Magic stirred.
Heat curled under her skin like a living thing.
Let it build,Edith murmured.Slow. Or you’ll burn yourself out before you cast.
A spark flickered to life in her chest.
Then another.
Fenred turned his head slightly, sensing…something.
“Now,” Dani whispered.
She stood.
The nearest hybrid snarled and lunged.
Dani threw her hands out.
And the world exploded.
Fire roared from her palms, blazing into a great, searing wall that shot up in an arc around the witches, a half-circle of light and heat so intense the snow beneath it turned instantly to steam.
Hybrids reeled back with animal screams, eyes flashing as the heat hit them.
Dani gasped, legs buckling. The magic tore through her, furious, wild, too strong to hold, but she held it anyway, teeth gritted, vision white around the edges.
“GO!” she shouted.
Edith was already slicing her rope on a jagged rock. Another witch smashed hers against a tree trunk. A third summoned enough magic to make her bindings crack.
The witches burst outward, forming a tight ring, every one of them drawing on whatever power they could still reach.
Dani staggered forward, feeding more into the fire, higher, hotter, pushing the hybrids back step by step.
“KILL THEM!” Fenred roared.
The hybrids charged—
And the witches met them.
One lifted both hands and sent a shockwave of force slamming into two attackers. Another’s magic flared pale blue as she froze a hybrid’s legs into the earth. Edith struck a hybrid with a burst of concussive sound that made the trees shake.
Dani held the wall.
Fire licked her arms, crawled up her throat. Her vision swam. She felt something crack inside her, something deep, but she didn’t let go.
Arthur,she thought wildly, desperately.Arthur, I’m sorry. Find Aurelia. Keep her safe.
A hybrid hurled itself at her. The wall faltered—
—and Edith intercepted, driving her heel into its jaw with a snarl.
“Don’t you dare die,” Edith snapped, grabbing Dani’s sleeve. “Not today.”
Dani tried to answer. All that came out was a rasp.
But the witches were moving, fighting, surviving.
