Duncan flanked me on either side, swords drawn, Duncan practically vibrating with anger.
“No need to pull out the big guns, dear. I’m just here to make a trade.” Addie lifted her hand and crooked a finger, and in my voice, said, “Jamie, come to me.”
After a moment’s hesitation, he took a step forward. My brain told me to stop him, but I couldn’t move. Was he really going to her willingly? Or did she have some sort of hold on him? As he took another step, shock buzzed through my limbs and I lowered my ring, afraid to catch him in the crossfire.
“Release Mackenna and I’ll come wi’ you.”
At Jamie’s words, relief washed through me. He wasn’t entranced, just attempting to rescue my best friend.
Jamie lowered his sword and took another slow step forward. “My friends leave here unharmed and I’ll do as ye ask.”
“See, little queenie, he really does want me,” Addie boasted, no longer using my voice. “He just needed the right . . . incentive. Together, we will take Doon piece by piece, until ye have nothin’ left ta rule. Then I’ll watch as your true love kills you and bathe in your blood!”
I fingered the handle of one of the axes hanging from my weapons belt, calculating whether I could bury it in the witch’s face before she could slit Kenna’s throat. It wasn’t worth the risk. Kenna’s gaze caught mine and I could tell she was trying to communicate. Suddenly her words slammed into my brain. “I’ve got this. Back off!”
Jamie stopped. He must’ve heard it too.
She might think she could handle the witch, but I wasn’t taking any chances. Mustering every ounce of acting skill I’d absorbed from my best friend over the years, I rushed to Jamie’s side and gripped his arm. “Jamie! Please don’t do this! Don’t leave me for her!”
He stared down at me like I’d lost my brains. “Vee, get back.”
I glanced quickly at the witch to see if she was buying my act. Her chin tilted as she watched us with narrowed eyes, her lips curling in satisfaction. Perfect. Jamie tried to take my arm to push me behind him, but I flung myself against his chest and moaned, “She can’t make you happy! We can win this fight together.”
And then I slipped the bomb into his pocket. I felt the tension in his body the moment he understood.
Giving my hand a quick squeeze, he shoved me away from him. “ ’Tis over between us! I’m sick o’ bein’ on the losing side!” He glanced at Addie, whose smile had grown huge. “I’m in love wi’ someone else now.”
As he spoke, I dropped my hand into my pocket and flicked the cap off of the elixir. Jamie turned away on his heel as if to join Addie and gave Kenna a quick nod.
In a seamless sequence of motion, Kenna threw her head back into Addie’s chin, pulled the knife away from her neck with both hands, and bent forward, forcing the witch off balance. Then with a screech, she rammed her elbow into Addie’s stomach and twisted her knife arm painfully to the side.
Seeing my opening, I leapt forward as I pulled the vial from my pocket and splashed Saint Sabastian’s elixir into the witch’s stunned face.
“Kenna, get clear,” Duncan shouted.
Kenna knocked the knife from Addie’s hand and grabbed it out of the air before sprinting toward us.
I waited. For what, I didn’t know. Addie’s skin to boil and blister like a vampire in the sun. Her old, haggish self to appear the way a werewolf morphs back into a man. Perhaps for her body to shrivel away to dust like her monsters. To shriek, “I’m melting!” and disappear into a puddle of fabric. Something.
What I didn’t expect was for her to throw her head back with a resounding cackle. “You stupid, stupid girl, I’ve been immortal for hundreds o’ years, and ye think a bit o’ holy water will hurt me? This isn’t Oz!” Violet light blasted from her eyes. Her hair whipped around her head like Medusa as she raised her palms directly at us. “But you have given me a wonderful idea.”
CHAPTER 37
Mackenna
Purple orbs of magic began to gather in the center of Addie’s outstretched hands, writhing like agitated serpents in small glass bowls. “I always thought that Frank L. Baum was a ninny for creating a world where his witch could be killed with something as basic and necessary as water.”