Page 60 of Bad Witch

Stripping off my skirt and shirt, I took the steps into the water and swam out to Manfred. “I’m here, Manny.”

He rolled over, giving me his belly as another baleful sound rolled from him. I rubbed his scaly stomach as I called my healing powers forward, sending them through him while I drew out the residual magic swirling inside his belly.

The magic had to go somewhere after Manny ate the evil I fed him, and he couldn’t release it on his own.

I drew on it now, pulling sections of it from him in dark, swirling ribbons that I flicked out of my hands, releasing it into the air. It swirled above us, but locked in place, bound by my magic. The ribbons changed to shades of red, looking more like writhing, angry snakes, some as bright as a newly ripe tomato and others dark as day-old blood. They sparked and spun and dove furiously.

I drew from Manny again and flicked out more to the sky, watching as they spiraled up, joining with the evil I’d already removed from him. The serpents became brighter, their movements wilder, the magic beginning to burn itself out when it had nowhere to go. Faster and faster, frenzied, the dark magic desperately searched for a host.

Finding none, the magic continued to dissipate until there was nothing left, until the only part of that evil male that had remained was gone, never to return.

“Good boy.” I ran my hand over Manny’s scales again, soothing his tight belly. “All better now?”

He made several happy yips. Thank goodness. I let myself drift back into the water, floating beside him. The water in the moat was warm, no matter what season, and I let it seep through me now as I stared up at the stars blinking in the night sky.

My smile came unbidden, and there was no holding it back. Today had been a very good day. I was helping Fender with his assignment, and I’d saved a young mother and her children from a male who had never deserved the family he’d been gifted. Manny rolled lazily beside me, and I ran my hand along his side. He made a low, soothing sound that echoed through the forest, picking up on my tension as I forced out the evil images that tried to come forward.

“I’m okay now,” I said. “Tonight ended up being a good night.” I let the warm water soothe me while I remembered the goodbye kiss Fender had given me instead. “A really good night.”

When I got out of the water, and before I got into bed, I sipped chamomile tea infused with peppermint and lemon balm. It didn’t always work, but I told myself it helped. Matilda business often resulted in nightmares, memories really—mine. Matilda M had prescribed the tea after I woke up screaming the first time I went out on my own.

But after seeing what was in that male’s mind, the evil he had planned, I wasn’t sure anything would help tonight.

The screaming stopped.

Everything had stopped.

I curled into a tight ball, trying not to breathe, not to make a sound. Dripping came from somewhere close by. Something wet and thick hitting the wooden floorboards over and over again, and the scent of forbidden herbs and burned hair stung the back of my throat.

His heavy boots grew closer. “Tempest,” he called softly.

When he spoke in that soft way, I knew I was in the most danger. I didn’t move, although my lungs screamed, desperate to release the breath I was holding. His magic caused pain. He’d cut Mom again, he’d taken something out of her while she screamed, and now he wanted to cut me too. He did that when he was using his magic. He took our blood for his spells. He cut us.

“You have ten seconds to come out,” he said.

I squeezed my eyes closed. Oh no. He sounded like he had the time he tied me to a chair and dragged his knife down my arm, then cut off a hunk of my hair. Excited. Goose bumps lifted on my arms, and I wanted to rub them away, but I didn’t dare move.

Slowly, I took another breath. If I didn’t, I was afraid I’d pass out, then he’d find me for sure. The musty scent of the heavy velvet curtain I was crouched behind filled my lungs, and tears sprung to my eyes. Mom had been so excited when she’d found them at the thrift store. She thought the deep teal would look amazing with the rug she’d come across the month before that. Even living with a monster, she’d done her best to make this a home for us, for her and me.

She was dead now. I was sure of it. Mom hadn’t made a sound for at least fifteen minutes, and that dripping had slowed. I knew what that sound was. When he had her against the wall, he’d been holding his favorite hunting knife.

When I’d heard her cry out, I’d tried to be quiet, but the stairs had creaked as I’d come down. He reached for me, and Mom had slapped him. When he’d spun back to her, pinning her to the wall, she’d motioned to the living room with her hand behind his back, telling me it was time to use my secret place—and the real reason she’d bought the teal, floor-length, velvet curtains.

Mom had loosened one of the wooden wall panels behind the drapes. It led into the cavity below the built-in window seat. It wasn’t the kind you could open. It was just a seat with cushions. Mom liked to sit on it and read.

I hadn’t had time to climb inside, so now I had to wait until he left the room. If he heard me open the panel, I was done for. There was water and a phone in there. I just had to wait.

I released another breath, slow and easy. It sounded so loud to my own ears.

“Tempest,” he said again.

I shivered. His voice had changed again.

Dad wielded his magic like a blade if you were lucky and a battering ram if you weren’t. That’s what Mom used to say. She said when his voice changed like that, I had to hide and not come out until she came looking for me.

“You come out now, you hear me. It’ll only be worse for you if you make me find you.”

I squeezed my eyes closed tighter, trembling like someone had dumped a bucket of ice down the back of my shirt.