The Rose Witch - Chandelle LaVaun Page 0,42

“Ready.”

He pressed his hands to my chest, circling his fingers around my throat. Those golden angel lines of his shot up his arms and his body began to glow. His eyes shined bright like spotlights. He took a deep breath and chanted words in a language that felt wrong to listen to.

And then the world stopped. Pain shot through every inch of my body. It pulsed and quivered. My muscles twitched and spasmed. All of them at the same time. My lungs seized up, the air cut off. And then his room tilted. I heard him calling my name but it was too far away. I was dying. Falling. This was it. This was the end. My bones rattled. My teeth chattered. The muscles in my face contracted, squeezing my eyes and making them twitch.

Spot barked and growled somewhere nearby.

Malachi’s face came into view but he was shaking – or maybe that was me. I couldn’t breathe. I was drowning on air. I tried to reach for him but I had no strength. My fingers were curled and locked up.

And then bright white light flashed around me.

“Chloe?”

I gasped and choked.

“CHLOE!”

I rolled over onto my stomach and coughed. My whole body trembled as I struggled to get air into my lungs.

“Chloe…” Malachi groaned and picked me up off the floor.

How’d I get on the floor?

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” He laid me on his bed and then darted across the room.

I reached up to my chest with a shaking hand — and found Lilith’s pendant still right where we didn’t want it. I groaned and pressed my face into the soft blanket.

“Here, drink this,” he whispered, his voice raw.

I glanced up and my heart stopped. He looked green, like he was going to vomit.

“Drink this, Chloe,” he urged and knelt down in front of me, holding a clear vial up to my face. “Trust me.”

I did, so I leaned forward and put my mouth to the opening. He tilted it back and warm, sweet liquid ran into my mouth . When it hit my throat, all the tension in my muscles vanished. I gasped. The pain was gone. The shaking was gone. I pushed myself up…and felt fine. Like nothing had happened.

I blinked and exhaled. “Holy bloody hell what was that?”

He scowled. “Holy water…from the Garden of Eden.”

“WHAT?” I jumped up and off the bed. “What’s it going to do to me?”

“It already has, Chloe.” He cupped my jaw and smiled. “I told you that book was dangerous. But I knew the holy water would heal you if we needed it.”

I sighed. “Wow. Okay. Right. Cool, so um…bollocks. Let’s go again then? It’s okay, try again. I felt like it was going to work, I can handle it. Couldn’t have hurt that much if it wasn’t going to work, right?”

Malachi shook his head. “I will not hurt you. I can’t…I can’t hurt you.” He cringed and scrubbed his face with his hands and I noticed his fingers were trembling ever so slightly.

“But we have to get it off of me,” I whispered.

“I know.” He cursed. “But I fear we need your father’s journal.”

“My father died when I was four.”

“But he left a journal with instructions.”

I frowned. “Oh, maybe in the Lancaster library?”

He narrowed his eyes on me. “The bookstore your family owns? Where I found you?”

I nodded.

“I don’t think so. I would’ve felt your father’s magic and I’ve been in there many, many times.” He rolled his neck and put his hands on his hips. Then he looked up at me and light shimmered around him. His black shirt and black boots reappeared. “But I suppose it’s a good place to start looking.”

“At the very least maybe it’ll help us think of where to look next.”

Please let it be there.

Chapter Thirteen

Chloe

This time when the darkness wrapped around me I wasn’t afraid. I just held on tight to Malachi and waited for it to end. When my feet hit solid ground and cold air slammed into my bare legs, I pulled back and found The Red Rose bookstore just behind his black smoky wings.

I glanced left and right, eyeing the pavements and neighboring flats, but there wasn’t a soul in sight. Just me, my guardian angel, and his pet hellhound. “I’m surprised you chose to risk landing right in the middle of the street.”

He shrugged and walked backwards towards the store. “It’s three in the morning. You Oxford lot aren’t night owls.”

I frowned and hurried to follow him. “What if someone saw