Her heels did not slip on the perfectly clear walkway she managed with her magick. Tall hedges grew on either side of her yard, concealing what she did from non-magickal eyes. Snow removal was easy for her, being comprised of water. She heated it up until it melted, or simply moved it to either side of the walkway.

She reached the alley and her car. The green sedan with the two witches was parked a little further down. She waved at them as usual, but they didn't wave back. Annie frowned, lowering her hand and sensing something amiss. She narrowed her eyes—she had a bit of astigmatism—to get a better view.

The witches were slumped over in their seats. They looked incapacitated at the least, dead at worst.

That couldn't bode well.

Footsteps sounded on the cleared walkway behind her. Two men.

Adrenaline surging through her, Annie pulled a strand of magick as she turned to confront the two Duskoff warlocks behind her. One was earth, the other fire.

She gave them no time to react. She drenched them in water and cooled it so fast neither of them could retaliate. They both froze in place.

Then she whirled around, expecting more to be behind her. It was a common tactic. The first were just cannon fodder. When the Duskoff wanted to take a powerful witch, they overwhelmed her, confused her.

Two more came from around the corner of the garage, a water witch and an earth witch, both pulling magick so fast she feared she couldn't stop them. With honed reflexes, she pulled strands and dowsed them, freezing them solid.

Breathing hard, she turned a circle, waiting for the rest. No more warlocks met her view ... but no way had she finished this battle.

A man in a long black trench coat stepped from the alley.

Like some gunfighter on the streets of Deadwood, Annie pulled her magick and directed it at the man, but he moved his hand, and her water flared in a sudden flash of fire and evaporated. She tried again and again as the man neared her.

He was a master of his element. She'd never felt a more powerful fire witch in her life. Annie cast about in her mind for alternatives, ways to defeat this one. Some water witches could manipulate the water in a person's very body, but she didn't possess that ability. Out of options, Annie backed away from him, into one of the men she'd frozen.

As he grew near, she could see his face more clearly. He was ruggedly handsome, with thick, curly blond hair and gray eyes. Stefan. The whole witch community knew who he was. Stefan was almost as well-known as his bastard father.

He threw his arms wide as if greeting an old friend and smiled. "Annie, so good to meet you." Flames sparked in both palms.

He embraced her.

Annie screamed.

TWENTY-ONE

TWENTY