Page 44 of Seduced
It’s freezing cold outside, and the drizzle that mists down from the low clouds is mixed with ice. I run full speed for the village. Ty’s and Jack’s footsteps pound behind me on the trail. We’re halfway to the first buildings when I smell the smoke.
Something is burning, and it’s not a normal fire either. The area is lit with bright green flames rising thirty, fifty feet in the air.
“Shit,” Ty breathes, horror in his gaze. “How the fuck do we put it out?”
“We need to make sure the people are safe first,” I growl.
Sparks dance down my limbs, and I have to fight hard to keep myself human-shaped. It would be easier to shift into a dragon and simply smash whoever came to threaten my people, but that’s not what they need from me right now.
We meet the first terrified villagers on the road: Mrs. Hobb leads a group of children in pajamas, holding hands in a long crocodile so no one gets lost. Some of the older kids carry the younger children, their sleepy faces awash with fear.
“The parents stayed behind to put out the fires,” Mrs. Hobb calls out. “Juniper told us the Lodge is safe, so we’re getting everyone who’s too young or too old and escorting them there.”
I’d kiss Juniper if I could find her—this is exactly what I’d been planning. “I’ll send more your way once we check all the houses.”
She nods and guides the children onward. There’s nothing we can do for them, and I hope the witches focused their attack on the village proper, allowing the kids and the elderly to escape. We rush forward, and with every person I meet, my worry climbs higher. We trained for emergency situations, for accidents and various natural disasters, but this is no ordinary bushfire. Every adult knows their role—some are making sure all villagers are accounted for, others are rushing to the shore to pump water on the massive fires—but their fear permeates the air. They know this isn’t normal. We could never have trained forthis.
“Have they shown themselves?” I ask Scott as we arrive at the waterfront. “Do we know how many attackers we’re facing?”
He shakes his head. “I think they must have set their fires and escaped. Maybe some kind of…” He gestures at the green flames. “Delayed spell? I have no idea, but there’s no sign of them.”
He’s in charge of the line of people who are rigging up the pump and attaching the fire hoses. Everyone works together, their faces grim and determined. If we don’t hurry, we could lose half the village, and this close to winter, that could prove deadly even to our species. However they feel about witches, about Skye, they will do the work first and worry about other things later.
I join the effort and splash into the water to help out. Ty takes over the task of clearing the area around the fires so they don’t spread, and we contain them by soaking the surrounding land and buildings. Three fires burn, one brighter than the others, destroying our boathouse, a barn where we keep the feed for our cattle, and a family home on the shore. Added to the boats that burned before, and to Devlin Ward’s departure, this isbad. The clan has never had money problems, but we’ll have to scramble to replace the feed, the equipment, and most of all, the house for the family that lost theirs.
We need to find the witches and put a stop to this. We’re sitting ducks here, too exposed. Our safety always came from the fact that no one knew we were here, not from any real defense system around the village. The dangers we faced were very real: bears, the harsh weather, and forest fires, but the clan’s been living here for ages. We knew how to deal with those natural issues.
Whoever these witches are, they declared war, loud and clear. This attack in the night is a typical terror strike, because everything is more confusing and horrifying in the dark. The flames glow bright, the smoke billows from the charred buildings, and we have no way of knowing who’s hiding in the shadows, watching us scramble around.
“Mr. Andrews, Mr. Andrews!” A young voice calls out, coming ever closer. “Aiden!”
I drop the hose and rush toward Ryan Farrow, the sixteen-year-old who wanted to vote for me. His sprint ends when he trips over his feet and nearly face-plants in front of me. He was one of the kids we saw earlier, carrying his younger cousin.
“What’s wrong?” I demand. “Where are the others?”
He pants, his hands braced on his knees. “They’re waiting,” he gasps. “We can’t find the Lodge.”
I straighten. “What do you mean, you can’t find the Lodge?”
“It’s like it’s disappeared.” He coughs, his eyes watering from the smoke. “We came to the end of the track and we sort of got confused. Then we found the track again, but no Lodge.”
“Fuck,” I curse.
He looks at me with round eyes, and I resist the urge to growl.
“It’s the spell,” I tell him. “Wait.”
I pull my phone from my jacket pocket, thankful it hadn’t gotten wet when I walked into the shallows earlier. Dialing Skye’s number, I put the phone between my ear and shoulder, then shrug off my jacket and hand it to Ryan. He’s wearing his own parka but shivering, whether from adrenaline or the cold, I have no idea.
“Aiden?” Skye answers the phone. “What’s going on?”
“Are you still at the Lodge?” I send a prayer up to the gods that she hadn’t gone out.
“Yeah, but I want to help! I didn’t know—”
“Listen,” I interrupt her. “There’s a group of kids with Mrs. Hobb waiting somewhere along the path to the village. They can’t find the Lodge, which means the spell must be working. Go and bring them inside, then…” I pause, trying to think of what needs to be done.
I hear a door slam on the other end. “I’ll be there in a minute. Don’t worry. I’ll look after them all. You take care of the village.”
