Devilish Game (Shadow Guild: The Rebel 4)

She nodded, then climbed out the window.

I met Atticus’s gaze as I passed. “Thank you. Are you following?”

He shook his head. “This is perfect for me. They’ll be so busy trying to find you that they won’t notice me slipping into the back.”

I didn’t know what was in the back, and I certainly wasn’t going to ask. “Best of luck.”

He nodded, then disappeared back into the building. I followed Mac and Carrow out into the breezy Monaco night.

Carrow dug into her pocket and withdrew a transport charm. She hurled it to the ground. A poof of silvery dust exploded upward, and she reached for our hands. Mac and I grabbed hold of her.

As we stepped into the transport charm, I prayed we weren’t too late.

8

Carrow

The ether spun me through space. My stomach heaved, a byproduct of the ride and the nerves that raced through me.

Please let us be in time.

I couldn’t bear for there to be another abduction. And not another one of the hilarious, spunky witches who were my new friends.

The ether spit us out into the cool night air at the edge of the Witches’ Guild square. It was the closest I could get, and the abandoned, weed-filled space separated us from the crazy Witches’ Guild tower. The abandoned shops were silent at our back, and the moon rose high behind the tower where the witches lived.

The square structure was built of wood and beige plaster, with dark oak staircases winding around the exterior. It leaned slightly to the left, with a pointed roof that looked like a witch’s hat. Green smoke belched from the many chimneys. Magic sparked all around, but my gaze was drawn to the great blue bonfire rising from an old stone well at the side of the property.

A woman danced around it, her pale limbs gleaming in the moonlight. Dark feathers decorated her body, and midnight smoke snaked around her ankles. She chanted something that I couldn’t hear.

“It’s Coraline,” Mac said. She began to scream Coraline’s name, but the witch clearly didn’t hear her. She just kept dancing and chanting, in some kind of trance. “Why the hell is she outside alone with kidnappings going on?”

“The witches had no reason to think they’d be targeted twice.”

From behind, I heard Eve’s voice. She was shouting frantically, and I turned, spotting my Fae friend flying low to the ground, yelling into a cell phone.

She was still trying to contact the witches. Her raven flew behind her, eyes on me.

A connection sizzled between me and the bird. I spun back to Coraline and sprinted toward her, Grey and Mac at my side. From behind, I could hear a voice shriek out of the cell phone that Eve still held.

The witches knew.

At that moment, the main door burst open and four witches spilled out onto the landing. Mary, along with two that I didn’t recognize. They sprinted down the rickety, winding staircase that led to the ground.

Just as they reached it, a man appeared right out of thin air, only fifteen feet from Coraline.

We were still eighty feet away, and the witches weren’t much closer.

Coraline, still in the grip of a magical trance that had turned her eyes into inky pools of midnight that I could see even from this distance, didn’t even notice him. He grabbed her from behind, and she shrieked.

The bonfire died immediately, as if her magic had been severed.

“Electo liquernum,” Mary shouted, her voice carrying over the sound of Coraline’s scream. She waved her hand, and sparkling water surged up from the well. It slammed into the kidnapper, nearly driving him away from Coraline.

She stumbled backward, breaking his grip on her arm, but he flung out his hand and the water splashed back into the well. He reached for Coraline, but Eve’s lightning slammed into him.

He barely even flinched, instead reaching out and grabbing Coraline before she could run away. He yanked her to him, pulling her against his chest as he reached for his pocket.

No.