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“No. I just want you to lock the door and get some damn sleep. I’ll give a mental yell if I need any help.”
“Yell loud, otherwise I won’t hear you over the protection spells around the bedrooms.”
The wisp darted between us then spun away.
“I think it’s urging you to get a move on,” she added.
“I think you’re right.” I clattered down the stairs after it but detoured into the reading room to grab Belle’s knife and the backpack. After tonight’s events, I wasn’t about to head anywhere without more immediate means of protection. Incantations were all well and good, but they weren’t of much help in situations that gave you no time for spelling.
Once outside, the wisp darted forward, forcing me to run or risk losing it. I wasn’t entirely surprised to discover it was leading me back to Kalimna Park. Once again the trees grew close, their branches looming overhead and blotting out the moon’s light. It didn’t matter, because I
could feel her power pulsing through my blood.
The wisp finally dived off the road and into the trees. I slowed and followed. I’d already crashed through this place once—I had no desire to repeat the process, especially when I had no idea what lay at the end of this journey.
The wisp darted back and forth, seemingly determined to make me hurry. I tripped over a couple of times but did at least avoid getting my clothes snagged or my face cut this time.
Once again the land began to rise, and a sense of déjà vu hit. We were approaching the clearing in which I’d found Karen.
Trepidation stirred. I caught the flyaway ends of my coat and hugged them closer, but it didn’t make me feel any warmer. Didn’t do anything to ease the growing conviction that death once again would be found in that place.
We reached the top of the hill and the trees once again thinned out. The wisp shot forward, just as it had the first time, its bright light flooding the clearing.
Lying in the middle of it was Anna’s broken and bloody body.
Chapter Ten
I fought the instinct to run over to her. The specter of death wasn’t hovering nearby, which meant she was hurt and unconscious rather than in any immediate danger of dying, and it was more than possible that this was yet another trap.
I studied the clearing through narrowed eyes but couldn’t see any indication of evil. Nor was there any sort of shimmer to indicate magic was present, although remnants of it floated in the air, the broken threads glinting softly whenever the wisp’s cool light caressed them.
I carefully moved forward. The wisp spun in a quick circle, once again urging me to hurry. I didn’t. I had no idea what had happened here, and no desire to run into any more trouble. I might not be able to see any active spells, but those floating thread remnants indicated magic had been in use. And while I’d undergone full witch training—up until I’d fled Canberra and my family, anyway—I had no doubt there were avenues of magic, and mountains of spells, that I had absolutely no awareness of. It was more than possible that these threads were not actually broken, but part of one such spell.
The closer I drew to Anna, the more apparent it became that she’d been caught in some sort of explosion. Much of her upper chest had been burned—and, in some places, quite badly. I grabbed my phone and called in the medics, then stepped warily into what remained of the protection circle. While most of its energy had seeped out through the break, the remaining remnants spoke of its power. It was far stronger than anything I could have formed, and yet it hadn’t been able to withstand the force brought against it.
If I had attempted to unravel the spell around the bloodstone, I probably would have ended up dead rather than merely burned and broken.
The wisp’s light began to pulse, its rhythm matching Anna’s increasingly erratic breathing. I scanned the inner sanctum of the pentagram yet again, and then took that final step, my heart pounding so fiercely I swear it was trying to tear out of my chest. Nothing untoward happened, but I didn’t dare relax. This attack, like almost every other one the vampire had been involved in, spoke of planning. I wouldn’t put it past him to have placed a final “gotcha” to ensure his scheme did not go awry a third time.
Close up, Anna’s condition looked even more critical—there were some areas of skin so severely burned it looked charred. Had the pendant exploded? It would certainly account for her injuries, though surely any such spell would have been so intense—so metaphysically heavy—that someone with Anna’s knowledge should have at least seen the trigger before she tripped it.
I dug out the two bottles of water I had in the backpack, pulled the stopper off the holy water, and carefully poured it over the worst of her burns. I had no idea if it had any advantage over regular water, but if it did, then those areas certainly needed it. When it was gone, I continued the process with the drinking water, until the remnants of her shirt was soaked and the tremors assailing her eased just a little.
Until the medics got here, there was nothing else I could do for her other than keep an eye on her breathing and hope she didn’t go into full shock.
I got out my phone again, and called Aiden.
“Liz?” His voice was husky and tired. “Is there another problem?”
“Yes—I just found Anna. She’s badly hurt but alive.”
“Fuck,” he all but groaned. “What’s happened?”
“She tried unpicking the magic on that bloodstone pendant I found.”
Sheets rustled as he climbed out of bed—which surprised me, given the full moon. Tired or not, I would have thought he’d be out running under the moonlight with the rest of his pack.
That other, more foolish part of me also noted there was no background murmur of protest, or indeed any other sound to indicate that he was sharing the room with another. It certainly didn’t mean there wasn’t someone in either his life or his bed, but the ridiculously attracted part of me couldn’t help hoping that was exactly what it meant.
