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.This time, the vines reached for him, as if they intended to surround him the same way they had with Wynn.They would find the Guardian not so easy to ensnare.Summoning his spear to him with a thought, Spar brought the wickedly sharp head down and around like a scythe.The honed edge sliced though the creeping vines, but unlike live, growing plants, these screamed audibly in pain before they withered back into the dirt.He felt a brief surge of triumph until a new wave of tendrils pushed up, even more than before.They moved faster this time, twining around his limbs almost as quickly as he could cut them back.He was managing to keep himself free, but Wynn still lay in the grip of the spell.Risking a glance in her direction, he could see the vines growing up and over her body, encasing her in a greenish-black cocoon of Dark energy.He swore and swung his spear faster.* * *Oh.Hell.No.Fear had gripped Fil when she’d seen the Darkness grab hold of Wynn, but when those nasty, cancerous excuses for Audrey Two the carnivorous plant began attacking Spar, she’d had enough.Fil might not be a Guardian, and she might not be a witch, but she also wasn’t a coward, and she wasn’t about to sit back and watch while her new friend and her lover were devoured by the Darkness.Not on your life.She glanced around for something to use as a tool, wondering where a nice sturdy flamethrower was when you needed one.Or maybe she was just looking for inspiration; Fil couldn’t be entirely sure.Either way, the first thing her gaze landed on was Wynn’s fallen bag, lying in the leaves at the edge of the clearing.Witch or not, there had to be something inside Fil could use.As far as she could tell from watching Wynn, the witch carried everything she owned in there, possibly including her kitchen sink.It wouldn’t surprise Fil at all to learn the thing had a spell on it like Hermione’s purse in the last couple of Harry Potter movies.She contemplated dumping everything out and sorting through it on the forest floor, but she didn’t want to take the chance that it contained anything Wynn would absolutely refuse to leave behind.If they could get free but had to make a mad dash to safety, she didn’t want to have to stop and repack everything.Instead, she took a deep breath, offered up an even briefer prayer, and stuck her unmarked right hand into the sack.No reason to take chances, right?Her fingers closed over something fat and cylindrical.At first Fil thought she’d grabbed a candle and started to drop it right back inside, but something stopped her, some niggling in the back of her throat.Biting her lip, she pulled the item out of the bag and looked at it.In her hand she held a jar about seven inches high and three inches in diameter, made of clear glass and stoppered with a thick cork.Inside, she could see a dark, crystalline powder, and in the faint darkness she could just make out a white sticker bearing the neatly printed words DRIVE AWAY SALT.Shit.At this point anything was worth a try.Clutching the jar, she jumped to her feet and strode toward the center of the clearing.The green-black vine things had nearly engulfed Wynn’s body by now, but Spar seemed to be doing a decent job mowing them back from himself with his flashing spear.Either way, she could see that all of the tendrils came from roughly the same area, the three-foot patch of ground around the base of the fallen tree.Spar had explained to her how Wynn had chanted incantations over her sleeping form while trying to sever the bond with the demonic energy in her hand, but Fil was personally fresh out of chants.She didn’t know any incantations or any spells, and all her life she’d sucked at rhyming poetry.No, she would just have to take care of this in her own fashion.A quick twist popped the cork from the jar.Tilting it to bring the salt to the opening, Fil reached in and grabbed a hefty pinch between her thumb and first two fingers.Her arm came back like a pitcher on the mound and she bared her teeth at the twining mass of Dark power.“Let go of my friends and go back where you came from, you nasty-assed piece of shit!” she roared, and she flung the salt hard at the base of the Darkness.The night filled with shrill, throbbing screams as the mass seemed to draw back on itself, like a living creature touched by flame.Several loops of vine fell off Wynn’s still form, loosening their hold on the witch.Excitement rushed into Fil’s chest, and she hurried to pour a handful of salt into her palm [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]