Page 95 of Ravenous

“Sound plan. Yet now destiny binds you to a supernatural witch. You must secretly hate fate.”

His arm tightened. “Canna.”

If it could have been anyone, it might have been him…

Sorcery thickened as they neared the mountain—dark magic, born in malice, appealing and lethal. An overgrown path snaked up the slope.

“I think we’ve shaken the ghouls,” he said. “She’ll be in the cave at the top. I can go alone and return to you here.”

“Stop!” Ditch hissed in his ear.

He stilled instantly.

“Now. Now I can see,” she murmured. “And better than you.” She slid from his arms and scanned the path. Concentrations of magic glowed to her sight, each one a trap knot. “Without me, you won’t get far. The rise is laced with traps. Do you not sense sorcery?”

“Aye, like a blanket of wrongness. But I doona detect the seams.”

She gathered a stick and stepped to the nearest line of magic stretched across the trail. She swung it through the barrier. Sparks. The wood fell in two. “I’ll go first.”

“Letyoulead? No’ possible, mate. I’ll leap it.”

“She’ll expect that. Next will be a pitfall straight into a black hole.”

“How do you know?”

Shrug. “It’s whatIwould do.” She lifted her hands and began to murmur oothspeak, a conjuration known as a pirate’s chant that stole another’s magic and made it hers. The line guttered out. “Deactivated.”

“You’re full of surprises.”

“Oh, I have more.” She smiled a promise.

“Will you guide me true?”

“No,” she said sweetly, “but I’ll gobble up every ounce of this yummy sorcery.”

She moved up the trail, chanting at a hidden pitfall until the ground shivered smooth, then at a deadfall rig, then at a beam snare. The traps continued, seeming to grow increasingly desperate in number, while she grew bright on their power.

By the time they reached the cave mouth, she brimmed with stolen sorcery and rode a wicked little buzz. She eyed the gorgeous Lykae like a dessert course.

“A good talent to have,” he observed, his lips curving, his gaze fascinated. “Especially for a female who lives among witches.”

“Alas, our laws forbid me from draining anyone in my coven.” She tipped her chin at the cave. “But a sorceress living all alone in the Helter?” Ditch flashed him a grin and sang under her breath, “Fee-fi-fo-fum.”

Chapter 38Thane

He had to drag his gaze from his striking mate and force his thoughts to the task ahead.

The sorceress’s cave raked at his Instinct. —Begone from this cursed place.—

Blood-spattered stone lay slick beneath creeping mold, and blackened vines crawled over the entrance like exposed veins. Gnawed bones crunched underfoot, stripped clean and scattered without care.

“Splendid curb appeal,” Ditch murmured, eyes fully black, her laughter low and shimmering.

“You’ve drunk too deep of that stolen magic,” he said.

In answer, she stifled a burp behind her claw-tipped fingers.

“I’ve never told another immortal to sober up, but now may be the time. Stay behind me.”