Page 213 of The Black Witch

Fallon coughs out an incredulous laugh and smiles broadly. “Oh, I’m not the one who needs a cage,” she purrs. She flicks the tip of her wand idly toward the North Tower. “I think the Icarals are the ones who need a cage, don’t you?” She tilts her head and cocks her brow expectantly at me. Then she inhales sharply, as if surprised. “Oh, wait. Iforgot.” Her cloying sarcasm quickly morphs to venom. “They’re yourfriends, aren’t they?”

Marina. Marina. Marina.

An image of Marina screaming as Fallon and her guard drag her away flashes through my mind. Wynter, Ariel and I dragged away, too, and jailed for thievery.

And Diana—what if Diana’s there? She’ll kill both Fallon and her guard before she’ll let them take any of us.

I take a threatening step toward Fallon and jab my finger at the ice-coated base of the North Tower. “What have youdoneto my lodging?”

“Just playing,” she says, thrusting her lower lip out in mock apology. Eyes on me, she raises her wand, murmurs a spell and sends a thin stream of ice coursing through the air. It lands at the North Tower’s base in a glimmering rope.

“Stop it,” I demand, outraged. I lunge forward and push her wand arm roughly away. The rope of ice lassoes outward and falls to the field in a crystalline shatter.

Fallon is quick as a snake. Her hand comes around my arm, hard as a vise, her wand at my throat. I gasp and shrink back from the madness in her eyes.

“Or you’ll do what, exactly,MageElloren Gardner?” She gives me a hard shove, sending me falling backward to the icy ground. Then she steps back, circles her wand toward my chest and hisses out a spell through gritted teeth.

Ice shoots from her wand and collides with the invisible shield just above my clothing, my tunic rubbed with Professor Hawkkyn’s metal powder.

Metal to block ice.

Fallon’s eyes fly open then narrow tightly with understanding. Her eyes dart toward the North Tower, then back to me with a knowing gleam. “Is the beast up there, too?”

“What beast?” I ask casually, my heart thumping.Marina Marina Marina Marina.

Fallon’s mouth twists into a lascivious grin. “You knowexactlywho I mean. The Snake Elf.” Her eyes widen. “You’ve got him up there, don’t you? Along with all the other creatures you’re collecting.”

My mind reels with confusion.

Of course,I realize.The metal shield. She actually thinks I could be hiding Professor Hawkkyn.

I spit out a stupefied laugh and glare at her, my anger spiking. “No, no Elves. Just my Icaral roommates.” I flash a hard, taunting grin. “And my new violin.”

I regret the words as soon as they leave my lips.

Ice blasts from her wand, and I cry out as my boots freeze to the ground, the cold searing my toes.

“Forgot to shield your boots, did you?” she crows, her eyes bright with hate. She circles around me, a hard gleam in her eyes as I frantically try to tug my boots free. “I’ve been keeping an eye on you, Elloren Gardner,” she says with a sneer, as I manage to crack one boot off the icy ground. “Icarals. Lupines. The big Amaz. Elves. Maybe even a Snake Elf who’s slipped by my watch.” Her eyes flick toward the tower like a cat who’s caught her mouse. “All coming and going. At odd hours, too.” She stops, shakes her head andtsk-tsksat me. “Why, I wonder. And then I think...” She glances up at the tower thoughtfully. “What could you possibly have up there that’ssointeresting?” She smiles wide with manic glee. “Let’s find out!”

She makes for the North Tower, and I cry out, desperately trying to grab her.

Just as my fingers grasp the silk of her tunic, her uniform bursts into illumination. Strange runes glow a fierce white all over her tunic and cloak, sending their light out onto the field like small searchlights.

Confusion barrels through me.Where did those come from?

Fallon looks down at the clothing, then to me with rising horror.

One of her guards yells out an oath, and each man sets off at a fast clip up the field. A silver streak whistles through the air to my right and slams straight into Fallon.

It’s a huge knife, now impaling the side of her chest.

The moment slows and stretches out as Fallon’s head jerks up and she sucks in a loud, whistling gasp of air. She falls backward to the ground with a sickening thud.

I take it all in, my eyes and mouth opening wide in stunned disbelief.

Terror, like a hot iron, sears into my chest, and the nightmare snaps back to vivid life with bracing speed.

Fallon grasps at her chest, her breath labored and wheezing. She lifts her wand, grits her teeth and sends up a bright, crystalline dome of ice over us, thin lines of blue light coursing over the translucent shield like small, crackling lightning, the air chilling to frigid. I’m awed by her skill as well as her fierce tenacity, even when seriously wounded.

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