Page 114 of Outlaw Witch

Taking a step toward Felix, I can see he’s lying flat on his back. There’s a faint movement of his chest that tells me he’s alive, although the skin on his arms is blistering with vicious burns.

I glance at Seb with wide, panicked eyes. “Any chance you could use your powers to wipe this whole thing from his head? Or maybe get him to forget about all of our existences?”

My mind can’t seem to focus on any one thing. But I’m know this isbad.Bad. Bad.

He just tried tokillSebastian. He was fully prepared to slit his throat.

Holy shit.

Sebastian looks shell-shocked. His mouth is open and gaping like a fish as he stares around the rooftop.

“I... my powers are dried up from the ritual. I can’t,” he whispers.

Shit, shit, shit.

And my own powers were so wrapped up with trying to lift the curse, they didn’t try to soak up Seb’s magic.

Theoneand only time it would have come in useful for them to be there with their grabby hands, pulling on his powers, is the one time they were totally dormant.

Dammit.

“We need to get away from here.” I look at Fabian and find him staring at Felix like he’s never seen him before.

“Fabian?”

I really need him to come back into the room and stop with the spacey-vibe he’s giving off. His eyes flick to mine and once again he frowns, looking at me with zero recognition.

“We need to go. I’m pretty sure Felix is going to come after me and Seb as soon as he wakes up. We can’t stay in the city.” I lick my lips, my mind running at a million miles an hour. “I’m pretty sure I can find us a way out of the city—” I damn well hope so, anyway. “What do you want to do?”

“I can find us a way out,” he rasps, sounding so unlike himself I wonder if I did actually remove all the curse after all. “We have contacts—”

I shake my head, cutting him off. “Your contacts are all related tohisnetwork. We need to go rogue right now.”

“And you can do that—?” He blinks at me cluelessly.

“Silver,” Seb fills in for him. “Her name is Silver. We can trust her. She just saved both of our lives in the past couple of hours,” Seb says.

Fabian moves forward like he’s an old man, uncertain and unsteady, like he’s not sure his legs are going to hold him up.

I grip his arm and nod to Seb, who does the same on the other side again.

“What about the others? Roscoe? Zeph?” Fabian rasps.

“Neither of them are in a fit state to make an escape attempt right now,” I reply.

Plus, we don’t have time to explain what the fuck just happened. I’m also aware we haven’t exactly spoken since the other night, where I miraculously got them both back home after we were caught up in the explosion. I know they’re both suspicious about how we got home safely.

But I don’t know if I can trust them not to throw me under the bus if it meant helping one of their own. And Seb is definitely that.

Plus Felix is Roscoe’s uncle. While I’d like to think he would be just as disgusted as the rest of us with what he just tried to do to Seb. The slightly charred state of Felix’s body right now might make him less than willing to help.

Instead, I contact the one person I can generally rely on. Other than the other night when he ignored me and I had to walk through the city displaying my powers, that is. I still need answers about exactly what happened there, but I haven’t had the time to ask.

“Ember? I’m in trouble. I need a way out of the city. Preferably right now.”

He answers back immediately. “What kind of trouble are we talking?”

“Big. Felix fucking Hawkshead just tried to murder Seb, so I kind of may have thrown a weird thunder-fireball at him. He’s currently unconscious, but we need to get away from here. No doubt as soon as he wakes up, he’ll come after the both of us.”

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