Ash

“Maybe,” I said softly. The snow in front of me crystallized with my breath. With each inch we crept closer, I could feel the earth tremble around us. There could be none other than Cassava causing this tremor. I peeked over the edge of the hill into the valley. A fire blazed up from the center of five standing stones. While not near the size of the ones on the British Isles, they would still be over my head by a good three feet. I watched closely as a figure cloaked in red walked around the fire, teasing it with her hands. I shook my head. What game was she playing? And where the hell was Peta?

At her feet, she kicked something and I froze. Peta. The bound captive let out a whimper.

I loosened my swords so they would give me easy access if need be. The problem was, I was late to the game.

Cassava let out a wild laugh and yelled into the storm. “Let them fear me, let them know the power that is mine. I will hold back no longer. The world will tremble and I will be its new queen of the darkness.”

Now or never.

CHAPTER 13

round us the ground heaved, bucking hard as she lashed it into an earthquake that rocked through the countryside. I bolted forward, down the slope while her back was to me. If I could get to her fast enough, I could knock her out and that would be that. In theory, at least, that was possible.

I made it to the first standing stone and pressed my back against it, breathing hard. The world shook and bucked like a wild horse trying to throw a rider.

“Bend for me!” she screamed into the wind. I looked out into the swirling snow to see Norm crouched, uncertain. I made a sign for him to stay where he was. He gave a tight nod and then flattened to the ground.

I did a quick look around the standing stone. She still had her back to me. Now was the time. I leapt out and around the stone, tackling her to the ground. We rolled and she screeched as I scrambled to get a hand in her thick hair. Under the cloak I drove my hand, snagging a huge handful of . . . white-blond hair. I didn’t pause even while I knew it wasn’t Cassava. Wild blue eyes stared up at me, all but frothing in anger as she stared me down, her lips moving in a spell. I whipped her back, slamming her head into a stone. Her eyes rolled and she slumped. The red cloak spilled open to show her wearing nothing underneath; she was as naked as the day she was born.

“Norm, calm the weather, please.”

Seconds later the wind and snow died and I found myself staring at the blonde witch. The earthquake eased off too, and I put a hand to the ground, asking it to slow its wild ride. And to ignore the witch when she called to it again.

“Please, let me go. Please.” The whimper came from the one bound on the ground. The one I’d thought was Peta, like the fool I was.

I went to his side and took a good look at him. There was blood on his arms and legs where she’d bound him tightly. His Romanian was accented oddly. “Where are you from?”

“Russia, my name is Peter.” He rubbed at his arms and legs as I freed him. It was only then that I saw the large bite on his right shoulder. I put a hand to it. “You are from Russia, and why are you here in Romania?”

Peter swallowed hard a few times before answering. “I came to visit my sister, Mala. But I was waylaid before I ever reached her. Attacked by wolves, of all things.”

“Peter!” The cry came from the slope and Mala bolted downward. Peter stood, wobbled and held out a hand to the witch.

“You’re alive!”

She buried her face into his chest, sobbing. I tried not to think that perhaps it was a game to her, that she’d used me to find him. But it didn’t seem to be that way. I put a hand on him. “Take your sister and go. And be warned, Peter. That bite you bear is one of the wolf. You will not be human after this night.”

His face blanched so he was as white as the snow around him. “I am a priest, I cannot be a werewolf.”

“You are what your blood dictates. Do with it what you will, but you are going to be a werewolf.”

He closed his eyes and I wondered at his story, of how one sibling could be a witch, while the other sought out being a priest of God.

I shook my head. “Go, while you can.”

“But what about you?” Mala blinked up at me. I drew close to her, circling my hands around her shoulders. She leaned into me and I swiped my cloak back as she gasped. “I suggest you and your brother hurry so you don’t freeze to death.”

I settled the cloak around my shoulders, doing my best to ignore the smell on it, one of lilacs and crushed ginger. Spicy and sweet.

A thought rolled through my head. Take her. No one would know. The Yeti is too stupid to say anything.

I shook my head again, anger flaring through me. I strode over to where the blonde witch began to stir. I grabbed the cloak and stripped it off her, letting my anger drive me. I strode back to Mala and handed her the heavy cloak. She and Peter hurried away, though I could feel Mala’s gaze more than once as she looked over her shoulder.

I returned to the blonde spell caster on the ground. “Witch, you go too far.”

She groaned and rolled in the snow. Her bare skin beckoned to that voice that wanted me to break my loyalty to Lark. Terralings are known for loving more than one.

“No,” I snarled the word and grabbed the witch by the foot, dragging her with me. What did the voice think? That I would willingly betray Lark? I snapped the witch forward with a sharp jerk.

Her body rolled across the snow, stopping only when she hit the far standing stone. I realized then I wanted a fight. I wanted her to wake up so I could throw her to the ground and expel the anger raging through me, the complete frustration that made me unable to see clearly.