Page 59 of Witch Unexpected
My body was my own again. I braced my palms on the ground and pushed, but my limbs were weak as noodles.
“Shit.” Bramble reached for me, blinking crimson from her eyes. She swayed, but someone caught her. One of the witches from the big girls’ table.
The Elites were here.
“I got you,” the witch said.
“Cora…” Bramble reached for me.
“I’m okay…” My voice was a whisper. “I’m okay.” I flopped onto my back and stared up into piercing blue eyes. “Sloane…”
Sloane crouched and peered at me. “Hello, cupcake. Do you often take a nap in the woods?”
I offered her a weak grin. “It’s just how I roll.”
“They shouldn’t be here,” Bramble gasped. “How can they be…”
I turned my head to find her unconscious and held up by two of The Elite witches.
“Oh, fuck. Bramble.” I tried to sit up, but the world spun.
“Easy.” Sloane pressed me back down. “She’ll be fine, and so will you once you’ve recharged.” She hauled me to my feet easily and swung me up into her arms. “Let’s get you to the cabin.”
We set off at a fast clip. She carried me easily, as if I weighed nothing, which was blatantly not true because the scales didn’t lie.
“Relax, cupcake,” Sloane said. “You’re safe now. Those fuckers won’t attack with us about. They don’t like iron bombs.”
I dropped my head to her shoulder, inhaling the fruity scent of whatever body wash she used.
“They were going to kill us.”
“Yeah.”
“They would have if you guys hadn’t come along.” The realization I’d almost died was a stab in my chest. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me,” she said. “Thank your malevolent friend. He dropped several witches in an attempt to get a message to us. Anna’s having a meltdown. She didn’t think he could siphon from us.”
Jasper… “He told you we were in trouble?”
Her mouth lifted in a wry smile. “His exact words wereif she dies, you all fucking die.” She glanced down at me. “I dunno, cupcake, I was kinda expecting someone a little less give-a-fuck.”
He hadn’t left me. He’d gone for help. To save me… No. To save himself. “He needs me alive. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“Maybe. I don’t know him like you do, but I know that look on his face. It was the look of a man about to have his heart crushed.”
Jasper? No. I couldn’t see it. But he’d saved my life. Again. And this amulet had put me in dangeragain.
Something needed to change.
Fast.
Chapter Fourteen
The cabin was a three-story house with a log cabin attached to it—probably where the name, the cabin, came from. I was back on my feet by the time we got there, not that being carried by Sloane wasn’t an experience, but being carried when I could walk didn’t feel right.
“You recovered fast,” she said.
“Yeah, I tend to do that.”
