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Walker rubbed his hands together and chewed on his lower lip.
“It sounds dangerous,” he said.
“That’s because it is,” I answered honestly. “There’s a chance that witches can-can lose themselves in blending. Sometimes, the pieces don’t all fit back together like they did before. Pieces go missing if you’re not careful.”
Walker gulped but nodded.
“What about me?” he asked. “Can you…blend me?”
I shivered and not from the cold. Blending was dangerous to do to oneself. I couldn’t imagine putting Walker at risk in that way.
“No,” I said. “When I get across, I’ll go in through the cracks of the doorway, then disable any wards cast. Be ready to travel your favorite way—by wind.”
He nodded and adjusted his hat. “We don’t have much of a choice, do we?”
“We don’t,” I said.
“Okay,” he said and rubbed his hands on his jeans. “Okay. Let’s do this.”
My breath caught. I hadn’t expected him to agree to my plan so easily. Unease churned my stomach upon the realization that Walker trusted me.
You can do this, I told myself, you have to.
I closed my eyes and recalled the afternoon Mom had taught me how to blend, only a few months ago.
“Feel the earth around you,” she instructed. “Feel the air on your skin, in your lungs, and let it move through you. Let it become you.”
We stood in our garden behind the cottage. I focused on the warm breeze against my skin and spread my magic beyond my body and into it. I melded my magic with the air, until I couldn’t even feel myself breathe—I felt nothing but the warm breeze.
I opened my eyes and found myself bodiless. A scream tore through the memory of where my throat had been, and suddenly, I snapped back into my skin and flesh and bones. Pinpricks of pain rampaged through my body.
“You can’t return so suddenly, Freya!” my mother chided. “That’s how witches lose themselves. Isolate the fear of your power—of nature—and try again. You are braver than you know. You can do this—you have to.”
“Why?” I snapped. Embarrassment heated my cheeks. “This is way too advanced for where I’m at in my training! Most witches—even Elders—struggle with blending! Why must I do it?”
“You are not most witches,” Mom corrected. “You cannot be. Try again.”
Mom had known I would need to blend, and she’d probably even known Walker would be there to catch me at the ravine. He trusted me and I trusted him, but, most of all, I trusted my mother. She wouldn’t have taught me to do this if I were incapable.
“I can do this,” I said aloud.
“You can,” Walker agreed, but worry lined his face. “Be careful though. For me.”
I smiled brittlely. “Careful’s not really in my nature, cowboy.”
I closed my eyes and focused on the damp, chilly fog that already fought to take over my body. With a deep breath, I relinquished control to it and sank into the damp air. Walker gasped, and I felt his hot breath rustle the air around me. I tuned it out. The vampires’ magic tried to pull me away, but I fought back. With invisible hands, I held myself together, until I was still. Solid, and yet completely free of a body.
Only when I was prepared to see myself as nothing at all did I open my invisible eyes. Walker stared at me in wonder. I pushed myself across the ravine then toward the bottom seal of the doorway. Like frostbite, dark magic coated my presence.
These wards are old, I thought, and powerful.
I pushed myself through the cracks and ignored the intense claustrophobia that frazzled my many moving parts. The stone was damp and rough beneath me, yet I felt no scratches against my skin. I tuned out the disorienting sensation.
Slowly but surely, I slipped between the stones and entered a dark, damp hallway. Copper, something horridly sweet, and a sewer-like smell shrank the already cramped place. I listened for any signs of oncoming vampires but heard only water dripping on stones.
I shut out the horrible scents as best as I could and summoned all the moving particles of myself to come back together. I trusted my instincts to arrange them properly and took my time, despite the ticking clock that threatened to overwhelm my thoughts. With one last push, I came back into my body.
My feet landed on the slick stones, and I caught myself against the wall. I squinted to see my hands in the darkness.
