The deep chant of four sorcerers filled my ears, and that I couldn’t block out. The lines of the ritual circle glowed purple. There was nothing I could do to stop it.
Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.
The witch standing six feet away laughed quietly, and my eyes rose against my will. He was around thirty, with blah-brown hair tied in a low ponytail and a scruffy attempt at a beard that made his chin look extra weedy. A pair of oversized, dark-framed glasses sat on his nose.
It was the same guy from the first beach ritual, the one I’d tackled and knocked out with a spell—spells Red Rum had confiscated along with my coat and phone. My hands were tied behind my back, my mouth duct-taped shut.
The witch grinned nastily. “I hope you had fun with my familiar these last few days. The first thing I’ll command him to do is swallow you whole. It’ll be an interesting way to die, don’t you think?”
I said nothing—not that I could speak with my mouth taped shut. Neither did I dare utter a word with that gun pressed to Kai’s head. Two more gunmen stood nearby, plus two witches and three spare sorcerers, including the leader. The remaining four rogues were back in the clearing, holding Aaron and Ezra as reserve hostages.
“After he eats you,” the witch continued in a whisper I could barely hear over the chanting sorcerers, “I’ll have him disembowel the Yamada mongrel—you know, because that’s how Japanese samurai commit suicide, right?”
Wow. Not only a would-be murderer, but a racist too.
“I already got permission to finish off the others as well, but I haven’t decided how yet. So many options.”
I again considered mentally calling Llyrlethiad, but the moment the fae lord showed up, the rogues would kill Kai.
As the chanting grew louder and bolder, the witch looked across the circle. “We’re almost there. Now the fun part begins.”
The chanting sorcerers reached a crescendo, the final word ringing out, then they went silent.
“Lord of the Seas!” The witch lifted his hand, the spun-silver sphere resting on his palm. “Wyldfae known as Llyrlethiad, I summon you!”
Silver light glimmered across the sphere—and agony blazed through my body.
The air around us rippled, then the giant leviathan appeared inside the circle, its thick coils looped around me and the witch. Torment burned my flesh and bones, and I choked back a scream.
The fae’s reptilian head swung around, fangs bared at the witch, but he made no move to attack.
“Human girl.”
His snarling voice slammed into my skull and I flinched violently—but the witch didn’t react. The sorcerers had resumed their chant, and their chorus didn’t falter either. They hadn’t heard it?
“I speak only to you.”
Llyrlethiad, I gasped silently inside my head. Can you stop them?
“I cannot inflict harm upon the relic’s holder.”
Despair crushed my lungs, cutting off my air. Llyrlethiad couldn’t help, and anything I tried would get Kai, Aaron, and Ezra killed.
“The others are safe,” Llyrlethiad rumbled. “The druid freed them. He is near.”
My heart skipped a beat. Several beats. Zak was alive?
I peeked toward the shore. Beyond the circle, the eight rogues not participating in the ritual waited with flawless patience. Kai was still in the “about to be executed” position, and I couldn’t see any sign of Zak, but I supposed that was a good thing. How he could hide on the flat, muddy foreshore was beyond me.
“Listen, human.” Llyrlethiad’s serpentine coils stirred restlessly. “Once the ritual concludes, this cursed bond will flow from you to the witch. It will take time—minutes, at least. If you kill the witch before the transfer is completed, the bond will fail. I—and you—will be free.”
My eyes widened. After the ritual ended but before the witch gained complete control of the sea lord, I would have a few minutes to save Llyrlethiad and myself? Maybe that would be enough to—
Wait. Did you say I have to kill the witch?
“There is no other way to destroy the binding magic,” Llyrlethiad answered.
My eyes went from wide to bulging. I can’t kill him!
“I told you: I cannot harm the relic’s holder.” A wash of bitterness lined his voice. “You must do this.”
Me? Kill the witch? My gaze darted to the smirking mythic, oblivious to my conversation with the fae lord. Murdering another person aside, how was I supposed to accomplish that? Zak might be close by, but he’d been shot—I was pretty sure he’d been shot, at least. I didn’t know how useful he’d be, and before anything else, he needed to save Kai.
That meant I’d have to take on the witch by myself, and there were four sorcerers within spellcasting distance. They’d flatten me in an instant. I was just a human with no magic, no artifacts, no relics, no familiar—
My thoughts skidded to a halt. No familiar? Or …
Llyrlethiad? My heart crawled into my throat and throbbed frantically. Can you lend me your power?
His anger sparked inside my head. “What is it you ask?”
The sorcerers’ chant rose in volume again. We were running out of time. Can you give me magical power the way Lallakai does with Zak?
Llyrlethiad snarled silently.
Can you or can’t you? I barked at him.
The chanting rose until the sorcerers were bellowing the words. The rogue witch, holding the relic aloft, squinted suspiciously at me over the serpent coil between us. The light glowing from the relic was brightening.
With a final cry, the sorcerers stopped.
“Llyrlethiad!” the witch cried. “You submitted to this magic and now I take your submission upon me. Your will, your body, and your power are mine. Obey me, Lord of the Seas!”
Flaring with painful heat, the markings on my body flashed. The sphere lit up with equal incandescence, then collapsed into dust in the witch’s hand, its magic consumed.
The massive leviathan reared into the air. Shimmering violently, his body began to shrink, his long tail lashing against the mud. Pearly eyes turned to me, gleaming with deadly power.
The shrinking sea serpent lunged at me.
His head struck my chest—except we didn’t collide. The serpent flowed into the same space I occupied, pouring into my body, cramming himself inside my skin. Possessing me.
Between one instant and the next, I went from being a single person to being two—regular me, and the fae lord sharing my skin. I could feel him inside me, rubbing against my soul, and Olivia’s comments about the obscene intimacy of fae possession now made sense.
But it wasn’t just his presence inside me. With the fae’s spirit came his power. All of it.
It built under my skin, burning holes in my innards and making the world dance in my vision. I was coming apart at the seams, the power pushing against my fragile flesh—crackling electricity and torrential rain and gusting wind and roaring tides, all trapped inside my wimpy mortal body.
Almost as fast as Llyrlethiad had possessed me, lightning flashed—a bolt leaping from Kai to the metal guns pointed at him. The rogues reeled back from the shock—not a powerful bolt like the electramage normally unleashed, but strong enough to startle them.
A dozen yards behind the rogues, a shape leaped up from the mudflats—Zak, his exposed skin smeared with mud to camouflage his approach. He flung a potion vial into the rogues’ midst and heavy smoke roiled out of it in an obscuring cloud.
The last thing I saw was Zak pulling a wickedly serrated dagger from the sheath on his thigh.
I focused through the spinning disorientation of Llyrlethiad’s possession. I had to get to the witch before the fae bond passed to him. Without thinking, I pulled on my bound arms—and the rope snapped. Inhuman strength pulsed through my muscles.
Ripping the duct tape off my face, I whirled toward the witch. He backpedaled, hands raised defensively. A faint shadow of the markings that covered the right side of my body lit his arm. His wide eyes were fixed on
me in terror, and in the lenses of his glasses, my reflection shone.
My hazel eyes were glowing like twin lamps, radiant with Llyrlethiad’s power. My skin shimmered like scales and Llyrlethiad’s long, finned tail trailed behind me, semi-transparent but solid enough to score the mud as it lashed.
The witch scrambled away. I had to stop him. My gaze flicked to the waterline, waves gently lapping against the mud. I could feel the ocean’s power inside me and all around me.
I raised my hand, my fingers tipped with phantom claws, and dizzying magic surged down my arm.
The ocean rose like an incoming tidal wave. Roaring breakers charged toward us, and the witch spun around, panic stamped across his face.
“Impello!”
The desperate cry came from behind me, and force struck my back. I fell to my knees, then launched up as four sorcerers charged at me, hands filled with artifacts.
“Don’t kill her!” the witch screamed. “Not until the bond is mine!”
A barrage of magic slammed me into the mud again. As I crumpled, Llyrlethiad pushed at my mind with stern encouragements—get up, fight back, use the power he was giving me.
I sprang to my feet and flung my hands up commandingly—and the ocean rose in answer. A six-foot wave smashed into the sorcerers, hurling them off their feet and covering them in frothing water.
The nauseating sensation of my body being stretched out from within worsened, and I could feel Llyrlethiad’s urgency. I whirled, scanning the rushing water as it crashed over my thighs. The last wave had knocked the witch down too. Where was he? Where had he gone?
Bodies flailed in the seawater, dark and unidentifiable. I turned, searching, desperate. The fae marks on my arm weren’t as bright as they’d been a minute ago.
A flash of blue. There! The witch, his markings glowing like a beacon, was slogging through the shallow ocean toward the shore. I lunged after him, fighting the water. Too slow!
I waved my hand. The water parted in front of me.
Roaring furiously, a man launched into my path—the Red Rum leader. He thrust a carved metal disc at me and screamed the incantation. My hand leaped to my back pocket, but they’d taken my Queen of Spades.
“Ori repercutio!”
A familiar voice shouted the words, and the sorcerer’s spell rebounded. As the man went down with a splash, I jerked around. Kai stood beside me, holding my card. The genius electramage had seen them take it from me—so he’d gotten it back.
I didn’t have time to congratulate him as Llyrlethiad urged me on. Commanding the water to part again, I launched into a sprint. The fae’s strength filled me, and the ground flew beneath my feet faster than I’d ever run in my life.
Ahead, the witch had reached the seawall. As he climbed onto it, he shouted something.
A dark shape appeared out of the rippling air. A steel-gray horse with poisonous green eyes reared up, screaming in fury at the human who commanded it. The witch jumped onto its back and the fae horse sprang at the sheer bluff Ezra had fallen down five nights ago. It charged up the near-vertical obstacle like it was a gentle incline.
I sprang over the seawall, closing in on the bluff and thinking frantically. How would I get up that bluff?
Llyrlethiad cast an image into my mind—swift instructions. Gulping, I ran up to the wall of rocky clay and leaped. Water coalesced out of the humid air. A geyser of wind and water formed under me and propelled me upward. I landed on the mossy ground at the top.
The thick foliage had slowed the horse fae. It wasn’t far ahead, and I cast out my hand. A band of water smashed through the trees, tearing saplings out by the roots, but the horse sprang out of the bush and onto the trail. It veered left. They were heading toward the lookout point—the restaurant and parking lot. Would the witch try to flee by car?
I charged after him. The fae marks on my arm had faded even more.
As the horse galloped up the trail, Llyrlethiad poured more dizzying magic into my limbs. Running even faster, I slashed my hand again.
The band of water struck the fae horse’s hindquarters. It lost its footing and fell, tumbling across the trail. The witch flew clear and landed hard, but he scrambled up and fled on human legs.
I tore past the downed horse, but my speed was flagging. Llyrlethiad’s magic was weakening—and the marks on the witch’s body glowed brighter. He dove into the bushes before I could summon more water.
Cutting through the trees after him, I came out at the edge of the parking lot, aglow with multicolored lights that flashed and spun, but I scarcely noticed. The witch bolted past the parked cars and closed restaurants. As I gave chase, my desperation twined so closely with Llyrlethiad’s that I didn’t know whose was whose.
The fae’s magic was ebbing. His dizzying power was fading.
I ran harder, lungs screaming, legs burning. The witch was heedlessly sprinting toward the lookout point—a dead end. There was nowhere else to flee. I would reach him. I would stop him. I stretched my hands out, calling on Llyrlethiad’s magic.
With a whisper of despair, his presence disappeared.
The final shadow of the fae marks on my outstretched arm faded to nothing. Gone. The bond was gone.
At the lookout point’s edge, the witch skidded to a stop and spun around, his back pressed to the rail as he gasped for breath. Magic glowed across his right side, shining through his clothes. He threw his head back and laughed in maniacal delight.
I was still running. The ground sloped down, urging me on.
“Llyrlethiad is mine!” he crowed. “Llyrlethiad, I command you to—”
Before the witch could complete the order that would end my life, I ran into him at full tilt.
My shoulder slammed into his sternum and he flipped backward over the railing. I caught the metal barrier before I fell over too, my chest heaving.
With a breathless grunt, the witch hit the steep, rocky ledge on the other side. He scrambled desperately for purchase on the crumbling rock and spindly weeds, sliding in slow motion over the edge.
Hanging half over the railing, I watched him slip out of sight.
His scream tore through the quiet park. The sound went on and on—then cut off as his body met the beach three hundred feet below. I stared at the spot where he had disappeared, eyes unblinking and mind blank.
The ocean shimmered. Waves broke across a finned, scaled back as the sea serpent surfaced. The leviathan lifted his head from the water and gazed across the distance between us with ivory eyes. Then he dove beneath the surface, vanishing without a trace.
My hand was stretched toward the cliff edge, but I didn’t remember reaching out. My fingers trembled so badly I couldn’t move them.
A boot scuffed against the pavement behind me. “Put your hands in the air!”
Confusion twisted through my numb thoughts. I’d expected Zak. Maybe Aaron or Ezra. But not …
“Put your hands in the air!” the older male voice bellowed again.
I lifted my quivering arms and slowly turned around.
Standing in a line on the next tier of the lookout were four police officers, their guns drawn and pointed at me. Flashing red and blue lights from the parking lot reflected off the restaurant’s windows, and at the top of the sidewalk, two frightened late-night joggers clutched each other’s arms.
Joggers. They must have heard something—the sounds of a mythic battle, perhaps. Or the gunfire when the Red Rum rogues had shot Zak. Whatever it was, they’d called the police.
And those four officers had just watched me chase a man to the lookout point and shove him off the cliff to his death.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Most people who know me—meaning people who know my temper—would be surprised to learn I’ve never been arrested. Well, my clean record was garbage now.
Sitting in the back of the police cruiser, I stared out the window. My whole body shook from exhaustion, but adrenaline kept me awake—adrenaline and throat-crushing dread.
Outside
the car, a dozen officers and investigators bustled around the parking lot. An ambulance, its lights flashing, was parked in the corner, but the paramedics had yet to return from collecting the witch’s body from the bottom of the cliff.
A dozen yards away, Aaron, Kai, and Ezra stood amongst a cluster of cops, handcuffed like me. Kai was speaking, the sharp movements of his head and shoulders betraying his anger. Olivia sat on the curb, also handcuffed and bawling her eyes out. A confused paramedic kneeled beside her.
Two cops had a sniffer dog in the back of Zak’s truck. I wondered what they’d find. The druid was too smart to leave evidence in his vehicle, and the license plate would be a dead end. He wasn’t here with the mages—no, he was far too wily to get arrested. Like the Red Rum survivors, he’d disappeared.
All the doors of Aaron’s car were open as several officers sorted through the contents of the glove box. One cop held my purse, already searched. I’d seen no sign of the guys’ weapons, so they must have stashed them in the woods somewhere.
I leaned my heavy head against the glass, dizzy from the flashing lights reflecting off everything nearby. My chest hurt, but I didn’t know if it was lingering pain from Llyrlethiad’s possession or the weight of my conscience.
An hour ago, I had killed a man.
He’d been an evil man. He’d planned to murder me, Kai, Aaron, and Ezra. He’d been seconds away from commanding Llyrlethiad to kill me. By pushing him, I’d saved myself, my friends, and the fae lord. It had been the right thing to do … but logic was failing to calm my churning gut.
I had ended someone’s life, an action that could never be undone. An evil man or not, the witch’s death was a burden I’d have to bear for the rest of my life.
My lower lip trembled. Right about now would be a great time to get a hug from the guys. To hear their soothing assurances—that I’d done what I had to, that I’d saved everyone, that it had been the only way.
But I couldn’t talk to them. I pressed my face to the glass.
Kai was still speaking angrily. Aaron took an aggressive step toward an officer and the man pushed him back. The disagreement reached a pitch, then an officer pulled out something small. He walked behind Aaron, fiddled for a moment, then stepped back, holding a pair of handcuffs.
Two Witches and a Whiskey (The Guild Codex: Spellbound Book 3) Page 21