AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It wasn’t crazy, but it was certainly unexpected. Few humans realized that they weren’t at the top of the food chain.
“What made her believe in them?”
Destiny hunched her shoulders. “She was deciphering some old text she’d found in a spell book. She claimed it revealed that there was demon blood in the world. And that it infected people to make them super strong and even gave them immortality.”
“She must have misinterpreted the text,” Peri hedged.
“That’s what we all said.” Destiny shook her head in disgust. “Brenda refused to listen, insisting that there was some sort of magic in the ground that could give us the same power as the demons.”
Peri shared a startled glance with Valen. It was one thing to believe in demons. Many human religions included them in their tenets. But humans should be oblivious to the fact that they lived side by side with them. And that the demons were capable of tapping into the magic of the Gyres.
“Where is this strange text?” Valen demanded.
“In here.”
Destiny moved to the side of the barn, sweeping away a layer of straw to reveal the hatch carved into the floorboards. She bent down to tug it open, but even as she was reaching into the opening, Valen had moved to stand next to her.
“No. I’ll get it.”
“Okay.” Destiny stumbled back, landing on her butt before she was instinctively scrambling to put space between her and Valen.
She didn’t know that Valen was a vampire, but she could easily sense he was a dangerous predator. It pulsed in the air around him.
“You said my mother was searching for some magical object.” Peri once again claimed the witch’s attention as Valen reached into the hole to pull out an ornately carved wooden box.
Peri recognized it. Her mother kept rare spell books and objects of power in the ancient case. Usually protected by a potent curse. Valen glanced in her direction and she gave a small shake of her head. The curse would have ended with the death of her mother, but there was the possibility that she’d placed other layers of protection around the box.
They wouldn’t hurt a vampire, but they might destroy the contents inside.
“Brenda tried to tap into the supposed magic in the ground, but nothing worked,” Destiny answered Peri’s question. “Not until last week.”
Peri turned toward the witch, who’d moved until she was on the opposite side of the barn from Valen, her arms wrapped protectively around her waist.
“What happened last week?”
“She returned from her latest trip with a small marble statue in the shape of a white owl. Brenda was certain it was special because an owl represented wisdom.” Destiny’s lips twisted. “I assumed it was going to be yet another failure.”
“It wasn’t?”
“Brenda told us that it was working. First, she used it to light the fire in the main lodge. It looked spectacular, but even I can light candles. None of us were that impressed.” Destiny shrugged. “Next she claimed she used it to create a simple glamour spell that not only gave the illusion she was blond, but genuinely bleached her hair of color. It was supposedly proof that she’d tapped into the wild magic that mages used.”
“Was her hair blond?”
“Yes, but she could easily have bleached it herself to fool us,” Destiny said.
Peri snorted. That was the sort of talk that could get a witch tossed out of the coven. Or worse.
“Did you mention your suspicion?”
A dark flush replaced Destiny’s pallor. “Not to Brenda, but someone must have told her what I said.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Last night she called for the coven to gather in here so they could combine their magic.” Destiny tilted her chin, her expression defensive. “I wasn’t invited.”
Peri nodded. If the witches were melding their magic into one spell, that would explain why they were standing in a circle. They would have been holding hands as they chanted the words, with the object of power in the middle of the floor.
“My mother wanted them to combine their magic to do what?”
