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Chapter Eleven
“Watch where you’re going!” Denise said for the third time.
If I didn’t love her, I’d be annoyed. Had I flown us into the cliff face yet? No, so she should quit bitching. Sure, I’d come close to the rock walls to our left, but that was because we were being stealthy as we approached the rendezvous point.
Normally, you needed to hike almost seven miles to reach Alamere Falls. But I could fly, so we were arriving the easy way. Or, at least, it would be easy, if Denise didn’t keep screeching in my ear and distracting me.
I had to give it to the witches; they’d picked a beautiful place for their ritual. The forty-foot falls landed on Wildcat Beach, where the surf was rapidly covering the sand as the tide started to come in. At this hour, no tourists were around since it was already a tough hike to Alamere Falls during the day.
It was only an hour before high tide on the full moon, when the second spell would kick in and the sea goddess would come for us. We were cutting it close, not that we’d had a choice. The witches hadn’t been here earlier. I’d done multiple fly-bys and hadn’t seen a hint of them. I’d started to worry that they’d concealed themselves with glamour—or that I was too drunk to spot them—when I finally saw a line of blue-robed figures hiking up the final stretch of trail leading to the falls. I tried to do a quick head count, and lost track after the mid-twenties. Whatever. I only needed to find and kill Morgana. She had to be here. This was the big shebang. Morgana wouldn’t miss it.
I flew back to where I had left Denise, drank the last of Ashael’s blood from the mostly empty second bag, and flew us back to the falls. Time to crash their party.
The witches were setting up a bonfire made of branches and the terrain’s many loose rocks. No one had removed their hoods yet, so I couldn’t spot Morgana’s lustrous, dark umber hair.
Come on, Morgana. Where are you?
“Look!” one of them suddenly said while pointing up.
Dammit. We’d been spotted.
“Brace!” I told Denise as every hooded head looked up.
I dove us toward the tightest cluster of witches. We’d scatter them before landing near the bonfire—Aw, shit!
I crashed into the bonfire. Fire, wood, and stone burst out in every direction as we tumbled along the top of the cliff. Thankfully, a group of witches stopped our momentum, providing a much softer landing than the ground as we plowed into them.
I leapt up with as much bravado as I could muster after that epic fail of a landing.
“Give me Morgana, or I am going to fuck all of you!”
Denise shot an amazed look my way. That’s when I realized I’d forgotten a very important word.
“Up,” I stressed. “Give me Morgana, or I am going to fuck all of you up.”
“Your first offer was better,” an amused voice noted.
I knew that voice. Morgana.
I turned and flung several of my silver throwing knives toward the source of her voice. Take that, witchzilla!
The knives turned to liquid in midair before splashing to the ground near her feet. Worse, I suddenly felt a burning wetness, and looked down to see silver rivulets running from my now empty weapon sheaths on my arms, thighs, and ankles.
I stared at the shiny splotches in disbelief. Please let me be hallucinating from Ashael’s blood. Please don’t let the bitch have just melted all my weapons!
Morgana smiled. “How do you like my new spell?”
Oh, I’d be very impressed, if I wasn’t the one covered in useless, melted silver. “Creative,” I managed to say.
Morgana’s smile turned smug. “I had a feeling you’d find a way out of the immobility spell, so I had that ready in case you showed up tonight.”
“Cat…” Denise drew my name out in a concerned way.
I glanced over at her. Yep, Denise now had melted shiny streaks where all her silver weapons had been, too. Ashael had said his blood would shield us from any new spells they lobbed our way, but that protection obviously didn’t extend to inanimate objects like our knives.
“It’s fine,” I said, cracking my knuckles. “Who doesn’t love a good old-fashioned brawl?”
“Alas, I must decline,” Morgana replied in a light tone. “We have our goddess’ arrival to prepare for.”
