“I don’t know where she is!” Wick shouted. “And if you burn this down, I’ll destroy you.”

“Destroy me?” Scelestus threw back her head and cackled, and the sound sent chills down Wick’s spine. The instant she heard it, she realized exactly who Scelestus was.

“You’re that horrible gypsy woman!” Wick’s hand trembled, and she had to fight to keep the wand steady on her. “Your clothes are nicer, your makeup is better, but you’re still that haggard old woman underneath it all!”

Scelestus narrowed her eyes at Wick, taking a moment to place her. It had been more than ten years since she’d lived as a traveling gypsy, practicing her sorcery in dirty rags in dark alleys. She had struggled for so long, until she met the lovely Lady Iris walking through the town. Scelestus did a simple trick for her, and Iris had been so pleased, she paid her with a ruby. It was then that Scelestus decided she would have the Lady’s life, even if it meant that she had to take her life to get it.

“You’re Iris’s confidant?” Scelestus smiled wider. “You’re the one she went to, to save herself when she realized that I was coming after her. That’s how she got that ridiculous bag of parlor tricks that did nothing to help her.” Scelestus laughed again, growing louder and more delighted. “She went to you for help, and you gave her nothing. She died because you weren’t strong enough to help her!” 

“No.” Wick gritted her teeth and gripped her wand tightly. Already, she was drawing her energy up, calling everything she had and building it inside her. “She came to me, and I told her how to stop you, how to kill you, but Iris would never resort to that. She refused to stoop to your level. You took advantage of her innocence and her charity. But I am not nearly as kind or forgiving as she would be.”

“You failed at preventing me from killing her, and now you’re going to fail at preventing me from killing her daughter.” The fire ball in her band burned brighter, and Scelestus raised her hand, preparing to throw it and burn the cottage down.

Before she had a chance, Wick’s wand glowed blue and shimmered. A beam of light flashed out of it, enveloping Scelestus, freezing her in place. She struggled against it, her mouth contorting in rage and pain, but Wick was using all her might to hold her.

“Invictus evictum!” Wick shouted and flicked the wand.

Scelestus went flying through window, shattering glass and splintering wood. Her body slammed hard against a tree several yards from the cottage, and she slumped down on the ground. Jinn ran to her side as quickly as he was able, and at first, he thought she was dead. Scelestus lay immobile, her eyes shut, with a thin line of blood dripping from her mouth.

“My Lady!” Jinn wailed, touching her shoulder, and Scelestus’s eyes shot open. “Thank the gods that you’re alive!”

“Of course I’m alive, you dimwit!” Scelestus struggled to get up and snapped her fingers at him. “Help me up!” She put her arm around Jinn, and he helped her to her feet.

“What happened?” Jinn asked carefully. “Did you find the girl?”

“Does it look like I have the girl?” Scelestus wiped at the blood on her lips and glared back at the cottage.

“No, I’m sorry, Mistress.” He bowed his head in shame. “Did you destroy the witch?”

“No. Not today.” She turned away from the cottage and walked in the other direction, toward the palace.

Wick had drained Scelestus of her power, and all of her muscles ached and burned. It would take all of her strength to get them home, and she’d have to wait a few moments before she could recharge her magic enough to do that. It had been far too long since Scelestus had battled with anyone.

She considered going back to finish Wick, since the fight had undoubtedly drained her too, but Wick didn’t have the girl. In a few days, when Scelestus successfully recaptured Lily, she would have more than enough power to do away with Wick, and anyone else who crossed her. But for now, she was old, tired, and painfully mortal. Her time would best be spent back in her chambers, using the cauldron to track down Lily.

Wick had used all of her energy to cast Scelestus out of her cottage. She had wanted to kill her, but she had never done well with the dark arts. As soon as she’d sent her away, Wick went to her grimoira, looking for a spell to destroy Scelestus.

She had to drag herself to the table. Her muscles felt weak like jelly, and her mind had gone hazy. Even her vision blurred, and she found it hard to see the words on the pages. She cursed herself for growing stale and complacent living in the woods. Most of her practice went into potions and holistic cures, and it’d been years since she had used actual magic like that.

All her attention was focused on trying to find a way to kill Scelestus and get revenge for Iris’s murder. She had entirely forgotten how this had started until she heard the howling. To the layman, it sounded like wolves, but more menacing, like a howl mixed with a mad man laughing. That was the calling card of the canu.

The canu were a pack of hybrid demon dogs, and they worked for Valefor and his peccati. Scelestus would be the least of her worries if Valefor had gotten involved. Too late, Wick realized the canu were howling happily, the way they did when the caught their prey.

“Lily.”

8

Lily ran through the forest, Wick’s cloak billowing out around her. She heard the sounds of the forest around her, groaning and yearning, and the branches scraped against the cloth, but none of them touched her. The moon had been huge and full, but clouds rolled over it, blotting out its precious light. She could hardly see in front of her and narrowly missed running smack into a tree several times.

The flap of wings echoed in the sky above her, but she kept her course as straight as possible. She didn’t know where she was going or what she would do when she got there, but she knew she had to keep going. Wick had possibly sacrificed herself for her, and Lily couldn’t let that be in vain.

The only time she stopped was when she heard a booming sound behind her, coming from the cottage. She’d already gone too far to see the cottage itself through the trees, but she turned around anyway. Dazzling blue light spiraled through the sky, and Lily watched with awe for a moment before it disappeared.

She didn’t know what it meant, but when Wick had saved her from the charuns, her wand had cast out blue light similar to that. It had been on a much smaller scale, of course, but she had to believe that Wick had vanquished whoever came looking for Lily.