Read Online Defying Fate by S. M. Reine - Free Book Online

with a grimace.
    The hole in the fence spared him from the problem of getting outside the base, but it also meant he didn’t have transport. Getting away on foot would be difficult. Especially since Gary Zettel was probably realizing that he was missing an aspis right at that moment.
    A helicopter circled overhead, its spotlight focused on the forest. Now that the explosions of magic had silenced, he could hear rotors, distant shouts, the quiet chatter in his stolen earpiece.
    James stood over St. Vil, whose left knee had a strange twist to it. Broken, most likely. It didn’t support his weight when he tried to get up to attack.
    “What do you do for the Union when you’re not shooting out windows in Fallon?” James asked. “Can you work all of the equipment in one of those SUVs?”
    “You think I’m a moron? Of course I can! I’m a pilot. I can drive anything they’ve got.”
    “Good,” James said, pulling St. Vil’s arm over his shoulder. “You’re coming with me.”
    He struggled to escape. “Not a fucking chance!”
    “You can come with me, or you can explain to Zettel what happened to his aspis. Your choice.”
    The kopis stared at Allyson. He actually looked scared now. James had been worrying that the man wasn’t smart enough to get scared.
    “They’ll kill me,” St. Vil said.
    “I can do that, too. And yes, that is a threat.”
    James started walking without releasing St. Vil’s arm. The kopis didn’t respond. He also didn’t try to fight back.
    They stepped through the hole in the fence and plunged into the dark forest.

VII
    The trees parted, and a meadow emerged from the forest like something out of a nightmare.
    Hannah Pritchard had spent the last twenty years of her life finding reasons not to step into that clearing, which the White Ash Coven used for initiations. But it was the only way to find Pamela’s house—all other routes were bewitched.
    And now she was standing on the brink of the meadow, trying to convince herself to keep walking.
    The sunlight didn’t seem as clear in this part of the forest, as though it shined through a gray filter. The blossoms were washed out and limp. It had been raining, but there was no mud within the circular trench bordering the meadow; the circle of power dried the rain immediately. It left the meadow trapped in perpetual summer, on the verge of catching fire.
    It hadn’t always been that way. The high priestess used to be careful about regulating the containment spells. But it had been a long time since the coven had a high priestess, and even longer since the coven had cared about the earth it scorched in pursuit of victory.
    “Don’t worry,” she told Nathaniel when he approached. “There’s nothing to be afraid of.”
    His brown eyes flashed with anger as he walked down the trail. “I’m not afraid.”
    Maybe that was the truth. If so, then it could only be because Nathaniel was still too young, too naïve, to know that he should be afraid.
    She swallowed down her anxiety and gripped her cell phone tighter. “Don’t worry,” Hannah whispered, bracing herself.
    She stepped over the line of the circle…and felt nothing.
    Nathaniel tromped through the grass without any hint of hesitancy. Silent disdain filled his eyes. “Most of the circle’s protections have been disabled. I could tell as soon as we got out of the car.”
    Hannah quickened her pace to catch up with him. Dried grass crunched under their feet.
    “Disabled?”
    “Someone’s tampered with it,” Nathaniel said matter-of-factly.
    “How do you know?”
    The condescending curve to Nathaniel’s mouth was identical to his father’s. “I just do.”
    Hannah led him to a fallen log that marked the hidden path. “I hate showing up without warning someone,” she said, checking the cell phone again. No missed calls. James had said that he would get in touch with his parents and call her back days ago.
    “You can’t warn an empty house.”
    “But someone should be