LAMIAE

CHAPTER SIXTY ONE: OPPONENT

Getting up very slowly and freeing her painful leg, Dagmara saw Sandra in the distance. Yes, it had to be her. Same black hair, same proud attitude. But she didn't catch the girl's eye. She was preoccupied with her opponent. She was fighting someone. Unfortunately, this person was really good, when she attacked, he immediately counterattacked and then released the barrier or shield on himself. They didn't need wands, and they didn't even seem to move their mouths, and yet she heard strange words floating over the rocks. Something like Latin, a language completely unknown to her...

And then he saw Dagmara, the man must have noticed her presence out of the corner of his eye, because a moment later something flew towards her. The girl had plenty of time to escape, she was far away from the attacker. She dodged, and a spark of crimson light splattered across the stones, leaving only a wet stain in its wake. She regretted at that moment that she didn't know how to do magic yet and that she couldn't help either Sandra or the poor new witch in the clearing.

Sandra sent a blue ball, which he deflected without any problems. And she sent another one right after it, which her rival didn't expect. It fell on him from above, wrapping around him as if he were standing in front of a waterfall, unable to escape. He didn't move, which made him look as if he had been forced into an artificial hibernation process.

"Where have you been?" Sandra shouted at her. "The boys are looking for you."

Dagmara slowly approached Sandra, being careful not to fall again. She didn't have much of an explanation, so she preferred to remain silent.

"I didn't know what was going on here," she muttered, looking uncertainly at the man standing as if behind a transparent screen with shoes attached to the rocks.

"Relax, his power doesn't work now," Sandra told her.

"Is this what a meeting in a clearing always looks like?" Dagmara asked. No one warned her that going to the party could be dangerous.

Sandra didn't even respond, considering her words a nonsense provocation.

"How long has this been going on?" Dagmara started in a different way.

Sandra nodded her head affirmatively, sighing loudly:

"If you saw anything, it was the end, the worst happened at the beginning. They murdered witches at random... And they were so confused that they didn't even defend themselves, they dropped like flies one by one..."

"WHAT?" she couldn't believe it. She didn't see any bodies in the clearing, maybe that's why she didn't believe Sandra's words. Or maybe she just couldn't see them because of the thick dust? Could the Council even commit mass murder? "Where are Arleta, Casper and Laura?" she asked instinctively. She wasn't afraid of Nikolai and Alan. Somehow she knew they were safe, because their own people wouldn't attack them.

She immediately knew from Sandra's face that something had happened. Death flashed before her eyes, covering the silhouettes of her friends with a black veil.

The girl sighed sadly:

"Arleta was hit by some spell, she hemorrhaged, but she's alive. Something happened to Laura too, but it was only a superficial wound," Dagmara felt sick. While she was discussing in the forest, her best friend in Kielce got hurt.

"Will she get through this?" she asked hysterically.

"Alan took her straight to your grandmother, so I'm sure she'll be fine," she said it as if she wanted to convince not only Dagmara, but also herself. There was a deafening silence for a few minutes, interrupted only by the sounds coming from the forest around them.

"They attacked us unexpectedly," she finally said, explaining the situation. "It was their style, we laughed, joked and danced. Until one fell to the ground. The others thought she was fooling around, but she just lay there and didn't move. And a witch approached her, but she didn't even have time to warn us because bullets were already flying from everywhere."

"I thought the Council had some rules," said Dagmara, and Sandra hurried to explain.

"The Council has," she nodded at her lack of ignorance. "Did you see any old people? There are too many elderly people on the Council, they wouldn't want it. It is the young who are hungry for power. It's true that the Council pulled the string because they had to give them permission today. If they hadn't done that, they," she waved her hand at the man, "wouldn't have been able to spoil the fun. Most of them are men who have killed their destined ones, they have nothing left to lose in life but to kill other's," her words were spoken with contempt. It was obvious how much "respect" she had for such people. "I have to somehow let Nikolai and Casper know that you're here," she said finally, at the end.

She felt fear again. Casper was at odds with the Council, and the thought that they could get him while he was looking for her made her worry more about him.

"Shall I look for them?"

"Are you kidding?" replied Sandra. "You'll get lost again. No, go to Casper's car. Do you know where it is?"

She nodded. She knew because all she had to do was go straight down.

"Okay, I'll meet you there, it'll be safe there."

Once Sandra was out of sight, she didn't delay either. As she walked down the not-so-steep trail, she kept thinking about him. He planned it cleverly. He knew what the Assembly was going to do, so fearing something might happen to them, he took her to the forest. There was a reason he led her to the gorge; no spells could threaten them there, because they were sitting in a deep valley - a hole dug about three meters deep. Dagmara couldn't hear anything either, because the noise in the clearing was muted.

He didn't tell her what was going to happen in the clearing, that was what she resented him the most, but if he did, she certainly wouldn't have stayed with him, but had gone to warn her friends. He must have seen it coming, which means he must have known her or at least observed her. He knew her name and he knew they were connected. She wondered if she had ever felt anything strange. Has she ever felt pain even though her health was impeccable? She had no memory of such an event, so it must have only affected him. He was the one who was split and he could only stop it on her birthday by killing her. After all, his last words weren't "I will take care of you forever," but rather that if he hurt her, he would hurt himself. He didn't give her his word that he would never try to break the bond between them.

It was getting colder, even though the moon was slowly giving way to daylight. She didn't know whether to feel disappointed about tonight or to be happy that it had turned out the way it did, that she had the opportunity to get to know him and learn the important fact that they were part of this small group that was connected to each other. Thanks to the mention of Paul and the girl he poisoned, she learned that she was a powerful witch, although she didn't feel it at the moment. And she probably should have. She was turning sixteen any day now, and since she was talented, her power was bound to come out eventually.

Today was the first time she had seen magic in all its glory. She saw how women and men used it and what opportunities it gave them. However, the truth was that she didn't want this power to test it, to thumb her nose at the teachers or to play a prank on them. She was supposed to use the power for a more ambitious plan - to start training. She had to be prepared whatever would happen on the day she came of age. She had to stay ahead of the facts and have an answer to every scenario, to every move of her opponent.

She recognized Casper's steel car immediately, even from a distance of several hundred meters. At first she thought that the owner himself was leaning on it - the silhouette matched his outline, but as soon as she got closer, she noticed how wrong she was.