Queen of The Hill (Knight Games) Read Online Free PDF

sprouted from the earth and lassoed my calf.
    That was it. This bitch had to go.
    I reached for Nightshade with my one free hand. She wasn’t there. Fuck. I’d forgotten to strap on my blade after my nap. She was still in the corner of my bedroom. “You can’t have him,” I yelled. “He’s still my caretaker.”
    She ignored me. Rick’s skin bubbled as the sprites dragged him toward her. Deep grooves formed in the dirt where his heels dug in. But Tabetha’s magic was keeping him from shifting, and the sprites overpowered him by sheer numbers.
    Without really thinking about it, my fear and adrenaline took over. As it happened on the night of the solstice, when my magic saved me from Bathory’s vamps, the power came naturally, without an uttered word or any effort at all. The air sang to me, connecting to my will as if it were an extension of my body. Instinct and intuition took hold.
    Wind and ice blew up between Rick and Tabetha, a hurricane of stinging snow and dropping temperatures. The tree sprites dropped Rick and sprinted for their trees, limbs sluggish. Rick staggered back toward me. With a little effort, I directed the storm to form a barrier between the two of us and Tabetha. Snow caked the ground, burying any sign of the warmth Tabetha had brought with her. The reaching limbs of the trees lost their animated properties and recoiled, falling back asleep in the dropping temperature. I rolled my shoulders, relieved to be free of their grip, then yanked my ankle from the dying thorns.
    “Storm’s a-brewin’,” I said.
    Tabetha narrowed her eyes at me. “Perhaps, sister, but I never did mind about the weather. You underestimate me, baby witch.” She raised her wand. A blast of heat plowed into me, dissolving my storm, the snow, and the cold. I cried out as my power was forced back into my chest. Rick jumped between us again and held up his hands to her, but Tabetha was just getting started.
    A new branch of thorns wound up my leg, shredding what was left of my pants. I howled in pain as thorns wrapped around my waist, sliced through my jacket, and scored my skin. When the vine reached my neck, I tried to turn up the volume on my magic to spare my trachea. The winter storm responded but not before the vine took hold. Warm and wet flowed over my throat and down my chest. I reached up and dug my fingers in, gasping for air. The plant tightened.
    “Stop,” Rick said. His eyes locked onto Tabetha’s. I watched something pass between them and my heart broke. The look had meaning. The look had history. “Please.”
    “Do you give yourself to me?” Tabetha demanded, the power in her voice reverberating.
    I strained to tell Rick no, but I couldn’t catch my breath. My wheezing gasps had stopped, and nothing but gagging sounds came from my efforts to breathe. Black spots danced in the corners of my vision. My lungs burned. I slumped against the vines, and the thorns dug in.
    “Stay with me,” Rick said frantically, clawing at the vine around my neck. It was no use. Death was as close as a lover, and my magic was reduced to a faint and useless breeze.
    And then, a miracle.
    Thunder clapped above us—not my doing—and a sheet of lightning plowed into the ground near my feet. The vine retracted a fraction of an inch, and my lungs worked to pull in a trickle of oxygen. The earth shook violently, echoing the raging storm above and knocking Tabetha backward. Rick grabbed my shoulders to steady me, although he didn’t need to, the thorns held me up like barbed wire. With fear in his eyes, he looked at the sky above and the ground below. Rick was rattled. I’d never seen anything shake him like this.
    A booming female voice said, “You do not have permission.” I could not place the source. It seemed to come from everything, every direction.
    The thorny vine withdrew as if my blood were toxic, sinking into the ground from whence it came. I fell forward on hands and knees, wheezing as new air penetrated my