17. Warwick

Chapter 17

Warwick

Rosco whimpers in my arms and squirms, but doesn’t try to get away from me.

“Sorry, little guy, I don’t know how to help.”

There’s a commotion ahead. What the hell is going on? I wave my hand over the barrier and it pushes me back, but not as hard as I expect.

“We’re trying this.”

Something isn’t right. I push against the barrier and something snaps, letting me inside. Rosco bounces from my hold and races ahead.

“Wait!” I shout, but stop short as soon as I find myself in the middle of a witch battle.

What appears to be balls of light fly across the yard and explode, sending grass and dirt into the air. I’m not sure if anyone is aiming to hurt, but they’re sure scary. It’s seven against two, with my little witch and Florence on the winning side, it seems.

“Wick!” Ethan cries out. Something wraps around my body and I go down. “Let him go!” he screams as he runs towards me. But he doesn’t make it before he disappears.

I wriggle on the ground like a snake, trying to loosen whatever magic is wrapped around me.

“Grab the demon!” Cordia screams.

Florence rushes to me, and their touch releases the restraints. “Take me away from here,” they whisper. “We can save Ethan. I have a plan.”

I take their hand and teleport us to my apartment in the demon realm. We both suck in a breath and I drop onto my couch.

“It’s like we’re playing keep away and Ethan’s the ball,” I say.

“That’s exactly what’s happening. I’m sure Cordia bets that if she keeps him away from you long enough, everything will go in her favor. And I promise you it won’t.” There’s fire in Florence’s eyes.

“What do we do?” I ask. “I’m not an idea guy.”

“Take me to a crossroads.” Florence holds out their hand. “I’m saving us both.”

“I can’t take you to mine. It’ll be a random one.”

“Don’t care, as long as they’ll make the deal.”

I nod, and in the next breath we’re standing at a crossroads. “I can’t be here. It’s forbidden to know who’s assigned where. Text me when you’re done?”

“Understood.” They nod and I pop back to my apartment.

I kind of wish I had the raccoon to keep me company. I’ll have to see if he’d like to come live with me. Being a rejected familiar, he might not want to live around Cordia anymore and I can take care of him.

Florence: It’s done. Come get me, please.

That was fast, though I realize when someone knows exactly what they want, we don’t fuck around. I’m back at the crossroads just as their knees buckle. I catch them before they can fall.

“What happened?” I ask before I notice the shimmer of magic no longer comes off Florence.

“I’m free. Now we need to do the same for Ethan.”

“How? If you don’t have magic, they’ll make him marry someone else.”

“No. Well, yes.” Florence tips their head from side to side as if they’re thinking. “He’ll still need to bond with someone, but that someone needs to be you , not a witch. His magic is too strong to share with someone from any of the covens. It needs to be someone that can handle the surge of new magic. I need to know where your crossroads is, and I know he had a plan.”

“I can’t tell you.”

“You can break the rules if you want, Wick. Rumor is your brother does all the time.”

“You don’t understand. I can’t show you or tell you.” I wave at my face. “My mouth and nose disappear and the magic bounces me away if I try to walk up to my crossroads.”

“Can you draw a picture? Write out the street names?”

My mouth opens and closes. “Never tried.”

“Then try.” They pull a tiny notebook and pen set from their pocket.

Why hadn’t I thought of this before?

“Hurry. Time is a bit of a factor right now. My family will know what I’ve done and the other covens will try to?—”

The brightest light I’ve ever seen shoots from Cordia’s mansion as if it’s a beacon to the heavens.

“Hurry. Hurry. I think when I kissed him?—”

“You kissed him?!”

“Yes, we figured true love’s kiss from a friend would work as much as from a lover, and I think it worked. But I think it rendered the entire pendant useless, so he’s left unprotected from his magic.”

“You’re saying. Oh fuck. That’s his magic.”

“Yes. So?—”

I scribble the street names of my crossroads in the notebook and let out a sigh of relief when nothing happens.

“Now get me as close to your crossroads as possible,” Florence takes my hand and I get them within a block. “Be ready.” They run and as they approach my crossroads, they hop onto my sign and twist until it comes off the post. Then they use the sign to dig into the gravel and wreck it all to hell.

The ground rumbles, churning the crossroads into chunks once the magic takes hold. Florence squeaks and runs back towards me, their work done.

My fingers tingle, and my body vibrates. A thread of magic shoots up where I stand and steals my breath as I rise into the air. Florence stops dead in their tracks and watches as I’m tossed and turned as if I’m in a giant washer on the spin cycle. My head throbs and as abruptly as it all began, I’m dropped to the ground.

The thread of magic sinks back into the ground, and I laugh. My hands are the same blue they’ve always been. My wings fan out bigger than before, and my tail has a little tuft at the end instead of a soft point. What the fuck am I?

“No time to admire yourself. We got to save Ethan.” Florence grabs my hand. “You should be able to infiltrate Cordia’s mansion without a problem. Just like Pike could get through the barrier.”

“But Pike isn’t me.”

“Just try, damn it. I won’t lose my best friend.” Tears leak from Florence’s eyes.

I squeeze mine shut and teleport us to the outskirts of Cordia’s property. The scent of magic hangs in the air, but there’s no one in the yard anymore.

Her house glows unnaturally from the beam of light.

“Come on, we need?—”

“Can you even go in there?” I stop them from storming into their possible doom.

Florence stops. “I don’t know. But you have to.” They shove me towards the house.

“I don’t know what I’m doing. How do I bind us together?”

“Shit.” They pace in front of me. “I don’t know. A wedding contract works, but that’s not going to work right now.”

“I’ll figure it out.” I leave them in the street as I pop into the house.

A hummingbird zips in my face, and I take it as my cue to follow. The closer I get to Ethan, the hotter the air is until I feel like I’m breathing the summer soup air when it’s so humid my lungs hate Hex. No one else is in the house as far as I can tell. Just me, the hummingbird, and Ethan.

“How do I help him?”

I’m not sure the hummingbird can respond to me, but images fill my head.

A kiss and a blood seal. Something like a soul tether, but not quite. My heart pounds when I get to his door. The light is so blinding I have to look away. But this is my Ethan. I push through until I’m at his bed. The light comes from him .