Page 89 of Reckless Witch

I jam my eyes shut and shake my head violently—

The wolf howls.

My eyes snap open. Raith, Blade and Ethan are kneeling over me. I’m lying on the ground.

Blade smiles gently. “Glad to have you back, love.”

I seize his arm. “Did you hear that?”

He frowns. “Hear what?”

“The wolf.” I start to push upright. The world tilts.

Ethan slides an arm beneath me and eases me into a sitting position. The trees make a slow spin.

“Take a deep breath,” Blade urges.

I do as he instructs and, thankfully, the spin slows and then stops. “What happened?”

“We were going to ask you the same thing,” Ethan says.

“What did you expect?” Raith says. “She used her magic while wearing your sigil.”

I stare stupidly.

“You should have let us extinguish the fire,” he says with a trace of impatience.

“Fire?” I repeat. Then remember. “Where’s the document?” I glance wildly around the small clearing.

“Easy,” Blade soothes. “We’ve got it.”

“Where?” I demand.

He looks at Raith, who pulls a folded paper from his back pocket. I snatch it from his grasp, open it and scan the contents. The words are the same, handwritten notes and all.

“What happened, Leilah?” Blade asks.

A dream, that’s what happened. A goddamn dream. I look up at Blade. “I guess Raith is right. I shouldn’t have used magic while wearing the sigil.”

Raith’s brows shoot up and I know he’s surprised that I agree with him. I don’t care. I can’t admit that I’m shook up over a dream. I hand the document back to Raith and start to stand. Blade gasps my hand and pulls me to my feet. I stumble a pace and he catches me. I look up and meet his eyes. He stares down, and his compassion causes my heart to lurch.

I push away from him and he sets me at arms’ length, still grasping my shoulders. “Okay?” he asks.

Thankfully, I feel steady, and nod. He releases me, though I’m almost sure I glimpse regret in his eyes.

“I suppose it’s time we fetch that familiar of yours,” he says, and I want to throw myself back into his arms and cry.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

ETHAN

Just when we thought things would get easier…

We pull up to Miriam Crowe’s house in Raith’s MacLaren. Thankfully, Raith drove. He barely shifts the car into drive when Leilah jumps out of the car and races toward the door. We three follow at a more sedate pace and enter the house to find her, kneeling on the floor of the kitchen, her arms around the pig. Her familiar is snorting loudly, clearly as pleased to see Leilah as she is to see the creature. I release a silent breath and hope the pig will help Leilah better settle into The Academy.

Leilah, at last, rises and faces us. When she extends the hand marked with my sigil, I sigh.

Her eyes narrow. “A deal’s a deal.”