Page 48 of The Witch and The Blood Oath

It was my first time in Texas, and I came face-to-face with a Texas Ranger. My first instinct was awe, but I couldn’t shake my wariness. Cadence still hadn’t emerged from the bathroom.

“Excuse me,” a deep voice drawled behind me.

As another Texas Ranger walked past, a cold hand pressed against my arm. It was his piercing blue gaze, however, that made me recoil. There was something cold and lifeless in its depths.

He flashed me a pretty-boy smile, tipped his hat, and joined his colleague at the counter. I sighed. I had been trapped in a car for too long, and it had made me stir-crazy.

Still, Cadence didn’t come out of the bathroom. Worried she was sick from her mega-slush, I walked to the back of the store. I found a dirty, white painted door labeled ‘family restroom’ and knocked.

The door creaked open, and my stomach dropped.

Cadence was sprawled on her stomach across the cracked tile floor.

“Told you there was more than one,” a man grumbled.

As I stared at my sister in horror, someone shoved me to the ground beside her.

???

Freya

“What in the gods' names,” Ryder muttered, “is taking so long?”

I stirred in my seat but tried to tune him out. Sleep rarely came to me in the car, and I wanted to hold onto it with both hands. Apparently having other plans, Arion batted at me with his paws.

I blinked my eyes open and took in the run-down gas station in front of us. It needed some work, but it was innocuous enough. It didn’t explain the dread slithering down my spine. I glanced at Arion’s raised hackles and noticed the Reids’ absence.

“Something’s wrong,” I said in a rough voice and cleared my throat. “How long have they been gone?”

“Not that long,” Ryder said, “but I think you’re right. I caught an odd scent on the air earlier. Just for a second. It’s hard to smell anything other than cow crap in this place.”

I unbuckled my seatbelt. “I’m going in.”

“Wait,” Ryder said. “We need a plan.”

Familiar, potent magic called like a blaring siren on the wind. Something crashed. Ryder and I met gazes and leaped out of the SUV with Arion in tow.

Inside, knocked over shelves blocked our path, but Ryder and I sidestepped the debris. An elderly woman and a middle-aged man watched us from behind the counter. The woman’s wrinkled face was marred by disgust, but the man grinned, flashing yellow teeth, in wicked delight.

“Big catch today, boys!” he called. “There’s two more.”

Something in the back of the store crashed again. Walker grunted and cursed. Ryder, Arion, and I ran to the back of the store, where a dimly litEXITsign hung over a door.

“Call for back-up,” a deep, male voice drawled. “We’ve gotta bring this one in. I’ve never seen anything like him.”

We burst through the back door. With her eyes shut, Cadence was limp on the ground a few feet away with her arms bound awkwardly behind her. Though I couldn’t see the magic-binding titanium cuffs, I could sense them like a void of energy where Cady’s bright burst of magic usually was. With his back to us, a man in a tan uniform stood over her.

Arion hissed, and I whispered the spell to free him to shift. As a saber-toothed tiger reared beside me, his hiss transformed into a guttural growl.

A behemoth of a man had Walker in a chokehold. A syringe’s needle was halfway embedded in the cowboy’s neck, and Walker’s eyes shone like a summer storm.

The man standing over Cadence turned and revealed his Ken doll features. The star-shaped badge on his shirt glowed. As I recognized the Texas Rangers badge, I realized we had stumbled upon the most infamous legion of witch hunters in America. Beyond the Ranger, nothing but grassy, dirt plains stretched for miles. Upon our arrival, the blond, doll-likeRanger’s smug smirk faltered, and a feral grin spread across my face.

“Finally,” I said, “witch hunters I canactuallykill.”

As I knocked Doll Man back with a gust of wind, Ryder shifted and lunged for him. Arion joined the werewolf, and I pivoted on the giant still clutching Walker. I muttered a relaxation spell under my breath, but he only bared his teeth.

Classic hunter,I thought,killing us for our magic but using it for defense charms.

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