Eleri Stone - Witch Bound

Humans thought the riders of the hunt were ghosts. Raquel could see that. There were ghosts here tonight. Her ancestors, explorers who’d first crossed into this world to learn about its people, as gods and then as refugees, and every generation of her family since then, riding this hunt beneath full moon and dark, the magic of Asgard pulsing in their veins.

Christian gave a shout and she found one erupting from her own mouth when the portal came into sight, a shimmer of magic, spreading like a ripple in the fabric of this world. The crows were first through, dropping to a glide and then disappearing as soon as they touched the portal. Fen. Aiden. Christian’s body tensed and her heart skipped a beat as they were engulfed in the most powerful magic she’d ever encountered. The sliding sensation of movement even though her thighs and hands locked her to the horse. Like riding the world’s shortest, fastest roller coaster.

Then they were in Asgard.

Christian didn’t hesitate. At some point during their mad ride, he’d drawn his blade. Not two steps past the portal and something leaped at them from the right. She flinched, the horse’s step faltered briefly and Christian’s body flexed as he slashed the thing to the ground. They moved on without making sure the demon was dead. She’d been warned that speed was of the greatest importance. Get in and get out before the demons had a chance to swamp them.

Right now, there were only a few demons around them and the hunt passed easily, following Rane and Elin through the stark landscape. There was no wind, yet the cold still cut to the bone. It looked like the waste left behind after a volcanic eruption, but the jagged hills weren’t formed of volcanic rock, they were covered in a slick black ice. Raquel was surprised to see trees—bare and twisted, possibly petrified. She couldn’t imagine how they could be alive, how anything could survive here.

She also couldn’t have imagined the hunt moving faster than it had been when they accelerated for the crossing. But now, with the demons on their heels, they flew. Hooves clattered on the brittle ice that fractured like obsidian. No wonder they wrapped the horses’ legs. She was grateful for the leather guards protecting her own. She shifted her weight when Christian leaned forward, trying to move with him, trying to stay the hell out of his way. They slowed briefly, though she didn’t know the cause of it until they surged forward again and she looked down to see the slaughtered demons beneath the horse’s hooves.

A claw tipped hand reached for her foot and she kicked out. Christian turned his head. “Are you hurt?”

“No,” she shouted, trying to get her foot back in the stirrup. “Just keep going.”

He’d never really paused. She had the feeling that if she’d been injured, he would only have spared enough time to make sure she was securely strapped to the horse. Down they passed, into a narrow and sheer-sided canyon, which seemed to her to be a really good way to be ambushed, but she trusted Aiden to know better than she did. The bridge that arched overhead was delicate and far too symmetrical to be a natural formation. The road they traveled on now might have once been a thoroughfare. People, her people, had once lived here.

A mass rose up ahead of them and she craned her neck to see it better over Christian’s shoulder. Algae clung to the battered rock, glowing with a blue light that outlined the ruin beneath.

A hound bayed, and they turned sharply right when they came out of the narrow passageway. To the left a pair of hounds blocked off a group of demons coming from the opposite direction. Her head snapped forward when Christian spoke her name.

“He’s here. Up ahead near Aiden. Can you dismount?”

Forcing her shaking muscles to move, she grabbed the arm Christian offered to steady herself. He grinned at her before letting go, lifting his chin toward the front of the line. “Up there. Hurry.”

Aiden had already dismounted and climbed onto a ledge. As she approached him at a shaky run, he held out his hand. One of the crows perched on an outcrop of rock above them, the other still circled far overhead, a black speck, calm and far removed from the chaos on the ground. Maybe being a crow wouldn’t be so bad, after all.

Aiden grabbed her forearm and pulled her up. And Raquel found herself standing face to face with the most powerful witch she’d ever encountered.

There was a definite pecking order within any coven. Nonwitches, even pure-blooded Æsir, usually couldn’t distinguish levels of power unless they were of enormous magnitude. Aiden’s frown was fierce and she wondered if it hid as much fear as she felt welling up inside her. How could she hope to contain someone like this?

The Vanir was ancient, very powerful, and he was dying. Glassy gray eyes blinked open above hollowed cheeks. A face that looked to have been lean to begin with was now emaciated and pinched with pain. It wasn’t lack of food that had done this. She could feel the power draining from him. Rane was right, whatever the demons were using to steal his energy was buried beneath the rock that encased the lower half of his body. How did they channel it? She wondered if—

“Can you get him free?” Aiden demanded.

She stepped forward, dropped to her knees and pressed her face to the rock. She couldn’t see a damn thing, but she could feel the energy and it was familiar enough that she didn’t really need a sight confirmation. A piece of Gleipnir, the chain that had bound Fenrisúlfr until the last battle. Her clan had a link of it in the vaults, as did most of the others. She’d studied it extensively back in junior high.

She looked up at Aiden and nodded. “Stand back.”

Rane cawed and he leaped down from the ledge. As soon as he was clear, Raquel pressed both hands to the rock as close as she could get to the witch’s legs without actually touching him. She didn’t want to touch the chain’s magic yet. The rock first. Closing her eyes, she went to work.

A pained gasp came from the witch a moment before she felt the rock liquefy beneath her palms. She kept a portion of her concentration directed toward keeping the ground beneath her knees solid. “Can you pull yourself out?”

“I can’t move my legs.” But Kamis reached back to grab onto the lip of rock. With his right hand. He was missing his left. “I think...I can do it.”

After a few seconds of watching him struggle to lift his weight, it became clear to her that he simply didn’t have the strength.

“Aiden,” she turned to shout. When she looked back, the witch was already swinging his legs free, yanking at the chain wrapped loosely around his ankles. She lifted her hands and Aiden hauled her to her feet.

Kamis looked directly at Raquel and ice slid down her spine. “All this trouble just to kill me. You should have sent the crow to do the job.”

Aiden shook his head. “We haven’t come to kill you.”

The Vanir witch laughed, which was particularly creepy because his mouth never moved. She could simply feel his amusement through the telepathic link he used to communicate.

“I cannot cross Asbrú. Odin spelled the bridge to prevent us from traveling to Midgard. Who knows what damage this—” he cast the chain away in disgust, “—has already wrought?”

She pulled the amulet from beneath her armor and the witch’s attention shifted to her. He stared at the amulet at first in confusion and then in dawning horror as he recognized what she held. “You think I’d rather be your pet than Surtr’s? You don’t know what powers you play with, little girl.”

“There’s a risk,” she said, and the Vanir barked out a harsh laugh.

“It’s a simple geis. ”