Witch with a challenge w.., p.1
Witch With A Challenge (Witch Warrior Book 7), page 1
WITCH WITH A CHALLENGE
WITCH WARRIOR™ BOOK 7
TR CAMERON
MARTHA CARR
MICHAEL ANDERLE
This book is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.
Copyright © 2022 LMBPN Publishing
Cover by Fantasy Book Design
Cover copyright © LMBPN Publishing
A Michael Anderle Production
LMBPN Publishing supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact support@lmbpn.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
LMBPN Publishing
PMB 196, 2540 South Maryland Pkwy
Las Vegas, NV 89109
Version 1.00, November 2022
ebook ISBN: 979-8-88541-201-8
Print ISBN: 979-8-88878-005-3
The Oriceran Universe (and what happens within / characters / situations / worlds) are Copyright (c) 2017-22 by Martha Carr and LMBPN Publishing.
DEDICATION
For those who seek wonder around every corner and in each turning page. Thank you choosing to share the adventure with me. And, as always, for Dylan and Laurel, my reasons for existing.
— TR Cameron
THE WITCH WITH A CHALLENGE TEAM
Thanks to our JIT Readers:
Wendy L Bonell
Jeff Goode
Dave Hicks
Jan Hunnicutt
Diane L. Smith
Christopher Gilliard
Larry Omans
Dorothy Lloyd
If we’ve missed anyone, please let us know!
Editor
SkyFyre Editing Team
CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Author Notes - TR Cameron
Author Notes - Martha Carr
Other series in the Oriceran Universe:
Connect with The Authors
Books By Michael Anderle
CHAPTER ONE
Cait shielded her eyes from the sun, which was bright in the cloudless baby-blue sky. The streets of Westport were less busy than usual, although tourists craned their necks like excited birds to peer at everything, and commerce was still going on. It was not that prosperous a town at the best of times, and these were not the best.
A frown turned down the corners of her mouth as she thought about the shifters and their ridiculous request that the residents of Westport and her coven abandon the places they’d occupied for generations.
Aisling, her younger sister, bumped into her from her right. Cait avoided careening into Aza, her dragon partner on her left, but had to take a quick stutter-step to catch her balance. She snapped, “Hey, jerk.”
Aisling laughed. “Someone needed to stop you from frowning like that. It’s a beautiful day. Try to act less like yourself.” She looked fresh and unworried, with her straight, shoulder-length hair—red, of course—pulled back in a ponytail. Her t-shirt read Trinity College, which was her alma mater.
“You suck, you know that?”
Aza commented, That doesn’t make her wrong, though. Her mental response to him was the same as the insult she’d offered her sister. He snorted. Whoa, name-calling. Mature.
Brianna, whose wide smile always made her look ready to play a trick on someone, walked beside Aisling and swung her shillelagh like a baton, putting it through a series of playful moves. Her curly red hair bounced as she moved. “You need a bonk on the noggin to reset your attitude, Cait? I would be so happy to provide it. If not me, I’m sure Delsanra would oblige.”
The coven’s combat expert walked at her older sister’s side. He shook his head, but a small smile revealed his amusement. Cait replied, “All of you can quit worrying about me. You’ve got your challenges, mainly mental. I’m sad for you.”
Aza quipped, Must run in the family.
Shut it.
Cait had worn jeans, hiking boots, and a heavy t-shirt since they’d chosen to walk through the woods to Westport. Both communities were on guard, and they’d hoped to find a trace of the shifters along the way. They hadn’t expected to, and unfortunately, that had turned out to be the case. Surveying the surrounding people, Aisling said, “At least the shifters haven’t scared everyone away.”
Brianna replied, “They have discouraged a few. Doors that might’ve been left open before are closed now.”
Delsanra nodded. He was dressed in a black long-sleeved shirt with rolled cuffs, heavy black cloth trousers, and slim black boots. Unlike most people in the coven, his skin was tanned year-round. The way he moved, even to nod, made her think of the smooth flow of water. “It’s bordering on a siege mentality. I fear if we don’t find a way to break the status quo before too much more time passes, people’s worry about the shifters will make them move away.”
Aisling asked, “Could that be their endgame?”
“Anything’s possible. It is less aggressive than I would expect from wolves. They tend to be direct, like the attack on the coven.”
Cait tapped her shillelagh on the ground as she walked. The all-purpose walking stick-slash-weapon was the perfect choice for an outing like this one when she wanted to be ready for danger but didn’t anticipate it. Her backpack held a sweater and her sheathed magical dagger Eclipse. It wouldn’t have appreciated being left behind, though getting to it in an emergency would be a problem.
Not that there was likely to be an emergency. It was another casual shopping day in Westport. As if to reject Cait's thought, her companions flowed toward the town’s edge, hearing distant screams. Delsanra moved first, and the others were a moment behind. When they reached the spot where the town and the forest met, they saw a woman kneeling on the ground and a man standing over her, gesturing. Delsanra pushed through the people who had gathered and ordered, “Stop. Start again. What happened?”
The man, a villager she recognized, nodded and swallowed hard. His voice was hoarse from screaming as he replied, “We were attacked in the woods. We hadn’t gone far. It was part of our patrol pattern.”
Delsanra demanded, “By who?”
“Wolves.”
“How many?”
The man winced and put a hand to his head. A cut above his left eyebrow was bleeding. “As many as our patrol, or maybe more. I don’t know. Shara ran, and I followed. I figured no one should be alone.”
Delsanra gripped the man’s shoulder. “You did well. Both of you.” He raised his voice. “Get these people to a doctor. Lock yourselves inside until we give you the all-clear.” The crowd left. He turned to Cait and her sisters. “All right, we’re going after them. We can’t ignore that this could be an attempt to lure us into an ambush. I’ll go first. You three watch the sides and the back. Aza, go high and small. You’re our wildcard.”
The dragon nodded, leapt into the air, and flapped toward the forest. He shrank with each beat of his wings. Cait thought about going for Eclipse, but the others were already running. She coated herself in a force shield, pumped extra power into her muscles, and enhanced her mundane and magical senses with a series of quick spells. She used intent and small gestures to activate her bracelet wands.
Tapping into her magic reminded her how much her power had increased since she retrieved the second wand. It also reminded her she needed to continue training with Sashura to improve the pool. There’s never time. She laughed at herself. She knew what her magic teacher would say to that. “Then you need to make time.”
She focused as her group entered the woods at a run, then slowed. She followed Delsanra without worrying about their direction. He was as skilled a tracker as the rest of them put together. She kept watch on the right, and Aisling did the same to the left. As usual, Brianna guarded their backs. Cait sensed Aza’s location as he flew above the treetops and felt his joy at flying.
Their connection deepened with each day that passed. Cait worried that, eventually, she wouldn’t be able to conceal her thoughts from him. His mind met hers, and her perceptions broadened as the dragon used their connection to search for trouble.
What a weird life I lead.
She noted bloodstains on the path and realized that the woman must have been bleeding more heavily than she’d noticed to have left this much behind. They followed the trail into a clearing that showed signs of the shifters’ attack. Three torn bodies lay on the ground. Delsanra rushed to one, and Cait and Aisling to the others. Brianna moved to the center of the area and readied herself in case danger appeared. Aisling shook her head as Cait knelt to check the pulse of the man at her feet. It was absent, which wasn’t surprising given the bite marks on his neck. She sighed. “This one’s gone.”
Delsanra replied, “This one, too.” He rose with a curse. “This is bold for them. It doesn’t fit their pattern.”
Brianna growled, “New pattern?”
“Or new wolves.”
Aisling asked, “Like, more than one pack?”
He nodded. “Maybe. Perhaps that’s the reason behind all this. One pack is pushing into the territory of another, so that one is trying to push into ours. I don’t know. I’m not an expert on this type of thing.”
Cait told Aza, Remind me when we get back to Boston that we need to find a magic library.
He replied with a touch of humor, What am I, your secretary? She didn’t get a chance to reply because he snarled, Enemies around us, moving in.
She relayed his words to the others. They had enough time to brace for battle before wolves cascaded into the clearing.
CHAPTER TWO
Delsanra had drawn the two daggers sheathed in his sleeves at Cait's warning. The magical weapons were always hidden on his body, a benefit of their power. As he pulled them free, he willed them to grow larger. When the first wolf was near enough to engage, the blades were as long as his forearms. He calculated the numbers as he moved. Four wolves raced toward them in his field of view, which encompassed a third of the clearing. So, twelve, if they attack at an equal distance, possibly less. Unlikely there will be many more. Call it a maximum of sixteen.
While his brain made its calculations, his body flowed through an attack routine he had drilled thousands of times, fighting wild creatures of every variety that existed in his mind. A pair of shifters angled to take him on. They were accustomed to hunting together, judging by their choice of attacks. One leapt into the air, and its paws reached for his chest as its teeth targeted his throat. Simultaneously, the other went low and circled to the side, aiming to nip at his tendons. That wolf tried to backpedal to escape the one about to crash into him.
Delsanra didn’t oblige them. He twirled to the side, away from both attackers. The other pair that had entered the clearing near him had gone in a different direction, so moving toward them wouldn’t create an immediate threat. As he moved, Delsanra slashed both blades horizontally and extended them. He whipped the first around, knowing he was still in the range of the leaping wolf. The blade sliced along its side and face. Its snarl turned into a yelp as it careened past.
His other dagger cut air but forced the second wolf to break off its attack. Delsanra came out of the spin with a grim smile. The wolf that was still standing had blood on his muzzle from the earlier fight. He twitched a blade. “You’re tough against innocents. Come on, coward, let’s see what you’ve got.”
The wolf charged.
Aisling retreated the instant she’d seen the wolves, an instinctive reaction to gain the seconds needed to summon two long curved swords of force. She usually carried straight blades, but she’d been practicing with this kind lately. Apparently, her subconscious had decided it was time to employ them when she’d bound her intent to her power to generate the weapons.
She wished she could edge them with lightning to create phased magic like her sister, but Sashura hadn’t seen fit to teach her that yet. She layered on an additional force shield around herself and extended her blades toward her foes. The wolves slowed, then separated to flank her.
Aisling shook her head at the strategy and vanished the sword in her right hand. She blasted the wolf on that side with lightning, interrupting its attack, and swiped defensively at the other. That forced it to flinch back from its attempt to bite her leg as she kept the spell crackling on the first wolf. It collapsed, unconscious or dead. She didn’t know and didn’t care. It’s out of the fight.
She turned to face the other and tried the lightning on him, but he circled behind her in a blur. Again, she swung the blade to discourage his attack, and again he flinched. He moved too quickly for her magic to catch up to him. So be it. Her second sword materialized again. A strange, dull thud echoed through the cleaning as she smacked them together instead of the ringing chime she was familiar with, but it narrowed her focus. She stalked toward the other wolf with deadly intent.
At Cait's shout, Brianna stomped toward the forest's edge and the newly appeared enemies. She’d covered herself in force magic, and better, she’d used the new magic conductive metal cover on her shillelagh to reinforce it. After a few attempts at channeling spells through it, she’d concluded it took too much concentration compared to casting a spell through the bracelet she wore on her left hand. It would serve as a last resort, but not much more.
The first one to hurtle out of the forest near her leapt at her face. She whipped the shillelagh into the bottom of its jaw. The impact killed the creature’s momentum and shattered the bone. She knocked it away with a buckler of force on her other hand.
Brianna twisted and crouched, using the buckler to redirect the other wolf over her head as it jumped, but her club missed as she spun. She cursed and kept turning toward it until a heavy weight struck her back and knocked her down. The attacker hadn’t penetrated her shields, but its momentum put her on her side.
She’d extended the buckler to the size of her body and held it around her as she caught her breath and judged the situation. She released the shield, dropped her shillelagh, punched the wolf square in the nose, and blasted it with force magic from her left hand to send it back toward the edge of the forest. One out, one maybe down.
Brianna rose to her feet using magically augmented muscles and faced the third wolf that had chosen her as his prey. He was bigger than the others, and a scar ran across his face. She nodded. “You’ve been in a scrap or two, huh? Well, me too. Bring it on, furball.” Without waiting for a response, she charged and whipped her shillelagh in a circle to build up momentum and make her next blow the one that ended the confrontation.
Aza let the first few seconds of the battle pass without reacting to ensure the others wouldn’t need him. Everyone held their own, so he dove at the nearest wolf, coming in from its back and increasing in size as he flew. When he reached it, he swooped down, dug his claws deep into the wolf’s back behind its neck, lifted it off its feet, and hurled it into the forest with a powerful flap. It smacked into a tree and didn’t move again, so it was out of the fight.
He landed, growing taller and broader. Two wolves paired up to face him, and he waited patiently as they slipped forward. Then, with a burst of fire he controlled carefully to prevent setting the woods aflame, he breathed on the nearer of the two. It yelped and rolled to the side to avoid the stream, leaving the one who had started an attack without support.
Aza let it rush forward and snapped his head to the side at the last minute so its claws raked his neck instead of his eyes. They met his scales and scraped along them but failed to penetrate. He laughed and, knowing the wolf wouldn’t hear him, still told it, Your little claws don’t work. Let me show you real ones.
