Page 88 of The Bodyguard and the Alpha (Witch Twins #2)

Electra

“Now,” Michelle whispered.

I alerted Bastien that it was time.

I could do this. We could do this. We could not afford to fail.

Then I had to put everything out of my mind except the spell.

We had estimated that he would need up to ten minutes to make his escape.

It was a long time to maintain our concentration.

But we would keep going until we had nothing left in the tank.

The spell we were building was large. It would have been better if we could have centred it on Bastien, but we would have needed to cast the spell on a token that could be activated.

Under the circumstances, the best we could do was centre the spell on the building.

Bastien could make as much noise as he wanted in the spell’s active zone, and no-one would hear a thing.

Someone would notice, we knew that. The absence of sound was going to alert someone that something was wrong, sooner or later.

But we were banking on the fact that the guards would be deployed to the front of the building, relying on the cells and locks to hold the inmates in.

And Luc had bribed a guard to plant false security footage.

Even if someone was still looking at the cameras, they wouldn’t see anything unusual.

That left the staff in the kitchen. They would notice the lack of noise.

But again, we’d taken the risk that Bastien would be able to get himself out before the surprised kitchen staff could find a guard to report the spell, assuming they were paid enough to care.

That was perhaps the riskiest part of our plan.

And there was still nothing from my pre-cog.

Trusting my bodyguards to protect me, I turned my attention to my task. Pulling on my magic, I lifted my hands, arms spread wide. Power saturated the air, turning me into a pillar of gold.

I spoke the words for the spell, feeling the spark as my intent fuelled the power. I kept going, visualising a golden net, connected to Caly’s and Simon’s magic by the braid Simon had created earlier. My part of the net would join with theirs once it was in place.

With a nudge of my power, the net flowed out from where I stood, spreading towards the building, coating the ground in shimmering gold. In moments, it reached the edge of the building, then spread upwards.

I spared a brief second of concentration to notice that there was no outcry. No sirens or alarms. But that was all I could spare. The rest of my attention had to stay on the spell. If any one of us was unable to hold concentration on the words of the ritual, the spell would fail.

Power kept spilling out of me, feeding energy to the net. Everything underneath it was blanketed in silence.

Minutes passed while I kept repeating the words for the ritual. Over and over. The weight of the net grew steadily heavier the longer we held it. Sweat trickled down my spine. I widened my stance, trying to alleviate the ache that had begun deep in my bones.

My tongue felt thick in my mouth. How long had it been? My eyes searched the night, hoping for Bastien’s massive form to appear in front of me.

Still nothing. But I couldn’t afford to stop. Couldn’t move. He needed me here. If he wanted help he would tell me down the bond.