Page 64 of Soul of a Witch

Fuck.

The glass manacles were still locked onto her wrists. Blood seeped from beneath them, thick and dark, putrid with the magical poison swirling within. It was impossible to fathom how she’d used magic despite them — the amount of power, the sheer brute strength required to overcome the enchantment in those cuffs, was astronomical.

It should have been impossible.

But the more power she poured out, the more fiercely those wicked devices would sap it from her. They didn’t just stifle her magic, they absorbed and poisoned it.

To judge by the destruction around me, Everly should have been dead.

She lifted her head. Through her sopping wet hair, one eye fixed upon me. So many blood vessels had burst in the whites of her eye that it was almost entirely red.

“Callum…” Her voice was hoarse, barely above a whisper. “Help me…”

Fury and fear filled me as I rushed to her side and wrapped my arms around her, holding her close. I wanted to scream, to rage, to punish everyone responsible. She said nothing, but her breathing was ragged; it wheezed in her chest. Every movement made her whimper.

She’d needed me and I’d failed her. My beautiful witch had fought alone.

I cupped her face, her skin cold against my palm. I barely recognized my own voice as I said, “Everly? Keep speaking to me. Please.”

Her eyes wouldn’t focus on my face. Her lips moved, but she was too weak to make a sound.

It was as if I was back on the battlefield again, surrounded by blood and the screams of the dying. Watching those I loved slip away.

No. Not again.

With singular focus, I launched myself into the air and over the trees, flying back to the coven house as swiftly as I could. The doors flew open before me. Flying through the twisting halls, I took her to the piano room, where the small space and large fireplace could keep her warm.

“What happened?!” Winona’s voice crackled from the large antique radio in the corner. The fire flared to life the moment I entered, and I laid Everly gently on the bearskin rug before it. “Who put those infernal devices on her? Callum! What in the name of Venus —”

“They’re killing her,” I said, tearing off her coat and ripping through her shirt so I could get a better look at the cuffs. They were so tight, they’d sunk into her flesh. She shook violently, her eyes rolling in her head, imperceptible whispers dropping from her lips as sweat drenched her face. “They’re fucking killing her, Winona! How do I — fucking hell —”

“You need the key, Callum, thekey! They’re enchanted, you won’t be able to —”

“There’s no goddamn time! Fuck!” Grabbing the closest thing to me — a small, polished wood table — I hurled it across the room to shatter against the wall. Then I crouched over her again, taking in the blood, the pain, the smell of infection. “I have to crack them. It might break her wrists…I have to…” Her eyes fluttered as I held her face. “Everly. Listen to me. Can you hear me?”

“Break…break them…” Her words were barely audible. “Don’t care…just…please…”

“She’s not strong enough,” Winona said, her voice thick. “She’s lost too much blood, Callum. She doesn’t have any strength left.”

I was a fool, a fuckingfool. I’d let her go back, I’d left her alone, I’d failed to keep her safe. I should have been able to protect her. What fucking good was my strength if it couldn’t even be used to protect those I cared about? What use was my power when those it should have sheltered were dead?

“Callum.”

Everly’s soft voice drew me back. She barely managed to lift her arm to touch me. “You came back. You came…”

“I swear to you I will never leave your side again,” I said.

“She’s dying, Callum.”

I roared in response to Lucifer’s voice, grabbing another nearby piece of furniture and hurling it in his direction. He dared to follow me here, hedaredwalk in this house and invade this moment? I’d kill him, I would rip him tofuckingpieces —

“Get out,” I snarled. “Before I kill you.”

“You would step away from your precious dying witch to try to kill me? A waste of time.” He scoffed. “You want to save her, you know how. You have a solution.”

My hands clenched into fists. Everly’s head lolled to the side. Her beautiful blue eyes were glassy. I wanted to burst apart. I wanted to scream. The pain of seeing her like this was worse than any battle wound I’d endured.

“Perhaps you’ll run away from her too,” Lucifer mused, and I grabbed the chair beside me to launch it at his head. He knocked it away with his arm, shattering it in midair, then brushing a bit of lint from his suit. “A bit tender there, are we? You weren’t the only one to survive the war. There were others, but your pain was so muchgreaterthan theirs, wasn’t it? They simply couldn’t understand.”

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