Destiny Bewitched (18 page)

She tried to ignore the
growls and grunts coming from her right, and the worg staring at
her from across the ring. What was it waiting for? The crowd
started to chant something in a different language. The worg lifted
its head and howled with the crowd. It was putting on a show.

Men and their egos.

She took advantage of
his showmanship and used all her power to bring forth the strongest
form of her familiar she could. It started as a pull on her chest,
like a piece of her soul was leaving her body. A creature formed.
First as a tendril of smoke then it grew larger and larger until it
formed the shape of a ram.

She waited for it to
change to a solid form but it just drifted in front of her – a
billowy farm animal of smoke.

“Oh, very helpful,” she
told it irritably. “Others can take fire or water form and I get a
puff of air?”

It mewled.

This is so not
fair.

Using the last bit of
magic she had, she sent the ram across the ring toward the worg –
which now looked like it was about to charge. The ram charged
first.

Yes!

Then it veered off
course, turning and running in the opposite direction.

“Noooo!” She grabbed
the sides of her head in frustration.

The ram bucked and
mewled aimlessly around the ring, dodging Geo and the other worg.
The crowd erupted into laughter.

“No, you brainless sack
of wool! Not that way!”

The worg at the other
end of the ring looked at the useless puff of smoke doing laps
around the ring and snorted. She was pretty sure it was laughing at
her.

Then it crouched down
and growled. To her right, Geo lay on the ground, his sword the
only thing keeping the worg from biting his head off.
Oh God, please don’t
die!

She tried to summon her
familiar back to her but it only kicked up its hind legs and turned
a circle.

Then the worg charged.
There was no way her lame protection circle would do a lick of good
against such a powerful attack. So she did what every other
red-blooded American girl would.

She ran like hell.

She sprinted across the
ring without a glance at Geo or the ram or the worg chasing her.
She jumped over the divide and skidded under one of the benches.
Peering at the ring from underneath, she watched the worg come
barreling toward her, drool flying from its mouth, all four eyes
focused on her. She flinched back when it hit the divide then
yelped when it reached its giant claw under the bench toward her.
She scooted back as far as she could, leaving about two inches of
space between his long nails and her knees scrunched up in front of
her.

The spectators laughed.
One particularly loud man above her cackled and spoke jovially in
another language. Normally, she hated being the butt of a joke but,
well, she hated being worg food more.

“Samantha!” Geo’s
strained voice carried over the jeering crowd. “Get out here!”

She pulled out her
sword and stabbed at the worg’s paw. It howled and pulled its paw
back.

“I’m trying!” she
yelled to Geo.

The worg growled and
stared her down with calculating eyes. It was forming a plan.

“Hurry,” Geo shouted.
“Or we’ll be disqualified.”

Then the bench overhead
was ripped away, slashed to several pieces that rained down on the
startled crowd. She jumped up, sword out in front and faced the
beast. Slowly, he licked his lips.

She rolled her eyes.
The showmanship was getting downright cheesy.

Just before it leapt at
her, a black shape jumped onto the worg’s back and latched on with
its teeth. Erebus?

Taking advantage of the
distraction, she lunged forward with her sword, dodging the giant
paws swinging around trying to dislodge Erebus. The worg bucked and
growled, resembling the ram. But it moved too fast to get in a
strike safely.

Then something barreled
into her from the side, sending her flying across the ring. She
landed hard on her hip in the dirt. Wincing and hissing in a breath
at the pain, she looked up just in time to see the worg Geo had
been fighting just a few yards away, heading for her.

She went to lift her
sword but it was gone. Where was it?

Geo grabbed the worg’s
leg from behind, stopping his charge. And as he dodged the worg’s
great big paws, he swiped her sword from the ground.

“Catch,” he said.

Her sword flew through
the air, landing point down in the dirt in front of her – where her
foot had just been. Did he expect her to catch it? Who did he think
she was? One of the three Musketeers?

She pulled it from the
dirt and assessed the situation. Erebus and one worg circled each
other, snarling. Geo ducked and jumped over each worg strike then
countered with his own. Both were bloodied and looked tired.

A sad yelp brought her
attention to Erebus. He was on the ground, bleeding and limp.

“No!”

Erebus! Geo’s only
friend. She willed him to get up. But it didn’t look like he was
breathing.

Pure rage fueled her
now. At the bloodthirsty crowd. The man that brought her sister
here. The creatures that kept trying to kill the people she loved.
At her brothers for not being here. Her father for allowing all of
this to happen. Hatred filled her until she felt as mean and cruel
as everybody else in this god-forsaken realm.

She ran at the worg. He
swung his big head around, growled then turned to face her. Hard
and fast she charged it, anger making her brave.

Just before she reached
the worg, it leapt up as if to jump on her. But with a fierce growl
she slid down onto her knees, skidding underneath it, missing its
claws by a hair. She thrust her sword up into its belly and sliced
across as hard as she could as its body soared over her. And God
did it feel good.

The flesh gave in under
her sharp blade and the worg landed in a lump behind her. She swung
around, panting and shaking – adrenaline and anger still pulsing
through her body. Holding her bloody sword out in front with two
hands, she watched the worg melt back to human form.

Where was the other
one? She’d kill that one too.

“Sam.” Geo’s voice came
from the right.

Reluctantly, she looked
from the skinwalker, laying in a pool of his own blood, to Geo.

The other worg had
Geo’s sword stuck through his head. It melted back to human form
too.

His eyes full of
concern, Geo walked to her. “It’s over, love. You okay?”

It’s over.

She inhaled a few deep
breaths.

It’s over
. “Yes. I’m okay.”

Geo took her hand.
“Come on.”

They walked,
hand-in-hand, across the bloody ground, both of them limping.
Samantha’s hip ached where she’d fallen on it. The sounds of the
crowd faded as she concentrated only on Geo’s strong hand in hers.
His presence alone made her feel calm, safe. She squeezed his hand
tighter.

“You’re limping,” he
said softly.

“Something threw me.”
What the hell had it been? “When the worg you were fighting was
about to attack me.”

He nodded. “That smoky
animal running around like a horse with a bee in its ear.”

Her familiar? Wow. The
useless puff of livestock had actually saved her life.

“What in Hades’ name
was that thing?” he asked her.

“Um. My familiar.”

He arched a brow. “A
sheep?”

“It was a ram,” she
told him irritably. “You should recognize the horns.”

His lips twitched. “It
was a wooly lamb.”

And just like that they
were back to normal. Geo and Sam. No dead worgs or sick Underworld
Games.

“We don’t get to pick
our familiar. My friend’s is a hedgehog.”

They reached the
divider and climbed over.

“At least that’s got
spikes,” Geo mumbled.

She hid a smile.

“Cutting it a little
close, no?” Aedan said, handing her a bottle of water.

She chugged half then
gave it to Geo. The crowd began to boo and hiss. She looked up at
the board where the gamesman was erasing their names. “Why are they
erasing us? We won.”

Geo didn’t answer. He
started cleaning his sword with a towel Aedan gave him. What the
hell happened?

“No, you didn’t, lass,”
Aedan said sadly.

“We lost?”

Geo gave her a sharp
look. “We’re alive, aren’t we? I wouldn’t call that losing.”

Panic started in her
chest.

“You were
disqualified,” Aedan answered her unspoken question.

Her stomach dropped.
“Disqualified,” she repeated numbly, staring up at the board.

All that for
nothing?

Aedan continued.
“Because the shadow hound interfered.”

Erebus! She turned
frantically toward the ring, searching for his body on the ground.
How could she forget about him?

“He’s gone.” Geo placed
a hand on her shoulder.

No!
She started to crumple to the
floor but Geo grabbed her shoulders and held her up. “He’s not
dead. Shadow hounds are very resilient. He’s gone to the shadows to
heal. We’ll see him again soon. I have no doubt.”

She breathed a sigh of
relief.

“So what’s your plan?”
Aedan asked Geo.

Samantha still couldn’t
wrap her head around losing. They didn’t have a plan B. Giving up
wasn’t an option, but what else could they do? The feather around
her neck still felt warm against her skin. Nicole was here – and
she was alive. Scared, and maybe even injured.

If Shade hurt her in
any way, she’d kill him,
painfully
.

It suddenly felt stuffy
and hot in the corridor. Emotion lodged in her chest and she wasn’t
sure she could hold it in.
I need to get out of here.

She interrupted Geo and
Aedan’s conversation. “I need some air.” Before Geo could stop her,
she limped as fast as she could to the tunnel leading outside.

Geo watched Samantha
hobble away, wanting to follow her, to hold her. She was probably
in a panic about the possibility of losing her sister. As if he’d
ever let that happen. But sensing she needed space, he stayed
put.

“She’s got you wrapped
around her little finger,” Aedan said, grinning.

“What?”

“You’ve fallen hard for
the lass. Tell me, what do you plan to do when she finds her sister
and returns Topside?”

He rubbed his hands
over his horns. “Hell if I know.” Return home with Gaia’s blessing.
Get back to life as he knew it – making weapons for his father,
visiting his mother when he could, continuing his search for
love.

His heart clenched.
Except he’d already found it. Everything he wanted in a woman, he’d
found in Samantha. Courage, intelligence, a sense of humor, a kind
heart. She was that and more. He hadn’t known he liked freckles
that appeared in the sunlight. Or waking to a husky voice, thick
with sleep, in the morning. Or the little spot between two eyebrows
that crinkled with deep thought. Flirty smiles, playful surrender
in the bedroom, a cute, spankable ass, amber eyes, curly hair he
wanted to grab in handfuls – gods, everything!

His throat constricted.
He’d always thought love was the missing piece to his happiness –
he never thought it’d hurt so damn much.

Aedan interrupted his
thoughts. “That’s why you’ll never see me fall for a woman. You
look miserable.”

“I’m not miserable.
I’m…”
In
love
. Love that held no future. Impossible love. “I better
go find her.”

He made a hasty retreat
before Aedan hit too close to the truth. Outside, he found her
standing on a cliff, halfway up the mountain. He climbed up and
stood a few yards behind her, watching her stare at the nighttime
sky. For the first time in a long time, the moon appeared in the
Underworld.

Samantha crossed her
arms, hugging herself. He heard a small sniffle and he found
himself moving toward her – like a magnet pulling to its other
half.

Her head turned to the
side – she heard him behind her. He slid his hands down her bare
arms, feeling goose bumps rise on her skin. Pulling her against his
body, he placed his hands over hers and rested his chin on her
head.

He inhaled a deep
breath and almost groaned when the scent of her hair hit him.

“Look,” she said
softly. “My sky.”

A silvery moon lit up
the horizon and a few shining stars stood out like sparkling gems.
Sometimes beauty could be found in the ugliest of places. He felt
Samantha sigh and relax against him. He squeezed her tighter. She
was his gem – his beauty in a dark place.

“We’ll find her,
Samantha.”

She turned her head and
looked up at him, her eyes filled with doubt. “Will we?”

“Yes. I give you my
word.”

Tears formed in her
eyes, glittering then falling onto her cheeks. It broke his heart.
He turned her to face him then kissed each wet cheek. “Though you
may feel all is lost, hope is always there. It carries us through
the darkest times.” His lips moved to her ear, planting small
kisses across her cheeks as he went. “Don’t give up hope,” he
whispered.

She buried her face in
his chest. Her small shoulders shook. Gods, he wanted to take this
pain from her. He cupped the back of her head, holding her against
him. She fit perfectly against his body.
Feels so right.

She pulled away too
soon. Wiping her tears with the back of her hand, she straightened
her shoulders and asked, “So what’s the plan? What do we do
now?”

Brave girl.
“Well, we can fight as
three’s with Aedan or I can sign up as a single contestant. Either
way we’ll have to start over but –”

“No. I can’t risk you
two. This is my fight, not yours.”

He took her face in his
hands. “Samantha, it was my fight too the moment I brought you to
my cabin.”