Chapter one
The Dream Walker
‘You sure about this?’ Dorian asks me for the hundredth time, his voice low so only I can hear him as he stares ahead. ‘Is this truly the wisest thing to be doing?’
He folds his arms across his chest and furrows his brow as he continues to watch her.
‘Yes,’ I reply. ‘I’m positive.’
Dorian and I both lean to the side as a stream of soil soars between us. We watch it slam into a tree with such force that the bark shatters. It slowly falls with an angry groan and crashes to the ground.
‘That tree was almost fifty years old,’ he grunts. ‘I liked that tree.’
We both brush off the clumps of dirt, bark and leaves left on our shoulders and sigh before returning to watch the chaos unfold.
Pixie rests her hands on the soil again. Her face is red and scrunched up with sheer effort and determination. With an angry puff of breath, she rids herself of the stray strand of silver hair blocking her view, and tries again.
We both step back and brace.
Her magic ripples from her fingertips as she connects to the earth around her.
‘This is a bad idea,’ Dorian complains.
‘Why do you think that?’ I reply.
‘Because she’s pissed off and dangerous enough as it is,’ Dorian continues. ‘With her newfound strength. Her extremely pointy teeth. Not to mention the uncontrollable blood lust. Are we certain encouraging her to get stronger with her earth magic is wise? Perhaps if she took some time to calm down. To forgive us for what happened. Maybe then she would be less likely to slaughter us all in our sleep.’
We duck, avoiding a massive clump of earth.
‘We don’t have the time to wait for her to forgive us or to calm down,’ I reply. ‘Besides. A pissed-off witch is a powerful witch. And with Neve and Cole still on the loose, a powerful witch is precisely what we need.’
Neve, the recently resurrected blood queen. And Cole, the traitorous earth coven leader and Pixie’s shit stain of an ex.
If I ever thought to place two people side by side, they would be the last. Earth witches helped us destroy the blood covens. And blood witches killed Cole’s mother. But desperate and deranged people do desperate and deranged things, I guess.
We brought Neve back into this world. So, I know something about doing desperate and deranged things.
Soil hits us like a wave before we get a chance to react. I spit out a load from my mouth and dust off my shoulders.
‘Besides. I would rather a pissed-off and powerful earth witch than a pissed-off blood one.’ I face Dorian. ‘Wouldn’t you?’
Seeing as we have decided to keep her, we would much rather Pixie not be an evil cunt that wants to kill and destroy everything to give her more power.
So here we stand. Just as filthy as her as she tries to master her earth magic a little more each day.
He catches a stone before it connects with my face, and we both turn to look at Pixie.
Her eyes are focused as she grunts and swears, attempting to grasp control of magics beyond her ability right now. Perhaps Dorian is right. It’s only been a couple of weeks since her biological mother, Neve, returned, and her emotions aren’t precisely… settled.
‘We should help her,’ he says, breaking the stone in his palm and dropping it to the ground. ‘Before she hurts herself.’
‘Oh yeah? You know a lot about earth magic, do you? Do you have a head full of spells and techniques I don’t know about?’
She screams as her feet sink into the dirt. She hollers again when she gets tugged down to her knees.
Her hair is a dishevelled mess, and her skin is barely visible through the dirt and sweat she’s smothered herself in.
Dorian snorts before slamming his hand over his mouth. Her glare has my lips sealed together in a desperate effort not to laugh.