Witch Heart

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Claire screamed and Adam thrust her behind him.

"Get out of my way," Tevan bellowed.

Kai popped in behind them. He loomed over her, staring down at the shocked expression on her face and smiling as if he savored the encounter. The Atrika loved it when their prey was terrified.

She and Adam were cornered in the hallway. No way to go forward, no way to go back. Nausea rose to bite the back of her throat with sharp, bitter teeth. So this was the end, then.

Kai reached down and grabbed her shoulder. She didn't think, she just reacted… but this time she didn't reach for the elium. Magick exploded from her — air, earth, water, and fire. It was the first time in her life she'd managed to bring all four tendrils together at once. It snapped out like a thick, deadly whip, the cattails aimed at Kai and Tevan. The air around them pulsed once, made her ears pop, and then the world blurred.

When her vision cleared, Kai was on his ass in the corridor looking stunned. Claire was just as surprised, magick still tingling pleasantly within the center of her chest. She'd reacted straight from a place of fear and instinct, and she'd defended herself and Adam perfectly.

Adam yanked her hard down the hallway, past a shocked Tevan who had also ended up on his butt, and out the door to the car.

She tripped going down the stairs and Adam barely kept her upright. They made it to the car and Adam started it, slamming on the gas and making the tires squeal on the pavement of the Coven's circular driveway and onto the narrow road leading off the Coven grounds.

Glancing in the rearview mirror, she saw both demons jump out of the Coven and down the road after them. They disappeared and reappeared, every time a little closer to the Challenger.

"Adam," she cried in alarm.

"I see. Put your seat belt on," Adam shouted, gunning the high performance car down the drive toward the front gate. Someone had called ahead — Thomas most likely — and the gates were slowly opening.

She scrambled to comply and it wasn't a moment after she'd heard it click in place that Kai appeared on the road in front of them. Claire screamed in surprise.

Adam didn't flinch or hesitate, he just ran him down. Kai's big demon body hit the grill of the Challenger and flew upward, making hard contact with the windshield and cracking the glass before rolling off to the grassy yard of the Coven that lined each side of the long driveway.

Shaking, she gripped the armrest and turned around, seeing Kai roll to his feet, apparently unharmed. Beside her, Adam didn't falter in his steady press of gas pedal to floor.

They sailed through the open Coven gates, out onto the street, and into traffic. Horns blared as Adam corrected the car's course and did his best to break the world's land speed record.

As long as they stayed moving, the demons couldn't track them and they couldn't jump into the car.

When she was able to stop shaking and focus, she turned to Adam. "Oh, shit." Houses just didn't seem strong enough for what they'd just endured. Maybe she was becoming a real Earth with.

Adam's jaw was locked and his hands were tight on the steering wheel. He didn't even glance at her. All his attention was focused on the road. "That was a little too close."

"Where are we going?"

"Right now, I don't know. Thomas said not to keep a destination in mind so they can't pull blood magick. As far as I'm concerned, we're going to keep driving for as long as we can. Don't care where. My objective is to keep you safe."

One witch dead, that's what Thomas had said. Her fingers gripped the armrest so hard it shot pains up her arm. Foiled by their fast getaway, what were the demons doing now? Were Thomas, Micah, Isabelle, and the others under siege at the Coven at this very moment?

Would any of them die?

Adam glanced at her. "What was that thing you did back at the Coven? That little pulse of magick that sent them flying? It wasn't elium, I could tell that much, but it wasn't any one element either."

She shook her head. "I don't know. I did it without thinking. I just grabbed four threads of power, wove them together, and lashed out at the Ytrayi with the whip they made."

She pressed her lips together and closed her eyes, remembering the room where Rue instructed her, remembering his words: Pull the threads together, Claire. Unite them.

She'd never been able to do it, had never even understood what he'd been talking about. At least, not until today.

"So you used all the elements together, at once."

"Yes, essentially that's what I did."

"It was like demon magick, Claire. It even smelled a bit like demon magick, although not as bitter."

Claire swallowed hard against a suddenly dry throat. "Really?"

"Yeah. Can you do it again?"

"I don't know."

"I hope you can, Claire. I really do." He took an exit onto the highway, headed south.

Claire shifted in her seat, trying to get comfortable on her already numb posterior.

Adam was heading for Florida, but just as a general goal. They had no specific town in mind. They weren't going by a straight shot, either, but by a meandering, lazy route.

It wasn't like they didn't have time to waste.

They'd talked to Thomas several hours ago. The demons had, like Claire had feared, attacked the Coven after realizing their prey had once again slipped through their fingers. There were some injured witches, but no fatalities at the Coven.

The next question out of Claire's mouth had been about the witches with the bait spell on them. It had been Craig who had died. Tevan had crushed his spine and broken his neck.

Tears had rolled down Claire's cheeks as Thomas had explained that the rest of their injuries had thankfully not been severe, all but Theo's. Theo had ended up with a broken leg, cracked ribs, and a concussion. Unwilling to go to the hospital in Missouri, Theo had forced them to bring him back to the Coven, alongside Craig's mangled and dead body.

When they'd reached the Coven, of course they'd found more chaos.

The demons had primarily been interested in destroying all traces of Micah's spell lab once they'd discovered his attempts to draw the elium from Claire. They'd done a thorough job.

It was a setback.

Not only would Micah have to recreate the spell he'd been working to alter, now he would have to once again gather all the ingredients he would need. Some of them were very rare and hard to come by.

The demons had not located Micah's library of carefully procured ancient texts. Micah had those well hidden. That was one bit of good news. The other piece of optimism came from the attack itself. Thomas figured that the demons would not have cared about the lab or the spell at all if Micah hadn't been on the right track.

So for now, while they waited for Micah to fix all that was broken and call them home, they drove.

Claire's heart was swollen with tears and she wished for the numbness she'd been able to achieve on Eudae. Coming to Earth, meeting Adam, had unthawed the ice she'd been able to build up over the years. She missed the cold armor of the lack of emotion she'd had before, though shedding it was probably far better for her in the long run.

Well, if she had a long run.

The road whipped along under the tires of the car, the white lines in the center glaring in the car's headlights. She shifted again in the passenger seat. Somewhere in Kentucky her butt had gone to sleep and she couldn't seem to wake it back up again.

She glanced over at the fuel gage. It had been full when they started, but now it was getting down to empty. "When you stop for gas, I can drive for a while."

Things beyond the demon issue were still a bit tense between them. They hadn't talked much during their journey.

He glanced over at her. "Ever driven a car before?" Doubt tinged his words.

"You know I haven't, but it looks easy enough to me. Touch the gas pedal to go forward, then brake to stop. I'll figure it out."

He stared hard at the road. "I'd better drive."

She sighed and crossed her arms. "Adam, we're in perpetual, nonstop motion here. There's no way you can keep driving and driving without any sleep. There's a term I heard recently to describe people like you—control freak."

A smile tugged at his lips. "You should know that better than anyone," he drawled in a low, warmed-honey voice. "I do like to be in control."

She shivered, her body responding to his tone and the insinuation. Claire shook it off and hardened herself. "It's dangerous for you to keep driving this way, Adam."

"It's dangerous to stop, too. Do you know how long we can stay in one place before they can track us?"

She chewed her lower lip. "Sorry, this is Atrika demon magick we're talking about. I know a little about it, but not everything. Not enough to know how certain individual spells work. Not blood magick."

"Well, we'll have to risk it soon. We need gas and food."

"And a bathroom."

"That, too. Let's pray the pretty car never has any engine trouble."

That was a sobering possibility.

"Fine, so when we stop, I'll take over driving for a while and you can get some sleep."

His hands tightened a degree on the wheel. "I'm fine to drive a little longer."

"Adam, you are not. Don't fight me on this one, you'll lose."

"You can't even drive—"

She drew a thread of air and sent it under the hood. The whole car shuddered. "I don't want to hear another word about it, Adam."

He closed his mouth and said no more.

Of course he waited until the car was on fumes. They stopped at a gas station on top of an exit with plans to take as little time as possible refueling, going to the bathroom, and grabbing some food from the convenience store.

Claire got out of the car and stretched in the crisp, cool night air. It felt good to shed that steel skin for a while.

Peering down the overpass leading away from the gas station and into the country, she had an urge to run — feel the pound of the concrete under her shoes and allow the cool, night wind to fill her lungs and play in her loose hair. Freedom from the prison the Challenger made.

She glanced at Adam, who was filling up the car. His shoulders were hunched, his head down in the face of a strong wind. Stress sat clearly in the way he held his body, in the hunch of his shoulders and the tightness of his jaw. He was so incredibly worried for her.

For the first time in her life, apart from her mother, she had someone who cared for her. She stood for a long moment staring at Adam, a smile playing over her lips. In that moment, despite all that was happening to them, despite facing death that morning, Claire felt better than she ever had in her entire life.

"Adam."

He looked up at her, the wind blowing his hair across his forehead. Tension sat in the jut of his jaw and in the lines bracketing his mouth. Trouble clouded his eyes and laid bare in the rigid set of his lips.

Claire smiled.

Adam looked confused for a moment and then the storm clouds cleared. Heat replaced the hardness in his expression, chased away the grim set of his mouth. Love dwelt in the curve of his lips now, warmed his eyes to a darker blue.

They held each other's gazes for a moment longer and then she turned and walked into the store to use the bathroom. She felt Adam's gaze on her like a palpable stroke on her skin as she strolled away. When she turned at the door, he was still staring at her, a smile playing over his mouth. Pleasantness trilled through her body.

Houses, was this what love felt like? If it was, she liked it.

The lights of the store blinded her after driving in the dark for so long. She blinked in the fluorescents, her eyes gritty from lack of sleep.

The man behind the counter glanced at her, then went back to reading his magazine. She passed the Slurpee machine and the racks of packaged cakes and bags of chips, her stomach rumbling. After she used the bathroom she was going to buy out half the store. Junk food, she'd found, was golden.

After she'd used the bathroom (with great relief), she stood at the sink letting the warm water run over her hands. Adam had probably finished fueling the car. They could grab some food for the road and start off again, but she was driving. They needed to be partners in this, not—

"Claire."

She looked up and saw Tevan in the mirror's reflection. Her stomach clenched. She whirled, drawing power. He laid his hand on her shoulder just as she punched him with her fistful of magick.

She was too late.

The world imploded. Her body tore apart at a molecular level and scattered over the universe. When she came back together, she knelt on a cold, concrete floor, retching.

The toes of a pair of black boots were inches from her nose. Someone was groaning not far away — Tevan. At least she'd managed to hit the bastard before he'd jumped her. Still, she knew all too well that Kai's demon eyes gazed down upon her with satisfaction.

She'd been taken.