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Scarlett took a step back, fear burning in his eyes as hail the size of golf balls began to fall on his head. Scar’s fingers glowed against the skin of his arm where it held her throat, a sign she was still drawing on her beloved fire element. But he didn’t pull away from her fiery touch, which really pissed me off. My wolf made a sound like a whine from behind me, but I couldn’t lose my focus. My sister was in danger, and I had to protect her.  
    Feet planted, hands out, I looked the scarred man right in the eye and smiled. Then I puckered my lips and blew.
    A mass of air exploded between us, screaming in a banshee wail as the moisture from my breath expanded and formed a large wave. The man’s face paled, his eyes nearly bugging out of his head as a wall of water built between us. Ten feet tall and six feet across, it was a physical force one could feel and see as it glittered in the firelight. I directed the wall toward the man with my fingertips, forcing him backward another step or two before he started growling.
    “Your little magic tricks don’t scare me, witch.” He glared, still a tad pale. But the fear on his face was quickly morphing into fury. When I took another step toward him, he tightened his hold on Scarlett. Sparks flew from her fingers, but her eyes were bulging and she obviously couldn’t breathe. There’d be no way to magick her way out of his grasp if she panicked, and that was exactly what it looked like she was doing.  
    I scowled, hoping to hide the growing sense of panic that I wouldn’t be able to help my sister, before raising my right hand, making the wave grow from ten feet to fifteen on one side. The man watched warily as I bent the top of the wall over his head. When I had him covered, his face began to transform, small black dots of what looked like fur pushing through the skin. It was disconcerting at best and terrifying at worst, but I couldn’t show fear. The bastard had his forearm pressed against Scarlett’s throat as if to suffocate her. There was no time for fear.
    “Let her go, you freak. You don’t want to cross us.” I did my best to portray the calm and collected witch, but inside I was scrambling.
    He tightened his hold on Scarlett with a wicked grin. Her eyes bulged as she gripped his arm, obviously having trouble breathing under the pressure. A deep growl came from behind me, from the wolf I saw as mine, but I had to ignore him. I’d been trained since birth to do no harm, and yet this man before me, this animal, had my sister in a choke hold. While the coven would be forced to punish me should I cross the line from defensive spellcasting to offensive, I had to consider that this man could be a witch hunter and therefore a serious danger to me and my sister. I was running out of time.
    “Let her go!” I flung my arms to the side and called the power of the waves to protect my sister. With little effort, I directed the flow of water in an arc so debris from the forest floor caught in the churning, gravity-defying wave. Sticks and leaves floated between us, whipping this way and that in the wall of water. “Let my sister go, or by the Goddess, I will drown you where you stand.”
    The man growled louder. “You’ll have to go through her to get to me. Seems counterproductive if you’re trying to protect the fire-bitch.”
    Before I could answer, my wolf stalked in front of me, head lowered and lips curled back in a snarl. The man holding Scarlett looked surprised for a second before his eyes went to something over my shoulder. Without warning, thick arms wrapped around my neck and waist, yanking me off my feet. The wall I’d been controlling released with a boom, thundering through the air as water and forest debris fell to the ground, creating a muddy, mucky mess. I tried to fight off the person behind me, even managed a small scream, but they were too strong and too fast. My wolf, responding to my cut-off scream, spun. He released a snarl that sent a