Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 134501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 673(@200wpm)___ 538(@250wpm)___ 448(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 673(@200wpm)___ 538(@250wpm)___ 448(@300wpm)
‘She sent the Rabid here!’ Bennet shouted. ‘She needs to be detained!’
‘Oh, I agree,’ Patrick cut in. ‘You’re coming with us, Vautier.’ He flapped his hand, magick crackled . . . and then energy-cuffs appeared on Emberlyn’s wrists, yanking them together behind her back.
Motherfucker. Anger fluttered through her blood, wrapped around her bones, charged her magick and quickened her pulse. Emberlyn glared at him, her heartbeat thrashing in her ears. ‘You think you can bind me?’ she demanded, furious. She pulled at the cuffs, and they disappeared. ‘You think you can force me to go anywhere?’
Patrick swallowed while Ruben flexed his fingers nervously.
Her skin prickled in awareness as she realized that the rest of the crowd had taken advantage of her distraction. With the exception of Mari and Bennet, they now surrounded her; magick dust whirling around their hands.
Emberlyn let out a dark laugh that echoed with power. ‘Try it,’ she bit out, silently calling up her own magick, bracing it to defend her.
Crackling streams came at her from all angles in a flash.
Her magick slammed up like a shield, causing every stream to pause mere inches from her body.
Emberlyn wagged a finger and tsked. Then she threw out her arms. Her magick ‘wall’ bulged outward, shoving the crackling streams back at their ‘senders’ and knocking them off their feet. The only thing stopping her from doing anything worse was knowing that it would scare a child who was traumatized enough.
As the crowd struggled to their feet, Emberlyn snarled at them. ‘You’re all pathetic. Only fucking cowards gang up on a person like this.’
‘You assaulted us!’ shouted Patrick, magick motes swirling around his hand.
‘No!’ Mari materialized, placing herself between Emberlyn and the Watchers. ‘You have to stop. This isn’t right!’
Hank gaped at her. ‘Mari, move.’
She didn’t. ‘I honestly can’t believe you were part of this, Dad.’ She looked at him like she didn’t know him. ‘Imagine it was me. Imagine a bunch of people circled, condemned and attacked me like that. What would you do? No one even asked her about her whereabouts or considered the points she made. You’d all decided she was guilty, and you weren’t interested in anything she had to say to defend herself.’
Emberlyn eyed her cousin curiously. Mari was speaking up for her? This is new.
‘We will question her once we get her to our office,’ clipped Patrick.
Emberlyn looked him up and down. ‘I’m not going anywhere with you.’ He was plain ridiculous for thinking otherwise.
‘What’s happening here?’ a female voice sharply called out. Reena. She shouldered her way through the crowd, looking from face to face.
‘Oh, nothing unusual,’ Emberlyn replied. ‘People are accusing me of stuff I didn’t do. You know how it goes.’
Reena glared at the other witches. ‘I told you I don’t believe that Emberlyn is responsible for what happened.’
‘And I disagree,’ snarked Bennet, coming up behind her.
The High Priestess whirled on him. ‘Because you’ve fallen for a goddamn trick. You’d prefer to believe that an outsider is our culprit. The person who did this was counting on that. If there’s one thing Emberlyn never does, it’s cover up her actions. I don’t see why that would change now, or why she’d do anything to implicate herself if she was intent on keeping her participation secret. Who summoned her here?’
‘I did,’ Mari piped up. ‘They were discussing riling up a huge number of people and storming the manor to “deal” with Emberlyn. I thought if she could just talk to them, if they could just hear her out, it wouldn’t get that far. But they didn’t even ask if she had an alibi or anything. They circled her, attacked her and then got angry because she defended herself. If that had happened to any of us . . .’ She shook her head. ‘It was just wrong.’
Pausing, Mari looked at Emberlyn, appearing genuinely distressed. ‘I’m sorry I called you here. I wouldn’t have asked if I’d known they’d react that way.’
Hmm, maybe. Maybe not. Right now, Emberlyn wasn’t feeling inclined to take her word for it. She didn’t trust a single person in the coven.
‘You want us to ask her if she has an alibi, let’s do that.’ Patrick inched up his chin as he again glared at Emberlyn. ‘Where were you this morning?’
‘At home,’ she replied.
‘Can anyone verify that?’ he asked.
‘Yes. Ripper.’
‘What time did he arrive at your house?’
‘Yesterday evening. He didn’t leave until about ten minutes before I showed up here.’ She didn’t miss how people exchanged looks, evidently knowing exactly what that meant. ‘When did the Rabid turn up?’
Patrick dropped his gaze. ‘Approximately half an hour ago,’ he mumbled.
Reena addressed the crowd, saying, ‘So Emberlyn clearly couldn’t possibly have done this. You fell hook, line and sinker for a trick, just as I told you.’
‘She should still be detained,’ insisted Ruben, whiny. ‘She attacked us.’