Storm Witch (Wolf Ridge Chaos Witch Book 1)

by Jayne Hawke

  She had a point, but this was the only lead we had. Isaac had some tie to this cult, which meant they were into something. That was better than nothing. We had to take every opportunity we had to try and save lives.

  “Has anyone plotted out the locations of the possessed witches on a map?” Greyson asked.

  “They’re scattered all around Wolf Ridge,” Gideon said.

  “But they’re all around Wolf Ridge? Nowhere else in the state?” Greyson asked.

  “If they’re coming through a rift or something, they’ll be near the rift, right?” I said.

  “Exactly,” Ella said.

  “Why weren’t the humans devoured or possessed? Surely the creatures would have devoured them or at least possessed them?” Greyson asked.

  “What’s to say the humans haven’t been devoured?” I asked.

  Ryan placed a large plate full of waffles down in front of me. He looked at the chocolate syrup with deep sadness before he turned away, muttering about blasphemy.

  To my horror, Gideon tried to contaminate my waffles with some of his honey. I managed to pull my plate away to safety just in time. He grinned at me. When he looked away at Ryan, I took the opportunity to repay him and went to steal one of his waffles.

  Gideon’s reflexes were far better than I’d given him credit for. His hand was wrapped about mine before I had a chance to get within an inch of his plate.

  “You’ll have to do better than that,” he said in a thick accent.

  It was on. I was now determined to steal away one of his waffles. I might not succeed that breakfast, but we had many more breakfasts ahead of us.

  AFTER BREAKFAST, GIDEON took me back to the apartment so I could shower and change into a fresh set of clothes. Walking into the apartment made my stomach twist. Every time I set foot in there, my stress levels increased. It increasingly reminded me of everything I’d lost from the Morrigan coven and what they had done to me. The apartment stood in complete contrast to Gideon’s coven house, which was bright, vibrant, and full of life.

  Gideon gently stroked my hair as I looked around the small space and sighed. Once the ‘possessed witches’ thing was wrapped up, I was going to take him up on his offer to move into the coven house. There was no reason to stay somewhere that was making me miserable if I didn’t have to. His coven offered me a fresh start with a new family.

  “Just shout if you want me to join you,” Gideon called after me as I went to the bathroom.

  It was tempting, squeezing into the tiny shower with him, but we had work to do.

  Predictably, the shower was mostly cold, and I stepped out of it shivering and grumpy. A nice hot shower was a simple pleasure, and yet it made a huge difference to my day. I wriggled into a fresh pair of jeans and dug out a new shirt before pulling on my boots and leather jacket. The tumbled garnet was in my hand before I realised I’d picked it up. I felt Set smiling in the back of my mind and put the stone into my pocket. It was a good idea to keep that with me.

  Gideon greeted me with a broad smile. He was very happy to be part of this hunt. There was the prospect of a small war on the horizon; what could possibly sound better to a Mars witch?

  He pulled me into his arms and gently held me close while he caressed my cheek. I leaned into him allowing his magic to wrap around me and bring a smile to my face.

  “There’s no pressure to move in with us, you know that?”

  “I do, but I think I want to. You have hot showers, and it’s fun seeing Ryan’s face when I cover my waffles in chocolate syrup.”

  He laughed.

  “You’re a cruel woman.”

  I grinned up at him.

  “I have my priorities straight.”

  “Is that so?”

  He leaned in, and I stretched up to take his bottom lip gently between my teeth.

  “It is,” I whispered.

  His mouth claimed mine, and I allowed it. My heart fluttered as I melted into him and for the briefest of moments it felt as though we became one.

  52

  We were all going to the warehouse together. Ella had somehow managed to pack a prodigious number of healing vials, herbs, and blades on her person. She finished it off with a beautiful oak staff that was a touch taller than she was. Ogham, the Celtic equivalent of runes, ran down the length of the staff, marking her as a Celtic witch.

  Ryan leaned back against the kitchen counter, big muscular arms crossed over his broad chest and a look of boredom on his face. Greyson went over Ella’s healing things and triple checked she had everything she might need. Gideon was looking over bird’s eye views of the warehouse we were heading to, making sure we knew everything we could.

  “Ready!” Ella said with a grin.

  The vials and blades were all hidden from plain view. She should have clinked when she walked, but her leather pants and jacket revealed nothing out of the ordinary. That was a trick I wouldn’t have minded learning for myself.

  We split into two groups. I hopped into Gideon car, and the others went in Ryan’s. I was resisting tapping my foot as we made our way over to the warehouse. This was it. We’d found the cult, and now we were going to take them on and save countless lives. There might be creatures of the between there, and that sent a thrill through me. I’d never fought a foe quite like that before. Exhilaration was a far more useful reaction than fear. Fear paralysed you and left you vulnerable. The Morrigan coven had trained us to work through any fear at a young age.

  Gideon placed his hand on my knee and gave me a warm smile while his magic wrapped itself around me. The beat of his drums smoothed out my edges and helped me settle into a calm focus. This was a battle, something I relished. It would have been easy to underestimate them. They were only humans, after all. That was a foolish approach, one that I refused to fall into.

  The trees changed around us, becoming shorter and broader with heavier limbs that somehow blocked out more light. The road twisted and wound its way deep into the forest, which was becoming darker and darker around us.

  Something felt very wrong. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end, and something made my palms itch to call down my Set blades. Looking into the forest, I swore that some of the shadows slithered and moved in ways that didn’t fit with the small motions of the trees in the wind.

  “I feel it too,” Gideon said solemnly.

  That offered some reassurance. I slowed my breathing and focused on steadying my heartbeat, pushing myself into a focused state that wouldn’t waste energy.

  Gideon turned down a narrow dirt track that must have pained him. There was no way it was good for the paint work on his car. Ryan drove close behind us, a reminder that we weren’t in this alone. Ella wore a warrior’s expression as she looked out of the windscreen over our car into the looming darkness. I hadn’t seen a healer come into battle before. They usually remained on the side-lines.

  “Don’t worry, Ella is very capable,” Gideon said with a grin.

  “I know she’s a good healer.”

  Gideon snorted.

  “Oh, she’s far more than that.”

  I raised an eyebrow at him.

  “She has found a way to turn her healing into a weapon,” he said with great pride.

  “How?”

  “You’ll see.”

  I glanced back at Ryan’s car behind us and saw the little blonde’s mouth was slowly spreading into a positively savage grin. She was relishing the fight even more than the war witches.

  WE WERE DEEP IN THE heart of the forest. The roads and trails that had led to the warehouse had become overgrown and undriveable, all bar the one narrow trail we’d driven down. It had been wide enough for a single car and no more, offering one entry and exit point. The place practically screamed ‘setup’.

  Everyone stood near Gideon’s car looking around at the site before us. The warehouse was some hundred or so feet away. The area around it was rough dirt with tufts of pale-yellow grass, fallen leaves, and the occasional fallen branch. It looked innoce
nt enough at first glance, but it felt so incredibly wrong. Licking my lips, I tried to see the edge of the glamour, the portal to Fae, something. I couldn’t shake the wrongness about the place. My first thought was fae interference, but I wasn’t seeing the telltale shimmer in the air or bright colours that came with fae magic.

  “Be very careful, everyone,” Gideon said as he stepped forward.

  This was it. We were beginning the advance on the cult.

  We spread out into a line with four or so feet between us. Ella carried her staff, ready to use it, Gideon was in his full Mars armour, and I had my Set blades in my hands. Ryan carried a great sword on his back, the blade as wide as my palm. It looked like it weighed more than I did. He carried a staff that was easily a foot taller than him casually in his hand.

  Our focus was absolute as we slowly approached the warehouse. I kept listening for the smallest sound, and there was nothing. Not a single cricket, bird, or creature. It was as though the entire area was holding its breath, waiting.

  53

  Ryan shouted. We all turned and saw as his leg disappeared into the ground. He threw himself backwards as Gideon and I ran over to him. The Odin witch managed to dig his fingers into the earth and hold himself there while his lower body dangled. Gideon and I grabbed an arm each and hauled him back up onto solid ground. We all looked down into the punji pit complete with very sharp metal spikes lining the floor some eight feet or so below.

  “These cultists aren’t messing around,” Ryan growled.

  “Watch your step,” Gideon commanded everyone.

  Once more, we spread back out into a line. This time, Ella and Ryan ran their staffs over the floor ahead of them checking for weak spots. We were inching forwards when I was dying to sprint. Who knew what awful monstrosities were hiding in that warehouse? There could have been solitary witches being tortured or possessed right that very moment.

  Forcing myself to walk slowly and carefully, I called down my lightning, feeling the need for the spark in my veins. The exhilaration of the electricity somehow helped steady my hands and bring some clarity and focus to my mind. Greyson walked stiffly to my left. His eyes looked like the night sky. They’d been consumed by the purest black with small dots of brilliant white light.

  He tilted his head in a distinctly inhuman motion before he snarled and spun around, swords of purest shadow forming in his hands as he did so. My heart threatened to stop dead in my chest as I saw what had drawn his attention. A creature of pure shadow strode over towards him. Its long slender legs stretched up into a misshapen body that could have been humanoid once if it hadn’t have been verging on ten feet tall. The long arms were capped with hands that appeared to be made purely of curled razor-sharp claws.

  “Greyson?” Gideon demanded.

  “I’ll handle it. Keep going,” Greyson growled back.

  I wanted to stand and fight at his side. To help him.

  Greyson shot me a murderous glare, and I turned away to continue towards the warehouse. He was a Nyx witch. He was made to handle shadow.

  I’d barely made it four steps before I felt my lightning connect with something in the air in front of me. Allowing the magic to stretch, I looked for where the electricity caught. A spark ran along a hook that hung at eye height. I’d have missed it had I not have summoned my lightning a few minutes prior.

  “Watch your eyes!” I called out.

  Slowly, I motioned sideways with my hand and sent my lightning running down through the hooks that were suspended by fishing line in front of us. Those hooks would have caught in our eyes in a few steps. They were practically invisible without the sparks running up and down them.

  Gideon savagely cut through the fishing line, sending the hooks flying safely towards the ground.

  Glancing back over my shoulder, I saw Greyson flicker in and out of view while he sliced through the shadow being, rendering it nothing more than thin wisps of darkness. The Nyx witch moved with incredible grace as he leapt up and removed what passed as the next shadow creature’s head. Not a scrap of energy was wasted as Greyson ducked beneath the creature’s claws and cut a great hole in the middle of the creature’s torso. I was in awe of him.

  “Pick up the pace,” Gideon said.

  We began moving at a more reasonable walk while keeping our eyes on the ground ahead of us. Ella found another punji pit and cleared the surface off so we didn’t fall into it on our way back out. Greyson returned to our line a few moments later with a tight smile on his face.

  “The shadows are corrupted,” he said stiffly.

  “Why?” Gideon asked.

  “I suspect the veil is thin here.”

  Our chances of going up against creatures from the between just skyrocketed. A smile bloomed on my face to cover the cold dread that pooled in my stomach. They were the thing of nightmares, but we couldn’t allow any more witches to suffer as the possessed had done.

  Two more lines of hooks were found as we closed in on the warehouse. Thankfully, my lightning caught them, and we cut them down without any embedding themselves in our faces. The warehouse was barely ten feet away when I called out for everyone to stop.

  My lightning danced along the floor before us. I could feel the sparks catching on something metal. Crouching down, I brushed the old dry leaves away and revealed a layer of caltrops. The entire area around the rusted metal door was covered in the angular spikes of metal that would go up through the soles of our boots and deep into our feet if we trod on one.

  “They really didn’t want visitors,” I said.

  We carefully cleared a path through them. Greyson watched our back while Gideon made a path.

  There was movement from inside of the dilapidated building, shuffling footsteps and loud whispers. These cultists didn’t seem like they were experienced with sort of thing. Pros would have been quiet.

  “Intruders!” a woman shouted from a broken window to my left.

  Gideon was almost at the door when it swung open revealing an older man in a ridiculous black robe complete with over-sized hood. He pulled a dark green metal disk a touch smaller than a dinner plate from somewhere inside of that robe. Gideon brought his spear down ready to thrust it through the man’s stomach when the cultist threw the disk at my head.

  I ducked and rolled away. The metal disk landed with a soft thunk. I turned and looked at it, thankful to see it had landed a safe distance away. He had a good throwing arm on him.

  “You just threw a land mine at me!” I shouted. “Who does that!?”

  Gideon’s magic overwhelmed me. The drums thundered against my skin and stole my breath away while I adjusted. The cultist ran into the warehouse, and we took off after him.

  We leapt over the remaining caltrops and burst into the cool dark space of the warehouse. The concrete floor was cracked and covered in a thin layer of dust. Footsteps echoed around us as we followed the cultist through an open space with triple-height ceiling and rusty beams around us.

  Ella paused and reached out her hand. The cultist screamed and dropped down to the floor with his eyes wide open. He began to drool as he lay there as rigid as a tree.

  “What did you do?” I asked Ella as we jogged over.

  “Fried his nerves,” she said proudly.

  “I told you,” Gideon said.

  I formed my lightning around my hands and raced to beat Gideon to the cultist. We needed to know everything the cultist had done and where the remaining missing witches were.

  The cultist gasped for air as his body relaxed. He looked at the lightning arcing around my hand and promptly passed out. Apparently he just wasn’t cut out for murderous cult life.

  RYAN HAD POKED THE cultist in the ribs with his boot. He didn’t stir. We quickly concluded that he wasn’t coming to any time soon and set off to find more of them. There was likely a portal to the between in there somewhere, too; we needed to find that and fix it. I had no idea how to close a portal, but we were going to learn, and fast.

  We moved through
the first main room and cautiously approached what looked to have once been a red door. The rivets were now a deep orange due to rust, and the hinges looked as though they were about to disintegrate. Gideon poked the door with his spear, and we heard a slight click.

  “Grenade,” Gideon said with disgust.

  When I really looked, I saw it. The fishing line was there, pulled taut across the gap in the door. When someone opened that door fully, the pin would be pulled, and we’d be blown up.

  “Is there another way through?” I asked.

  There were footsteps on the other side. We needed to get through.

  “No,” Gideon said flatly.

  “I’ll handle it,” Greyson said.

  Gideon raised an eyebrow. Greyson scowled back at him.

  With a sigh, Gideon stepped back and gestured at the door. We all moved back to the opposite side of the room. Greyson took a slow breath, and I felt the temperature in the room plummet. A large mass of shadows coalesced in front of Greyson, who slowly walked backwards. His hands moved in slow fluid motions as he directed the shadows towards the door.

  The door flew open with a great squeal as the metal dragged against the concrete beneath it. The boom of the grenade filled the space between us, but there was no flash of light or visible damage.

  “The shadow absorbed it,” Ella said.

  Greyson returned the shadow to where it had come from, and shards of metal dropped to the floor. There was a large ragged hole where the door had been.

  We rushed across the room and thanked Greyson as we went past him. The cultists were huddled in the corner of the small dusty room on the other side of where the door had been. We surrounded them. Gideon pointed his spear at their throats while I menaced them with my lightning arcing over my hands.

  “Talk,” I demanded.

  Gideon frowned at me. I’d just stolen his line. I resisted the urge to grin at him; I didn’t want to ruin our scary image, after all.