Free The Soother by Elle J Rossi Page B

of the party. She’d foregone secrecy and was now blatantly videotaping the Lammas celebration. Stars filled the black sky, twinkling overhead like the lights of an enormous disco ball. Yet another drink tray floated by, but concern over Bevva kept her from reaching for another cocktail. Come tomorrow, she’d contact the council herself to form an all-out search party. The more she thought about it, the darker the scenarios playing out in her head became. Something was up, and whatever it was wasn’t good.
    Someone slammed into her from behind, propelling her forward. Barely managing to stay upright, Calliope swiveled on her heel to investigate. Tia lay at her feet, unmoving. The wind chime maker wasn’t much of a drinker, but festivals had a way of making even the most innocent dabble in the forbidden. One look at this footage and Tia would be shoving free chimes at her for the next year. After capturing her blackmail shot and then pocketing the camera, Calliope bent to help her friend.
    “Hey, girl.” she said, laughing. “You okay down there?”
    Tia moaned, the sound weak and guttural, and turned over with a flop. Calliope’s lips parted on a gasp. A broken arrow was lodged in Tia’s shoulder, blood seeping steadily from the wound. Calliope whipped her head to the left, then the right, scanning the crowd but seeing nothing out of sort.
    “Shhh,” she crooned in Tia’s ear, and smoothed the hair away from her sweaty face. “I’ll help you.” A barrage of questions flooded Calliope’s mind. Nothing like this had ever happened within the boundaries of the village. Violence simply did not exist amongst the peaceful coven. Any squabbles were handled between the conflicting parties. Those that couldn’t be quickly resolved were presented to the council. Calliope couldn’t remember the last time the council had had to be called upon.
    Soothing cerulean energy transferred from Calliope to her injured friend, the magick like a calm sea gently licking at the shore. Tia quieted and Calliope went on full alert a moment before everything twisted into madness.
    A mental war cry sounded, warning Calliope that a storm like no other was brewing on the horizon. She looked up just as a weapon-wielding gang broached the top of the outer hills surrounding the village. Her ominous feelings from before gave way to a real-life nightmare. Shifters transforming from men to beasts, demons with scaly skin, spiked tails and twisting horns, fae, hovering inches off the ground, swords in hand, marched toward the center of town. She screamed for help, yelled to alert the others, but the deafening music drowned out her voice. Only Tia heard, who nodded, silent tears sliding down her alabaster cheeks.
    Calliope studied the arrow, trying to get a feel for just how deep it was embedded into Tia’s shoulder. The way the skin bulged around the entrance made her think it hadn’t gone too far. At least she hoped it hadn’t. She wrapped her hand around the shaft of the arrow as close to Tia’s skin as she could get. Placing her other palm directly beside it, and with her heart pounding, she pushed hard with one hand while pulling straight up with the other. The arrowhead quickly dislodged, ripping pink, blood-tinged muscle and skin on its way out. While pressing on the wound to staunch the blood flow, Calliope called for her healing magick to extract any toxin coating the tip. Black poison leached from between her fingers, spilling onto the street and mixing with Tia’s blood to create a muddy mess. Tia stared up at her, never vocalizing her pain.
    Another witch fell, landing at Tia’s feet. Fear clogged Calliope’s throat, searing, choking, even as she reached to soothe the fallen. The witch’s face was hidden by a mass of gray hair, but Calliope recognized the tattoo of the elder witch. Sarah the Seer had matching eyes permanently inked into each of her hands. If only she’d been able to see this, but her gift of sight had begun to