American Witch, Book 1

by Thea Harrison

  The parked police cruiser was visible in the rearview mirror. As she glanced at it, the doors opened and both officers began to climb out.

  She didn’t have time to deal with them, and if they followed her, they would be sitting ducks in a magical confrontation. Whispering a sleep spell into her fingers, she flung it at the cruiser. Both officers collapsed back into their seats.

  Julia had followed her out. She yanked the driver’s door open. “You can’t just leave like this—”

  Molly shoved her away, slammed the door and locked it. Then she started the car, reversed, and accelerated out of the parking lot. In the few minutes it had taken to extricate herself, the searchers had gotten even closer.

  The wet streets were slippery and reflected light from halogen lamps, so she drove as aggressively as she dared. A van up ahead was moving too slowly. Stomping on the gas, she drove around it.

  Where could she go? She needed to buy some time to try to remove the spell. Failing that, she would need to get ready for a confrontation, and she didn’t want to have one near a neighborhood where people lived.

  Grabbing her phone, she thumbed to Sarah’s number and punched it. Sarah answered on the second ring.

  Molly said, “I’m in trouble.”

  Sarah’s voice was calm and crisp. “What’s happened?”

  “I saw an old friend. There was a spell buried in the lotion she’d used, and she touched me. She had no idea. She doesn’t have any magic. Someone used her to set me up.”

  “How close are they?”

  “Maybe twelve, fifteen minutes.” She swerved sharply to avoid a twisted piece of scrap metal. Her mind was in hyperdrive, the edges of her vision delineated. “I’m not sure. I’ve never sensed anything like this before. The spell’s in my bloodstream. How can I counteract it? Can I make it stop working?”

  “Yes, but it would take time and materials you don’t have. Depending on the strength and complexity, you would need to soak in Epsom salts and a cleansing spell for a good hour. If the magic is strong enough, sometimes it can take multiple cleansing baths over a few days to dislodge it completely.”

  Molly could hear the stress in her own voice as she said, “You’re right, that’s not doable.”

  “We’ve prepared for this, so don’t panic. I’ll wake the others and get them ready. In the meantime, pick your battleground and let me know where it is as soon as you can. I need a focal point, and Lauren, Delphine, and Sylvie need to know where to find you.”

  “Okay.” She paused. “If this doesn’t work, I want you to know how grateful I am—”

  “Shut up and drive fast. Try to gain as much time as you can.” Sarah hung up.

  She shut up and sped through the city streets as she sifted through various ideas for where to go.

  The best place she could think of was an old airstrip northeast of the city. One of the charities where she had once volunteered had stored local historical documents, photos, and maps of the area.

  Atlanta had several old, abandoned airfields that had gradually disappeared from the public eye. Molly had spent an enjoyable summer driving to each airfield and taking modern snapshots of each one to place in their files. Some had been repurposed into new housing developments or used for strip malls, expressway interchanges, or roads, but a few areas still lay fallow and unused.

  This airstrip was one of them, located in a large, overgrown field. No one lived nearby, and it was surrounded by a dense cluster of forest.

  She called Sarah again. “I’ve got the place.”

  “Tell me everything you can.”

  Rapidly, Molly filled her in while she pushed the Volvo to a higher speed. It helped to have a destination in mind.

  Sarah said, “Excellent. Have they fallen behind at all?”

  She checked mentally. “A little. Not by much.”

  “What’s your best guess?”

  “I’ve still got only about fifteen minutes’ head start.”

  “Go faster,” Sarah told her. “I’ll update the others. I love you.”

  “I love you too.” She hung up.

  Her phone rang again. She was going forty over the speed limit and couldn’t take her eyes off the road, so she answered without looking.

  “Molly,” Josiah said. His voice was hoarse and gravelly. “Where are you?”

  Her pulse leaped with gladness and surprise. “You got a phone. What are you doing up?”

  “One of my coven woke me. We had two people watching the motel. They said you knocked out your police escort. They’d checked into another room and ran out in time to see you drive off. They tried to follow, but they lost you. What’s wrong?”

  “An old friend wanted to get together, and I was stupid.” Using broad, quick strokes, she sketched everything in. “I can’t shake the spell, and I don’t dare stop until I get to the airfield.”

  “I’m on my way. Keep your phone on and tuck it somewhere, like under a bra strap against your skin. It’ll give me a focal point until I get there.”

  Pressing her phone hard against her ear, she listened to him breathing, oddly comforted by the sound. “Even if you break every land-speed record on the books, you’re not going to make it in time.”

  “You don’t know that,” he said fiercely. “I’m coming. In the meantime, hide if you can. I can use our connection as a conduit to place some defensive spells on you.”

  Biting her lip, she considered that. Much like medicines, spells often interacted with each other. Sarah called it relative contraindication. It was possible Josiah might do more harm than good if he happened to throw a defensive spell that counteracted any of the offensive spells she’d been practicing.

  “Don’t throw any spells on me,” she told him. “But I’ll take any strength you and your coven are able to send my way.”

  “I’ll give you everything I’ve got.” Lifting his voice away, he said to someone else, “Get Richard on the line. I need to talk to him.”

  She was so focused on him she almost missed her exit off the highway. Signaling, she swerved right just in time and shot onto a two-lane country road. This one was winding, wet, and dark, and it forced her to slow down.

  The Volvo’s headlights threw images into the dripping trees. She caught a glimpse of a raven, a wolf. They had borne witness months before when she’d left her old life. It felt right that they had shown up for this.

  Her trackers started to gain on her.

  “I’m back.” Josiah’s voice came through loud and clear. “We’re exploring an idea to get to you faster.”

  “I’ve got hairpin turns coming up,” she told him. “I have to put the phone down.”

  “Don’t hang up yet.” He sounded so calm, so steady. “What’s the name of the airfield you’re headed for?”

  He was working his heart out to find ways to protect her and join the fight, but meanwhile he hadn’t had a chance to recover from life-threatening injuries. This upcoming confrontation might not kill her.

  But it might very well kill him, because he would die before he let anything happen to her.

  Except he couldn’t join her if he didn’t know where she was.

  “Josiah?”

  “Yes, milaya.”

  “I love you,” she told him.

  She didn’t wait for a reply. Pushing her phone’s power button, she turned it off. Then she tossed it into the drink holder and concentrated on the dark, solitary road ahead.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Those hairpin turns cost her.

  Maybe she had ten or fifteen minutes at best before they caught up with her.

  It wasn’t worth trying to get to the airfield. She had to stop now, before she lost any more time. Anyway, she was tired of running. Months tired, in fact, and she was more than a little pissed.

  So okay. It would have been better if the area was by the ocean, or—she glanced at the clouded night sky—if there was a full moon. She was missing the presence of her two strongest elements, but she had to play the
hand she was dealt.

  She passed around another curve and reached a relatively straight length of road.

  This was the place.

  She spun the Volvo into a tight U-turn. There was just enough room on the two-lane road to turn around. Then, putting the vehicle in park but leaving the engine running, she ran to the narrow shoulder and searched until she found a rock that was heavy enough she had to lift it with both hands.

  Jogging back to the Volvo, she set the rock on the floor on the driver’s side, poised on its narrowest side in front of the gas pedal. Then, leaving the driver’s door open, she dug through her kit of magic items for a piece of consecrated chalk and a vial of the ocean water she had harvested on the beach by the light of the moon. At least she had some form of her two strongest elements with her.

  In the vial, the liquid shone with an ivory light. The blessing she had used when she had taken the water made it glow with Power. Jamming it into her pocket, she slammed the door.

  How much time had that taken? Three minutes? Five?

  Falling to her knees in the middle of the road, she drew a pentagram. As she reached each point, she chanted.

  “Holy Air, I implore thee, attend to me.

  Hallowed Water, I implore thee, attend to me.

  Come, Fire.

  Rise, Earth.

  I beckon you, Sacred Spirit.

  Banish all weakness and fill my well.

  Power within, power without,

  Bless my vortex,

  Fill my hand,

  Bathe me in the Moon’s white light,

  As I make my stand.”

  With each phrase, she brought herself more into alignment. Here was her placement in the cosmos, exactly here, with the elements gathering around her like friends around a warm fire… if those friends were as ancient as the universe and as essential as gods. Her vortex spun slowly at her feet, acquiescent for the moment, and magic poured from her left hand.

  A wave of Power hit—elegant, sharp and distinct. She recognized Josiah’s magic as it poured over her. He had found a way to reach her without using the phone as a conduit. She wanted to reject it. He had been running on sheer strength of will at the police station, but she also thought she might need all the help she could get, so she opened herself up to draw it in.

  God, he was so strong, and she could sense he was boosted by the full force of his coven. The magic poured in until she felt as if she were floating above the pavement. “Okay, enough,” she muttered. “I can’t take any more. Ease up, love.”

  The magic eased slightly, as if he could hear her, or more likely, he could sense she was full to the brim. She anchored herself back into her body.

  Another massive wave of energy hit. This time she recognized Sarah’s rich, abundant magic buoyed by the Everwood coven. The ends of Molly’s hair lifted. This time, when she felt her awareness floating up, she tethered herself only lightly to her body.

  She marveled at what they had achieved and basked in their combined Powers like bathing in rare wine. “Holy shit. I owe everyone flowers and chocolates.”

  Sarah’s laugh ghosted through her head. She thought she heard Josiah whisper,

  Then her own magic rose to match theirs. Lightning gathered at the edge of her vision. Her sight splintered, and she seemed to see several things at once.

  There was Josiah, standing bare-chested in sweat pants with his feet planted wide, catlike eyes flaring yellow as he pulled energy up from the earth and poured it into her.

  And there was Sarah’s dark gaze, watching her over a wide silver bowl filled with consecrated water. She thought those things were happening in the present, but she saw other things as well, shards of the past and possibly hints of the future.

  Josiah, standing beside a grave. His hair was much longer, and his black suit looked like it belonged in a different time. There were tears on his bitter face.

  A much younger Sarah, screaming in pain and joy as she gave birth.

  And Molly saw herself as Austin swung a baseball bat and struck her with all his strength. She collapsed, and when she stood again, a night-skinned goddess settled a dark mantle of Power like a raven’s wings across her shoulders.

  Sarah said clearly in her ear, “Focus.”

  Molly’s snapped back to the present, and her vision became singular again.

  The approaching witch was very near. Molly moved to the driver’s seat of the Volvo and sat halfway in, one foot on the brake while she shifted to drive.

  Up ahead, a car growled around the bend in the road. It was some foreign model, racy and expensive. Just as when she had felt the search lock onto her, conviction settled into place. This was her adversary.

  Taking her foot off the brake, she knocked the rock onto the gas pedal and jumped out. The Volvo roared forward. She wasn’t quite fast enough, and the car knocked her off her feet. Hitting the pavement, she rolled, twisted, and came upright again in time to see what happened next.

  The expensive, racy car swerved sharply to avoid the Volvo. The road was too narrow. The car plunged over the shoulder into an adjacent, four-foot-deep ditch. Molly saw airbags release while the Volvo continued straight off the curve and crashed into a tree.

  Light from the tilted headlamps of the witch’s car threw everything into exaggerated relief. The fancy foreign car wasn’t getting back on the road anytime soon.

  The driver’s door opened, and a man spilled out.

  She felt a brief, intense warmth, as if Josiah had put his arms around her. He said in her ear,

  She knew all the reasons why she should, but preemptively killing an unknown person felt very wrong. Maybe they could come to some kind of truce. She shook her head. “My rodeo. My decisions, my mistakes.”

  Yellow cat eyes blazed.

  While they argued, the warlock climbed out of the ditch and straightened. He was beautiful with a striking Slavic bone structure and long, dark hair pulled into a ponytail.

  He felt Powerful too, but with a sudden conviction she couldn’t explain, she knew he wasn’t as strong as she was. He wore jeans, sharp-toed boots, and a black cashmere sweater pushed up over tattooed forearms. She caught a glimpse of a blue pentacle and a sun atop a pyramid.

  The man’s dark gaze glittered. He said in accented English, “I was fond of that car.”

  “Who are you?” She studied him. She was all but certain he was Russian, but she couldn’t reconcile this young man’s brash confidence with the slyness of the ancient witch in Josiah’s story. “Why are you doing this?”

  “That is none of your business. I have been given a job to do, and I will do it.” He strode toward her.

  “Killing me isn’t going to solve anything,” she told him. “I’ve already given all the information I know to the authorities. People know where I am.”

  “I have had this conversation before with others.” He smiled. “Next, no doubt, you will beg. It is all useless. I do not change my mind, and I have no pity. I will make sure you aren’t alive to testify to anything in this ridiculous country’s court of law.”

  She turned cold and calm. “I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t know who you are, and I have no grudge against you. Go now before you do something you can’t take back. Book a flight, get out of here, and never look back. This is not worth your life.”

  The strange warlock smiled. “Do you think I am the only one you have to worry about, that you can send me slinking away with my tail between my legs? You may have acquired some Power, but you have a lot to learn, Molly Sullivan.”

  A rush of raven wings touched the edge of her hearing, and she smiled too. “You’ve been warned.”

  He threw his hand out toward her, fingers splayed. She recognized the gesture. She had made it herself many times over the past several months. His palm was tattooed. She didn’t have time to decipher what the image was.

  She dove to one side. Again, she wasn’t
as fast as she needed to be. The invisible edge of a massive blow clipped her right shoulder.

  Spinning, she staggered and went down on one knee. Damn. That was going leave a hell of a bruise.

  Watching him warily, she shook magic out of her left hand. When it formed a whip, she lashed out. His eyes bulged as the whip caught him around the neck, and he staggered and went to his knees too.

  It was hard to do, but she closed her fingers, and the magic whip tightened around his neck. He made a choking noise and clawed at his throat.

  Could she kill him this way? She’d never so much as killed what she ate for supper, and this felt intimate and ugly, as if she were pressing her own fingers to his flesh. Her intention faltered, and she swallowed hard against a wave of nausea.

  Digging into his pocket, he pulled out something black and threw it at her.

  As it flew through the air, it unfurled and grew larger and larger until it blotted out the night sky. I need to learn how to do that, she thought, staring at it. She didn’t try dodge. She couldn’t have outrun it in any case.

  The black net settled over her head. Corrosive, burning pain flared everywhere as the spell ignited. She screamed, lost focus, and her Power whip fell apart.

  Sarah’s telepathic voice sounded urgent.

  The pain turned excruciating as it lit all her nerve endings.

  If either Josiah or Sarah tried to answer, she couldn’t hear them. Falling to her knees, she hunched over. There was nothing she could do to stop it. The curse had seemed physical at first, but when it touched her, the dark net had already melted through her clothes.

  She didn’t know enough about how to dissipate spells… she had no Epsom salts, no tub of water to soak in, no time…

  The only thing she had was her vial of ocean water.

  Ocean water, blessed by the light of the full moon, and filled with nature’s salt.

  It was growing hard to breathe. The inside of her lungs felt wet. Coughing, she spat out a mouthful of blood.