Wild about the Witch by Cassidy Cayman Read Free Book Online Page B

fingers and shaking blood onto the herbs. Quinn said some words, a chant of some sort, in a clear, self-conscious voice. It did look remarkably like witchcraft. Perhaps Wodge wasn’t as mad as she thought.
    “We need to get closer,” he said. “Close enough and we’ll go through when they do.” He glanced down at her gleefully. “Oh, what a day this is. They’re sure to be meeting others. I can take care of them all in one go.”
    No, he was madder than she thought. Her arms and legs shook as he pushed her carefully forward. She stepped on a twig, but Quinn and Oliver were so wrapped up in their spell, they didn’t notice. Quinn stopped his chant and reached over and nudged Oliver. A moment later they both began to sing, two different songs, but they looked equally embarrassed.
    “Now!” Wodge shoved her into the clearing.
    She swore the air around her shimmered, as if they were really about to be taken somewhere, some time else. They’d be disoriented when they arrived, just as she’d been when she came through at Belmary House. Everyone except Wodge, who was used to it, and who planned to kill them instantly.
    “Quinn, stop,” she shrieked.
    Wodge jerked her shoulder and slammed the gun into her back. She caught a glimpse of his shocked face. The lunatic had actually believed she would help him. Quinn and Oliver stopped singing. While Oliver remained sitting in the clearing, stunned and uncertain, Quinn was on his feet in a blink.
    “Don’t move,” Wodge shouted, pressing the gun painfully into her ribs. “I’ll kill her, then I’ll kill you. Just sit back down and resume what you were doing.”
    She couldn’t look away from Quinn’s face and tried to read the thoughts and emotions that passed across it in the moment since she’d yelled his name. His eyes were locked on hers, flitting over her face, which she knew had to be a bruised mess.
    “Did he do that to ye?” he growled, taking a step forward.
    She closed her eyes and held her breath, wondering if she’d hear the gun go off, or feel the bullet tear through her first. It struck her suddenly that Quinn still cared about her. Why would he seem so angry about her bruises if he didn’t? She opened her eyes and tried for a brave smile.
    “Settle down,” Wodge told Quinn, holding up the gun so he could see it. Quinn’s eyes widened, but he didn’t step back.
    Without the cold metal pressing into her back, Lizzie was able to act, if not think. She swiveled to the side and flung her arm out, hitting Wodge’s wrist and knocking the gun to the ground. With a roar of rage, he shoved her aside and dove for it. Quinn leapt forward as she fell onto her back and she was close enough to Wodge to kick him, though he didn’t seem to notice as he grappled for the gun.
    As his hand wrapped around the gun, Quinn reached him and drew him up by his jacket collar, and in the same graceful, glorious movement, hauled back his arm and pounded Wodge in the face with his huge fist. Wodge’s head snapped back and Lizzie opened her mouth to squeal with happiness to be free, when a louder sound than Quinn’s fist hitting face bones reverberated through the quiet forest.
    It was like a movie, just like a movie, as everything happened in slow motion for a second. She watched Wodge and Quinn fall to the ground, heard the gunshot continue to echo over and over, saw Oliver standing up as if he was under water, his mouth opening into a shout. Quinn, lying on the ground, a red stain rapidly growing on his shoulder, his eyes closed.
    “No, no, no.”  This wasn’t what happened, this wasn’t happening, she told herself frantically.
    She dragged herself across the dirt to Quinn’s side, giving the unconscious, hopefully dead Wodge another kick as she passed. Oliver peeled off his jacket and pressed it to Quinn’s wound. She looked into Oliver’s eyes and saw they were blank with fear. He acted on instinct, and didn’t know what to do anymore than she did.
    “You