Page 92 of The Unbound Witch
“Moss is easy. It’s in the back room.” Shaking the stones again, I selected the purple, moving counterclockwise over the map. “Storm has moved. It’s no longer in Widower’s Grove. It’s somewhere close to here.”
“Good. They didn’t take it back to the group. Keep going.”
I pulled the sodalite from my palm and moved toward the River Coven, avoiding that foreign heartbeat in the castle. “Oh, shit.”
Wide eyes met mine as I placed the next directly in the center of the swamp, then pulled the milky white moonstone and placed it on top of the other. “Willow is with Circe in the River Coven, and they are close to Kirsi’s waterfall. There are going to be eyes all over the place.”
34
KIRSI
Swamps were like the goddess’ angry curse upon the world, unless you were a wraith. Nym swatted the bugs that bit at her skin, she and Atlas trudging through the muck, side by side, as they tried and failed to be quiet. The wooden huts were like nothing I’d ever seen. A network of rope bridges connected all of the elevated homes several feet above the dangerous waters. Iron lanterns hung, lit, though I knew it to be daytime. You couldn’t tell, though, surrounded by a thick canopy of trees that blocked every inch of the sky. The only peace was the sound of water falling somewhere in the distance.
The swamp witches were still members of the River Coven. They attended their gatherings and partook in their celebrations, but rumor said they were of a different breed of river witch. Far more feral and hot tempered, but equally less civilized.
“We’ll have to circle around,” Atlas muttered. “If any of them come out, we’ll be caught. It’s too deep to take my wolf form.”
“Thank the goddess. I didn’t want to have to smell wet dog all day,” I whispered.
“Again, Ghosty… you can’t smell. Stop pretending like you hate me. We’re best friends.”
Nym huffed a laugh. “She wouldn’t tease you if you weren’t.”
A splash in the water halted us. Atlas turned back, yelped, and quickened his pace.
Glancing back at a haggard old witch, I pushed Nym forward. “We can’t stop. Hurry.”
She hustled, lifting her skirts higher. I was torn, though I knew what we’d agreed upon. Stay together. But I could go on ahead, grab the waterfall crystal and be back before they even made it halfway at this pace.
“It’s too dangerous,” Nym said, as if she could read my mind. “They could—”
“Run! Run! Run!” Atlas yelled from behind us.
We whipped around to find four witches above us with arms raised, their faces full of eerie delight.
“Go, Kir. Get the stone. We can hold them off,” Atlas said, running for us.
I didn’t hesitate, turning invisible and rushing forward. Seconds. I only needed seconds to get over the waterfall and swoop down. But I couldn’t leave them behind. No matter the cost, I knew they weren’t going to be able to win, being so heavily outnumbered. I circled back, hating myself. Hating everything about all of this.
Nym cast. A flock of birds descended upon the witches, diving in talons first. Momentarily stunned, the old crones got caught in the shuffle of trying to fight off the birds.
My team could have run then. Could have saved themselves. But they didn’t. They fought on, trying to give me as much time as they could, and they didn’t know I’d turned back. I raced toward the witches on the rope bridge above as Atlas said something to Nym under his breath. She shook her head, and his growl was loud enough to hear beyond the caw of the diving birds. We were doing all of this to save her. To stop death’s clock on her and she was risking everything anyway. Because she thought of the other victims when I thought only of her.
He wanted her to go, to save herself, and she wouldn’t. I knew her. She’d fight with her last breath if she thought it was for a greater purpose. She threw her hands in the air, power buzzing as she faced the witches. The earth seemed to tumble below us, the sky beyond the trees rumbling.
A witch on the swaying bridge cackled as she cast, her spell landing right on Nym's chest before she could manage whatever she’d been conjuring. Only a few more seconds and I’d be on them. A few seconds was a lifetime in the middle of a witch fight, though. Crossing behind them, I surged forward, jamming my hand into the witch that had struck Nym, gripping her warm beating heart and ripping it from her chest.
The crone beside her, long nose and all, screamed in outrage as she turned to see her twin collapse to the ground. As if she’d gone mad, she gripped the corded railing of the bridge and sprang over it, her magic carrying her forward as she surged for Atlas, totally unaware that I was to blame. I made to grip the next witch's heart, but she turned and stared right into my eyes, as if she could see me.
“Wraith,” she said, before jamming her hand forward.
A blow struck me so solidly I flew backward, head over heels through a door of a swamp witch’s hut. Hardly having time to register that I’d actually felt something, no time for thoughts of the death that coated the hut in every corner, the skin on the walls, the bones for furniture, I soared away, wishing an hour had passed.
The witches had vanished, save the body of the fallen. I rushed forward. Nym was on the ground, unmoving. The water level wasn’t high enough to drown her, though her arms lay to her sides, her feet nearly submerged.
Atlas, though? He’d taken higher ground in wolf form, no longer caring who might catch him. As if they’d dropped from the sky, the crones circled, their thin, bony legs and bare feet splashing through the water as they closed in. The wolf bared his teeth, snapping his jaws as he lowered himself, growling.
Another cackle from the collective hags was the final sound as they descended. I needed my fucking magic. I needed Scoop. I needed to be alive again. I could do very, very little, and as defeat wrapped itself tightly around my throat, I watched as they dragged that white wolf through the swamp, body limp, all fight gone. Looking back at Nym, still on the ground, I warred with myself over leaving her or following the pup. In the end, I’d need her. And no part of my soul could leave her behind.