Life's A Witch

Chapter Fifteen

By the time I reached the center of the fight, I'd already lost track of Asher, and to be honest, I was too distracted by everything that was going on to worry about him. I had more important things to be concerned about.

Like the fact that at the moment Jasmine was being cornered by two people. The woman to her left appeared to be in her twenties, had wild red hair, and wore loose-fitting black harem pants and a dusty white V-neck tee. She squinted at Jasmine like she was concentrating, but there was a huge grin on her face.

The man creeping up on Jasmine's other side was older—at least forty—with a salt-and-pepper mustache and hair to match. He wore a long cape-like jacket that fluttered behind him as he moved.

I was still at least twenty feet away when they attacked. Only, instead of touching her, they seemed to be hurling insults at her. No, not insults.

Magic.

Light burst through the air as spells were sent Jasmine's way and she tried her best to avoid letting them hit her. But that she couldn't dodge it all, and I watched in horror as she was thrown backward with such force that when she hit the wall behind her, it knocked her out. She landed in a heap on the ground, not even flinching as she slammed into the hard surface.

"Jasmine!" I screamed, even though I knew she couldn't hear me. The other strangers gathered in the area heard me cry out, and began to cast in my direction as well. Magic was being sent every which way around the dead end and things were already on fire from where certain spells had landed. Although most shoppers had fled the scene once the fight had broken out, I could still see a few left in stores, checking out the action from the windows.

After a brief glance around, I could see that there were about three attackers for each one of us and we were already losing. Everyone was under fire.

Including me now. I felt an invisible force zip past me, narrowly missing my head, and without thinking about the consequences, I began to run.

I had no idea whether or not Jasmine was still alive, but I headed straight for her. The man and woman were still standing over her, casting spells while she was down. No way was I letting them continue to hurt her. My eyes darted around until they landed on a few mannequins that were on display outside a nearby store. With a flick of my hand, I pointed at the plastic bodies and then over at our enemies.

"Shifagin momentus!" I yelled with as much force as I could muster. The life-size dolls flew from their spots and crossed the space, hitting Jazzy's assailants and knocking them back onto the ground. When they didn't get up, I thanked the universe for helping me hit my targets and rushed over to Jasmine.

Crouching down, I touched my fingers to her neck, trying desperately to find a pulse. I didn't really know what I was doing, but I'd always seen people do it on television, so I figured there had to be something there. Finally I found the point I was looking for and let out a breath when I felt her pulse beating strongly.

"Help, Hadley!"

My head jerked in the direction of the scream and what I saw made my stomach drop. Jinx and Sascha were standing back-to-back, fighting off their own group of attackers. They'd been backed into a corner, and now it looked like their assailants were about to take them down too. The girls held their arms outstretched as if they were trying to fend off the others' next moves. Dark, burned spots decorated their clothes where spells had hit them. I was surprised the two were still standing, although by the looks of Sascha, it was just barely.

I didn't want to leave Jasmine on the ground by herself, but I knew that if I didn't get over to Sascha and Jinx, they'd be in just as bad of shape. Or worse.