Spellbound by Kelley Armstrong Read Free Book Online Page A

wall, and I wouldn’t have stopped if Adam hadn’t appeared. He pulled me away and held me tight, letting me pummel his back instead until I realized what I was doing and threw my arms around his neck and cried. Sobbed like I hadn’t since the day I’d finally accepted that my mother was gone and she wasn’t coming back.
    Now my powers were gone. And they weren’t coming back either. I was as lost without them as I’d been without her.
    I cried until I realized I was crying. Me. Savannah Levine. Breaking down like a little girl. I pulled back from Adam, my cheeks burning, my heart thudding against my ribs, the walls of the alley closing in, Adam standing too close, watching me too carefully.
    I took a step away.
    â€œDon’t, Savannah,” he said softly. “Please don’t run.”
    â€œWhat am I going to do?” I whispered. “Without my powers, I’m—”
    â€œExactly the same person you are with them. Just a whole lot less dangerous.”
    He was trying to make me smile. Instead, fresh tears filled my eyes.
    I was Savannah Levine, ultrapowerful spellcaster. Daughter of a Cabal sorcerer and a dark witch. Without my powers, I’d be a human PI working for an agency specializing in supernatural cases. As useful as an ashtray on a motorcycle.
    It wasn’t just that I needed my powers to investigate cases. I had a contact list filled with the names of unsavory supernaturals that Paige and Lucas couldn’t get near. Unsavory but well-connected supernaturals who’d reached out to me because I was the daughter of Eve Levine. If they realized I was spell-free, they’d stop taking my calls. Then I’d have nothing to offer the agency. Nothing to offer Paige, Lucas, Adam . . .
    My gut clenched and I staggered forward. Adam grabbed for me, but I pushed him away and ran.
    Another theater down the road had just gotten out, and the sidewalk was jammed with strolling patrons, in no rush, just chatting about the show. I weaved past little old ladies with walkers and shuffling old men.
    Just move. Please. Just move!
    My head started to throb as I slowed to a walk. I squeezed my eyes shut. Just what I needed. More headaches. I’d been having them for days, and I’d assumed they’d been part of the poison Leah fed me, but—
    I stopped, ignoring the curses of a middle-aged couple that crashed into me.
    Headaches. They’d started when I first went to the commune, then seemed to come and go at random. Only it wasn’t random. It happened every time the witch-hunter was near me.
    I looked out over the sea of faces—
    A hard blow to the back of my knees made my legs buckle. I fell against an old woman and she tumbled off the curb with a shriek.
    Headlights flashed. Someone screamed. I wheeled to yank the woman back. The headlights veered out of the way as the truck driver swerved for the middle of the road. Metal crunched. Glass shattered. Hands grabbed onto me. Adam dragging me onto the sidewalk, the old lady, too.
    He released the old woman and kept tugging me along. I wrenched out of his grasp and looked around for the witch-hunter. But the crowded sidewalk was a mob now, pressing in from all sides. People shouted. Cameras flashed. The stink of burning rubber filled the air.
    I pushed my way back to the curb. The old woman sat on it, another woman crouched before her, asking questions. She seemed fine. In swerving to avoid her, though, the truck had hit a delivery van. The van driver lay across his steering wheel. One man yanked on the jammed driver’s door as a woman cleared glass from the broken windshield so they could pull him out.
    I started forward.
    Adam caught my arm. “Nothing you can do,” he whispered. “We need to go.”

six
    M y parents might want me to lie low, but I was old enough to make decisions for myself. The accident outside the theater told me I had to get this witch-hunter bitch. I had enough