Page 106 of The Witch and The Blood Oath

Following the breeze, I lurched forward, but Freya caught my arm in a death-grip.

“Did you ever learn the tale of Hansel and Gretel?” she whispered.

My stomach turned. “No. Nowayyou’re telling me the dark witches are the origin of the worst kids’ story ever.”

“I am,” she said, “which is only partly why we can’t storm their mansion. It’s also surrounded by dozens of wards, all designed to kill you and store your soul so they may feed on it when it suits them.”

Her words soured the hunger in my stomach, and I nodded. Ryder fidgeted but didn’t budge from our hiding place, and Cady swallowed.

“Disassemble the wards,” Ryder ordered.

If I had thought he was surly before losing his mate, he was damn near unbearable now.

“Okay,” I said slowly. “How do we disassemble them?”

“Take my hand,” Freya instructed.

My heart skipped a beat, but I hesitated.

“Why?” I asked.

Freya sighed. “Remember how I borrowed some of your magic to heal Arion and Cady? I need to borrow some again to tackle these wards.”

Right.

I closed my hand around Freya’s, and heat flared between our joined palms. My magic burned and fluttered under my skin, but I couldn’t loosen the tight leash I kept it on.

“Let go,” Freya whispered. “Youcantrust me, cowboy. Just let go.”

I tried and failed to relinquish my grip on my power. I couldn’t escape the memory of Cadence’s mangled, burned body, and the sharp knife of Freya’s betrayal.

“C’mon, man,” Ryder grumbled, “now isnotthe time to struggle to magically get it up.”

I glowered at the werewolf, and my magic sparked. As soon as my power searched for an outlet, Freya latched onto it through our bond, like a tug on my chest. Pleasant heat flowed to Freya’s palm.

“That’s enough,” she said.“That’s enough!”

I tried to let go of her hand, but the pull of the magic was too strong. Now that our power knew what it was like to be truly connected, it didn’t want it to let go.

“Walker!” Cady said. “It’s too much!”

My magic flowed into Freya, and hers flowed into me. Her thrumming power roared in my ears. It didn’t burn as hotly as mine, but it was loud and wild and almost uncontrollable.

How did she contain it with such cool precision?

“What theHell,”a chilling, familiar voice asked, “is going on here?”

Mara, Coven Mother of the dark witches, stood before us. Her extravagant black gown matched her creepy, entirely dark eyes, but it was her grin that gave me chills. She didn’t give us a chance to answer before she launched a dagger at our heads, and her coven attacked.

We rolled out of the way, and the air whooshed beside my head. Magic pulsed throughout my body like the headiest drug. I leaped to my feet and blocked Cady from Mara’s view.

In a blur of fur and fangs, Arion shifted into his saber-toothed tiger form. In a state of partial-shift, Ryder swiped his claws through dark witches, and their inky blood sprayed through the air. As more dark witches portaled into existence, I struggled to breath under the weight of the magic raging in mysystem. Only a few feet away, Freya shook from the force of the power we had shared.

The dark witches wore the same ridiculous stilettos and wielded the same terrible magic. Silver daggers, ice, and fire darted through the air and aimed at our hearts. Their spells crawled like ants on my skin. For a moment, I was stunned by the weight of their dark power, and a memory flashed—Freya, rendered unconscious by the dark witches’ spell.

“Walker!” Cady warned and pushed me out of the way of a flying dagger.

The close call pulled me back into the present.

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