RISING SHADOWS (Shadows Book 2)

Chapter 10

"Shit," Arden swore.

"Shit indeed," I said, surprised he'd mustered the courage to lift his head during flight.

Great plumes of smoke rose high into the air. One sprung near the school, another near the park and several in the residential areas. The smoke billowed and churned, like a living thing, twisting and turning in the wind. Pockets of screams and shouts lapped the town on a continuous wave.

I forced the nausea rising to my throat back down, and almost subconsciously, tucked my pentagram necklace into my shirt. The ice-coldness of the stone burned against my hot skin and once again I wished Rafe was here.

"Where should we land?"

"The centre seems to have been hit worse," said Arden, attempting to point, his movement causing the broom to rock. He grappled for my shirt, clinging tighter. "You can douse the flames with your water element. Our aim is to minimise the damage until the rest of the coven arrive."

"Minimise damage," I echoed. "Okay. We can do that."

My stomach dipped in time with the nose of the broom. Down near the ground, the smoke was thick and suffocating, a heavy blanket of impending doom cloaking the town. The tarmac was hot and unstable beneath our feet, as if it was a scorching hot day in the middle of summer. I could feel the intense heat of the flames on my skin, like a thousand needles piercing my flesh. The sound of the raging fire was deafening, a constant roar that drowned out everything else.

As soon as we dismounted, Arden doubled over, coughing and spluttering. I folded my arm across my nose and mouth breathing into the fabric of my coat instead. Righting himself, Arden followed, giving me a nod.

Discarding my broom by the wayside, I dug down deep into my core. Both cores. My water element rose within me. Simultaneously, I brought flames to the forefront too, allowing it to heat the water before I released a surge of steam into the air. The smoke particles displaced and patches of clearer air broke through.

I gave it more and more, forcing sunlight and clean air to break down the smoke. The latest patch dissipated revealing a bulky stony face. Its pale blue eyes flashed, then narrowed dangerously.

I gasped, staggering backwards.

"Oh shit," swore Arden, stepping back with me. "That's a Krynn demon."

The ground rumbled and cracked with each pounding step.

"And what is a Krynn demon again?" I racked my brain trying to remember if it made an appearance in the book Rafe gave me.

Arden coughed. "Well, as you can see, ugly as Chaos. Something of a brute and not as dumb as stereotypes would have you believe."

"Good to know."

I summoned my powers once more, building a wall of steam around us. I made it so dense that we couldn't see the creature, but we heard its heavy breathing as it circled us. Holding my palm over the pentagram at my throat, I prayed to the Goddess that there was only one of these things. I tried to not worry if we had any witnesses. Today, exposure would have to take second place to protecting the people.

"I'm sure you said we're only here to minimise damage."

"We are," Arden gulped. "It's just now we're minimising damage to ourselves."

The beast lunged forward, its claws slashing through the steam. Arden swept a hand over the earth and thick green vines broke through the tarmac surface blocking its advances. A loud snarl erupted from its mouth, drool dripping and pooling on the floor. Several swipes and the beast had cut Arden's vines into ribbons.

I called forth a curling wave and sent it crashing into the creature knocking it back several feet. Arden took advantage of the situation and used his powers to form a huge boulder. Lifting it in the air with his magic, Arden dropped his hand and brought the rock mass down hard on the creature.

Pinned beneath the boulder, the beast roared in anger, thrashing its limbs with the little bit of energy it had left.

"Finish it, Riley."

Sparks engulfed my hand and I let them fly. The demon set alight, burning until it was nothing but charred remains.

"I hope there's no more of those," I panted, finishing the job I'd started in clearing the smoke.

"With the state of this place I think we can safely say there's more and not just Krynn demons either. They don't have fire magic so something else is razing the town to the ground."

I ran a hand down my face, exhausted already and we'd barely made it five square metres when there was a whole town to secure. I felt an energy begin to pulse in the air. It was thick and tasted like electricity. It drew my attention upwards towards the still gloomy pallor of the sky.

Dark specks emerged through the smoky veil. They could have been spots of dirt on a camera lens, except these grew larger. Within seconds, my coven touched ground and dismounted. With a quick hand-on-heart gesture, the coven gathered waiting for my orders. Their eyes were alight with determination. They didn't discard their brooms as Arden and I had, correctly assuming they may still need them to reach areas of the town in record time.

"Okay. We need to split up and cover more ground. If we can split into groups making sure there's at least one elemental witch in each. Water witches, dampen the flames and make sure there are no hotspots left. Earth witches, repair any damage that has been done. Fire and air witches, secure the people. Everyone needs to be alert. Arden and I have just killed a Krynn demon, as you can see," I gestured to the boulder-crushed beast. "There will be more, and others. We still don't know what caused all this fire damage."

A low hum of noise trickled through the coven as they turned to each other trying to organise themselves. In the end, it was Mrs Horton with her shrill voice of authority who sorted them into groups and sent them on their way. Perhaps she should have been High Witch after all.

"I would not deign to tell you which group you should join, High Witch."

"Thank you, Mrs Horton."

One by one, the groups took off. Some on foot, some taking to the air on brooms. Fawn transformed into her lion body, accompanying her team on all fours. Mrs Swann gave her an approving nod as they left in the direction of the church.

I prayed to the Goddess they would be okay.

Arden trailed behind his departing team looking over his shoulder. Are you going to be okay? He mouthed.

I nodded in reply and watched him disappear with the last of my coven while I was left alone in a town of demons and flames.