“Yes, the magic you inherited from your father.”
“My what now?”
That distraction cost me dearly. While I was busy trying to figure out what the fuck Kenji meant, the witch spun around and cast a black stream of toxic magic at me.
I ducked just as my bear entered the cave. The full force of the witch’s spell hit him, knocking him to the floor. He roared before the connection between us faded. Zane sprinted around him, wielding a long silver blade, but the witch caught my incubus with another spell, and he went down hard, his weapons falling from his grasp.
That bitch had hurt all four of my mates, and I was done.
She smirked at me.
“I’ll enjoy taking your power, hybrid witch. Your father’s magic will sustain me for at least a century.”
“You’ve taken enough from me, you ugly, haggard, old, stinky witch bitch!” I screamed. Hurling insults at a senior was not my proudest moment, but in my defense, she fucking deserved it.
Kenji’s claws dug into my arms as the witch raised her hands to cast magic at me.
The amulet around my neck burned like hellfire, scorching my skin. I clutched it in my fist as the magic vessel in my chest blasted apart, unleashing the full force of my power at the witch.
Fire met darkness, blanketing the cave. For a few glorious, deluded seconds, I thought I’d won.
The witch shrieked with rage when my witch fire incinerated her hair and turned her skin black, but to my horror, her oily magic soon smothered the flames.
I threw more fire magic at her, but her magic repelled it. The flames sputtered out, leaving behind nothing but ash.
“Is that all you have, witch?” Despite her seeping burns and scorched head, she cackled gleefully. I watched in horror as the wounds across her hands and face healed, leaving unblemished milky-white skin.
Although I took comfort from the fact that the old hag still looked at least one hundred and her hair was way messier than mine.
Her power must have waned, and she could no longer sustain a glamor. Either that or her inner ugly was shining through.
“Now would be a good time to get to grips with your shadow magic,” Kenji muttered, doing his best to make himself as small as possible while the bitch witch fired spells at us.
Luckily for me and my loyal familiar, there was so much smoke in the cave, she kept missing. My bear groaned and tried to get up before slumping back down. Zane and Rasmus weren’t moving, and I didn’t dare check on Kai.
Goddess save me if the sea witch murdered all four of my mates. She probably assumed losing them would kill me, but I was petty enough to survive long enough to take my vengeance.
“Some assistance would be nice, Farris,” I hollered, knowing full well the bastard fae was in earshot.
“Sorry, kinda busy right now,” he called. “Got a new match on my Faya app.”
“Seriously? You’re swiping right while I’m trying not to die?!”
The witch grabbed a small potion bottle from a rocky shelf and threw it at me. I ducked just in time, and it smashed against the wall behind me, unleashing a cloud of noxious green gas.
“Focus, Raven!” Kenji screeched in my head as the gas burned my lungs. “Use my magic!”
I thought back to when I battled the demon and the only defense I had was my fire magic. Since then, I’d bonded with three more of my mates. With each new bond, the shadows within my fire magic had grown. It was as if there were two separate strands of magic in my chest. While the fire magic had almost burned out, when I tugged hard, the shadow magic responded.
Thick black shadows burst from my chest. Like last time, having my familiar in my arms, lending me his power, helped to turbo-charge the magic. Whereas the sea witch had repelled my fire magic, she was powerless against the demonic shadow magic.
It absorbed her dark magic, and as I stared in horrified fascination, her body collapsed in on itself. The witch’s screams echoed around the cavern until there was nothing left of her but a pile of smoking rags on the cave floor.
“Is she dead?” I whispered to Kenji.
“Does she look alive to you?”It was good to hear his usual sarcasm had returned. It reassured me that my familiar had suffered no ill-effects from lending me some of his power.
“She might rejuvenate and come back as a zombie,” I huffed while praying she did nothing of the sort.Ugh, that would be too traumatic for words.
