Page 38

CHAPTER 38

“Y ou’re fine, Cecelia,” Cece said in a low voice as she pushed past a fallen log. The snow was deep, and she was freezing her ass off, but she kept walking, heading resolutely toward the mill that was just up around the bend of the river.

The forest was dead silent and she strained to hear any noise over the rushing river. There was nothing, not even a single bird song, and goosebumps broke out across her skin despite how warmly she was dressed.

“Creepy,” she whispered. There was a sudden prickling at the back of her neck, and adrenaline surged through her. She whipped around, her hands raised as the trees around her creaked and groaned, and their branches bent toward her.

“Whoa, take it down a notch, Gertrude Jekyll.” Ronin held his hands up, coming to a stop behind her.

Her mouth dropped open. “You know who Gertrude Jekyll is?”

“Doesn’t everyone?” Ronin grinned before studying the branches that still strained toward her. “So, you’re a tree witch, huh? I heard what happened at the hospital. I gotta say, I’m impressed that you took down a polar bear shifter with nothing but a tree and a can-do attitude.”

“Briggs is a polar bear shifter?” she said, her heart kicking up a notch. Holy shit, she’d met a polar bear shifter.

Not just met. Kissed. Touched. Had his big hand in your pants.

A hot blush ran through her body, and she cleared her throat loudly, pushing thoughts of Briggs and his big hands out of her head.

“Sure is,” Ronin said cheerfully. “And you bested him. I’m never gonna let him live it down, by the way. Briggs getting his ass kicked by a tiny tree witch is the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

“I’m not tiny or a tree witch,” Cece said. “I’m a green witch. What are you doing here?”

“Same thing as you, I imagine,” Ronin said.

“Does Bren know you’re here?” Cece asked.

“Does he know you’re here?” Ronin answered.

She hesitated before shaking her head. The tree branches had relaxed into their previous positions, and Ronin studied them before joining her. “So, on a scale of one to ten, how pissed will Elora be when she finds out you’re here?”

“A thousand,” Cece said, “but she’s my best friend, and I’m not sitting at home on my ass while she fights for her life. Why are you here?”

Ronin gave her another easy grin. “I was bored, told my lady I might go for a walk in the woods, and she thought it was a good idea.”

“She thought it was a good idea,” Cece echoed. “She was there when we were talking about the dark witch, right?”

Ronin’s grin widened. “She was, but she knows I’m a bird who needs space to fly free.”

“What kind of bird shifter are you?” Cece asked.

“Eh, a little of this, a little of that,” Ronin said.

“A bird shifter who can’t die.”

“It’s a hell of a party trick.” Ronin held out his hand. “Let’s go say hello to our friends, tiny tree witch.”

She took his hand, and they waded through the deep snow. She could see Jonah and Elora’s tracks in the snow, and they followed them quietly for a few minutes before she said, “How do you know who Gertrude Jekyll is?”

“My mother is an avid gardener,” Ronin said. “Obsessed, actually. She particularly loves Gertrude’s garden arrangements. Her backyard is basically a love letter to Gertrude’s style. She even has one of Gertrude’s flower vases.”

Cece gaped at him. “Your mother has a Munstead flower vase?”

“She does,” Ronin confirmed. “My dad bought it for her a few years back. Cost him a pretty penny.”

“I saw one online once for over four thousand,” Cece said. “It was so crazy how…”

“What?” Ronin asked when she trailed off.

She laughed, the soft sound a bit hysterical in the quiet air. “We’re walking toward what will probably be horrible, painful deaths, and we’re talking about Gertrude Jekyll.”

Ronin grinned at her. “Take it from me, tiny tree witch. Death is a lot less scary when you don’t let it consume your every thought.”

“Easy to say for the guy who apparently can’t die,” Cece said.

“Harsh but fair,” Ronin said. “Hey, do you like Celine Dion?”

“Some of her songs are okay,” Cece said.

Ronin stared at her. “Some? How many have you listened to?”

“I don’t know,” Cece said. “There’s that Titanic song… it’s not bad.”

“Oh my God,” Ronin said. “Why do I feel like I alone am responsible for educating today’s youth on the awesomeness that is Celine Dion?”

Before Cece could reply, a shriek of rage echoed in the trees. She froze, her hand tightening compulsively on Ronin’s as her magic hummed to life in her veins.

Ronin gave her a grim look. “There’s still time for you to walk away.”

“I’m not walking away,” Cece said.

“Then let’s go help our friends.”

* * *

The air turned hot and thick, and Jonah watched in amazement as it shimmered above Elora’s outstretched hands before a fireball nearly two feet in width materialized.

Elora murmured a few words, and the fireball flew across the clearing directly at Malencia. Three more fireballs followed in rapid succession, but a laughing Malencia deflected all four with a flick of her hand.

The fireballs bounced wildly before landing in the soft snow and extinguishing.

“You’ll have to do better than that, fire witch,” Malencia spat before a beam of yellow light shot from her hands.

It hit Elora square in the chest, and Jonah’s heart nearly stopped when Elora was thrown backwards. She slammed into a tree and fell to the ground. Shouting her name, Jonah ran through the deep snow toward her. Elora sat up, her eyes widening.

“Jonah, down!”

He dropped to his knees, but golden light washed over him anyway, lifting him into the air and smashing him into the same tree as Elora. He landed with a hard thud that rattled his spine.

He rolled to his feet despite the weakness that had immediately seeped into him as Elora jumped to her feet.

“Jonah!”

“I’m okay,” he rasped, even though he felt like Malencia had reached down his throat and stirred his goddamn insides.

“The protection spell is weakened,” Elora said. “Don’t let her hit you again.”

“Right,” he said as Malencia, a smug grin on her face, drifted closer.

“Her magic is stronger, isn’t it?” Jonah said.

“Yes, but so is mine.” Elora raised her hands and spoke a few words as Malencia sent another beam of light toward them. The barrier spell Elora cast stopped the light, sending it careening off at a crazy angle. A tree to their right exploded, and Jonah winced.

“Can you break her protection spell?” Jonah asked. “If you can, I might be able to get close enough to kill her.”

“I’m trying,” Elora said, “but it’s strong and… oh shit.”

“What the fuck is that?” Jonah said as he watched the six figures shamble out of the woods behind Malencia.

“She’s raised the dead,” Elora said, her voice tight with fear.

“Shit, she can do that?”

“Apparently.”

“Where the fuck did they come from?” Jonah asked.

“She magicked them from a graveyard,” Elora said.

“Fuck me,” Jonah groaned.

“The protection spell won’t help against the undead,” Elora said. “Nor will the barrier spell. They can be brought to life with magic, but you can’t control them or stop them with magic.”

“Awesome,” Jonah said as he pulled the gun from the holster at his hip. “I assume regular zombie rules apply? Shot to the head to kill them?”

“I guess so,” Elora said before wincing. Malencia was staring intently at them, her lips moving, but the wind carried the sound away before it reached them.

“You okay, baby?”

“Yeah, she’s trying to break the barrier spell,” Elora’s hands glowed a brighter blue, and she spoke another incantation as Jonah studied the shambling zombies.

He aimed and fired at each zombie with quick and graceful movements. Before the bullets could find their mark, Malencia waved her hand, and the bullets stopped a few feet from the undead, spinning in the air before dropping to the ground.

“Fuck me,” Jonah muttered as the zombies shuffled through the snow. They were less than two feet from them now, and Jonah grimaced when one of them, a woman with a rotting face, opened her mouth, and a flood of dead beetles poured out.

“I’ll distract Malencia while you kill the undead,” Elora said.

“Right,” he said, raising the gun again.

“I love you,” Elora said.

“I love you, too,” he said.

Elora ran toward Malencia, her boots kicking up snow, her voice echoing in the cold air as she cast the spell. He heard Malencia scream and immediately fired his gun at the closest zombie. Its head exploded with a wet squelch, and brains splattered across the face of the one behind it.

He shot another zombie, grinning wildly when it went down in an explosion of rotting flesh and blood.

“Fuck, yeah!” Jonah fired the gun again. At the dry click, he shouted, “Are you fucking kidding me right now?”

Before he could even try to clear the jam, a dead man wearing a moldy suit and the flesh peeling from his fingertips grabbed his jacket and pulled him forward.

Jonah dropped the gun and pushed against the dead man with one hand while he reached for the knife in his jacket. He pulled it free and sliced off the zombie’s hand before stumbling back. The zombie pushed forward relentlessly, his mouth stretching open to reveal blackened teeth.

With a harsh grunt, Jonah thrust the knife into the dead man’s forehead. It sank into the hilt, and the zombie immediately dropped, dragging Jonah to the ground with it.

A fourth zombie, a fat man with his skull poking through his skin and a bolo tie embedded in the fatty flesh of his throat, dropped on him. Jonah held the fat man back desperately with one hand while he tried to yank the knife from the dead zombie’s skull. The dead man on top of him made a hellish yowl of hunger and lunged forward, his teeth snapping shut only inches from Jonah’s nose. Jonah shoved him back, one hand still scrabbling for the knife. From the corner of his eye, Jonah could see the final two zombies wandering toward Caleb, who still hung suspended in the air beside a large pine tree.

“Caleb!” Jonah shouted. “No!” He tried to heave the zombie off him, panic rushing through him when he couldn’t budge the fat man. Christ, he’d never really given much thought to the term dead weight until now.

“Caleb!” he shouted again as one of the zombies reached for his brother. A branch from the pine tree shot forward and impaled the zombie through her forehead, exiting the back of her skull in a burst of rotting flesh and brain matter. Her groping hands fell to her side, and she slumped forward, hanging from the branch. The other zombie brushed past her and eagerly reached for Caleb.

A second tree branch circled the zombie, pinning his arms to his sides before slamming him back against the tree. Cece, her face pale but determined, joined Caleb, her hands glowing green. More tree branches wrapped around the zombie from neck to feet, squeezing mercilessly until the zombie’s body exploded, sending chunks of flesh and organs through the cold air.

The zombie’s head fell into the snow at Cece’s feet, his jaw opening and closing as he tried to bite her foot.

The dead man on Jonah leaned closer as Jonah’s arms shook from exertion. His mouth yawned open, and the smell of rot and decay made Jonah’s stomach lurch and heave.

The crushing weight disappeared when the zombie was yanked off of him and tossed to the ground. Ronin pressed one foot on the snarling zombie’s chest and shot him point-blank in the head. The zombie’s head burst apart, and Jonah grunted in disgust when blood and brains splattered across his face.

He jumped to his feet and yanked his knife from the dead zombie’s head, as Ronin bent over and gagged. “Oh God, I have zombie brains in my mouth. I need a Tic Tac.”

He gagged again before straightening and wiping his mouth. He grinned at Jonah. “Hey, what’s up?”

“What are you doing here?” Jonah asked as Cece lifted her foot and, with a look of disgust on her face, stomped on the zombie’s head. Her foot went right through its skull with a slippery squelch.

“Oh, you know, just taking a walk in the woods, heard the commotion,” Ronin said as Cece joined them. He studied her boot-clad foot. “Girl, you’re never gonna get the brains out of those laces.”

“Cece,” Jonah said, a wave of love washing over him for the curvy witch. A blast of yellow light hit the tree behind them, and the tree exploded with a deafening bang.

Ronin grabbed Cece and dove to the left, pulling her down with him and covering her body with his. Jonah hit the ground as well, covering his head with his arms, the cold snow filling his nose and burning his face as tree branches landed on him with heavy thuds. Pine needles poked his skull, and he grunted in pain when a branch smashed into his left knee.

He heaved the branches off his body and stood up. Ronin was helping Cece to her feet and she gave him a dazed look as a shriek shattered the cold air.

Jonah whipped around, staring at Malencia as she burst into bright blue flames. Elora stood a few feet away, her voice rising and falling as she spoke the incantation. Malencia screamed again before the fire died out, and she glared at Elora.

“You bitch! That fucking hurt!” Her hair was smoking, and Jonah could see burn marks on her face. Elora had broken her protection spell.

Malencia screamed an incantation and a stream of yellow light erupted from her hands and shot toward Elora. It was met by the stream of blue light shining out from Elora’s hands, and Jonah watched in disbelief as both witches rose in the air, hovering a few feet above the ground as their lights pulsed between them.

“What are they doing?” Ronin asked as Elora and Malencia stared at each other, their mouths moving as they both spoke rapidly.

Jonah didn’t understand what they said, but Cece said, “They’re trying to curse each other. If Elora’s light touches Malencia, it’ll kill her and…”

“Malencia’s will kill Elora,” Jonah said.

“It was more exciting when they were blowing up trees,” Ronin said. He raised his gun and fired at Malencia. The bullet dropped from the air a few feet from Malencia, and Ronin frowned before firing again. The second bullet dropped neatly next to the first.

“She’s using a protection spell,” Cece said.

“Shit, she was burned, and I thought maybe Elora broke the protection spell,” Jonah said.

“I think she did, for a few minutes anyway,” Cece said.

“Can you break it?” Jonah asked.

Cece hesitated before shaking her head. “No, my magic isn’t strong enough.”

“We just supposed to stand here and stare at them, or do you think we can sneak up behind Malencia and do the old stabby-stab to her while she’s distracted?” Ronin asked.

“Not with the protection spell in place,” Cece said.

“Maybe, but it can’t hurt to try, right?” Ronin said.

“I tried to stab her earlier, and it didn’t do a fucking thing,” Jonah said.

“Unless Elora breaks the protection spell, we can’t harm her,” Cece said.

“Well, shit,” Ronin said. “Then what are we… uh oh.”

Jonah followed his gaze, staring at the horde of zombies emerging from the trees. “Fuck me, more zombies.”

“Who brings zombies to a magic fight?” Ronin asked before studying Jonah. “How’s the old PTSD? Don’t suppose you got into therapy and solved it? Because if so, now’s the time to shapeshift. Might I suggest a hippo?”

“A hippo?” Cece said.

“Most dangerous land mammal there is, am I right?” Ronin said. “Stomp those undead bastards into the ground.”

“I still can’t shift,” Jonah said, shame and anger spiraling through him.

“Well,” Ronin held his hand out to Cece, “guess we’re doing this the hard way. C’mon, tiny tree witch. Let’s go kill some motherfucking zombies.”