After all, I had an ancient evil coven out to get everyone I was close to. If I really cared about Asher, I wouldn’t be pulling him into my web of violence and death, right? I’d encourage him to go home and stay far, far away from me instead.
But I didn’t want him to go. I wanted to be there, pressed up against his chest, becoming familiar with the way he kissed. So I kept kissing him.
Almost as soon as I’d resolved to keep going, a scratching sound pulled me out of my make-out sesh. I tried to figure out what it was while continuing to kiss Asher. I ran my fingers through his spiky hair and grabbed a hunk of it, pulling his face tighter to mine.
There it was again. A scratching sound barely loud enough to discern, but now I knew I hadn’t imagined it. This time I stopped what I was doing and strained to hear where it was coming from.
“What? Was that wrong?” Asher asked, looking concerned.
“No. Shhh,” I said, touching my fingers to his lips to keep him quiet.
We sat there like that in silence. The house creaked like older structures sometimes do, but that wasn’t anything unusual. I could hear water dripping from the sink in the kitchen and it was making me need to pee. But besides that, the house was still.
There was nothing out of the ordinary, from what I could tell.
“Guess it was nothing,” I said, taking my fingers back from their place on Asher’s lips. I shrugged and leaned back in to kiss him again.
“I think you’re amazing,” he murmured between kisses. I started to smile as he said it, because I’d been thinking the same thing about him. I couldn’t believe that I was actually considering dating a high school guy. I’d be breaking my own rules if I kept in the direction I was going with Asher. Then again, would anyone really care except for me?
I was still considering this when suddenly my world exploded in light and pain.
Next thing I knew, I was on the floor in front of the couch, my head pounding. I felt something wet trickle down my forehead and drip into my eye. Wondering why I was sweating, I reached up and wiped at my brow. When I pulled my arm back, blood covered my hand.
What the…
Looking to my left, I could see that Asher was on the ground as well, only he seemed to be asleep. But he didn’t look peaceful. People who fell asleep usually looked peaceful and that’s not what this was.
He looked… dead.
Still confused and now worried about Asher, my eyes darted around the room for some sort of explanation for what had just happened.
And that’s when I saw them.
Several figures stood in the doorway, looking ready for a fight. As I watched, more appeared from the kitchen area, surveying the scene. Before I had a chance to yell out, they were already rushing toward me, spells flying.
Chapter Nineteen
I rolled out of the way right as an older man with messy long hair and a goatee shot a spell my way. The carpet singed less than a foot from my face and my eyes widened as I imagined what would’ve happened if it had hit me and not the floor. I tried to put the thought out of my mind. Scars so weren’t a good look for me.
I took cover under our glass coffee table just as one of the guys ran across the room and leaped into the air. I was terrified that he would hit his mark, but I stayed still for just a few seconds longer. My heart was racing and everything in me screamed to move, but I forced myself to stay put.
Finally, just before my attacker’s heavy black boots went crashing through the glass above me, I shot out of the way, missing the fatal blow by milliseconds. Shards of glass sprinkled down like crystal rain, but I didn’t stop to shield myself. Instead, I thrust my leg up and kicked the guy as hard as I could in the side of the head as he leaned down to take a second try at me. With nowhere to go since he was stuck in the frame of the coffee table, the guy fell over the side and landed with a thud. When he didn’t get back up, I assumed the layer of glass on the floor had slowed him down.
With one guy down and two closing in, I turned back to Asher, who was lying facedown a few feet away. “Asher! Wake up!” I yelled at him. I didn’t know what I would do if he didn’t answer. I needed him to get up. Even if it was just so he could get out of there intact.
But he wasn’t moving. I was about to screech at him again when I felt a shot of magic hit my lower back and make its way up my spine, exploding in mind-crushing pain seconds later. Without thinking, I spun around to look my attacker in the eyes. When another girl around my age looked back at me, I blinked with surprise.
“I heard you think you’re something special,” she sneered. Her hair was as blond as mine was black, but darkness clouded her features. She was pretty, though. If she’d gone to my school, she probably would’ve been competition.
“Funny, I haven’t heard anything about you,” I said, placing my perfectly manicured hands on my hips and popping my hip out like I was posing for a picture.
This seemed to piss her off and she started to advance on me slowly. I knew I should put my hands up to protect my face in case she lashed out, but I wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of thinking she had me worried. I’d sparred enough with my dad to know that I was ready for whatever she threw my way.
I waited to see whether she was going to come at me with a spell or with her fists, bending my legs slightly so I was ready for either. When she was within striking distance, she raised her fist and I knew we were settling this civilian-style.
No magic it is.
Her knuckles made contact with my hands as I blocked each hit she threw my way. The girl was putting so much energy into each blow, I knew it wouldn’t be long before she tired herself out. So I stayed on the defensive and allowed her to go crazy. As soon as I saw her chest heaving, I waged my own attack.
I struck fast and hard, but the difference was, I knew where to hit her so she’d end up on the ground. Three strikes and she was out, lying on the floor next to her partner in crime, unconscious but not dead.
“Guess I am that good,” I said, looking down at her.
Two more roundhouse kicks and I’d taken out a few more guys as they came into the room to join their fallen friends. One managed to get a blow or two in himself, but my adrenaline was running so high I didn’t even feel it. They came at me one after another through the kitchen door and I alternated between hand-to-hand combat and spells, doing whatever I could to keep up with them. Just as I threw a woman back over the couch with a tossing spell, I looked over my right shoulder and saw that still more were appearing.
“Oh, come on!” I screamed. “How many of you are there? You know one against a thousand isn’t exactly fair.”
“What the hell’s happening?”
I looked back to see that Asher was awake now and thoroughly confused by what he was seeing in the living room. And why wouldn’t he be? He’d been knocked unconscious and woken up to people shooting sparks from their fingers and tearing up my formerly quiet house. There were nearly a dozen bodies on the floor around him and though there seemed to be a lull in the rush of bad guys, I knew it wasn’t over.
Asher’s eyes grew wide and he tried to get up but couldn’t seem to make it. Apparently the hit he’d taken was still affecting his lower extremities.
“What’s going on, Hadley?” he asked, looking straight at me now.
What was I supposed to say that wouldn’t have him running for the door or get us both killed? I could hear more footsteps hitting the floor of the kitchen and there was no way to explain what was going on while defending us both. I had to think fast to come up with an excuse that wouldn’t leave Asher asking too many questions.
“Angry magicians,” I said, before turning around just in time to dodge a punch from a young guy who was screaming something indiscernible at me, and then threw one of my own. He stopped talking as his nose exploded in blood, and I screamed out in pain. Hitting him felt a lot like punching a brick wall.