Page 8 of Destiny of the Witch

He stilled. Sensible man. I painted a large truth rune on his forehead, then ran my magic through to activate it.

‘You can go,’ Dick grunted.

‘I don’t think so,’ I said primly. ‘This ismyrune work and I want to ask him about the fire elemental.’ I didn’t want to call the fire elemental by his name because it felt too personal; it made him a man rather than a deadly enemy that I had been forced to smite. The nightmares already bothered me; I didn’t need to make it worse.

Dick frowned. ‘That wasn’t part of thedeal.’

I drew myself up to my full height and levelled a look at him that would have made most grown men pee their pants. ‘I am the Crone. I will question this man or I will end my rune work here and now and you can forget your damned favour.’

He blanched. ‘Crone? I hadn’t heard.’ He gave me a little bow. ‘Of course, you go ahead, Crone.’

I didn’t bother to acknowledge his sudden fawning but turned instead to Miles. ‘As part of your group, you have an earth elemental. Yes?’

He glared at me.

‘Bastion, rip a finger off for every question he doesn’t answer,’ I instructed calmly. ‘When we run out of fingers, we can use toes.’ I really hoped the threat would be enough, because Bastion wouldn’t have any issue with pulling off body parts if it got me the results I wanted. I really didn’t want to be responsible for Miles’ maiming – though I supposed I could heal him after Bastion’s mutilation so he wouldn’t be harmed long term.

I grimaced. It would be okay, as long as I didn’t use Miles’ pain to bolster my magic. Therein lay the dark side. Morals all squared off, I met his gaze and let him know I meant business.

He blanched. ‘They’ll kill me if I talk,’ he said finally.

‘We’ll kill you if you don’t,’ Bastion growled. ‘You’re between a rock and a hard place, but the difference is that I’m here right now.’ For emphasis, he shifted his hands into claws.

Miles paled.

‘So,’ I started again. ‘Earth elemental… Yes?’

‘Yes.’

‘Name?’

‘Gareth Clark.’

‘He attacked my mum?’ I demanded.

Miles licked his lips before nodding.

‘And who is the air elemental in your little group?’

‘Simon Morris.’

‘Excellent. And who hired you all to attack me and my mum?’

‘The black Coven.’

‘And you have no issue with that?’

‘No. We’remercenaries.’ He sneered at me, as if I were an idiot for not understanding what that meant.

‘Even mercenaries can have a moral code,’ I snapped back.

He smirked. ‘Not us. We’ll do any job if the price isright.’

‘Lovely,’ I said drily. I was feeling better about my annihilation of the aforementioned Keith. If this group had no moral code, who knew how many lives they’d already destroyed? ‘Who was your contact at the Coven?’ I asked.

He opened his mouth to talk, then abruptly black threads started to spider out from his eyes. The threads continued to grow at a speed faster than I’d ever seen before. He started to convulse; it looked like black mordis poisoning on steroids.

‘Get him out of the ropes!’ I ordered Bastion hastily as I wrenched open my tote and looked for the stasis potion. I found it, grabbed a fresh paintbrush and dunked it in the jar.

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