AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yes, it’s the same energy. I feel it now. Before, my magic was locked away until I remembered. I’ve never conceived in any life. Not until now.”
“River altered something when he killed himself instead of murdering me.” Sadie shakily put a hand to her mouth. “I think it’s time for the four of us to get reacquainted now.” She pressed her fingertips to River’s cool cheek, feeling him warm beneath her touch as he gasped, jerking forward.
River’s attention snapped to Skyler and Charlie, the dagger falling from his hand and clattering to the floor. “Our theory was right?” he asked Sadie, his breaths ragged.
She nodded, then told him everything that had happened since he’d vanished from the cabin, ending with what was recently revealed. “She’s carrying our baby. He’s alive inside her.”
“I didn’t mean to harm anyone,” Charlie said, her hand protecting her stomach as if River might rip their child right out of her.
“Keep him safe.” His gaze softened before hardening. “You need to break this hex. Remove the binds on our magic.”
“Charlie, please do it,” Sadie begged. “I promise I won’t hurt you or the child. But we need to rid ourselves of this hex.”
“Do it,” Skyler said.
Charlie nodded and closed her eyes, chanting a spell to remove the invisible binds. A hand seemed to reach deep within Sadie, peeling back layer after layer to release the binds on her magic. But then Charlie inhaled sharply, beads of perspiration gathering along her brow, her eyelids fluttering. “I can’t. The hex needs to be broken.”
“Then try,” Sadie pleaded.
“I did, but—”
Screeches tore through the air as cracks spread farther along the walls and dust rained from the ceiling. So close, too close.
“Strengthen the wards!” Sadie shouted to her sister.
Charlie recited the ancient spell as her body swayed. “It’s too late. The wards here are fracturing, and because of your past spells, I’m unable to place new ones. If we can make it back to the cabin, I can put some up there.”
Sadie cursed herself and her fear for protecting themselves so much so that they couldn’t even protect themselves now.
“The veil needs to lift.” River’s jaw tightened as small debris fell with the dust. Soon the entire ceiling would crash down on them.
Charlie’s lips moved, her words silent before she shook her head. “It isn’t lifting. We were all together past midnight here, and we all now remember. The spirits are feeding off that, becoming stronger. Our only chance now is to get to the cabin so I can put wards in place. Then we can figure out the rest.”
Fingers, silvery and crooked, pried their way through a crack in the wall. They were running out of time, especially since the spirits could touch them, force them to open their eyes and stare into their bloody orbs.
“Go!” River shouted, grabbing Sadie’s hand just as she collected the dagger from the floor. He pulled her with him toward the stairs while more silver twisted hands shoved through the walls around them. Charlie and Skyler were close behind as they rushed up the staircase. The screams echoed, following them, and she didn’t know how much time they had before the spirits would break free. That was if some weren’t already waiting for them at the top of the stairs.
As she and River hit the night air, there wasn’t a single silver form drifting above. The wind’s song howled, raging faster, a nervous tinge entwined with it. The trees surrounded them, bound together like they had been on other nights.
“They won’t let us climb them. I’ve tried. Can you open them with a spell, Charlie?” Sadie whispered, knowing if she couldn’t, there wasn’t a chance of escape. Not when a spirit could easily yank them back below ground.
Charlie closed her eyes, holding up a hand. “The trees are empty, but they are under the hex’s control, so I may not be able to. Let me see your dagger, and I’ll try.” She took Sadie’s blade and sliced it across her palm. Blood oozed from the wound, and she pressed her hand to a tree, then another, as she whispered a chant, asking them to part, if only for a few moments. Sadie didn’t think they would listen, but then the two trees leaned back, making an opening that left just enough room for them to scramble across.
Sadie and River slipped through after Charlie. She gasped just as Skyler stepped beside her. Bones lay scattered across the ground in every direction. Her gaze fell to a goat skull, and her chest tightened. The fiends.
“We needed to let go of them anyway,” River said. “It’s better for them to be released now.”
He was right—she knew he was, but it didn’t lessen the clenching of her heart. Unable to mourn their loss for now, she darted through the woods.
They picked up their speed, skirting around trunks to avoid the screeching that wasn’t far behind. Sadie leapt over a log, and a hand grabbed her by the hair, only unlike before, she was lifted off the ground, being pulled higher into the air. She writhed, shouting obscenities while piercing throbs radiated across her scalp. River didn’t miss a beat and scaled a tree, grasping her by the ankle just as she was about to be drawn even higher. He caught her when she fell, but they both tumbled forward, colliding in a heap along the ground. Pain shot up her spine, her scalp on fire. She grunted, pushing up from the dirt as the spirit shrieked.
They avoided looking at the spirit and sprinted, running faster, catching up to Skyler and Charlie. Around them, deep groans filled the woods as the trees twisted and turned, their branches unfurling, their roots lifting. Charlie held up her hand, pressing onto her wound for more blood while she chanted, not stopping but slowing the trees from latching onto them.
The cabin slipped into view, and they were so close when a spirit swooped down and plucked Charlie up by the neck as if she was a piece of fruit that it wanted to suck dry.
Sadie dove for Charlie, but Skyler shoved her to the side as another spirit shot out from behind a tree. He tore Charlie from the silvery form, pushing her toward River, who easily caught her.
When Skyler turned, the spirit was faster, curving in front of him. Skyler squeezed his eyes shut, and Sadie barreled forward, yet not quick enough as the spirit forced his lids open with its gnarled digits. Sadie latched onto the back of the spirit, not focused on if it were to whirl around and connect its gaze with hers—she only wanted it away from Skyler. The spirit was cold as ice, her own warmth stolen as she held on, numbing pain spreading from her fingertips up her arms. Charlie thrust the blade into its side, but the spirit didn’t so much as flinch.
