Night Witch (Book 1) ✔️

38 - Illusions

A well ordered spike of ice erupts from his palm and attempts to skewer me. Unfortunately for me, even though I felt his power gathering I don't move fast enough and the icicle manages to slice through my jacket and leave a long gash on my left forearm. The strike of magic bound ice against my skin tells me all I need to know about his magic.

Light and Dark are opposites in many ways - one of which being their opinions on organization. Light magic is orderly - it depends on the structure of a spell to hold magic in the correct shape. The magic I felt scrape against my skin was perfectly aligned with the crystalline water it encased and therefore, though Jonas's magic appears to be Dark, he is in fact still a Light mage. He hasn't killed enough people to complete the transition.

The ice retreats to his hand, then he aims his palm at me and it starts firing finger length blades of ice. Cursing, I throw up my hands and cast a ward.

This ward is Light magic, well ordered and constructed with a spell that's been around for generations, but the strength of the spell depends on the strength of the user. My Light magic, is unfortunately weak compared to his, so I construct the barrier to shunt the ice away rather than attempting to block the full impact. His attack would punch directly through any barrier I erected.

As my adrenaline rises, a deep twisting starts in my soul but I shove the feeling away and focus on the man standing before me. He growls and a sudden barrage of blades turns the air almost completely white. I take advantage and inch sideways so I can work my way back to the shelter my car provides. A giant wall of ice flows into being between me and it, shattering my plan.

When I turn back to face him, Jonas is panting hard, one hand stretched towards me for an attack and the other at the barrier. Casting two spells at the same time is difficult, which is why people generally use invoked wards rather than casting them during battle. Invoked wards use up your power but since the spell had been completed at an earlier time, they don't take any of your concentration. I, stupidly, hadn't used an invoked ward. Instead my instinct had caused this ward to jump into being, meaning I was fighting with one hand tied.

So far, the only lucky thing to happen was that he'd decided to handicap himself in a similar way. We stand for just a moment, gridlocked. I feel his eyes flick across my ward looking for weakness - since a random attack couldn't get through, he'll want to take a targeted approach instead. If he's smart, he'll realize the ward doesn't extend behind me and try to set up a rear ambush.

I catalog all this while my eyes track him in a similar manner. He's wielding two spells right now which means he's open to attack. If I could lure him into using his ice wall to defend himself, it would block not only my attack but also his view. Then, I could move forward, quick and low, and attack around the side. Another option would be to set up a rear attack since he seemed to have eyes only for me. Only idiots forgot that just because a mage stands in front of you doesn't mean their attacks have to. My options seem to be testing myself against his recovery speed or his stupidity, neither of which is a particularly good option.

The third option is even worse. I could crush him with a little Dark magic and since we were on Grandmother's estate no one would even know. But to take that step means I have to commit to killing him because I can't just let him walk away with my identity. Suspecting something is one thing, like how Luke suspects there's something wrong with me, but knowing is completely different. Especially since I don't know if Luke told Jonas about Kit. So, if I reveal myself and get past him the easy way, I have to kill him.

I said a long time ago I didn't want to do that anymore, but the temptation rises as I realize the possibility of a drawn out battle. The claws inside my stomach start scratching again and I have to take a deep breath to push the emotions away. I ignore the urge to grab my necklace as I do so.