"Well done!" Bodicea called, but the spectral queen never let her attention be diverted from the Faerie women. Only a fool would do so. Their cunning was legendary.
"You shall pay for your impertinence, young sorceress," the Faerie Princess said evenly, her eyes gleaming with burning hatred, her voice cold as ice.
Tamara had no time to think. She felt six pair of eyes fix on her and as one, each of the Faerie women lifted their hands and with a single flourish, a flick of their wrists, Tamara was thrown back against the enchanted tree, bark scraping her through the fabric of her dress. She felt their fury lancing into her flesh, skewering her mind.
"Stop..." she whimpered, the pain almost unbearable.
"Use magick, girl!" Bodicea yelled. "Defend yourself!"
Yet Tamara saw that the ghost, too, seemed trapped in the Faeries' terrible, magical grip. There would be no help from that quarter, and something had happened to William, to the tree... there was no trace of
