“Um. Well. I’ve already asked Quill into my collective. I don’t know how you feel about monogamy.”
Fox laughed. “We don’t stand on all that ceremony. Whatever works for you, will work for me.”
“Really? You don’t care that I’m intended to someone else?”
“Nope.”
“So you’re okay if Quill and I go ahead and have our wiccan ceremony, and get married, and live together. Maybe even have kids.”
He grinned. “That’s ace. But you’ll come visit me sometimes, right? Or I can visit you, if that’s your thing.”
A flame of desire pulled somewhere inside her, but she pushed it back, not wanting to be greedy. “For now, let’s just concentrate on drawing that warlock bastard here and getting rid of him. Maybe a few years down the road, we can revisit this thing we agreed to. Once I’m settled into things with Quill. I don’t want to take on too much at once. I’m not really a relationship person.”
“A witch who doesn’t do relationships. And you’re expected to have plenty of them.” Fox laughed, his whole face getting in on the joy of it. His sharp teeth sent a chill along her spine, but it was not all fear.
She shrugged it off. “I’ve got a lot to learn.”
“You teach me all your witchy tricks, I’ll teach you the way of the fae,” he said with a wink.
Her face warmed, and she wasn’t even looking at his seductive eyes. “I’d better go.”
“Wouldn’t want to make your intended jealous.”
“You’re right. I wouldn’t.” She turned to go, but hesitated at the door to the tiny house that they’d first entered. “And Fox?”
“Yes, Big Red?”
“Thank you.”
“Oh, no,” he said, looking her up and down with obvious pleasure. “Thank you.”
Thirty-Eight
On the way home, Sagely lay across the seat with her head on Quill’s thigh. He stroked her hair, letting her rest. When they turned into the yard in front of the cabin that hid the entrance to the academy, Quill ground the truck to a halt, cursing under his breath.
Sagely sat up just as Raina skidded to a halt beside the truck. Quill had his window down, his arm along the sill, and Raina breathlessly started explaining before Quill could even turn off the ignition.
“Willow never came back,” she said, her words a rush. “She’s not with you? Where have you been? You were supposed to be back last night. We’re all freaking out. Did the faeries attack? Were they holding you hostage?”
“Damn it,” Quill yelled, pounding the steering wheel. The horn went off in one sharp blast.
“It’s okay,” Sagely said, putting a hand on his arm. “We’ll find her.”
“It’s my fault,” he said to the steering wheel. “I told you not to go after her.”
“She’s not with you?” Raina asked again, though she could see that no one else was in the truck.
“I told you, she went off into the woods,” Quill said.
“The Forest is our friend,” Sagely reminded him. “It wouldn’t let anything happen to her.”
“You’re right, you’re right,” he said, turning the key in the ignition. The truck sputtered off, the fan still whirring. A second later, he turned it back on. “Something’s wrong. I can feel it.”
“The mirror,” Sagely cried, leaping from the truck. “The stone. You said it could show any time and place. Let’s go.” Without waiting for an answer, she sprang for the cabin. Up the steps and into the house, down the stairs, through the cavern and down the corridor. It was second nature now, even running through the solid stone walls. A minute later, she arrived at her room, Raina and Quill close behind. She sat in front of her mirror and asked to see Willow.
Raina raced through an incantation, and a second later, the white mist swirled over the screen. When it cleared, Willow appeared, lying on a bed covered by a synthetic blanket, sleeping.
“Where the hell is she?” Quill growled.
“The faeries probably kidnapped her,” Raina said bitterly.
“That’s not a faerie house,” Sagely pointed out. “But I can go back and see where she went from yesterday.” She asked to see Willow arriving at the house, and the mist covered the mirror again. When it swirled clear, Willow was walking through a little abandoned cabin, touching everything. They moved ahead and saw her at a stream in the woods. Three boys walked up behind her, and Sagely felt Quill’s body tense.
The boys looked like bad news. They were around Willow’s age, but one of them was football-player big. One was short and chubby, and the last was skinny and pimply and smoking a cigarette. All three had their hair slicked back, and they strutted like they thought they were all that and a bag of chips.
Willow turned from the stream, startled. The big guy smiled like a snake.
Okay, Sagely couldn’t handle watching this. She asked the mirror to move ahead to when she went to sleep. Like fast-forwarding through a tape, it skipped ahead to another scene. When it stopped, Willow was lying on a bed, and three animals were attacking her. A bear, a mountain lion, and a bobcat were tearing away chunks of her flesh. She was so covered in blood they couldn’t even tell it was Willow anymore. With a final, sickening scream, she flailed wildly and then went still.
Quill grabbed the mirror and tore it from the vanity, slamming it to the floor. Sagely covered her mouth, trying not to vomit. Raina was still and pale as paste.
“Is she alive?” she whispered at last.
“I’m going to get her,” Quill said, heading for the door.
“Wait,” Raina said. “Let me get Shaneesha. If the shifters have her, it might not be safe.”
“I’m not waiting around,” Quill said, turning and storming out. He called back over his shoulder, “I’ll be at the truck.”
When Sagely started to follow, Raina put a hand on her arm. “Wait. Can I…can I use the stone? I want to see if my brother is still alive.”
“Of course. Just bring it back when you’re done.” Sagely plucked it from the wreckage of her mirror and handed it to her, and they sprinted from the room.
“Shifters,” she said as they jogged down the corridor. “I thought you said they minded their own business.”
“The werewolves do,” Raina said. “The shifters…who knows. They live by their own rules. We stay away from everyone in the other valleys.”
“Obviously with good reason,” Sagely muttered. They reached the cavern where Shaneesha was training with a handful of advanced witches. Raina quickly explained to Majori Yordine what had happened, and that Quill could not be stopped. Yordine said she’d alert the coven, and if they needed more help, she’d send reinforcements. But she did not seem concerned, which Sagely tried to take as a reassuring sign.
As they passed the cavern where the younger students trained, Eli ducked out. “What’s going on?”
“Willow’s in trouble,” Sagely said. “I think we’ve got it covered.”
“Let us come, too,” Ingrid said, joining Eli. “We’re her friends. Maybe we can help her.”
Sagely didn’t have time to argue, so they all raced up the stairs and out into the yard. Quill already had the truck turned around and running. They all piled in, the two younger witches in the bed. The doors were barely closed when Quill gunned the engine, sending gravel flying as the truck spun out onto the dirt road.
Thirty-Nine
Though Sagely wanted to ask what was going on, what they could do, she bit her tongue. Quill wouldn’t know much more than she did. How could Willow be sleeping peacefully now, with no sign of what had happened last night? Had the mirror instead shown the future, and the attack hadn’t happened yet? Or, when she asked to see her right now, did it show a scene from before the attack? All she knew was that it must not be too dangerous, because Yordine hadn’t come with them or brought the whole coven. She seemed confident they could handle the shifters themselves.
Quill was an adult, with powerful magic, and he’d almost mastered all the elements
. That was enough to reassure Sagely, too.
They pulled up outside a cream-colored trailer house with an old car sitting halfway sunken into weeds on either end, slowly succumbing to the elements. The yard was patchy with grass, wild asters, Queen Anne’s lace, and other weeds interspersed with bald spots of rocky Arkansas dirt. A huge grasshopper landed on the windshield when they parked.
Quill jumped out of the truck, leaving the keys dangling in the ignition. His familiar launched itself after him with a whine of protest. Sagely turned off the truck and pocketed the keys before climbing out. Eli and Ingrid hopped from the bed just as Quill began pounding on the metal door of the trailer. The others hurried to join him. If they didn’t break up this fight, Quill might have another murder on his hands.
For a second, Quill stopped pounding and stood there, at the top of the cinderblock steps. Crickets droned in the midday heat. And then, inside, they heard footsteps. Quill started pounding furiously again. A second later, the door swung inwards. Willow stood squinting out into the bright sun at them.
“What the hell?” Quill thundered.
“I’m fine,” she said, stepping back. Quill charged in, and the rest of the group trailed in one by one, a little awkwardly.
Seconds later, Quill was back from searching the rooms. “Where are they?” he demanded. “Who hurt you?”
“I’m fine,” Willow said again. “I’m not hurt. I was hurt, but I’m healed now.”
Quill stilled and took a breath, his nostrils flaring. His eyes narrowed. “What happened?”
“I’m a shifter now,” she said, raising her chin defiantly. “I was changed last night, and I made it through. I’m exhausted, but otherwise, I’m healed.”
“What the hell?” Quill asked again, dialing down the volume this time.
Willow gestured at the worn corduroy sofa. “Sit down. I’ll get you tea. We can talk.”
“Let me help,” Sagely said, following her to the little kitchen.
Willow opened the fridge and took out a plastic pitcher of tea.
“We were really worried about you.”
“I’m sure you were,” Willow said, a note of bitterness in her voice.
“Did you do this by choice?” Sagely opened the cabinets to find a bunch of plastic cups with logos from various gas stations, radio stations, and local events. She couldn’t find any glasses, so she used those.
Willow didn’t answer until they were all seated. It was a tight fit, and half of them had to sit at the table while the rest took the couch.
“We saw you in the mirror,” Sagely explained. “With the seeing stone Fox gave me. It looked…really horrific.”
“So you spied?” Willow asked.
“You’re a shifter,” Quill growled.
“Would you rather I was dead?” she shot back. “I’m a shifter. I made an alliance with them, too. They’re going to help us fight Viziri. So you’re welcome.” She raised her chin in that defiant way again, and Sagely was reminded how very young she was.
“You. You made an alliance. When?” Shaneesha asked.
“Yesterday,” Willow said. “They wanted me to be a shifter. They want me. They think I’m special.”
“You are special,” Sagely said gently.
Willow turned to her, eyes flashing. “I thought you’d be different,” she said. “When you showed up, you were an outsider, too. But when you had weird magic, did anyone treat you like an untrustworthy mutant? Nooooo. Everyone wanted to protect you.”
“I have always protected you,” Quill said quietly, his voice brimming with emotion. “Ever since our mother let you go to school with us. It was my job to protect you.”
“And you did,” she said. “As well as you could. But you can’t change the way witches see faeries, the way they see me. I’ve made my decision. You don’t have to like it, but I expect you to respect it.”
“We do,” Sagely said quickly, taking Quill’s hand and squeezing it, hard, when she saw him about to protest. “But are you sure about this? It seems like you’re just trying to get back at us for…something.”
“I’m not,” Willow said. “I’m a shifter now. You can’t undo it, even if I wanted you to. And I don’t. I want to learn about this part of me now. I’m probably the only shifter-witch-fae in the world. I’ll still work with the elements. But I also want to know about this lifestyle. Maybe I’ll like it better. If I don’t, I’ll come back to the academy.”
“You’re only sixteen,” Quill said. “You can’t live on your own.”
“I’m not,” she said. “There’s a guy…he lives here. He’s a bear.”
Quill’s fingers flexed, and his ring glowed with magic. “You’re my sister.”
“And I always will be,” she said. “If you need me, I’m here. I’m a healer. That’s what I want to be. If someone gets bitten, I’ll be there to help. But I want to go to school here.”
There was a long beat of silence.
“School?” Ingrid asked, like she’d never heard of it. “What school?”
“You know, regular-people school,” Willow said. “I’ve barely ever met a commoner. Someone without magic. I want to know about them, too.”
“I guess it’s time she spreads her wings,” Sagely muttered to Quill. “She wants to see the world, explore. Can you blame her?”
“Yes,” he roared.
Before he could go on, something strange happened.
A chill raced up Sagely’s spine, and she was instantly cold, as if a dark cloud had blotted out the sun on a hot day, and a chilly breeze appeared out of nowhere. Except there was no breeze through the trailer. It was just a feeling, a coldness and darkness that wouldn’t go away, gnawing at her.
For a second, she thought it was her void magic doing something weird. But then she saw the others looking around with wide eyes. Willow hugged herself, and Raina sniffed the air like a dog. Quill’s mink hissed, and Ingrid’s crow squawked.
“What was that?” Sagely whispered.
Quill jumped to his feet. “Something is wrong. Something’s happening to the coven.”
An uneasiness tugged insistently inside her, as if she were being pulled by a magnet from far away. It was an unbearable feeling, an itch to go to them, to be with them, to save them. “Then let’s go help them,” she said, standing, too.
Quill held out a hand to stop her, his head tilted to one side as if listening. A look of intense concentration crossed his face, followed by one of dread. He looked at her, his face stricken. “We can’t,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s too late. All their magic has gone dark.”
Forty
“Rally the shifters,” Quill said, turning to Willow. “Sagely, can you communicate with Fox through your—bond?”
“I don’t know how,” Willow cried. “I’ve been a shifter for one day!”
“Figure it out,” he said. “You made the decision to be one of them, and you said they’ll help us. We need all the help we can get.”
“Who are we fighting against?” Ingrid asked. “Our own coven?”
“Something turned their magic,” Quill said.
“Viziri,” Sagely whispered. She could feel that pull in her gut, but now that she was paying attention, she knew it was not a call to help the coven. It was the pull of his magic. And it was massive.
“Quill.” She grabbed his arm. “He’s way more powerful than me. More than we imagined. There’s no way I can fight him.”
Quill took her face between his hands and kissed her hard. “You won’t be alone. I will be right beside you every step of the way.”
“I don’t even know how to unlock the magic that’s bound,” she reminded him.
“We’ll figure that out, too,” he said, his brow knitting into a frown. He didn’t say what would happen if they didn’t, but she already knew. Viziri would kill her to get the magic, just like he’d tried to do that day on the side of the road.
Once it was unbound, she could use it. So she was going to have to figure out ho
w to do that, because he obviously had.
But even with that, it was a long shot. As she looked around the room at the frightened, determined faces, she knew that these were her sisters and brothers. They’d fight to the death together, for each other. She was glad for the strong ones, Raina and Shaneesha and Quill, and scared for the others. She vowed that she’d protect them to her last breath.
If Viziri would be satisfied to leave them alone and kill her to get the magic, then she’d make that sacrifice. But she wasn’t going to go down without giving him the fight of his life.
*
Sagely reached through her bond with Fox, sending him as much urgency and need as she could convey. She’d have to hope it was enough, because she could feel the pull of Viziri drawing closer. He must have attacked the coven when they’d gathered to discuss Willow, and finding Sagely absent, he’d left them for dead. Now he was coming for her.
Willow was on the phone, anxiously winding the curly cord around her finger as she dialed, barely slamming the receiver down before picking it up again. With trembling fingers, she dialed the numbers that Eli read off, one after another, and hurriedly asked each shifter that answered for help. Each time she hung up, she nodded or shook her head to let the witches know if help was coming before dialing the next number.
Meanwhile, Sagely sat trying to psychically communicate with Fox, not knowing if it would work but knowing he wouldn’t have a phone up in his tree house. It struck her how odd it felt to be in a house again, but then the thought was pushed away by the sound of a truck bouncing into the drive. Quill sprang to the door, grumbling about teaching those shifters a lesson.
Sagely started to get up, but Raina motioned for her to continue summoning the faeries while she dealt with Quill and the stream of shifters arriving. For once, Sagely felt no qualms about letting Raina tend to Quill. He was hers now, all the way.
Though she’d expected Raina to be an enemy, she’d turned out to be a friend who could always be counted on to have her back. She was a sister to Sagely—and to Quill. Like sisters, they didn’t always agree. But knowing she could trust Raina let her use her energies where they were needed. She closed her eyes again, and let her fae blood and her witch promise summon her second intended.
Magic of the Void: A Reverse Harem Witch Series (Winslow Witch Chronicles Book 1) Page 20