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  We came out into the living room, where Joan Flowers stood at the far end, as though she’d been waiting for us. She smirked devilishly, her daughters on either side mimicking her expression. In her hands; Link, gray and still.

  “I’m going to tell you once,” I yelled, stopping beside Jason. I didn’t dare approach, should she throw Link to the ground, smashing him like an plate. “Dispel my friend and turn yourself in.”

  Dalton entered behind me, and then came to stand at my side. Jason snarled on my left, his aura fierce and intimidating around his huge, muscled body. If either side had the best chance of winning this war, I would have thought it would be us.

  If only that explained why I was shaking.

  “You don’t really think I would do that, do you?” Joan cocked her head back, letting a long, evil cackle into the air. When her chin came down and her gaze settled on me, something dark appeared behind her expression. Just for a moment, in the dim light of the room, I could have sworn I’d seen a haggard old face reveal itself.

  “There is little choice,” Dalton weighed in. “Return the faery and your punishment will not be so severe. Act against us now, and you will face the death penalty.”

  Joan looked across the room at us, her death glare landing on each of us in turn. She still smiled, even as she saw Jason scraping the floorboards impatiently with his claws, like a bull ready to charge. Seemingly unaffected by the small army in her home, she bent down and whispered to her daughters, who giggled and nodded childishly.

  “Last chance,” I said, growing tense. I could feel my muscles tighten.

  Finally, Joan straightened up, looking me dead in the eye.

  “You want him?” she said.

  I could sense it now; the heat of battle hung in the tense air, and I could feel its cruel burn.

  “Go get him!”

  Joan’s arm flung backward and she hurled Link across the room. My heart skipped a beat as my hands jolted out, instincts taking control of my body. A cool, tingling sensation slithered up my arms, building up pressure before shooting from my palms with unrelenting force. As Link fell closer to the ground, my aero powers circled around the base of the statuette, forming a miniature cyclone that engulfed him. He spun uncontrollably, and with great focus, I lowered him safely to the ground.

  Utterly distracted, I didn’t see the table coming my way.

  It screeched along the floor, driven toward us at frightening speed. My eyes shot to the witches, where the smallest girl had her arms outstretched, controlling the table with magic of her own.

  It soared at us, but then Jason, with all his might, lunged forward and smashed through the table. Shards of wood sprayed around us, and I turned to protect my eyes.

  Beside me, Dalton rubbed his hands together, a bright blue spark of thunder growing between them. His shoulders came back and then he aimed his hands outward, targeting the witches and sending the electric stream directly at them.

  The other daughter countered, green rays of her own zapping out from her fingertips. The two rays met in the middle, forcing each other into a hot, fizzing standstill. All fighters were engaged now, save for Joan. I acted on her fast, running at her with powerful gusts of wind growing inside my arms.

  But she was protected.

  While the room flashed blue and green, the witch who’d moved the table turned to a wall-rack of antique daggers and knives. In a flurry of glinting steel, they whistled through the air at me. I spread my fingers and let the magic take care of them, while Jason rushed past me, snarling as he tackled the young girl with brute force.

  I stopped in my tracks, sweat trickling down my temple as I panted, staring down Joan as she stared back, unafraid and showing no signs of retreat. I was two seconds from action, ready to take her body with my magic and sling her across the room, but before I could do so, her own arms came out and an army of snakes shot from her baggy sleeves.

  Frozen in fear, time seemed to slow down as I watched one of the snakes gliding toward me, its mouth wide open and its two razor-sharp fangs out and dripping with venom, ready to pierce my skin and poison me. I covered my face – an awful form of defense that I hadn’t quite planned – when a blinding blue spark shot past me and burned the snake to a crisp. I turned in time to see Dalton, who nodded at me before the little girl’s green rays blasted him into a nearby wall.

  “Dalton!”

  I fired air at the girl, sending her flying even farther across the room, and then returned my attention to the snakes. I hoped that I had given him enough chance to get back on his feet and reassess his strategy. Meanwhile, the snakes slithered toward me in a dark heap, each one ready to kill me with a single bite.

  It took every bit of power I had. My hands found their targets, as I focused all my energy on lifting them into the air. My legs began to tremble as their bodies left the ground, a tangled ball of dry skin, venom dripping to the floor in a hot puddle. It looked like a mess of electrical cables, and I tossed them into the open fireplace. A high-pitched whistle accompanied the desperate hissing, before they vanished into a stream of black smoke.

  “You’ll have to do better than that.” I scowled, turning back to Joan, who whispered with her eyes closed, preparing her next spell. The air above her darkened, and I rushed at her before anything bad could come of it.

  This was my only chance, and physical blows would have to suffice.

  Running at maximum speed, I spread my arms and shot wind to either side of me, knocking the girls off balance and giving my friends the upper hand. When I reached Joan, I stopped my magic and swung a punch into her stomach. She made an oof sound as the wind left her, and the dark air above her evaporated.

  I made for the second punch, but before it could land, Joan raised a finger to the air between us. My clenched fist – which had been throttling toward her – became trapped in an invisible wall of air. I couldn’t move, my arm burning as I was held there, arm out and knuckles aimed.

  Joan taunted me with a maniacal chuckle, pointing a finger at the invisible wall. “You didn’t really think you stood a chance here, did you? I’m a witch, dear. Mages have nothing on us, and Cardkeepers even less. If you wanted to win, you should have–”

  I opened my hand, my palm right in front of her face, and blasted a puff of air right at her. Just fast enough for the eye to see, she flew across the room and into a bookcase, which toppled onto her, books raining down on her still body. The invisible wall weakened, and I could move freely again.

  While I had a moment to my advantage, I glanced at Jason, who dashed around the room while the young witch hurled multiple objects at him with her magic. He roared, swiping and lunging, desperately dodging all projectiles. A quick look at Joan told me that I had a moment to help, and while the room still flashed in a storm of bright colors, I ran toward the girl and grabbed her by the shoulders.

  “Listen to me,” I said in a rush. “You don’t have to do this. You’re still young. You and your sister can do some good. Stop now and we will let you go.”

  The girl – a length of dark brown hair covering one eye, and the other looking right through me as if I were invisible – continued to attack Jason with her telekinesis. Her expression hosted pure evil, like she wanted to hurt people. Like she enjoyed it.

  Well, I thought, not on my watch.

  Mindful of my advanced strength, I tried not to hurt the girl as I lifted her by the back of her shirt and slid her across the room like a bowling ball. Her body ground the floor as she skidded toward Jason, who finally lowered his defenses and placed a heavy foot on her back. The girl was pinned to the ground, effortlessly put out of action, but relatively unharmed.

  “You okay?” I asked him.

  Jason’s face shrank, resembling the mouth of a human – the mouth I had kissed and watched as he’d spoken many times. “Yeah.”

  A bolt of lightning shot between us, firing at the wall and singeing it black.

  “We need to take this outside,” I said.

&nbs
p; “Right.”

  Jason nodded and his face returned to that of a wolf. Reaching down, his enormous claw grabbed the girl’s clothes as he lifted her up and slung her limp body over his shoulder. Before I could say any more, he darted toward the window and smashed through it, disappearing from sight.

  “You!” came a great bellow from behind me.

  I turned toward the voice and saw Joan, climbing up off the floor with her eyes gleaming bright red. It looked as though she were about to shoot lasers from them and Superman my ass back to the Stone Age.

  Thank God for magic limitations.

  Joan sprang to her feet, staring at the chaos within the room, those eyes still glowing destruction as she saw one of her daughters go, and the other being slowly worn down by Dalton, the last remaining Elder of Chicago’s Vault.

  I stole a glance at Link to make sure that he was still intact, and when I saw that he was, I clenched my fist and stood before the witch. “You should have backed down while you had the chance. Now, I want you to remove the curse from my friend and…”

  Joan buckled down, keeling over and staring at her feet.

  “… Come quietly,” I continued half-heartedly.

  What is she doing?

  A deep, demon-like roar burst through the room, tremors ripping through the house and making me struggle for balance. Joan raised her head, her skin wrinkled and sagging with advanced age. Hunched over, her back burst through her clothing, her spine exposed. The black hair she’d had before disintegrated, replaced with silvery-white wisps that dangled in front of her now-wrinkled face. Her body-size had almost doubled, her nails extended as she cackled hysterically, growing bigger and wider, heavier and stronger.

  I had heard about this; at the sacrifice of her human appearance, a witch was able to become something far larger and infinitely more powerful. It had been referred to among scholars as The Quickening, but I didn’t know the official name of the phenomenon.

  All I knew for sure, was that Joan’s hideous transformation spelled trouble.

  Fingers spread, my hands shot out in front of me, ready to attack. Before I could summon a gale, a thick warbling sound shook the air. My eardrums felt ready to burst, and as I stopped my magic to cover them, a wave of energy pulsed from the monster that used to be Joan Flowers.

  The blast hit me at waist-level, knocking the wind out of me and carrying my body across the room in the blink of an eye. As I flew weightlessly toward the wall, I tried to catch sight of Dalton, but couldn’t find him. Had he been hit too?

  My back struck the wall and I tore through it, chunks of wood hitting my head as I went. I was immortal, but even that hurt like hell. I landed roughly on the grass outside, far away from the traps that we had laid long beforehand. I sat up, shaking off the dizzy feeling and trying to regain my senses. All my luck and hope had fled along with my faculties.

  Joan, wrinkled, contorted and huge, stepped through the gaping hole in the wall, and her feet hit the grass in front of me. A violent thump littered the air as her monstrous weight hit the ground, and suddenly she loomed over me, a gigantic mass of power.

  Laughing still, her hand shot out toward me, and in a blind panic, all I could think to do was close my eyes and wait for the impact – to hope that it would kill me in one quick hit and ease my suffering. After all this, I had failed – fought and lost. I’d let Link down, and I didn’t want to live with the guilt for even a second more than I had to.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  A thudding sound, pounding into the dirt beside me.

  My eyes sprung open. Joan had disappeared. I caught the blur of brown fur driving past, and craned my neck to follow it. Was I dead? Dreaming? No – the witch had definitely been tackled. Beside me, Jason howled toward the moon and then sunk his teeth into the witch’s arm, making her scream in agony. Her fear-inspiring shrieks lit the night air; the cry of a banshee.

  I clambered to my feet as fast as I could. As soon as I saw Jason retreating into the dark woods, I sprinted alongside him before being scooped up onto his shoulder as he carried me faster into our maze of traps.

  Once inside, Jason slowed to a stop and looked around.

  “Going up?” I asked, my finger extended to the top of a tree.

  Without answer, he held me tighter on his shoulder and took a running leap into the trees. The cool night air soothed my face as I grabbed a branch and pulled myself up onto it.

  Jason climbed to my side, returning to his human form and perching beside me.

  Together, we waited.

  “You must be freezing,” I whispered to Jason, topless now, on the wings of his transformation. Shreds of his shirt wafted through the breeze like cotton wool. I was willing to bet that he tore through clothes faster than I did, and that was saying something.

  “I’m okay.”

  “Where’s the girl?”

  Jason adjusted himself on the branch. “I left her with Dalton.”

  “You’ve seen Dalton?” As if it were at all possible, my heart began to pound harder than before. “Is he safe? I couldn’t see him inside.”

  “He’s fine. Took a bit of a hit but otherwise fine.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief. As much as we could have used Dalton’s powers right now, I guessed that he probably had his hands full, babysitting the daughters while keeping them alive. It couldn’t have been easy dealing with those girls – they were nasty little creatures. I only hoped that there was still a future for them beyond tonight. The way I saw it, all children deserved a second chance.

  “Shush, here she comes.”

  I followed Jason’s command and clamped my lips together in a thin line. My breath held tight, I remained motionless and tried not to make a single sound. I recognized the clearing now; the exact location where Jason had laid the traps, and if we were just lucky enough, Joan – or the monster formerly known as her – would stumble right into them.

  The witch stomped slowly between the trees, looking up and around and swiping her deadly nails at the thin air as she took great, heavy steps. Fallen twigs and branches cried out in snapping sounds as she trod on them, breaking them into multiple pieces.

  I swallowed a dry lump of terror down my throat.

  Suddenly, as if luck had turned in our favor, the witch approached the first of the bear traps. I watched with bated breath as I expected her to take that one last fateful step onto the metal. Whether or not we should attack while she was hurt, remained to be seen. I swung a quick look at Jason to see if he was poised and ready to fight.

  He wasn’t.

  “I can smell you,” the witch said, only it was no longer Joan’s voice. The talking monster sounded more like a bellowing lion, hissing and spitting each syllable, the deepness shaking the very tree serving as our hiding place.

  Luck turned its back on us now. The witch seemed to know what we had done. It swung around to rip a branch off the tree beside her and did so as effortlessly as if it were made of butter. It raised the branch into the air and stuck it point-first into the trap, the large chunk of metal biting at the wood like a rabid animal.

  “Nice try,” the witch spat.

  I shifted, my nerves a wreck as the monster neared, stomping harder and louder into the dirt, before it stopped. I shook under the effort of holding my terrified gasp, as I watched it lean back, drawing in a deep breath before blowing it out in a large torrent of air. Before her, every trap that we had laid made false grabs at nothing but dead space. The bear traps snapped at the air, the carved logs swung down and pierced nothing but the silence, and the rope traps shot up toward the sky, empty and useless.

  Shit.

  Jason glared at me, fear infiltrating eyes normally ripe with courage.

  We had to attack. Kill or be killed. There was no other option. I struggled to my feet, balancing on the branch and ready to pounce. Jason seemed to recognize my strategy and began to do the same. Slowly, his arms grew while fur replaced his bare skin. It changed little by little, quietly so as not to
roar and alert the monster. Was this enough to defeat the witch? Doubtful, but we had to try.

  On three, I signaled with my fingers.

  Jason nodded.

  One.

  I crouched to strengthen my leap.

  Two.

  Jason’s mouth extended to a muzzle.

  “There you are!”

  The witch’s voice threw me off guard and the tree began to shake. She hopped from one huge foot to another before dashing into the tree trunk.

  I lost my balance and toppled off the branch. As I fell, Jason swung his arm down and caught me, lowering me to the branch below. My feet touched it safely and I regained my balance, but it wasn’t enough.

  The witch, with all her great power, made a kind of gagging noise, like she’d swallowed a fur ball. Her half-garbed body began to glow bright white. An awful sound filled the air, like a laser cannon firing up. I could hear – feel – its energy building, growing stronger.

  The tree shook furiously now, both Jason and me clutching onto anything we could grab. The dying brown leaves dropped from the branches, the tremor disturbing their peaceful transition into winter. The cannon sound roared louder, and suddenly all the trees around us shuddered like in an earthquake. Whatever the witch was doing, it was sure to obliterate us both and leave no bodies to bury.

  Caught up in a cloud of fear, I almost didn’t see the attack.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Before I could understand what was happening, a pearlescent stream of green and white energy engulfed us. The trees became absorbed in the bright and blinding haze, the rush of light flowing through both Jason and me. My heart rate tripled as I held on tight to the branch, gripping it until my knuckles turned white.

  “What’s going on?”

  I could barely hear Jason’s voice among the roar of wind. It was muffled between the waves of energy pouring through and around us. For a moment I thought that the witch had cast a spell on us, but then I realized that the blinding lights weren’t coming for us.