Anya Bast - Witch Fury

Stefan’s voice echoed from inside one of the cells and he and Sarafina ran toward it. Inside were Thomas, Isabelle, Claire, and Adam. Stefan stood surrounded by three Atrika . The head warlock’s skin was ashen and his shoulders were slumped. Gribben had taken its toll.

Sarafina had told Theo that Faucheux had said being imprisoned in Gribben — or at least, losing his magick — was the only thing that had ever come close to breaking him. Seeing Faucheux now, Theo believed it.

The head warlock fixed his gaze on Sarafina, hatred making his eyes bright and his face pinched, before he reached out, touched the Atrika nearest him, and they all jumped.

Gone.

The witches stood in silence for a moment. Theo could hear nothing but the moaning from the corridor.

Adam swore loudly. “And for the second fucking time Stefan escapes Gribben. The only person ever able to do that.” Isabelle threw her sword to the concrete floor with a clatter. “He didn’t escape. He was poofed . Don’t give him more credit than he deserves, which is none.” Thomas turned toward the door, throwing his sword down, too. “It’s done. Let’s tend the wounded.” He sounded as frustrated as Theo had ever heard him.

SARAFINA AND THE OTHERS FOLLOWED THOMAS OUT of the room, already finding Jack, Mira, Micah, and the other unharmed Coven witches helping the wounded and ensuring any injured daaeman were well and surely dead.

She was still shaking from their encounter in the hallway with the Atrika . Seeing Theo hit by daaeman power had nearly stopped her heart. He’d come close to being killed.

She couldn’t imagine a world without him in it.

As he walked toward her, she studied his open wound. “Let’s get out of Gribben so I can heal you up, Theo. You’re no good here until your arm is treated. After that’s done, we’ll come back and lend a hand with the injured.” He nodded and they made their way out of the prison. Stepping past the front gate and having the flush of her magick return to her was almost better than sex. They leaned against a stone wall outside and dragged in lungfuls of fresh air.

“Okay, come on,” she said almost immediately. They didn’t have time to burn.

He turned toward her, offering his arm for her inspection. She’d never tried to heal anything this extensive before and wasn’t sure she could do it.

“It’s all right if you can’t heal the whole thing, Sarafina.” He must have read the look on her face. “You’re the only fire witch I know who could even come close, who could even attempt it.” She let a faint smile flicker over her mouth. “My defensive skills might suck, but healing is something I can do.” “Your defensive skills looked pretty damn good to me just now. Ow!” “Sorry.”

As she worked, the others helped the wounded from the prison and brought out the dead. Once she was done, the wound looked as though he’d had a massive amount of stitches and a couple weeks of healing. It had taken a chunk out of her seat to do it, though.

He looked at the reddened, healing wound. “Amazing.” “Feel better?”

He cupped her chin and tilted her face toward his. “ Amazing. ” They held each other’s gaze for a moment, then parted. It was time to go back in.

Ugh. She really didn’t want to enter Gribben again.

Together they descended into the depths of the prison, and then dove in, helping the others.

Theo started to turn away, to go down the opposite direction of the corridor, then stopped. “Thanks for the help in the hallway. We tag-teamed him pretty good.” A rare grin flashed across his mouth.

She smiled. “I keep telling you we work well together.

His grin faded and he turned away. “Be careful.” “Oh, stop nagging,” she muttered and turned to find someone she could aid. There were plenty to choose from.

She walked down the hallway toward where Adam and Claire were aiding the medics.

“I hope all this was worth it. Did Stefan tell you anything before the Atrika came for him?” Sarafina asked Claire, kneeling to check the pulse on a dark-haired male water witch. He had a nasty burn wound in his side, the material of his shirt seared onto the poor man’s skin.

Doing something like this — checking for someone’s pulse and half expecting not to find one — would have seemed inconceivable to her a month before. Hell, she probably would’ve tossed her cookies on viewing a wound like this one or having the scent of charred skin in her nose.

After all, that particular scent brought back some pretty bad memories.

But now not so much. She was finding out there were plenty of ways being a witch benefited her life. Still, this was not one of them. Luckily, the wounded witch still lived. He was only unconscious. Good thing for him, judging from the severity of his wound.

They needed to get these people beyond the prison walls so the fire witches could do their work.

Someone handed her a wet rag and she went on to the next victim, a small redheaded female earth witch, and wiped away some blood from a gash on her forehead.

“Yeah,” Adam answered for Claire, “get Stefan into Gribben and the sheer force of this place breaks him. That’s why we did it. We found out something really interesting.” Sarafina paused in her work to glance at him. “So, are you going to tell me?” Claire did it instead. Her voice was tight and her expression even tighter. Her voice was little more than a whisper. “Somehow, some way, Stefan got hold of the elium. That’s how he’s commanding the Atrika . He’s got it stashed somewhere, protected and hidden. The Atrika would do anything to get the elium, so they’re acting as Stefan’s personal army to gain it.” Sarafina noticed now that Claire’s face was pale. She didn’t think it had much to do with treating the dead and wounded, either.

The elium was a ball of daaeman magick that worked as a neutralizing agent against power. It was the nuclear bomb of magickal weapons. Whichever daaeman breed controlled the elium controlled Eudae. Last the witches had known, the Ytrayi had possessed the elium.

Sarafina frowned and went back to her work. The earth witch she treated was sliding in and out of consciousness, babbling incoherently. “The Cae of the Ytrayi holds the elium, though, right? It’s inside him, isn’t it?” Claire’s face twisted for a moment in anguish. “Yes, Rue holds the elium. Or he did, anyway.” Sarafina knew that Claire had served as Rue’s handmaiden from childhood up until the time the palace on Eudae had been attacked by Atrika and Rue had imbued her with the weapon to protect it. He’d sent her to Earth and slammed the doorway between the dimensions closed behind her, but not before two Atrika had dived in behind her. Claire managed to retain her freedom after much fighting, and Rue had been able to get the elium back.

Even though Claire had been, for all intents and purposes, Rue’s slave, she had tumultuous, conflicted feelings where he was concerned. Rue thought of her as his daughter. Most likely Claire was worried about him.

A medic came and scooped the unconscious earth witch into his arms. Sarafina rocked back on her heels and cast a worried gaze at Claire. “Do you know what happened to Rue?” she asked gently.

Claire shook her head and turned away, tending to another fallen witch.

THEO AWOKE TO LIPS SKIMMING HIS ABDOMEN. IMMEDIATELY, his cock took notice of the light head hovering over his stomach and the hands pushing their way down his boxers. His shaft hardened to steel as Sarafina’s fingers touched it and he groaned.

“Mmmm, you’re awake.” She purred. “You’ve slept ten hours and you told me to wake you after eight.” “Why didn’t you wake me at eight?” He groaned and dropped his head back against the pillows as she stroked him.