Page 117 of The Black Witch

Fallon rises, picks up a set of shears from the desk and grins at Echo. “I think it’s time to teach the Lupine bitch a lesson.”

Paige chews at her lip nervously. “Oh, I don’t think that’s such a good idea...”

Grinning widely and moving as stealthily as a cat, Fallon slides off her cloak and creeps toward Diana. I hold my breath as she kneels down on one knee, takes a thick bunch of Diana’s hair and places the shears around it...

Fast as a blur, Diana leaps out of bed and slams Fallon to the ground. Paige lets out a scream, and Tierney and I fall back.

The next thing I know, Fallon is belly down on the floor and Diana is astride her, grasping both of Fallon’s wrists in one hand, the shears in the other. Fallon cries out as Diana wrenches her arms behind her back and throws the shears toward the wall to impale Fallon’s new uniform with a sharpthwack.

“Youdareattack the daughter of an alpha?” Diana snarls. “Youfool! Do you not think I can sense your attack? Even in mysleep?”

Diana holds her free hand in front of Fallon’s face, and we all watch in complete horror as her hand morphs into a wild, hairy appendage with curved claws.

“If you ever try to attack me again, I will mark you. To remind you what happens to those who challenge the daughter of an alpha.”Diana morphs her hand back, reaches under Fallon and grabs hold of her wand. “And your attempts to use your pathetic stick magic bore me!” She takes the wand in hand, snaps it in two and tosses it aside.

Fallon cries out as Diana gives her arms a final wrench, then, in another blur, Diana is off Fallon and looming over her. Fallon forces herself quickly to her feet, her face red and furious. She grasps at her forearms, wincing in pain.

Fallon shoots Diana a murderous look. “I’ll be back for you!” she cries before fleeing from the room with Echo and Paige.

Diana tosses her blond mane over one shoulder and pads over to her bed. She grimaces at the blanket, throws it to the floor, then plops down onto the bed and curls up, her naked back to us.

Tierney turns toward my hiding place, her voice hoarse. “She’s gone.”

“Of course she’s gone,” Diana mumbles into her pillow. “She’s a coward without her stick. You can come out now, Elloren Gardner.”

My head jerks back with surprise. I look to Diana with dumbfounded awe.

“Elloren.” Tierney pushes a box of vials toward me as I come back into the room. She gestures at the door with her chin, her eyes urgent.

Legs unsteady, I take the vials and let Tierney tug me out of the room.

* * *

“Who’s Leander?” I ask Tierney once we’re back in the deserted lab.

Tierney’s work is uncharacteristically sloppy and slipshod as we rush to finish our project, topping off each vial with warm syrup.

It’s full dark now, the apothecary lab’s arching windows black as slate.

“Nobody,” she says testily, not looking at me.

I wait, unmoving, until she finally relents.

“He works for my father.” She shrugs, her mouth trembling. “He’s...nothing to me.” Her mouth turns down and she begins to cry, then sob, shoulders heaving, her head bent low. “He’snothing. I don’t care... I don’t care what happens to him...” Her arm comes up to cover her eyes, and she’s momentarily unable to speak coherently through her tears. “Why did they do it?” she moans. “Why did they have to make me sougly?”

Suddenly, water explodes from the few open containers in the room, flying to Tierney, swirling around her in a great rush.

My hands fly up to ward off the liquid. The swirling lines abruptly fizz into a great cloud, obscuring the view before me.

I can just make out Tierney’s ghostly face in the white haze. She’s staring at me, wide-eyed and terrified.

Fae. She’s full-blooded Water Fae. That’s the only explanation.

And someone “made” her ugly. Which means someone glamoured her. Her real hair is probably blue. Her skin, too.

And I’m bound by Gardnerian and Verpacian law to turn her in. Sheltering Fae is punishable by imprisonment.

I force the idea from my mind as the cloud falls to the ground in a thin puddle.

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