Page 26 of Cursed (Witchbane #8)

Seth felt certain that without his protective amulets, the magical attack would have stopped his heart. He took cover, trying to catch his breath, drawing from the tide of energy supplied by the music Evan and Tony played.

Teag spared a glance to assure that Seth wasn’t dead, but didn’t pause his incantation. Rowan’s cold blasts of magic struck the dome again and again.

Seth forced himself to his feet and spotted one of Vernon’s witches circling behind Rowan. The witch saw him first and called out a word of power, opening a gash on Seth’s left arm as if he had struck with a blade.

Seth fired his gun, and the shot echoed like thunder in the old building.

Magic didn’t save the coven member from a spelled bullet intended to incapacitate, but not kill.

Seth paused long enough to tie his sleeve around the gash to stanch the bleeding before he returned to the hunt.

They would collect the wounded and magic-neutralized witch later, to stand trial among his peers.

Kinsley’s draining spell against Vernon’s witches may have taken away their most powerful magic, but what remained could be just as deadly.

Seth glimpsed Tristan slipping inside the old plant.

His light-blond hair was wild and windblown.

Seth moved silently and saw another witch bloodied but still fighting.

Just as he leveled his gun, a tide of ghosts surged forward, surrounding the witch who screamed as they clawed him to pieces.

Teag flinched, but never stopped repeating his litany.

Thanks, Tristan. Eleven down—one to go.

Seth hoarded his memorized spells for when they would make the most impact because he could only use them once each. He knew better than to try to shoot through the dome. The bullet was likely to ricochet, introducing a new danger.

Vernon’s feeding the storm to keep the protectors outside occupied.

He’s maintaining the dome and the curse on Evan.

He’s lost all but one of his coven. Nash’s ghosts knocked out the anchor, and Tristan is sending a mob of ghosts against him, so even if Vernon beats us, he can’t draw on its power to protect himself and work the spell.

He’s got to know that we’ve won, but he won’t surrender.

Another scream rang out as a storm of angry ghosts got their vengeance. “That’s the last of the witches,” Caden said through the earpiece.

“Give it up,” Seth shouted to Vernon as Rowan and Teag focused their magic on breaking the warding. “It’s over.”

Vernon’s protective dome flickered, no longer as bright as before. Their attacks had taken a toll, badly weakening the witch-disciple, who still remained defiant.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Vernon taunted. “If you want to save Evan, you’ve got to kill me.”

Vernon looked haggard. Pax remained unconscious, but with the rest of his coven dead and Vernon unable to tap into their power, the ritual couldn’t happen.

They’d saved Pax, but Vernon surely still had enough mojo to pose a serious threat one-on-one, and clearly intended to do as much damage as possible despite his impending defeat.

Teag and Rowan had stopped their attacks, but their worried expressions let Seth know what they thought about him going up against Vernon.

“I have to.” Seth hoped they could understand and resolved to see this through. “I’ve got to save Evan.” Avenge me if I fail.

“Let us bring Pax out, safe and alive,” Seth called to Vernon. “Let my friends go. I’ll fight you. Just the two of us.”

“Seth, you can’t,” Rowan protested.

“You’re also a descendant,” Teag reminded him. “He could use you like he intended to use Pax.”

“I don’t think he’s got the juice for it,” Seth replied. “And I’ve got a trick or two up my sleeve.”

Teag and Rowan clearly didn’t like the situation, but Teag gave a tight-lipped nod.

Seth met their gaze. “Get Pax and the others out of here. I’ll see you on the other side.”

“Lose your nerve, old man?” Seth taunted Vernon. “Send out Pax and let’s get this party started.”

Vernon released the manacles that held Pax suspended.

He dropped to the floor, unconscious. The witch hauled Pax’s body to the edge of the dome and rolled him outside like refuse.

Teag edged close enough to pull Pax clear while Rowan covered them with magical protections and helped to drag the would-be sacrifice away.

Seth feared that he wouldn’t survive his confrontation with Vernon, and rued the consequence even though it had always been a possibility.

Outside, the storm raged, feeding its power to Vernon and rattling the loose sheet steel of the abandoned plant’s roof.

How many times have I told Evan that I didn’t want to live without him? Vernon has to die for Evan to survive. That’s probably going to kill me. But for me, there’s no choice at all between saving Evan and losing him. I’m only sorry to leave him on his own.

Seth gripped the spelled knife Teag had given him, one that made his small flicker of magic more powerful. He gave a plea to Tristan over the headset for backup from the ghosts of Vernon’s victims, the spirits that surrounded them throughout the fight.

“I need your help to beat him, but if you help me, we can finally destroy Vernon and keep him from hurting anyone ever again,” Seth told Tristan. “Lend me your energy. Make me your weapon. I’ll be your vengeance.”

“Please don’t let him win.”

Everything seemed to happen at once. Ghosts swept through Seth, chilling him to the bone, gathering strength from Tristan’s necromancy and Seth’s life energy. They swarmed toward Vernon like a roiling gray cloud.

If the ghosts destroyed Vernon before Seth was completely drained dry, Seth won—and both saved Evan and survived the fight. If not, Seth wouldn’t be around to feel his loss.

Vernon wanted a fight to the death. Seth brought him one, although from how Vernon recoiled, clearly the dark witch had felt it was a sucker’s bet.

Vernon just never expected to be the sucker.

Seth saw the glint of silver at Vernon’s throat.

He seized the moment while Vernon was caught off guard by the ghosts’ attack.

Seth lunged to grab the amulet’s chain and yank it hard enough to cut flesh, snapping the chain and sending the protective talisman flying out of Vernon’s reach and into the shadows of the old plant.

It’s time . Seth silently repeated the memorized spell from the grimoire.

He felt a wave of nausea as the magic responded, and he focused on the blade Teag had given him.

It began to glow. The dark magic Seth worked helped further drain Vernon’s power and his life energy, opening a rip in the protective bubble.

He hoped it was enough to give him the chance to kill Vernon with the bespelled knife.

The vampiric spell drew from Seth’s life energy as well as Vernon’s, and carried the taint of blood magic, downsides Seth was willing to accept if he could save Evan and Pax.

Thanks to Tristan’s necromancy, Seth let him take over marshaling the spirits of Vernon’s prior sacrifices, who filled the abandoned factory, angry and ready for vengeance.

Flurries of consciousness brushed Seth’s mind in the onslaught of ghosts.

With Vernon weakened and caught off guard by the destruction of his anchor and the loss of his amulet, the spirits of his victims from his century-long existence seized their chance for vengeance as Tristan strengthened their manifestation.

Apparently, Vernon had never considered them a danger since he took no measures to dispel them. Now, they formed an angry storm cloud eager for recompense.

Too many to count.

Seth knew these had to be only a fraction of the souls Vernon had sacrificed or caused to die from his other illegal activities. Some had, no doubt, abandoned revenge and gone on to their final rest. Others likely faded into a faint shadow of self, unable to take action.

That still left an angry host that descended on Vernon before the witch even had a chance to fire a salvo in self-defense. The furious hiss of hundreds of voices echoed in the old factory that had been a killing ground for so long.

Then Vernon began to scream.

Seth barely registered the sounds, still caught in the magic’s trance, feeling its power and the taint of its dark origin. He heard the babble of distant voices as the ghosts swept around him, and much farther away he thought he heard people shouting, but he struggled to remember why it mattered.

“We will end this,” a disembodied voice said aloud.

Seth recognized the faces of two ghosts who appeared in front of him: Henry and Paul, Pax’s father and grandfather. “Save Pax,” Henry told him, making eye contact for a split second before his ghostly visage faded and he swept off with the rest of the undead horde.

Far away, music reached a crescendo, storm winds howled, and voices entreated Seth to abandon the spelled knife before it was too late.

Not until it’s done, he promised himself.

As Seth stared into the area Vernon had prepared for the ritual, he saw the air stir.

A sparkling red light appeared, changing from a pinprick to an orb and then to a disk that grew until it became the portal to a rift in time and space that allowed the witch-disciple to reach his trapped master and steal a portion of his sustaining energy.

Seth had seen the portal before, but during those attacks, the rituals were closer to completion. This time, Vernon’s coven was out of the fight, and Vernon himself was struggling to stay alive.

Seth had never fought a disciple without Evan beside him, even that first time when Evan was the sacrifice. Now, Seth hoped that the support of friends and Evan’s participation in the music magic would be enough.

Seth knew he couldn’t last much longer using the dark magic and the spelled knife. He barely seemed tethered to his body, and all that he felt was aching, bone-deep cold, but when it came to closing the rift, timing mattered. He had to get it right.