Page 55 of Traitor Witch
“Name your price,” I insist. “I need a broom if I’m going to fulfil the Goddess’s orders.” I twist, grimacing at the pain which pulses through my sigils at the action, and pull the ring out of my boot. “This is my only lead.”
Alletta doesn’t even look at it. “I’m not a jeweller, am I?” She seems genuinely confused by the idea.
“You must be able to give me something? Anything? The Goddess asked—”
“Dearie, she asked me to mark you, but I’m not here to hold your hand.”
She crosses the shop, dodging between the teetering shelves as she makes her way to an umbrella stand full of broomsticks in the corner. I watch in confusion as she starts pulling them out, one by one, and chucking them around the shop without even looking where they’re going. Some knock over bottles, others smash glass or send objects flying. Alletta doesn’t seem to care.
When she’s finished, she looks at the empty stand and shrugs.
“No brooms here…”
I grind my teeth together, grab one of the discarded metal twigs and lift it. “Fine, if this isn’t really here then it's not stealing if I take it.”
Alletta turns to face me, and I realise I’ve made a mistake with my pain-fuelled snark. Her face has gone from amused to livid in the space of three seconds.
I hold up my hands in surrender, dropping the broom inthe process. “Look, all I need is something to go on. Just one clue as to what the hell I’m supposed to do now.”
Her face flicks back to it’s normal, bland pleasantness. “Why, that’s simple, dearie.”
I begin to relax, pain and exhaustion making me slow.
Her eyes start to glow as her smile warps into a frown.
“You can get out of my shop!”
The force which grabs me around the waist is like nothing I’ve ever felt. It steals the breath from my lungs as it yanks me out of the shop and back into the dirty streets beyond.
Chapter Fifteen
RYSEN
Ihate that I can’t hear a thing that’s going on inside the house Nilsa disappeared into. The building must be enchanted or spelled or something because the moment my mate disappears inside, I stop being able to hear her heartbeat.
The loss of that sound makes me restless. I pace for almost an hour, my expression scaring away the vagrants around us. Kier is silent, motionless, and outwardly calm, but it must be an act.
I found him following her, after all. Whatever stoic act he’s trying to pull off is exactly that, an act. And it’s hard to believe he doesn’t care when there’s a layer of shimmering frost on his clothes.
The first sniff of her blood makes my fangs descend. It’s coming from above us, probably from one of the roof gardens. That I can smell it while standing in an alley that reeks of piss and rot tells me she hasn’t accidentally gotten a paper cut.
No, that smell can only mean my mate is losing a lot of blood.
I want to roar. Whoever is hurting her will die, slowly.
The air turns icy, giving away Kier’s matching anger. The fae’s dark, dragonfly wings appear the instant he needs them and he wastes no time in taking off into the sky.
What I wouldn’t give for such a handy trick.
But vampires don’t need wings.
I push off from the ground using my immortal strength, soaring into the air. Only to smack straight into some kind of barrier. I growl at the stupid magical wall as I rebound back to the cobbles.
Kier manages to use his wings to follow the barrier around and onto a neighbouring rooftop and I aim my next jump so that I land beside him. The trellises of the garden block most of our view, but I can still make out the pile of clothes on the floor and the figure hunched over my mate.
My snarl is so loud I’m surprised Nilsa and her attacker don’t hear it. It takes my brain a while to realise the bubble must be soundproof.
I throw myself at it, ready to test vampiric strength against witch magic. But Kier gets in the way, snagging me around my waist and redirecting my force so I crash into a raised plant bed instead.
