“That wasn’t mine. Something is outside,” I gasped. I didn’t know if it was coming from outside or not, but I knew it wasn’t me.
She let go of me and rushed out the door. I took a deep breath as my magic returned to me completely. “Holy shit.”
I looked up. “Can either of you transport?”
“That’s a Cult spell,” Jude snapped.
Gabby nodded. “I still can.”
“We have five minutes, maybe, until she comes back here. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want you two here when she gets back.”
“What about you?” Jude looked up.
“I’m going to take care of her. The next time you feel her magic flicker, go. Call Liz.”
Gabby nodded and reached through the cage to touch Jude’s hand.
The magic flickered again, and the two of them disappeared. That was one thing down. The door burst back open, and Adrianna’s magic flooded over me again. She didn’t even notice the empty cages as she stalked toward me. “Do you know what I feel out there?”
“Haven’t a clue.”
She turned and grabbed her knife and then came back to me. “Cult magic. They are coming for the girls.” She put the knife at my collarbone. “They can have the girls. You. You are mine.”
She drew the knife down the ridge of my bone.
I hissed at the pain. “How could you introduce your daughter to this life?”
She paused. “She wasn’t supposed to exist,” she muttered and dug the knife deeper. I couldn’t ignore the sticky blood dripping from the wound.
She ran her hand over the cut and smeared the blood over her face and down her neck. “She lived through my attempt to kill her.”
I stared at her, trying to imagine how someone could look at that child and think she needed to die. “There’s something about crazy witches and killing their daughters,” I muttered, not realizing I was speaking out loud.
“What?” She snapped, paused in her smearing of blood.
“There was another woman who thought it best for her daughter to die instead of being soul bound to her magic.” I glanced up at her. “You’re not the first crazy I’ve dealt with.”
She dragged the knife down the other collar bone, and once again smeared her hand in it. This time, she dragged it up her arm. “Mmm, but I’ll be the one that kills you.”
Currently, I didn’t doubt that. She closed her eyes and moaned as if the blood bath got her off.
The charm around her neck glowed a little bit as her magic flickered. I pushed out my magic at the same time hers flickered. Mine hit at the same time as the strange magic, and Adrianna cried out and glared at me. “How?”
“I told you I was more powerful than that girl. You can feel it in my blood.”
And that would be her downfall. I smiled. I just needed another break in her magic to try something.
She spun the knife in her hand. And this time, dragged it over my stomach, cutting the shirt there. The wound there hurt more than the others. I took a deep breath and tried to focus through the pain. She dug her fingers into the wound this time and wiped the blood on the charm. She closed her eyes. Instead of the power flickering, it pulsed out.
I groaned as I felt it through my body.
“Time to stitch you up, little witch. Don’t want you losing too much blood.”
That was the truth. I cringed every time she pulled her needle through my skin to stitch me up. My body shook from pain when she was done. She leaned close to me and whispered, “The pain keeps you docile. You can’t focus magic when you can’t think through the pain.”
I looked up at her, my eyes half hooded with pain, and I did the only thing I could think of. I spat on her.
She shrieked and slapped me, dragging the needle across my cheek. My blood dripped in a fine line down my skin, and I tilted my head as I waited to see what she would do.
She spun away from me and walked out of the room.
I hung my head and breathed through the pain. She was right, pain kept most people docile, but I had enough practice that pain grounded me in reality.
I waited for her magic to fade. I could still feel the circle around the house, but she was gone. I closed my eyes. Two feet could save a life.
It was what Oliver told me before I faced Ira.
He was talking about the transportation spell, and that’s what I’d use here to get out of the chains.
I whispered the Latin words under my breath and pictured myself outside the chains.
It worked, and I rolled my wrists and dug my phone out of my pocket. I sent Merick, Nick, and Oliver all an S.O.S. text before shoving my phone back into my pocket.
Two seconds later, Adrianna walked back into the room. “Think you could get away with using magic?”
Fuck. I’d forgotten that she could feel my magic now. I took a fighting stance. She approached me with a sickening grin. The fresh blood had dried on her face and now was cracking with each movement of her skin.
“You want to fight me? That’s cute.” She grabbed the knife off a shelf and spun it around in her hand. She threw her empty hand up, and I felt my body seize up. This was getting me nowhere. My blood was on her charm, all I had to do was reach out to the magic there.
But I needed her distracted. With all the blood around and all her magic, I wouldn’t be able to break through it. She’d assimilated all the magic
