“Goddammit!” Adora shrieked. She backed away when the polar bear ran toward her again, throwing fireball after fireball at the massive beast.
She felt the warm bulk of Briggs’s bear behind her, his nose nuzzling her neck, before he shifted with a soft pop. His arm slipped around Cece’s waist and lifted her to her feet, and she was pulled back against his warm, hard body. Magic flickered to life within her, and she stared up at Briggs as he turned her to face him.
She touched his face as he smiled at her and said, “Hello, little witch.”
“Briggs,” she whispered.
He kissed her, his big hands sliding around her body to cup her ass and pull her tight against him. His tongue slid into her mouth, and she kissed him back frantically as magic flared within her in a glorious explosion of images of wild forests, rolling hills, and the sweet smell of wildflowers.
Briggs kissed her harder, his hands roaming over her body, reaching to cup her breasts through her thick jacket, squeezing her ass, gliding down one thigh to pull it up around his hip so he could grind his erection against her.
The roar of pain behind them broke them apart, and they both turned to see Briggs’s father dropping into the snow as flames licked at his thick fur, and Adora screamed triumphantly.
Alex rolled, dousing the flames as Adora stalked toward him, her hands raised and a ball of flame growing between her palms.
Briggs’s arm tightened around her waist. “End this, little witch.”
“Yes, my mate.” Cece raised her hands and chanted, “Circle of light, pure and bright, guard Alex now, both day and night.”
Green light shot from her hands to surround Alex as Adora threw the fireball at him. The fireball bounced off him harmlessly to sizzle out in the snow, and Adora shrieked with fury before turning to face Cece.
“Why won’t you just fucking die?” she screamed before stalking toward her. Her gaze flickered to the right, and she stumbled to a stop. “Alistair?”
Cece followed her gaze, gasping when she saw her grandfather standing over Alistair, who lay in the snow, a band of red light pressed against his mouth. His body was being wrapped in a glowing red rope of light, and Adora screamed again. “No! Werner, no!”
Her husband ignored her, his mouth moving soundlessly as he spoke an incantation, and more of the rope light appeared to wind around Alistair’s body.
Adora glared at Cece. “You fucking bitch!”
Grinning fiercely, Cece chanted an incantation, and green light surrounded Adora. The red light surrounding her grandmother blinked out as her protection spell was destroyed.
Quickly, before Adora could resurrect the spell, Cece said, “Out of sight, out of mind. Your wicked talk I now bind. Words of harm, now cease to be. Silence now, so mote it be.”
Briggs chuffed with surprise when the band of green light appeared around Adora’s throat. She tried to speak, surprise and then rage clouding her eyes as she clawed at her throat before opening her mouth in a silent scream.
“What did you do, little witch?” Briggs asked.
“A voice binding spell,” Cece said. “If she can’t speak, she can’t do spells.”
Briggs’s bear growled out a warning when Adora ran through the snow toward them, her hands hooked into claws and her face contorted with rage. Cece waved her hands, muttering an incantation under her breath, and the branches of a nearby pine tree shot out and wrapped around her grandmother. They yanked her back against the truck, and more branches wrapped around her struggling body.
Holding Briggs’s hand, Cece walked toward the tree, stopping in front of Adora’s writhing body and watching with cold detachment as the branches squeezed harder and Adora’s eyes bulged. There was a sharp snap as her arm broke, and Adora’s mouth opened in a silent scream of pain.
“Cecelia!” Werner joined them, his voice cracking with emotion as he stared at his wife. “Don’t kill her.”
“She tried to kill my mate,” Cece said as the branches tightened relentlessly, and Adora’s mouth gaped as she laboured to breathe. Her eyes rolled up in her head, and she slumped forward, her head hanging limply.
“Please, Nietita,” Werner said.
“Little witch.” Briggs’s voice spoke into her ear, and she stared up at him as his arm tightened around her waist.
“She tried to kill you, Briggs,” she said.
“This isn’t who you are, my mate,” he said. “Don’t let her turn you into someone you’re not.”
She studied him, her love for him washing over her in an intense wave that threatened to drown her. “I love you.”
“I love you, Cecelia,” he said.
