Chapter 2

“Do I know you?”

Four simple words. Words made from knives. Knives dipped in poison to burn and sting.

“Do I know you?”

As it did every time I had a quiet moment, the memory of Kin’s voice repeated like the echo of a ringing bell. Such a simple question shouldn’t be able to cut a person to ribbons, but he’d left my soul in tatters and my heart a bloody relic.

I could hate him. I should hate him. I’d never hate him, though, because it wasn’t his fault, but every time I heard his voice in my head, I wanted to kill Diana Diamond. She’d laughed at me as she’d torn us apart.

It didn’t seem the least bit odd for Diana’s laugh to follow me down a country road. Okay, maybe not the laugh, but the setting was odd. I’m not a back-to-nature kind of woman. Trees? Pretty enough, especially in the fall, or like now, with snow bending their spines into graceful curves. My comfort zone lies in the sights and sounds of the city, the solid feel of a concrete sidewalk under my boots. Man-made canyons with life threading between.

Before I could dredge up a shred of the memory of how I had come to be walking around in the middle of nowhere, I crested the hill and looked down at the steep expanse of snow-slippery road stretching out ahead.

A mental image of myself pinging from bank to bank like a human pinball elicited a shudder before logic took over. To avoid breaking a leg or worse, all I had to do was turn around and go back. Simple, really.

Except even when I ordered them, my feet refused to carry me in any other direction than forward. I could go down the treacherous hill or stand there until I froze, and still, my mind refused to supply a valid reason for being out in the wilderness alone.

We could call the Balefire.

Because magic is the solution to everything.

My inner witch spoke first; the goddess scoffed, threw up a mental a wall, and then I was Alexis.

 

The last thing I needed was a bunch of useless suggestions while I reasoned out the next logical step.

Shutting down my softer half took a moment longer and more effort than I’d expected. Magic might keep me warm, but so would a bout of good, old-fashioned exercise, and since I couldn’t go back, I took the first step into the fog billowing around my ankles.

Wait a second…fog? Over snow?

My heart kicked twice when I felt soft earth beneath my feet instead of ice or snow, and a burst of birdsong erupted from amid the rustling leaves.

“What the hell?” The words popped out of my mouth and my carefully constructed thought-wall toppled without a sound.

You’re dreaming, you idiot. Honestly Alexis, you call yourself a goddess and you couldn’t figure that one out on your own?

You know I don’t dream.

But I came to that conclusion just ahead of her pointing out the obvious, and curled my lip into a snarl to respond.

The nasty comment died without a whimper as rising dread replaced annoyance.

Run.

The word echoed through my head and I wasn’t sure which one of us—witch or goddess—said it, but it was good advice. With my heart pounding and the sound of galloping hooves forcing me forward, I glanced back to see what had marked me as prey even as my racing feet shredded the fog to wisps.

One hand loosely clasped around the reins and the other holding aloft a glowing lantern, the shadowed figure rode the dark horse as if it were an extension of his own body. A hood hid my attacker’s face, but my imagination supplied a death mask skull, jaws flapping beneath eye sockets filled with burning embers of hellfire.

When a second rider joined the first, I would have screamed, but I didn’t have the breath for it.

Dream? This was a nightmare.

I listened to Lexi and ran. Branches whipped against my skin as I raced through spaces I hoped were too small for them to follow, and yet the mare’s hot breath shivered over the back of my neck. Being a witch and a demigod might assure a long life, but it doesn’t make one invincible.

But could a dream kill me? It certainly felt like it at the moment, so I ran. And ran. Until the world narrowed to the impact of each heal touching down, the stretch of my arch, toes pushing me off the ground. Fear dragged the magic up to the surface, bringing the witch along with it.

The shift from goddess to witch happened between one step and the next. I was Lexi and still I ran.

 

My feet pounded against the ground until the voice of Alexis sliced through my mind. Stop, she yelled. You stop right now. Wait, wasn’t she the one who started running? Now she wanted me to stop?

Black witchfire, a legacy from my mother, already crackled and sparked as it grew between my hands. Only dark intent could call the black fire, and the use of it would brand me a murderer if this were more than a dream and if those chasing me carried witch blood.

Better safe than turned to stone. Power flowed up from the earth to pool in my center, where I could pick through it to pull out what I needed to alter the dark flame to purest silver. Where the black would kill, the silver would only steal the consciousness for a time. Good for stopping a foe long enough to get away.

Time turned liquid, drew out long as I turned toward the empty space under the dark hood and the nearest black horse reared. Hooves flashed, then thumped back down hard enough I felt the tremor through my shoes. But it wasn’t the horse or even her rider I should have feared; it was the lantern.

“Fate Weaver.” A thick voice issued from under the hood with the fetid hiss of an unearthed coffin lid popping open. “You will die screaming.” He raised his arm while the second rider circled to try to cut me off. I’d heard those words before, and again they sent a chill up my spine.

Sickly green light flowed from the lantern like questing fingers or tongues ready to taste my spirit and determine if it offered feast or famine. Like an oil slick on a puddle, the light rippled and oozed close enough to draw on my energy.

A different dream from my past flowed up from my subconscious and I remembered being chased like this once before. Unfortunately, I couldn’t recall what I’d done to shake my attacker last time, so I pulled out the most formidable weapon in my witch arsenal.

“Eat witchfire!” Okay, maybe it wasn’t the bravest battle cry in the world, and I wasn’t Miss Almighty Cool and Collected with her arrows, but there wasn’t time to think up anything more epic as I took aim and wound up for the pitch.

Mine. As if she could do it better, Alexis surged forward and took control. She could say her taking over was my idea all she wanted, but I was getting a little tired of feeling like a parasite in my own body, so I held on a little longer.

Stupid witch. Her fighting the change cost precious seconds and as I reared back and used my superior aiming ability to lob the ball of flame. The mare tried to dodge. Smart horse. Her rider clamped his knees in tight and gripped the reins harder, but lost his hold on the lantern when my missile struck home. His shout of pain carried the echo of thunder as I ducked past flashing hooves and leapt over the lantern to land on the snowy sidewalk right in front of my own home.

Ten steps would see me safe. I was so close I could almost taste the warmth and comfort when a searing pain slashed into my left shoulder blade. Spinning, I saw a black-nailed finger drop to dangle lifelessly from a shroud-like sleeve. I heard the echo of Diana’s laugh a second time.

The second rider reined in the stallion long enough for me to draw up a second fiery silver globe and take aim, but before I could, it decided retreat was the better option and whistled at the mare.

Nipping the ring of the fallen lantern between her teeth, the mare bore her cargo away with a snort and a flick of her tail.

Round one to me. The thought fell into the fading nightmare and I slid into an uneasy sleep.