The Hunt of the Grimalkin (Erresuma Book 1) Dani Swanson (reading women .txt) 📖

her to the ground while the murder of ravens tripled in size, and swooped upon her body.  They attacked her burning flesh and ripped her eyes out of their sockets. The Crow Witch’s scream was so loud and high pitched that it shattered everything glass in the market place. There was another black puff of smoke and the witch transformed into a crow, and was blindly crashing into the tops of the booths, before flying off toward the dark area of the forest with the group of ravens in pursuit. Silence filled the streets of the market. The people were all peeking out of the booths in fear as they stared at the two girls. Their chests were heaving – they were bloody, bruised, and covered in soot and dirt.

“Who was that?” Thea panted out to Robin.

Robin picked up her staff and limped over to where Thea was sitting in the dirt of the street and offered her a hand up.

“That was Thalia. Lilly Quinn’s youngest cousin. I don’t know what you did to that coven, but they really want you dead.”

The girls looked over the street at the terrified faces of the people, and the amount of destruction that was left behind.

“You…. you’re a witch,” Eleonore stammered out from behind her booth with one finger pointing directly at Thea. “Stay away from me!” Eleonore screamed.

CHAPTER TWELVE

 “Here, let me help you,” Thea said as she approached one of the people who got hit by the exploding booth.

“Stay away from me! Haven’t you done enough? You witch!” Thea was taken aback by the response that she was getting from the people she was trying to help.

The group looked on with fear as the two witches walked through the market. “We’re the same people we were before.

“We did not do this!” Thea yelled at the people who were running from them.

Robin did not seem phased by the way people were reacting to them.

“See? People like you until you get labeled as a witch. When you were just Thea the healer, you were just fine to be around.” Robin was talking softly but angrily next to Thea as they walked over to the broken booth.

There were a few people trying to pick others up off the ground. Thea trotted over to them. “Please, let me heal you,” the man who had the arrow wound was amongst the group that got hit. He allowed Thea to touch him. She put her hands on the piece of wood that was sticking out of his stomach, then pulled until she fell backwards with the large splinter of wood in her hands. She then placed the palm of her hand over his wound. As she shut her eyes her hair had the static charge of the electrical current that flowed through her body and into the man.

“Would you look at that?” She heard the people watching comment as the man’s wound slowly closed up and turned into a fresh scar.

She did the same to the arrow wound on his shoulder. “Thank you, Thea.” He stated to her as he slowly rose. His rugged features soften as he looked into her eyes. Thea weakly smiled back at him, then she started to cough up the black bile that seemed to infect her whenever she healed someone. Once the people of the market saw that she was not hurting anyone, they lined up to have their shrapnel removed and their skin healed. Robin passed out small bottles of their arrowroot tonic to help with the internal pain.

The girls assisted with the cleaning up of the broken booths, and paid the rugged man to rebuild them. That’s all they could do. By the time Thea got back to her end of the market, Eleonore had packed up and left. Thea’s heart felt heavy as she realized that her friend did not want anything to do with her anymore. The girls packed up their booth and settled in for the night. Thea was finally able to tend to Robin’s ailments as well.

“Too bad you can’t heal yourself,” she said to Thea.

Thea’s body was getting stiff as she plopped down in the overstuffed chair with Fig. “That would be amazing right now,” Thea said as she rubbed lavender oil on her temple.

“Well it’s a good thing that we made so many of these,” she said as she tossed an arrowroot bottle to Thea. Thea sipped on the little bottle as she stared off down the road; watching everyone pack up to head home for the day.

“You said Thalia is part of a coven, right?” Thea asked Robin.

“That’s right. She’s related to Lilly Quinn.” Thea still haven’t lifted her gaze from the road.

“Where do they camp?” Thea continued, her expression had harden as she slowly stroked Fig’s soft fur. Robin perked up from her hammock.

“You saw how beat up we got from one witch and you want to go hunt down a coven?” Robin laughed and rolled her eyes.

“Well, they seem to be looking for me. If I know where they camp, I can either avoid it to save my life, or go hunt them all down, to save my life.” Thea stated.

Robin pointed to the south of town. “They have a town to the south called Edgehaven.”

Thea nodded as she listened. “See? Now I know and can make my own choice. Life is about choices.” Thea stated.

The girls heard the calls of the ravens as they had made it back to market. They were playing catch with Thalia’s eyeball; tossing it from post to post. “I don’t see any good that could possibly come from that.” Thea said as she started to braid her hair.

“At least you can see.” Robin said with an amused smirk as she watched the raven’s game. Thea caught a case of the giggles and