“Step through,” he whispered. “It’s safe.”
She took a breath and plunged through, halfway expecting her forehead to bounce off the sandstone. Instead, she slipped through the curtain of cool air into a small, neat bedroom. Wall sconces lit this one, which looked more like somewhere a hobbit would live than a witch. The walls were made of stone. A small, round table made of a section of tree trunk sat in one corner, flanked by two square stone seats. On top of the table sat some kind of salt crystal lamp and a potted plant.
Against the other wall, a large canopy bed was made up neatly with a quaint, patchwork quilt.
“I hope you’re not claustrophobic,” Quill said.
“Nope.” Something brushed against her leg, and she jumped away, ready to defend herself. But it was only a cat. “Shit. That scared me. Come here, kitty.” She picked up the cat, only to remember Muffy was at home. Of course, her roommate would have fed her, but she’d be missing Sagely, wondering where she was. What was Sagely thinking? Was she really going to stay?
“I’ll let you get settled in,” Quill said, backing up to the wall where they entered, which looked completely solid again.
“Sure,” she said. “I do have one more question. Where’s the shower?”
“Oh, of course. You probably need to relax, too. We have great mud baths. I’ll show you. It’s exactly what you need right now.”
Sagely bristled. She didn’t need a man telling her what she needed, not even one who was sexy as hell and made her blood sing. “I’d like to get clean. So just a shower will be fine.”
“Did I say something wrong?”
She sighed. This was getting really old. She wondered if it wore off after a while. “Just show me to the shower, please.”
“Alright,” he said, holding up one hand. “It’s just down the hall in the Orion room. Towels are in the cabinet.”
“Thank you.”
“If you want a cat, you can get one,” he said, nodding at the cat she was cradling in her arms. He stepped out into the hall. “Once you move to level two, you get to choose a familiar. Although a witch who was gifted magic doesn’t need one.”
“I have a cat,” she told him. “Which is just one more reason I need to get home.”
“We can talk about that,” he said. “Go get your shower, and join us whenever you want. Remember your way back?”
They stopped at the rock face where Orion’s belt was etched into the stone. “Not all women are hopeless at directions.”
“Want company?” he offered with a tentative smile.
Do I ever. Her eyes roamed from his smiling mouth to his broad shoulders, down his well-defined chest and torso, and her snippiness melted away as quickly as it arose. She knew he was making a peace offering, but she was not that easy.
“Ha,” she said, unable to keep herself from smiling. She didn’t even care if he caught her checking him out. “Nice try.”
“We seem to have gotten on the wrong foot somewhere. Don’t you think we should remedy that as soon as possible?”
“I’m going to go in now,” she said, tracing the stars in the constellation like he had on her bedroom door.
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” he said. “You’re all tired and vulnerable. That would give me an unfair advantage.”
“In what?” she asked, giving him her most innocent look.
He was still smiling, that wide smile that seemed to stretch beyond the reach of his full lips. “Rain check? Offer still stands, you know, for next time. Just make sure you’re well rested so you can keep up.”
She liked the sound of that challenge, but she didn’t want to show him how seriously she was contemplating it, because she couldn’t tell if he was completely kidding. If he was, she got the feeling he would change his mind in a hurry if she said yes.
“I’ll remember that,” she said, shaking her head like she thought he was ridiculous, rather than sinfully sexy. Like she was not actually considering his offer before she even knew his last name, or how old he was, or what he did for a living. She couldn’t help wondering just how well rested she’d need to be. She’d never imagined sleeping with a warlock. It seemed like magic might have some advantages she hadn’t previously considered.
Seven
Once she was cleaned up, Sagely went back to her room, but there was not much to do there. She didn’t have anything with her, since she obviously hadn’t been planning on having her throat slit and being rescued by a coven of witches and one sexy, sexy warlock.
After twenty minutes in her bedroom, she was bored. It was cute, and quaint, but not exactly a thrill ride. She left her room and headed back the way she came. Halfway there, the pale light coming from the walls began to dim. She reached out her hand and touched the wall, trying to relight it the way Quill had. But instead of a calming yellow glow, the light turned a pale, sickly shade. The colors swirled together, making a nauseating, sulfuric hue. It perfectly matched the lovely egg smell.
Not quite as breathtaking as the stars that came from Quill’s fingers.
In another minute, the light went from yellow to entirely gray, and she could hardly see a foot in front of her. She glanced around for other witches, but she didn’t see any. Hoping to reach the main room before the light went out entirely, she picked up her pace.
No such luck. Just then, the light dulled to a murky, warm shade of gray that made her stomach curdle. Her magic was doing something strange, too, answering the call with a flickering of its own. Her heart beat faster, and her breath came quicker.
When she heard a commotion from the cavern ahead, she began to run. A shout echoed down the tunnel towards her, and a rock crashed somewhere beyond that. Running blindly through the murky gray that filled her nostrils and throat like scentless smoke, she pushed herself forward. Her foot slipped into the stream, soaking her boot, but she didn’t slow her pace. She raced for the chamber, for the accident, though she didn’t know if it was a cave in, gas leak, or something else entirely.
She knew one thing for sure. She was not about to die in a gas-filled witch chamber. Not when her cat was at home worrying about her. Right then she decided she was not staying in this deathtrap. She just had to find a way to tell Quill she was leaving with whatever magical abilities he’d given her. She’d just have to figure them out on her own.
At last, she burst into the chamber. The murky grey emanated from the walls there, too, although the sconces gave off enough light for her to see what was happening.
At first, she thought it must be some of the witches fighting over some witchy thing. Maybe even over whether to welcome her to the coven or somehow suck the magic back out of her, if that was even possible.
There were about a dozen witches skirmishing, along with shrieking and scuffling animals. Earlier, Quill had mentioned familiars, and now she was seeing them for herself. She spotted a fox, wriggling and crying while Eli held it trapped on the cave’s floor with some kind of invisible magic. A hideous possum was hissing and bearing its sharp teeth at Shaneesha.
A giant vulture turned towards Sagely. When it blinked its translucent inner eyelid, its eyes appeared whitish, like a spoiled egg. It screamed, its giant beak opening wide to reveal a long red tongue, and flew at her. Fighting the urge to shriek and instead go into a fighting stance, she readied herself. She’d never drop kicked a vulture, but she wasn’t above it.
“Take that, Big Bird,” she said, doing a spinning sidekick and delivering a punishing blow to its scaly reptilian head. Its head snapped so far around that surely its neck was broken, and it thudded to the floor. A cry came from somewhere in the cave, and a foreign witch shot up from where she was wrestling with Yordine. Sagely could tell she was not from their coven and did not share their magic. Hers was different, strong and foreboding.
The witch leapt towards Sagely, only to be taken down by a bear-hug from Quill.
For real. These witches were in dire need of some cooler moves. Maybe she could get a job teaching them Tae Kwo
n Do.
Sagely’s eyes meet Quill’s, and he released the witch abruptly, as if he’d been caught, well, hugging another girl. Not that she had any kind of claim on him. Just because they shared magic didn’t mean they were obligated to each other.
Did it?
Before Sagely could worry about that, the bird slowly lifted its head from the stone floor, murder in its pink eyes. She readied herself to take it out with one well-aimed knife-hand-strike to the scaly neck. She’d just have to estimate where a bird’s vulnerable spots lay. But just as it began to flap its black wings, one of the witches from her coven hurtled towards her.
Raina, the Queen B. She dug in her heels and slid to a stop, thrusting out her hand to deliver a perfect palm-heel strike to the incoming witch’s face.
Except her hand stopped short of touching the woman, and instead, when her palm got to the end of her reach, a ball of fire shot from her hand and hit the witch in the eye. Sagely remembered exactly how much that fireball hurt from when Quill shoved one down her throat, so she was not surprised that the woman let out a piercing shriek. She began to stagger away, but before Sagely could finish her off, her magic pulsed painfully.
And then it began to turn. She felt the coldness as if black, snake-like fingers had reached down her throat, begun to poison her magic from within. She grasped at her throat for a second, her eyes searching the crowd for what was defiling her new power. At last she spotted it.
A rail-thin warlock in a black cloak, with bone-white skin and stringy black hair leapt at Quill and sliced his arm with a blade. Quill slammed his forearm up into the man’s chin, and he stumbled backwards. Cursing, Quill threw out a hand to fireball the guy, but before he could, the guy dropped to the ground and rolled at Quill, knocking his legs from under him. As he fell, Quill landed a punch to the guy’s face, and blood sprayed from his nose.
But he rolled over onto Quill and kneeled on him, his fingers gripping Quill’s throat. Quill strained so hard against his attacker that Sagely was surprised his bones didn't snap. Quill’s strong fingers dug what looked like inches into the flesh of the man's upper arms. His muscles were taut inside his shirt, his biceps bulging against the fabric. But the man straddling him refused to release his grip on Quill’s neck. His fingers were white and thin, his bony knuckles pointing out like shards of glass against his skin.
Seeing his fingers tighten on Quill’s throat, the dark feeling swept over Sagely again. Quill’s face reddened and his eyes narrowed. She searched the crowd frantically for someone to help, but the other witches were engaged in combat. She couldn’t tell her coven from the other by sight, but after a second, she reached out and felt the familiarity of their similar magic.
It was as if she was suddenly seeing auras, except she couldn’t actually see them. Like Quill said, it was a sixth sense that could feel them when she focused on two of the combatants. Her magic sung at the same frequency as the witches from her coven.
A few of the witches she recognized were grouped in a huddle staring at Quill like they were willing the man on top of him to burst into flame. Sagely wanted to shake them and scream at them to do something instead of standing there holding hands like they were about to sing an angry, metalhead version of Kumbaya. This was why she didn’t want to join a coven—all this good-witch nonsense. There was no point in getting pissed if you couldn’t use it to defeat your opponent.
She turned back to Quill. If they wouldn’t stop this asshole, she would.
She leapt towards the man straddling Quill, from all appearances about to choke the life out of him. She didn't know how much longer Quill had left. Her entire body was buzzing with the urge to get the creeps out of there, out of the cavern, out of her coven, her head, her body.
The man's fingernails dug into Quill’s flesh, tearing through the skin, as if he intended to rip out his jugular with his nasty, overgrown fingernails. Rivulets of blood trickled down Quill’s neck. Sagely darted forward, sidestepping Raina, who grappled with the witch who’d given Sagely the stink eye when she kicked her vulture in the face. Raina was fast—she’d be a good Tae Kwon Do opponent if she could be trusted not to stage an accident where she knocked out all her opponent’s teeth.
Raina raised her hand, lifting the other witch off the ground by the throat without actually touching her. Holding the other woman in the grip of her power, she lifted her higher, until she was hovering a foot above the ground, grasping at her neck and gasping for breath. Then Raina abruptly chopped her hand through the air. The witch’s body was slammed to the stone floor at Raina’s feet next to the injured bird. The witch screamed and writhed, grasping the back of her head.
Sagely’s attention returned to her own target. She’d reached the man who was killing her donor, the benefactor of her magic. Rage exploded inside her as she grabbed his dark head. Strings of greasy hair hung just below his ears. Touching his hair was like grabbing a handful of damp, oily snakes, but she refused to let go. His crooked nails were crimson with the blood that ran thick with Quill’s magic. Her magic.
Blinding fury flashed through her like a surge of electricity, and she wrenched his head back.
It exploded.
A shriek sounded somewhere in the cavern. Sagely’s first dazed thought, as if it were coming to her via telepathy instead of her own mind, was that at least she wasn't the girl who shrieked first. Several of the witches who did not share her magic were frozen, their faces masks of horror. When her eyes moved to the witches who did share her magic, she saw the exact same expression.
Oops.
One of the invading witches leapt to her feet with that same deafening shriek. Sagely decided then that not having screamed was not a sign of her strength. This woman intended to kill her. She erased any doubt when she ripped a dagger from her belt and bolted toward Sagely, blade held high, gleaming in the golden light of the sconces. Her face twisted into a mask of killing rage.
Suddenly it was Sagely versus this psycho. The other woman was too angry to plan. She vaulted toward Sagely, slashing with her dagger. But Sagely was ready, despite the shock of what she’d just done. She delivered a knife-hand strike to the woman’s forearm. It cracked like the boards she broke in her Tae Kwon Do practice.
The witch shrieked again and boxed Sagely in the ear with her other hand.
Sagely wasn't expecting an ambidextrous fighter. Her head reeling, she stumbled back, barely blocking the next blow. Luckily, the witch didn't seem to have another weapon. But pure fury fueled her despite a snapped tibia.
She screamed, baring her teeth, her eyes narrowed in unadulterated hatred. As she charged, Sagely raised her arm to block the blow. The woman rocked forward and clamped her teeth into Sagely’s forearm. While Sagely was still caught by surprise, she thrust a fist into her face. Sagely ducked at the last second, but the witch’s ring tore across her lower lip, splitting it wide open. With a scream, Sagely delivered a punch directly to her ear. Let her see how it felt.
The witch didn't let her arm go, so Sagely raised her knee, slamming it into her gut as hard as she could. With a grunt, the witch’s teeth loosened. Only then could Sagely wrench her arm away and deliver another swift knife-hand strike. Though her left hand was not her strong one, she managed to knock her sideways. The witch knelt on the floor, breathing hard for second. Sagely was about to finish her off when Quill sat upright. His hand shot out and wrapped around Sagely’s calf, and she sucked in a breath.
"Don't." His voice was low but firm.
A horrifying thought entered her mind. What if she’d interrupted a sparring match between her coven and their friends, one of whom she’d just murdered?
Eight
When Sagely saw the psycho witch going for her dagger again, she knew she was no friend of theirs. Quill held out a hand, and the dagger lifted off the floor and shot to his hand as if it was a magnet. His fingers closed around the handle, but she couldn't tell if he was holding it to protect himself from the crazy witch…or her.
“You ne
ed to leave." The voice came from the far side of the cavern, where Majori Romero was holding a young witch in a headlock. Whatever voodoo magic he was doing to her did not look pleasant. Her face had gone the white of curdled milk instead of red, so he couldn’t be squeezing too hard. But her mouth was open in a silent scream, and tears streamed down her face, dripping over the burly arm that circled her neck.
"I’m binding her magic," Romero said, as if hearing Sagely’s confusion. His eyes were trained on the psycho witch, though. “You have two minutes to get out of here before I bind yours, too."
The invading witches scrambled to their feet. Sagely turned, already thinking they’d won. But just then, a huge lizard ran at her, jaws open to reveal needle-sharp fangs. The ruff on his neck was extended in a huge, leathery fan. She lifted her boot and brought it down hard, trying to crush its head. But the lizard darted forward, and her heel landed on its tail. It sank its teeth into her other foot.
Her snakeskin boot was now full of holes. With a cry of fury, Sagely reached down and punched the reptilian creature in the back. Her knuckles stung from the scaly skin and the row of barbs along its spine that dragged a deep scrape across her knuckles. But it released its hold on her foot, opened its big red mouth, hissed, and wiggled ferociously. After a moment, it scrabbled away, leaving its tail squished under her foot.
"Control your familiars," Yordine ordered, her commanding voice echoing through the cavern like thunder.
Romero waited until most of the invading witches had collected their familiars and climbed the stairs before he released the young witch from his hold. Just as she stumbled towards the door, Sagely spotted a rat the size of Muffy huddled in the middle of the floor, eating chunks of something grey. That was when she remembered that she’d exploded someone's head.
Magic of the Void: A Reverse Harem Witch Series (Winslow Witch Chronicles Book 1) Page 4