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A creeping sensation works over my body, and I can’t stop looking around, trying to find the pair of invisible eyes I can feel crawling over my skin. Next to me, Merritt shudders. “I think someone is following us,” she murmurs, so quietly I hardly hear her.
I nod in agreement and resist the urge to look over my shoulder again, before activating the communication rune.
One of you isn’t stalking us through the woods by any chance, are you?
The answer from Hardin is swift.No. Where are you?
On the path in the woods, closer to town than campus.
We’re coming, love.
I glance over at Merritt, and she’s already looking at me, so I know she heard him too.
We amble along, trying not to rush, but going faster than we’d started. The feeling of danger grows and grows until we’re fast walking, and then jogging and then running, without really even realizing it.
Merritt stumbles, tripping over something. I try to keep her standing to keep her moving forward, but she crashes to the ground and I fall with her, rocks biting into my skin even through the fabric of my jeans. I scramble up, tugging her with me, but she’s dead weight.
“Shit! Merritt.” I roll her over and find her eyes closed, her skin pale. “Dammit. Please wake up. Please.” I tap on her cheek as if that will help, but I already know it won’t. She didn’t hit her head when we fell. Whatever is happening to her is magical. I have a crap ton of protections on me, but Merritt doesn’t.
A growl rolls out of me and I bolt to my feet, hands fisted at my side. “You might as well come out, Morgan, you piece of shit!” I shout, turning in a circle, trying to see what direction the attack is going to come from.
Nothing. There is no response, no movement. No sound in the forest. All the birds and squirrels and even the bugs are silent. “Come on! Come face me!”
Movement along the trail closer to the campus draws my attention. The flash of a shaved dark head. My body relaxes as I recognize the person coming toward us, and I drop next to Merritt, returning to trying to revive her.
“Cohen!” I call. “Help me, please. Something’s wrong with Merritt.” I don’t say that it’s a spell. Cohen doesn’t know that magic exists, but he’ll still help me get her to safety.
His footsteps pound closer, and he drops onto the ground next to me, his hands hovering over my friend. “What happened?”
I swallow. “I don’t know. She just collapsed.” Truth.
His brow lowers as his hands continue to hover. “She’s been hexed.”
My heart stops. My body goes cold. “I’m sorry, what?”
Cohen lifts his ice green eyes to my hazel ones and I see it then, the shift, the knowledge. He knows. He knows what I am, what I can do. And he knows that because he can do it too. “Don’t act dumb, Rosalind. It doesn’t suit you.”
I nod. “Okay, yes, fine. She’s been hexed. Can you help her?”
He nods slowly, his ice green eyes running over me. “I can. But I need you to do something for me first.”
“Anything. What do you need?” I expect him to tell me he’ll need my help with the counter spell, or he needs me to help him find the right ingredients or something.
“I need you to cut all the spells connecting you to your boyfriends.”
I jerk away from him. Not far, because I can’t leave Merritt, but far enough to put some space between us. “What?” the word hisses out of me at the same time betrayal rips through me.
I thought he was my friend. I thought he would protect me. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why he would do this.
Cohen’s jaw hardens. “You heard me, Ro. Cut all connections to them, and I’ll undo the hex on Merritt.”
I shake my head. “Why would you do this?”
He leans forward, gaze burning into mine. “Because you and I need to have an honest chat, and we can’t do that if they’re breathing down our fucking necks. Cut the connection.”
Merritt lets out a whimper of pain, and I immediately bend over her trying to soothe her, even though I know it won’t do anything. I glare up at Cohen and he looks back at me impassively. “Fine.” I agree. “But if you hurt her, I will kill you, Cohen. I swear, I will.”
“Noted.” He nods once. My eyes slip closed. I activate the communication rune one last time and shove an image of what is happening at this moment toward the four guys on the other end.
