Spellcasters Read Free

leave. We have to do something.”
    She agreed, while making no move to check for herself, as if she knew he was lying to give her the excuse she needed.
    “I’ll take him down,” Adam said. “Once I have him, you run in and get my dad—”
    She shook her head. “First-degree burns aren’t going to stop a guy like that. I’m no help until I learn my binding spell.”
    “He’s not much bigger than me, and I’ve been working out—”
    “Which isn’t going to help you if he pulls a knife or a gun.”
    “Supernaturals hardly ever use that stuff.”
    “What if this guy is the exception?” She laid her hand on his arm. “As much as I’d like to hog-tie the guy and hand him over, all we really need is that notebook. The council can find out what he was up to and go after him. That’s good enough, right?” She looked up at him. “For now.”
    After a moment, he nodded.
    “I’ll create a distraction,” she said. “You grab the book. You’ll need to have your powers ready, in case he turns on you. Have you been practicing?”
    He nodded. Almost since the day they’d met, Paige had been trying to help him hone his powers, helping him learn to control them so he could burn on purpose, not just accidentally when he got upset. She’d taught him the techniques she used for spell-casting concentration. Trouble was, they didn’t work for him.
    To cast a spell, you had to clear your mind and turn off your emotions. To invoke fire, he needed to do the exact opposite—turn his emotional valve on full blast. Telling her how he ignited his powers would only worry her. Sometimes reaching down into that darkest part of himself disturbed even him.
    “If something goes wrong, I’ll have to go for help. You know that, right? I can’t—” She swallowed. “I can’t do a damned thing.”
    “Don’t swear.”
    He smiled when he said it, but she didn’t smile back. Paige had noticed that her mother never undertook any council “business” without backup,not even something as simple as delivering a warning. Sure, Ruth was older than most moms, but his dad was almost as old, and he issued warnings by himself. He might not like invoking his darker powers, but at least he had them.
    Paige looked at her mother, the most experienced witch she knew, and saw her future. Leader of the Coven, leader of the supernatural council … and completely defenseless except for her binding spell.
    Adam left Paige in the forest. Then he circled around to the half-demon’s other side. He crouched there a moment and watched him, but there wasn’t much to see. The guy was still standing beside the window, head tilted, jotting down notes. Exciting stuff.
    Across the clearing, a light sparked in the forest. Paige’s signal. Adam hunkered down. A moment later, a bright orb bounced from the forest, hovered there a moment, then evaporated. The spy never even saw it. Adam imagined Paige stamping her foot as her light-ball fizzled.
    A second later, he heard Paige kick a pile of dried leaves just as she let off another light-ball. The half-demon spun. The ball sputtered out. He shook his head and returned to his spying. But he didn’t turn his back on the woods, so when the next light-ball came, he saw it and headed for Paige’s hiding spot.
    Adam bolted from the bushes. He made a beeline for the notepad hanging from the man’s hand. But he’d jumped out too soon. The half-demon caught a movement out of the corner of his eye and whipped his hand back. Adam tried to check himself, but it was too late. He crashed right into him.
    The notepad flew to the ground … and the man’s hands flew to Adam’s throat.
    Adam managed to duck, but the half-demon caught him by the arm and yanked Adam off his feet. He tried to invoke his power, tried to pull the deepest, darkest emotions from his brain, but all he could think was that he’d made a fool of himself in front of Paige
and
embarrassed his dad. He wasn’t sure which was worse. Then, as he