Page 106 of The Tracker's Revenge

“I bet what’s really going to mess with your noodle is wondering whether or not you’re really here. And more importantly, whether you’re still in your trance,” she added with a tiny smile that barely stretched her thin lips.

I felt dizzy all of a sudden.

Shit!

What if everything I’d experienced since I closed my eyes in Eric’s cabin had been some elaborate illusion? But how? I racked my brain, then a realization hit me like a blow to the chest.

The tears for her potion!

Oh, God!

My heart hammered out of control as my eyes desperately darted around the room.

“What did you do to me?!” I demanded.

She shrugged. “But you already know, don’t you?”

“The tears,” I whispered.

My stomach convulsed, and I swallowed hard to stop myself from retching. Suddenly, I felt dirty inside as if I’d been contaminated with the worst type of imaginable cooties.

Witch cooties!

Because she had to be a witch. She had used a glamour to pose as Rosalina. That or she was implanting all of this in my head. Either way, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen through it right away. Looking back now, I could see all the signs. Rosalina didn’t fiddle with her hair.

I shook my head.Toni, snap out of it!

If I was still in the trance, I needed to wake up. I bit the inside of my cheek until the taste of blood filled my mouth.

Ow, that feels real.

But if I was in a strange place, how had Mekare taken me from the cabin and brought me here? Rosalina, Jake, and Eric would’ve never let her take me, would’ve fought for me. Though, Jake and Eric hadn’t been there. Or had they returned? Jake had helped me break out of the trance, hadn’t he? Or maybe it had been Mekare all along?

The fucking witch!

How had she known where to find me? The answer was the same: the tears. She’d used some spells to track me through them. I gasped as another realization hit me and as anger and my desire for revenge swelled like a tidal wave inside me. “Youkilled Damien.”

She daintily blew air through her nose and put on a demure expression. “I did.” She sounded proud as if she were the kid who’d won the science fair in school and not the monster who killed my friend.

“You’ll pay for it.”

In an instant, my fangs grew, and my claws unsheathed. Filled with rage, I lunged in her direction, ready to rip her head off, but I smacked against an invisible barrier, my mouth smashing against what felt like the stone walls around us. I shook my head to get rid of the pain and stared at Mekare with undiluted hatred, the kind that clogs the arteries.

The witch stood with her hands clasped at her back, looking blasé. “I expected him to be a worthy opponent, but he disappointed me.”

“You ambushed him, you bitch!”

“A mage should always keep his guard up. It seemed he had grown careless. You can’t blame me for taking advantage of that. Everything is fair in war and love. Still, I couldn’t get what I wanted from him. So I guess he still had a few tricks up his sleeve.”

What she wanted from him. The same thing she’d been trying to get from me. The cure! Damien had concealed it with magic.

I stood in place, my chest heaving. “Remove this,” I demanded, placing a hand on the invisible barrier, “and I’ll show you what’s fair.”

She rolled her eyes and took a step closer. “A safe deposit box, you said. Where exactly?”

“Screw you! I don’t know why you want that elixir, but you’ll never get your hands on it.”

Mekare chuckled. “I always get what I want, dear. Like, for instance, the Unholy Vessel, cup and dagger.”