Thirty-Three: The End

3.6K 176 20
                                    

The others come for me too. Rae may be a budding crazy, and the most powerful crazy, but at least she hasn't yet got a track record of trying to kill me. Unlike Esther and Remiko, who have both tried twice. I pick psychopaths over puppet master, and I go for the pair. I avert my eyes from Remi, flying in a zig-zag so it's hard for her to fix me in place long enough to encase me in stone. Esther's hand is flying over a white rectangle in her other hand. I realise too late what it is.

Out of nowhere, a nightmare appears. It's a flickering, green serpent made of flames, twenty feet tall, with live snakes writing around it. The huge monstrosity rears its head, preparing to strike. Where does Esther get this stuff from?

Drawn to the bigger problem, I direct my wand at Esther's monster. A bolt of black energy feeds itself into the gaping fanged mouth of the snake. A minor explosion shakes the serpent and it writhes in agony. Vinni, 1, snake, 0.

It rears its head and lunges. Shit. I fly away, keeping an eye on it. It slices through the snow, melting it with its heated presence. What Abby said about fairies only having one power—someone's clearly an early bloomer. Esther's powers are ridiculous. But that I know. What I don't know is—can her creations be killed?

Try, the dark part of me whispers. I can feel it nudging at me. Then you'll find out.

For a moment, I'm tempted. It's not as though it's a living thing. Plus, it's trying to kill me. But then I stand my own ground. I told myself I was never going to do it. I'm not going back on that promise.

But now I have four enemies to contend with, and not much place to hide, save the occasional abandoned cars, those low-hanging trees... It reminds me of the paintball range.

They can't see in the dark, can they?

I unleash a wave of fire. The snow crumbles into water and slush, and I turn invisible. I sprint for the nearest car before Rae can do her snow-trick again, and, perched behind it, I turn off the lights.

I don't know how I know how to do that. But instinct drives me, and the wand guides me, and with a few pointed jabs I shut off the streetlights, block out the sky with bloated dark clouds. It's late already, and I just throw us into utter darkness. The snake flares up spectacularly, as does fire a little way off—Rae, watching.

"Come out," Esther sings softly. A chill goes down my spine. "Come out, wherever you are."

I fly, invisible, as silently as I can. The snake gives just enough light to tell me where Remiko and Esther are standing, looking out for me. I loop around it, making sure I'm not seen. Then I reach up with tendrils and yank her aside before she can scream.

I'm the monster now in this horror movie, I know. I shove her into an open car and enclose it in a soundproof shield, an idea I've been toying with but never actually succeeded in doing—what's up with that?—until now. Pure adrenaline pushes me, it seems, and I go for Esther, who's just realised that Remiko's disappeared.

Unfortunately, right as I get to Esther, there's the faint sound of breaking glass. And then the air begins to shine. Tiny little particles—fairy dust—start glowing with the light of a thousand suns, suspended in the air. I fumble to a abrupt stop, blinded, a deer in the headlights.

The snake snaps. I roll. It grazes my shin as it steamrolls past—very, very real. But something Rae said to me comes back—another magical theory. What did she call it? The Origin Theory. Almost all genisitic magic can be reduced to one or more base forms. Like elements in a compound. The difference from science is that usually the magical compound includes the sum weaknesses of those elements.

Witch in Hiding (#1 in the Witches Trilogy) (EDITING)Where stories live. Discover now