by J. L. Wilder
Maddie was confused but nodded in agreement before turning her eyes back to the bottle. It floated in front of the kitchen, and she imagined the space behind it, like Katie had asked.
“I don’t get what I’m—”
She didn’t need to say anything else. The bottle vanished as if someone had pulled an invisible blanket over it inch by inch.
“Holy shit,” she said. “How did I do that?”
“Witches have the power to make things, or themselves, invisible. Remember how Frannie used her magic to hide the door from you in that room when she had you prisoner? That’s a high-level power, being able to bend reality like that and not be there to actually do it.”
Katie turned her attention to the bottle again. “Now, bring it back.”
Maddie did, the bottle returning in the same state it had just been.
“OK, now I want you to imagine taking pieces out of it, one by one—like you’re disassembling it.”
Maddie nodded again, focusing on the corner of the bottle. The piece came apart, moving from the bottle as it were a puzzle.
“Now, melt it.”
One more nod and she did, the piece of the bottle turning orange and melting like ice under a hot sun.
“Set the bottle down.”
She did. And when it was all over, she felt exhausted.
“Wow,” said Maddie. “Messing with the laws of physics sure has a way of taking it out of you.”
Katie grinned, pouring Maddie a glass of water.
“You’re controlling the laws of physics. Slight difference. But it’s just as powerful.”
It was late afternoon in the apartment, and Maddie was done with another full day of training. Over the course of the last two weeks, Katie had given her a crash course in being a witch, from a brief overview of the history of the covens to how to train her blossoming powers.
“You have to think of it like going to the gym, working out a muscle,” said Katie. “It’s going to be weak at first.”
“And flabby.”
“Right, and flabby.”
“But the more you work it out, the stronger it’ll get. And trust me, you’re getting strong at a rate I’ve never seen before. If you keep this up...”
“What?” asked Maddie.
Katie shook her head, as if she wasn’t sure if she should say what was on her mind.
“You might be more powerful than Frannie. No wonder she wanted to control you and keep you locked away until she could figure out what to do. She’s scared, I bet. Frannie’s a total control freak, and any threat to her power she deals with severely. And...”
She trailed off.
“What is it?” asked Maddie.
“I don’t even know if I should say it.”
“What?”
Before she could go on any further, the door to the apartment opened and Scorn stepped in, heading into the kitchen to grab a beer.
“Got some serious shit to talk about,” he said as he came in to join the women in the living room.
“Get in line,” said Katie with a slight smile, letting him know she was joking—a little.
“What?” he asked.
“I was telling Maddie about this group. They’re called the Willowoods, and they’re a coven in the city that’s made up of witches who...don’t exactly fit in with the rest.”
Scorn smirked. “Sounds like my kind of people.”
Katie went on. “I wasn’t high up enough in the coven to be in the loop on them, but from what I heard, Frannie and the rest of the elite witches wanted nothing more than to wipe them out.”
“OK,” said Maddie. “So that means they might be able to help us?”
Katie shook her head. “I don’t know. It’s possible, but it could be that they’re looking out for themselves and aren’t the type to help anyone.”
“Maybe it’s worth a shot,” said Scorn. “Because we need all the allies we can get.”
Maddie nodded in agreement.
“We need to look into them, see what they’re all about.”
Katie nodded. “I can try to see if my contacts in the Goodwin coven have any information—the contacts who don’t want to kill me, that is.”
“Perfect,” said Scorn. “Because I’ve got another mission. But this one’s for me, only.”
“What is it?” asked Maddie.
“Chapman gave me news that Red’s gone off the radar. He doesn’t know what’s going on, exactly, but he thinks Red might be making some moves out in the woods, trying to consolidate his power. I need to go back there and see what he’s up to.”
“Then I’m coming with you,” said Maddie.
“The fuck you are,” said Scorn. “You’re staying put here while Katie and I get intel.”
“Not a chance,” said Maddie. “You’re going to need to sneak, right? To stay out of sight?”
“Yeah,” said Scorn. “So what?”
“So, check this out.”
She took the beer can out of Scorn’s hand.
“Hey!” he shouted. “What’s the big idea?”
Maddie grinned before closing her eyes to concentrate, imagining the space behind the can like she’d done with the bottle.
“What the!” Scorn shouted in disbelief. “Where the hell did it go?”
Maddie opened her eyes and saw that the can was gone—or, at least, hidden.
“It’s still there,” she said. “Just...invisible.”
“A little trick we’ve been working on,” said Katie with a smile.
Scorn moved his hand where the beer was, a clunk sounding as he knocked over the invisible can.
“Holy shit.” He fumbled around for it and picked it up. “How the hell did you do that?”
“Just witch stuff,” said Maddie. “And are you going to tell me that’s not something that would come in handy?”
Scorn grumbled as if he knew she was right but didn’t want to admit it.
“Let me think about it. Meantime, let me see my beer—I need it after the day I’ve had.”
Maddie focused, the beer reappearing in front of her. Scorn snatched it off the table and took a long pull. But she didn’t have long to gloat about her success in pulling off the trick. A tense feeling came over her, one that started in the pit of her stomach and ran through her body.
It’d happened enough times already for her to know what to do. She shot up from her seat, rushing toward the bathroom. Once there, she shut the door and dropped to her knees in front of the toilet and vomited.
There was little in her stomach, so it didn’t take long for her to empty the contents. When she was done, she washed up and brushed her teeth and returned to the living room.
“You all right?” asked Scorn.
“Fine,” she said. “Just really had to go. Now, let’s get this plan in motion.”
CHAPTER 16
SCORN
He drove through the woods of Washington, the trees towering over him the way he’d grown used to. And the deeper he drove into the woods, the more he realized how much he missed them, how he wanted to come back.
“So,” said Maddie. “Let’s hear the plan again.”
“Plan is we get in, find out what we can, and get the fuck out of there.”
“Yeah, I know that. But you’ve been pretty scanty on details.”
“That’s because this whole thing is kind of an...improvisational thing. In my experience, when it comes to operations like this, the more wiggle room you have, the better.”
“So, the plan is you’ve got no plan.”
“Trust me, it’s for the better. We’re meeting up with my friend Cam, and he’s going to direct us to the meeting. As long as you can do that invisibility trick, we should be fine.”
“I can do it,” said Maddie. “But I’m still learning, you know.”
“Learning on the job’s the best way to do it.”
“And if it doesn’t work, and we get caught?”
“Then we improvise again. I don’t want to have t
o shift and roast alive every fucking dragon there, but if it comes to that, then I’ll do it. But trust me—it won’t come to that.”
“You’ve got confidence—I’ll give you that much, Scorn.”
“Confidence is the difference between an alpha and a beta—or a gamma. You start second-guessing yourself and what you know, what you’re capable of, and that’s when someone who believes in themselves will get you.”
“Always a learning experience with you, Scorn.”
She smiled, but before Scorn could jump in with a rejoinder, she winced.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
Maddie didn’t say anything, instead wrapping her hands around her belly and leaning forward.
“Shoot,” she said. “Shoot, shoot.”
Scorn pulled the truck to the side of the road and turned his attention to her, placing his hand on the top of her back.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
At that moment, Scorn felt something that he hadn’t experienced in as long as he could remember—worry. He was worried for Maddie, worried that something was happening to her that he wouldn’t be able to fix.
“It’s...it’s nothing,” she said, opening her eyes. “I’m serious—it’s fine.”
“Don’t blow past it,” he said. “Tell me what it was.”
She shook her head. “It’s this weird stomach issue I’ve been having for the last week or so. Nausea out of nowhere, indigestion. It’s probably just nerves.”
“We’re not going to take any chances. When we get back to Seattle, we’re taking you to a doctor.”
“It’s not that severe—you don’t need to stress out about it.”
“I’ll tell you what I’m going to stress out about,” he said, a firmness to his voice that he hadn’t expected. “And your health is one of them.”
“Yeah, but I don’t know if we can just go to a doctor, right? What if this is some kind of witch thing?”
“There are doctors who specialize in shifters,” said Scorn. “Not the same as a witch, sure, but it’s as good as we’re going to get.”
Her mouth a flat line, she nodded. “Then we can take care of that when we get back, right? No sense in waiting around.”
Scorn wasn’t done yet. He took her hand and wrapped it in his other. “Maddie, I want you to be honest with me about everything, all right? There’s not a chance in hell I’m going to let anything happen to you. I’m going to keep you safe, make sure no harm comes to you. But you have to be open and honest with me, all right?”
She nodded.
“I can do that. But under one condition.”
“Name it.”
“You’re open and honest with me.”
Scorn allowed a small smile to play on his face as if he knew he should’ve seen that coming.
“I can do that,” he said. “From here on out, we’re a team.”
She smiled right back at him. “A dragon and a witch—not like any team I’ve ever heard of. Now, let’s do this.”
He nodded, pleased with how the conversation had gone. Soon they were back on the road, not more than twenty minutes from Scorn’s destroyed cabin—the place where Cam had agreed to meet him.
When they pulled up to the ruined house, the cabin nothing more than a pile of black, burnt-out sticks, Scorn was filled with a strange longing.
“What is it?” asked Maddie, noticing something was wrong.
“Nothing,” said Scorn.
“Remember that conversation we just had? The one where we told the other we’d be open and honest? This is one of those times.”
Her words made Scorn like Maddie even more than he already did—she was a woman who’d call him on his bullshit, a trait that wasn’t common at all.
“It’s...it’s this place,” he said. “It was a dump, sure, and when I came here, it was because I wanted to vanish, to fade into nothing. But there was a part of me that wanted something...different.”
“What do you mean? What kind of different?”
“Part of me wanted to build something here, to claim the land and make it mine. I had these big ideas of fixing up the ranger’s cabin, making it a place I’d be proud to live. Then a dock, right there behind the cabin. I’d make a little canoe that I could hop in first thing in the morning, to paddle and watch the sun rise over the trees.”
He was shocked as hell to hear himself talk like that. But every word of it was true.
And what was even more surprising was that he didn’t want to live that alone—Maddie was just as strong a presence in the fantasy as the sun or the trees or the water.
She took his hand and squeezed.
“I have a feeling you’ll get that,” she said. “And it’s good to hear you talk this way, Scorn.”
“What way?”
“A way where you’re looking out onto the future with hope, and not like someone who has to get through the trouble he’s been dealt so he can hurry up and go back to drinking himself into a coma.”
She was right—being hopeful about the future was something he hadn’t felt in a long while.
They gazed into one another’s eyes, and as he sat there with Maddie, no sound but the chirping birds and the rustle of the wind in the branches, Scorn felt a warmth in him rise up that he’d never known before.
What the hell is going on here? he thought. Is this lo—
Before he could think the matter over too deeply, the blare of a horn cut through the silence. Maddie and Scorn jerked back into the moment as if she’d cast a spell over the two of them.
“What the hell?” asked Scorn.
But he didn’t need to wonder for long. He watched as Cam’s red truck appeared in the distance, Cam laying on the horn as he approached.
“What the hell’s the matter with him?” asked Scorn as he pulled back onto the road and drove toward his friend.
He parked, and Cam did the same, Scorn and Maddie hopping out to greet him.
“What’s the big idea with the horn?” asked Scorn. “Isn’t this a stealth operation?”
“Just wanted to get your attention,” said Cam, putting his hands on his hips and leaning against his truck with a smile.
“Well, you got it. Let’s hope Red and the rest of his alphas aren’t around to get it, too.”
Cam shook his head. “You don’t need to worry about that. It’s...fucking weird.”
“What’s fucking weird?”
“Thing about Red is that he loves to be in charge. And more than that, he loves for people to see him in charge. He’s always doing his fucking meetings, making himself the center of attention and letting everyone know he’s the man.”
“Sounds like Red. What’s different about this?”
“What’s different is how...secretive he’s being. I didn’t even know there was a meeting until I overheard a few of his alphas talking about it. It’s being held at city hall, and no one other than his closest alphas is invited. And he’s been locked up in there all day, not coming out for anything.”
“Who’s he meeting with?”
“That’s the thing. A few cars—really nice ones, too—showed up in town this morning. They pulled in back of city hall, and whoever was in them got out and hurried inside before anyone could see.”
“That is fucking weird,” said Scorn. “And all the more reason why we need to get in there and see what the fuck is going on.”
Cam nodded. “Get in my truck—there’s plenty of room for you two to hide out. When we’re done, we’ll come back here.”
“Let’s do it,” said Scorn.
They climbed into Cam’s truck, Scorn and Maddie taking cover in the back. It was a tight fit, but Scorn didn’t mind one bit being crammed back there with her. Though he had to focus to make sure his cock didn’t get hard.
“So, you two are going to have to sneak in,” said Cam. “How you planning on pulling that off?”
“Just some witchy shit,” said Maddie with a smile. “Don’t worry about it.”
Cam
chuckled. But his happiness only lasted for a moment.
“Shit’s been getting bad with Red,” he said. “He’s turned into a fucking tyrant since what happened with you. Coming down hard on anyone who dares to contradict him, more alphas vanishing...it’s fucking miserable. Don’t know how the clan’s going to last under his leadership—if you can even call it that.”
“Wait, so he was the one who sent those dragons after me?”
“He hasn’t said anything, of course. But all signs point to ‘yes.’ Makes sense, right? You got booted out of the alpha position, but you’re still a threat to him. I’m surprised he’s let you live this long. But whatever’s happening, he’s making moves. Gotta stop him before it’s too late.”
Cam drove on, the two of them reaching the borders of New Haven. Scorn poked his head up as they passed the main lumber mill. He could tell even from a glance it was only operating at a fraction of its capacity. A handful of workers were bumming around here and there.
“What the fuck’s the deal with the mill?” asked Scorn.
“Red’s taken out enough alphas still loyal to you that there’s no one around who knows how to run the damn thing. It’s a fucking mess—we got good lumber rotting on the trucks because he can’t handle the logistics of getting it out of New Haven.”
Scorn was furious with himself for letting it get to this point, for losing his alpha position.
Shit had to be made right.
They reached the town, and Cam pulled them near city hall.
“Guards at every entrance,” said Cam. “You still think you can pull this one off?”
“You tell me, Maddie.”
“We have to, right?” she asked. “Let’s do this.”
He loved how fearless she was.
“Plan is this,” he said. “You make us invisible, and then I shift. I carry you to the roof, and we go in from there. Got it?”
She nodded. “This is fucking insane. But it could work.”
“Try to make us invisible—see if we can get that far.”
Another nod. Then Maddie closed her eyes, an expression of intense focus coming over her.
But they stayed visible.
“Shit,” she said. “This is hard. A beer can’s one thing...”
