Wanda Embermoor's Arc

Chapter 9 of 10

The ash of the burst eye still drifted in the lounge when Wanda made her choice. She had a face now, the pale man in white and gold. But a face could not stop him from striking her friends first. He knew she had seen him. He would move fast. Wanda needed to find where he gathered before he scattered her allies. "He drinks somewhere," she said. "Men like that always have a table." Elizabeth wiped frost from her hands. The ice witch had bought Wanda time at the forge and never once left her side, though fire and ice should cancel each other cold. "I know a bar that welcomes every world," Elizabeth said. "If a cold man wants to be seen, he goes where all eyes pass through." They found the place by its glow. Rune-carved wood ran the length of the bar. Tall pillars stood around it, each carved with the crests of a hundred worlds. Behind the counter, a starry worm shook a drink with its tail. It wore glasses and a brown wig, playing at being somebody's auntie. Its star eyes swung toward them. "Two thirsty witches," the bartender said. "I bargain for anything but coin." Wanda leaned close. "A man in white and gold. Silver braids. Gold dagger. Where does he sit?" The worm tilted its wig. "A face for a favor. You owe me one, later. Yes?" "Done," Wanda said. It pointed its tail toward a far table. A mermaid lounged there, purple scales glinting, a cosmic centerpiece towering beside her. She sipped a red drink and watched them come. "You're the fire witch," the mermaid said. "The whole bar felt your crown walk in." Wanda's stomach turned. If the mermaid felt it, so had others. "The man in white," Wanda said. "You know him." "He sat there an hour past." The mermaid nodded at the empty chair. "Calm as ice. He asked after a candy witch and a lounge of dancing bones. Then he left." Elizabeth went still. "Leslie," she said. "Skeeter. He's hunting them now." Wanda's fire flared up her charred arms. She had come to find the hunter and instead learned she was already too late. He had a head start toward the two who had sheltered her. "He's ahead of us," she said. "Then we cut the distance," the mermaid said. She touched Wanda's wrist. Cold star magic poured in, the same gift that once carried Aldric through the woods faster than any horse. "Run. You'll move like light." Wanda felt her legs fill with speed. She turned to Elizabeth. "We warn them first. We fight him second." They ran from the bar into the dark, faster than either had ever moved. Wanda had wanted to hunt her enemy. Now she was racing him to her own friends, and he had left first.