"You're bidden to come with me!"
It was Hunter's voice. I stopped silent, listening—then rushed forward and came out into a narrow, treeless strip that ran parallel with the river. Hunter was backed against the edge of the cliff, and Cat, holding my athame in front of him, was moving forward. I was lost in a swirl of fear and confusion, "Cal!" I shouted.
They both turned, their faces unreadable in the snow and darkness.
"Stay back!" Cal ordered me, flinging out his hand. To my utter shock I stopped hard, as if I'd struck a wall. He had used a spell against me.
The next instant Hunter hurled a ball of witch light, and it knocked the athame from Cal's hand. Call jaw dropped, I struggled to believe that this was real, my real life, and not just a screen full of computer-generated effects. Hunter leaped away from the edge and onto Cal, who was scrambling back toward the knife. As I tried to move forward, I felt like I was wrapped in a thick wool blanket. My legs were made of stone. The two of them rolled over in the new-fallen snow, light hair and dark flashing against the ground and the background of night
"Stop it!" I shouted as loud as I could, but they ignored me.
Cal pinned Hunter on the ground, then dosed his fat and smashed it into Hunter's face. Hunter's head whipped sideways. A bright ribbon of blood streamed from his nose. The redness on the snow reminded me of the spilled communion wine last Sunday, and I shuddered. This was wrong. This shouldn't be happening. This kind of anger, of long-held hatred, was the antithesis of magick. I had to separate them.
Gathering all my strength, I pictured myself breaking out of an eggshell and then tried to shove my way out of Cal's binding spell. This time I was able to move. A few feet away I saw the athame, and I lunged for it—at the very moment Hunter shoved Cal off him. We all stumbled to our feet at the same time, panting heavily.
"Morgan, get out of here!" Hunter yelled at me, not taking his eyes off Cal. "I'm a Seeker, and Cal has to answer to the council!"
"Don't listen to him, Morgan!" Cal retorted. I saw flecks of Hunter's blood on his fist. "He's jealous of anything I have, and he wants to hurt me. He'll hurt you, too!"
"That's a lie," Hunter spat angrily. "Cal's Woodbane, Morgan, but unlike Maeve, he hasn't renounced the dark side. Please, just get out of here!"
Cal turned to me, and his hot golden eyes caught mine. A fuzzy softness clouded my brain. I blinked. Hunter said something, but it was muffled, and time seemed to slow. What was happening to me? I watched helplessly as Hunter and Cal circled each other, their eyes burning, their faces stony and pale.
Hunter spoke again, waving his arm, and it fluttered through the air slowly. His voice was like the deep growl of an animal. They came softly together—as if their movements were choreographed—and Hunter's fist connected with Cal's stomach. Cal doubled over. I winced, but I was trapped in a nightmare, powerless to stop the fight. I crumpled to the ground, the blood on his face smearing the snow. Memories flashed through my mind as Hunter staggered to his feet and threw himself on Cal… Hunter letting me Cal was Woodbane, Hunter in the dark outside my house, Hunter being so snide and hateful.
I remembered Cal kissing me, touching me, showing me magick. Showing me how to ground myself at circles, giving me presents. I thought of Bree yelling at me in her car by the side of the road, so long ago. Sky and Hunter together. The images made me unbearably weary. All I wanted to do was lie down in the snow and fall asleep. I sank to my knees, feeling a smile form on my lips. Sleep, I thought. There must have been magick at work, but it didn't seem to matter.
In front of me Cal and Hunter rotted over and over, toward the river.
"Morgan."
My name came to me softly, on a snowflake, and I looked up. For just an instant I met Cal's eyes. They stared pleadingly at me. Then I saw that Hunter was holding Cal down, his knee on Cal's chest. He had a length of silver chain and was binding Cal's hands with It while Cal writhed in pain.
"Morgan."
I received a sharp flash of his pain. I gasped and grabbed my chest, tailing forward onto the snow. As I banked rapidly my head suddenly seemed clearer.
"He's killing me. Help me, Morgan!"
I couldn't hear the words, but I fate them inside my head, and I pushed myself to my feet with one hand.
"You're through," Hunter was gasping angrily, pulling the silver chain. "I've got you."
"Morgan!" Cal's shout ripped through the snowy night and shattered my calm I had to move, to fight. I loved Cat, had always loved him. I struggled to my feet as if I had been asleep for a long, long time. I had no plan; I was no match for Hunter, but suddenly I remembered I was still clutching the athame, my birthday athame. Without thinking, I hurled it at Hunter as hard as I could. I watched as it tailed through the air in a gleaming arc.
It struck Hunter's neck, quivering there for a second before falling. Hunter cried out and clapped his hand to the wound. Blood began to spout from the flesh, blooming red like a poppy. I couldn't believe what I had done.
In that second Cal drew up his knees and kicked Hunter as hard as he could. With a cry of surprise Hunter staggered back, off balance, still clutching his wound.. and then I was screaming, "No! No! No!" as he toppled clumsily and disappeared over the edge of the cliff.
I stared at the emptiness, dumbstruck.
"Morgan, help!" Cal cried, startling me. "Get this off! Its burning me! Get it off!"
Numb, I hurried to Cal and pulled at the silver chain looped around his wrists. I felt nothing but a mild tingle when I touched it—but I saw raw, red blistering waits on Cal's skin where it had touched him. Once It was off. f threw down the chain and scrambled to the edge of the cliff. If I saw Hunter's body at the bottom, on the rocks, I knew I would throw up, but I forced myself to look, already thinking about calling 911, about trying to climb down there, wondering if I remembered CPR from my baby-sitting course.
But I saw nothing. Nothing but a jumble of rocks and the gray, turbulent water.
Cal staggered up beside me. I met his eyes. He looked horrified, pale and hollow and weak. "Goddess, he's already gone," Cal murmured. "He must have hit the water, and the current…" He was breathing hard, his dark hair wet with snow and traces of blood.
"We have to call someone," I said softly, reaching out to touch him. "We have to tell someone about Hunter. And we have to take care of your wrists. Do you think you can get back to the house?"
Cal just shook his head. "Morgan," he said in a broken voice. "You saved me." With fingers swollen from hitting Hunter, he touched my cheek and said tenderly, "You saved me. Hunter was going to kill me, but you protected me from him, like you said you would. I love you" He kissed me, his lips cold and tasting of blood. "I love you more than I ever knew I could. Today our future truly begins."
I didn't know what to say. My thoughts had stopped swirling; they had vanished altogether. My mind was a void, I put my arm around him as he began to limp back through the woods, and I couldn't help glancing over my shoulder to the cliff's edge, ft was ail too much to take in, everything that had happened, and I concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other, feeling Cal rest some of his weight on me as we slogged through the snow.
And then I remembered: it was November 23.
I wondered what time it was—I knew it was very late. I had been born and two-seventeen in the morning on November 23. I decided I must already be officially seventeen. I swallowed. This was the first day of my seventeenth year. What would tomorrow bring.