Page 28 of Wolves’ Witch

Wherever he had landed, it had not been without its dramas. Douglas was missing a tooth. Isobella had a sudden urge to shove him from his horse, knock out another tooth and wipe that smarmy look from his face. Instead, she reached for Edmond’s sword. He thought he could stop her? Not this time. Douglas would not win this round. One cut, a nick of her finger, was all she needed, and she could whisk them wherever she had a mind to go.

The time-travel spell wasn’t reliable, and it would be hell if the horses got caught up in it too, but Isobella was determined that this time it would take them to Gaharet d’Louncrais. Without Douglas interfering. Physically or with magic.

“Watch him. He’s a warlock.” A competent one, but he was no Cordelia. All she needed was a bit of time.

Douglas? A warlock? What in the name of all that was holy was Faucher doing working with a warlock? Trying to hunt down a witch? And there was no doubt in Aubert’s mind Faucher would know exactly what this Douglas was.

Isobella’s shock pulsed in the air, fueled by something deeper. Betrayal. This warlock, who reeked of arrogance and deceit so strong the wolfsbane could not dampen it, had betrayed Isobella? Their Isobella. Aubert unsheathed his sword. He would cut him down, warlock or no.

Edmond stilled his hand. Isobella, too. His brother was right. He lowered his sword. Taking on fifty chevaliers and a warlock was too big a challenge, even for them.

“I have a spell I can use.” Isobella kept her voice low. “But I need you to hold on to me tight. All of you. And I’ll need my blood to make it work.”

The warlock spurred his horse forward. “Don’t even think about using that spell, Isobella. If I hear so much as a whisper of a chant—”

Isobella wrapped her hand around the hilt of Edmond’s sword. “You can’t stop me, Douglas.”

This time it was Aubert who stilled her arm. The last thing they needed was for them all to end up beneath the chapel at Faucher’s mercy. There was another way. He thumped a fist on his chest, over the amulet that rested beneath his tunic. Edmond’s brief nod was all the acknowledgment he needed. They would have to be quick and subtle. He urged Remi to bring his horse closer.

“No. Maybe not.” Douglas laughed, the confident laugh of a man who believed he had the upper hand. “But she can.”

Shadows swirled, and like a dark fog lifting from his mind, his vision cleared, and there she was, as if she had been there all along. A woman on a horse, dressed in the nobility’s finery. Not Marguerite, Comtesse de Anjou, daughter of House Allard. This was someone, something else.

The stench of decay, not of body but of the soul, clung to the woman, and a chill sank deep in his chest. Power thrummed in the air, dark and malignant. It had the hair on the back of his arms rising, and his wolf… His wolf was retreating, sinking into the depths of his consciousness. Not the submission it gave to his alpha, but the retreat of a wild beast who knew when it was outmatched. That it was prey. Never had another being had this effect on his wolf. If evil had a form, this was it.

Who was this woman? What was this woman? A witch?

Isobella gasped. Their mate’s fear galvanized his wolf. Edmond’s too. But there was a cautiousness to his dark side. A warning to not challenge this woman. Rather to retreat and take their mate to safety.

Aubert sheathed his sword in a show of surrender and grabbed Remi’s hand in a bruising grip. He shared a look with his twin, and Edmond put his sword away, wrapping his arms around Isobella and reaching beneath his mail. They had never done this. They had never had a need to. But if ever there was a time the amulets were designed for, this was it. He reached for his own, nicking his thumb on the sharp edge, whispering the words he had memorized as a child.

“Stop them!”

Chevaliers stormed forward at the witch’s command, but they were too late. The forest was gone, the chevaliers, the warlock and the woman who was evil incarnate replaced by familiar walls, elaborate wall hangings and the stunned expressions of his pack and their alpha. They were safe within the walls of the d’Louncrais keep. Horses and all.