I sucked air into my burning lungs and searched for the source of attack. Through the gloom, a slight figure with long, wavy blonde hair emerged. “Allyson?” She glanced up at me, her green eyes huge in her pale face, her diamond nose ring glittering in the candlelight. She wasn’t bound like Jamie, but she was trembling. There was no one else in the room—it didn’t make sense. “Ally, run and get help! My friends are upstairs.” I pushed to my feet. “I’ll untie him and meet you there.”
Hyperaware of the time slipping away, I stumbled over to Jamie, who barely seemed to be able to lift his head. “Jamie?”
He turned toward my voice, his eyes unfocused. “It’s her.”
“What?” I began working on the rope binding his hands behind his back, but it was stuck tight.
“Veronica.” It was Allyson’s voice but—different. A chill rushed down my spine. I raised my eyes to find the girl walking steadily toward us, her edges strangely blurred. “You’ve done well.”
Something was wrong with her face. Slowly, I straightened and placed my hands on Jamie’s shoulders, my heart dropping to the floor. Impossibly, Ally’s hair began to shrink, growing shorter and straighter before my eyes. Her rounded cheeks sharpened, the skin on her face pulling tighter over her cheekbones. As she drew closer, tiny lines spidered out from her eyes. The nose ring was gone and her mother, Addie Dell, stood before me.
I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the terrible excitement lighting her face as she purred in a silken voice, “I’m so glad to see you. Come here, my dear.”
“Stay away from her!” Jamie growled. The wooden chair legs knocked against the floor as he struggled against his bonds.
It occurred to me that my hands should’ve been resting on his shoulders, but he was suddenly several feet away. I hesitated mid-step, unsure how I’d gotten halfway across the room.
“Be still and silent, young king o’ Doon,” Addie commanded. She flicked her wrist in Jamie’s direction and he froze, unable even to speak.
“Strong willed, that one,” Addie said with a glow of appreciation in her eyes. “I’ve had ta enthrall him thrice now.”
Focusing her full attention back to me, she announced, “Veronica, I wanted ta thank ye for delivering my spell inta the proper hands.”
I stared in shock at Jamie’s eerie, lifeless form across the room. “I didn’t deliver anything for you.”
“’Tis no matter, really. It got ta him somehow. I must admit, though, I was beginning ta despair that my plan had failed.”
Blood rushed in my ears as I clenched my hands into fists. I already knew she’d manipulated me like an empty-headed marionette, but hearing her gloat about it made me dizzy with rage. I’d never wanted to punch someone more in my life. “And what plan would that be?”
“My plan to destroy Doon, o’ course.” Addie arched a golden brow. “It’s just an added bonus that ye’re here ta watch your sweetheart die at midnight along with his kingdom.”
Something about her gloating statement caught me off guard. “Wait. What makes you think he’s my sweetheart?”
Her laugh was musical, like the tinkling of breaking glass. “I knew from the moment I touched ye that you’d received a Calling. It was delicious, really. Though it negated all the effort I’d gone to in conjuring a vision o’ the crown prince and planting the enspelled sketch in Grace Lockhart’s journal for Mackenna to find. I no longer needed young James’s beautiful face ta lure her to take the journal over the bridge. The power of the Calling did all that for me.
My mind tumbled back to all the times I’d caught Gideon lurking in the shadows, and wondered how often the guard—or rather Addie—had been watching us over the past weeks.
The witch moved to Jamie’s side and ran her fingers through the layers of his hair. “Your prince and I get on quite well. A pity we don’t have more time.”
Speaking of time, I knew the long-winded explanations were her way of trying to run out the game clock. I needed to make my move. As I glared at the lazy movement of her hand, a reflection on her finger caught the candlelight. She wore a ring almost identical to the Rings of Aontacht in size and shape but with a flat black stone. Was it a source of power, like Gracie and Cameron’s rings? Or merely a benign piece of jewelry? I’d almost inched to Jamie’s other side when I noticed his eyes following me.
“A pity one so lovely has ta be destroyed.” She ran one long violet fingernail down the strong lines of Jamie’s immobile face.
I ground my teeth together, my blood boiling hotter every time she touched him. “Maybe he doesn’t.”
The words slipped out before I could stop them. I had no plan. No reason for her to change her mind. But there had to be some way, some bargain I could make—in exchange for Jamie’s life. “Have to be destroyed, I mean … We could make a deal.”
She threw her head back and laughed. “I’m the most powerful witch in my line, fer generations! What could one little girl possibly have ta offer me?”
With a calming breath, I tried to place myself in her black soul, to figure out what dark thing the witch might crave—that I could provide in the next thirty minutes. Would she want the ring now that I’d brought it back across the bridge? Probably not. If Doon’s sacred rings were any use to her, other than a host for her parasitic spells, she would’ve exploited them by now. Instead, she’d planted them for Kenna and me to find. But there had to be something else.
I watched as she stared at Jamie hungrily, like she might devour him to the bone. She ignored me, disregarding my presence as if I was no match for her power and therefore no threat. Her arrogance was a weakness that I might be able to use.
Adrenaline rolled through my body as I considered the odds of taking her out the old-fashioned way. She moved to light another candle, and I saw my chance. Clenching my fists, I hurtled toward her back.
With a mumbled word and a flick of her wrist, she propelled me through the air as if I were nothing more than a feather. But I landed like a boulder. My head bounced on the concrete floor and I struggled against the blackness that threatened to swallow me.
Addie’s dark form knelt over me and she shook her head from side to side. The curtain of her loose hair cast her face in unearthly shadow, transforming her into a faceless specter.
Brushing my bangs almost lovingly off my face, she intoned, “You stupid, stupid girl. Did ye think you could best me that easily?”
Past Addie’s crouched form, Jamie glared holes in the witch’s back. With great effort he opened his mouth and called to me. “Vee—”
The witch’s eyes widened in surprise before she stood and spun to face him. “I see our obstinate hero is back.” Her entire body was coiled and tense as she walked to Jamie’s bound, vulnerable form. Flipping back her sleeve, she glanced at her watch and smiled—a wide, maniacal leer that made my blood run cold.
“Not long now, young man. I canna wait to watch you disappear into the mist, along with your beloved kingdom. What would yer dear departed mother say if she knew her favored son was the cause of Doon’s ultimate demise?” She shook her head and made a tsking sound with her tongue.
Barely a whisper, Jamie labored to contradict her. “She’d say Doon’s blessing is yer curse … and it always will be.”
“Not for long—”
He shook his head feebly. “Aye. Forever.”
Emboldened by Jamie’s strength in the face of certain death, I scrambled to my feet. I knew only one thing: I couldn’t watch him disintegrate before my eyes, or whatever horrific thing would happen to him at the stroke of midnight. I had to find a way to save him and Doon, no matter what the cost. The Ring of Aontacht had to be the key. Fiona had asked me to put it on in the chapel just before the spell around the journal shattered, and it had led me to Jamie. This was no benign piece of jewelry; it contained power, if I could just figure out how to use it.
