The Return of The Witch

by M. J. Caan

“Sure did. All the C-4 I could get my hands on from my military contacts is in the back of my Humvee.”

  “And you know how to…make it go boom?”

  She laughed at that. “You mean detonate it? Yes, I spent five years out of college working demolition for a construction company before going into law enforcement. Didn’t use C-4, but how much harder can it be?”

  I wasn’t quite sure how to take that, but wasn’t going to belabor the point with her. “So let’s run through this. Nate, Elion, and Detective Walker will be with me at Singing Falls. Cody and Rob will go with Kendra and the rest of the shifter clans to the mansion. Mallis won’t be expecting a head-on attack because he thinks we don’t know where he is. It will take him a while to realize that I’m not with you. At that moment, he will use his witch to locate us and have to split his forces to try and take us all on. I’m betting he sends a small contingent of wolves along with the hellhound after me…”

  “Wait, why would it be small? Why not send them all after you if you’re the one he is most worried about?” said Hope.

  “Hellhound,” I replied. “You haven’t seen that thing in action. I’m betting he won’t think he needs much more than that to handle me. Plus, my moth—I mean, the witch, will be with them as well. Those are his heavy hitters. But he won’t risk coming to the Falls just yet, not until the spell is cast. He won’t risk getting caught out in the daylight. So that means he will still need a large pack at the mansion to protect him.

  “The eclipse starts at 6:47, same time as sunrise. It will be the first time in five hundred years that this will happen. We will be at the Falls shortly after the shifters launch their attack on the mansion. That gives you”—I turned to face Cody—“a couple of hours before dawn to take out the wolves. If we prevent the Leveling, it will leave Mallis trapped and defenseless once the sun comes up.” Of course that was all dependent upon me being able to hold up my end of the bargain and stopping the Leveling spell from being cast in the first place.

  “So, are we sure this will work from your end?” Detective Walker said. I assumed Esmee had filled her in on the entire plan.

  “It has to,” came Aunt Vivian’s voice from above us. She walked down the stairs with Aunt Lena following closely behind her. Each carried her staff in a firm grip. “That’s why we are going with Allie as well.”

  “That wasn’t part of the plan,” I said. “I can’t risk that.”

  “You don’t have a choice,” said Aunt Lena sternly. “I know you may not want to acknowledge it, but that thing out there is wearing the face of our sister…and your mother. It will be more than enough to get under your skin; it would get to anyone, Allie. Besides, what you are going to attempt to do will take all of your concentration, leaving you vulnerable to attack. Let Nate and Elion handle the hound, but we will have to protect you from the witch’s magics.”

  “She has a point,” said Elion. “I may be strong, but I’m not immune to magic…and neither are Totem Shifters, I would imagine.”

  “Besides, if everything falls into place, you may be finished with your work before the witch even shows up,” said Aunt Vivian. “But just in case, we will be there as your magical backup.”

  “Alright then.” I gave in, knowing there was no point in arguing. “Let’s get moving, we all have a lot of ground to cover tonight.”

  As we all made our way from the house and headed for the cars, I couldn’t help but notice how bright and clear the sky was. The stars shone brilliantly against the cloudless sky and full moon washed the landscape with pale blue light.

  I gave Cody one last bear hug and a passionate kiss.

  “I’ll see you soon,” he said without a trace of doubt in his voice. I nodded and watched him pile into the Jeep with Rob as they headed off into the distance.

  The rest of climbed into the spacious Humvee with Detective Walker, eased out of the drive, and headed for the Singing Falls National Park. I turned my head and took one last look at the house I had called home as it faded into the distance.

  Breathing a silent prayer, I beseeched any deity that would listen to please not let this be the last time I would see it.

  19

  After leaving the car farther back from the park entrance than usual, we made the five mile hike to the Falls in near silence. My aunts cast a wide notification net around us; anything with a supernatural signature would immediately set off alarms that only they and I would be able to hear. I had to give my aunts credit; it was a hard hike and they kept up without complaint. I guess being raised in the mountains had its benefits. The look they had given Nate when he offered to shift and carry them was priceless.

  We reached the small encampment at the base of the Falls and gathered around the natural pool where the runoff was collected. I looked at my watch and tried not to think of my friends and what was potentially happening to them. At this point, they would have definitely engaged with Mallis. The thought of my friends fighting for their lives without me pulled at my heartstrings. I banished the thought, fully aware of what a distraction could mean for what I was about to attempt.

  “How long do we have?” asked Nate.

  Glancing at my watch, I realized that sunrise was only about an hour and a half away. The witch would be here just before dawn to begin casting the spell. I held onto the slight hope that Cody would be able to delay them; any extra time he could buy us would be needed. I also knew that the witch and Mallis would cut and run no matter what was going on at the mansion to get here for the ritual. All I could hope was that they would not have a contingent of wolves with them as well. After all, a witch, a vampire and a hellhound would be more than enough for us to tackle. I almost laughed at that thought; it sounded like the beginning of a bad joke…if they were all walking into a bar instead of coming to kill us.

  We went about setting up in silence. I reached out with a probing spell, looking for the right place to cast my own magic. I could feel the hum of the ley lines coming from the caves. There was so much ambient power in this area; it hurt me to think about what I was about to do.

  “Uh, you sure it’s safe in there?” asked Detective Walker. She was looking at the main entrance to one of the caves not far from us. It was dark and foreboding, and in the eerie light of the moon it looked all the more like an open mouth, waiting to slam shut after any unsuspecting prey walked through.

  “Yes, it is perfectly safe,” said Elion. “There is nothing alive bigger than a cricket in there. I will go with you to set your charges.”

  “You sure you want to do this?” she said to me. “Once I detonate, there will be no going back. That entrance, and any others we rig, will be closed off forever.”

  “I know. But we can’t risk anything like this happening again. We can’t have more humans, witches or supernatural beings having direct access to the ley lines.”

  Detective Dana Walker nodded and headed off toward the cave, Elion following close behind carrying a large rucksack filled with explosives. We were cutting it close. I hadn’t anticipated the hike up here taking as long as it had.

  “Okay,” I said turning to my aunts, “our turn. Nate, can you bring over the supplies?”

  He hefted the second sack he had been carrying and dropped it at our feet. “What do you need from me?”

  “Stand watch,” I replied, “for anything out of the ordinary. This will take a lot of my concentration so I’m not sure I’ll be aware of everything happening around us in time to act.”

  He nodded and took a few steps back, turning his back to us as he surveyed the woods around us.

  My aunts opened the case, took out a few jars of white powder, and began outlining a circle on the ground where I had indicated. They gave me one last look and I didn’t need them to voice their question out loud.

  “I wish there was another way,” I said. “But we are out of time.”

  I sat down cross-legged as they continued to draw the circle around me. The powder was a combination of rare earth elements and silver
nitrate. It was designed to draw in and trap magical energies, and repel attacks from supernatural beings. I wasn’t taking any chances in case a wolf were to slip past my aunts or Nate in the coming battle.

  I closed my eyes and drowned out all thoughts and sounds around me as I reached deep into the bedrock beneath our feet and felt for the power that thrummed there.

  “Aravas atone silat,” I said, calling out to the Power of the Stone. I intoned the incantation again, a prayer to Mother Earth to release her secrets.

  I banished all thoughts of guilt over what I would have to do and concentrated on the flow of energy that crisscrossed the space around us. The ley lines were the lifeblood of magic. They carried the mystical energies that had fed Trinity Cove since before man had discovered this world.

  And this place, here at the base of Singing Falls, was the where the lines all intersected, flowing out like a wondrous web to all magical creatures great and small.

  It was Elion that had given me the idea. He had said that the witch would need to cast her spell from a place of great magical energy. There was no greater concentration of magic anywhere than right here. I could feel it, calling out, singing to me. It was a living, breathing creature…and I was about to kill it.

  I was a Reliquary, a witch with unlimited magical abilities, or so I was told. My power had been growing in leaps and bounds lately. The more I used it, the stronger I felt it become. When the witch had attacked us in our own home, I had felt it flare out, freezing time and space around me. I should have used that moment to kill the witch, but my aunts had been right: whatever she was, she was wearing my mother’s face, and it had made me pause.

  But the feel of my magic at that moment was something I had never dreamed capable of possessing. For a split second, I was one with the ley lines; I could feel the entire world moving through me. I’d felt like I was everywhere and nowhere all at the same time. My consciousness had expanded to the point that I understood what I needed to do. Now, I had to hope that I would be able to pull it off.

  I pushed my senses deeper into the earth, grabbing at the energies that dwelled there and pleading for it to rise up and fill me with power. Power that I could use to kill the witch.

  But what would that solve? Getting rid of her would end the immediate threat, but there would always be another witch. And another vampire to replace Mallis. And another eclipse. And so on and so on, until finally someone came along with the knowledge to do what they had failed to accomplish.

  No. Killing her wasn’t going to end the problem. I needed to cut the ley lines off from this world entirely. Turn off the magic at its source.

  What that would do to myself, my aunts, and all of the other supernaturals in the world, I had no idea. But if it meant that mankind would never again have to face the threat of an endless night, then so be it.

  I pulled in more and more of the power flowing around me until I thought I might explode. I started to think that my aunts might be wrong; maybe there was an upper limit to what I could do. I opened my eyes and everything around me glowed white with power. I was no longer seeing just the physical world, but the mystical one that overlaid it. Power was everywhere, and I was a part of it.

  I looked around to see my aunts screaming soundlessly at me. Their staffs whirled before them and they pointed towards the cave.

  I had no idea how long I had been in a trance state, and it took me a second to realize that something was wrong. I turned my attention towards the cave and immediately was snapped back to reality—the tie I was creating with the ley lines was broken, and the world once again returned to normal. The sudden change was disorienting to my senses, but I understood immediately what I was seeing.

  The witch that looked like my mother walked out of the cave holding one hand out in front of her, palm out. She was deflecting the magical attacks of my aunts with alarming ease. In her other hand, she dragged the blood-covered body of Dana Walker behind her. A loud cracking sound broke through the fog around my senses as I saw Elion’s body fly out of the cave backwards, arching across the space to land somewhere out of view.

  Mallis then walked out of the cave, his fists clenched, eyes narrowed, and fangs glinting in the waning moonlight. The red glow that followed him, along with the low rumble of something incredibly big and heavy walking on rock, heralded the arrival of the hellhound as it stepped free of the mouth of the cave.

  “Are you mad, girl?!” screamed the witch. “What you are attempting to do is heresy, and I will not allow it!” She dropped Dana and reached out with both hands, sending a searing wave of black magic in our direction.

  The spell hit like a charging rhino and I barely had time enough to throw up a counter-shield to protect myself and my aunts.

  “Your friends are dead, Allie!” said Mallis. “They died horrifically, thinking they had a chance against our army. It was over before it even began. Did you think we wouldn’t know what you were trying? We sensed what you were up to as soon as you began your spell. My witch transported us here to the cave where we ended your friends’ attempt to destroy this landmark! Just as we will now end your attempts to snuff out the magic from this land.”

  “Allie, forget us!” said Aunt Vivian, raising her staff and pointing it at the witch. “Finish the spell, we will take care of this foul monster.” She motioned for her sister and Nate to join her, and the three of them advanced on the witch.

  I watched as Nate shifted into a saber-tooth and charged across the field.

  Anger flared within me as I realized what Mallis had said.

  Your friends are dead.

  No. That couldn’t be true. Cody. Cody was dead?

  My anger turned white-hot as I got to my feet. I reached out with my hand and made a fist, grabbing at the power that had been flowing around me. I stepped forward out of the circle and threw a bolt of pure white light at the vampire. It struck the ground before him like a bolt from the heavens, splitting the earth and sending him and the witch spinning backwards. The hellhound easily leapt to the side, and set his sights on a charging Nate. With an unearthly howl, it leapt into the air, flaming claws aiming for the Totem Shifter.

  “Allie, no!” screamed Elion from behind me. He staggered into view, holding his right shoulder with his left hand. “She is lying, Allie! Cody is fine and still fighting! They teleported into the cave behind Dana and I. I could see behind them into the portal; the battle yet rages on at the mansion! Cody, and from what I could see, the others, are still fighting! She’s trying to get into your head!”

  In that instant, before I could react, the witch appeared in a blur behind Elion. I saw Elion’s chest jut forward as the point of the witch’s black blade pierced his body, exiting through his breastbone.

  “And you know what?” said the witch as she let his body fall listlessly to the ground, “It worked.” Her body blurred and then she was standing next to me, whispering in my ear. “I’m in your head. And thank you for doing the heavy lifting that will jumpstart the Leveling. You really are as easily manipulated as Mallis said you would be.”

  I tried to scream as I felt the black smoke of her power rush to cover my face. Pain clawed at me as all awareness leave my body and I fell into darkness.

  20

  The ride back to consciousness was a bumpy one. I felt like had been dragged across a rocky dune and kicked a few times along the way. Hell, for all I knew that was exactly what had happened.

  Awareness fought slowly through the fog that blanketed my mind. The good news was I was in too much pain to be dead. The bad news was I felt like I had been strung up—literally. My arms were stretched over my head, bound to something at the wrists. My ankles were bound as well, my feet not touching the ground. I couldn’t tell what I was tied to, but the cool, damp air told me I was still outside.

  An involuntary groan escaped my lips as I lifted my head to look around. The first thing I noticed was the pale, pink light that was just starting to creep across the sky. Dawn was coming, and with it the
eclipse.

  “Ah, I had thought you might sleep through this, but I’m kind of glad you’re going to be awake for the beginning of a new era for your kind.” It was Mallis. I didn’t need to be able to focus my vision to see the gloat that was so obviously radiating from him.

  Instead, I concentrated on what had been done to me. I tried to twist my head around to see what I was tied to, but to no avail. Whatever bound me was just out of my range of vision in this position. I pulled as hard as I could with my arms but could not loosen my bindings.

  “Struggling won't help you. The rope that holds you in place has been magically reinforced. It is proofed against muscle and spell.” This voice came from my right and I immediately recognized it. The Warlock.

  “I thought you were dead or something,” I said. “You master has a new pet…didn’t think you were needed anymore.”

  “Oh, I still have need,” said Mallis. “Maybe you were lead to believe otherwise, but that was by design.”

  The Warlock had been off our radar, and to be honest, I hadn’t given him much thought since the arrival of the witch on the scene. I filed that under the never-make-assumptions-or-believe-lying-witches folder for later. If there was a later, that was.

  “I have to admit, I am impressed by how quickly you recovered from her suffocation spell,” said Mallis. “Your resilience is duly noted.”

  Good, keep talking, I thought. At least this told me that I hadn’t been out too long. That meant maybe there was still time. For something…I just wasn’t sure what.

  “She fared better than the other two,” said the Warlock with a laugh.

  Other two? Who were…my aunts! I turned my head to the side to where the Warlock’s voice was coming from, and could just make out my two aunts. They were bound in the same way I was to what looked like an upside-down Y, ankles tied to the two bases and arms bound to the single leg that protruded upward. The Y itself seemed to be some kind of dark rock that stabbed upward through the ground, displacing a large amount of earth and debris.