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It wasn’t a witch though, something as old as the dragon magic Alessandro used, but more divine? She stood over the nexus of power before she recognized it for what it was, a trap.

The twisted phase that whisked from her physical spot that dropped her like a sack of potatoes onto a cool metal floor.

Panic gripped her as, for the first time in her life, she didn’t feel the threads of magic knocking to get into her pores. A bit like all the air had gone from the room.

Looking around, she realized she was in an enclosure.

Golden floor, golden roof and golden bars that were all etched with inscriptions of a null spell.

Inside of the cage, there was a camp bed and a toilet.

Outside, there was a window that overlooked a line of evergreen trees less than five feet in front of the wall.

They were so tall they kept the sun from shining at full power, but there were candles lining the walls of the room.

Those lights lit up the second cage she hadn’t noticed at first, and she realized she wasn’t alone.

A red-haired witch with sage colored eyes stared over at her, horrified.

Still dressed in the same navy two-piece suit she’d worn to Rowan’s office, Cherry scrambled to her feet, narrowing her eyes as if she wasn’t sure of what she was seeing. Rowan supposed it could have something to do with the fact that Cherry had never seen her succubus out.

Her cheekbones protruded from her face, malnutrition as obvious as her injuries. She had bruises from head to toe. Some were fresh, some were fading.

“No.” Cherry screamed, then clasped her hands over her mouth, terror bright in her eyes as they slid towards the still shut door before whispering, “You don’t have the grimoire with you, do you?”

Rowan shook her head. “Is this the work of your usurper of a witch?”

Cherry’s nose flared, and she nodded, “Though, I’m not sure I could call him a witch.”

Rowan raised an eyebrow. “What would you call him?”

“Base evil.” Cherry hissed, “How did you end up here?”

Footsteps outside of the room halted Rowan’s answer. The door squeaked open and inside the flickering light of the candles, a man with long blonde hair and jade eyes stepped in. Dressed in white silken robes, his power thrummed even through the nulling cage bars.

Rowan had never known a witch to have so much raw power at their disposal.

His eyes were glacial as he looked down at Cherry who shrunk into herself and looked anywhere but at him. “What have I said about the level of noise you must maintain?”

Rowan watched, stunned, as the woman’s eyes welled up with tears and the smell of her fear permeated the room.

“I take it you are Antoni.” Rowan dragged his attention to herself.

He took her in, slowly. As he had about a foot on her, he bent down to examine her more closely. “You have been difficult to track down, Rowan Dahl. I saw the pictures, but I imagined you taller.”

“I imagined you frightening, but all you look like is a coward to me. Can’t handle a face-to-face confrontation, so you use tricks to trap.” She looked around. “It’s shoddy work at best, this cage.”

“Shoddy work that will keep you in place while I fix what you have broken.” He moved to stand as close to her as the cage would allow.

A scent of fresh mountain air filled her nostrils, but it was hiding the smell of rotting meat.

“And I will only ask you once to keep quiet while you’re a guest. I despise unnecessary noise. ”

“Oh, a guest? That means I can leave, right? Cause this really isn’t my kind of scene.”

The man smirked. “Shall I break you like I’ve broken your companion?” He snapped his head back to Cherry, whose color drained from her face immediately.

She hated it. Seeing a man who thought his physical prowess could control a woman’s will and actions. It filled her mouth with a taste of bile.

“Oh, I would like to see you try,” She said with a laugh, “I really would like to see it.”

The man examined her, understanding lighting up his eyes, and he gave a chuckle.

“Oh, you’re one of those, aren’t you? A warrior trapped in the female body of modern times.

Hiding your power behind soft curves and round cheeks.

” He stood to his full height. “I knew a woman like you once, and she had a glaring weakness. I wonder if you have it as well” He backed off and pivoted his attention to Cherry.

Panic rose in Rowan’s throat as she figured out his train of thought.

“Don’t you dare touch her.” She snarled and wrapped her hands around the cell’s bars.

Blinding hot pain shot through her already raw palms, up her arms and through to her head.

For a moment, she felt as if she was flying out of her physical body and her vision filled with an unfamiliar landscape.

She was sitting on the edge of a rock, the branches of a weeping willow dipping into the calm surface of an ocean, a reflection of a brown-eyed woman with sweeping brown hair that danced in the wind staring back at her.

Then she slammed back into her body, ears buzzing, aware that Antoni was undoing the locks on Cherry’s cage. “I will shred you to pieces when I get out of here.”

Antoni let out a laugh that chilled her bones before he stepped in

The sounds of skin on skin followed by the cracking bones were not as terrible at the shrieks of pain Cherry let out.

Rowan roared, fingers gripping the bars of her cage.

It was difficult to catch her breath when the begging began. Never in all her years of being harassed by the Coven could she have imagined wanting to defend Cherry Young. To want to take the pain from the witch and pour it into herself.

She fell away from the bars in horror as minutes later the man exited the cage, blood dripping on his robes and his knuckles torn to shreds from his brutality.

“Next time I have to warn you to be quiet, I might just kill her.”

Rowan didn’t speak as the witch left the room, the door shutting with a soft click.

She turned her attention to the puddle that was Cherry Young. She had fallen silent even before Antoni was through with his show of force. From the distance Rowan couldn’t tell if the woman was even conscious, but the sound of her heart was pounding in Rowan’s ears and she knew she was alive.

Antoni had already been on Rowan’s shit list for his attacks, but now she would make sure it hurt when she took him down.

XOXOXOXO

Alessandro didn’t know what to make of the video that showed Rowan being phased out of existence as she walked away from her colleagues.

His initial thought had been that she had just phased out, unable to face either of them as she took in the fairy’s death. But the looks from both the kitsune and vampiress told him immediately that something was off.

He rewatched the video before concluding that the way the magic folded around her was not of her creation. It was sloppy and forced, while Rowan’s magic was usually fluid and natural.

Rowan Dahl, kidnapped, and local news had already aired bystander videos that caught the entire incident.

The kitsune, with his face morphed into someone unrecognizable to Alessandro, informed the reporters that the ‘Dragon Hero’, as they’d dubbed her locally, had stepped away in shock and that they wouldn’t be answering questions until she returned.

“What are we going to do?” The fire-dragon asked.

Alessandro tried to keep the smirk from his face. The elf had earned herself a fan amongst one of his generals. It took a great deal of power to impress the hothead, but her stunt with the rune tree had stunned even him.

Briefly he wondered how many others in the Thunder would see her as an asset rather than threat and if maybe that would be enough for him to think sinking his fangs into her neck would be acceptable.

Then he remembered her mother.

‘She is not for you.’

Still, he was indebted to her. The useless binder he’d gifted her was not an equal transaction.

“I’m going to the astral plane to check if she’s safe. Guard my body.”

Blaise nodded his acknowledgement.

Alessandro closed his eyes and let his mind wander, extracting his astral form until he was floating in a space of darkness.

He recalled the way her magic felt when it brushed against his, the smell of her skin as it heated underneath his palms. He called forth the image of her eyes, chanted her name, even accessed the entire Blessed network to look for her unique signature of magic, which he thought he saw for a second, but it went out in the next breath making it impossible to lock onto her trace.

Frustrated, he called forth the memory of the vampiress’ face. The connection was as instant as it should have been with Rowan. He floated over the rubble of the building, the woman an arm’s length away from him, her eyes staring past him to the kitsune who was squatting to the floor.

Alessandro didn’t need to get up close and personal to know what the man was doing.

“She can’t be dead.” Determination set on the vampiress’ face as she spoke into her phone.

“Our bonds are just strained. I swear I keep feeling her for the briefest of moments.” She sighed after the person on the line replied.

“Chloe, I have to go. Kin can’t find her with a scry.

We’re going to try summoning her instead.

But first we have to take Dew’s body to her family.

Can you ask Master Jah to set the circle up?

” Ruby eyes filled with tears, she tilted her chin to the sky to collect herself. “Okay, see you soon. Love you, bye.”

Alessandro stood for a few seconds by the vampiress’ side as she composed herself before turning to the kitsune who was carrying a lacquer box. Inside, Alessandro caught the smell of death. His jaw clenched. Louisa’s eyes watered again when she looked at it. This time, she let the tears fall.

“How are we supposed to tell them?” She asked, wiping her cheeks.