Page 59 of Seduced
A pang of longing slams into me, so hard I nearly gasp. I’ve missed her so much. It’s been months since I saw her last, and our phone conversations were a poor substitute to that, especially since she’d been so angry with me for using magic.
A twig snaps under my boot, and Alice lifts her head. For a moment, we stare at each other, frozen in time. Her mouth drops open, her brown eyes, so similar to mine, widening in surprise.
“Hey, Allie,” I say and raise my hand in greeting.
“Skye,” she rasps. Then she clears her throat. “Where did you come from?”
I point behind me with my thumb. “The village. I’ve come to talk to you.”
She lets out a rough bark of laughter. “Okay. Talk to me then. Where’s Cameron?”
Inching closer, I lower myself on a log on the opposite side of the fire. “He’s dead.” I didn’t want to start the conversation this way, but we might as well face the issue head-on. “He tried to kill me and one of my partners. It was self-defense.”
“Oneof yourpartners?” she sneers. “Wow. And I thought you couldn’t stoop any lower.”
I jerk back, her barb hitting home. Then I close my hands into fists. My relationship with Jack, Ty, and Aiden is nothing to be ashamed of, and she’d see that if she got to know them.
“And I see you’ve finally learned to use magic,” she continues. “The village was here one day, then suddenly disappeared. Was that your bright idea?”
“Yes.” I lift my chin. “I protected the people as best I knew how.”
Alice leans forward, smiling, but her grin is all teeth and flashing eyes. “You protected themonstersthat live here. And you call yourself a witch.”
Anger boils inside me, and I want to yell at her for hurting innocent people, for attacking a village while kids slept peacefully in their homes. I saw first-hand how terrified they’d been, and there’s no forgiving that.
“Listen,” I force through my teeth. “I didn’t come here to fight. I want to invite you to the village so you can get warm and eat something. Then we can sit down and find a way to clean up this mess.”
“You really think we’ll allow you to stay here and practice magic for the dragons?” she asks. “I came here to take you back home and put you in front of a witch’s court. It was bad enough when we thought you were performing magic in front of humans, but dragons?” She shakes her finger as though admonishing a small child. “Naughty Skye.”
Fuck this.
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” I tell her as calmly as I can. “And I’m never returning home.”
“I’m sorry you think that.”
Her voice is eerily calm all of a sudden, and her face transforms, a cold, calculating mask snapping over it. Or maybe the animated, emotional Alice was the mask, and this is what she’s really like.
Swiping her hand, she sends the flames rushing up, a magical accelerant to the fire. They swoop toward me, and I cringe in alarm, throwing myself on the forest floor. My hands hit the wet, decaying needles, and I scrape my palm against a rough branch.
But the heat doesn’t touch my skin. On Aiden’s insistence, I put a powerful protection spell on myself with all the men’s help—a quick circle cast before we left the Lodge. I tied it to my cell phone, so it’s a mix of their magic and mine. It seems like Aiden’s overprotective instinct was spot-on this time.
I glance over my shoulder at Alice and find her advancing on me, a ceremonial dagger in hand.
“Fuck,” I yelp and scramble to my feet. “Alice, don’t!”
“You couldn’t keep out of trouble, could you?” she sneers. “How fucking hard is it to wear those bracelets and not use your useless magic? I thought you got the message when the coven cast you out. When I told you that you couldn’t return to my house. But nooo.” She drawls out the word. “You had to go and fuck this up, too.” She sends another plume of fire my way.
I hide behind the thick trunk of a fir tree. “What I do here doesn’t matter! I’m no longer the embarrassment of the coven. Why couldn’t you let me be?”
“Are you really this stupid?”
I can’t see her, but her soft footsteps alert me of her location. I ease around the tree to get out of her line of vision.
“You can’t use magic outside the coven. We’ve never allowed that.”
This is news to me. Why couldn’t a witch choose to practice on her own? Coven politics were often toxic, and I can’t be the first magic user to find them overwhelming. Were there others who were cast out, then hunted when they wanted to use magic alone?
“Listen,” I try to reason with her one last time. “It doesn’t have to be like that. I know you think you’re doing the coven’s job, but we can bedifferent. They don’t matter. I love you.”
