Witch's Wrath (Blood And Magick #3)(48)

They shot across the room like little bullets. Hornets, I thought, or wasps, each motivated by the sole intent of hurting me. I pulled my shield, Eliza’s shield, up, and the black cloud of insects struck it like a jet of ink striking a crystal ball. The worst part wasn’t the awful, droning sound they made, or the promise of their poisonous sting; it was the smell. The disgusting odor of rotting eggs assaulted my nostrils.

This was dirty magick.

I grit my teeth as the wasps continued to swarm around me. Already I could feel Eliza’s shield weakening under the strain of hundreds of little pinprick attacks. But I had to hold it up. I had to outlast whatever spell Tamara had cast. Wait it out until the magick faded and died. And when it did, and the wasps dissipated into the air, and I could let my hands fall and breathe.

Strangely, I felt my energy returning to me much more rapidly than it normally would.

“That was illegal magick,” Nicole said, “I’m calling this duel right now. Madison is the winner.”

“Shut up!” Tamara hissed, “This little witch knows blood magick, and I want her to use it. I want you to see her for what she really is.”

I said nothing, and did nothing as Tamara rose to her feet again. Nicole broke the circle, and the magick bubble fizzled to nothing. “The duel is over,” Nicole repeated.

“No,” Tamara said, and she whipped her right hand across the air, slapping Nicole across the face from the other side of the room.

I took a step forward, anger burning in my chest, and screamed Tamara’s name. And when she turned to look at me, grinning a wolf-like grin, I reached down and pulled out the knife I had strapped against my boot. As the gathered witches watched, I clenched my palm around the blade edge and pulled upward, grimacing slightly as the knife bit into my skin.

“That’s it,” she said, “Show me what Remy taught you.”

“Remy didn’t teach me,” I said, “I’d been using blood magick for years before I met him.”

Tamara tilted her head to the side, and her confident smirk failed her.

I flicked my wrist out, sending a streak of blood splattering against the floor at her feet. A cool breeze filled the room and circled around me, weaving around the crowd of witches gathered. Tamara watched, her eyes wide, as the blood began to slide across the floor, growing longer, and gaining more definition as it went, until it no longer looked like a puddle, but a slithering snake the color of blood.

The snake coiled in front of Tamara and fanned its neck out, its bloody tongue flicking the air. Tamara’s hand began to crackle, and she threw an arc of lightning into the snake, but the energy went through and around the snake, striking the floor as if it weren’t even there. She turned her eyes up at me. “You wouldn’t dare kill me,” she said.

“I’m not going to kill you,” I said, “But one word, and my friend will blind you, and paralyze you, and we’ll drag you out of New Orleans. I’m giving you the chance to go quietly… with your dignity intact.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” she said, “You may have won the duel, but this house belonged to Remy—my late husband—which means it belongs to me now, too.”

“That’s not true,” Nicole said.

Tamara snapped her head around and turned her gaze on Nicole. “What? Of course it’s mine.”

Nicole pulled Remy’s letter out from her pocket and walked it over to where I stood.

“What’s that?” Tamara asked.

“That’s a will,” Nicole said, “In Remy’s hand, signed by Remy before he died, declaring this house and all of his assets are to go to Madison upon his death.”

I scrambled to pull the letter out of the envelope and read it while the crowd spoke in hushed tones around me.

“I don’t believe that for a second,” Tamara said, “He wouldn’t just sign it off to some bitch he wanted to sleep with once.”

I skimmed the letter the first time, but then read it through the second time, fighting the urge to cry all over the lettering. “She’s right,” I said, “It’s all here…”

“Do you think a piece of paper means anything?” Tamara asked. “You can’t hide behind that. This house is mine.”

I sensed her magick coming before it manifested, and Jared did too. He grabbed my wrist to pull me out of the way, but the snake was quicker than she was. It lurched forward and bit her in the throat. She screamed and struggled with the wriggling, slippery, bloody thing, but then fell on her back.

When the snake expended its energy, it melted into a puddle of blood again, slipping through Tamara’s clenched fingers, and leaving her glassy eyed, and paralyzed, just as I had promised.

A soft breath escaped my lips and I wiped my eyes, now, swallowing the swell of emotions building inside of me. “I’m sorry you all had to see that,” I said.

Nicky stepped out of the crowd and into the circle, looking around the room. “Are you kidding me?” he asked, “That was fucking awesome!”

The witches burst into a round of applause, and I had no choice but to accept it, even if what I really wanted to do was find a room to hide in and cry through the joy, the sadness, and the gratitude coursing through me right now.





CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR


Jared and Nicole stepped into the living room of my new Garden District house where they found me sitting at the dining room table, re-reading Remy’s note. He had left his estate to me. All of it. The house, its possessions, even some money. A sizeable chunk, in fact, though only a small fraction compared to what he had chosen to donate to the city itself; specifically, to families living in the Ninth Ward and others living in poverty.