“Why? So you can steal my flag?” She pulled a pink scrap of fabric from her pocket and tossed it at me. “Here. I’ve saved you the trouble. Now please go before some asshole finds me.”
Picking up the flag, I stalked over. “I don’t need it.” Before she could protest, I shoved the flag at her and boosted her up onto a thick bough. “Use that branch there to pull yourself up, and then it will be easier to climb out of sight. The charm will transport you back from here in around forty minutes.”
The witch seemed surprised I was helping her.
“Have you seen Raven?” She awkwardly pulled herself onto the next-highest branch before replying.
“No. I haven’t seen anyone apart from you so far. I hope she’s alright. Demented has a vendetta against her.”
My lips twitched. As much as I hated the incubus, his stupid name for Demelza had stuck. Honestly, it was scarily accurate. The bitch really was fucking demented.
“Raven’s powerful, so I doubt Demelza is any kind of threat, even if the silly bitch thinks she is.”
“How would you know when you’ve done your best to avoid her, eh?”
“Careful, or I might set the tree on fire,” I warned.
The witch rolled her eyes. “Oh fuck off, Alaric.”
Damn it, I was losing my edge if small, mediocre witches no longer pissed themselves at my threats.
Once Glynda had climbed high enough to hide from the other students, I walked away, following a narrow trail through the trees. Snowflakes floated down as daylight faded, and I shivered as an ice-cold blast of wind sliced through my thin top.
Fucking Lightfoot. Like all shifters, he didn’t feel the cold, so it wouldn’t have occurred to him that the non-shifters in the class could be half-dead with frostbite by now.
I sped up into a jog to warm my extremities. The path widened and grew steeper as the trees thinned. As more snow fell, I heard a female laugh.
Demelza.
Oh good.
I’d been waiting for an opportunity to zap the bitch. Only when I broke through the trees, she wasn’t alone.
39
Raven
Okay, I was done being nice. That bitch needed to die. It was time to go full psycho on her ass.
I dragged myself up from the ground, my head pounding from where I’d hit the rock. When I turned, Demelza stood gleefully watching me.
“Sorry about that,” she laughed. “It was anaccident.”An accident, my ass.
“Like this?” I pulled on the magic threads in my chest and blasted her. Her eyes widened in shock as she flew backward into a tree with a furious scream.
“You fucking bitch!” A flash of blue caught my eye from the trees, but when my attention wavered for a second, Demelza took advantage.
Dark magic enveloped me, clinging to my skin like oil. I should have known a witch like Demelza would resort to using illegal magic. It was on-brand. Instead of working hard and learning spells the old-fashioned way, she’d chosen the easiest path.
The path that gave her the greatest power with the least effort.
I wondered how long she’d been practicing dark magic.
Long enough that the spell she’d cast weakened me. Realizing I couldn’t fight back, she picked up a heavy branch and smashed it down on my head with inhuman force.
Pain exploded in my skull for a second time. My consciousness waned as a furious male yell cut through my panic. Damn us all to the demon realm. How ironic if a humble stick killed me. Nobody would have predicted that. Demelza could spin it as a tragic weather-related accident.
Unlucky witch killed by falling branch…
