Ash

With a flutter of her eyelids, she was on the ground, and then as suddenly she was standing, her feet hovering above the ground. “You stupid, stupid man.”

I narrowed my eyes and pulled a sword even as I held out the other hand over the ground. “I am no human, witch. And you would be well advised to beg for mercy now before I destroy you completely.”

Her laugh was clear, free of whatever power she’d pulled on to cause the quake. “Oh, please. Since when has a man had the balls to truly take out a witch? We will be halfway through this fight and your dick will be leading the way, begging you to fuck me.”

I pulled a dagger and threw it, snapping it forward between one heartbeat and the next. The blade buried deep into her upper right arm, straight into the bone. She gasped and stared as the brilliant red blood flowed down her pale skin and dripped onto the snow.

“I don’t think that was a prank,” Norm muttered from somewhere behind me. I was beyond caring. Someone was playing with my head, trying to force me to bed women I had no interest in. Raven or Cassava, I wasn’t sure which, but it didn’t matter. I’d learned in the past that pure rage, an anger hot and bright, helped to hold the control at bay.

I circled around the blonde witch. “Cassandra, if that is even your name, you would destroy this world.”

“I would raise it up to greatness. I will lead, boy, and you will be on your knees, begging to kiss my feet.” She pulled the dagger from her arm and tossed it away. Foolish move to throw out a weapon that could save her life.

Her hands swept up, and with them came a wave of snow. I dropped to my belly as a bloom of fire raced over my head. Norm yelped and I wanted to look and see if he’d been hurt. Just the thought of the Yeti being injured because of this stupid, pride-filled witch was enough to spur me forward.

I called the earth under the witch’s feet and the vines and plants that had been dormant for the season wrapped around her legs, yanking her to the earth. I flicked my hands back and forth, weaving the foliage over her until she couldn’t move. I bent over her head and stuffed her mouth with moss, making sure to jam enough in that gagging it out wasn’t an option. She glared up at me, fury making her brilliant blue eyes glitter.

“You, witch, are going to die.”

“Wait.”

I spun and stared into the darkness. I knew that voice.

Raven.

CHAPTER 14

“ou piece of shit, Raven,” I roared, and Norm roared with me, though he didn’t seem to be injured at all. His eyes, though, told me he thought this was a part of the game.

“I am so surprised you even got this far, to be honest.” Raven’s voice flickered to me from around the standing stones. Coming from all directions at once. I slowly turned, trying to identify just where in the seven hells he was. But there was no set place unless I kept him talking. That was my only chance to pin him down.

“What, do you not wish to face me, Raven?”

His laughter bounced and echoed in the icy cold air. “Not really. I wish only to save the girl at your feet. I think she has potential. I like her. I like blondes, as you well know.”

My jaw ached from clenching it so hard. “So you save her from me, and the world pays a price. Even you must see she is mad.”

“Ah, well, that is debatable. Perhaps I could train her. Show her a new way to use her power. I’m a good trainer, actually. I have a knack for it.”

I grinned slowly, understanding. “You want her?” I whipped my blade out and had it pressed to the back of her neck. “Then I think perhaps you’d best give me what I want.”

A sigh slipped from him, and he stepped out from behind the standing stone farthest from me. “Ash, you don’t understand. Nothing is as you see. I still can’t figure out why you are going after my mother.”

I frowned at him. “You told me to. You told me she was the one whose death would free us all.”

“I did no such thing.” He shook his head and his blue eyes widened. “Oh, I see. Someone’s been messing with your head.”

“You have, you little piece of shit,” I roared, feeling the cracks in my mind. Years at Cassava’s mercy had been tempered only by the time I was able to spend away from the Rim.

Lark’s father was not the only one who’d been manipulated and forced into doing things they’d rather not.

I shook where I stood, but I did not remove my blade from the witch’s neck. It did not matter who had tried to manipulate me, they were right. Cassava needed to die. “Tell me where your mother is. Tell me where she is keeping Peta and I will let the witch live. Swear to me on the embrace of the mother goddess you will not interfere with my quest and I will let her live.”

“You think that the witch means that much to me?”

I watched his face, saw the slightest tic under his eyes. “I do. For some reason, you are drawn to her, though why, I cannot fathom.”

His shoulders hunched. “Damn it, you Enders are far too good at reading people.”

I pressed the blade, and the witch screamed as it sunk a ways into her flesh.

Raven’s eyes were panicked. “I swear it on the embrace of the mother goddess, I will not interfere. I will . . . let you carry out your fool’s quest.”

I snapped my fingers and the vines over the witch swept away. She pushed to her knees and glared at me as she spat out the moss. I had until her mouth was empty and she could get a spell spun, even I knew that much. But I had to ask one last question.