Page 3 of The Witch and The Blood Oath

“It worked,” Cadence said. “It worked, didn’t it?”

I tried to speak, but I couldn’t find the words.

“His body lives,” Gloria said, “and his spirit clings. Time will tell if the two can become one once more. We’ve done all we can do.”

Cadence’s lips wobbled, but she nodded. “And my dad?”

Guilt gnawed at me. I had forgotten all about Clyde Reid, the drunk of a father who’d finally stepped up for his kids and aided us in the battle. He’d been wounded badly, but I didn’t know if he still lived.

“He’s resting in our healing unit now,” Lyra told her. I felt a flicker of relief. “Time will tell for him as well.”

I didn’t particularly like Clyde, but for Cady’s sake, I didn’t want the hunter to die.

Cadence dragged her hands down her face. “Ihatetime.”

Me too, little witchling,I thought.Me too.

???

Walker

Everything hurt.

Seriously, it felt like I’d been hit by a truck then got stomped on by a horse. I was stuck in the in-between state of sleep and consciousness where darkness floated around my vision, but pain leaked through the peacefulness of rest. I just couldn’t remember what had caused it.

Did I fall off a horse?

I hoped not. A couple years ago, one of Nathan’s supposedly green-broke three-year-olds had dumped me flat on my ass. Sawyer and Brody had mocked me about for months. Hell, they still mocked me.

I missed my friends. It felt like it’d been forever since I had seen them, though I wasn’t sure why. We worked together. Ialwayssaw them. Our bromance was stronger than most people’s greatest romance.

Romance…why did that trigger a flash of red hair?

I didn’t have any romances. Cadence would’vesomade fun of me for them if I did.

Cadence.

I prayed she wasn’t hurt by whatever had done me in. Now, I actually hoped I had fallen off a horse. It was better than the alternative of a car wreck. Car accidents could be deadly. That was a truth I knew all too well.

I tried to shake myself awake, but the darkness pressed in on me, and total unconsciousness threatened to overwhelm my senses. Though it was tempting to settle into its cool embrace, something beckoned me to fight it.

I needed to check on my sister. She’d been in danger, and Dad too. I wasn’t exactly surewhyI cared about that prick’s fate, but I did. I was forgetting something.

Flames.

I remembered flames.

Small fingers squeezed my hand. The visceral sensation guided me back into my body. I was laying on the grassy ground of my front yard. Smoke and ash drifted through the air and mingled with feminine voices. Something else lingered outside of my touch. It electrified my veins like pure adrenaline. It hummed in my ears and warmed my chest.

At first, the sensation scared me. Something like it had hurt me—it was what got me here in this strange in-between-place. Though I didn’t remember, my body did.

But this was different. Thisthing,this music that thrummed in my body and in the air, it was as much a part of me as the breath in my lungs and the blood in my veins. I didn’t need to fear it. It made mestrong.

All I’d ever wanted was to be strong. I had wanted to be strong enough for Cady, strong enough for Dad—strong enough to save my mom—and now that strange strength surrounded me and filled me, untapped.

With invisible hands, I latched onto that hot rush of strength and forced my eyes to open.

Chapter Two

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