I nodded, and as I made my way toward the door, I couldn’t help but realize that this was possibly going to be one of the last times I would see my cousins.
Tears welled up in my eyes, unwillingly, and as soon as Cat saw them, she came over and took me into a giant bear hug.
“It’s going to be okay,” she whispered into my ear as she held me tight.
“How are you so calm about this?” I asked quietly.
“Truth is? I’m not. In fact, I kind of wish I was wearing a diaper right now. But the fact is, this is the only way out. We have to do this, not only for us, but for the rest of our family as well. And for the rest of the paranormal world.”
I nodded. “You guys are the best family I could’ve ever asked for,” I said before turning around and leaving the bookshop, wiping away the tears in my eyes.
Cat was right of course. As terrifying as this was, I had to do it.
For the first time since I had arrived in Sapphire Village, the streets seemed dark and menacing. Instead of quaint and adorable, the old-fashioned lampposts now seemed threatening, like something out of an Edgar Allen Poe poem. The empty cobblestones, which had once seemed so peaceful, now gave me a strange sense of foreboding.
I shivered, though it had nothing to do with the cold. Rushing forward, I made my way toward the trail on the other side of the street.
Can you hear me? I thought in my head, thinking of Cat and Peaches.
Loud and clear, came the response from Cat a moment later. Good. If the two of them weren’t able to hear my thoughts, there was no way they would be able to come and rescue me once the Others arrived.
I made my way to the pedestrian trail, a winding, paved trail which made its way all the way through Sapphire Village and the neighborhoods. It was a great way for locals to get around either on foot or by bicycle, but for once, I saw no one around.
Squinting in the dark, I muttered to myself about the Others not liking the light. I didn’t dare turn on my phone’s flashlight, for fear of driving them away. I had a sneaking suspicion such a small light wouldn’t affect them at all, but I didn’t want to get further away from the bookshop than I needed to. Even though Cat could get here pretty quickly on a broom, I still figured the closer to her that I was when I was finally attacked, the better.
As I made my way along the path, every tiny little sound made me jump. I was absolutely on tenterhooks, waiting for the Others to come and get me. I knew they would. It was dark, and there was no one around. This was absolutely their MO, and Cat was right. They hated me; as I had already killed two of their own. They definitely were not going to wait very long before they attacked.
Sure enough, I had made it maybe a quarter-mile of the way down the trail when I began to feel a light mist pooling at my feet. My throat closed up, but I forced myself to breathe, and stay calm.
They’re here, I thought to Cat, hoping the message would get through.
Coming, hang in there, came Cat’s reply a moment later, and it already sounded a little bit hollow, as if she was replying from far away. I knew that was because of the Others. But, it didn’t matter. Cat knew to come.
I stopped where I was and waited for the Others to come to me. The mist sent a chill through my bones, and I knew it wasn’t a natural chill. In fact, as the mist rose, I couldn’t help but feel that this was definitely one of the stronger Others that was coming. The cold I felt was so strong, I struggled to breathe. I had originally planned on waiting for Peaches and Cat to arrive before I began to fight them, but something in my brain told me that I couldn’t do that. Whoever was here was too powerful. If I didn’t fight them off now, we had no chance.
I took another deep breath and centered myself, focusing my energy inwards. I began to feel the energy building up, as I prepared to launch a fireball toward whoever was out there. However, even as I focused my energy, I could feel the cold building up inside of me, and as it rose through my ankles, and up my leg, the energy inside of me began to weaken.
I was clutched with fear as I realized what was happening; I looked around in panic. There were six of them coming at me, six Others. One of them, at the front, was bigger than the rest. He wore a long dark cloak, with a large hood at the top, except when I looked inside of the hood, there was nothing there. It was like it was empty.
I took another deep breath and tried again to build up the energy to summon a fireball, but it didn’t work once again. There were too many of them; they were too powerful.
Tears welled in my eyes as the cold took over not only my body, but also my thoughts. This was it. I was going to be taken, and not only was our plan going to fail, but this was the end of my life. I was going to suffer the same fate as my mother, the mother I had never really known.
Chapter 20
An immense sense of overwhelming grief and depression enveloped me. It felt like my emotions were crushing me from inside. I looked up toward the Others, determined to meet my fate head-on. As I looked toward them, a blinding light appeared behind them. Was this it? Was this how my life ended?
Suddenly, however, something changed. The cold that wrapped my bones began to dissipate slightly, and two more forms appeared behind the Others.
It was Cat and Peaches!
The light that had appeared behind the Others wasn’t some sort of magical death signifier, it was my cousins, and they had come to save me.
For the first time since the Others had appeared, I suddenly felt hope. Hope, and the need to save my cousins as well.
Once again, I focused the energy inside of me as hard as I could. This wasn’t just for me. This was for my cousins. This was for Chase. This was for Aunt Francine. Heck, this was even for Archibald. This was also for my mom.
The energy inside of me built up to a level that I had never experienced before. I clenched my eyes closed as I harnessed it, building it up to a level where I felt I could barely control it.
I imagined fire taking over everything, and when I opened my eyes, it was like I had unleashed the Furies of Hell.
A hurricane of flames flew out from around me. They weren’t normal flames however; within the flames flew a number of creatures, like cackling nymphs. The hurricane of fire sped out toward the Others, which caused them all to freeze in their tracks. I took advantage of the fire and passed between them, running to where my cousins stood.
“Good timing,” I said to Cat.
“Hey, you’ve saved my life a few times, I figured it was time to return the favor.”
“Did I kill them? I asked, turning back toward where the Others had been standing a minute earlier.
What I saw chilled me to the core. One of the black cloaks now lay empty on the ground; I had obviously killed one of them. But, that still left five of them to contend with, including the one at the front who was obviously the strongest of the lot.
“One down, five go,” Peaches said, determination written all over her face. I was proud of my cousin; she hadn’t wanted to be here and yet she was definitely giving it everything.
“How are we going to defeat them?” Cat asked. “That fire thing Alice just did was amazing, and it still only killed one of them.”
Peaches grabbed me by the hand. “We have to give Alice our powers,” she said. “It’s the only way.”
“What?” I asked.
“Take my hand too,” Cat explained. “Peaches and I will feed you our energy. You are the most powerful of the three of us, so you’re going to have to center it, and use all of our powers combined to destroy them.”
“I have no idea how to do that,” I said, my heart dropping. Maybe I should have paid more attention to Grandma Cee’s lessons.
“Just close your eyes, and focus your energy. Peaches and I will send you ours,” Cat said, nodding at her sister. “Trust us, it will work.”
I did trust Cat. And I trusted Peaches. And as the mist pulled again at her feet once more, with the Others beginning to move toward us, I closed my eyes and focused my energy once again.
Sure enough, to my immense surprise, I began to feel energy flowing from Peaches and Cat through my hands and joining in with my own energy in my torso. It was like my powers had multiplied, with the energy building up in a way I had never felt before, not even a moment earlier when I had sent forth the fire hurricane.
And unlike then, this time, I felt like I could control the power. As the energy inside of me built, I began to feel my own energy pulling at Cat and Peaches, almost sucking their magical powers out of them, and taking them for my own. The effect was immense; the energy inside of me had to be four, maybe five times more powerful than it normally was by itself.
When I finally unleashed it, it was unlike anything I had ever experienced.
The energy had been so immense that I wasn’t really sure how to control it. As a result, as soon as I unleashed the energy, I simply told it that I needed it to be fire. After all, fire was what destroyed the Others. Fire and light.
I felt the energy escaping me, but I didn’t dare to open my eyes for a second. I could feel my hair whipping around my face, and a roaring sound filled my ears. It was hot, very hot. When I finally opened my eyes, they widened in surprise.
I had created a tornado this time, a wall of fire that rose up to the sky, higher than I could see. It surrounded the three of us, and I noticed Cat and Peaches staring at it in a combination of awe and fear.
“We have to move toward them,” I said to my cousins, motioning toward the Others with my head. After all, they hated the fire. The three of us stepped toward them, closer and closer, and as we approached they actually began to step back in fear.
It was working!
One of the Others emitted a horrible screeching sound before collapsing to the ground, disappearing as well. Two down, four to go!
Immediately afterwards, another one disappeared, then another. By the time the energy inside of me ran out and the fire tornado exhausted itself, there was only one Other left standing: the biggest one.
I was vaguely aware of Peaches and Cat standing next to me, breathing just as heavily as I was as the fire dissipated and the last of the Others stood in front of us. I could barely see him, seeing as it was dark and he was dressed all in black, but I could feel his presence.
“We were so close,” Cat panted sadly. I knew exactly what she meant. We had defeated almost all of them. I had a sneaking suspicion that this was the main Other, that if we defeated him, they were gone for good.
And yet, I was completely drained. I felt like I’d just run a marathon. Or at least, what I imagined a marathon felt like; there was no way I would ever actually torture myself that way. Any energy I had was completely gone, and I knew Peaches and Cat felt the same way. Peaches’ legs were actually trembling.
“Should we try to run?” I asked the others as we took a couple of steps backwards. The Other looked like he was watching us, almost as if waiting to see if anything else was going to happen.
Normally, the fact that we had him on his toes was definitely going to be a win. Except, I knew we didn’t have the energy to do that again–and if that giant fire tornado wasn’t going to defeat him, I didn’t know what would.
It was now only a matter of time before he realized the three of us had no more energy and wouldn’t be able to resist him when he attacked once more. It was basically over now.
“There’s no need to run,” a familiar voice said from behind us. I turned around and my mouth dropped open as I saw Grandma Cee, wearing what appeared to be a full medieval knight’s armor, sauntering toward us. All four foot six of her.
“Grandma Cee?” I asked.
“You girls should have thought to invite me to the fun,” she said haughtily. “Luckily, Francine came to let me know what you were up to, and that you were in trouble.”
“And of course you just had that suit lying around,” Cat said, managing a small smile.
“Always be prepared to go into battle,” Grandma Cee said. “Now, what’s happening here?”
The Other began to sniff at the air as soon as Grandma Cee arrived. I wondered if he could hear us; I had a sneaking suspicion that he couldn’t. It was like he worked on smell alone. After all, body language cues could have told him that Peaches, Cat and I were definitely not about to attack him once more.
“I think you can guess,” I said. “We’re getting rid of the Others, once and for all.”
“And of course, you didn’t think of telling any grown-ups what you were doing.”
“We are grown-ups, Grandma. I’m almost thirty!” Cat replied. “Anyway, can you help us instead of chastising? We can’t beat this last one on our own. We need help.”
“Right. Come on. We’re going to make a power circle,” Grandma Cee said. “Hold hands now.”
The four of us made a circle, holding hands. It was kind of like when Peaches, Cat and I did it. “Now, focus your powers onto me,” Grandma Cee said.
“We’re quite weak,” I said, but Grandma Cee shook her head.
“No, you’re not.”
As she said it, instead of feeling like I’d just ran a marathon, I suddenly began to feel refreshed, kind of like I felt after going for a leisurely ten-minute walk.
I had a feeling whatever had happened, Grandma Cee’s magic was involved.
“Come on now, girls. No more time to lose,” Grandma Cee said. Out of the corner of my eye I saw she was right; the Other was gliding toward us, ready to make his move.
I closed my eyes and focused all of my energy toward my hands, willing it to the left, where my hand held Grandma Cee’s old and wrinkled one. Squeezing my eyes shut, I willed every ounce of power in my body to my grandmother, and even when my ears were filled with a roar I wasn’t sure was real or imagined, I kept my eyes shut, focusing on my powers, and transferring them to my Grandma.
In truth, it was mostly because I was too scared to open my eyes and see what was happening.
Eventually, I began to see stars, and a moment later I blacked out.
Chapter 21
“Alice? Alice, wake up!” I heard a voice say, then pain coursed through my face.
“Urgh, what the heck?”
“Oh good, she’s awake.”
“Who hit me?” It was obviously Cat.
“I did,” Cat replied. “You needed to wake up.”
“There are nicer ways to do that,” I complained, then as everything began to come back to me I sat up. “What happened to the Other?”
I looked around. I was sitting on the trail, loose pieces of gravel pressing into my hand. Cat, Peaches and Grandma Cee were all around me. A few nearby trees looked to be on fire. The empty hoods of the Others lay on the ground.
“We have to get out of here,” Peaches said, looking around furtively. “The trees were on fire when everything settled down; someone’s going to have noticed.”
“I don’t want to have to explain anything to the firefighters,” Grandma Cee said. “Although in our defense, we also did put out the fire straight away.”
“Ok,” I said, struggling to my feet as Peaches gave me a hand. “Let’s go. But first: are all the Others dead?”
Cat nodded. “Yes. Grandma Cee destroyed the last one. They’re gone. They’re all gone.”
A wave of relief washed over me as the four of us rushed away, back toward the village. The sounds of far-off sirens pierced the night air, and I knew they were right: someone had noticed the fire and called the department. We definitely had to get out of here.
Five minutes later we were all back in the bookshop, safe and sound.
“How did it go?” Aunt Francine’s ghost asked as soon as we entered, pacing the room.
“As well as could be expected,” Grandma Cee said. “The girls were in trouble, but we got out of it.”
“Oh I’m so glad to hear it,” Aunt Francine said, floating down onto a chair, the relief on her face evident. “And the Others?”
“Gone,” Grandma Cee said, her mouth a grim line. “They bit off more than they
could chew with four of us. What I can’t figure out is why they went after all three of the girls together. They usually wait until we’re alone.”
“We sent Alice out as bait,” Cat answered. “We did a telepathy spell before, so she could call out for help when they found her.”
Oh yeah, I guess that’s still going, I thought to Cat, who grinned at me in reply.
Aunt Francine’s mouth dropped open. “Are you serious? That’s so incredibly dangerous! I can’t believe you would do that!”
“It worked, though,” I answered. “As soon as I felt the Others, I called out to Cat and Peaches. We had already determined the route I was going to take beforehand, so they just had to follow the Valley Trail until they found me.”
“I suppose they must have been desperate. After all, Alice had now killed two of them. They must have really, really wanted her power.”
“And what an extraordinary power it is,” Aunt Francine said. “You really are your mother’s daughter. She would have been so proud of you.”
“And angry at you,” Grandma Cee said. “Your mother was an incredibly cautious woman; she never would have even considered doing what you girls did tonight.”
“I just can’t believe that’s it,” Peaches said.
“We don’t know that for sure, do we Cat?” I asked, looking over at my cousin. Cat shook her head.
“No. But that one in the middle, he seemed like he was way bigger than the others. And he was definitely bigger than the one that came after me a few weeks ago. My bet is that he was the ultimate Other. I think they’re gone for good.”
“We’ll have to try and draw them out for good tomorrow night,” I said.
“No, absolutely not,” Grandma Cee replied. “You girls have done enough. I will deal with ensuring that we have finally defeated the Others once and for all.”
I turned to look at Aunt Francine. “What does all this mean for you? I mean, now that the Others have been presumably defeated, that means your reason for staying back here is over, right?”
Pride and Premeditation: A Cozy Mystery (Magical Bookshop Mystery Book 5) Page 11