Page 91 of Magic's Rise

His dark brows arch. “You couldn’t have figured that out faster?”

I jab a finger into his face. “Do you want to be the witch here?”

He smirks down at me. “With the amount of training I have, I’d be a better one than you.”

“Rude!” I pound a fist against his chest, which makes him flinch not at all.

Since he’s not moving, I walk around him, grumbling about my grandma’s mental state when she trained a wolf shifter as her apprentice while we trek back to where we started and head in the opposite direction.

Here, the dark spots become more frequent, breaking up the silver lines of magic until only a few threads cling together.

“Guys, I think we’re almost there!” I bounce forward, excited to reach the weakest point in the barrier.

“Rowe, stop!”

Aspen’s shout cracks through the quiet of the forest, and I freeze with one bare, dirty foot poised in the air.

Heart pounding, I peer at him over my shoulder. “What’s wrong? Are we playing Green Light Red Light now?”

“No. Carefully step backward and put your shoes on.” He limps to the front of the line. “The woods ahead are poisoned.”

“Poisoned?” Concern furrows Levi’s brow. “The physical kind? Not magical?”

“Yes, I believe so.” Aspen stares at the trees in front of us. “We need to be extra careful moving forward.”

Haut brings me my socks and shoes, and I lean against him, wiping away the dirt that clings to my feet before slipping them back on.

As we venture deeper, the surrounding foliage lose their fullness, and dry pine needles crunch beneath our feet. They turn from green to brown, and the constant tingle I attributed to the cold fades away.

The magic here is dying, and when it does, it will take the barrier with it.

We come to a stop surrounded by a dead forest.

A bewildered expression twists Levi’s features. “How did we miss this? We’ve searched this area before in our quest to figure out what was happening to the barrier.”

“The poison may not be magical in nature, but there’s a spell at work here.” Aspen leans heavily on his stick. “I felt an aversion toward moving forward, like something was telling me to go around. If Rowe hadn’t been leading the way, I would have avoided it.”

Levi opens his mouth to protest, but then pauses and nods thoughtfully. “You know, now that you mention it, I would have done the same.”

Tris and Haut nod in agreement.

“Is it like the misdirection spells we set when the huntsmen invaded Hartford Cove?” I ask, recalling how we’d used magic to funnel our enemy toward Front Street, where we had an ambush in place.

Aspen shakes his head. “No, this spell isn’t as powerful, which is why I almost missed it. For someone like a wolf, though, who relies heavily on instinct, it would turn them away.”

Levi’s hands clench into fists, coals simmering in his pupils. “Would it turn an earth witch like Elana away?”

Aspen hesitates before nodding. “It would affect weaker witches.”

“Ugh, that woman!” I kick the dead needles at our feet. “She’s a giant pain in the ass!”

“We don’t have proof that it’s her,” Aspen says. “Let’s focus on what we do know.”

“We know she’s holding her coven hostage and that she’s a weak leader who needs to be replaced.” I take deep breaths, trying to keep my frustration in check. “So, what’s our next step? How do we fix this?”

A gust of wind rattles the dying branches above us, sending a shower of brittle needles to the ground.

Tris brushes debris off his shoulders. “Is it even possible to heal these trees? They look like they’re about to fall over any second.”

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