Natural Witch (Magical Mayhem Book 1) Page 28

  “All those spells in your head, and you use the one I made up.” I smiled to mask the tremor in my voice, but he looked at me, his eyes filled with regret.

  “We’ll make it out of this,” he said, continuing down the street. “We can handle this.”

  My phone buzzed and I took it out. I saw you cross at the other end of the street. You’ll need a better disguise than hand holding.

  “What’d she say?” Emery asked.

  I sighed and shook my head. “Nothing relevant.” We hurried along the block and turned at the next corner. “Are we going to go in the back way?” I asked.

  “Hopefully. Point out the house that is behind yours.”

  A couple of minutes later, after checking to make sure the coast was clear, we crossed to the side of the house behind mine and let ourselves through the gate of the fence. A small dog rushed forward, able to sense us even though we were covered by the invisibility spell. It stopped ten feet away, not at all pleased.

  I draped a sound-deadening spell over it.

  “All those spells in your head, and you use the one I stole from my brother.” He clucked his tongue. “Shoddy.”

  The teasing lightened the heaviness on my limbs, but didn’t relieve the shaking. I didn’t know if I could duplicate everything I’d done last night. Half the things I did were spur of the moment. What if nothing came to me this time around? What if I let Emery down? Lives would be lost. The people I loved would be hurt.

  “Easy does it, Turdswallop,” Emery whispered as we slowed by the back fence on the other side of my yard. “This is the worst part. It’s understandable that you’re anxious.”

  I gulped and nodded as he stepped up onto the bottom board running parallel, clung to the top one, and slowly lifted his head over. He dropped back down quickly, before pushing back up a moment later. Then farther up still. The spell clearly worked, and also, there was someone in my backyard.

  He lowered back down as I palmed my chest. This slow approach might kill me.

  “Three of them in the backyard. They have a table of casings.” His brow furrowed and he looked down. “I really wish I’d called in my favor for this instead of when I first got here.”

  “What?” I asked.

  He shook his head and looked into the yard. “I can…” Streams of magic spewed from our belts, then all around us. “I can create a type of tornado. It’ll be powerful. It should scatter their casings.” He paused. “Hopefully.”

  “They can’t see us.” I hopped from one foot to the other. My breath came in pants. “Let’s just sneak up, zap them, take their stuff, and bust into my house.” I swatted my braid from over my shoulder. “Let’s do it fast.”

  His spell ground to a halt and a smile graced his face. “Why didn’t I think of that?”

  “Because you are the world’s worst planner, obviously. Come on.”

  His body shook with chuckles, and he bent with his fingers entwined and palms up, ready to give me a boost.

  “I’m good,” I said, gesturing to the fence beside me.

  “You’ll probably slip and scrape your face. Take a hand.” He shook his hands at me.

  “You better not start on the overbearing train. I’ve got one mother. I don’t need two.”

  Despite my talk, I took the boost, not wanting to admit he was probably right. It had happened a few times before.

  I climbed up to the top and threw a leg over. When he was in the same position, I nodded and threw the other leg over after it. He dropped down right beside me.

  A mage in a purple robe drew her penciled-on eyebrows together and looked right at me. Her gaze slid away and she eyed the top of the fence.

  “It seems suspicious that she hasn’t called,” an orange-robed mage said from beside her. “She and that other natural are planning something, mark my words. And do you know which way they’ll come through? The back.”

  The female mage shifted her weight and rolled the casings between her fingertips, one in each hand. “Which is why we’re here. The Baron doesn’t think they’ll be here until dark. They hit the guild last night really late with a bunch of vampires. Seems likely the vampires helped them, at any rate. They think she’ll do the same thing tonight. The Baron is bringing in more people.”

  “I heard the Chancellor’s anxious to capture them. He wants all that power at his disposal.”

  “It depends on how much the girl cares about her friend. She doesn’t have a smart phone—”

  My foot crunched in the grass. I froze. Streams of magic drew up from around us, and Emery’s energy wobbled. He was planning something nasty.

  “What?” the male mage said, bracing.

  “Nothing. Thought I heard something.” The woman scanned the backyard, not seeing us even though we were fifteen feet away. Thank God most mages couldn’t see magic. “The Baron was going to cut off the friend’s finger and send the video, but the girl has one of those old-school flip phones. She can’t get video.”

  “Oh, so that’s why they can’t find her. She can’t access Facebook or apps or anything.”

  “Yeah, she can’t check in anywhere. They’re still planning to do it when the reinforcements arrive. They’ll just record the whole thing on her answering machine. Should be any time.”

  My fear for Veronica turned to rage. The energy brewing between Emery and I changed again, pulsing and swirling, ready for action.

  Emery let loose his spell. I ran forward, my own spell surging up and out. Two blasts of magic hit the mages, our spells combining at the last moment and piercing their chests. I was grabbing bland beige casings off the table before their bodies hit the ground, stuffing the spells wherever they would fit.

  Thank you, Darius, for insisting on the color coding.

  Emery plucked at my sleeve, running for the back door of my house. I sprinted ahead and got there first, throwing my shoulder into it with everything I had. I smashed into the door…and bounced off. I staggered, and my butt hit the ground as Emery barreled into it next. Wood splintered and a crack resounded through the door. Emery crashed through.

  “I need to start working out,” I muttered, grabbing his proffered hand and following him inside. “We have to hurry. We can’t let them cut off her finger.” I sprinted to the front of the house as my phone buzzed.

  Dread choked me as I dug it out, worried I was too late.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  A call from my mother.

  I let out a shaky sigh as Emery looked out the front window and swore.

  “Where are you?” my mother demanded as soon as I said hello.

  “We’re in the house. We just got in.”

  “Okay. Get ready. I’ll meet you there.”

  “No. Wait! Mother—” But the line went dead.

  “What?” Emery asked, stepping away from the window.

  “She said she’s going to meet us here.”

  Shouting filtered in from the way we’d come. The crash must’ve brought someone around. But it didn’t matter. The ward didn’t require a door. It would still protect the house and us inside of it.

  “They’ve almost cracked the ward,” Emery said. “I can see the exact place where they need to unravel it. As soon as they get out of their own way and discover it, we’re wide open.”

  The sound of a car drew closer. Shouts erupted from the front of the house this time. Emery got to the window first, swore again, and started back-pedaling.

  “Your mother is nuts. Watch out!” He swung me up over his shoulder and ran as an earsplitting crash shook the house. The roof groaned and the walls trembled. Cracks ran down the cream-colored walls.

  Emery stopped at the foot of the stairs, breathing hard.

  “Barbra Streisand’s hand-me-downs, what in the holy hanging dong was that?” I wiggled out of his grip as more shouting drifted into the house.

  “Joe was right—we need to work on your swearing.” Emery grabbed me with one hand, catching a handful of leather, and took out a casing with the other
. “Your mother just rammed the house with her car.”

  A door banged somewhere. I stood paralyzed, trying to process the situation, when my mother came barreling in, her shotgun over her shoulder and a mad-dog look on her face.

  “What are you standing around for?” she barked. “They’re about to come in after me.”

  “How did you…” I followed behind her like a puppy dog. Emery did the same. Some things couldn’t be helped when it came to my mother. “Did you ram the house with your car?”

  “No. I rammed the house with your car. Well, actually, I just parked it in the garage. We’ll need a new garage door. And a new ping-pong table. It didn’t fare so well. But thank goodness for two-car garages, right? Now.” She set the gun down and trudged into her office. In the corner, she moved the potted plant out of the way, bent down, and pulled up a doorstop that didn’t have a door to stop. A click sounded behind me. I turned and my mouth fell open as my mother wrestled the desk out of the way, pushed aside the tapestry, and shoved a hidden door inward.

  “Your father said I should let you in here when you were ready. I don’t think you’re ready, but we’ve run out of time.” She stepped out of the way and held up her hand to stop me. “Not you. You won’t know what you’re looking at. Emery?” She jerked her thumb into the opening. “That is all Penny’s, so if you steal anything, I’ll hunt you down and cut off your arm. See if I’m joking.”

  “Yes, ma’am. I know you’re not joking, ma’am.” Emery gave me a hard look, clearly a little too worried about my mother’s threat, before disappearing into the hole in the wall.

  “Okay.” My mother grabbed my shoulder and strong-armed me out of the room. “Unless they are the stupidest beings alive, which is not impossible, they know you’re here. So we need to hurry. Soon they’ll drag Veronica out and do a demonstration, demanding you trade yourself for her.”

  “They are going to cut off her finger.”

  “I wouldn’t put it past them, the filthy vagrants. But now they’ll do it on our lawn. So let’s get cracking.”

  My mother grabbed her shotgun on her way past it and once again took up residence near the door. The shouting had died down, and I looked out the window. Two cars stopped in the middle of the street, and a full load of mages hopped out of each. Just beyond them, I saw Lewis at his window.

  “Why doesn’t Lewis call the police?” I asked.

  “He probably has. But the guild has the Magical Law Enforcement office in this town in their pocket, so they can detour the human police. We aren’t going to get any help. The guild owns this town.”

  “For now,” I said, because this had gotten personal, and the guild would not retain its hold over Seattle forever. Not if I had anything to say about it.

  The ward winked into view—one minute, a fascinating weave, and the next, invisible again. I told my mother what I had seen.

  “They’ve taken down one of the roots,” Emery said, strolling into the room with two books and a small sack. He put the sack on the ground. “I have no idea how old these spells are, but I wouldn’t want to chance using them.”

  “Probably wise.” My mother pointed at the books he still held. “I know you can use those. But I don’t think Penny is ready.”

  Emery laughed in that humorless way of his. “Don’t you?”

  “Don’t sass me, boy.”

  Emery’s face straightened again. “Sorry, ma’am.”

  “I can read directions,” I said, taking one of the books.

  “Then you’ll need a stand,” my mother said. “Your father always used stands. Very practical, your father. It drove me batty.” She stalked farther into the house.

  “There isn’t a lot that terrifies me, but that woman is certainly on the list,” Emery mumbled, looking out the window. “We have ten minutes, tops. That ward is coming down.”

  “Here we go.” My mother was back in a moment, setting up a handy little stand that held the book and even had a shelf for the necessary ingredients. “There is only one, though.”

  “Take it, Penny.” Emery flipped through the pages of the one he held.

  My phone vibrated and my heart crawled up into my throat. I took it out and opened it with a shaking hand. After pressing speaker, I answered. “Hello?”

  “Penny Bristol, I presume?” The voice was dry and scratchy, as though its owner had sucked on the end of a great many cigarettes in his life.

  “Yes. Who is speaking?”

  “This is Baron Kempworth, and I am here to collect you.”

  “Over my dead body you’ll be collecting her, you stupidly dressed piece of trash. Now come out and fight like a man.” My mother grabbed the phone out of my hand, closed it, and threw it behind us. “Don’t answer that anymore. You don’t want to hear him give you an ultimatum. Come on. Time’s up. It’s time to save Veronica’s family.” She marched to the door, tore it open, cocked her gun, and aimed.

  The blast made me jump.

  “Got one,” my mother yelled.

  “High on the list,” Emery muttered, a manic smile spreading across his face. “Come on, Penny. Let’s get some space.”

  He ran me through the house and to the door leading to the garage. He slapped the button to open the left garage door, still intact, and it rattled upward. The door next to it was lying on the hood of my badly dented car.

  Outside, in the driveway, sat my mom’s car, unblemished. Behind it, spread across the lawn and into the street, many of them running for cover from my mother, lurked a dozen mages.

  Chapter Forty

  “Turn it into rage, Penny,” Emery yelled as he stopped at the edge of the garage, still within the ward’s protection. “Turn the pain into anger, and let it fly.”

  Loud crying preceded my first glimpse of Veronica. Her face bloody and one eye swollen, she was being dragged down the street by a man in a blood-red robe.

  “Kempworth,” Emery said with a release of breath.

  I cracked a casing and threw. The spell burst out and sliced through the air, a magical machete. A slash of red appeared on the mage closest me, and then the two next to her suffered the same fate. They all looked down in surprise as their top halves slid off their bottom halves.

  The mage in the blood-red robe stopped suddenly. He stepped behind Veronica and started to back-pedal, dragging her with him.

  “Nope.” I ran, no longer thinking logically. He had Veronica. He planned to hurt her. Emery called my name, and then he was beside me, leaving the safety of the ward and venturing into the fray.

  A shotgun blast tore through the late afternoon. A man screamed and staggered, gingerly touching his bloody side. I cracked another casing, pushing the spell forward. Razor blades and acid rained down on the mages in front of me, ripping and burning and tearing. Darius had asked for some really foul spells.

  Emery threw up a shield and captured a spell zipping at us. Then another. He broke them apart before releasing a spell of his own.

  “I’m going for more firepower,” my mother yelled.

  I let the rage continue to course through me, but I let the pain from the knowledge that they were tormenting my friends come, too. I pulled on the energy and electricity and created my own spell, throwing it to the right. Immediately after, I grabbed two of the guild casings and threw them at the cluster of mages walking toward us, their mouths moving.

  “I need to start thinking before I act,” I said. “We shouldn’t have left the ward.”

  “The best offense is unpredictability. You’re doing great.” Emery threw spells so fast that I was in awe. They flew out, one after the other, in a steady stream of color. He pulled magic from all around us, forming spells seemingly without thought. I tried to keep up but failed, filling in with casings.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw cars slowly pull up at the end of the street. My heart pounded. So many.

  “This way,” Emery said, pulling me toward Veronica’s house. “You face front. I’ll face the back.”

  Cloud
s drifted in from all sides above us, dark gray and forbidding. A spell flashed at me and I caught it with my white survival magic. I opened a casing from the guild and threw it in front of me. It skittered along the ground before wrapping itself around a green-robed mage running at us. The younger man screamed and writhed, sinking to the ground.

  The guild had intended to play nasty too. At least we were all on the same page.

  Emery bumped back into me. I turned around, seeing that he’d barely kept a spell from hitting him. “We need to speed this up and take cover, Turdswallop. I’m under heavy fire here.”

  Another shotgun blast.

  “Let’s go,” I shouted over the noise as clouds blanketed the sky. Wind picked up, rushing through the street. Tree branches swung wildly.

  We ran toward Veronica’s house, where half a dozen mages stood out front next to a table stacked with casings. Emery expertly wove the various elements together and then set his tornado loose. It rose into the sky and churned the air. A spell zipped our way and I slashed it with my own spell, catching it midair and fizzling it out. Sirens sounded in the distance, this level of disturbance clearly too much for the guild to keep quiet.

  Emery fired off more spells. I opened a guild casing, but nothing came out. With the clouds and waning light, my eyes started to play tricks on me, so it took me a moment to realize nothing had happened.

  “Some you have to speak to life,” Emery yelled over the noise. Men and women in robes ran at us, fleeing my mother. “Try another.”

  I cracked one of Darius’s casings and sent the spell flying at the mages coming up behind us. A fog emerged and spread. It would peel people like potatoes. Really nasty stuff. This battle would give me nightmares.

  I cracked another, this one a spell for magical laughing gas, as Emery threw more spells at the mages boiling from Veronica’s house. The garage doors opened, and more poured out from there. Someone broke a window on the top floor and a surge of putrid evil came shooting toward us.