Antebellum Awakening (The Network Series #2)(44)

“Exile them!” a woman only a few paces away called. “Send Derek and his daughter ta the North.”

Cackling pockets of hostility erupted behind me.

“Bianca, come on,” Camille insisted, true fear in her eyes now. “Come on!”

“Yes,” I said, swallowing. “Let’s go.”

Relieved, Camille and Michelle turned to go. Someone stumbled into me from behind, drunk with brewed ipsum, and sent me flying into the crowd. My friends faded into the teeming mass of brown and black cloaks. Witches shoved me back and forth, yelling and laughing at the sport, until someone had pity and set me on my feet.

“There ya go,” he said, the smell of ipsum rolling off him. “What’s a pretty young witch like you doin—”

He stopped when I looked up at him, blinking in surprise. His eyes narrowed, then grew wide.

“The good gods,” he muttered under his breath and tightened his grip on my arm. “You’re Derek’s daughter.”

“Let me go,” I said, frantic. “Let me go!”

“Well,” he breathed with a lurid grin, his bloodshot eyes looking me over. “Let’s have a bit of fun. Look who I have here!” he cried, waving his arm. “Look what good ol’ Joe has found!”

“Let me go!”

“No, I don’t think I will,” he said. “She’s here! Coven Leader Clive!”

Desperate, I slapped him across the face with a crack that echoed through the air. He stood there for a second, stunned, while I jerked my arm from his grasp. His bloodshot eyes bulged.

“Cheeky little girl,” he muttered, grabbing the back of my neck so tight it hurt.

“Let me go!”

“I’m not overly fond of bratty vixens like ya. Makes ol’ Joe kinda angry.”

Angry? I thought. You’ll never be as angry as me.

“Leave me alone!” I gasped again, the force of my powers overwhelming me. My fingertips tingled. “You’ll regret it if you don’t.”

“What, is your Papa going ta hurt me? She’s here!” he yelled, hollering like a pig. “Bianca Monroe!”

The witches nearest us whirled around, at first annoyed at the commotion. But as soon as they saw me their eyes popped open and they joined the battle cry. Another pair of arms grabbed me. I stomped my heel into the toes of my new assailant. He yelped, but didn’t let go.

“Bianca is here!”

“Derek’s daughter!”

Clive stopped speaking and gazed toward us, seeking out the source of the unrest. The drunk man grabbed my arm and shoved me into the crowd. Someone else grabbed my arm. They pushed me deeper into the queue, toward Clive, who sneered from high on his perch. The crowd began a low chant as the warm slime of someone’s spit slid down my right cheek. I wouldn’t be able to fight the magic much longer. It would take over, creating something dangerous, perhaps harming everyone around me. Maybe even myself.

“Get the girl! Get the girl!”

“Take her over there!”

“Let’s hear from her, eh?” a witch reeking of ipsum shouted, stumbling over his own feet. “Maybe she can tell us secrets about her scoundrel father. She looks like a real tart, doesn’t she? Just like her pretty mama must have been!”

His words echoed in the red, bitter chambers of my heart. Time slowed. I calmed. The dragon in my chest bellowed with heat and fire and pain.

Just like her pretty mama must have been.

I lost the battle and the magic ran free.

In that moment everything went oddly quiet. The screams of the apoplectic crowd became a dull roar in my ears. In between all the capes, waving arms, and jeering faces I made out a snippet of bright blue sky. This is it. The magic won.

I processed what happened next in snatches of time, completely unable to control the outcome.

A stranger reached for my neck. I threw out with a hand to stop him and something flashed. Darkness. His body lay on the ground. Darkness. A sea of astonished faces stared at me, gaping and terrified. Darkness. Several pairs of hands trying to pull me to the ground. My legs kicked. Darkness. A white explosion. Darkness. Witches on the ground around me. Pulsing pain in my head. Blood on my hands. Darkness.

Then Merrick’s calm, steady face appeared. He grabbed my arm and pulled me from the ground. A shock ran through my body, breaking the trance.

“Come on,” he said in a low voice. “I’m here to take you back.”

He helped me stand up, untangling me from the ten or more witches lying on the ground around me. Screams filled the streets. Eyes, hundreds of eyes, looked at me.

“Follow me,” Merrick said, grabbing my arm. He kept his intense green eyes on the crowd. I could feel how tense his muscles had become, waiting for someone to spring out at us. Several witches stepped out of his way. No one tried to stop us as we wound through back alleys, headed for Letum Wood.

The next thing I registered was trees. A green canopy. Moss. We ran through Letum Wood, the trees flashing by us, chests heaving. My legs moved so fast my heart couldn’t keep up as we darted through the forest, outrunning a monster.

Faster. Faster.

I stumbled, already knowing the monster was me.

Darkness.





Silence

“She’s waking up, Mildred.”