Gray Magic

by Jennifer Snyder

  I didn’t like the sound of walking on a trail through the woods at night, but was thankful we’d been able to find out where Hazel was staying.

  Once I made it back to the common area, I parked close to the sign for Hazel’s cabin. There were two other vehicles in the lot with us. I glanced at them both closely. Did either of them belong to her?

  “What now?” Benji asked.

  “We take the trail that leads to her cabin and see if she’s home,” Mina said.

  Excitement rippled through her words. Who would enjoy this nighttime walk through the woods more—her or her wolf?

  The night air was cool against my skin as I climbed out of my car with the others. I crammed my hands into the pockets of my coat to keep them warm, and my fingertips brushed the Ziploc baggie of herbs from Gran. I grabbed hold of it, pulling it into my fist as I started down the trail with Benji at my side. Mina was in front, leading us, and Ivette walked behind us. I brought my shoulders up to my ears to hang on to what little warmth I’d taken with me from my car and tried yet again to figure out what I would say to Hazel when I saw her.

  The trail was muddy and smelled of damp leaves. A creek ran alongside it, but it seemed to be moving at a trickle. Still, the sound was calming in a way. Time in nature might be something I needed without realizing.

  My gaze drifted to Mina. She walked with her muscles tense as she glanced around. I wasn’t sure if she was soaking in her surroundings with excitement, or searching for threats because I couldn’t see her face. Either way, she seemed in her element. Had she let her wolf come to the surface a bit? If I were a werewolf, I probably would.

  An incline came and once we climbed it, the cabin came into view. It held up to its name, that was for sure. The place was small. So small, I imagined there wasn’t enough room for a queen-size bed, let alone a full kitchen.

  “It’s green.” Disgust dripped from Benji’s words. “And blue.”

  “What is?” I asked.

  “The cabin,” he insisted. “It’s bright green and a tropical blue. Not what I was expectin’, that’s for sure.”

  I’d been paying attention to the size, not the color. Now that he’d mentioned it, the odd colors of it were all I could focus on.

  “Me either.” Mina paused at the top of the hill. “When I think cabin in the woods, I think of a typical log cabin. Not this.”

  “It doesn’t look like Hazel is home,” Ivette said.

  She was right. No lights were on besides the porch. My anxiety went on high alert. I didn’t like standing in plain sight on a dark path when I couldn’t see if someone else was watching me. My eyesight wasn’t as good as the others.

  “Maybe we should head back to my car and wait,” I suggested.

  “Probably a good idea. Sittin’ on her porch will only scare the crap out of her when she comes home,” Benji said. His hand found its way to the small of my back as the four of us turned around.

  When we made it to the end of the trail again, we all climbed back into my car. We’d barely sat for two minutes when a small gray car pulled into the common parking area and stopped near the sign for the Cozy Cabin. A girl with dark skin climbed out. She wore a silver puffy jacket and had her curly hair pulled into a high ponytail on top of her head. Her gaze never once drifted to my car and the four of us watching her. Instead, she gathered her purse and a Styrofoam to-go box from in her passenger seat and headed for the trail without locking her car.

  “That’s her,” I whispered.

  “I guess we should talk to her,” Benji said.

  “Let’s give her a few minutes,” Mina suggested. “It would be best if she was at her cabin before we confront her.”

  We all watched as Hazel disappeared from view. I began a slow countdown in my head from sixty. Once I reached zero, I popped the driver’s side door open and stepped out. Everyone else followed. The four of us started down the trail at a slower pace than before. This time, Mina wasn’t the only one scoping out her surroundings; we all were. We didn’t know Hazel, which meant none of us knew what she was capable of. For all we knew, she could be waiting around the next corner poised to attack.

  When we made it to the cabin, lights were on inside this time. This should have been a good sign, but a sinking sensation spiraled through me nonetheless.

  Something wasn’t right, but I couldn’t put my finger on what.

  “Stop.” I held my arms out at my sides, willing everyone to a standstill.

  The air was charged with something. Could any of them feel it? My gaze drifted around the tiny cabin, searching for what was causing alarm to nip at my insides.

  “Something isn’t right. I feel it too,” Mina insisted.

  It was then that I spotted the crows.

  They filled the twisted bare branches surrounding the cabin, staring at us with their beady eyes. Seeing so many congregated in one place could only mean one thing—death was coming.

  Chapter 17

  “What?” Benji asked. Raw concern echoed through his tone. “What do y’all feel?”

  Before I could point out the crows and clue him in on the fact they were known as the bringers of death, a loud crash came from inside Hazel’s cabin.

  I bolted to the front door. Benji and Ivette made it there before I did. Mina wasn’t far behind them even though she’d somehow shifted into her wolf form already.

  My gaze landed on Hazel as I rushed inside the tiny cabin. She stood near the bed, her body tense while she held a fighting stance.

  Our eyes locked.

  “Who the hell are you people and what do you want?” she demanded bringing her fists close to her chin, prepared to fight. Her gaze darted to Benji, then to Ivette, waiting for someone to give her answers.

  “It’s okay,” I said as I lifted my hands up in front of me, palms facing her. “We’re not here to hurt you. Calm down.”

  Her head tipped to the side. “Calm down? Really? Y’all came barging in here like you owned the place and you’re telling me to calm down?”

  “We heard a loud noise,” I insisted. “We thought you were in danger.”

  “What are you talking about?” she demanded.

  “There was a noise—like a crash. We thought you were hurt,” Benji chimed in.

  Hazel straightened her posture. Her hands fell to her sides, but she kept them both in tight fists. “Do you barge into people’s cabins every time you hear a loud noise?”

  “No. Of course not,” Ivette said.

  “Look, I don’t know what’s going on here but you need to leave,” Hazel demanded. “The noise you heard was me pulling my bed out. Thanks for the concern, but seriously, it’s time for you to go.”

  I glanced at her bed, noticing it was a Murphy bed. The loud crash we’d heard from outside was most likely her pulling her bed free from the wall. Heat crept up my neck. Way to overreact, everyone.

  I adjusted my glasses.

  “I know how this is going to sound, but we can’t leave,” I said. Her eyes widened, my words—and the situation—having freaked her out.

  “Excuse me?”

  I licked my lips. “We’re here because you’re in danger.”

  “You broke into my house. At night. And, I’m supposed to believe you’re here to save me from something dangerous?” she scoffed. “I don’t think so.”

  Her gaze darted around. When it landed on something close to me, I looked to see what. Her cell. It was on the tiny kitchen counter, charging.

  “She’s tellin’ the truth,” Benji said, pulling my attention to him. “Someone is comin’ for you. Soon.”

  “Okay, now you’re just being creepy.” Hazel pointed to the door. “Y’all need to leave. Now.”

  “We’re not leaving unless you come with us.” My voice was shrill when I spoke. Whatever energy I’d felt when the cabin first came into view had intensified, causing a sense of urgency to pool through my veins. “You’re in danger, Hazel, serious danger.”

  Her head tipped to the side and su
spicion entered her gaze. “How do you know my name?”

  “Because I’m—we’re—here to help you,” I insisted. “Please, we need to get out of here.”

  “I’m not going anywhere with you,” Hazel snorted while taking a few steps backward.

  When she shifted back into her fighting stance I knew getting her to come with us wasn’t going to be easy. Her gaze darted around the cabin again, this time I knew she was searching for a weapon to use against us instead of her cell.

  “As much as I would love to say that’s a wise decision, I can’t,” an unfamiliar voice said from behind me. My stomach clenched because I could guess as to whom the voice belonged to. “Although, staying might not be a good decision either, love.”

  A chill swept up my spine as I spun to face Bram. He was tall, closing in on nearly six foot, and his physique was muscular, but that wasn’t what grabbed my attention and held it—the crazy amount of magic pulsating from him did.

  It rippled off him in waves, collecting in the air around us as though it were waiting for the word from him to attack. As though it were its own entity.

  This was the energy I’d felt since we reached the cabin. Dark and dangerous. Evil. It had tinged the air somehow.

  And now I knew with certainty it belonged to him.

  Bram’s eyes flashed as a wicked smirk twisted his lips. His gaze shifted over me before moving on to everyone else crammed in the tiny cabin and I swore there was no fear, no sense of worry, anywhere in him only the excitement of a challenge.

  Shit. We were in trouble.

  “And who are you?” Hazel asked. Her voice shook when she spoke and I wondered who she was more afraid of—the four of us or Bram. Could she feel his twisted magic? Could she tell we weren’t on the same team?

  “Your worst nightmare, I presume,” he said, his voice low and filled with mock humor.

  His accent was thick. British, possibly? On anyone else I would have found it charming, but not on him. Somehow, it made him seem sinister.

  As though Hazel sensed the same about him, her face twisted into a look of pure terror, and for a moment, I flashed back to the vision of her as a twelve-year-old being sucked into the amulet.

  “This should be fun.” Bram clasp his hands together in front of him. “It’s been a while since I’ve had an audience.”

  “We didn’t come to watch,” Benji insisted.

  Bram’s head tipped to the side. “You’re saying you came to take part in my mischief, then? Sorry, Sport, I’m a one-man show. I don’t play well with others and I damn sure don’t enjoy sharing in my fun.”

  Bram shifted to face Hazel again, ignoring the four of us completely. He took a step forward and the energy of the room shifted yet again, becoming tinged with more of his wicked magic. Adrenaline spiked through my system too fast, causing my body to tremble.

  “No! Get the hell away from her, Bram!” Authority and confidence I didn’t fully feel vibrated through my words. I had no idea how we would get out of here alive and with Hazel in tow.

  Bram didn’t seem like the type to screw with. Destruction and danger oozed from him making him seem intimidating as hell.

  The low rumble of a chuckle slipped from him as he spun to face me. The smirk I’d spotted on his face widened as his gaze fixed on mine. I swallowed hard, struggling to not look away. It would be considered a sign of weakness if I did, and I knew his type. They took full advantage of any weakness presented to them.

  “You say my name as though you know me, little witch, as though we are familiar with one another.” His voice was low and dark. It had every cell of my being on high alert. “Tell me your name so I may do the same.”

  I pursed my lips together. He didn’t need to know my name. I didn’t want to be familiar with him—as he’d called it—in any way.

  “I see your name isn’t something you are willing to give freely,” Bram said. Something shifted through his eyes—amusement. This was all a game to him. “So be it.”

  His intense greenish-blue eyes remained locked on me. My breath hitched when whispered words floated past his lips I couldn’t make out.

  What was he doing?

  “Stop!” Benji shouted. In an instant he was at my side, reaching out to block whatever magic Bram was sending my way.

  It was too late though because I could already feel it working.

  My mouth opened on its own accord and with a crook of his finger, Bram drew my name from my parted lips.

  “Ridley.” My tone was even, but my voice didn’t sound like my own. It was too breathy, too soft.

  “And, what is your last name? Where does your ancestry magic spur from?” He sniffed the air as though he could smell my magic on me. For all I knew, he could. He was a hybrid after all. “Do you come from a full-blooded line, or are you a half-breed with human blood tainting your veins?”

  “Caraway,” I said as automatic as when he’d pulled my first name from my lips.

  Bram’s eyes flashed. In that instant, I knew he knew my family and I wished with everything I was I would have been able to fight against his magic to have kept my name safe.

  “A Caraway witch,” Bram said. One of his brows arched. “How divine.”

  My death played behind his eyes. He wanted to finish Hazel off and then come for me. In the process, he would kill everyone in the cabin just for fun.

  All he was waiting for was someone to make the first move.

  Shit. Shit. Shit. How were we going to get out of this unscratched?

  The herbs!

  I reached into my coat pocket for them, even though I had no clue what the mixture contained. It was all I had to work with, which meant it had to be enough.

  Tension rolled through the air, thick and suffocating. My gaze drifted to the others. While I’d been chatting with Bram, they’d been moving in. Mina had positioned herself to the right of him still in her wolf form, Benji was closer to me, and Ivette now stood next to Hazel.

  If Bram noticed anyone had moved, he didn’t let it show.

  I fumbled with the Ziplock baggie, trying to open it with the fingers of one hand. All the while, I kept my eyes trained on Bram.

  “You should leave. There’s no way you’re taking Hazel,” I said. The zipper gave, and I grabbed a fistful of the herbs.

  “Who said anything about taking her?” Bram asked. “That is not my intention. Well, unless we’re discussing taking her power.”

  “Yeah, that’s not happenin’ either,” Benji insisted as Mina growled.

  Bram chuckled and then turned to face Hazel again, ignoring us. The instant his back was to me, I tossed a handful of herbs at him. In my mind, I pictured him vanishing or bursting into flames, but in reality, nothing like that happened.

  Bram merely jolted forward as though the herbs had been bricks slamming into him from behind. He glanced over his shoulder to look at me, and I noticed his eyes had gone dark.

  The vampire in him was coming out to play. Wonderful.

  My heart thundered in my chest. What was I supposed to do now? Intention had been all I’d thought I would need. Yet, it didn’t seem to have worked.

  We were in trouble. Heck, I was in trouble.

  “Oh, little witch,” Bram growled. “The two of us are about to have fun.”

  A lump formed in my throat. Why had nothing happened? What were Gran’s herbs supposed to do?

  Protect us. That was what Mina had said—Gran had given her herbs for protection.

  Did that mean Bram couldn’t hurt us? As in, he couldn’t move from where he was?

  I glanced at his feet. When he stepped forward, my eyes widened. Nope. He could definitely move.

  I couldn’t though.

  My legs were frozen in place as Bram took another step toward me. I didn’t know what to do. Fear had gripped me. From the corner of my eye, I noticed Benji’s body tense, and his hands clench into fists. He brought them to his chin while Mina’s wolf crept closer to Bram. Things were about to go down, and I wasn’t
sure all of us would make it out of this alive.

  Protection. The word repeated in my head like a mantra, tugging at something forgotten. A memory. A chant.

  The rhyme Aunt Rowena taught me when I was little and afraid of the dark!

  How did it go? Words fumbled through my mind as I tried to remember. They were there, resting just out of reach. My teeth sank into my bottom lip as I struggled to pull them to the surface.

  What were they? Think!

  The tension in the cabin thickened. Mina’s wolf growled louder than before and Hazel screamed. Hadn’t she noticed her before?

  I straightened, shifting into a fighting stance as Bram took another step closer. He smirked at me as he continued forward in slow, deliberate steps. I gathered from his expression that he enjoyed this moment. He was the type who wanted his prey to run. It was reflected in his dark eyes.

  “Are you scared, little witch?” His head tipped to the side. “You should be. You all should be. You have no idea who you’re up against.”

  “Neither do you,” Benji insisted. He rushed Bram, and all hell broke loose.

  I closed my eyes, knowing the words from the childhood protection chant Aunt Rowena taught me so long ago would be the only thing to stop this. The only way to save everyone.

  Growls of fury ripped through the air followed by another scream. I heard Benji fighting with Bram and Ivette trying to keep Hazel out of the way. Mina’s wolf snapped her sharp teeth. My heart pounded.

  What were the words? What were they?

  And then, as though they’d been dumped into my head by magic, they came to me:

  Darkness fades to light in day,

  Hear these words that I say,

  Protection finds me in all its power,

  To banish evil from this hour.

  My eyes snapped open. I focused on Bram. His face had twisted into full vampire mode as he fought against Benji. Benji slammed his fist into Bram’s side, but it didn’t seem to faze him. Instead, Bram reared back and delivered a blow to the side of Benji’s head hard enough to cause him to stumble back a few steps. Mina snapped her teeth at Bram, grazing his pants. Nothing about the vampire-witch hybrid screamed he was in trouble of any kind. In fact, the look on his face made him appear as though he were enjoying the situation.