Page 49 of Wind with a Chance of Wolfsbane

A lone tear slid down her cheek.

I put my head to hers and then hoisted her up. My gaze collided with Raven-Hair’s. She nodded a second before I shoved my sister hard enough to send her tumbling back and out of the cave, right at the Weird Sisters.

I tried to follow, but Helen was on me in a heartbeat, jerking me backward.

Raven-Hair caught Mina and steadied her. She sniffed Mina and glanced at me, shaking her head slightly. “It will not be long now.”

“Help her,” I managed as I struggled to get free from my aunt’s ironclad grip.

Raven-Hair lifted her wrist to her mouth and bit into her own flesh.

Blondie grabbed Mina and eased her gently to the ground as Raven-Hair put her bloody wrist to Mina’s mouth.

I didn’t see the rest because I was whipped around and thrown into the dark abyss like a sack of potatoes.

I struck something solid that smelled like rotting meat. Never had I been happier for the unnatural blanket of darkness that coated that portion of the cave and for having bad vision and broken glasses. I really did not want to get a good look at Dragos.

A wolf’s howl pierced the night.

“You are a monster of my creation,” Dragos said, following it up with another wicked laugh. He sounded like he was right next to me. “How quickly you forget who made you as you are.”

The wolf snarled.

“Kill her!” shouted Helen, sounding close as well.

“In good time. First, my pet must learn his place,” said Dragos.

Everything in me said to duck, so I did, just as I felt something whiz by my head. I felt compelled to dart back toward the cave opening, staying low, unable to see even my hand before my face. I gave in, trusting my gut. I made it a few feet, and dagger-like claws rammed through my back, pinning me to the cave floor.

A scream died on my lips.

“Going somewhere?” asked Dragos, his weight on my back, his hot, rank breath making me want to vomit then and there.

“Dragos, our master will come,” said Raven-Hair loudly from outside of the cave. “He and the others will deal with you as they did before. Did they not defeat you once already?”

Dragos hissed. “You side with the enemy! You are weak. A disgrace to our kind.”

“We are not of your line,” said Raven-Hair. “We are not like you.”

“You served me once,” spat Dragos.

Blondie’s laugh filtered through the cave. “I smell the blood of the human male. Can I taste him too?”

“Dragos, give me the other girl,” said Raven-Hair. “If you do not, the master and those who aligned with him before will come for you. They will hunt you to the ends of the earth.”

Dragos stayed on my back, breathing on me. “She bargains for your life because they cannot come to your aid,” said Dragos. “They cannot cross the boundaries that confine me. No evil in. No evil out. Not unless the seal is broken.”

Raven-Hair and her sisters seemed like the lesser of those evils, for sure.

I tried to buck Dragos off me. It didn’t work. For an emaciated, rotting corpse, the guy was strong.

He chortled, and then he bit my shoulder—hard.

A mix of anger, frustration, and pain welled in me. It left me rearing up, taking Dragos’s weight with me. I flung him from me and ran forward, slamming into Helen in the darkness.

I went at her like a highly skilled slayer, not a novice.

She fell away, and I ran for the cave opening, breaking free from the blanket of darkness, still short of the exit though. My movements slowed dramatically, and I had a feeling that blood loss had something to do with that. It didn’t matter. I didn’t stop.

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