She turned around and tried to summon her magic to create a barrier so they couldn’t follow her, but, just as she’d suspected, she’d used too much creating the energy force, and she hadn’t recharged her magical stores enough lately.
Her magic was gone.
She was out.
She’d have to depend on herself now.
And she had to keep running.
Chapter 3
“I don’t understand why you’re doing this,” Storm’s words were gentle, but firm. Tabitha knew she wasn’t being argumentative. She truly didn’t understand going on such an incredible quest as this.
“Of course, you don’t.” Tabitha fought to keep the irritation out of her voice. She didn’t want to explain herself. She didn’t want to justify the fact that she’d been working hard at this for months, and she’d finally gotten her chance.
She’d gotten the map, and now she knew without a doubt where Kyanite really was.
She was going.
“Well, you don’t have to be so snippy about it.” Storm crossed her arms over her chest and frowned at Tabitha.
“I’m not being snippy,” Tabitha sighed, tired.
“You’re being a bit rude.”
“A bit, yeah,” Tabitha said, plopping down on the bed.
Storm was the one person in her life she could tell anything to. Anything. Storm wasn’t a witch the way Tabitha was. She couldn’t do magic or enchant things. She didn’t have the ability to levitate or to float items in the air.
She was, however, a vampire. This made their friendship particularly interesting. She liked hanging out with Tabitha, but she also liked to feed from her. Tabitha didn’t mind. She knew that Storm got a special high from witch’s blood, and she was happy to share this part of herself with her friend.
“I’m sorry,” Tabitha said. She didn’t want to upset Storm. That hadn’t been her intention at all. Nope. What she really wanted was to pretend like nothing bad had ever happened in her life and to imagine that everything was going to be okay once she found the right island.
Once she found the witch.
She kept promising herself that if she worked hard enough, that if she believed enough, that somehow, everything would be just fine.
Only, she knew that it might not be.
The Isle of Kyanite was her last chance at revenge. She’d been searching and seeking, trying to find out who had killed the Mages Guild and why, and she’d finally learned the truth. Now she needed to get to the island so she could punish the witch who had taken her family.
She had to destroy the horrible person who had taken everything from her: her past, her family...her future.
“I’m just feeling tense,” she said.
“Too tense to feed me?” Storm raised an eyebrow.
“No,” Tabitha shook her head. She smiled softly. “Never.”
“Good,” Storm smiled. “Then come here.”
Tabitha nodded demurely, and she stood up and walked slowly across the bedroom. Storm was sitting in an oversized armchair that was more than big enough for two, and Tabitha lowered herself onto the vampire’s lap.
They’d done this a million times, the two of them. Tabitha couldn’t even really remember the first time they’d been together. They weren’t in a relationship, at least not in the traditional sense of the word, but there was a sort of connection between them.
Storm didn’t demand much from Tabitha.
She knew Tabitha was a witch, and she knew she was on a vengeance mission, but aside from that, the two didn’t discuss personal matters too much. That was perfectly fine with Tabitha. In fact, it was better than fine.