Page 70 of Hexy Beast

She shrugs.

“Hello,” Kyle yells. “We are a part of the Council, and we’ve given you an order.”

“Oh, shut up, Kyle,” Bea says, not taking her eyes off Darius and me, “the adults are talking.”

I may be the oldest sister, but Bea is the most stubborn, and when it comes to the Sherwood sisters, that’s saying something. The only way to get past this is just to give it up.

“We’re fated mates,” I tell her and Juniper.

As soon as the words are out of my mouth, my first thought is how perfectly true they are. My second is that Artemis is about to deliver a well-earned told you so. Darius and I look around at the same time. He flinches at the exact moment when my stomach drops down to my toes. Everything happened so fast and all at once that this is the first moment we’ve had to look around and see that Artemis isn’t here—if she was actually in-the-flesh here in the first place. Neither, I realize, is Nikos. While I thought he was passed out, the asshole must have woken up and run home to the actual (not magic holograph) Arcadia.

Fuck.

This is not good.

“We have to go get Artemis,” Darius and I say at the same time.

Bea flicks her wrist and magicks the Sherwood family cauldron out of thin air. It lands in front of her and Juniper with a gentle thud. The liquid spell inside it is already bubbling, and the power wafting off it makes my skin buzz.

Usually, we brew up our most significant hexes in the kitchen as a family using the cauldron that’s belonged to the Sherwoods for hundreds of years. Each of us holds hands as we work the spell, and you can feel the generations that came before you, the family members scattered across the globe, and the hope for the future flowing through from one Sherwood to the next.

I’ve never seen the cauldron outside our house before, and the fact that Bea and Juniper brought it with them means they are about to work some amazing magic. I almost hate to miss it, but we need to help Artemis.

Now.

“Oh, don’t worry about us,” Juniper says before a ladle appears out of nowhere. “We’ve been cooking since Leona told us you’d taken off after the Aetos pack to retrieve The Liber Ubrarum—never mind that she’d totally swapped it out for one of Barkley’s feathers. Oh my, she always has something up her sleeve. I love it.”

“Juniper here broke out some of her most arcane spells to make sure the Council can’t dodge the hex,” Bea says in a tone that should make the Council witches think twice about their life choices.

“What are you going to do?” Darius asks.

Bea grins, and I’m not sure if it’s her teal eye patch, the emotion of the moment, or exhaustion from running the blue moon gauntlet, but it’s the scariest thing I’ve ever seen.

“Only what these assholes deserve.” Then she takes the ladle from Juniper and starts to stir the contents of the cauldron as the Sherwood family magic, in the form of a purple steam, rises. It swirls higher and higher until it’s above the tree line.

The Council witches flinch and look over their shoulders toward where the woods grow dark as the trees thicken as if calculating if they can do the flying witch bounce that far.

Yeah, fellas, that ship has sailed. You are right proper fucked.

“Whatever you two do to them,” I tell Juniper, “put it up on my WitchyGram. Show folks that these assholes aren’t invincible—not even close.”

“You got it,” she says with a grin that has a lot more spice than sweetness. “Now go.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Effie…

Darius transforms back to his human form and then takes my hand, holding on as we run as fast as we can through the woods. The trees are just a blur as we sprint around them. The leaves flying up in the air in our wake are like a cloud of dust following a race car on a dirt track. And the crisp fall air parts for us as we rush home to Arcadia.

By the time we get to the top of the hill overlooking the village, the moon is a barely blue orb in the night sky. We crouch down next to an overgrown blackberry bush and take stock of the situation. Unlike the illusion of Arcadia that Kyle had created, the real one is a brightly lit hive of activity.

A crowd of pack members are gathered at the park, several groups are walking up and down Main Street, and others are lingering near the roads that lead into town. I don’t sense any Council witches in Arcadia, but that doesn’t mean the pack is acting of their own volition. There’s a strong chance that the same spell Kyle used to control the other werewolves that Darius discovered is still keeping the Aetos members under control.

Of course, the several dozen of Nikos’s supporters standing guard at strategic points around the village are probably bound by fucked-up beliefs. I’d argue that’s an even more powerful spell than any witch can weave. A hex can be undone, but it takes more than magic to get someone to admit to themselves that they were bamboozled by a power-hungry charlatan.

All the lights hanging around the gazebo’s roof have been angled so they form a spotlight on Artemis, who stands alone on the bottom step. Her hands are tied together with a thick rope, but her head is unbowed. She’s lit up with the gazebo lights like a Fourth of July firework to draw Darius to where there’s no doubt a trap set up.

No sign of Nikos.