Read T*Witches: Split Decision for Free Online

wasspectacular. Lake Superior stretched before them, the midday sun glistening on its wind-rippled surface.
    “Thanks for coming.” Shane squeezed her hand lightly as they walked along the shore. “I’m so glad, so grateful you’re here.”
    Don’t make me regret it, the rebel brain cell piped up again. “Everyone deserves a second chance,” Cam said lightly. “Though in your case, it’s kind of a third chance.”
    “There’s no excuse for what I did,” the blond warlock said confidently, almost as if he’d rehearsed it. He brushed a hank of windblown hair off his forehead. “I gained your trust and led you to Sersee, who tried to kill you. There’s no pretty way of saying that.”
    She didn’t remind him of the time before that, when he’d used her best friend Beth to trick her. That time, he had been working for Thantos.
    “All I can do is try and get you to understand me,” he was saying. “I hope you’ll forgive me. I’m not that guy anymore. I don’t work for Thantos, and Sersee and I are over.”
    They walked; he talked. Every so often, Shane picked up a stone and hurled it into the water, breaking the sheen of its surface. Cam didn’t interrupt. Maybe if he kept going, she could bring herself to believe that, this time, he was telling the truth.
    “It was despicable, unconscionable,” Shane continued.“I was lost, morally. It’s really hard when you have all these gifts, all these powers, and no guidance about how to use them.”
    Cam knew that Shane’s parents, followers of Thantos, had kicked him out when he renounced his loyalty to the terrible tracker. She was about to ask why he hadn’t gone to Lord Karsh, or any of Coventry’s Exalted Elders, most of whom knew Thantos’s flaws. “But why —” She got that far, when he whirled suddenly, his blue cloak billowing.
    “Watch this,” he cut short her question. From the leather pouch on his belt he pulled a handful of green leaves and purple berries. Mumbling an incantation, words lost in the sea wind, he tossed the herbs into the turbulent air, which carried them to the cliff where Epona was tethered.
    Above them, the great horse shied and whinnied pitifully. And then his sweat-sheened black body began to change color. His legs turned green, his body gold, and his mane a crimson red.
    “Do you recognize him now?” Shane challenged.
    Cam didn’t. All she saw was a shivering horse beginning to froth at the mouth. “Please change him back,” she begged.
    Shane stared at her for a second, his eyes searching hers. “Can’t you do it?” he asked.
    Cam clasped her necklace. It was cold and still. No warmth trembled through it; no spell came to mind. “No,” she admitted. “Please, Shane.”
    He put his arm around her, enfolded her now-chilled body in the soothing heat of his cloak. So quickly that anyone with eyes less talented than Cam’s might have missed it, Shane reached inside his shirt and grasped a crystal horseshoe-shaped medallion that had been hidden there, secured around his neck by a leather thong. This time he made no attempt to muffle his incantation.
    “
Powers of sea, sky, and land,”
Shane called into the wind, “
release this creature at my command. Return him to black, tall and tame. Hide the bright form in which he came.”
    It was a mystifying spell. Cam had no idea what it meant, but Epona’s misery ended. The horse stood calm again, black, tall, and tame, as Shane had ordered.
    “What was that?” Cam asked, shaken but impressed. “What did you mean about the ‘form’ in which he came? Where did he come from?”
    Again, Shane’s blue eyes scoured her face. And when he was satisfied that she really didn’t know the answer, he said, “From the sea, according to legend. I mean, all the horses on the island were supposed to have come from the sea. I don’t remember the whole story. Probably swam ashore from a stranded ship or something.”
    Cam glanced again at the huge animal. He snorted and