moved slowly around me as Henry growled and snarled and his bones broke. He turned inside out and then the enormous wolf stood there, shaking himself, between Deirdre and me and the door. My hands trembled and my knees almost gave out. Moon help us. He was between us and freedom, blocking the only escape. Except the window...
I looked around wildly, on the verge of panic, but Deirdre spoke in a very calm voice. “Breathe, Ophelia. Just stay calm. He’s not going to hurt us.”
“How do you know?” I whispered.
“Because it’s still Henry in there,” she said. How she managed to sound so confident, I didn’t know. Lots of practice, maybe, or she was just a good liar.
Henry watched me with gold eyes, then lowered his head and whined. I tried to shuffle closer to Deirdre but froze when he paced closer. Deirdre folded her arms over her chest and spoke to the wolf. “You burst in here and surprised us, so this is your fault, bucko. Get yourself under control and change back.”
His nose wrinkled and he sneezed. The wolf’s tail wagged once, then stilled. He eased closer to me and sniffed near my leg.
I shoved down the panic and the feeling of being completely, utterly out of control. That didn’t help me at all: already tension filtered through my muscles, as if the taser of magic started to recharge in anticipation of needing to zap someone else. I shivered and kept my attention on the door. “I don’t know if I can…stay here. It’s… I can’t control it.”
“Yes you can,” Deirdre said. Her voice hardened. “You listen to me, witch. You are in control. Take deep breaths. Center yourself. You are safe here.”
I tried to center myself, I really did. I tried to find that connection to the earth and the universe that helped witches anchor their magic to something solid and real, but it was too far away. There was no anchor, and I was a ship adrift on a stormy sea—tossed around without any control or hope of finding a safe port.
My vision blurred and a hiccup worked its way up my throat. “You have to get out of here, Deirdre. I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
“You’ll be fine,” she said. But she, too, looked at the door.
Henry growled, low and rough in his throat, and moved toward me. I tensed, certain he was going to bite or attack, and lurched out of the way. He blinked those golden eyes at me, then stepped forward again. I moved away. The wolf adjusted where he stepped until he herded me to the large queen-sized bed in the corner. My legs bumped the edge of the mattress and I sat heavily, farther from the door and safety than when I’d started.
My thoughts scattered and swirled as power remained too close to the surface, sparking and jumping whenever I moved my hands. I couldn’t swallow with a dry mouth and the knot in my throat. Trapped. I was trapped in the corner and on a bed, just like when Rocko... I shuddered and covered my face. The only thing missing was the shackle on my leg and the chain stretching across the room.
Deirdre spoke to someone through the door; I caught a hint of Evershaw’s voice but he didn’t step into the room. Henry-the-wolf growled at him and retreated to press against my legs. I pulled them up onto the mattress, afraid of even touching the wolf in case the magic went out of control and hurt him more. I needed to get out. To find somewhere safe so I could hide and stuff those awful memories back down. I couldn’t face Henry or Deirdre or anyone, not with the pain so close to the surface.
The other witch’s eyes narrowed as she studied me and the wolf, then she nodded, as if she’d seen proof of something she’d only suspected. “You need to stay here for a while, Ophelia, and Henry is going to stay with you.”
“I’ll hurt him,” I blurted out. My hands trembled but I shoved them under my legs, just in case I accidentally zapped one of them. “I don’t want to but I can’t…I can’t control it. There’s too much magic and it’s like a storm. I can’t—”
“Breathe,” she said. Deirdre held up her hands to get my attention, though she distracted Henry and set him growling again as he jumped onto the mattress and nudged me even more into the corner. Deirdre moved