Errors and Exorcisms

ERRORS & EXORCISMS Arcane Souls World The Wrong Witch Book 3 International Bestselling Author Annie Anderson All rights reserved Copyright © 2022 Annie Anderson Print ISBN: 979-8-9861455-2-5 No part of this book may be reproduced, distributed, transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database retrieval system without the prior written permission from the author. You must not circulate this book in any format. Thank you for respecting the rights of the author. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Edited by Angela Sanders Cover Design by Tattered Quill Designs www.annieande.com For my readers. Thanks for the wild ride. The Moon will guide you through the night with her brightness, but she will always dwell in the darkness in order to be seen. SHANNON L. ALDER CONTENTS Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Bonus Scene Books by Annie Anderson Are You a Member of the Legion Yet? Acknowledgments About the Author 1 NICO—THREE YEARS AGO In-laws really were the worst. Sure, most people had clashes in personality, the odd conflict here and there, but me? I got the raw end of the deal when it came to my wife’s family. Then again, Wren could have probably said the same shit about mine—and she’d have been right, considering the throat-slitting event at our first family dinner. But at present, she wasn’t dealing with homicidal witches hell-bent on eviscerating her from the inside out, and I was, so… When I woke up this morning with Wren in my arms, I never thought my day would end like this. We were supposed to make sure she was ready to go to the ABI. We were supposed to laugh and joke and make love and go to bed and wake up tomorrow and do it all over again. I wasn’t supposed to run all over Savannah, trying not to get us both killed. I wasn’t supposed to realize we both wouldn’t make it out of here. I wasn’t supposed to tell my best friend to take her away from me. I wasn’t supposed to tell her goodbye. I wouldn’t trade it now. Because Wren was safe, and these women would never touch her again—as long as I could hold them back. Dodging the blade, I nearly ran into Wren’s cracked-out mother, who was doing her level best to electrocute me to death. All things considered, I was pegging Wren’s family as the raw end of the deal. Especially since they were the reason I was never going to see her again. “What’s the matter, Fido?” Margot simpered as she clutched a crackling ball of power in her palm. “You afraid of a little shock?” A shock? No. Getting roasted from the inside out? Absolutely. Several decades my senior, the Bannister witches could make me a stain on the floor if I gave them the chance. It wasn’t like our families had ever gotten along, but ever since Eloise Bannister found out I was married to her granddaughter, I’d known my days were numbered. I just didn’t think it would be this soon. I thought I had more time—I thought we had more time. Wren’s Aunt Judith—who could definitely pass for a ginger Bellatrix Lestrange—slashed at me with a knife that reeked of poison. The wicked blade missed my skin by millimeters, stealing all my attention as a ball of electricity slammed into my shoulder. I’d never been tased before, but if I had a guess, it felt just like this. The jolt surged through my body, frying neurons as it locked my muscles, nearly making me stumble. Judith’s blade slashed again, biting into my feeble forearm, still weak from the shock. Fuck. Acid-like poison snaked up my arm, its toxic fingers blackening the skin as I made a cut of my own. I wouldn’t let these women go after Wren. I’d made my peace with the fact that I wouldn't get forever with the woman I loved. Decided as soon as I let Wyatt take Wren out of here, that I wasn’t going to make it. So this poison being my undoing? Well, it was expected. But I’d be taking both of them with me. My claws made a home in Judith’s belly, and I ripped upward, tearing her middle wide. Shock colored her pale features that were so close to Wren’s. But Judith was sadistic and cold—her sister no better—and I wasn’t sorry she was going to die in this room right alongside me. Margot howled, firing off more orbs of magic, but I used Judith as a shield, letting her take the brunt of the hits. The scent of ozone, spent magic, and burning flesh ran rank through the room, singeing my nostrils in the process. I was lucky I was dying or else I’d never get that smell out of my nose. And I was dying. The poison had made my left arm useless, and standing was becoming a real problem. But over the scent of Judith’s burning flesh and the poison rotting me from the inside out, and over Margot screams, and the strobing lights of the magic, there was something else. Flashes hit my brain, but unlike the first time they’d knocked me for a loop, I knew exactly what they were. I was seeing through Wren’s eyes, the mate bond giving me this small glimpse of her before I wouldn’t see anything else ever again. But then the scent of mage filled my nose and the woman in my arms flickered out and disappeared. Margot faded to nothing, and the black fingers of