A Lost Witch (A Modern Witch Series: Book 7) Read Free

“Where?”
    A couple of taps, and Jamie had Chrysalis House’s website onscreen.  “It came from here.”
    Lauren looked at the attractive yellow building surrounded by flowers and sunshine.  “Where’s that?  Or what?”
    Jamie had spent the last ten minutes figuring that out.  “It’s a very nice, very secure private facility—for the intractably mentally ill.”  He swallowed hard.  “People go in, but they don’t leave.  This is where you go if they can’t cure you and your family still has some money left.”
    The horror that oozed over his bones was now traveling through every mind in the room.
    Devin bounced on the balls of his feet, power already flowing from his fingertips.  “They’ve locked up a witch because they think she’s crazy?”  He spun around to Nell.  “What magic does she have?”
    “I don’t know.  The fetching spell wasn’t in scanning mode.” 
    “Mind magic, most likely.”  Lauren’s face was grim.  “They think she hears voices or something.”
    That was their best guess.  Jamie nodded.  “Probably.  She could have some other stuff on the side, so we should be ready for that, too.”
    Nell was standing beside Devin now.  Sullivans, ready to roll.  “I know her name is Hannah.  And I know she left that message almost three weeks ago.”
    Three weeks .  Jamie’s stomach curdled.
    “Okay.  Beam us in, Scotty.”  Devin’s easy tone belied the intensity of his mind—and the sharp excitement. 
    Jamie sighed—his brother had needed something to do ever since he and Lauren got married.  He was going to jump into this with both feet and half of Berkeley.  “We don’t know what’s in there, Dev.”  Which was the only reason he hadn’t ported himself and Nell in there ten minutes ago.
    “Sure we do.”  His brother’s casual words didn’t fool anyone.  “A witch who needs our help.”
    Jamie felt the words on the screen slice into him again.  And then did what he usually did—took a metaphorical stand at his brother’s shoulder.  One witch extraction team, ready for departure.  They’d figure out the rest when they got there.  He looked over at the team leader.  In a crisis, there was no one better than Devin Sullivan.  “Okay.  Who goes?”
    “You, to get us in.”  A general, readying his troops.  “Or out, if it comes to that.”
    “Me.”  Lauren stopped her husband’s protest dead in its tracks with only a glance.  “You’ll want a mind witch who can read through walls.  And barrier Hannah if we need to.”
    Images of nineteenth-century insane asylums flashed in Jamie’s mind.  Concrete and bars and a miasma of unhappiness.  Mind-witch hell.  He met Lauren’s eyes—and then quieted.  She knew. 
    And she feared enough for the one inside the walls to go anyway.
    “One more.”  Nell was mimicking Dev’s casual stance, but her mind was a coiled cobra.  “We’ll take Daniel.”
    Jamie blinked.  Daniel was always a good man in a crisis, but teleporting was faster than hacking, and Nell usually left one Walker parent manning the home fires.  “Why?  I can get us in.” 
    His sister rolled her eyes.  “Because, unlike the Sullivans, he knows how to plan an exit strategy.” 
    Jamie just snorted as the room dissolved in laughter.  And blessed his sister’s sense of timing—a warrior who knew the power of humor before battle.
    They had their team.  Jamie nodded and moved to Devin’s side, mentally running through a rucksack of items to take.
    “You’ll take me as well,” said a firm voice from the couch. 
    Like hell.  Jamie stepped forward, seeking the words to tell an old witch she had to stay home—and found Devin one step ahead of him.  His brother took a seat on the coffee table, one of Moira’s hands already in his.  “We’ll need you right here for when we bring her back.”
    “No.”  Moira’s mind was implacable—and full of sadness.  “You’ll need someone along who knows