Page 37 of Muddled Magic

Arthur collapsed naked into the leaves, back heaving as he fought for breath.

Grandmother stood over him, her battle magic weaving together into a spear that positioned itself in the air above his spine. “Your master will never have my granddaughter,” she seethed, and struck.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“Let him go or I stab the emerald,” I bellowed.

The spear halted a finger’s breadth away from Arthur’s back.

Grandmother’s blazing eyes whipped to me, her mouth curling into a snarl. The tip of the claw was so close it would pierce the demon’s half-heart if I so much as even sneezed. Mom could seize control of my cuffs again, but not before I finished what I’d run away to Redbud to do.

When the spear didn’t back off, I shouted again, “Let him go!”

“I’d listen to her,” came Lewellyn’s voice from the cage. He’d shifted back into his human form to allow himself more room, but the roots continued to constrict. Even as he faced having his bones crushed, he still managed to keep a cavalier tone to his words. “That’s not any old bear.”

The ivy-green spear retreated enough that Grandmother could shove Arthur onto his back with a magic-enhanced kick of her boot. Leaves and dirt sloughed off his chest, revealing his paw-print tattoo.

“Coalition,” she hissed. The spear dissolved, Grandmother’s magic sucking back into her and the light dissipating from her eyes.

“Yep,” Lewellyn said smugly, still seemingly unperturbed from his tightening cage. “And an enforcer too. Hurt him, and you’ll have a war on your hands. You might be Hawthornes, but I doubt even your circle of nine could survive one of their assaults.”

That very Circle of Nine, all its members recovered and accounted for, shared a wary look.

“Hawthorne?” Arthur rasped, finally recovering from Grandmother’s attack. He braced himself on his hands and knees, his hazel eyes boring into me with a mixture of emotions I couldn’t identify, except one. Shock. “You’re a Hawthorne, Meadow? This is your family?”

I didn’t know what that meant to him, but from the way he said my surname, it seemed like he was expecting an apology from me. “Arthur, I—”

“You know him?” Dad demanded.

“Meadow!” Mom admonished.

“It could be worse,” Otter offered weakly. “He could’ve been your average shifter like this wolf instead of Coalition. At least the Coalition has a code.”

“Thanks, witch,” Lewellyn said flatly. “And I’m anything but average. Just ask your grandma.”

Beside me, Daphne made a soft choking noise.

“You’re out of line, Mr. Chase.” Grandmother turned to Otter. “And shifters, whether they are Coalition or not, are forbidden!”

“Who do you think was keeping her safe out here?” Arthur asked, rocking back on his knees to glare up at her.

At any other moment, I might have stolen a look or two or a hundred at his naked body speckled with leaves like arboreal tattoos, but not now. There was no shame here, no modesty to preserve when it was your life pitted against another’s. Not even the female members of the coven noticed the sculpted muscle, only the threat.

“Safe from a world you did nothing to prepare her for,” he spat.

Grandmother lunged forward and backhanded him across the face. His jaw barely even moved. Her magic might have forced him out of his shift, but a simple strike like that? If her hand hurt, she didn’t show it. “You know nothing,” she hissed.

“How did you know to come here?” Dad demanded, learning from Grandmother’s mistake and charging his fist with magic. Since he was a Hawthorne in name only, not blood, his power didn’t have the emerald green tint but the yellow-green of newly unfurled elm leaves. He whipped around to face me, thrusting a glowing finger down at the shifter. “Did you mate with this man?”

My cheeks heated. “That’s none of your business!”

“Meadow Lavender Hawthorne,” my mother screeched. “You will answer the question!”

“What’s the big deal?” Flora perched her hands on her hips. “Any woman would count herself lucky to mate that lumbersnack!”

“She wears my pendant,” Arthur barked, saving me any embarrassment. “It’s coded to me—I sense what she feels. Not to mention I was nearby when there was a huge blast of white light. Kinda hard to miss.”

“Where is that familiar?” Grandmother asked, glancing around. She snapped her fingers at the other witches. “Find that cat!”

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