Page 186 of Warlords, Witches & Wolves

Witch Bound

A Pack Bound Novella by Leisl Leighton

Chapter 1

Paul Collins screamed.

He’d opened his mouth to laugh at his friend’s joke, but instead, the scream flew out of his mouth. Not a yell, not a shout. A scream.

He tried to shut his mouth, but the sound continued. It went on and on, a high-pitched wailing noise that would shatter his guards’ sensitive eardrums if he didn’t stop it soon. But there was no stopping this noise. It kept coming, growing and growing until there was nothing but the scream.

He was no longer Paul Collins, warlock, seer, son of the too-weak Pack Witch, Morrigan Collins, and Pack McVale’s singular hope for the future.

Hewasthe scream.

A scream that echoed down through the vast channels of power that came to him from somewhere in the future, making him its bitch. Mortifying. Horrifying. Bringing him low until he was this … this miserable destroyer of hope and love.

He glanced around as the scream continued. His guard—those who were supposed to be his friends—were down on the ground around him, their eardrums blown out, blood streaming from ears, nose, eyes and mouth. He wanted to help them, but he couldn’t move. Could only kneel in the dirt where he’d fallen, his mouth open, the unearthly scream flying out to fill the sky and earth around him.

Leaves trembled in the eucalypts overhead.

The moon turned blood red.

The sky turned purple.

Warlock lightning—blue, green, orange, purple and a never before seen red—flashed all around him.

Purple wings in the sky, shrouding everything, hung over a pile of bodies—Were, witches, warlocks, humans.

And beyond, a terrible, oily darkness spread to cover it all.

They were dead. They were all dead. And he could do nothing to stop it.

No! No! Goddess, no!

He wanted to die. He wanted to die.

‘Paul!"

Something touched his arm—a hand, soft and cool on his heated skin, fingers curling firmly, but not painfully. He stared down at it.

His name came again. ‘Paul.’ Such a sweet sound. Like a siren’s call, it pulled him back, pulled him away from the black thoughts that crowded his mind. ‘Paul? Are you okay?’

He blinked andherface swam in front of his eyes.

Ivy.

Panic speared through him as he took her in, standing there in her oversized fluoro t-shirt, big hoop earrings swinging against her neck and big eyes staring up at him in worry. She looked so fresh, so innocent, so unaffected and yet … ‘No. No. Go away. The scream. It will hurt you. Kill you. Just like it did all of them.’

She frowned her confusion as he gestured to the bodies of his guard lying on the ground.

Except, there were no bodies. His guard were staring at him as if he was crazy.

Hewascrazy.

And she’d seen it. Again. Every bloody horrible moment of his crazy. As crazy as his crazy mum.

‘Fuck.’

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