Page 48 of Tanglewood Legacy (The Three Sisters 3)
With a flick of his wrist, Rhys’s wand ignited, creating a triangle of light above the open room. “Antoinette Devereaux, I bind thee, to this place and to your sisters for all time.”
Together, their connection grew stronger, the power multiplying exponentially, as they recited in unison, “Devereaux sisters, we bind thee, to this place and to one another, for all time.”
Delphine growled and leaped, just as the sun dipped behind the horizon. Her fingers wrapped around Isis’s ankle and yanked. Isis slipped, almost dropping her wand as her hip slapped the wood beam she’d been standing on, and Delphine’s weight threatened to pull her down into the chamber. She clawed frantically at the board, her nails failing to find purchase.
Suddenly, a hand was around her waist, keeping her from falling.Pierre.He was lying on the board, his gun in his opposite hand.
He leveled his pistol on Delphine, who was floating above the floor in an unnatural wind. Her claws dug into Isis’s ankle, and she hissed at him through fanged teeth. Pierre fired, the shot slicing through Delphine’s neck and landing in Antoinette’s chest behind her. Delphine’s claws slipped from Isis’s flesh, and Pierre lifted her back onto the board.
Scrambling to her feet, Isis steadied her hand, the light from her wand connecting again in the triangle shape with Rhys and Circe.
Together, they repeated the incantation again and again, the triangle growing smaller and smaller until it became a point of light between them. Isis stared down at Delphine as the spell took hold. She was cradling Antoinette in her lap, her blood mingling with her sisters’ and filling every corner of the symbol.
“You will pay for this, Isis Tanglewood,” she said through her teeth.
Isis smiled as the spell completed with a flash of bright purple. “Maybe someday, but not in this life.”
Taking Pierre’s hand in hers, she nodded at Rhys and Circe, turned her wand on the boards and bricks beside the building, and began walling them in.
ChapterTwenty-Four
It was the middle of the night by the time the bricks and beams were in place and the Devereaux sisters and their new prison were hidden from human view, sealed inside the architecture of the Ursuline convent forever. Pierre assured them that the rest of the convent would be built around the room at his direction. Once complete, the grounds would be blessed again, before the nuns moved in, adding an extra layer of protection.
Isis understood that the demon magic the sisters harbored was powerful. In time, they’d likely learn to summon things and even change the size and shape of their living environment, but they would never escape. They were tethered to one another and to that geographic location for good.
Thoroughly exhausted, Isis, Pierre, and Circe returned to the place where Medea had been executed, anxious to know for sure that she had survived the ordeal. Rhys had returned to care for Endora.
“Bloody Hades, she’s still up there,” Circe said softly, staring at the charred form of a woman tied to the stake. The street was empty now, but faint wisps of smoke still rose from the cinders under her blackened skeleton.
“Circe, some privacy, please,” Isis said. Her sister obliged, surrounding them with a spell to hide what they were about to do from prying eyes.
“Medea?” Circe said. “The concealment charm is in place.”
The charred corpse opened its eyes and said through nonexistent lips, “It’s about time!” Black chunks fell away as flesh ballooned around the bones, swelling grotesquely before reaching Medea’s full size. She shook off the rest of the illusion like a dog, silky black hair growing from her head and falling down her bare back.
A high-pitched sound came from Pierre’s throat, and he covered his eyes with his hand, much to Isis’s amusement. Of course, Medea was completely naked. Her clothing had burned away in the fire. Isis held out her sister’s wand, and Medea walked barefoot across the coals to retrieve it. A dip and flick and a dress wove itself around her.
Fitting her fist under her jaw, Medea tipped her head, and a loud crack came from the region of her neck. “That’s better,” she said. “You would not believe how uncomfortable it was to hold that position. Pierre, you can look now. I’m decent.” She waved a hand dismissively between them. “You can parade naked in front of me at a later date, and we’ll call it even.”
Pierre’s mouth gaped.
“She’s kidding, Pierre,” Isis said quickly, then pulled Medea into a hug before allowing Circe room to do the same.
“We were worried you might actually burn,” Circe said. “They used the Tanglewood tree!”
“The bastards,” Medea said. “It wasn’t pleasant, but I’m okay. I still have my powers, although I feel the tree’s loss like a growing weariness. But that’s a problem for another day.” She turned back to the stake. “What do we do about the missing body?”
Pierre cleared his throat. “The families of those executed often bury their own dead. As far as anyone else is concerned, we can say we buried your body in the woods.”
“Words every woman longs to hear.”
“You’ll be even more pleased to learn our plan worked. The Devereaux sisters will never bother us or anyone else in this town ever again,” Isis said through a smile.
“Then I say we retire for the night and find something to eat. I’m positively starving.”
* * *
Pierre ledthe group back to his home and settled Circe, Rhys, and Endora in a spare bedroom and Medea in another. Isis, he kept by his side, not wanting to let her out of his sight after the potentially deadly events of the day. When he’d seen Delphine leap for her, teeth flashing in the moonlight and talons digging into her ankle, it had sparked protective instincts he’d never felt before. Isis was a powerful witch, but she needed him. He’d proven as much tonight.
