by Sarra Cannon
He slammed the door, and I fell to my knees. I had waited too long to plan our escape, and now, it was too late. Aerden was going to die.
I’ll Be Back For You
Harper
I shifted as the detective’s bullet zipped past my head and hit the wall of the cabin behind me.
I’d never been in a fight with guns before, so I had to keep my eyes open. I wasn’t sure how many of them had brought guns to this fight, but I caught sight of several daggers in the hands of the other men.
Daggers, I could handle.
I reformed in the woods, my body covered by the dark shadows of the night. I let go of the orb of light I had conjured earlier, and the Others in the clearing were drenched in darkness. Someone else conjured an orb of their own, but it was obvious they had lost sight of me. They scrambled to find me, three witches running into the cabin and two men stepping carefully into the woods.
The rest of them stood in the clearing, turning in circles and looking for any sign of me.
The detective shouted orders at his group, and a couple of the other men ran to the back of the cabin to search for me there.
I turned my focus to the two men who had come into the woods. They separated and went in two different directions, weapons raised.
I shifted again and kept low to the ground. I flew past the first man’s feet and reformed behind him. I sent a rope of white smoke toward him, wrapping my power around his neck before I snapped it.
He silently fell to the ground, his eyes wide open in surprise. I stepped over his dead body and reached down to retrieve the silver dagger in his hand. Just like when I’d fought the Others before, it was a ritual dagger from one of the covens. This time, though, the jewel embedded in its hilt was a ruby. The first I’d ever seen in person. I briefly wondered where he’d come by this ruby dagger, but I didn’t have time to think too much of it.
I shifted again and flew after the second man in the woods. He hadn’t made it very far, and I repeated the same movements, snapping his neck before he even knew I was there. In his hand, he carried a handgun similar to the one the detective had pointed at me.
Was this guy a cop, too?
I opened the cylinder and counted five bullets. I had zero experience with guns, but the bullets inside were pure silver in color, and I wondered if they were made of demon silver. I would have to be extra careful with the detective and anyone else who carried one of these guns.
I was still part demon, after all, and this type of silver might kill me in an instant.
I dropped the bullets into my hand and threw them into the woods where they scattered. I was still wearing the dress I’d worn to Rend’s, and I wished more than anything I’d been able to find a comfortable pair of jeans at the priestess’s house. I had nowhere to keep the gun, and I couldn’t afford to have both hands occupied.
I shifted and flew deeper into the woods. When I was far enough away from the cabin, I hid the gun in the underbrush.
Since I didn’t really know how to use it, a gun could be more of a liability than a help in a situation like this, but I didn’t want anyone else to have it, either.
I glanced back toward where we’d left the car, and for a second, I considered the possibility of just getting back in the car and leaving the Others here. I could get back to Brooke before they could, and we could hide out together until we had a chance to come back out here and look for the portal.
But then we’d be living in fear, always afraid that the Others would find us. I needed to put an end to this tonight.
I turned back toward the cabin and flew through the woods. Two down. Nine to go.
A group of six had come back together in front of the cabin, and I looked around, trying to figure out where the other three had gone. A witch stepped out of the front door of the cabin, and she shook her head.
“She’s not in there,” she said.
“Robby’s dead,” someone else shouted as they ran from the woods. “She killed him. I don’t see any sign of Logan.”
There was still one person unaccounted for, and I flew around the circle of woods that surrounded the clearing until I’d reached the back of the cabin. A single witch stood back there by herself, scanning the woods.
Her hands glowed with a soft amber power.
I took my human form at the edge of the woods and gathered flames into my hands. She turned to look just as I sent a stream of hot fire toward her. She screamed as the flames consumed her, and she managed to send a single spell toward me before she fell to her knees.
The group around front ran back to see what was going on, but I had already shifted and flown high into the trees to watch their reactions.
One of the men screamed and knelt at the witch’s side. He slipped out of his coat and used it to extinguish the flames, but it was too late for her. He put a finger to her neck and shook his head.
“Find her,” he said. “I’m going to kill her for doing this.”
Guilt shot through me. He must have loved that woman, and I hated having to hurt anyone, but I was done playing nice. I had given them a chance to walk away, but they had been determined to kill me.
“She’s picking us off one at a time. Pair up,” the detective shouted. “No one goes anywhere alone.”
Two men and two women paired off and ran into the woods to search for me. The pair of men walked beneath me, never once looking up into the trees. I waited for the rest of the group in the clearing to start walking back to the front of the cabin before flying toward the pair of men.
I couldn’t see their hands well enough in the dark to see if they were carrying guns or daggers, but as long as I could surprise them, it wouldn’t matter.
I took human form right behind them and brought the silver dagger to the first man’s throat. I didn’t hesitate, slicing through the skin of his neck.
His partner spun around, gun upraised. He fired, and I shifted quickly. The bullet grazed my shoulder, and the pain ripped through me like fire through a dry forest. I lost my grip on the dagger and fell to the ground, unable to hold my demon form as blood poured from my wound.
The man fired again, but I rolled to the side.
He cursed and aimed at me again. I took a deep breath and pushed the pain aside. I would deal with this wound later. For now, I had to focus.
I shifted and flew sideways just as a third bullet dug into the ground where I had just been. I needed to get that dagger back, but I wasn’t sure where it had landed. I scanned the forest floor but didn’t see any sign of it.
Another bullet rang out, and I heard it zip by my ear. That was way too close.
The man was following my white smoke, and for the first time, I wished my heritage was from the Northern Kingdom where my demon form would be black instead of the bright white of my father’s people.
I switched directions, flying straight into the air above the tops of the trees. The man below cursed as he lost sight of me, but I could hear his footsteps against the ground as he ran back toward his group.
Once he joined up with them, I would lose my chance to take him down.
My shoulder burned, confirming that the bullets they were using were definitely made of demon steel rather than normal bullets. A second hit might bring me down. I needed to figure out who all had these guns and focus on bringing them down first.
Starting with the jerk who had shot me.
I flew back down toward the ground, pushing myself as fast as I could go. He had almost made it to the clearing. I wasn’t going to catch him in time, so I took human form and threw my hands forward.
I wrapped my telekinetic power around his body and pulled him backwards into the woods. I slammed his back against the tree and held him there as I glanced around, looking for anything I could use as a weapon.
The man struggled against my power, but I held him there as easily as if I had my hands on him. I used my power to lift a small, broken branch off the forest floor. With a single push forward, I sent the sharp-end of the branch straight thro
ugh his heart and into the tree. I released him, and his head fell to the side as blood poured from his wound.
I turned, wanting to retrieve the gun he’d dropped, but two witches rushed toward the area, their orbs of lights illuminating the man’s pierced body. I shifted again and flew up into the trees.
Five down. Six to go.
One witch crouched down and picked up the gun, aiming it into the woods in every direction. Her hand trembled, though, and I could tell she had no idea where I had gone.
“Mark is dead,” she shouted, backing up toward the clearing. “What do we do? She’s killing everyone.”
The detective ran over to her and glanced into the woods. He cringed and shook his head. He ran a hand through his thinning hair.
“It’s one witch,” he shouted. “How is she doing this?”
“Maybe she’s stronger than we thought,” the witch said.
“Maybe you guys are incompetent,” he shouted. “I want her dead.”
The witch looked up, right at me, but she didn’t see me in my demon form. She just shook her head. “I don’t know where she went,” she said. “How can we kill someone we can’t even see?”
“She’s been hit,” the detective said, running his hand along the ground near the man they’d called Mark. “There’s blue blood here. Demon blood. He must have hit her with a bullet. She’s injured, so let’s draw her in and put an end to her now.”
They walked back toward the cabin, and the two witches who had paired up earlier to search the woods joined the rest of the group.
The remaining six put their heads together, and I strained to hear what they were saying, but they were just too far away.
I took the opportunity to fly down toward where I’d lost that dagger. I reformed and got down on my hands and knees in the underbrush and searched for the weapon. I smiled when my hand hit the hilt. I lifted the ruby dagger from the ground and wrapped my fist around it.
Blood ran down my arm, and it wasn’t slowing. My vision blurred for a moment, but I shrugged it off. I shifted and flew back into the darkness of the woods. The Others were back at the cabin for now, and I needed a few minutes to deal with this wound before I lost too much blood.
When I was far enough away, I reformed and sat down on the cold dirt beneath me. I ripped the hem of my skirt until I had a long strip of cloth. I tied it just above the wound and used my magic to tighten the knot. I winced against the pain, but tightened it further.
The flow of blue blood slowed a little, and I stood up, dagger in hand.
If the group was going to stick together from here on out, I needed a plan.
I shifted and flew into the trees, trying to get a good look at where they were gathering now. From my vantage point in the trees, the six remaining Others stood just in front of the cabin, as if they were guarding it for dear life. Hope rose inside me. Did that mean the portal was truly there inside that cabin? Why else would they be so determined to keep me from getting inside?
I made my way back down to the forest floor. If I couldn’t separate them, I could at least make them extremely uncomfortable.
I gave thanks to the Cypress demon who had given me the power to control the weather as I planted my feet far apart and reached deep into the earth, drawing more magic into myself. I knew this spell would take a great deal of my power, but if my plan worked out, I wouldn’t need to hold on much longer.
I circled my hands in front of my body, and the wind picked up around me, blowing my hair across my face and causing the trees to sway. The group near the cabin looked up just as large raindrops began to fall. A couple of them ran onto the porch of the cabin to get out of the rain, but they wouldn’t be safe there.
I increased the motion of my hands, pouring my magic into the storm. Leaves, branches, and debris blew into the clearing. The witches in the group gathered together, and I realized quickly they were casting a shielding spell that covered the small group still standing in the clearing.
While the heavy rain beat down and the wind whipped around them, the group huddled together inside a bubble of protection.
Crap.
I hadn’t planned on this. I placed my palm downward, sending my power deeper into the earth. When I felt my power charge up, I flipped my palm up and reached into the sky, pulling down a strong bolt of lightning that hit the ground at the witches’ feet. The group scattered away from the scorched earth, and I took the opportunity to focus on the detective as he ran toward the steps of the cabin.
I reached toward him with my magic and yanked him backwards, into the woods. A witch screamed and ran after him. She grabbed his hand and tried to pull him back into the clearing, but my magic was too strong for her.
I pulled the detective deeper into the woods, and the witch holding onto him stumbled, losing her grip and falling to her knees.
Before he could make a move to shoot at me, I wrapped my power around his handgun and pulled it from his hands. The weapon hit the ground with a thud, and I pushed the detective back against a tree.
He struggled hard against my magic, but without his gun, he was powerless.
I sent a stream of white ropes toward the tree, wrapping them around his body a hundred times. He was trapped, but I wasn’t ready to kill him just yet. I wanted to know where this portal was, and if I managed to survive this attack and the portal wasn’t here, this detective could still prove useful to me.
I approached him, and he attempted to talk, but the ropes that covered his face kept him from speaking.
I placed a hand on his head and ran it all the way down his body, turning him into the color of air, glamouring him to look like the wind. Like nothing.
“I’ll be back for you,” I said as I shifted and flew across the ground to retrieve his gun.
The witch who had run after him had apparently changed her mind about trying to save his life. She ran back toward the group at the cabin, the wind still whipping at her clothes and her hair as she ran.
I gathered the wind in my hands and focused it at her legs. She fell and started crawling toward her friends. I was just about to send my magical ropes toward her when the gleam of a gun’s barrel caught my eye.
The witch who had gotten the gun from the woods earlier aimed it straight at me, but her hands were trembling so hard, I had just enough time to shift and fly out of the way before she fired.
I was tired and bleeding, and between the weather, the glamour, and holding that detective to the tree, I was running out of power faster than I could replenish it. I needed to put an end to this.
Rather than fly back toward the trees where I knew I would be safe, I flew straight toward the witch on the cabin porch. She fired the gun, but I dodged it easily.
I flew around the witch’s body, reforming just as I grabbed her arm and placed the dagger against her throat. I pulled her backward, away from the others so that my back could be against the wooden slats of the cabin’s wall.
“Drop the gun,” I shouted over the rain pounding against the roof.
She lowered her hand, but instead of dropping the gun, she tossed it to the man who stood near the steps. He caught it and immediately aimed toward us.
I sliced the throat of the witch in front of me and shifted to smoke. I focused, knowing this was the moment of do or die.
I knocked the gun from the man’s hand and plunged the dagger into his chest. His eyes widened for a moment before the life drained from his face.
Heat on my back caused me to shift again, barely avoiding a ball of flames that slammed into the dead man as he fell across the steps.
I made quick work of the three remaining witches, using my power to push them backward into the storm before I shifted and plunged my dagger into their chests, one at a time.
When the last witch fell, her blood soaking the front of her shirt, I closed my eyes and lifted my face to the sky in gratitude, letting the rain wash their blood from my skin.
The Perfect Shape Of A Portal
Harper
I wiped the edge of the dagger against my dress and stepped into the woods.
I released the glamour on the detective, but I didn’t release him from the ropes of my power.
“What am I going to find in that house?” I asked, removing the white smoke ropes that held his mouth closed. “Is the portal there? Or am I going to find another trap waiting for me?”
He gulped the air, his face red.
“What have you done?” he screamed. “Those people had families.”
“I have a family, too, but you were more than willing to kill me,” I said. “I gave you the chance to walk away. You chose to fight. Now, tell me what’s inside that house.”
He closed his eyes, as if he couldn’t stand the sight of me.
“The portal is in the house,” he said. “Or at least it always was before. If you really did kill the priestess, it might have already closed. I haven’t been back to check.”
“What other traps have you set for me?” I asked, bringing my dagger up so he could see it.
He swallowed and stared at the dagger.
“No traps,” he said. “But you can only get to the portal beneath the house if you carry a bracelet or stone from the emerald priestess. She didn’t give me one, so I can’t take you down there. She wanted to make sure I couldn’t go down there without her. I was going to be trapped here regardless, and so will you.”
“I’ll get in,” I said.
“Who are you?” he asked. “I’ve never seen someone move so fast.”
“My name is Harper. And you were right about Priestess Evers. She brought me thinking she could break me, only I refused to be broken,” I said. “But you were wrong about the demons. They aren’t creatures. They aren’t the devil’s minions. They’re incredible beings of great power, but they are people just like we are. They aren’t evil, Detective.”
He laughed, even as a tear rolled down his cheek.
“James,” he said. “My name is James.”
“I would say it’s nice to meet you, James, but it’s been a real bitch,” I said. “I’ve been through enough the past few months without your group trying to kill me, too.”
