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Reality tapped into my brain. I was caught and I could die. Helpless. That was all I was.
We didn’t enter the house, but rather hurried to the far end of the property. The world was upside down, but the witch opened basement doors at the side of the home, revealing a faint light and descending steps.
Fuck!Theyweregoing to kill me and dump my body. I squirmed and kicked my legs as we headed underground.
The shifter shoved me higher on his shoulder, his arms like belts around my legs, pinning them to his chest.
The heavy stench of fresh dirt and mustiness assaulted my nostrils. Each moment seemed an eternity as I waited for someone to finish me.
But rather, we traveled down a sloped passage through a tunnel, leaving the basement behind. Ahead of us, the witch lead the charge, gripping a burning torch.
Tiny fragments of soil rained down from overhead. No one said a word, but we moved fast, and I bounced in the man’s arms, my gut aching from the angle of his shoulder digging into me. My head swam from the repetitive sway of my body, as if I were sailing on a boat in rough seas.
Fear sat in my chest, eroding every inch of confidence that I’d survive the night.
I closed my eyes and tried to remind myself that I had to live. If I’d made it through all these past years, I would do it again. Whatever the witch had in store, I’d… I hiccupped a breath all the way down to my lungs. Who was I kidding? How long had I been searching for a solution, and just as I’d closed in on finding the dragon-tooth dagger, this had happened?
Tears stung my eyes. I’d been running my whole life, searching for escape. Maybe that had been my mistake. Believing I would ever escape.
I shouldn’t have taken this job. Should have told Reed and Kahlo I’d watch the house first for a few days. Now I was useless to them and me.
We moved for what seemed a lifetime and my mind swayed in and out of consciousness. But when fresh air stroked my face, I stiffened and glanced around the woods. It was too dark to recognize the area. But we never stopped.
Soon, the dense woodland thinned, and we entered an open field. I lifted my head. A granite wall stuck out of the ground, the base encased by weeds. And up ahead stood my tower. I was back home.
My pulse raced. The witch had no intention of killing me, but imprisoning me once again. Best news ever. Imprisonment was better than dying.
He tossed me off his shoulder. I rolled off and hit the ground with a thud. The air expelled from my chest, and I arched from the sharp pain zapping across my shoulder blades.
The witch stepped closer, her disgusting grin widening as she drove the stick end of the torch into the ground near my head.
“Now, let’s fix this, shall we?” She raised both arms over me and mumbled something under her breath. She kept chanting, her eyes rolling upward to white pupils.
The ropes melted off my body. I scrambled backward, terror clinging to my chest, making breathing deeply impossible.
“Take her into the tower now!” she bellowed.
“No!” I cried out. “Please, just tell me why you’re doing this. What have I ever done to you?”
She tilted her head sideways, studying me with the curiosity one offered a dying animal they’d tortured. “You, little sparrow, helped your father steal my golden wig. So now you’re paying for your mistake.”
I crawled farther away, patting the ground for a weapon, and found a rock. “You killed him!” I bellowed. “That was punishment enough.”
The man by her side removed his shirt, revealing a barrel of a torso covered in excessive hair.Gross.He grunted, his shoulders curling forward. Then at once, his wings spread out from behind his back, wide and covered in feathers. Brown feathers spread over his shoulders and chest, while the rest of him remained human. He’d only partially shifted into his eagle form. I’d never seen one of his kind, as they were rare and lived high in the mountains peaks.
“It’s never enough.” The witch hissed. “For your father’s thievery, I own you.”
“Fuck you!”
She flicked a finger at the Eagle-Man, who marched toward me, and I scrambled to my feet. When he got close, I slammed the rock in my fist against the side of his face. The shifter snarled, smacking my arm aside, the rock falling from my hold. Blood dripped from the cut beneath his eye.
But he swooped closer, his body a blur. His arms clasped around my waist and dragged me into the air, his wings flapping.
I screeched in fear, floundering against him, throwing punches into his head, but he didn’t flinch once as he dragged me toward my prison. When I grabbed his magic choker, a zap jolted through me. Spams shuddered through me, and blackness crept around the edges of my vision.
Within moments, he’d tossed me through the open tower window, then vanished out of sight. I staggered to the kitchen, flung open my drawer, and plucked out the biggest fucking knife I owned.
I turned, but the witch already stood on my windowsill, the Eagle-Man hovering behind her. “You’ve been dabbling in magic. I taste it on my tongue like dirt.” Her nose scrunched. “But no matter. I’ll fix that now and return later to ensure you never escape again.”
