Page 76 of Wicked Witch of the Wolf

“Repello.” She thrust her palm at me again.

I caught her hand in mine and curled her fingers into a fist.

“Stop it,” she cried, “you’re burning me!”

“You started it.” I snarled in Carolina’s face as she dropped to her knees in front of me.

I went down, too. Scooped up a handful of loose dirt.

Aldrich decided to make his move. He shoved his feet back into his sandals and raised his hands. Unfortunately for him, he did this at the precise moment that I tossed the dirt into the air.

He coughed and rubbed his eyes.

“Pathetic. I can’t believe I was ever cautious around you stupid people,” I said.

The dust I’d thrown overhead heated, vaporized, then sank hotly into my skin. I hissed in pain. The sting was getting worse.

“You,” I gasped, “both of you, eighty-sixed the strongest witch in La Paloma in exchange for a lazy earth elemental not fit to carry her basket of poisoned apples.”

Behind me, Cecil snickered at the Wicked Queen insult.

“What are you even talking about?” Carolina whined.

“Ask Magic Moses over here.” I flung a hand toward Aldrich, who winced. “Tell her.”

“When Margaux left the coven, her power went with her,” he said gruffly.

“She left us, like, permanently?” The sneer dropped off Carolina’s face. “B-But she wasn’t supposed to. She was supposed to stay and serve the new coven father. That was the plan. Aldrich, you and Desmond said she’d never leave.”

Gods, was she always this whiny?

“Sure,” I said. “Margaux’s going to share her power with a bunch of witches who lied to get her fired. Makes perfect sense,you dimwitted clown.”

Aldrich’s lips moved silently. It wouldn’t be smart to take him too lightly. He’d been around a long time, and though he might be as old as the dirt on my skin, he knew a lot of magic.

I shoved Carolina away from me. She clutched her burned hand to her chest and fell over onto her ass. I kept her in my peripheral as I faced the elder witch.

“Let it be known, if either of you cast against me again, I’ll consider it a death challenge. And after I kill you, I’ll carve your sins and my name on your headstones so every witch in the county knows exactly who took you traitors down and why.”

Carolina backed further away. Aldrich held his ground and continued chanting.

I paid close attention to his chant while continuing to hold theweak magicspell on Carolina. With the amount of power surging through my bloodstream, it wasn’t difficult to keep it going in the background.

“Be still,” he commanded.

My body grew heavy, my mouth lethargic, my mind slow.

Simple and clean, the old man’s spell was far more effective than Carolina’s. I had to hand it to him. I’d been expecting something with a little more showmanship, but this … this was good.

Just not good enough.

The first time I’d attempted to connect the roiling magic bottled inside me with the magic in the soil was when my stalker had tried to murder me. I’d been so broken and lost I’d had to beg my Lennox witch ancestors for help.

This time, I knew exactly what to do.

I crouched and scooped up soil with both hands.

“Be still,” he repeated.

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