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and better clothes. No, most likely it was an amateur coven. Women from the poor side deluding themselves with visions of power and a better life.
“What’s the name of the coven?”
“The Sisters of the Crow.”
Definitely an amateur coven. No legitimate witch would name a coven something so generic. Mythology was full of crows. With magic, you made sure to cross all your t’s and dot your i’s. The more specific, the better.
“They met here,” Julie volunteered.
“Right here?” I fed a little more power to the sword. It didn’t bulge.
“Yeah.”
“Did you ask the other witches about where your mom might have gone?”
“Gee, I’d love to, except none of them came back.”
I paused. “None?”
“Nope.”
That wasn’t good. Entire covens didn’t just disappear into thin air.
“I’m going to break this ward. If something ugly comes out of there, run. Don’t talk to it, don’t look at it.
Just run. You got me?”
“Sure.” Julie’s tone plainly pointed out that she’d have to be crazy to listen to some idiot woman who doesn’t even have a gun.
I dug my feet into the ground and pushed, putting all of my weight behind the hilt. The blade quivered under the strain. It was like trying to push a baseball into a wall of dense rubber, but giving the saber more power would leave me too drained to defend myself against a magic attack.
Sweat broke on my forehead. Oh, screw it.
I shot my power through the blade. With a sweet whisper, Slayer cleaved through the invisible barrier.
Steel struck stone with a loud clang and the white rock slid an inch out of its place.
A shudder ran through the circle. The stones blinked into reality and I scrambled to my feet. Brilliant light rippled through the air above the broken ring, a silvery aurora borealis gone mad as the forces held captive in the ward flailed, unleashed. The glow flared and streamed to the ground in a torrent of pure white. The ward burst. The magic aftershock pulsed through the building and caught me in a dizzying whirlpool. My teeth chattered, my knees shook, and I clutched at Slayer’s hilt, trying to keep the saber from slipping from my trembling fingers. Julie cried out.
So much power…