If the witch had looked at her, she might have seen what Anna was doing. But the witch was only paying attention to Charles now.
Dominant, Anna thought gratefully, was more than just a rank in the pack. Charles’s presence was such that when he walked into a room, everyone looked at him. Add to that effect Anna’s own fragile appearance and utter lack of dominance, and it would require an effort on the witch’s part to focus on Anna as long as Charles was there. An effort Mary Alvarado wasn’t making.
Anna lost track of the question-and-reluctant-answer session. All of her being was focused on her task. Even taffy thins to nothing and breaks at some point.
Anna froze as the cable dissolved into nothingness, but the witch didn’t appear to notice that her hold on Anna was gone.
What now?
She focused on the net that held Charles.
She would have to be fast.
Werewolves are very fast.
She darted between them, grabbing the cables of magic in both hands. The spell the witch used on Charles was a lot stronger, and it hurt to touch the strands. Pain radiated from her skin into her bones, settling into her jaw with a sharp, throbbing ache. She could smell burning flesh, but there was no time to assess the damage-a violent pull, and the spell shattered.
And Anna kept going. She grabbed the broken rifle from the snow and threw it as hard as she could. It hit the witch in the face with an audible snap.
She gathered herself for attack, but Charles grabbed her by the arm and tossed her ahead of him. “Run,” he snarled. “Get out of her line of sight.”
TEN
It didn’t take Anna any time at all to discover that running in snowshoes sucked. They caught in the rocks, they caught in the brush, they brought her to her knees twice, and only Charles’s hand on her elbow kept her from falling all the way down the mountainside. Jumping downed trees was…interestingly difficult. However, Charles, without snowshoes, was sinking up to his knees and deeper with each step-so she was properly grateful for hers.
That’s not to say they were slow. It amazed Anna what terror could do for her speed. After the first, terrifying sprint-slide down the steep slope they’d spent hours climbing, she lost track of time and direction. She kept her eyes on Charles’s red coat and stayed with him. When Charles slowed down at last, they were all alone in the forest.
Still they didn’t stop. He kept her going at a fast jog for an hour or more, but he chose their path more carefully, staying up where the snow was shallower and his lack of snowshoes didn’t hamper them.
He hadn’t said a word after his command to run-but she thought it might be because he couldn’t; and it wasn’t any witch’s spell.
His eyes were brilliant yellow, and his teeth were bared. He must have a good reason for staying in human form, but it was costing him. Her own wolf had slid back to sleep after the initial panic of their flight was over, but Charles’s was right on the edge of taking over.
She had a whole slew of questions to ask. Some were immediate concerns like: Could the witch match their speed when a human couldn’t? Could Mary use her magic to find them? Others were just matters of interest. How did you figure out she was a witch? Why could she only see the magic after her wolf was in control? Was there an easier way to break a witch’s spell? Even an hour later her hands burned and ached.
“I think-” said Charles finally as his smooth rapid strides slowed to a halting limp. Her tired legs were grateful that he sounded winded, too. “-that Asil has some questions to answer.”
“You think he knows her? Why is she after him?” Anna asked. She had spent a long time assuming that the werewolves (other than herself) were on the top of the food chain, but Charles’s defeat at the hands of the witch shook her worldview. She was willing to believe that anyone would run from that witch.
“I don’t know if Asil knows her. I haven’t seen her in Aspen Creek, and she’d have been about ten when he incarcerated himself there. But if she’s looking for him, he probably knows why.” All of this was said in rapid three-word bursts as he struggled to slow his breathing.
She walked next to him and hoped that some of the quietness she was supposed to be able to bestow would help him. His breath slowed long before hers lost the ragged edge of their run, but she was back to normal before he said anything more.
“She shouldn’t have been able to do that. She made me fawn at her feet like a puppy.” His voice darkened to a growl.
“She shouldn’t be able to control you with her magic?” asked Anna. “I thought that witches could do that kind of thing.”
“To a human, maybe. The only person who should have that kind of control over wolves is their Alpha.” He snarled, fisted his hands, then said in a rough voice unlike his own, “And even my father can’t get a reaction like that from me. He can stop me in my tracks, but he can’t make me do something I don’t want to.”
He sucked in a slow breath. “Maybe it’s not her, maybe it’s me. I didn’t hear the first werewolf at all. I’ve been thinking about it, and I don’t think it was downwind of us. I should have heard him, or smelled him-and he shouldn’t have been able to lose me so easily.”
Her first reaction was to reassure him somehow, but she bit that back. He knew more than she did about magic and about tracking. Instead, she tried to look for reasons. Tentatively, she ventured, “You were shot only a couple of days ago.”
He shook his head. “That’s not it. I’ve been wounded before. It’s never stopped me from doing what I needed to do-and usually if I’m hurt it makes me more aware, not less.”
“Are the werewolves we’re after connected to the witch, somehow?” Anna asked. “I mean, if she controlled you, maybe she can control them, too. Maybe she did something so that you wouldn’t sense them.”
He shrugged, but she could tell it bothered him. And he was hurting. Watching him closely, she thought that it was more than his leg that was bothering him. All the running he’d been doing had to be hard on his chest wound, too.
“Do you need new bandages?” she asked.
“Maybe,” he said. “I’d have you check, but we don’t have anything to remedy the situation with us. There’s a good first-aid kit back in Da’s car, and that’s where we’re heading now.”
She was about two steps behind him, so he didn’t see her surprise, which was good, she thought. Dominant wolves didn’t back down much. “You aren’t going after her?”
“She caught me once,” he said. “And I don’t know how. Usually my personal magic would have allowed me to shed her imprisoning spell. That’s a pretty basic one, evidently- I’ve had three different witches try it before this. Without knowing how she did it, it’s not worth trying to fight her and risk her defeating us without warning Da. The wolves, both of them, are not as worrisome as she is. Da needs to know what’s going on-and maybe Asil can shed some light on who she is and what she wants.”
There was something bothering her, but it took a dozen yards of progress before she thought of what it was. “Why here? I mean, I know she was looking for Asil-and it sounds like she got some sort of information indicating he was in Aspen Creek. Did you catch her excitement when you told her he was here? She wasn’t sure. So what is she doing here and not in Aspen Creek?”
“Baiting a trap,” he said grimly. “My father was right about that, but not about who or why. All she had to do was kill a few people and make it look like a werewolf, and the Marrok would be sure to send someone after it. Then she could take him and question him. Much safer than driving into Aspen Creek and facing off with my father.”
“Do you think both the wolves are hers?” She’d asked him that before…but it was bothering her. She’d made a connection of some kind with the first wolf, the one Charles had run after. She didn’t want him to be in league with a witch.