The Witch and the Huntsman by Rod Kierkegaard Jr J.R. Rain Read Free Book Online

mine. Without Millicent at full strength, I was feeling very weak when it came to tackling whatever evil had taken over this place.
    That it was a very powerful evil, I no longer had any doubt. Though it was cloaked from my second sight, I could feel its hypnotic influence everywhere. Even Britt and Kev, about as normal a pair as you could ever hope to meet, gave off mad vibes like abused Stepford stepkids. And why wasn’t I getting any visions about Marisa now that I was surrounded by the few pitiful personal possessions of hers that Conrad, the Bird of Carrion had left behind? It was like I was deep underwater, and only muffled sounds and fragments of light were coming from the surface.
    “ Ok, wll do. Take gd care and wtch urself. Luv u ! ”
    Film people. Gotta love ‘em.
    I took a shower and had my first piece of luck—some of Marisa’s stuff had been left behind there. A loofah, some shampoo, a big comb with a few long strands of reddish hair in its teeth. A skilled witch like Ivy—a ‘kitchen witch’ they’re called because they know herbs and potions—could have summoned Marisa or at least visions of her from her hair alone, but I’d never been any good in the kitchen.
    Literally.
    Still, finding this evidence of her existence was kind of a shock. And not a good one—it meant that she almost definitely had never come back to her room after whatever had happened to her up on the mountain. Even worse, I found her black North Face jacket in the closet. I realized that when she was out there being chased and hunted, she must have been without it; the poor thing could have frozen to death in these temperatures, even if nobody had been after her.
    But in one way, finding her coat was almost like a sign. I felt like I had to do something to find her. Anything! I got dressed again and slipped the coat on over my street clothes. I had maybe four hours until first light to find the place I’d seen when Marisa had called me.
    The last place where she’d definitely been alive.
    Sleep? I would do that later...

 
    Chapter Seven
     
    One of the cool things about being a witch is that you can screw with electronic gadgets. Let’s say you’re stuck in an airport lounge or doctor’s waiting room, and you get really sick of CNN blasting away at you—you can focus your energies enough to change the channel. Or even fry the damn thing, which happened one time when I got seriously annoyed during a long flight delay.
    Sometimes it’s unintentional, like when I’m walking down a sidewalk late at night, and the streetlights dim or go out as I pass by. This happens to me all the time, and it’s totally not the same as going over to the dark side, no matter what Millicent says. Sometimes it can even be embarrassing; when I’m seeing a new guy, for example, and the lights or the music go out before we’ve even opened the wine.
    But tonight, when I slipped back out of the Annex, it came in pretty handy. Because there were security cameras everywhere at La Chasse, glittering from the ceiling like tiny spying eyes, and because I didn’t want to be seen, each of them would blink out as I approached, then back on again after I was gone. If all else fails in my life, I guess I could always start robbing ATM machines...
    “ Good thinking ,” said the voice in my head the moment that thought popped into it. Millicent’s voice.
    Somewhere in the firs ahead of me on the hill, I saw a glowing form almost dancing in the eerie stillness of the night.
    “ Is that you, Millicent?”
    “ Hurry! There isn’t much time ! ”
    I followed her into the timberline, and we crossed the Bottega run. We were climbing slowly up the mountain; I was out of breath and I had a stitch in my side. I like to think I stay in pretty good shape—hell, I am a personal trainer, after all—but obviously my body wasn’t ready for the cold. Or the altitude.
    “ Where are we going?”
    “ After the one you seek. Now hurry ! ”
    “ Slow down!” I