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She turned and the knife she held swung down and into Cassidy.
No!
The knife swung not into Cassidy but through her. His daughter was playing out of body again. Good girl.
Maisy had no more time. Rye slammed into the evil woman at full force; he grabbed her arms and pushed her out of the circle and away from his daughter before knocking her to the ground. She landed on her back, hard, losing her breath for a moment. Once she’d recovered she looked up at him, wide-eyed and looking like a bleedin’ librarian, not an evil witch.
How dare she threaten his daughter!
Prone, vulnerable, she dared to speak. “We could be good together, Rye. You and me, and Cassidy. We can be a family like no other. Look at you,” she whispered. “Half animal, half man, all dark power and so, so beautiful.”
He barely listened. The woman on the ground was nothing. She was no one. Without warning she swung the knife she continued to hold in one pale hand, aiming for his ankle, trying to bring him down.
She wasn’t fast enough. Not nearly fast enough. With one swipe at her throat with a hand that still possessed the claws of the animal she’d admired, Maisy was dead. The knife she’d managed to hold on to all that time dropped to the ground. The silver soaked up the power of the nearby stones; the blade shimmered, it danced and then it went dark. Dead. As dead as the woman.
Rye resumed his complete human form with a minimum of effort. No more fangs, no more claws. The power he had reclaimed remained, rushing through his blood. For the first time in years, he felt alive.
The snow stopped, but flakes had gathered on Maisy’s face and on her dark robe. Dead she looked...surprised.
He’d wanted her to suffer for what she’d done, but her death had come too quick, too easy. Not satisfied simply to kill the woman who had dared to threaten his daughter, Rye waved his fingers and sent a stream of white-hot flame at her body. Fire lit the night, illuminated the landscape before and around him. It took only seconds for the traitor to burn to ash.
With a twist of his hand he lifted the ash from the ground, creating a small whirlwind. He sent the dancing ash high, propelled it into the night sky until there was literally nothing left of Maisy.
Rye turned back to the circle. An alarmed Cassidy—not really Cassidy—disappeared.
Where was she? Close? Far? He knew she could manifest from a goodly distance, but she couldn’t have gone too far. Maisy wouldn’t have had her eyes off the prize for more than a few seconds. He returned to the center of the stone circle and turned about. Twice. His eyes scanned the shadows, the darkness. In an angry panic, he called her name. Nothing. No Cassidy.
He’d scared her; he’d revealed a part of himself that had been hidden for all her life. Taking a deep breath, reaching for calm, he commanded his daughter to show herself. Warily, she stepped out from behind the tallest stone.
“Da?” she asked, her voice trembling.
His daughter was so powerful, so amazingly special. Why had he kept her hidden away in this place? Together they could have anything, do anything. Money, power...what else was there worth having?
Love.
That thought was not his own.
He turned to watch Echo approach. He’d let his guard down and she’d slipped into his head. Again. Raintree bitch. She made him weak. She wanted him to be the shell of a man he’d been for so many years. He’d never again limit himself that way. Why had he ever allowed himself to be so weak?
“I thought I told you to go,” he growled.
“You did. I started to obey, I really did try. To be honest I’ve never been very good at obeying. I had to make sure Cassidy was all right.”
With a powe
r he’d all but forgotten racing through his blood, Rye realized that Echo was a threat. She was, perhaps, the only person who stood between him and everything the darkness wanted.
“She’s fine, as you can see. Go.”
“No.”
“I’ll rip out your throat,” he said in a calm voice. “I’ve done that once tonight and now I have a taste for it. Will you die as quickly and easily as Maisy did?”
She should be terrified, but she was not. Echo looked past him; she looked to Cassidy. “Your granny is coming to get you.”
“She’s close. I see her,” Cassidy said too softly.
“Run to meet her. I’ll take care of your da.”
