Page 37 of The Baker and the Wolf

“You waited too long to make your plans, old woman.” To my horror, Gisella’s voice emerges from the statue’s unmoving mouth. “I have your son’s magic and your slave’s and your granddaughter’s, and now I will add yours!”

Rina screams, and an instant later I feel that evil blue magic crash into my mind. This time I let it in as far as my sacrificial bundle. I can only hope Rina is still acting—if she is, she’s mind-blowingly good. I don’t sense Gisella’s presence, only that evil blue magic.

But this time, I know I can shove it out . . . and follow it.

The bronze arm digs into my ribcage, and I gasp for each breath, bracing my hands on the huge hand while I wait for Rina’s signal.

But the signal doesn’t come. I hear Rina’s wailing and Gisella’s triumphant laughter. All the magic I offered is gone, and the blue light begins to press for more. This is not part of the plan!

But if Gisella thinks she’s going to absorb my Rina, she’s got another think coming. Tensing my body, I let out a roar, and my magic swirls to violent life like a fiery light. It flings that blue light out of my mind and follows it into . . . where am I now?

“Cerise!”

“Papa!”

As if from a distance, I hear Gisella’s scream of shock and anger, and the blue light dodges around as if trying to escape my magic’s assault. “No!” she screeches. “You can’t do this! I have your magic.”

“If we join forces, we can throw her out,” Papa says.

Hearing the hope and fury in his voice, I mentally shout at Gisella. “Just watch me do it! Ready, Papa? Now!”

At my command, Papa’s wonderfully familiar magic charges alongside mine toward the evil blue light. Together we fling it out of the statue and follow it . . . into a roiling mass of magic more powerful than I could imagine, let alone describe. Even as I recognize Rina’ssahiramagic, far too much of it to be bait, I see in its midst the blue light drawing her power into itself with rapacious greed.

How could this happen?

“Rina!” I call.

“Maman!”my father cries.

Suddenly, I sense her. “Gerard! Cerise! Help me!” I hear hope in my grandmère’s voice.

We can do this—the three of us together. I call to them, “If we join forces, we can throw the fae magic out of Rina too.” At least, we can if it hasn’t already absorbed too much of her power.

“Don’t follow it this time,” Papa says. “If you do, you’ll end up trapped inside the ring—along with all your magic. Do you hear me, Maman? Cerise? Stay inside Severina’s mind.”

Rina and I answer in unison, “Yes.”

Again I mentally shout, “Ready?”

“Ready!” they echo, gathering up their remaining magic.

“Now!”

Once more, I fling a bolt of my power at that monstrous blue light. Rina attacks with magic like an ultraviolet spear, and the silvery stream of Papa’s magic reinforces ours. But the fae magic merely throws up a shield of stolen magic—Barbaro’s?—to deflect our attack and continues to absorb the mass of magic around us, growing more powerful by the moment.

Wild thoughts fly through my head:Where are the council mages when we need them? We should have arranged for them to arrive sooner! We should have left the pocket-world door open and brought Barbaro in to fight with us! But Rina was so sure she could handle the situation with only my help . . .

Nearly frantic with fear for all of us, I dimly hear papa’s screams join Rina’s. Sudden rage sweeps through me like a building wave. Gisella—evil, selfish, hateful, controlling, thieving witch that she is—willnotdestroy the people who love me most!

Wait. What is that? A crackling golden flash charges into the fray, seeming to approach the blue horror from behind.

“Take her down, Cerise!”

“Benoît!”

“Now!”

I refocus on that hideous, twisting blue glow even as it magnifies like an exploding star, and I hurl my magic at it with all the fury, hatred . . . andlovein my being.

---