War Witch

by Layla Nash

  Leif untangled himself, face a little red as he straightened his clothes. “Mimi, Lily and I were talking.”

  She tried to stand and instead ended up sitting on the floor. “So much trouble. Uncle Soren will be maaaaad.”

  I struggled to compose myself, looking wildly for an exit. Saints protect me. I’d admitted knowing dark magic, crawled in his lap. Kissed him. In front of everyone.

  Humiliation flashed through me and everything went numb with shock. Moriah and all of Leif’s friends and goons had seen. Half the Alliance witnessed me sitting in his lap and nuzzling into his throat and... I almost choked on embarrassment. They’d seen me lose control and give in.

  I turned away and covered my eyes, desperate to just disappear. I’d always wished my magic could let me zap myself out of embarrassing circumstances, but I’d never found the right spell.

  Leif took a deep breath and massaged his temples before leaning over me to help Mimi, though she seemed content on the floor. “Honey, go back to your party.”

  She rested her chin on my knee and grinned at him. “You’re so bad.”

  I tried to drag her to her feet, wobbling myself as the gin tilted the world and her weight pulled me off balance. Leif reached to steady us both, but I pulled away before he could touch me. My heart pounded. I couldn’t risk our magic interacting again. I’d lost my damn mind the moment it did.

  I kept Mimi between us, trying to back away so I could get to a door and the quiet sanity of the night air. I might reach the back exit if I moved fast. Mimi balanced on her high heels as she beamed at me. “Lucky Aunt Leelee. Leif wants you and—” she said, but she slurred to a stop as one of Leif’s men appeared next to us.

  He was hard-eyed but mouth-wateringly handsome. Beautiful and rugged and with such delicious shoulders that I was distracted for a heartbeat myself. Wide-eyed Mimi didn’t stand a chance as he bowed over her hand. “I know you’re engaged, gorgeous, but how about a dance anyway?”

  Mimi blinked, dazzled by his dimples, and trailed after him out of the VIP lounge and toward the dance floor. Leif waited until she tottered out of earshot to reach for me, even as I backed away. I didn’t know what to say or do or where to look, only that fleeing was the better part of valor that time around.

  “What are you hiding, Lily?” Sadness gathered around his eyes as all the promise of our flirting fell apart in the cold reality of the strobe lights.

  “I’m not—” I struggled to resurrect the anger that sustained me in the fight with Brandr. Seeing that look on Leif’s face, knowing I’d moved from an interesting witch to a murder suspect, hurt my heart.

  “You studied dark magic,” he said. He caught my non-blue arm, and echoes of pack magic trembled through me, a fog once more drifting up around us. “And there was dark magic at your apartment. Where were you yesterday?”

  “You made me say those things,” I said. “You influenced me. I would never—”

  “Two problems with that, Lil.” His jaw clenched and the Chief Investigator entirely replaced Leif. “First, it’s impossible to lie under pack magic. So all of that was true, whether you meant to admit it or not.”

  I filed that information away for later; we’d never talk under pack magic again, saints as my witnesses. I backed up and he followed, tall and broad and competent. “And the second?”

  He glanced at someone behind me, making a small gesture with his free hand. “Witches are immune to pack magic. So what does that make you?”

  My mouth opened and closed as I floundered for a response, and the first thought that flashed to mind was Eric and her impossible allegations. Witches were immune to pack magic—were loki? I cleared my throat, shaking my head. “I’m a witch. Just a witch.”

  Saints save me, I hoped it was true. Just a witch. No more, no less. Definitely not loki.

  His men circled closer, fighting the raucous crowd, and Leif squeezed my wrist to distract me. His tone gentled, grew cajoling instead of demanding. “If what happened at Tracy’s house was an accident, Lilith, just tell me. An experiment gone wrong? If something unexpected happened, it’s okay. I just need to know the truth.”

  “I didn’t do it,” I said, heart drumming faster as the trap closed around me. No way out. The door was too far, and too many people created roadblocks to freedom. “I’m not in contact with them, and I’m—”

  “You were with three of the witches just two nights ago,” he murmured, and touched my jaw. Played with my hair with a distant regret. “And you know all of them. What happened?”

  Pack magic swirled up again and my heart jumped, my blue magic shivering. I summoned courage and more magic and walled myself off from his influence. With more witch magic came the War Witch, and with her came a distant, cold rage. He’d made a fool of me. A fool. Of me.

  I wanted to destroy something. I wanted something to disappear in a cloud of smoke and fire. Someone should bleed for the humiliation coloring my cheeks. I wanted to turn the tables, make him dance like a puppet on strings. He would pay for manipulating me.

  I stepped back and he didn’t follow. “I didn’t have anything to do with it.”

  The distance grew between us as he nodded. The Chief Investigator faced Lilith; Lily and Leif faded away. “I need you to come with me to the pack-house to answer a few questions.”

  A muscle in my jaw jumped as I ground my teeth. I couldn’t guarantee I was clean after walking through my apartment, and I hadn’t run a cleansing spell on myself. The humans couldn’t detect the dark magic, but Leif’s gadgets would. If he had any witches left, they would see it, too. “No. I’m nonaligned, and I will not—”

  “Lily,” he said quietly, holding out a pair of weak but symbolic steel bracelets. “Don’t make this any more difficult than it already is.”

  I laughed.

  If he had challenged me like that during the war, I probably would have killed him. But this was a consequence of the peace. And in my heart I knew he told the truth. I felt stupid, and I hated feeling stupid.

  “You shouldn’t be wasting time in a bar,” I said. “Go look for whoever destroyed Tracy’s house.”

  He shook his head, eyes gray once more. “I’m looking at our only suspect.”

  The cuffs glinted under the strobe lights, moved like metal snakes with each beat of the drums. There were always options, Dad reminded me. You might not like any of them, but there were always options.

  I could magic open a loophole to another plane and take my chances with what waited on the other side. I could level the building or the entire block, leave some or none of them alive. I could hex him and run. I could stay and submit to the test, maybe be found guilty and eventually executed for a crime I didn’t commit.

  Or I could start being a better friend to Tracy.

  If I was the only suspect, they would never find Tracy or the ones who killed Rosa and Joanne. I couldn’t afford to let Leif lock me up for an hour or—saints help me—longer. I was Tracy’s best hope for being saved.

  I bit my lip. “I had nothing to do with Tracy’s house, but maybe I’m the only one who can figure it out. Are you going to tell me what you found?”

  “I can’t discuss pack business with nonaligned, and certainly not with a suspect.” He reached for his radio, looking around at all of his guys. More waited outside, no doubt.

  “It’s witch business,” I said, and put steel in my voice. He wasn’t the only one who’d quelled mobs with a single look. The Warder could learn a few things from even a retired War Witch. “And it’s my business because she was my friend, and I owe it to her to find out who did this.”

  I tried to quell the shaking in my fingers from holding blue death for too long. I was out of practice, and those muscles fatigued too quickly.

  “Why are you using past tense, Lily?”

  A knot in my throat made it difficult to speak, but it was time to demonstrate how much he needed my help. “Because I scried for her and she wasn’t there. She wasn’t anywhere I could find her.�
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  His expression froze. “Does that mean they’re dead?”

  I spun a floating orb with the magic I still held, shaking my head. Blue was good for more than death—it made a hex with a hell of a punch. “Tell me what you found at her house.”

  Leif opened the cuffs and reached for my wrist. “Lilith witch, I am officially detaining you in the name of the Alliance, for questioning in—”

  I shook my head. “You’re not arresting me tonight.”

  He scowled but froze as I flicked the orb at his stomach and bolted.

  The goons threw people out of their way as Leif shouted and I ran, kicking open the back door and slamming it shut behind me. The night air grew dense with cold and promise as I melted the steel door into the frame. I turned to flee and stumbled chest-first into a burly shifter.

  His eyebrows rose. “Not so fast.”

  The roadblock’s name was Nate, and I remembered him as a watermark from the war. A boy smelted into a man by time and trauma. He tried to catch my non-blue arm. “You’re not—”

  “Not going quietly,” I said, and flicked my blue fingers against his chest.

  Chapter 25

  Nate flew across the alley and landed against the dumpster in the corner, and I looked to the mouth of the alley for an escape. I had to move fast. There would be other guards waiting outside the bar, and it wouldn’t take them long to get around the block to trap me in the dead-end. Already something slammed against the steel door from inside, and a horrible snarling echoed through the walls. Leif.

  I bolted for the opening, nearly tripping on an empty box as the security lights flickered. I didn’t get far. A wolf bounded into the alley and nearly slammed into me, and I jumped back. A man appeared, silhouetted by the watery streetlight, and I held my hands up, ready to hex him, too. “I’m leaving. Get out of my way.”

  He eased into the light until I could see his face, and my blood ran cold. He wasn’t one of Leif’s goons. He was a Cold River wolf, and he carried a long chain in his hands. “We’re all leaving. Cooperate and it’ll go easier.”

  They didn’t know me very well, and they certainly hadn’t learned their lesson from inside the bar. I clenched my jaw to silence chattering teeth, and flinched as the steel door squealed and started to bend outward. I didn’t have much time to debate my options.

  So I hexed him, knocking the guy back into the street, and the wolf launched forward in a flash of gray and white and teeth and the stale musk of wild animal, and then—

  Teeth.

  It seized my shoulder and white-hot pain erupted. With a mighty jerk, the wolf dragged me toward the street, snarling so loudly my bones vibrated even as they collapsed and splintered in its jaws. Blood soaked my shirt in a warm rush. I dredged up magic and struck out, hitting the damn thing on the head and sides as my thoughts scattered. Shit.

  My shirt tore. My skin tore, peeled away. I screamed, trying to crawl so it wouldn’t tear me apart completely.

  Magic bubbled beneath the panic as the Morrigan took over and I sobbed hexes with all my power. No telling what kind of death waited for me with Cold River, but I would pay the price for their alpha being arrested and humiliated by the Peacemaker.

  The wolf collapsed on boneless legs as its heart exploded, and I stumbled to the wall in a spray of blood. I needed something solid at my back so I could gather my thoughts and try to heal myself before things got worse.

  It didn’t last long. Another wolf leapt into the mouth of the alley, only a few short feet away. I snapped a hex at it and scrambled away, slipping in blood as I tried to hold my shoulder together. They’d cornered me and I’d sealed off my only escape. I hunkered down and tried to breathe evenly as my clavicle grated under my skin, trying not to see the yellow-white bone through torn muscle.

  Stronger magic provided refuge as wolves flooded the alley on silent paws. They fought as a pack, some distracting me from one side as others edged close. I hexed and warded at the same time, but they were too nimble and I couldn’t think fast enough to kill them all.

  The snarling faded into eerie silence, and I tried to scramble to the street as the wolves disappeared. A simple probing spell revealed them backing off, regrouping, and more wolves approaching from the front of the bar. I braced against the cold cinder block wall and forced myself upright. There wasn’t much time until I passed out. The shifter virus would have already contaminated me from the bites, and though I’d been bitten before, this time the bites were deep enough the change might take me and steal my magic forever.

  My eyes burned and I struggled to breathe. Dying in an alley was not how I’d envisioned my night ending. Even if I remained immune to the bites, the wound itself would kill me before the change came. It was a small consolation.

  Shouting rose up and radios crackled, more growling followed the snick-snick of wolf nails on the concrete. At least a dozen more approached, and a couple of witches as well. I closed my eyes to try and gather my strength. Someone really wanted me dead—Cold River or the Alliance, it didn’t really matter. The wolves hunted to kill.

  Maybe I’d miscalculated how angry Leif would be over the hex.

  I put a bloody hand over my eyes, listening for their approach, and my vision grew splotchy as my skin turned cold and clammy. I barely felt the pain in my shoulder anymore. It all faded away to a distant irritation. Once again there were no good options. I could die trying to kill them all, or I could paralyze them and escape to fight another day. It was a difficult spell, and one that would take all of my remaining strength. Getting it wrong meant certain death. Not trying it at all meant certain death.

  I concentrated on building power with each inhalation, until magic billowed up in a great column around me. I’d dreamt up the spell in the last days of the war, when I resented the Peacemaker’s wolves and envisioned a way to humiliate them if I wanted to leave in a blaze of glory. I’d seen enough pack magic to mimic it.

  Three new wolves circled closer as I staggered almost to the sidewalk and the spell coalesced in my mind. I still held onto the wall and unrolled the magic into the street and covered all the shifters who gathered to see me die. It locked them in an alpha’s hold, and I commanded, “Kneel.”

  The three wolves dropped to their bellies, snarling viciously, and a fourth struggled to stand as it inched closer to me. I bared my teeth at it. “Kneel.”

  Cursing and threats roared through the steel door, and it dented halfway open until I could hear Leif clearly. “Lily. Stop. Now.”

  Leif. The world grayed around the edges as I held onto the wall. I tried twice before my voice worked, cracked and broken. “Good effort, Warder, but I’m not dead yet.”

  I gathered myself for the last burst of power, even as my body failed and the feeling left my limbs. The cowering wolves watched me with yellow eyes, and I couldn’t risk loosening my hold on the magic.

  “You can’t hold this forever,” he said. “They’ll tear you apart.”

  My eyelids drooped. I was so cold. So tired.

  Leif nearly climbed through the bent door, expression fierce as he caught sight of my tattered shoulder. “You’re hurt, Lily. That bite is infected. We have the antidote. Just say you’ll come quietly and I can help.”

  I started to tell him what I really thought when some trash rustled behind me. My mind clicked too slowly as I turned my head and saw a skinny kid with floppy hair and just a hint of magic staring at me with wide eyes. A witch?

  I inhaled to give him a piece of my mind when he reached out and his fingers brushed my arm, and a beginner’s hex adhered to my shoulder and froze me in place. I couldn’t even move my mouth to warn him as he edged close enough to lock an iron collar around my throat.

  My magic evaporated like morning fog.

  I stared at him as the hexes restraining the Cold River wolves disappeared with my magic.

  “You idiot,” I said weakly, as the witch blinked and the wolves exploded into motion, knocking him aside and trampling over him to reach me
.

  I crumpled under their paws, barely managing to cover my neck as the kid’s elementary school hex faded, and the jolt of broken bones grinding between the wolf paws and the ground ripped a scream from my throat. Its breath reeked of old blood. Far away, Leif shouted.

  The witch remained open-mouthed and motionless as another wolf seized my leg, teeth buried in my ankle.

  I stared up at the night and concentrated on the stars. Of all the ways my life could have ended, I’d never envisioned being torn apart by wolves. Torn apart by Externals, by humans, by Anne Marie and Jacques maybe, but not by wolves.

  Lightning flashes of pain flared from head to toe, deep water closed over my head and distorted everything around me. I opened my mouth to scream or curse or just sigh, and the entire side of the bar exploded.

  Brick and steel and splinters sprayed into the alley and a long-legged timber wolf, massive across the shoulders and with an auburn sheen to its fur, joined the fray. The Cold River wolf standing on me disappeared in a burst of blood and fur. A snarl vibrated through my bones as the timber wolf leapt over me.

  The teeth in my ankle tore free and I cried out again, trying to crawl away as bodies, wolf and human alike, filled the alley. I focused on a bright spot from a street light. I didn’t want to die in the dark.

  The timber wolf growled as it stood over me, nudging my shoulder until I flopped onto my back. It looked down at me, amber eyes liquid over the blood-flecked muzzle, and I knew him. Knew him in a heartbeat.

  Leif.

  His tongue rasped my cheek in a quick kiss, to taste my blood or provide comfort, it didn’t matter. He stepped back and then a red surge of pack magic surrounded him. My vision swam as he contorted, curled into himself and then unfolded into a man, the auburn fur receding to a smattering of chest hair.

  The young witch’s wide eyes appeared over me and his moon face blocked naked Leif from my view. “Holy shit.”

  I groaned and closed my eyes.

  Chapter 26