Maudlin's Mayhem (Bewitching Bedlam #2)(74)

“I know you’re supposed to be leader of the coven and all that, but back home we deal with things a little differently. You messed with my cousin, and I thought you’d learn your lesson with the hex, but no, you’re not that smart.” The twang in her voice made me wince.

“Honey, your ego’s getting away from you.” I straightened my shoulders. “Do you have a clue what I can do, sweetheart? Did Ralph tell you who I am?”

“Some booze-soaked, washed-up witch, that’s all I know.” Honey began to braid the roots together, muttering under her breath.

“Put down the roots. All I want to do is send you home, Honey. I don’t want to hurt you.” I held out my hand, coaxing a flicker out of my fingers. The flames burned steadily and I thought if I could just get the right shot at her, I could knock out her roots without catching her clothes aflame.

But Honey wasn’t listening. She kept braiding away and I felt the edge of a shadow push into the room. It was thick and heavy, like smog, and felt dirty in a way that soil never should. It was the shadow of slugs and maggots, and the scent of a fetid earth that had turned sour from decaying flesh. It was reaching out for me, the tendrils of energy looking for something to latch onto. Honey’s eyes glowed with a dangerous light, and a snarl of a grin appeared on her face, cunning and foxy.

I condensed the flames into a ball of burning light. “Don’t make me use this.”

“Go ahead and try,” she whispered, almost done braiding the roots. Whatever she was conjuring was almost in the room. At that moment, the door slammed open and Ralph stood there, along with Sandy.

“Ralph, restrain your cousin or I’m going to hurt her.” I looked straight at the satyr. “You already sicced her on my household and now one person’s dead because of it. Thornton was killed by her hex. Do you really want to be party to that?”

A look of surprise washed across Ralph’s face. “Dead? Somebody died?”

“What do you think?” Honey said, not even glancing at him. “I don’t play games. You told me somebody was messing with you, I went after them.” She went back to whispering her incantation and she came to the end of the roots.

“Stop—don’t do it—you don’t want this.” I increased the size of the ball of flames, holding it up so that Ralph could see. “Stop her.”

He began to twitch a little. “Honey, she’ll use it.”

“She’ll have to get through my shadow poppet first!” Honey finished braiding the roots and blew on the poppet. The shadow in the room increased and solidified into a hulking creature that promptly stepped on the bed, breaking it. The beast looked like a tall, narrow dinosaur with a serpentine neck. It was a muddled mass of smoke and shadow, with glistening scales that shimmered through the immediate darkness. Its eyes glowed with a pale amethyst light and its face reminded me of an odd bird—feathered with fur, with a sharply curved beak that had a piercing tip to it. It twisted its head, curving down toward me in one blur of movement.

I let loose with the fire, aiming it not at the creature, but at Honey. She was controlling it, and I was pretty sure that I’d need to knock her off her guard before we could dissipate the shadow poppet.

Sandy let out a string of curses and a sudden gust of wind knocked me out of the way as the creature struck. Its beak shattered the floor where I had been standing.

Ralph cried out, racing forward to drag Honey back but before he could grab hold of her arm, the fire hit her, blazing so bright that the shadow poppet screamed and withdrew. Honey let out a piercing shriek as the flames clung to her, beginning to eat at her clothes.

Sandy body-slammed her, knocking her to the ground and sitting on top of her. The braided roots slid across the floor toward me and I grabbed them up, ripping them apart. The shadow poppet began to flop and flounce as I did so, and I realized I was tearing it to pieces.

Ralph stared at the scene with a look of horror on his face. He grabbed Honey’s planter and I tossed him the salt. With a look of mingled sadness and fear, he poured a handful into the dirt and began working it through.

Sandy managed to put out the flames on Honey’s shirt, but I got a look at her face and could tell that the Dirt Witch was going to have some nasty blisters. The next moment, Honey jerked away, turning to Ralph.

“How could you? I helped you fight this bitch and you’re…” She was beginning to fade, and was almost translucent by now.

Ralph set the pot down. “I never meant for you to kill anybody. I don’t…that’s not what I do.” He sounded heartsick.

“Coward.” Honey let out one last snort and, holding her hands to her blistered face, she faded completely away. The last of the shadow poppet vanished with her.

Sandy was putting out stray fires that had started from my spell. I quickly moved to help her, tossing salt on top of the flames. We managed to corral them all before they became a bigger problem. Ralph stared at us, his mouth hanging open. For the first time in a long while, he looked contrite.

I walked over to him. “Listen, Ralph, enough. Just enough of the fighting and the arguing. Because of our bickering, a man is dead. There’s no proof that our fight played a part, but you and I both know that Honey’s spell was dangerous. And that doesn’t even begin to cover the rest of the damage you did. I think it’s time we put our feud to rest, don’t you? And this time, I mean it.”