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That voice didn’t belong to Belle. It belonged to Katie.
She was hearing me, reaching me, through the energy we were both forever bound to.
I blinked and became aware of the dust, the wind, and the scent of blood once again. Aware of the trembling in Belle’s limbs, the leaching tiredness in her mind, and the dire pulsing of the outer barrier protecting the four men.
I sucked in a breath, then gathered all the earthly fire boiling through me and cast it over the pentagram. As tempting as it was to protect the entire clearing, doing so would not only entrap whatever hell the wraith’s spells had unleashed but also the creatures he had called.
I could kill them all, of course, but as much as I wanted to do so, I couldn’t use the wild magic to do it. I might never fully understand this connection or what it meant for me long term, but I was certain of one thing—killing, for whatever reason, when I was so intimately connected would forever stain her with darkness.
And that could change the earth itself.
The glowing curtain of wild magic fell between the protection circle Belle and I had woven and the one the four men had done. A heartbeat later, the outer circle went down, and the ungodly and the dead surged forward with a scream. I could barely see them through the dust that continued to batter the clearing, but every one of them hit my wall and was flung away.
They scrambled up and threw themselves back at the barrier again and again, but it was powered by the earth itself rather than my own inner wild magic, and there was no end to its strength as there was to mine. I would undoubtedly feel the effects of calling it to me later but, right now, I had bigger things to worry about.
Like forcing more strength into Belle so that she could remain upright and finish the banishment.
As the last words of the last line of the spell echoed across the night, a distant scream filled the air, the voice harsh and male.
Our wraith? Or his demon being dragged back to the hell from which it had come?
I had no idea, but we’d undoubtedly find out soon enough. Even without his demonic friends to boost his magic and his strength, the wraith was more than powerful enough to cause us problems. That had been evident the first time around, and I doubted death would have changed anything.
As the scream’s echoes faded, so did the undead creatures within the clearing. Only the dust remained, a swirling reminder of fury.
I released most of the wild magic back to the earth. Weakness washed through me, but I locked my knees and did my best to ignore the quivering in my limbs. I couldn’t give in to the weary exhaustion just yet. There was still too much that needed to be done.
Besides, while we might have finally won a battle, the wraith was far from defeated, and he would make us pay hard for our win here today.
Belle’s knees buckled. I lunged forward to grab her, then lowered her carefully to the ground. She sucked in a breath that shook her whole body and said, Check our moms.
I hesitated long enough to make sure she wasn’t about to slip sideways or fall unconscious on me, then cautiously stepped over the still-standing protection circle that Belle and I had raised.
I might as well have stepped into another world.
One that assaulted my senses with dust and blood and pain.
Fuck.
“Mom? Ava?” I shouted.
“Over here.”
It was Samuel who answered rather than either woman, and fear slipped through me. I ran toward the sound of his voice, the scent of blood sharpening in my nostrils with every step.
Three figures appeared in the gloom, two of them standing over a third. Mom.
“I’m fine. Truly, I am,” she was saying. “I’m just winded. Nothing more.”
That was a lie. I could smell blood on all three of them, and it was definitely human rather than demon. But they were alive, and that in itself was an utter miracle.
Perhaps one due more to the wraith seeking to stop the banishment ceremony than kill those on the periphery.
“Is Belle okay?” Ava said
“She’s fine. The ceremony just took a toll on her strength, and she’s beat.”
“Oh, good.” Ava pushed several sweaty strands of hair out of her face, smearing blood across her cheek and forehead in the process. Her hand had been sliced open and was bleeding quite profusely. “What about Edward? And the others? I can’t see them—”
