Night Witch (Book 1) ✔️

40 - The Long Descent

For a brief moment it feels like every nerve in my body is suddenly awake and screaming. Pain comes from so many different places I'm buzzing, unable to pinpoint exactly where the pain is coming from since it's everywhere. I feel my back arch as the power pulls me up on my toes.

It slowly fades and when I come back to awareness I'm braced on my knees, breathing like I've just run a marathon. The world spins. I breathe deeply until it stops. When I do, the room is silent and devoid of magic.

I'd apparently erected a ward instinctively which currently shimmers a misty grey around me. Three very different expressions greet me as the ward slowly falls. Carter is stunned, Nova looks furious as per usual, and my grandmother looks like the cat that got the cream.

"Now, we can begin." Serafina's grin doesn't disappear as she stretches a hand out toward me. A line of green demon fire roars across the floor following the path of her hand and leaps up at me.

Carter and Nova are so stunned by the demon fire they don't interfere, which is fine since the fire slams into me and dissipates. Fire breaks around me and fades into a breath of wind as it passes by.

With half a thought demon fire pours from the ground beneath my feet as I call it forth. It almost startles me how easy it is to call it, but at the same time it feels so right I can't be surprised. I hadn't been myself since Damien had helped me craft that ward when I was eighteen and the world is alive in a way it never has been before. I'm not sure I can cage myself again if I make it out alive.

"Turns out I'm still fire proof. Nice try though." The quip slips off my tongue before I can think better of it. I freeze for a second, waiting for the sharp reprimand, but she doesn't comment.

She tips her head slightly in acknowledgement but then her determined express is back. Understanding the break is done, I point my hand at her and the fire at my feet leaps across the distance. It hits a ward and fizzes out as it falls to the ground

The ground shakes and I lose my footing. "Nova, Carter!"

They snap out of it and turn to launch a volley of fire at my grandmother. She has to divert enough attention to swat them out of the air that the shaking slows. I gain my feet and run towards her.

I pull on the raw power around me and it wraps itself tightly around me. As I sprint by, I send a thought to Nova and Carter. "I'll distract her, you two destroy the book!"

I feel them fall in on either side once more and then move around wide as I run straight at Serafina. She focuses on me, dismissing the others.

I raise a fist wrapped in raw Dark power and slam it against her ward. There's a satisfying cracking sound but it doesn't break. The small fissures that surround my fist heal as they suck in the Dark power I'd used to break it.

The ward pulses outward and I skid backward. Channeling power, I send it down through the floor and up where she's standing. A concussion of air flies up inside the ward, following the path I'd sent it on, enough so that she should be flying but I don't see her body tossed up.

As the air settles back to its normal state, Serafina shakes her head at me and taps a toe. I take a second to inspect the ground at her feet and snarl when I see the telltale shimmer of a ward. She must have warded the ground at some point.

Because I'm on the attack and she's thoroughly entrenched, it doesn't seem like I'll have the same option. I sense her attack at that moment and throw myself sideways, tucking and rolling just in time. A pillar of earth stabs upward.

I don't even have time to curse as more small spikes of earth begin rising from the ground. I roll frantically and hurtle to my feet. Not looking back, I take off running in a jagged pattern around the foyer which is, thankfully, large enough for my evasive maneuvers. That doesn't help me much though.