Page 35 of The Unbound Witch

The man that stared at me sprang to life, rotating on his heel as he grabbed a blade from his boot. While Atlas was occupied with the Seeker, his back to us, the man closest to me leapt for him, landing on his back as he planted his knife into the shifter’s side. I screamed along with Atlas’ roar of pain. Frantic to save him, I soared forward, jamming my hand through the back of the man, allowing myself to touch, until I gripped his heart and yanked it out of his back, taking his life as he slumped forward and slid from Atlas’ blood-stained back.

A man. I’d killed a man. The bloodied heart slipped through my fingers, plopping to the ground unceremoniously. It’d taken an instant. A single moment to simply … end someone’s entire existence. Could I tarnish my own soul after I’d already died? If so, the deed was done.

Torryn, fighting the last man besides the Seeker, roared. Atlas leapt from the ground, knocking down the Seeker, though blood poured from the knife wound in his side, pink flesh showing, even in the moonlight.

“Atlas,” Torryn yelled. “Finish this.”

Only a whimper came from the wolf. But that single sound was enough to send Torryn into a frenzied rage, tackling the man in front of him to the ground before reaching for his head and snapping it sideways. A simple broken neck by massive bare hands.

Torryn roared, every bit the animal he harbored as he lunged for the final human. Pounding his fist into him as I moved forward to repeat the kill I’d managed. But I was not needed. Not at all as Torryn beat the man to a bloody pulp, then took his knife and sliced open his midsection, ripping the intestines from within and scattering them to the ground.

“Torryn,” I whispered, the fear in my voice clear as the night sky. “He’s gone. We need to go before more come.”

The beast of a man froze, staring down at his bloodied hands and then to the white wolf, still on the ground, far more red than white. He stood, stalking over to his friend, a shifter he’d sworn to protect since he was young, and slid his arms below him. The wolf whimpered again, his breaths a quickened pant as Torryn raised him from the ground and tore off across this seaside town, headed straight for the ocean.

15

KIRSI

Blood dripped onto white sand with each step Torryn took toward the ocean in the distance. More specifically, toward a giant black ship with matching sails. The floating docks were otherwise quiet, the sun barely over the horizon, teeny bits of orange and purple painted leisurely across the morning sky. More than ten thick cables tied the massive ship to the dock, and it swayed heavily, eager to pull out to the ocean.

I wasn't sure if the wolf was still breathing, or if he'd taken his final breath on the run through the small town now full of death at its center. But I hoped it meant the humans would hold a sliver of fear before they chose to condemn another. After what I'd seen, I couldn't say I blamed Eden Mossbrook for being ready to return home. She'd been stuck in a land of hunters, hiding, cut off from any power she might receive. If I were still a witch, I probably wouldn’t have managed this long. But my opinion hadn't changed. She could have come home sooner. Spoken her story louder, held the backing of the royals, and prevented a measure of this pent-up animosity we would now be returning to.

“Report,” Bastian demanded in Grey’s form, his face pale as Torryn hoisted the white wolf, smothered in red blood, up the ramp and onto the deck of the ship.

“The bastard blew the fucking whistle. Hunters swarmed the square, and the wraith and I had to fight them off him. He took several stabs to the side.”

“Let me take a look at him,” Eden said softly. Stepping around the Dark King, her eerie eyes were full of concern as she ran her slender fingers through Atlas' fur. “Let's get him below.”

Torryn carried him across the deck, needing no directions.

“Raven?” I asked, wincing because I was afraid to hear the answer.

Stepping backward on the deck, Bastian clasped his hands behind his back. His throat bobbed, the words fighting their way out. “She can hardly walk. She's fine one minute and completely wiped out the next. I don't understand it, and I've never heard of it. I only hope we can stop it by crossing the barrier.”

“You're sure it's not because of that spell she used on you? Because she cast it but it didn't complete?”

“I'm not sure of anything.” His jaw clenched. “I don't know the exact words of the command Nikos gave her. It's possible the second we cross the barrier she'll be forced back under his command and recast the spell.”

I swayed back and forth as his eyes shifted behind me. Well… through me. I whipped around, realizing there were other humans on board this ship and several of them stood staring, mouths agape.

“Back to work, men,” Crow yelled down, breaking the spell as they sprung back to whatever they'd been doing, casting wary glances as often as they could.

Bastian had turned away, looking out over the small town we'd come from.

“You haven't told her, have you?”

His head dropped, a cluster of Grey’s blond hair falling. “I will tell her when we get closer. When she can no longer demand to be left behind.”

I tapped my fingers along my chin. “You think one of you is going to die, and you're choosing yourself.”

“No. I'm giving her the greater chance of survival. Because as she is right now, I don't know if she's strong enough to cast that spell and live through it. But if I have to carry her over that barrier myself, I will.”

“She'll never agree to crossing.”

“What do you want me to do, Kir? Lie to her? That didn't go over so well last time.”

I pretended to lean on the railing beside him, staring at the town in the same way he did. “You cross the border, she casts, she likely dies, and you also die. Or you tell her, and she jumps overboard, giving her life for yours and you live. Still, she dies.”