AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My fingertips tingled like they’d been asleep and were only now waking up. My fingernails glowed a faint orange color, and then red flames burst from my palm, engulfing my whole hand in crimson flame. It might have been scary to anyone who had never seen it before, but it was painless. At worst it made my palms a little itchy. Nothing compared to how much it could hurt to shift into my wolf form.
The light from my spell pierced the darkness in a way no flashlight could, casting a wide circle of warm red light around me.
“Go,” I whispered. Four small orbs appeared and darted off, one in each direction. If they found what I was looking for, they would shoot up like a flare gun, guiding me to exactly where I needed to go. They would only react to something I wanted to find, so if they bumped into anyone or anything else, they’d whizz right by it.
Once the orbs vanished into the trees, the flames faded from my hand and my skin was normal once again. It was a handy spell in that it only used up my own energy and didn’t need blood or other ingredients like bigger magic demanded. Just some words and focus.
It meant I could use the incantation to find my keys.
Not that I’d ever done that.
Okay, I’d done it a half dozen times. But only because I was utterly hopeless at leaving my keys in places where I would remember them later. What good was being a witch if I couldn’t use my magic to benefit myself from time to time?
The longer the orbs were gone without sending off sparks, the more worried I became. Either she wasn’t real, or she was a demon who had vanished into the ether. Both options frightened me to no end.
But she’d touched me. I’d felt her ruined skin on my cheek.
There was no way I was imagining that.
“Genie?” A quiet voice broke through my reverie, and I glanced back to see Magnolia approaching through the trees. Behind her a few other pack members had followed, drawn by my scream. No sign of Ben or Callum though, so they couldn’t have been too worried.
Magnolia’s cheeks were flushed, and when she reached me, she placed a hand on each of my arms, her eyes grazing over me to make sure there was nothing amiss.
“I’m okay,” I promised.
“We heard ya scream.” Randall, a middle-aged werewolf I’d known most of my life, came up behind Mags. He looked rattled, but seeing me in one piece made him soften visibly, like letting his guard down took physical effort.
I felt terrible for frightening them, but I was glad they were here. The mere presence of other wolves calmed my nerves.
“An’ I saw yer little light show,” added Marshall, Randall’s younger brother. At least by now everyone was used to a fireworks display every now and then. They’d all come to accept the magic as a part of who I was.
Once I’d assured them I wouldn’t be blowing up any more cabins, that is.
Not having to explain or deny my powers was one of the nice things about being at home as opposed to being in Tulane. Cash had enough trouble with the werewolf stuff, so I’d decided to leave witchcraft on the back burner for the time being. And there were still religious groups out there who associated being a witch with being a devil worshipper.
Being a were-witch would probably put me on a lot of top-ten lists for biggest monster in America. I’d be the poster child for why the world was suddenly in a handbasket on its way straight to hell.
No thank you.
So I kept my powers on the DL unless I was around people who already knew about them. The pack, my sister and her colleagues. It was a short list, and I intended to keep it that way.
“I thought I saw something and came out here to check on it. Turns out I was wrong.”
A shrill popping sound grabbed all our attention, and we watched as a spray of glittery red light rained down a couple hundred meters away, near where the old manor house was.
Panic tightened my chest. The lights had found something, but now that I had the backup I’d been craving before, I didn’t want to take them out there. I also didn’t want to go alone.
“An’ what was that all about?” Marshall asked.
Instead of telling them what the seeking orbs were really doing, I fibbed. “Guide lights. I thought if I was going to keep walking around, it might be a good idea to see where I was going. That’s all.” I was a terrible liar, but it was close enough to the truth they might buy it. The truth was, I’d seen the face of the thing following me, and even though I wanted to know what she was, I was afraid to face her again, with or without them.
“You sure you didn’t see anything?” Randall asked. “With those Church freaks gunnin’ for us, maybe we ought to send folks out to check.”
“It wasn’t the Church.” I glanced back in the direction of the raining light, feeling woozy.
Mags must have sensed my nerves because she put her hand over mine and squeezed gently, bringing my attention back to them. “Let’s go back.”
“Okay.” I was going to have to accept that I’d lost the woman for now. Until the next time she came after me, that is. I let Mags get a couple steps ahead of me then whispered the closing incantation of the spell. “Your job is done.”
