Chapter ONE - Weebly

Through a haze of agony, Ethan drew upon the
leaves overhead to cast a warding spell. He might as
well have tried to block a cannonball with a sheet of
parchment. Still, Ethan refused to surrender. He tried to
attack Darrow with fire, with scalding, with another
shatter spell, and with the blindness casting he had used
two nights before. He felt the conjurings tremble in the
ground beneath him, and he knew that the spells had
worked. But he could do nothing to breach the man’s
wardings. Darrow was too strong. Even Pell and the
sheriff and the men they had brought wouldn’t be able
to help. All of them would die. Already Ethan felt his life
ebbing away. His heart was being seared; he could
barely draw breath. He couldn’t fight it. He wasn’t even
sure anymore that he wanted to.
And yet, in the next instant, the pain ceased. Ethan
took a deep breath—he could breathe without feeling
that his lungs were on fire. A warm breeze touched his
face. He wanted to savor the sensation. He wanted to
rest.
He forced his eyes open. Darrow loomed over him,
but he was staring over his shoulder at Mackintosh. The