Page 47 of Rise of the Witch
What happened between my men?!
Before I could address it, Anthia spoke again, her joyful mood evaporating as she swept her violet eyes over each of my Riders. “So, I did a flyover of your precious little Facility yesterday. Six trucks were unloading in the innermost courtyard, surrounded by armed guards. I had to circle a few times to get a good look at the cargo...” She exhaled slowly, appearing to take a moment to collect herself before continuing. “It was a collection of cages. With a collection ofshiftersinside.”
A collective gasp echoed through the room. Even Nox looked alarmed as he barked, “Were they...dead?”
Anthia pursed her lips. “I’m not sure. They were certainly motionless, and as soon as I realized what I was seeing, I got the hell out of there; thank you very much! Or should I say,you’re welcome?”
Nox had already tuned her out, turning to Asa as he muttered, “This is fucked up. What thefuckis my father up to?”
Asa chewed his lip as he considered. “I hate to say it,” he finally spoke. “But I think we need a closer look.”
Panic shot through me. “What?! None of you are going anywhere near that place. It’s not safe!”
Tan chuckled in my ear before spinning me to face him. “Listen, we may be all sweet and lovey-dovey withyou...well,mostof us are.” He shot a pointed look at Nox. “But we’re actually a bunch of mean motherfuckers completely capable of handling ourselves, especially against other humans.”
“But aren’t these humans just as ‘capable’ as you?” I countered. “You were all trained in the same place, after all!”
Nox surprised me by acknowledging my input before musing, almost to himself, “True, but if we were to target a convoy, those teams tend to be new recruits…”
Asa nodded, seamlessly finishing the other man’s sentence as if they had performed this dance many times before. “And as there’s only one major road in and out of there, we can position ourselves far enough away from the Facility to avoid backup reaching our ambush site before we obtain the information we need.”
Realizing I wouldn’t be able to stop them from embarking on this fool’s errand, I changed tactics. “Well,” I interrupted, crossing my arms and lifting my chin defiantly. “Then I’m coming with you.”
Cupping my face in his hands, Tan leveled his gaze at me. “Vasi, I know you’re a powerful being, but this simply isn’t the type of situation we should put you in. What if all the recruits are now using bullets like Nox has?” The concern in his hazel eyes was genuine, but I was not to be swayed.
“As you said yourself, Tan,” I smirked.“I’mpart of the team now. So where you go, I go. Not to mention, my power seems to be magnified when I’m with you, and vice versa.”
Tan smiled and gazed at me adoringly, clearly willing to let me have my way. “Okay, you’ve got me there,tutly juddah.”He paused thoughtfully before adding, “On that note—how am I supposed to control this power of mine? How does it even work?”
It was my turn to pause as I noticed all three men looking at me expectantly. Thanks to years of instruction from my mentor, when I’d transitioned to my role as Baba Yaga, I could easily channel elemental earth energy from the goddess Mokosh to use when needed. Sometimes, I enhanced my connection to source by consuming dream tea, but mostly, I simply trusted in myself, and it happened. Similarly, I’d assumed my Riders and I would intuitivelyknowwhat to do with our shared power once we finally met.
How do I explain womanly inner knowing to a bunch of human men?
Anthia broke the silence by clearing her throat. “Vasi, I need to get going soon. I made the mistake of telling my father about what I saw at the Facility, so he’s on a tear, threatening to call a meeting betweenallthe clans, which you know is a situation ripe for drama.” She rolled her eyes, and I nodded, knowing full-well that each shifter tribe had little interest in associating with the others unless absolutely necessary. Too many alphas in one place was never a good idea. That was one of my responsibilities as Yaga, to be a mediator between the entire shifter community in case they needed to band together against a common threat.
“Be careful you don’t associate too closely with humans. There may come a day when you have to pick a side.”
With Luperca’s words leaving a bitter taste on my tongue, I finally addressed Tan’s question. “Let me think on how to best train the three of you, although I’m afraid I know little more than you do about our shared power. In the meantime, you should focus on our ambush. I want to get this outing over with so we can report back to the clan leaders and then consider Veles’ invitation.” As if I were the commander of our team, they all simply obediently nodded and began spreading out various maps on the table to plan our attack.
Satisfied that the mysterious disagreements plaguing my men seemed to be forgotten, I allowed Anthia to take my arm in hers and lead me out to the porch. As soon as the door shut behind us, she whirled on me. “What happened between you and the big dumb one?”
I groaned. “How could you even tell?”
She scoffed, flicking her platinum blonde hair over her shoulder. “Because he has a sad little baby aura hanging over his head, and you are sporting a hint of new ink.” Anthia pointed to my forearm with a hot pink nail, tapping lightly on the faint black design joining the other two.
Sighing, I leaned over the railing, surveying my new view of the forest beyond.“Somethinghappened between Nox and me the night I returned from visiting the lake, the night of that powerful thunderstorm. But all it accomplished was addingmoretension and discord between the two of us—and the entire group if that were even possible.”
“Ah, so it wasyoursex magic that brought the rains,” she giggled, elbowing me before resting her back against the railing and giving me a knowing look.
I opened my mouth to brush off her comment but stopped myself, considering her words. The sound of thunderhadstarted while I was riding Asa into the ground and later intensified after I discovered Misha’s body. When I later fled from the hut, from Nox, it wasn’t until my feet hit the ground that the heavens opened. It was as if the more my emotions spiked, the heavier the rain fell. And now that I thought about it, the downpour hadn’t stopped until Nox and I completed...whatever that was between us.
But no Yaga has ever been powerful enough to control the climate...
I shook my head, determined to not dwell too long on things I couldn’t explain. “Regardless, that man barely tolerates me, and I wish I could say the feelings were still mutual.” I sighed heavily, “But, I want him, ‘Thia, and I’m not too proud to say it has little to do with my legacy, although that uncontrollable connection certainly doesn’t help.” Huffing a laugh, I added, “As if havingtwomen in my bed wasn’t good enough!”
She smiled and patted my forearm affectionately. “You’re just livin’ the dream, Vasi. Soak it up! And I have a feeling you’ll get that big idiot to come around eventually. The alphaholes just love to play hard to get.” Turning to gaze over the treetops, she grimaced. “Harbison emailed me. His message was frantic and difficult to understand, but it sounded like strange things have been happening since the séance. I think I’ll go check on him tomorrow...”
Anthia hugged me goodbye before shifting and flying off just as Tan opened the door and walked out onto the porch. My Bright Dawn didn’t say anything—he simply joined me in leaning against the railing, emanating decidedlylesslight than usual.
