The Witch Stone - Emily Oakes Page 0,35

all but jumped into Brenna’s arms.

Maggie was shaking so badly she was making Brenna shake too. “It’s okay, it can’t get inside. Maggie, do you remember how to make a protection charm?”

The wolf again attacked the window with its paws, clawing at it violently. Maggie let out a cry, shaking her head.

“What about a spell? A protection one.” Brenna rushed over to the box full of items Maggie had packed and handed it to her. “I know it has an amethyst and banishing oil, what else, Maggie?”

“Uh, you have to sprinkle the amethyst with protection oil,” Maggie stammered.

Brenna rummaged through the box for the items. She didn’t know if the spell would work, but she had to try something. Besides, it was a good distraction for Maggie. “Did you pack any protection oil?”

“Yes, it’s in a blue bottle with white writing.” Maggie’s voice was stronger.

The wolf growled and stared Brenna in the eye as its huge paws morphed into long blades before her eyes. Maggie walked backward until her back hit the wall. That was no ordinary wolf. What did she expect in this place? With her mind racing and her heart nearly busting out of her chest, Brenna dumped the contents of the box onto the floor, scrabbling around for the right ingredients. She found the bottle of oil and took a few attempts to unscrew the lid with her shaking hands.

The growling wolf stood eyed them viciously with soulless eyes. It’s horrible clawed arms grew longer. Soon there would be nowhere to evade its reach.

Although Brenna’s fingers felt like they were made out of butter, she managed to anoint some banishing oil and henbane onto the amethyst, and tie string around the small amethyst. She took an uncertain step toward the window, holding the charged stone out in front of her. The thing’s bladed hand was mere inches in front of her eyes.

The wolf stared right at her with hunger in its eyes. Its gaze drifted to the pouch hanging from her neck. Blue light shot out of the pouch and illuminated Brenna’s face. The wolf snarled and snapped, dripping drool from its huge jaws. Brenna let out a sigh as the thing backed down from the window and disappeared into the darkness of the trees.

Maggie took a step forward. “Has it gone?” Her voice was shrill.

Brenna rushed over to her. “Yes. It’s safe now.” Well, she didn’t know for sure it was safe, but Maggie needed to calm down.

She smoothed a hand over Maggie’s hair. Maggie’s fast breathing slowly returned to normal. “Brenna, I didn’t mean to freeze up like that…”

“Mags, it’s fine. I know you’re scared of dogs.”

“Especially ones with glowing red eyes and ones that have hands that transform into barbed fence poles!” Maggie exclaimed.

“I’ve got a feeling that wolf was also the floating entity that told me to leave when I was here yesterday.”

“A shapeshifter?”

“I think it’s more than that. It’s an evil, evil spirit with a large chip on its shoulder. It obviously used to be somebody who hated witches. That ‘wolf’ is the one who has been tormenting the souls of the slain witches.” Brenna seemed to be talking for somebody else. The words poured from her.

“Even in death the torture of all those women hasn’t ended,” Maggie said.

“It’s gotten much worse,” Brenna added, staring out the window.

“We should get out of here before that thing comes back,” Maggie said.

“Yeah, feels like we didn’t get anything done, though.”

“Yes, we did. We found the Ritual to set the souls free. I can hear them crying in these woods.”

“I can, too. But I have a feeling the shapeshifter isn’t going to let us perform that spell so easily.”

“We’re going to have to find a way to deal with him. But first, we need to find the ingredients on that list. That spell was written so long ago it could be hard to find some of those things.” Maggie packed up the spirit board as she talked, placing it back into her striped carry bag.

“You’re right. Let’s go.”

Brenna headed for the door and opened it for Maggie. Maggie led the way out of the cottage as Brenna locked the door behind them. Leaving the moderate safety of the cottage made Brenna’s senses spin into overdrive as they crossed over into the thick of the woods. Every sound made her jump. Her head constantly moved from tree to tree making sure the coast was clear. Beside her, Maggie also jumped at every sound.

They tried to navigate