a heartbeat later,their bindings blowing apart in sequence, each one snapping with a sound like a breaking branch. The three women wheezed and trembled. One of them began crying, tears falling silently down her face.
Esmeralda shrieked.
It was an ugly, animal sound full of disbelief and fury. She thrust her hands into the ground and clawed at the ley lines beneath the property with savage desperation. The earth groaned. Cracks split the lawn. A foul energy erupted from the fissures.
My stomach curdled.
The dark mist stank of blood and forbidden magic.
“You think breaking a few chains changes anything?!” Esmeralda snarled, her eyes wild. “I have three ley lines feeding me! Three witches’ worth of stolen power! You’re one wolf against?—”
“She’s not alone.”
Didi’s voice cut through Esmeralda’s ranting, cold and hard.
I looked around, pulse thumping.
The witch had climbed to her feet, blood trickling from a cut on her forehead. Magic blazed around her fingers, brighter and fiercer than I’d ever seen it. Mrs. Chen stood beside her, the old woman’s herbs smoldering in her hands and her eyes sharp enough to flay skin.
Melody rose unsteadily on the porch behind them.
The fae-witch’s expression had transformed. The fear was still there, but it had merged with something else. Something that looked a lot like rage.
“You used me.” Melody’s voice shook. “You put that filthy magic inside my body and made me betray the people I’d sworn to protect!”
Esmeralda’s lip curled, her face projecting wrath and defiance.
“Don’t flatter yourself, witch. You were a means to an end. Nothing more.”
Melody flinched. Her jaw set in a steely line.
Magic erupted around her in a storm of fae light and witch fire that made the air spark violently.
The three Ashgrove witches dragged themselves upright on the porch beside her. The oldest of them—a gray-haired woman with fierce eyes—raised her hands. Green magic bloomed on her fingertips. The other two followed suit.
Esmeralda looked at the six witches facing her across the ruined lawn in disbelief.
“You really think you can win against me?” she scoffed.
I ignored her and glanced at the six witches, the magic of the convergence heating up my body.
“The ley lines.” My voice sounded strange to my own ears. It resonated with an echo that made it sound as if something else was speaking through me and caused Samuel’s wolf to growl across the mate bond. “They’re right beneath us. I’ll guide you to the convergence!”
