The Mysterious Door

Chapter 23

I roll out of the way of a boulder flying my way and teleport away from another.

"You're doing great, Jake," Kyle says, "I'm glad to see your powers are doing okay."

I wipe the sweat from my forehead, "Me too," I laugh, "But you're not giving me much time to think about it today." I teleport behind him and go in for the kill with the sword they gave me. The blade connects with his torso, but ricochets in the opposite direction.

He knocks on his stomach, making a hard, clunky sound, "Stone skin spell. One of my better protection spells."

"I never thought it could be this difficult," I say, feeling inferior, "In the training room I only had to fight other teleporters like me. Our powers are nothing compared to yours."

"Our powers are pretty great," Ella says from the sideline, "But we are the strongest witches of our generation."

"And," Aimee adds, squeezing Ella's hand, "We've had a lot of practice. We've been training to fight our entire life and you've only been doing this for a few weeks. Give it time, your powers will grow as you do."

"I hope so," I say as I teleport out of the way of Kyle's latest spell, "I'm starting to worry that I won't be able to measure up to the expectations of the battle laying ahead."

"You'll be fine," Kyle says, "The Instructor might have a great many powerful allies on her side, but so do we. It's not going to be easy, but we'll be sure to give it one hell of a fight."

I start running to build up momentum and a few feet away I jump and teleport while I'm in the air. Kyle hesitates, taking a step back as I appear behind him. The force I built up drives my blade forward and it's finally enough to break through his protection and pierce straight through him.

"Great job," Liam says, walking over as I remove the blade, "With thinking like that you'll be just fine."

"Yeah," Kyle agrees, getting up, "If you can take one of us down, you'll have no problems facing Daniel."

"I've faced him before and won," I say, "But this time is different. The Instructor is messing with his mind. Nothing he's doing is actually his fault."

"The Instructor messed with all of us," Ella snaps, "He made a choice to let her into his head and now he's got to deal with the consequences."

"I understand that, but the two of us are the last of our teleporter group. There must be some way that I con convince him to see the light."

"I'm sorry to tell you this, Jake," Aimee says, "But guys like Daniel can't be reasoned with. You'll just be wasting your time and giving him more opportunity to get an advantage over you."

"I have to agree with them," Kyle says, "This battle is riding on the outcome of your fight against Daniel. If you allow him to get into your head, the world as we know it is at stake."

I feel my stomach twist at the thought. Everyone will be counting on me and I don't even know if I'll be able to do it.

"So," I say at the dinner table, "Do each of you only use one kind of elemental magic?"

"Not all the time," Liam says, "But we do specialize. Each of our families have an affinity for a certain element, making the spells that incorporate them much stronger."

"Yeah," Aimee says, "For generations our families have been part of the strongest coven in the world, capable of invoking some of the most powerful elemental energies."

"So kind of like Zack?"

Kyle laughs, "No, Zack is an elemental, meaning he can control the elements he has access to directly. Witches have access to a set of spells and rituals that only incorporates the elements at time. Like my stone skin spell didn't bend the earth, but it did incorporate earth in my spells."