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She chuckled. “You sound angry. Are your feelings still bruised by my sister’s rejection? You repulsed her, you know? When you put your hands on her, she shuddered. We both laughed at how gullible you were when I trapped you. Neither of us gave you a second thought. Now here you are, begging for me to do it all over again.”

Ash snarled and snapped her teeth.

One of the crones slashed her arm to the side, and Asher was thrown through the air, crashing into a tree. She yelped and hit the ground and didn’t get up. The crone on the other side did the same, and Dirk was thrown back. He hit the ground with a sickening crunch.

Then the four of them started toward me, their arms outstretched.

Iris

They were going to kill him. “No!”

That deafening sound came again, a massive boom, so close now, and Charity’s form flickered again like it had before, but this time she flickered from beautiful to hideous. Hanging flesh and skin, bones exposed. Her soul was here with me in limbo, but her bones, her body, were trying to regenerate on the mortal plane.

Her hands were shaking.

Was she struggling? Was the barrier between realms somehow thinning?

She was using her powers here in limbo but channeling her magic through her corporeal form in the mortal realm.

Could I do that as well?

I couldn’t leave the cottage, not with the ward there now, but I focused on my limp body clutched against Draven’s chest. “Goddess, surround us with your protection, protect the wolves, ward us against evil,” I called, reciting a protection spell.

“What are you doing?” Penny said, rushing forward.

I shoved her back. “Goddess, surround us with your protection, protect the wolves, ward us against evil,” I repeated.

Charity screamed as she and the crones aimed their magic at Draven. He stood his ground, bracing for their attack—

But nothing happened. The magic didn’t touch him.

It was working.

He looked down at my body in his arms. I don’t know what he saw, but he knew it was me, that I was doing it. He pressed his mouth to my ear. “That’s it, petal. I’m not letting you go. Don’t you let me go either.”

I heard him, his voice echoing around me, around us. Yes, the barrier was growing thinner.

Penny shrieked, and Charity spun to me, her face a mask of fury. The cottage door slammed, and the bolt slid into place.

Penny grabbed at me, digging her nails into my shoulder. “You’re not ruining this for me.”

I jerked out of her hold, spun, and punched her in the face. She dropped to the ground like a brick, unconscious. Thankfully, Willow had taught me how to throw a decent punch.

I didn’t know if I could bleed here, but I had to try. Snatching a knife from the kitchen table, I sliced my arm. Blood bubbled to the surface. Yes. I quickly dripped a trail of it in front of the door. “Ward from evil, no witches four, no dark magic shall pass this door,” I called, coming up with a spell that I hoped would be strong enough to hold them, and I ran back to the window.

Draven had his hand over my arm, blood oozing between his fingers. The cut I’d made here had affected me out there. That had to mean the barrier was still thinning, still weakening.

The cottage’s magic is what made them strong, but outside the cottage, their magic was weakening.

Charity and the three crones screamed, their hands held toward the door, aiming every bit of power they had left at it.

It rattled, the heavy iron lock shaking and jumping.

They were still so strong. It was only a matter of time before they got through my hastily made ward.

There was only one thing I could do. Closing my eyes, I lifted my hands to the sky. “Come to me, animals of the forest, come to me. There is evil here. Come to me. Defend your home…”

Penny grabbed on to me, wrapping herself around my legs. I stumbled and fell, hitting the floor hard, and she attacked me like a wild animal. The bolt across the door rattled louder as we wrestled on the floor.