Read Online Crimson Wind by Diana Pharaoh Francis - Free Book Online Page B

shape-shifting creatures.”
    Her tone was devoid of any emotion, but Alexander could see her sinking inside herself. The ability to do that—to separate her feelings from her mind and body—made her terribly strong, but it also terrified him, because it always meant she was about to take on serious trouble, maybe more than she could handle. He corrected himself: probably more than she could handle.
    “Your contacts told you that? So fast?” Giselle stared in surprise.
    Max shook her head. “Scooter showed me.”
    “Right. Scooter,” Giselle said, and her mouth pulled down. “What did you see?”
    “Smoke. Shape-shifters. My whole family is at the orchard. They’re trapped. Maybe dead by now.” Her phone chirped. She pulled it out of her pocket. “It’s a text. From Jim. He watches the place for me.” She flipped open her phone and read it. Her expression did not change. “Nothing new. He’s going to try to circle around to the lakeside and go down to the house.”
    “Will he make it?” Giselle asked.
    Max shrugged. “He’s a hex witch—circle level.”
    Giselle eyed her, clearly wondering where Max had met Jim and how many other powerful friends she was keeping secret. “You’ll have to go. Tonight.”
    Max stared down at her phone for a long moment. She went rigid, and her mouth was rimmed white. The tendons in her neck corded. Her breathing quickened, and her body shook, her burned hands clenching on the table. Finally, she shook her head. “Can’t.” She slumped against the table, panting raggedly. “Fucking compulsion spells aren’t going to let me leave you. ’Specially not when you’re in this shape.” She waved her fingers at Giselle.
    “Yes, you can. I promised you that you could get them, and that’s what you’re going to do.”
    “Yeah? Going to take these damned spells off me?”
    “You know better. But I’ve got the angels and Oz and your Blades and the Spears. They’ll be enough.”
    “Not enough to talk down these damned compulsion spells. I won’t survive ten miles.”
    “But all the same, you will go, and you will survive.”
    “Oh, yeah? Who’s going to knock your ass out of the fire when your magic gets the best of you? Not that we don’t all want the chance to smack you around, but I’m the only one who can cross a circle and live.”
    “You almost sound like you care what happens to me.”
    “I do. If something happens to you, then Horngate implodes, which means people I care about will die.”
    “I’m touched.”
    “And apparently the potency of the compulsion spells increase exponentially once you decide your witch-bitch master shouldn’t die screaming after all. At least, not yet.”
    “Aw. That’s so sweet. Almost like a Hallmark card. But let me make it real simple for you. If you don’t go, then I will. I’ll sneak off without anyone to guard me. So you can decide. You go tonight, or I do.”
    Niko’s chair scraped back suddenly, and he lunged to his feet. Tyler stood on the other side of Giselle, his jaw jutting as he spun his knife in his fingers. At Giselle’s threat, their Blades had risen back to a killing edge. Their compulsion spells would not like the threat of their witch leaving the safety of the covenstead, especially in her weakened condition.
    Neither Giselle nor Max paid any attention to them. The witch’s gaze was fixed on Max, who leaned over the table, her hands braced flat as she glared down at Giselle.
    “Why? It makes no sense. With all the Guardian attacks, it isn’t exactly safe out there, and you have told me time and again how much you need me.” She slowly sat back down, her fingers drumming on the table. “Of course, if I stay here, then I go to Scooter. You have me on borrowed time either way.”
    “I promised you that you could bring your family back here to safety,” Giselle said.
    “You don’t give a shit about promises. You’re all about the bottom line, and going after my family doesn’t add anything