Page 46 of Ensnared
“Oh?”
“Yeah, um, remember those grimoires Grandma had me copy?” Skye asks. “The ones I wanted to burn?”
“Yep. I think they’re somewhere in the attic,” Alice replies. “Why?”
“Do you think you could pack them up for me? And maybe something on protective magic if you can find any good ones.”
There’s a beat of silence as Skye’s sister digests this request.
“Are you doing magic?” she asks finally.
Skye, whose face has turned pink, mutters, “Yes?”
“Skye!” Her sister’s exclamation is loud and accusing. “You know that’s dangerous. Are you wearing your bracelets?”
I go to interject, but Skye glares at me and shuts me up by pressing a palm over my mouth. For emphasis, she shakes her head.
“Yes, I’m wearing my bracelets.” She takes a deep breath, then adds, “But, Allie, it’s different here. I can go in the middle of the forest and there’s no danger of me doing any damage, you know?”
“You didn’t drop your phone in the sea at all, did you?” Alice’s voice is growing louder. “You fried it!”
“So what if I did?” Skye shoots back. “It’s just a piece of tech. But I finally felt my magic, and it’s beautiful.”
Another long silence stretches between us, and the phone is silent for so long, I lean forward to see the screen, thinking the connection must have dropped. Then Alice’s voice filters through again, stiff and distant.
“I don’t need to tell you how dangerous that is,” she says. “I can’t believe you’d do something so irresponsible. If the coven knew—”
“They wouldn’t care,” Skye jumps in. “They cast me out, remember? And those books aremine, dammit. I worked on them for months while you were busy impressing everyone with your fancy magic. So please, put them in with my other things.”
I’ve never heard Skye use such a tone. Her jaw is set, her cheeks flushed with color, but she suddenly seems almost regal, a witch queen demanding her due.
“Fine,” the sister says. “If you end up exposing witches to the world because you decided to play at spellcasting, I won’t cover for you.”
“I didn’t ask you to,” Skye snaps.
The line goes dead, and the screen turns off. Skye stares at it, breathing hard, and her hands are trembling. She’s squeezing the phone so tightly, her knuckles turn white, so I reach over and gently pry it from her grasp. Her gaze is far away, and I don’t even think she sees me.
“Are you okay?” I ask anyway.
I want to take her in my arms and tell her that she doesn’t need people like that in her life. There’s more than enough of us here willing to be her friends, her family. But my question seems to break through whatever state she found herself in after this unpleasant conversation.
“Yeah.” She pauses, then looks up at me with large, shimmering eyes. “Yeah, I’m good. You know what? Let’s go.” She walks to the door and steps into her walking boots, then does up the laces with quick, angry jerks. “You said you wanted to try something. I’m ready.Fuckthem and their rules.”
* * *
Fifteen minutes later, we’re at the very edge of our village, as far away from the homes of my clansmen as we can get without crossing the bear fence. It’s twilight now, so I’m not risking Skye’s life by taking her deeper into the woods. Still, I leave my phone at a silvery birch tree that has lost half of its leaves and place the flashlight on the wet ground. Then I tie the red string to its trunk.
“Again?” Skye complains. “But we’re inside the fence.”
I glare at her. “Do we need to do the exercise again?”
I can’t see her well in the dark, but I’d bet my best hunting rifle that she’s rolling her eyes. We veer to the side, away from the coast, and trudge through the undergrowth. The sun has gone down, and beneath the canopies, light is fading fast. Skye stumbles over a tree root and curses softly. I don’t have trouble seeing in the dark, so I take her hand, leading her until we find an open space between some trees. It’s not a clearing, exactly, but since we won’t be working with flashlights tonight and testing her range, it doesn’t matter as much.
Skye’s hand is smaller than mine, her skin smooth and warm. She grips my fingers tighter every time she loses her footing in the dark, and I work hard to ignore the flash of heat that flares at her touch.
But this place is as good as any, so I let go of her hand, tie the other end of the string to a slender spruce, and face Skye.
“Do you remember what I told you last time?” I ask.
