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I blinked once.
“Can I shoot her? The one who froze you? Gunner? Nora?”
I blinked twice.
“Damn it.” Harlow crouched as a chair flew past us. She looked down at me. “Your husband is raging.”
I tried to turn my head to see him, to see anything, but it wasn’t working.
“Stop her. No bullets,” Harlow yelled.
“Aw, man,” a voice grumbled. “Ask the boss about stabbing.”
I blinked once.Stab away,I thought to myself. Hopefully, they all had the sense not to stab anything vital.
Harlow reached down and brushed powder off my face. Within moments, I could turn my neck. I wasn’t sure there was a connection, but I started shaking my head. Alchemy was connected to what I practiced, but it was also the sort of magic work that required herbs and tinctures more thanjustwill. I suspect, like a lot of similar fields, there was overlap.
Harlow threw a knife, looked down at me, and said, “Whatever is all over you is magic, right?”
I blinked once. I wasn’tsure, but a yes/no communication system was a bit limiting so I couldn’t say “maybe” or “probably.” And I was guessing Iggy was also frozen.
That left Beatrice as the only magic user. Now that I could turn my head, I could see her. She wasn’tflowing. It was as if the ancientdraugrwas moving through a thick vat of cold molasses. Whatever alchemical mix Nora was using, it was powerful enough to slow down Beatrice—who wasn’t giving up despite that sluggishness.
Nora, however, kept side-stepping thedraugr’s punches.
“Getting the magic off you is good,” Harlow prompted.
I blinked.
Harlow took in where I looked and my facial expressions as I struggled to make my mouth shape words. Finally, I managed, “Dust…witches.”
“Rinseallthe witches,” they called. “Boss says so.”
With that, Harlow uncapped a bottle of tequila and dowsed me with it. Later I might wince at the cost of that bottle, but in the moment, all I could say was, “Thank you.”
No one seemed eager to do the same to Beatrice, but Iggy was promptly rinsed with a carafe of red wine and a bottle of milk that someone had fetched.
It felt like my muscles were slowly reactivating. I could move my hands, my arms, my legs. Iggy wasn’t as agile yet.
And Beatrice was still trying to attack Nora in her slow-motion way.
Eli was in command of the fae guards, protecting the lot of us as they tried to knock down Nora’s shield.
The old alchemist, however, was simply attacking everyone—like her pent-up rage bubble had found its way to her surface and she was experimenting with various herbs and sachets she’d had hidden in the myriad hidden pockets of her dress for a century or two. Every so often, she would glare at Iggy and sniffle.
“Nora, love,” he said, as his head was finally free of whatever spell she’d doused him with a few minutes ago.
“You made me break myvows.” She made a sound that was best described as a feral growl. “How could you?”
“No one made you do a damn thing, woman.” Iggy took a step toward her, and her hand raised as if she was going to strike him.
Honestly, I wasn’t sure what other herbs or poisons she had hidden, so I decided to remove her from the possibility of threatening anyone else. Iflowedtoward her fast enough that I knew it looked like teleportation to the humans in the room.
As I reached Nora, I wrapped my arms around her, stopping her from flinging anything else at the inhabitants of the room. Then, not slowing down, I crashed us through a window and into the yard below.
At least we didn’t put in that fountain, I thought, as we crashed into the earth.
“Release me,” Nora demanded.
