Supernatural (Tom Holland x Reader)

18. Duel

"You're early," Tom said through gritted teeth. I couldn't tell if he was clenching his jaw out of anger or sheer terror. I hurriedly ushered the boys up the stairs. Apathy was floating five feet above the ground in front of the large double doors, blocking the only exit besides the one into the manor at the top of the sweeping staircase. Harry, Sam, and Paddy clustered together in the doorway behind the balcony at the top, watching anxiously. I tried to motion for them to make a run for it, but they were frozen with fear.

"I have appointments to keep," Apathy sneered. Her golden eyes flashed menacingly at Tom. He advanced on her.

"Why don't you go rot in Hell!?"

"Aw, thank you, dear," the witch cooed, as if she took the threat as quite a compliment. She descended to the cracked stone floor once again and became a young, venomously beautiful ginger in a sparkling red skin-tight dress.

"I mean it, you rat. You took everything from me. You broke my family. You even tried to kill Y/N," Tom spat at her. Suddenly, Apathy noticed my presence. Her easy smirk faded suddenly.

"You," she hissed. I gulped, but hesitantly took a step forward.

"M-me," I wavered.

"How are you here? YOU SHOULD BE DEAD!" Her voice echoed in the entrance hall, causing the windows, the vases, and the glass on the photo frames to shatter all at once.

"Well, I'm not!" It was a terribly stupid and not at all suave thing to say, but, quivering with fear, it was the only thing I could think of. To my surprise, a look of sheer worry crossed her face.

"It can't be," she whispered to herself.

"It can't be what?" Tom snapped. "She's still alive you bitch!"

"It's you?" Apathy's voice quivered for a moment, but she quickly replaced her moment of fear with a surge of anger. With a flick of her wrist, she bound Tom's arms behind his back and forced him to his knees on the cracked flagstone floor, wrapped in blue-glowing chains.

"No!" I exclaimed. The chains began to tighten around Tom and he cried out in agony. I willed myself to use my powers and Apathy went skidding across the floor, the soles of her stilettos creating a deafening shriek. The chains stopped moving, but Apathy picked herself back up off the floor and wiped some hair out of her eyes.

"It is you! I should have realized..." Apathy scrambled backwards to gather herself, attempting to hide any flicker of nervousness that may have managed its way outward.

"W-what?" I asked, looking from Tom, still chained to the floor, to the other witch before me. Then it hit me. "A wicked king will lose his crown to she whose family ere renowned," I muttered to myself. The prophecy was about me. "But...but I don't have a magic lineage."

"Oh, girl, but you do! You're a Y/L/N...one of the most powerful sorcering families in history. I knew you were one of them. I had to kill you. It was the only way I could keep my secret safe and my plot assured."

"So you snuck into my room to kill me," I breathed bewilderedly. Everything was coming together. That's why Apathy was so afraid of me.

"Exactly. Obviously, I failed, but that's a small matter. I may have created you, girl, but I can kill you now. Just like I'll kill them." Apathy shot a blast of sparks toward the railing of the landing where the boys were huddled together, sending it crashing to the ground, a cloud of dust eminating from the wreckage.

"Don't touch my boys," I snarled, a fresh wave of anger surging through me. I pushed off the ground and hovered a few feet in the air, facing Apathy. Then, I sent a blast of transparent energy straight into her chest. She flew bacwards into an entry table, knocking the ancient china vase atop it to the floor. The witch grunted, then soared towards me, grabbing me by the throat and tossing me onto the bottom of the right side of the stairs. A surge of pain rippled through my ribs.

"Y/N!" Tom cried helplessly. He struggled against his restraints as I picked myself back up. Apathy sent a volley of red fire towards me, but I sheilded myself. We took the duel to the air, hovering a hundred feet above the floor. I seized her with my mind and threw her into the vaulted ceiling, sending a chunk of stone crumbling down to the floor.

By now, Lord and Lady Holland along with many servants had gathered at the top of the stairs, watching petrified and bewildered as the scene unfolded before them. Somehow, the chains with which Apathy had bound Tom had made him visible to the public. I could hear the gasping and the whispering as they pointed at him with wide eyes.

"You were telling the truth," Nicola said weakly. Paddy nodded fervently.

"Come quickly, children," Dominic urged them as he ushered his family down the stairs and towards the door. Apathy, however, sent a blast of green light towards them in the center of the entrance hall. The family dodged it just in time.

"DAD! NO! STAY TOWARDS THE WALLS!" Tom shouted. Lord and Lady Holland blinked at their lost son in shock as he lay chained to the floor. "PLEASE!" They seemed to have enough of their sense about them to follow his directions.

Angrily, I cast a bolt of white lightning towards Apathy. "Leave them alone." It hit her in the shoulder and she cried out. She clenched one freshly-manicured fist, sending me careening into one of the beams and I felt my collar bone snap. "AAGH!"

"You, beastie, are a fly. Loud, annoying, and terribly. easy. to squash." With each pause, she sent sparks and flames my way. Each of them hit me. Pain radiated through every nerve in my body, but I had to stop her. I just had to. I gathered myself enough to send a blast of energy her way, but my vision had gone blurry and I missed by a mile, sending an indoor buttress crumbling to the floor. Screams echoed from everywhere below us. Apathy hit me in the chest with a bolt of yellow lightning and as I fell to the ground, everything going black, I heard Tom screaming for me.