Page 2 of The Fearless Witch

‘She needs you to find her,’ I told myself as I took a step forward, feeling the heat encompass me. ‘You need to get in there now!’

Pain exploded everywhere at once, but I forced myself to keep going. The agony ate at the corners of my vision, the smell of burning hair and sizzling meat making my teeth grind until something cracked. Fear sneaked into my heart, but I pushed it away, leaving space only for iron will.

‘Faster, faster!’ I wanted to scream at my legs, but most of my throat had already melted and I couldn’t feel my lips.

I was almost at the stairs when my knees gave out, the muscles and flesh too far gone to support the rest of the body. My ribs shattered when I crashed onto the stone steps, but I ignored them, reaching a skeleton hand up to drag myself the rest of the way.

‘Just a little further! Just a few more steps!’

A shadow fell over me and the pain suddenly lessened, so I looked up with what was left of my eyes to see what was blocking the sun.

“Are you fucking insane?” a male voice snarled before a pair of arms roughly picked me up. The agony returned momentarily, but then darkness swooped in just as I was dropped on a hard surface. My relief only lasted a moment, frustration replacing it when I tried to sit up, realizing I barely had a body left. I was still here, which meant my heart was safe, but the rest…

Several blurry silhouettes leaned over me while I helplessly lay there, trying to force my regeneration to work faster. When my eyeballs began to repair themselves, I stared at the three horrified faces above me.

Lily. Chester. Isaac.

My butler said something and ran off without waiting for a reply, while Lily knelt beside me, squeezing my hand. Despite the green tint on her face, she looked more concerned than disgusted while she studied my ruined body. The very fact she hadn’t vomited or fainted told me I might have underestimated how much this human girl could take.

I focused my healing on my ears next just as Isaac crawled closer, the skin on his arms and naked chest covered with nasty blisters and fresh burns. He must have been the one to save me because there was no way a human could have moved me without hurting themselves terribly. For some reason, the pain in his gaze only seemed to grow even as he regenerated before my eyes.

“Is she dead?” he rasped. “Is that why you tried to kill yourself?”

I raised my eyebrows in shock—or tried to—but I couldn’t feel my face, and I wasn’t sure if I even had eyebrows to begin with. If he didn’t know whether she was alive or not, he must have felt something was wrong with her as well.

My vocal cords were still too damaged to speak, but I managed a weak shake of my head. Isaac’s shoulders drooped, and he ran a hand over his face. His entire body shook like he was about to shift.

“What’s going on?” Lily asked in a small voice. “We saw a strange light in the sky not long ago, and then there were alarms about security breaches. Chester took my family to the panic room, but I wanted to make sure…” Her eyes bore into mine again, but when I didn’t reply, she turned her attention to Isaac. “Who do you think is dead? You’re not talking about Celeste, are you?”

“I can’t feel her,” Isaac snarled, tugging at the roots of his hair as anguish twisted his features. “I can’t feel the damn bond! It just… disappeared! It was so unexpected, it knocked me out for a few minutes, but…” He licked his lips, staring unseeingly at the floor. “I should be dead. Why am I not dead?”

Lily’s already ashen face turned a few shades paler, but my chest filled with bitter relief. He should have been dead. I had seen the way he looked at Celeste, the way he acted around her, the way he gravitated toward her like she was his axis. There was no way he’d survive her death. So since he was alive… she had to be, too. The question was, what could sever both our bonds without killing her?

I closed my eyes, focusing on the dull ache that came with the healing. Sensation was creeping into my limbs with the ligaments and flesh slowly propagating, but I could still barely move. A frustrated breath whooshed between my parted lips and I opened my eyes, locking them on Lily just as she winced as if she was the one in pain.

This was taking way too long. I needed to heal faster.

“Bl...ood,” I rasped and Lily gave me a dumbfounded look before glancing down at her wrist and gasping with understanding. Her fear filled the air, pungent and deliciously inviting, but she still raised her hand toward my mouth with a determined expression. Before she could get it close enough for me to bite, Isaac snatched her elbow.

“I’m not letting my sister’s mate be killed in front of my eyes!” he snapped, pushing her to sit on the floor just out of my reach. “You look like death already. What’s wrong with you?”

“I… have a cold,” she murmured, dragging her cardigan tighter around her body.

Isaac snorted derisively, surveying her like he didn’t believe her. His jaw worked as he turned his attention to me, the struggle obvious on his face, and when he glanced down at my tattered body, something in his gaze shifted.

“Damn it! You fucking owe me for this!” he snarled, his eyes flashing golden as he ran his nail over his wrist, breaking the skin with ease. Balling his hand into a fist, he raised it above my face, holding his breath while he watched the first drop land on my lips.

I thought he’d taste vile, like most shifters I had tried, but when the bead slid over my tongue and down my throat, I realized it was… not bad. The way his power rushed through my body was almost as satisfying as when I drank from Celeste, but his nervousness and hatred for what he was doing made his blood bitter. Still, the more his life essence filled my mouth, the harder it got to resist the urge to sink my teeth into his flesh and suck him dry.

Seconds turned into minutes, silence filling the hall while the quiet drip-drip-drip of his blood and the loud drumming of their hearts kept me from succumbing to the blood frenzy. With every mouthful, I grew stronger, Isaac’s own healing factor no doubt aiding my recovery.

Through the haziness of my mind, I saw him sway, his eyes fluttering closed as he took a steadying breath. I tried to get up again and this time, I succeeded. Lily yelped at my abrupt movement, but Isaac just blinked, looking down at his hand, which I was now holding.

“Thank you,” I whispered, turning his arm up, so the wound was facing the ceiling, before releasing him. It was an effort not to lick his blood off my fingers, but I had the feeling that might push him a bit too far.

I staggered to my feet and my traitorous legs wobbled, suggesting I was nowhere near as healed as I’d hoped. Lily and Isaac caught me just before I fell, but I gritted my teeth and pushed away from them. I needed to find more blood, and fast. For everyone’s sake.

“If you are so thankful, then fucking explain!” Isaac snarled, moving to block me. I was too slow to evade him and too weak to shove him out of my way, but to my luck, the sound of hurried steps that came from the corridor leading deeper into the house stole his attention.

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