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But as the road began to curve to the right, an idea stirred. I increased my pace just enough to gain some ground on my watcher without being obvious about it. When I was far enough around the curve and out of their immediate sight, I ran into the front yard of the nearest house and squatted down behind a thick camellia bush.
My watcher drew closer. I couldn’t see them, couldn’t hear them, but I could feel them. Or, rather, feel their aura. It was sharp, bitter, and angry.
If it was either Janice or Molly following me, why was she feeling the latter when it came to me? Or was anger simply an overall part of her nature? If Roger’s comments were anything to go by, she was either emotionally or mentally unstable, and being fired certainly wouldn’t have helped either of those.
Given the fact that, according to Maelle, there was absolutely no magic in her blood, then Janice or Molly or whatever her true name was had to be working closely with the witch responsible for the soul eater and the magic I was sensing.
And that, in turn, meant the answers we so desperately needed could finally be had—but only if I could successfully capture the bitch.
She drew closer. While the energy crawling through the air was nowhere near as dark as the spirit it had called forth, it nevertheless scratched across my senses and itched at my skin. The closer she drew, the more I felt the need to shower.
I did my best to ignore the sensation, and held my position. A few minutes later, across the other side of the road, a shadow flitted from behind one tree trunk to another, and then paused.
I waited. Until that shadow came out from behind cover, there was little point in releasing my spell. Incantations designed to immobilize did have some pretty severe restrictions, the worst of which was the fact the whole spell had to hit them directly. If they moved at the wrong moment and were caught only by the edge, it wouldn’t work.
For several long minutes, neither of us moved. Then the figure stepped out from behind the tree and raced along the side of the road to the next one, which was one house up from where I was hiding.
That figure was not only very human, but also very definitely female.
I rose and, once she was past my position, silently moved out to the road. The dark-clothed figure had almost reached the safety of the next strand of trees. I raised my hand and silently launched the spell at the biggest part of her body—her back.
At the very last moment, she must have sensed something was wrong, but instead of jumping sideways, she simply spun around. The spell thumped into her chest, eliciting a grunt of pain as the force of it knocked her off her feet. She hit the ground with another grunt, and immediately tried to scramble to her feet. But the threads of the spell spread across her torso like wildfire, forming a net that quickly attached itself to the ground. Though she writhed and fought, she couldn’t escape.
She also didn’t fit the description of Molly I’d been given.
I got out my phone and called Aiden.
“What’s wrong?” he immediately said.
“Someone was following me. I just netted them.”
“Where?”
“Just beyond the road’s curve.”
“I’ll be there in a few minutes—Tala’s just arrived, and I need to update her.”
Meaning there was another way in and out of this area, because she certainly hadn’t driven past us. I hung up, shoved my phone into my pocket, and approached the woman.
“You’d better release me, bitch, or you’ll fucking regret it.”
I raised my eyebrows but didn’t immediately answer. The color was high in her cheeks and her eyes sparkled with rage and something else. Something that ebbed and flowed, changing her eyes from blue to green and back again.
Magic. Concealing magic, although the spell wasn’t the strongest I’d ever seen, given the fracture that was revealing the true color of her eyes.
But the foul feel of magic I’d felt earlier was still very much in evidence underneath the pulsing of my net. It wasn’t a part of her spirit or her soul, though, as both mine and Belle’s was. This woman wasn’t a witch.
And that, in turn, meant the concealment cha
rm she wore had indeed been created by someone else—probably the same someone who controlled the soul eater.
I squatted beside her. Her foot jerked toward me, but was stopped abruptly by the net. There were two very thin layers of energy covering her from head to foot, which suggested there were two spells being used, not just one.
There were no charms around her neck, which in itself was unusual given the dark forces these people were dealing with. My gaze drifted down her length, but it was only when it reached her worn leather boots that I felt it. I might not be able to see past leather, but I didn’t really need to. Hiding charms under the arch of the foot was an age-old trick of witches, and the dark pulse coming from hers certainly confirmed that was where the source of this woman’s magic lay.
My gaze rose again. “What’s your name?”
“None of your goddamn business,” she snarled back. “You are so dead. Just you wait and see.”
