Page 37 of Cursed Magic

He’d get no argument from me. The three of us got out, and my skin began to crawl. Something felt off, but I wasn’t sure what until I noticed the faint iridescent sheen covering the entire area.

“Let me knock first so I can explain to her who we are.” Raven headedto the door.

But then I realized another element felt off. I could smell only rosemary despite the garden and the moss.

“Guys, something isn’t right.” My gaze darted to the woods as Raven reached the oak door with intricate carvings of runes and symbols.

“What do you mean?” Raven’s brows furrowed as she knocked. “She’s a little quirky, so—”

The door creaked open like it hadn’t been fully closed, and Raven froze.

Ryker came up beside me, placing his hand on my arm like he was ready to drag me away at any moment.

“What the hell?” Raven rasped as she opened the door wider…and then she gasped.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The door creaked open, revealing a dimly lit interior that seemed to swallow the light from outside. The air inside was thick with the scent of burnt herbs and something metallic, like blood, but faint. However, the pressure inside was more intense.

A lump formed in my throat as I realized that something had changed in me. I didn’t understand how I could feel this magic so strongly, but the new warm pulse inside me that had appeared after my pack had been slaughtered heated even more.

Ryker’s grip on my arm tightened, his eyes narrowing as he scanned the room.

The cottage was in disarray. Shelves were overturned, their contents scattered across the floor—jars of strange, glowing liquids, bundles of dried herbs, and books with worn leather covers. As I stepped farther inside, the hum of residual magic lingered, tingling against my skin and making a thicker, iridescent sheen inside. In the center of the room, a large circular symbol was drawn on the floor inwhat looked like ash and blood. It throbbed faintly, a dark, ominous energy emanating from it.

Spinning around, Ryker studied the area outside for an enemy. Something was wrong, and for some reason, I couldn’t ignore the urge to investigate inside.

Removing my arm from his grip, I stepped into the cottage, past Raven, as her fingers moved across her phone. My boots crunched on broken glass and herbs, and the floor groaned. The weight of the magic in the room pressed on me, and shadows twisted in every corner, but none of them formed a remotely human presence.

Raven’s movements were cautious as she scanned every inch of the space. “This isn’t right,” she muttered. “She was always so careful.”

I knelt down, my fingers brushing the edge of the symbol. It was icy to the touch, and it seemed to pull at me like it was trying to draw me in as the new presence inside me flared in warning. I jerked my hand back, my breath catching. “This feels…cold—like a void. Whatever she was doing here, it wasn’t good.”

Ryker raced inside to the far side of the room, his back to the wall, his eyes never leaving mine. “We need to get out of here now. Either something horrible happened to her, or this is a trap.”

There was no sign of the witch. No scent, no trace of her presence beyond the lingering magic. It was as if she had vanished into thin air.

I stood, my eyes meeting Raven’s. “She’s gone,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper. “But she didn’t leave willingly.”

Raven’s jaw tightened. “It has to be the Blackwoods.”

A tremor ran down my spine. If the witch had been taken and so recently, we were running out of time. “Weneed to see if we can pick up a trail outside of whatever was spelled here.” I turned toward the door. “Now.”

Before I could move, Ryker caught my arm, his touch firm. “Like I said, this could be a trap.”

“But what if it’s not?” I snapped, pulling free. The idea of abandoning someone who might need our help had me wanting to screamno. How many more innocent people were we going to lose along the way?

“Ember, listen to me. You can’t rush into this. We don’t know what we’re dealing with. If this is a trap—and it does feel like one—then we need to be smart about it. We can’t help anyone if we’re dead.” Ryker approached me slowly as if I were a wounded animal.

Despite a part of me agreeing with him, my feet remained rooted to the spot. “And if it’s not a trap?” I countered, my voice soft but stubborn. “What if she’s still alive? What if she needs our help right now and we just…leave?”

“As much as I was hoping for her to help us, she is a morally gray person.” Raven continued to scan the area, her brows furrowed. “That’s one reason I wanted to come talk tothisparticular witch.”

That had to be why the Blackwoods came here. If the witches had a network like wolf shifters did, then their witch would be able to locate any of her species that were close by and determine if they were a threat.

He placed his hands on my shoulders, the electric buzz of his touch sizzling right into my soul. “We can locate other witches. She’s not the only one.”

He was right, but…dammit. I’d lost almost my entire pack, and now I was letting another person down. “People just keep dying.” Maybe I was being weak, but something in my soul called for peace. This pointless killing was far more than heartbreaking.

---