Witch, Missing (#3 in the Witches Trilogy) -ON HIATUS-

Chapter One: Someone To Save You

//won't let you go this way now//

Vera

The gorgons’ realm is situated on the top of a gorgeous rock cliff.

If it hadn’t been so terrifying, I would have been fairly impressed by the scenery. Using the scene Avelyn had visualised in her head, we had materialised near the edge of a rock precipice, against which waves pound and a mist of spray filters through the hot sun. 

Avelyn lands perfectly; I stumble a little and am a foot’s length away from stepping right off the edge. “Close one.” Remarks Kieran, who hadn’t been close enough to the edge to risk falling.

“I can fly.” I brush it off, but I'm still unnerved. “Why here, of all places?”

“It’s thousands of layers of stone… granite and-oh.” Avelyn realises I'd been asking why she had picked this spot to appear in, and not why the gorgon kingdom was located here. “It’s a good vantage point, close enough to the execution site but not too close that anyone will see us appear.”

“The-um-execution site, it’s not within the boundaries of the realm?”

“No. Gorgons are fairly open about who they execute.” Avelyn’s face hardens for a moment. “Grabbing her while she’s in the middle of a hundred gorgons would be suicide.” She cautions. “Gorgon executions consist of encasing the person in stone and dropping them off a cliff; either they drown or the impact kills them. If we can get to her, though, I can break through the rock shell.”

“I can get her when she hits the water.” Kieran muses.

“Assuming the impact doesn’t kill her.” Points out Avelyn bluntly.

Kieran and I exchange glances. “An illusion?” Kieran suggests. “I could project one. Ver, how’s your in-air teleportation coming along?”

I scrunch up my nose, gauging my own progress at the trick I'd been practicing. “I think I can do it.”

“Our timing will have to be perfect.” Kieran says. “Can you teleport three?”

I pause. “I think so.”

Avelyn’s brows shoot up. “You can?”

I shrug modestly. “I think so.” I repeat.

Kieran nods, satisfied. “Let’s go, then. Avelyn, can you stay here?”

Avelyn looks reluctant to be told what to do by a thirteen year old; nonetheless, she agrees. I turn herself invisible and take up a position near the cliff edge, where I can see the site clearly. Kieran is nearby, formulating his illusion.

Avelyn predicted the party would come within minutes, and she's right. Feeling a sense of horror at their cold efficiency, I watch as a mass of gorgons snake down to the cliff-side. Pun intended. Avelyn’s jaw tightens as she watches Anna, bound, blindfolded, but still standing as confidently and as proudly as ever. She can’t see Anna’s face clearly, but she must be able to picture her expression.

I see everything as though it's in front of me, with a little help from fairy blood ten months ago. Anna smiles in the face of death. And damn it, her hair is perfect in the face of death.

I'm fidgety, though, mostly because I haven't quite perfected this move yet, and now Anna’s life depends on it.

A girl steps up to Anna. Remiko. Vinni had never liked her. The gorgon princess looks only too happy to encase her stepsister in stone.

Even set in stone, Anna is pretty. Her facial features, an ethnic cocktail with Chinese blood triumphing, are clearly defined. They lift her, and then she's over the cliff.