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It was so agonized, I thought it might be from an animal, but I recognized its tinny ring and the magic that made it even louder.
Cadence.
I tried and failed to jerk upright then wondered how I was able to hear at all. Josephine had Embraced me. It wasn’t something, not even Redferns, came back from.
Then I felt it.
What kept me to tethered to existence.
Josephine’s magic tangled with mine and slowly pulled energy from me. The onslaught of power had been reduced to a small tug that jerked violently on occasion.
She’s using me to cast spells.
I held on tight to that tether and used it to ground me, so I could access my other senses. I let the tether pull me back to life.
“You’re quicker than I expected,” a woman crooned, “but you’re still human. How long will it take you to tire?”
I would recognize Josephine’s voice from anywhere, but it held a strange ring to it. Her words reverbed, as if multiple people spoke through her mouth. Magic pulsed through the air and shook the earth.
If only I could access it.
Someone grunted, and I was shocked I could single out the sound. The craze of battle had ended. I spread my senses wider across the earth’s floor and confirmed that everything had gone still.
You’re still human.
Panic gripped my heart.
Walker fought Josephine alone.
It was no wonder Cadence screamed. If I could’ve opened my godsdamned mouth, I would’ve screamed. Horror and pride warred in my chest. Walker—goofy, clueless Walker—faced off a power-crazed witch. A witch who dared to use my power against him.
Even worse, the Bloodblade’s magic hummed in the air like a death march. Surely, Josephine didn’t plan to wield it against him.
Unless the cowboy had proven to be stronger than she'd thought.
Unless she wanted to decimate him so completely, he’d be nothing but a meager bone. Walker would just be another thing taken from me, her goddessdaughter who didn’t understand.
Josephine had taken my mother and nearly taken my own coven’s loyalty. She wouldn’t take anything from me again.
I tuned out Walker’s grunts of struggle and Josephine’s maniacal laughter. I drowned out the heady thrum of magic and the stillness that had descended upon the battlefield. All my focus went to the tether between Josephine and me. It operated like a tunnel. A current tugged my magic through it and into Josephine.
Air had always been my most natural element.
Reverse, I told the spell.
As if it were confused, the current of magic stalled. With one last ounce of energy, I tugged harder.
Reverse. Reverse. Reverse.
There was one more heartbeat of stillness, then chaos erupted. The channel of magic reversed and power unlike anything I’d ever experienced rushed into me. It seized my limbs and stole my breath. Some of it was my own, which I recognized like a missing limb returned. Some of it was richer, or slicker, or brighter. It heated my veins and sped my heart.
It was the magic of my fallen sisters.
I opened my eyes and jerked upright. Magic rolled through me like a tidal wave and begged to be set free.
Wild green eyes met mine. Josephine’s face was slack with shock, and I couldn’t stop my grin. In the edges of my vision, Walker scrambled to his feet.
The whirlwind of power threatened to loosen my resolve, but I remembered all she’d taken from me and pulled harder.
