Page 65 of Bewitched By the Voodoo King
“Who foresaw me coming?” There were too many pieces to this elaborate, ever-changing puzzle.
“A diviner that was brought to us last year. She said there would be a young girl who would come from a faraway coven that would either damn us or save us.”
“Babette knew about this?” I chewed on my bottom lip. These wolf people were the victims in all of this.
“She slit her throat before she could finish, saying the girl’s blood would enrich the soil and help strengthen us to break the curse on our own.”
“But then you showed up,” A woman shouted. “You showed up to save us.”
I wasn’t a savior. I wasn’t anything but a girl with trapped magic. But I was smart and I knew that if I was cursed and I could break my curse… Maybe I could break theirs, too.
“I’m cursed too, but in a different way and I’m sure if I can break my curse, I can break yours too.” It was a lot to promise but I had to start somewhere. Especially since the night wasn’t getting any younger.
The magic wasstrong in our blood as we marched forward. My shadows had stayed with Maple even when the trail ran cold for Louis and the other men. It didn’t matter. We would need more manpower for what was to come. My shadows told me nothing of her condition, which meant we would need to tread carefully.
No matter what I asked the ancestors, they were quiet. This was the journey I was supposed to go on alone, it seemed.
The swamp was restless.
Even over the sound of boots hitting damp earth, I could hear it breathing—trees shifting in the wind, water lappingsomewhere in the distance, and the faint crunch of something moving in the dark that wasn’t us.
Louis and the others fanned out behind me, weapons drawn and magic at the ready. I’d told them not to use it unless absolutely necessary. The last thing we needed was to alert every cursed creature in a ten-mile radius that their midnight snack had arrived.
My shadows coiled low along the ground, darting ahead like hunting hounds. I could feel their pull in my bones, a thread stretching between me and where they’d taken her. They didn’t show me what they saw—cowards, or maybe protectors—but they tugged harder now. We were close.
The scent of burning wood hit first, then something else—something sharp and wrong, magic that didn’t belong to me or my people. It slithered along my skin like oil, and I had to fight the urge to peel it off.
I slowed, raising a hand to halt the men. Through the wall of moss and cypress branches, I caught the faintest flicker of gold firelight. Voices carried on the wind, and I knew we’d found her.
We crouched low as we moved forward. I didn’t know much about wolves. But I did know that without our magic cloaking us, they would have scented us from a mile away. We had the element of surprise in our hands. I forced my magic down even though it pushed against the bindings I’d set on it. I couldn’t let it out yet.
Through the hanging moss, I caught sight of them—shapes that weren’t entirely human, bathed in the flickering glow of the fire. Right in the center of all of them, beside the fire, was Maple. Her hands and feet were bound, but she still had her head held high. The determined slash of her mouth made pride swell within my chest.
“What’s the plan?” Louis whispered beside me. Knowing my best friend, it was more for theatrics than being stealthy. Ourmagic kept us hidden and the air around us silent, no matter what we did. But once someone saw us, the illusion would be broken.
“Get her clear first,” I murmured back, never taking my eyes off Maple. “Then burn the rest to ash.”
Louis’s grin was all teeth. “My favorite kind of plan.”
I let my shadows ripple forward, stretching along the ground until they were just shy of the golden firelight. They slithered between the wolf-people’s feet, unseen but waiting for my command. My magic pressed harder against its bindings, sensing the proximity to its target, my wife. It wanted blood. I wanted to destroy anything and everything that had touched her this night. No matter what happened with her lack of magic, she was mine. Nothing else mattered.
I gave Louis the smallest nod, and my shadows surged.
“They’re here!”the leader roared, lunging toward me before Rune’s shadows could close the gap.
My pulse spiked. I didn’t see him—didn’t see any witches—just the blur of movement in the trees and the sudden clash of sound. The night erupted in howls and battle cries.
“Wait!” I screamed, but it was useless. The first witches broke from the cypress shadows like a wave, their magic lighting the swamp in violent bursts of color. In seconds, it was carnage.
“Stop! This isn’t what you think!” I fought to make my voice carry, but it was swallowed by the chaos. No one was listening. No one wanted to.
The leader’s grip on my arm tightened like a vice, dragging me backward as two of his people fell in front of us—one collapsing in a cloud of silvery mist, the other shrieking as fire ate at his twisted flesh. I kicked against the ground, panic knotting in my chest. If Rune was here, if he was watching, he’d see this as proof I’d been taken hostage by monsters and he would kill them all. There was so much more to the story that he needed to know. How could I tell him?
Screams and growls were louder than my voice, and I still couldn’t find Rune anywhere. What did this mean for my people? Obviously, he was here; his shadows were fighting alongside the witches, trying to get to me. But I couldn’t find him in the wreckage unfolding around me.
It was like being snapped back with a rubber band when my eyes met his. He was a black silhouette against the fire, magic coiled around him like a living storm, with his gaze fixed on the leader’s hand gripping my arm. The fury there was enough to burn the world down.
“Rune!” I screamed, my voice hoarse. “Stop! It’s not?—”
