Hunter Hunted

by Arthur, Keri

Aiden’s smile had little in the way of humor. “Good enough.”

  “He’ll more than likely wait until the moon has fully risen before he makes any attempt on the wellspring, and that gives us time.”

  I frowned. “But why would he even go to the bother of taking Ashworth? Killing him would have been far easier, given his spells around the wellspring would fall the minute he died.”

  “I can’t explain his actions, but I’m eternally grateful for them. Ira still has a chance and, right now, that’s all I care about.”

  “I’m surprised he gave the three of you the opportunity to even counter his attack,” Aiden commented. “From everything I’ve been led to believe about heretics, that’s unusual.”

  Eli snorted. “He didn’t give us anything. We put a number of physical and magical warnings in place after the hitman was sent after Ira. The heretic disarmed all the magical warnings easily enough, but he missed the physical. That saved us.”

  “Even if he is intending—for whatever reason—to force Ashworth to dismantle his magic,” I said, “it won’t gain him access to the wellspring. Not entirely.”

  Eli frowned. “Why not?”

  “Because the final line of defense is mine,” I said. “Mine and the wild magic’s.”

  His eyes widened. “Ira didn’t mention that. And maybe that’s why he’s taken him. Maybe our heretic sensed the wild magic’s presence within the overall protection spell and thinks Ira is responsible.”

  “But Ashworth’s magic has a different feel to mine—surely a heretic witch with decades of experience behind him would be able to tell the difference.”

  “Not when there’s wild magic involved. It has a tendency to alter a spell’s form, which is why spelling is so dangerous around the stuff.” He paused. “Even if he does become aware of the second spell layer, it’s very possible he’ll think you’ve beaten him to the wellspring.”

  “I don’t see how that actually helps us,” Aiden commented.

  Eli’s gaze switched to him, his growing excitement evident. “It provides a distraction. If Lizzie goes in there buzzing with wild magic, he’ll be concentrating on her rather than what else might be going on. If you can get within shooting range without him spotting you—”

  “He’s not likely to have gone into the wellspring’s clearing without setting up his own perimeter defense,” I said.

  “But that’s where I come in,” Eli said. “I’ll dismantle enough of his spell to get you through.”

  “Are you sure you can do that?” I couldn’t keep the doubt and fear from my voice. “After what you did here—”

  “It’s far easier to create a wormhole past a shield than it is to bring them down. Remember when I said this wasn’t my first encounter with a heretic?” When I nodded, he added, “Well, that time, a wormhole and a gun was what stopped the bastard rather than the magic of the HIC witch.”

  “And what happens if, for some damn reason, Aiden can’t shoot him?”

  “Then I’ll be there to fry his goddamn mind,” Belle said. You’re not doing this alone. No way on God’s green earth.

  “Liz, it’s up to you,” Aiden said. “You’re the one that’s going to be in the biggest danger.”

  I glanced at him. Knew that he’d back me, no matter the decision. “We have to try.”

  “But before we do,” Belle commented from behind Aiden. “We go back to the café. You’ll both need a revival and strengthening potion if you’re to have any hope of this succeeding.”

  “That,” Eli said, “sounds like a good idea.”

  “You obviously haven’t tasted her potions,” Aiden muttered, and got clipped on the arm for his trouble.

  He led both Eli and me from the ambulance, then—after handing control of the area over to Tara—we walked back to his truck and drove over to the café.

  An hour, two potions each, and a few phone calls later, we were driving toward the O’Connor reservation. We didn’t take the main entrance—which I’d never actually seen, and likely never would—but rather a side road that was barely wider than a goat track. The truck chugged up a steep incline and, once we reached the top, Aiden pulled off the road then turned off the engine and the headlights.

  As darkness closed in, a figure emerged from the nearby trees. He was tall, with gray hair, blue eyes, and features that were an older version of Aiden’s. His father, I suspected.

  “Stay here.” Aiden climbed out of the car and clasped the older man’s hand. As the two spoke softly, my phone rang, sharp in the hush surrounding us. I dug it out of my bag, looked at the screen, and swore softly.

  “What?” Eli said quickly.

  “It’s Ashworth’s number.”

  “It has to be the heretic,” Belle commented. “It’s unlikely Ashworth has the scope to actually sneak in a phone call.”

  “Yes, and it probably means he’s discovered your spell and has gotten the details from Ira,” Eli said. “Answer it, and feign ignorance.”

  I hit the button and said, “Ashworth? What the hell are you doing ringing at this—”

  “Ashworth is unable to come to the phone right now,” a deep, somewhat gravelly voice said. “Is this the witch who is responsible for the pathetic protection strand around the old wellspring?”

  “That depends on who’s talking.”

  “I’m the man who holds Ashworth’s life in his hands,” he said, “so kindly answer the question.”

  My gaze shot to Eli’s. Make him prove it, he mouthed.

  “Yes, I am,” I said. “Is Ashworth okay?”

  “That is neither here nor there,” the heretic said. “I want you up here within thirty minutes or he will pay the price and then I will come and get you. Trust me, you won’t want that.”

  No, I didn’t. I swallowed against a suddenly dry throat and said, “I’m not going anywhere until I have proof of life.”

  “My dear, I wouldn’t advise—”

  “Let’s cut the bullshit,” I said. “We both know you want the wellspring. You obviously can’t get past a spell that has wild magic woven through it, so you want me up there to do that for you. So, we do this my way, or no way at all.”

  He was silent for altogether too many seconds. My heart was pounding so hard it was becoming painful and all I could think was that I’d overplayed my hand, that he was going to call my bluff and Ashworth would pay the ultimate price.

  Then, finally, a voice croaked, “Lizzie? You can’t do—”

  “There,” the heretic cut in, “proof of life.”

  “Keep him alive, witch; he’s your one ace right now.”

  “Perhaps,” he all but drawled, “and perhaps not.”

  He doesn’t realize we know what he is, Belle said. That is a big tick in our favor.

  My gaze shot to hers. You can read his thoughts?

  Her nose wrinkled. Only vaguely. There’s too much distance between us.

  “Such impertinence deserves a penalty, however,” the heretic continued. “You now have twenty minutes to get here.”

  “Fine.” I hung up. “Belle, I think you need to come with me.”

  Eli frowned. “I don’t think that would be—”

  “He’ll sense our connection,” I said. “He’ll think the spell has been done by the two of us and it’ll force him to take that into account in any spell he tries. It gives us time to make sure Ashworth is okay, and time for Belle to seize his mind and stop him.”

  “And once she has, I’ll finish the damn job,” Aiden said. He was standing beside the open door and had obviously heard a good portion of our conversation. His father had disappeared again. “This bastard is too damn dangerous, and needs to be taken out here and now.”

  “But not until we know Ira is okay,” Eli said.

  Aiden nodded and glanced at Belle. “You’ll let me know?”

  “An invitation to play in your mind?” Belle said. “Hell yes.”

  He snorted and shook his head. “We’ve been given the clearance to traverse the com
pound. No other trespassers have been sighted, not even near the wellspring, but those wolves who do go near it are rather curiously finding themselves turned away without knowing why.”

  “He’s probably incorporated a repelling spell into his protective circle,” Eli said. “It should be easy enough to counter.”

  “Will it affect me, though?” Aiden asked.

  Eli hesitated. “The charm around your neck should be enough to counter it, but I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”

  Aiden moved to the back of his truck, unlocked the weapons safe, and then pulled out a rifle and an ammo clip. He slung the rifle over his shoulder, clipped the ammo to his belt, and walked back around to us. “Let’s go.”

  We followed him across the hill for five minutes and then began to descend. This time the path really was a goat track—or rather, a wolf track—and there was lots of rubble to slip on. Luckily, no one’s butt actually hit the ground, although there were a few close calls.

  As the path flattened out again, the thrum of magic began to stain the air. Not wild magic, but dark. It crawled across my skin, stinging and biting, and it had my heart doing its speed thing again. The heretic might have been weakened by his battle with our three witches, but he was still far stronger than Belle or me.

  After another five minutes, Eli said, “Stop.”

  All of us immediately did so. Aiden swung around, eyebrow raised in query. Eli waved a hand. “The barrier starts ten feet from where you’re standing, Ranger.”

  Aiden took a couple of steps forward and then stopped. “Okay, I’m feeling a light impulse to turn. It’s ignorable but I wouldn’t want to get any closer. Eli, you might have to accompany me to higher ground so that I don’t risk getting caught.”

  He nodded. “Let me create the wormhole first.”

  “Wormhole?” I asked.

  “Otherwise known as a trench under the protective circle.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Why not simply create a doorway through it? He knows we’re coming?”

  “Yes, but it’ll take more power, and might well warn him there’s a third witch out here. I’d rather avoid that if we can.”

  “But wouldn’t he have guarded against the wormhole possibility? If you’re aware of it, he must be.”

  “That’s true, but for whatever reason, he hasn’t.”

  I grunted and motioned him to continue. He stepped closer to the unseen barrier and then, without first raising any sort of protection circle, began to spell. The ground around us trembled in response; as Eli’s spell strengthened, earth threw itself sideways, forming a trench that was barely two foot wide and one deep.

  I crossed my arms, trying to ward off the gathering chill with very little success. The open tunnel raced toward the unseen barrier, dipped slightly as it went under it, and then stopped about three feet inside.

  The trembling stopped, the magic subsided, and Eli staggered back and would have fallen had Aiden not quickly grabbed him.

  “I’m okay,” he said. “It’s just been a trying day.”

  “Another understatement of the century,” I muttered.

  He glanced at me, his smile wan but at least there. “I couldn’t dig the trench any deeper, I’m afraid, so I hope you can squeeze under without touching the barrier.”

  “I take it he’ll sense our presence the minute we do?”

  “Yes.” He paused. “I have some sense of the heretic—he’s standing close to the wellspring. I believe Ira is either with or near him, but I can’t be certain.”

  “What sort of distance are we talking about?” Aiden asked.

  Eli hesitated again and then said, “Maybe half a mile.”

  “So if he’s that far away, why can’t you two come through this trench with us?”

  “Because his magic will alert him to the presence of anyone inside the protective circle. Our only chance is to go around it and get above him. We can then create a second small hole in the barrier while you’ve got him distracted, and shoot him.”

  A good plan in theory but I really wasn’t sure it would work in practice.

  Aiden glanced at us. “Give us ten minutes to get in place before you go in.”

  “Be careful,” I said.

  A smile twisted his lips but didn’t ease the concern in his eyes. “I’m not the one about to step into a viper’s nest. Eli, let’s go.”

  Once the two men had disappeared into the bush, I took a deep breath in an attempt to calm the inner quivering and then said, “I’ll need to call the wild magic to me before we get into the protected area.”

  “That’s a damn dangerous step given the toll it takes on your strength—especially when I’m nowhere near my peak.”

  “I’m not about to call on your strength—not when you’ll probably need every drop to freeze that bastard’s thoughts.” I hesitated. “I’ll have to let the wild magic roll around you, though, just to fortify the illusion it’s attached to the two of us. It’ll hopefully stop any sudden attacks.”

  “Until he figures out it’s all a ruse,” Belle muttered.

  “By that time, Ashworth will hopefully be safe and you’ll have frozen the bastard’s thoughts.”

  Of course, hope was something that hadn’t always been our friend in the past. I just had to keep my fingers crossed it was different this time.

  I glanced at my watch. Eight minutes had passed. Time to get a move on. I drew in another of those useless breaths then closed my eyes, threw out my hands, and said, Come to me.

  This time, there was absolutely no hesitation.

  The wild magic came, and with such force that my knees buckled under the sheer weight of it. All I could feel, all I could see, was the energy that poured into me. It was bright, fierce, and powerful; it was the wildest storm ever created, a volcano on the verge of eruption, a force as ageless and as endless as the earth under our feet. And while it stretched the very fibers of my being to the point of breaking, this time—unlike that very first time I’d welcomed it into my soul—there was an odd sort of rightness to it. It was almost as if this force and I were in fact one being, separated only by flesh that was far too weak to hold such energy for too long.

  No human ever born should be able to contain this sort of power. No human was ever meant to control it. But Belle was right—this ancient force was in me. Somehow, it was part of me—part of my very makeup.

  I drew in a breath, pushed all the questions and doubts away, and then looked at Belle.

  “Your eyes are full silver again,” she said.

  “Good—he’ll think he’s dealing with a proper royal witch.” I motioned to the trench. “I’ll go in first, just in case the heretic does have some sort of ground protection in place.”

  I dropped down and belly-crawled down the trench’s length, sucking in my stomach and pressing deeper against the ground at the point where the tunnel dipped to get under the barrier. Its foul magic caressed my spine and sent my pulse into orbit again. There really was nothing weak about the spell that now guarded the wellspring’s outskirts, no matter what Eli said.

  I rose from the trench and turned to face the wellspring. Even though I’d only been here once—and we’d approached it from a totally different direction—I innately knew where it was. It was a pulse—a heartbeat—that echoed through me.

  “Lizzie?” Belle said softly, as she rose from the ground and dusted off the grit. “You okay?”

  “Yes.” I held out my hand. “Let’s go.”

  Her fingers twined through mine. The force that was in me swirled around our hands, and she gasped softly. The wild magic immediately pulled back, and instead rolled around her entire length, surrounding her in its power but not actually touching her.

  She didn’t say anything, but her concern slipped through me. I gripped it as tightly as I did her hand, needing both psychical and mental contact to counter the fierce, bright pull of the wild magic.

  It would be very easy to get lost in that brightness. So very easy.

  I
led the way through the scrub. With the wild magic infused in my soul, the night was as bright as day. The air was sharper, and filled with so many amazing scents it was beyond my capacity to interpret them all. But it at least gave me some insight as to what werewolves saw and smelled on an everyday basis.

  The wellspring’s heartbeat grew stronger, a pulse that matched my own. That oneness was increasing, even though it should have been impossible.

  I shivered but ignored the growing fear and tried to concentrate on the here and now. On getting close to the heretic, on seeing if Ashworth was okay, and on making sure the three of us somehow survived. While Aiden might be out there, and might well be able to take the heretic out without us ever really being in danger, I wasn’t about to rely on that.

  The trees began to thin out. Ahead, standing within a clearing that was washed in moonlight, were two figures. One of them was Ashworth. The other was little more than an ominous shadow—a shadow whose power stained the air with darkness.

  If he ever got hold of the wellspring, it really would be the end of light and happiness in this reservation.

  We came out of the trees and then stopped. The wellspring was a fierce white light that was almost blinding, and my spell the sole remaining thread around it. Only it wasn’t just my magic—it was the wild magic. Eli had been right—the heretic hadn’t dared touch it.

  His gaze swept from me to Belle and back again, and a slight frown marred his scarred features. “Well, well, two witches for the price of one.”

  I didn’t immediately say anything, instead studying Ashworth through narrowed eyes. His face was bloody and bruised—evidence that he had not gone quietly—and the plaster on his arm had been smashed and had no doubt caused further damage to his broken arm. His pain and fear was so sharp his aura sang with it.

  Then I saw what I was looking for—magic in the form of a leash around his neck. I’d seen its like before—it was a rebound spell, which meant any attack we made on the heretic would hit Ashworth twofold.

  But even so, I had a feeling that wasn’t the reason for the fear and concern I could see in him.

  And you’d be right, Belle said. The heretic’s familiar is also here—it’s a demon.