“No, you’re just the one refusing to stay levelheaded long enough to ask the right questions,” Quinn hissed.
Gritting her teeth, Bridget managed to lift Quinn’s knee an inch off her, but another wave of magic from the Bloodstone rolled through her body, short-circuiting her strength. Her arms flailed uselessly to the sides.
“C’mon,” Quinn purred, her weight pressing harder into Bridget’s sternum. “I know you can think of something clever.”
The words heated Bridget’s blood. She was crazy. Absolutely crazy. But theydidneed answers. And the moment Cade finally arrived, he would probably kill her. She reached blindly to her side and found a broken tree branch. With a snarl, she swung it upward and cracked it against Quinn’s neck. The Witch went flying.
Gasping, Bridget stumbled to her feet and pressed her hand to the boulder for support. Her ribs screamed in protest. “How did you bring those creatures here?” she demanded, her breath ragged. “The curse isn’t broken. They shouldn’t even exist outside Iegorus.”
Quinn spat to the side, blood mixing with the dirt. “They’re not from Iegorus,” she said, voice rough and gravel-laced. “I createdthem. Tuathans can’t resist the power blood magic gives them. Wraiths are what happens when there’s nothing left to give.”
The Wraith wasTuathan?
“How? There’s hardly any left and they all live in the palace.”
Instead of answering, Quinn just smirked. The Bloodstone began to glow. Again, an invisible hand pulled Bridget to the Witch. “I think it’s time for us to go.”
Us?
Panic sprung up Bridget’s spine. This time, when she reached Quinn, Bridget had her fist ready. She knocked Quinn in the temple and pushed her toward the boulder. Whatever she’d done with her foot had changed Quinn. And it needed to be repeated. Grabbing the Witch by the collar, Bridget shoved her as hard as she could into the stone.
Quinn’s skull cracked against the stone with a sharp sound that echoed through the clearing. Her body crumpled. Veins rippled on her face like black lightning. Eventually, Quinn stuttered, “Bridget.”
Suddenly, the trees swayed as wind began to swirl around them.Cade. He was close.
“What happened to you?” Bridget asked. Because two minds seemed to be fighting for control. She couldn’t help but feel an ache in her bones for someone so lost and controlled by magic. A place she never wanted to be again.
Still struggling, Quinn shakily bared her teeth. “You,” she snarled. Wrapping her hand around the Bloodstone, Quinn muttered a spell under her breath. Darkness began to glow under her skin. A crack reverberated the air. She wasleaving.
“No,” Bridget breathed, reaching to stop her. They needed the Bloodstone. They needed more answers. But before Bridget could blink again, Quinn had disappeared.
A hazy cloud of magic lingered in the spot Quinn had been standing. Bridget let out a frustrated scream and tried to sweep her fingers through it. But strong, familiar arms wrapped around her waist and yanked her back.
“The spell is about to be reactivated,” Cade said breathlessly. “If you’re out here when that happens, you’ll be trapped with the Wraith.”
“No,” Bridget repeated angrily. As Cade pulled her through the woods, she struggled in his tight grip. “We can’t let her get away again.”
“She’s already gone.”
The words sliced through Bridget’s chest as she let him grab her hand and pull her faster through the trees. Bridget stumbled alongside him, her heart pounding and her mind racing. As they reached the clearing, the full horror came into view. Near the breach in the wall, two piles of ash smoldered. Bones and scraps of fur scattered in the dirt. The beasts were dead.
But the Wraith was not.
It snarled as Stellan encircled it with a barrier of fire, sweat gleaming on his brow. Its hollow gaze found them through the smoke and screamed without sound. And still, it pressed forward, relentless.
Cade shoved Bridget behind him and grabbed her wrist in a grip that nearly dislocated her shoulder. She barely had time to breathe before he yanked her back through the fractured remains of Astraeus’s wall. They stumbled over debris, smoke curling around their legs like claws. The instant they cleared the boundary, Cade shouted, “Do it now!”
A light shot up from a building further away from them. A twisting column of purple smoke shot up from the far side of the city, unfurling like a storm. It coiled in the sky, then spread wide, rippling outward until it blanketed the heavens in swirling violet clouds. Bridget flinched as the magic collapsed downward in a great sweeping wave. It crashed over them, seeping into the air like thick mist and stretching outward until it sealed the broken wall in an invisible dome.
Bridget craned her neck. Just beyond the edge of the new magical barrier, the Wraith clawed at nothing, trapped in the Elder Woods. Its head snapped toward Stellan, then Cade, before its mouth split in a silent snarl. One final, guttural roar tore from its throat before it vanished into the trees.
Across the rubble, Stellan stood like a statue. His arms slowly lowered as sweat gleamed down his temples. Moments later, soldiers poured into the streets behind them. The echo of boots and shouts flooding Astraeus with life once more.
Cade’s hand on her neck almost made her jump. Once she realized it was just him, she leaned into the touch and let him inspect the welts she already felt forming. “Are you alright?”
Bridget’s body trembled from the adrenaline lingering in her veins. The sight of him before hit her again like a freight train. Patches of blood stained the skin under his nose and ears. His shirt was ripped down to his navel. But he wasalive. He washere. And so was she. Bridget grabbed his ash covered lapels and kissed him. Shivers erupted down her spine at the heat and raw hunger that began to consume her as his lips moved against hers. Electricity filled her veins, but Cade suddenly pulled away from her and squeezed her shoulders.
His eyes blazed as he asked, “Are you out of your mind? What the hell were you thinking?”
