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Her eyes burned, and she touched his face, pushing away the awareness, enhancing the anger and hatred. He was blinded by his hurt and anger. Wasn’t that the way it went, though? You’re so wrapped up in self-justification with your feelings, you don’t see the way they’re eating you up, causing more hurt and anger to you and everyone else.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I had no idea how long it would take Donny to suck out my magic, but until he did, I’d use it. I mumbled under my breath, “Bear, come to life, obey me thrice, bear bones defend, for real and pretend.”

I opened my eyes and looked at the grizzly in the corner. I’d hoped that would do it, but maybe the pretend at the end made it less effective.

“Faster,” Scilla urged then a rush of agony went through me that left me breathless and nauseated.

I was tied to a chair, ankles and arms, so throwing up was a terrible idea. “That was almost as bad as labor pains,” I said, smiling at Scilla. “You’ve never had kids, have you? Then you wouldn’t know what pain is like. Wouldn’t know what love is like. There’s nothing more powerful than giving life. Anyone can take life, but to save it? To give it? That’s an entirely different level that you’ll never even comprehend, much less attain.”

She bared her teeth at me. Was her lack of children a sore spot? I didn’t mean to rub infertility in, but she was trying to kill me. And as a foster kid, there was much, much more to parenting than physical birth. If she’d wanted to be a good parent, there were plenty of kids who were desperate for a home and family. But she’d never want to do anything other than destroy.

“End it now!” she commanded, digging her nails into Donny’s shoulder.

The bear turned its head, sized up the situation, then lumbered towards Scilla or whoever she was under her glamour. It moved awkwardly, probably because of all the stuffing and whatever kept it upright. There was a way to more fully transform the creature, but then I’d have a permanent undead bear running around, and also, I didn’t have all the required ingredients.

Scilla finally looked over, saw the bear, shrieked, and then shot a bolt of white lightning at it. White. Lightning. And the smell of it was just like my husband in the bar. She was part of that family, hm? Did the council often send its members off to finish corrupting dark magic users who were fighting to stay sane? My husband wouldn’t work for something he didn’t at least somewhat believe in, so he probably didn’t know about it. But everyone always did what they wanted. Like his sister.

The bear roared then lunged, landing on top of the Scilla pretender and Donny. He dropped the book, and it slid over to me.

I was tied to a chair, but nothing was holding it down. I stood up, leaned forward, grabbed the book and then started hopping across the floor in that incredibly awkward bent-over position, towards the door.

“Kill it!” Scilla shrieked while I hopped, holding on to the stupidly shaped book.

The bear roared again, but it sounded all wrong. Probably because if it had vocal cords they were all dried up. I kept hopping until I got to the door, turning sideways so I could grab the handle. From that position, I got to see the wrestling match in the living room, Scilla totally pinned and Donny trying to wriggle out. He saw me and moved faster, but then the bear closed his enormous teeth on his arm.

Donny screamed, and I flinched for him, but I was still tied to a chair. The door handle turned, and I almost fell over as I went out, barely staying on my feet while I hopped across the yard, past the overgrown veggie boxes, and towards the path. Once on it, I heard a scream, and a bolt of lightning hit close enough to feel the heat on my leg.

Panic had me veering left, into the bushes, the chair and my hair catching on low hanging branches and vines. Hopping through the rugosa was so incomprehensibly stupid. Why was life so fraught with such ridiculous terror? The thorns of the wild roses went right through my clothes. I’d be so scratched up after this. If I wasn’t dead.

“I’m going to enjoy killing you!” she screamed.

Yeah, not sure what was up with all these people who liked killing so much. Or maybe it was me. Maybe there was something about me that just made people want to murder. Maybe it was my dark magic. Clark didn’t want to kill me. He wanted to protect me. He’d always wanted to protect me if his story about meeting me was true. I was someone other monsters tried to target, and he was the one who stopped them. Except now, when I was careening through the forest with a chair tied to my back, with some psycho relative of his shooting white energy bolts at me.

I stumbled over a root and hit the ground with my knees. That would bruise. A bolt struck my chair, and would’ have hit me if I hadn’t fallen, and the thing exploded in wood shrapnel, embedding a leg into the side of a tree.

Bad news, she was getting closer, and I was more of a target. Good news, I could scramble away behind a tree trunk without a chair on my back. Once I was out of her line of sight, I ran, ignoring the thorns, the briars, the branches, just running, and running, until I ran right into a solid body.

He fell back with a grunt, but he was strong enough that I didn’t knock him flat. Ray of Sunshine? His dark eyes weren’t quite black anymore, just a dark brown. He pushed me behind him and faced the oncoming Scilla.

She threw a bolt of white light, but it hit an invisible shield that shimmered before the bolt went down, into the earth.

“Scilla, what are you doing? She’s the Hoar’s Heir. We are the caretakers,” he said with way more solemnity than you’d expect from a nineteen-year-old.

I patted his back because it was so good to hear that someone didn’t want to kill me. Yes. I was totally the Hoar’s heir if it made someone less likely to kill me.

Scilla-with-dyed-hair raised her hands, lightning growing, eyes flickering. Oh, yeah. She was definitely related to my husband. And now we were all going to die.

A bolt of darkness hit her from the side, sending her tumbling into a rugosa bush.

“Come on!” Ray of Sunshine said, spinning around and pushing me ahead of him. “What kind of magic is that? What kind of person did she drain to become so dangerous?”

“I think Scilla’s on the couch unconscious, and that’s someone else,” I gasped, dodging a branch then tripping on another vine. He grabbed my arm to keep me from falling and hauled me upright. I was not a woods person. Maybe I should be. I could spend time creeping through the forest like a ninja archer.

Donny fell in beside me, his hand on his arm where the bear had bitten him, blood running down. “She’s not Scilla!” He shook his head, glanced at me then looked pained. “I’m sorry I tried to kill you.”

I didn’t have time to roll my eyes, but I would have because that was the most ridiculous thing to apologize for.

“Faster!” Ray urged then he picked me up in a side hold with one arm, and we did actually go faster because I wasn’t hitting every branch and bush on the way. We broke out of the tree line behind the big house, and then I felt a slight pressure all over my skin as I entered the domain of the Hoar House. I was safe. Also wet, because it was still raining. Ray didn’t put me down, so I was dangling when we rounded the house and saw the sorcerer sitting in the mud, meditating.