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Suddenly, I could feel her—Winnie. She was all right. She seemed excited. She was so close her feelings blurred into mine, and I gasped her name.
Alarmed, Zaide asked, “Little Cat, what is wrong?”
“She’s here,” I said, turning to where I could feel her, and pointed. “There.”
Coming out of the tree line, Winnie and Mary walked back toward their car. They looked happy. Both in shorts and strappy tops, they had their arms linked as they chatted.
As though they didn’t abandon me. As though they didn’t steal the fire from Savida and leave him for dead in a shed. I was angry, but I was also glad she was all right.
“Wait!” Charlie yelled and ran toward them. We followed, my pulse pumping in my throat.
Winnie is here!Our bond screamed gleefully at our closeness.
But I needed to find out if it was too late to stop her from becoming a murderer. And I needed to decide what I would do if she already was.
We approached them; the gravel crunching under our shoes. Winnie and Mary turned to face us; Winnie looked unnerved, but Mary didn’t seem fazed.
“Is there something wrong, officer?” Mary asked. Winnie looked curiously at me, and I twitched under her gaze. She could feel our bond, and I knew she didn’t understand why or how it was coming from a human.
From the flash of confusion, Charlie had clearly forgotten that Daithi cloaked him as a law enforcer, but he worked with it. “Yes, actually there is. You have something that belongs to a friend of ours.”
Winnie looked away from me and frowned at Charlie. She replied, “I can’t imagine what that would be. We haven’t been in the country very long.”
Daithi jumped in. “You stole it in the UK. We want it back. Now.”
Her eyes widened as she realized what we meant. Mary sneered. “No. Consider your friend dead.”
I stepped forward. “Winnie, please. If you give it back, this will all be forgiven, and we can go home.”
Mary glared and asked, “Forgiven?”
“Clawdia?” Winnie gasped. She looked at the others in horror when I nodded. “You turned my familiar into a human? Do you know what you’ve done?”
Daithi lost his temper and screamed, “Give us the fire you stole, witch! Now. Or die.”
Neither witch took his threats seriously and ignored him.
“How did you turn her human?” She looked at us with fresh eyes, and when she realized, she whispered, “the otherworlders.”
Suddenly, Daithi attacked with an illusion, but somehow anticipating such a move, Mary escaped the trap. Winnie sank inches into the ground, surrounded in a transparent box, the air taken from her lungs.
I felt her panic, and my terror doubled.
Daithi smiled smugly, while I struggled for breath. I dropped to the gravel, gasping.
Mary laughed. “You can’t kill Winnie without killing her familiar, too.”
Daithi answered immediately, “That is an acceptable loss.”
My heart dropped at the announcement. I knew he blamed me. I knew he hated me, but I didn’t think he’d want me dead.
Zaide dropped to the ground to gather me close and growled, “That is not an option.”
I gasped, trying to pull air into my lungs, but despite being in the open air, I suffered as my witch did. My heart rate increased as I observed the madness, the anger on Daithi’s face.
“Stop. You’re killing her!” Zaide shouted.
“She deserves death,” he hissed, glaring at Winnie.
