Page 125 of A Witch-ish Guide to Protectors and Pendulums

“Okay, where are you?”

“Right now, we’re in Bay City. We broke into the State Theater. I have to get to Corunna. That’s where I live. It’s where my things are.”

“Hold on to Madigan. I’m going to try to manifest you home. Once you get there, get your things.”

“You can do that?”

“I can now. New abilities keep popping up.”

“Same here. Each new thing that pops up, I’m like, where have you been all my life?”

“He’s amazing,” Madigan said.

My brother leaned in to kiss her cheek. “Thanks, babe.”

“If you’re anything like Simone, you can do whatever you set your mind to,” Connor replied.

Simeon chuckled. “I hope that’s true because I wish I had the kind of power she does.”

“You have great powers, Sim,” Madigan countered.

“Guys—focus.” I snapped my fingers to get their attention. “I’m manifesting now.”

I watched Simeon wrap his arms around Madigan’s waist and then I closed my eyes. “Get Simeon and Madigan to Simeon’s home in Corunna,” I began chanting over and over.Please let this work.We needed this to work. The manifestation pummeled my insides. Maybe because I’d done it too many times today. But moving people from their location, and not physically being in the room with them, to a different location kind of sucked. My body bruised from the inside out. I couldn’t stop. I just kept chanting over and over, no matter how much it hurt. How hard I breathed because the magic knocked the wind out of me.

The pair disappeared from view, the TV went black, and they appeared in front of a cute, well-landscaped house. The door had been kicked in. Someone knew about his book. I hoped it remained where he’d left it. Madigan pushed in front of my brother and I saw the look on his face when she did that. No way was he comfortable with his woman going in first, even if she could shift at the drop of a hat and had been mated to him for this exact purpose.

“Back bedroom,” he whispered. She nodded once and started for the hallway. The woman knew exactly where to go, whichmeant she’d gotten to spend a little time there before they’d gone on the run. I mean… good for her. And my brother.

Exactly as they’d done with mine, demons—or Cain—had trashed his place. Sim and Madigan walked into what must’ve been the master bedroom. The mattress lay half on the frame and half on the floor. Everything he’d ever owned was smashed or strewn over the carpeting. He walked over to the bed, popping up the bed platform. It had a false bottom. Connor and I watched him pick up the small botanical book and the hilt from inside the nook the false bottom created. He ran to the closet and pulled junk from the floor, throwing it over his shoulder to get to what he needed: a leather satchel with a crossbody strap. He shoved the book and hilt into the satchel, zipped the top, and secured the over-flap with the buckles.

Then he held his hand out to Madigan, who grabbed hold. “Ready,” he said to me.

I cleared my throat, closed my eyes, and started chanting. Like with Agatha, it took more effort to get them to me. Instead of an instantaneous movement, they zipped through the air at lightning speed. I started sweating and my mouth went dry. Pain throbbed in my head like someone continuously beat me with a sledgehammer, but I couldn’t let myself lose focus. The room started to spin and I felt a second and a half from passing out.

Why was this so much more difficult than bringing Shafira and Karro to us? I heard an answer to my question in Lilith’s voice: “Angel magic.” Angel magic boosted my magic? Good to know. I pushed her voice out of my head to keep myself on task.

“Baby,” Connor said, falling down by my side. He pressed his hand to my forehead. “Clammy. You’ve got to stop.”

I dared not speak, pushing his hand away. I couldn’t let go of my focus. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the glass next to my beanbag chair start to glow. Connor noticed it too. That had to be why the room had given us different-colored chairs. He liftedit to my mouth and I drank the sparkling liquid down. The pain eased right away. My body temp started to regulate itself again. The sweats stopped.

The room knew exactly what I needed. When I tried to manifest them into this room, the energy of the archives zapped me. Apparently, they had to enter the same way everyone else did. I moved my destination to the Knapp of Howar. Two people really put a strain on my magic. I kept drinking the witchy beverage and when I reached the bottom of the glass, it refilled to allow me to keep drinking, which I did until I saw them land outside the crumbling monolith.

My brother and Madigan were here. I dropped the glass, spilling the rest of the drink, pushing up out of the chair to run. The door opened for us, letting me speed up rather than slow down to get to my brother. The hilt and amulet were so close to being joined.

Excited, I ran up the stairs and outside. I could’ve cried from happiness. But before I reached Sim, a demon lunged at me. A freaking demon? What? How’d demons know we were here? I had just enough sense to lock the archive doors behind me before taking a shot to my middle, knocking me to the ground.

I screamed, partly from pain, but given the adrenaline surging through my veins, mostly from anger. It took major gall for a demon to surprise attack me when I was about to hug my brother. I shot my hand out to grab for the demon when more started appearing. There was me, Sim, and Madigan, who dropped into her hound form.

And holy hell—Sim controlled plants. I watched as grass shot up around a demon’s foot, winding and twisting to keep him anchored to the spot. Madigan lunged and ripped his throat out. Black demon blood sprayed us. Vomiting would have to wait until we took care of these creeps.

Somewhere along the way, Connor had joined us, and he fought alongside his sister. As I cast out my hand to fire off some spell or other at a charging demon, I looked up for a split second to see a man standing off in the distance. Beetle. But Beetle wasn’t Satan. This was the man I’d talked to at Monnie’s what seemed like a lifetime ago. Same stature. Same style suit. Hair slicked back. Without thinking, I took off in a dead run. He wouldn’t get away from me. Not this time.

I became vaguely aware of Connor at my side, and as we ran, I manifested to bring Beetle down. I wanted that man trapped. But somehow, he deflected my shots. That shouldn’t have been possible. Rather than take more time, I reached over to touch Connor’s head and manifested us to him. We popped into the place where he’d been just a second before, but that coward was gone.

“No!” I shouted. This was our shot and I’d blown it. I dropped to the ground crying angry tears. How did Lilith expect me to save the world when I couldn’t catch the man trying to ruin it? I had one damn job—to defeat Beetle, and I let him get away.

Connor dropped his arms around me, holding on as tightly as he dared while I sobbed. “He wanted to see what you’ve got, babe. No doubt he’s reformulating his plan.”

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