Blood and Blade (Goddess with a Blade #6) - Lauren Dane Page 0,74

envoy from the Conclave. You have broken several of our laws. We can talk, or I can let Rowan handle the interrogation.”

Patrizia threw some sort of magic at Rowan but before she could react, Genevieve batted it aside. The edge of it sliced along Rowan’s leg, bringing a hiss of pain.

“Don’t try me, whelp,” Genevieve snarled after making sure Rowan was all right. “You have some talent, but I’m something else entirely.”

“You don’t know anything!” Patrizia shrieked in Italian.

Rowan just sat and watched her friend magically knock the shit out of Patrizia until the other woman’s nose began to bleed and welts rose on her forearms when she raised her hands to guard her face.

That’s when the bitch ran.

Out the door and into the night beyond.

Shit!

Rowan and Genevieve followed.

“She’s using the magic here. There’s a lot of it,” Genevieve said as they caught up to Patrizia who’d run out of steam a few hundred feet away from the front steps.

“Can I just shoot her and be done?” Rowan asked. “I hate when they make me run.”

“We need some information first and she’s injured enough that she couldn’t even make it out of her front yard,” Genevieve muttered and then broke from Rowan’s side to circle Patrizia.

The hair on Rowan’s arms rose straight up as Genevieve toed her shoes off and stood, barefoot against the hard packed dirt and sand. Rowan wanted to tell her friend to watch out for spiders and snakes and stuff, but they were probably all afraid of her anyway.

“I can see why you live out here,” Genevieve said to Patrizia. “So much ambient magic in the air and earth. Though given the way the magic embraces me and you’re having to yank on it, it likes me better. Probably because I don’t need stolen power to call it and you have to.”

Genevieve switched to Italian and Patrizia went stock still. Thank the Goddess it was a language Rowan spoke well too, or she’d have had no idea what was going on.

“You can’t beat me. You can’t escape. You can only tell me what’s happening or die. It’s your choice,” Genevieve said softly.

As far as Rowan was concerned it was both. The other witch couldn’t just be allowed to walk away from all the damage she’d wrought against so many people. It was a blatant Treaty violation. The sort that got someone executed.

So Genevieve could say it was a choice, but it really wasn’t the choice Pat would think it was. It was a die quick and painless after telling the truth or die horribly and hard if she didn’t.

Whether Genevieve liked it or not. It might be their first big fight.

Despite herself, Rowan wanted to laugh but managed to hold it in.

The air all around them crackled with energy. As if a storm approached. Ozone hung thick as if lightning was coming or had recently struck.

* * *

Genevieve reached for power and it leapt to her, eager to serve. Eager to help. There was a metallic tang in its flavor. Something she’d recognized from the time she’d done a working at sunrise in the desert. That day Darius had been watching.

“How did you know Roderick Haigh?” Genevieve demanded, putting power behind the request.

“She doesn’t know shit,” Rowan called out, her tone a taunt. “This criminal bitch is living out here because she’s unemployable and no one gives a shit about her. Let’s go find the real culprits. This loser is wasting our time.”

“Loser? Fuck you!” Patrizia attempted to send some violent magic Rowan’s way but Genevieve’s shield spell protected her completely that time.

The magic she’d pulled from the air all around them was adamantine and brilliant. It worked with her other talents, boosting her power.

“All you people living with humans like we owe them something when they should be the ones owing us!” Patrizia said as she threw another spell at Genevieve, who batted it to the side.

Rowan’s snort of derision was loud and clear. “For real, this attitude is gross as fuck. Why is it that people who hold themselves out like this with this disgusting rhetoric are always the worst of whatever group they’re part of has to offer? Humans do this too and they’re all losers as well. Successful people never say things like this. You may as well be wearing a sign around your neck with an arrow pointing to your head that says, Don’t listen to me, I’m a failure.”

Genevieve struggled not to laugh. If anyone could poke a recalcitrant witness