A hot pink cloud of energy surrounds Goldie, while a dark purple one surrounds Cinder.
“I thought you said there was no magic in here?” Goldie said, then her eyes widen at me.
I look down to find a red and white energy misting from my skin. “Your eyes are going wolfy,” Cinder points out.
A few moments later, the energy fades away. None of us move.
The building shakes with a boom. The tree limbs sway over us as the bottles on the display shiver so hard some of them slip and fall to the ground with a crashing shatter. A gust of cold wind sweeps through the bar, like someone has ripped a blanket away from over the building.
“What was that?” Cinder asks.
I’m not sure if she’s talking about the colorful energies or the boom, but I don’t have time to answer.
“It’s time for the bullshit to end, and for you to give us what we want,” Gretel announces, flanking Hansel on their way in.
Chapter39
Eating the Special Cookies
RED
Agirl from FFA I vaguely remember follows Hansel and Gretel in. The Indian girl is barely five feet tall and petite with bronze skin. She wears dark green leathers like Hansel and Gretel. She's the one who broke the wards. She wields kinetic energy like a cannonball, and that’s why they can all waltz right in here. The boom was the ward breaking.
Panic crawls up my throat. The twins nearly killed me last time, and they would do the same to Cinder and Goldie, to put pressure on me, or just for fun.
“You guys need to run,” I mutter to Cinder and Goldie without taking my eyes off Hansel and Gretel. “Go out the back.”
“We aren’t leaving you with these psychopaths,” Goldie says.
“Not a chance,” Cinder adds as they square up next to me.
Dumb, stupid, wonderful friends.
“We hear you received a package?” Hansel says, examining his cuticles but there is a new intensity around him. Losing to Brexley has put him on edge. “We’ll take it now.”
The cookies. The cookies that made us glow, they were different somehow. It’s the package my grandma sent. They weren’t normal.
“I ate the package,” I say, leaving Goldie and Cinder out of this. “They are all gone, and the recipe was merely a love note from my Gigi.” I extend my hands out. “There is nothing for you here.”
The twins exchange a glance. “Oh dear.” Hansel says as casually as if we are discussing dinner plans. “Then it looks like we will just have to cut you open and fish out what we need.” His dark eyes glitter maliciously.
“Oh dear, no more wolfy to save you,” Gretel says with a nasty grin.
A spike goes through my heart. Even though I tell myself I hate Brexley, he is the only one with the power to make me feel safe right now.
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” a male voice says from behind me.
Brexley saunters in from the rear entrance. He stops next to me. I’m a jumble of fear and feeling, but my heart soars to have Brexley near me again. I hate how right it feels to be with him, knowing what I know.
“We still need to talk,” he insists to me in a low voice. Then he claps his hands and rubs them together. “Now, who wants to get their magic neutered?” he asks with dark promise.
Brexley lifts off his feet, until he is dangling in the air. He struggles, but continues to remain suspended. I reach for his hand, trying to tug him down to no avail. Panic grips my throat as I throw my entire body weight into it, and he doesn’t budge.
That’s when Hunter enters from behind Hansel and Gretel, hand outstretched in Brexley’s direction.
Disbelief hits me like a high-speed train for the second time today. “Hunter, what the actual fuck?”
Chapter40
