Page 55 of Castings & Curses

“What are you talking about? I haven’t used my powers at all today.”

“Then why are the trees walking around like extras fromLord of the RingsmeetsThe Walking Dead?”

“Well, it is one way to clear out the dead limbs from the forest,” Natalie observed as entire trees, root systems, limbs and stumps stumbled down the street toward them.

“And thankfully, they don’t have faces, so they can’t eat our brains,” Tempest said.

“You guys are nuts,” Blade accused. “First spiders, now trees. I don’t even want to know what’s next.”

Morana leaned forward and murmured into his ear, “I can raise a whole lot more than just the dead.” She leaned back and smiled at him. “In case you’d like a demonstration sometime.” She trailed one long, black fingernail down his cheek, then turned and sauntered over to where Natalie and Corwin stood.

Blade, Natalie noticed, just stood there a moment as if stupefied into silence, before meekly following Morana to stand at her side.

Oh, yes.

That was definitely progress.

“So what’s the plan?” Morana asked.

Natalie shook her head. “I have no idea.”

“I do,” Corwin said and he startedstripping.

Right there, in the middle of the street!

“What are you doing?” Natalie exclaimed.

“Don’t worry, baby, I got this.” He slid a hand around her, dragged her close and kissed her breathless.

She was drowning in heat when he set her back, winked, then lunged away, shifting and landing in his wolf-form in a fraction of an instant before hurtling toward the line of lumbering trees.

He aimed for one that had to be hundreds of years old, it was so huge.

“What are you doing?”Natalie shrieked after him.

He leapt up and caught a limb in his teeth and swung around to land on another one. He scrambled all around that tree, leaping from limb to limb, chewing up branches and leaves and generally acting insane.

Natalie stormed forward and shouted up at him. “Would you stop that, you idiot wolf? You can’t win against a frigging tree!”

“Wow. Your mate’s not the brightest wolf in the bunch, now is he?” Morana chuckled.

And that was when theentire freaking packbarreled past, all of them in wolf form, howling in glee like—well, a bunch of idiotwolves.

Natalie whirled toward Morana. “Okay, at least the trees are slow and lumbering, but there’s no way those wolves are going to take them down.” She winced as one wolf, then another went howling through the air, only to hit the ground, slide for a bit, then lunge to their feet and bolt back into the fray.

“Dear goddess, this is madness. Madness, I tell you.” She glanced around at the rest of the coven, but they just shrugged helplessly. That was when she noticed Pippa had joined them. “Where’s Jared?”

“Where do you think?” Pippa asked dryly, gesturing toward the howling mass of wolves in trees.

“Ugh,” Natalie groaned. “Okay, Morana, come on. You’ve got to havesomeideas here. How do you stop the dead once they’ve risen?”

Morana shrugged. “Usually I just tell them to rest in peace. Sometimes it works.”

“And when it doesn’t?”

“That’s what fire’s for,” Pippa said.

“All right then.” Natalie lifted her staff and pointed it straight at the army of trees littered with wolves. “Here’s hoping they don’t crush the wolves on their way down.” She dragged in a deep breath, then shouted, “Rest In Peace!”

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