by LeAnn Mason
A volley of water torrents rained down on Circe, soaking the already disheveled Mage to the point she resembled a drowned rat rather than the hoity-toity, well-manicured woman of earlier that morning. Jasper continued beating her with his element now that he was able to find her. The fireworks that someone, probably Gloria, had provided were the catalyst for true action.
It was the break I needed. Diving to regain my weapon, I internalized the pain of each movement my body made. Now was not the time to feel. Gloria and Jasper continued to levy their attack at Circe, who rose her hands to call on the surrounding earth to once again unseat those at “ground” level.
A one-trick pony she may be, but damn if it wasn’t effective. I mean it was hard to focus let alone aim as you waited for the ground to fall away from you. That’s where I would come in.
Now was my chance, the others had her well distracted. A group effort, that’s what had been needed, and those up top were doing their part. My turn. Wincing, I fished around for where I had left my handy-dandy lighter. It wasn’t there. This outfit, loose and billowy, didn’t have tight pockets, and apparently, the lighter had been lost… somewhere. “What am I going to do now?”
Water continued to attack, and earth retaliated, though it looked like there may have been some kind of a shimmery shield-like structure enveloping the Elders, rendering Circe’s attacks no longer effective. There was a large rock half-exposed in the sheer mud-wall to my left, giving me a desperate idea. “I’m sorry if this hurts,” I murmured then stepped forward to bring Birdie to firmly strike the hard surface. The friction created a spark along with a telltale metallic sound, jerking Circe’s attention back toward me, the other magic users forgotten momentarily.
Her attention wasn’t quick enough. That one spark was plenty for me to harness the energy and heat of fire, and I lashed out. The tendril whipped across Circe’s cheek when she turned toward me, leaving a swath of angry red skin in its wake.
I didn’t pause to admire the mark, didn’t wait to see what anyone else would do, I pressed forward. Sending the whip outward again, this time thicker, I aimed at her hand where it tried to stretch toward me, no doubt calling her precious earth.
With a cry, she recoiled, falling back against the muddy embankment of our shared little hole. Eyes wide, she sent a wave of muddy earth careening across the pit toward me, but I’d learned something beautiful about my weapon.
Stabbing Birdie into the ground in front of me, I watched as the torrent not only halted but fell away like a retreating wave sucked back into the ocean. “Cool, huh?” With my left hand, I again brought the fire tendril to lick at Circe’s flesh.
Her scream of pain would have been music to my ears… if I was a sadist. As it was, I didn’t want to torture and torment anyone. Not even her. “Do you yield?” I asked, weapons ready to defend myself should she try again.
Her grin was downright feral and answer enough. Even though she was burned and bloody, cradling her red, blistering arm and using the wall to keep her standing, she wouldn’t be giving up. The once pristine picture of poise was now a completely disheveled mess, lipstick smeared, cheek red and blistering. Clothes wet, ripped, and mud-smeared… she’d gone completely unhinged.
“Mors!”
Circe’s maniacal grin slackened. Those eyes that burned so fiercely with defiance turned glazed and unseeing. As she fell to her knees, a heavy exhale left her body, and she collapsed in a boneless heap, face down in the middle of the pit she’d created.
CHAPTER 31
“W hat the…” I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Circe was… dead? Truly? But who had… what had…?
“What have you done?” Elsie’s horrified murmur pulled my attention up to the mouth of the pit where everyone else seemed to be pinning Gloria with varying degrees of accusation. I couldn’t see much of their reactions from where I stood, but the shadowed blobs were rigid.
“What needed to be done,” Gloria answered. Cool as a cucumber, the Witch acted as though taking a life was just like any other day. Who knew, maybe it was.
“But not that way. She would have been compliant. We could have taken her into custody,” Jasper reasoned heatedly.
“How could you use that spell?” Allya accused angrily, her caped form stepping toward what I assumed to be the unperturbed Witch Elder. Jason’s shadow lurched to wrap tightly around his near-shifting girlfriend. Everyone else just seemed stunned. Then there was me.
“Hey, don’t suppose anyone wants to fill me in? Oh, and maybe get me out of this hole where I am currently trapped with the apparent corpse of my murderer. Wow, yeah, that’s super weird to say. I’m down here with my murderer. But is that how you'd say it? Does that mean that she’d killed me or just that she’d killed someone? I mean, both could be true…”
“Hey there, Sparky, are you done rambling? Ready to come up now? How about you sheath that badass magic cleaver of yours so it doesn’t take a bite out of you or someone else who doesn’t deserve it?” Allya’s terse words cut through my stampeding random thoughts. I hadn’t heard her so short before.
Maybe shock was setting in? I could fall apart later. Now I needed to get myself out of this mess. I did as she said and sheathed Birdie, making sure the scabbard was secured to my belt so I wouldn’t lose her on the way up.
“If you’d all stop berating me, I could get her out of the hole faster,” Gloria huffed in annoyance as she pointed her hands down at me. “Brace yourself,” she ordered. I complied, stiffening my body as much as I was prepared and able to. “Oriri mihi,” she intoned.
With the vehement words, I rose in the air. The sensation was freaky, and after a barked reprimand for beginning to flail, I held my breath, waiting for the ride to come to a complete stop. Before I was sure I was on solid ground, strong, warm arms enveloped me, blocking out everything else, including the sun. Nick’s head came to rest atop my own.
“I’m okay,” I murmured, drawing my hands down the hardened pecks beneath my fingers.
“Thank the gods,” Emest murmured, surprising a smile out of me. The gruff exterior was just a shell for the big softy hiding beneath, but I wouldn’t bring his attention to it. Not just yet.
The air pushed from my lungs as I was bombarded with a new mass slamming me from behind. A sniff that seemed suspiciously like the result of tears greeted my ears. “Don’t scare me like that again, Sparky. Please and thank you.” Yep, Allya. Another of those who would kick my butt if I mentioned their softer side had decided not to let Nick be the only Bianca-wrapper of the moment.
“Well now, can’t leave me out,” Jason chimed.
A chorus of “me neither” sounded just before more weight descended from all sides, and the entire dog-pile of affection teetered to readjust. This. This was what it was all about.
Friends. Family. The love and affection that spurred people to do just about anything to keep you near, bonus if you were even happy.
“Why don’t you all head out. We’ll… clean up here,” Elsie said, ushering the huddled mass of tangled limbs with a gentle hand. The knot began to unwind, the outermost envelopers extricating themselves first. When freed, Jason, Allya, and Nick also fell away, leaving me feeling oddly bereft.
“I need a shower,” Allya said, wrinkled nose sniffing at herself in distaste.
“Need some company?” Jason asked, his eyebrows wagging suggestively.
Their antics pulled a bark of laughter from me, which was quickly followed by a groan as my injuries chose that moment to reassert themselves into my psyche. “I’m gonna need a doctor.”
“Good thing one’s coming home with you, huh?” Tabbart said, referring to himself rather cheekily as he passed our stalled procession. “Come now, lots to do.”
“After what Gloria just pulled, she better be willing to offer her services if needed,” Allya grumbled heatedly. “Rory better not find out.”
Interestingly enough, the woman about whom they all worried had magicked each of my Shifter friends into
clothes that were almost carbon copies of what I’d seen them in prior to the melee. Even Allya’s trademarked cloak.
“What? What am I missing about this spell? I mean, I saw what happened, but…” How did I express that death was likely the only outcome to ever have come from today? I saw the look on Circe’s face. There was no way she was giving up. Her life was over one way or another today. Gloria just chose to make it the permanent way.
That didn’t make it any easier to know, to witness. I imagined this day would be another scar I carried through life. I was torn between relief and guilt.
“That’s the spell that Lupo Coven Warlock dude hit Ryan with. It’s the reason he’s been in a coma,” Allya answered.
“It’s seriously heavy and generally understood to be forbidden dark magic,” Jason added.
It wasn’t up to me to choose who lived and died, but I couldn’t deny that I felt just that much safer knowing the deranged woman would never again seek me out. Circe would never harm another living soul. My guilt assuaged slightly with the thought.
“The way she delivered it and how easily it came…” Isaac sighed heavily as if the world weighed on his shoulders before he straightened and continued his explanation. “It means it wasn’t her first foray into the darker magics. Such magic is a banishable offense. There will be repercussions for her actions; soon, we’ll know what they are.”
“That kind of magic use is what got my–Seth banished from Grimm Hollow in the first place,” Allya reported, catching herself before referring to the evil man as her father but kicking around anything that had the misfortune of being in her path.
They were right, of course. Only time would tell how this all shook out, but for now, all I wanted was to get back home, take a shower, get into some comfy pj’s, and watch a movie… or four. “Hey, wanna have a sleepover?”
“Sheesh, you’re gonna give me whiplash with your direction changes, Sparky,” Allya joked, having skidded when she heard my question. Startled maybe? “You just had a monumental throwdown with your lifelong enemy, and now you want to have a sleepover?”
That pretty much summed it up. “Yep.” I popped the “p” and plastered a giant smile on my face.
“How can you say no to that face?” Jason crooned, bending to reach Allya’s ear. She shoved him away in answer, which only made him laugh. “I’d come if I were invited,” he joked, tossing a wink my direction for good measure.
“Oh, yeah, you are. All of us, together. Tonight. Movies, sugar, and caffeine. That’s my plan.”
“I’m not so sure the guys will be down with that…” Nick’s tone conveyed how absolutely dubious he found that prospect to be, giving the horde of little ax-wielding men a wide berth. We’d been traveling in two distinct packs, older and younger, but Nick slowed, trying to widen the gap even further. “I saw what the dudes could do with those axes.”
“You worry too much, big guy,” I teased. “I’m going to have all my friends over for a movie night-slash-sleep over, is that cool?” I called loudly toward the dwarfs. Laughter bubbled from between my lips as all three of my accompanying friends’ strides faltered, Jason and Allya nearly falling over each other’s feet where they tangled. “Oh, ouch, don’t make me laugh. That hurts,” I coughed.
“Exactly why maybe a sleepover should wait.” Allya’s tone made it clear she thought I’d deserved a little discomfort for that shot. The dubiously raised eyebrow was just plain unneeded.
“You’ve got the healing mojo, don’t you? You witchy, witch-Witch, you.” She seemed to forget sometimes that she was a magical trifecta. Having been born from a Shaman mother and Witch father, she’d been a hybrid from birth, but with the addition of a wolf soul, the Scarlet Huntress now claimed three magical species. I had to admit that was pretty awesome.
“You seem to forget that my Witch side is the lesser of my talents, and healing is a big ol’ batch of spells that I have not figured out. At least, not for anything as serious as being broken.”
“Hurry inside all who are staying. I will tend to Bianca after she gets cleaned up. If more is needed right away, we will call in someone to heal. Now, are you all coming? I think a night of vegetative frivolity might be just what the doctor ordered.”
My friends’ jaws all dropped at Tabbart’s speech. They’d never known the dwarfs to be the warmest of beings and hadn’t expected now of all times to be when the men thawed. I knew better though. Once these guys let you in, you were golden.
“Make sure you call Mae. And Rory if he can make it!” I called as I made my way gingerly upstairs to gather new clothes and get cleaned up. “Oh, and I want to see if Sasha can come. Maybe, today of all days, they’d let her out of the house.”
“Why would you think today would be good for that?” Stein asked, clearly perplexed. Though honestly, the look made its home on his face most days.
“Because Gloria did a big no-no and might be looking for a little of the Elders’ good graces. Think Elsie can make it happen?” I asked, pausing at the top of the stairs to hear what Allya said in return.
“It’d sure be my pleasure to try. Go. Make yourself presentable. Get checked out by your in-house physician, and we’ll be back by the time you get down.” Allya shooed me away with a wave of her arms.
“With bells and whistles on,” Nick added.
“Make no mistake, Bear, we will be keeping an eye on you,” I heard Emest threaten just before I closed the door to the bathroom, thus shutting out the world for a few moments.
My body shook with fatigue and ached… everywhere, but I’d be damned if I just rolled over and gave up, let the heaviness of the past month or two carry me under the current. Both Allya and Mae had survived ordeals to the same degree I just had, and they were going strong.
I would take my page from their books. I would become stronger, both in mind and body, from all that I had gone through, and come out the other side a warrior. My goal was to do the same for Sasha. To put that sweet girl on the path to being a strong woman. And hopefully, tonight would be the first step in that task.
Most of my friends could take care of themselves, and if they couldn’t do it alone, like I hadn’t been able to, then we would rally and beat the ever-living crap out of whatever threat dared to come at us.
Friends, true friends could get you through anything, even if you’d need a shovel, and it was past time that Sasha knew the truth of that. So, tonight’s agenda was to first, make sure I wasn’t going to keel over from some mysterious wound. Then, get comfy and cuddle with a certain bear Shifter. And lastly, bring Sasha into what I was deeming The Grimm Hollow Girls. Did it kind of sound like some kind of girl-gang? A bit. Did it exclude the guys? Yeah, but we were just badass like that. They could form their own gang.
… STAY TUNED FOR SASHA’S STORY, NEXT, IN ‘SILVER CINDERS’…
OTHER BOOKS BY LEANN MASON
MINEFIELD ENFORCERS SERIES
Illusionary
Fragmentary
Revolutionary
TALES OF GRIMM HOLLOW SERIES
Scarlet Huntress
Golden Beauty
Ivory Inferno
Silver Cinders (Fall 2021)
Crimson Rose (Spring 2022)
HARBINGERS OF DEATH SERIES
Mortal Scream
Fatal Sight
Grave Notice (Fall 2021)
FOLLOW LINKS
LeAnn Mason is an author of YA/NA Urban Fantasy and Paranormal stories that all have the same elements: Strength. Attraction. Intrigue. When she's not writing, she can be found out with her hubby and two munchkins around their Oklahoma home either herding chickens or racing ATVs.
Though currently horseless, she has been riding since her early teen years and adores the giant animals so much that she wrote them into her story. Music is another constant in her life, a literal muse to her writing, so it was no surprise to find it entrenched in the pages as well.
Just in case you like what you read and want to see what else she has brewing,
or think you may like being an Enforcer, join her mailing list HERE and check her out at the following places:
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thank you so much to the readers who have read and continue to demand more from the Grimm Hollow world. It is such a pleasure to bring these stories to you. This go around, there are two people who stand out as having made this book possible, let alone as good as it is. Amanda, without your constant vigilance and mood boosting, Bianca may never have had her story told. And my #WritingTwin, L.B. was absolutely amazing at helping me to realize where things were good and those that still needed at bit… more. Because I got so behind in getting Ivory out to you within the time constraints allowed, there were far fewer eyes on the manuscript throughout the process. Let’s hope I still got it right.
Dawn, you are an amazing editor and have this way of making reading your remarks into a fun experience. You rock, sista! And of course, my Advanced Reader team who help me perfect this book for public consumption and adoring these characters like I do!