"Squeeze the staff and will it to return to the box."
The staff vanished, and just as quickly I called it back to my hands. "This is easier than the wand."
"The wand will feel effortless after a bit of practice. Do you like it?"
"Like it? I love it. Thank you, Elron." I hugged him.
It took a second, but his arms came around me, and his head rested against mine. Then he released me and quickly stepped back. The smile didn't change the sadness in his eyes. "I am glad. Where would you like to store the boxes?"
I smiled back, ignoring his sadness and my own. "Why don't we put them in my bedroom closet? I can find a better place for them later, but that should keep them out of the way."
I picked up the wand box as he grabbed the staff box and followed me. It didn't take much time to stash them. Elron left me rearranging shoes, and I tried to push away my fears. No matter what I'd dreamed, or what Elron's subconscious had said, there was no guarantee we would resume our relationship. He didn't seem to be remembering, and I doubted he would be able to process those feelings after facing Sylvia. What an unfair world it was, with so much pain and not nearly enough joy.
Varro came out of the bathroom as I tucked the last pair of shoes into their spot, and we walked into the main room together. He didn't waste any time, calling both of us over to the table.
"We don't have much time if we want to be ready when the next attack comes. I'll go over the plan, detail how we are going to kill the demon, teach you how to prepare the demon's bane, and teach Michelle the spells she'll need. We'll also need Julius."
Chapter 17: Michelle
I'd practiced calling and dismissing my wand until my hand cramped. Elron and Varro had taken over my kitchen and turned the demon's bane into a liquid, paste, and powder. I'd gone over the spells more times than I cared to count, and Elron had been quizzing Varro on plants, Gremory, Leshy Apalchen, killing demons, and anything else that came to his mind.
"Guys, I have to take a break." The two of them looked at me, surprise written all over their faces. I kept rubbing my hand, trying to get my fingers to straighten.
"You don't use your hand to listen to me," Varro said.
"No, but my headache is making it hard to focus. I need an hour to get out of this place and clear my head." Exhaling, I got my middle finger to flatten. Only the index finger was continuing to curl.
"I suppose we could all use an hour to rest," Elron spoke slowly, keeping his eyes on Varro.
Varro had a perturbed look. "My voice has been bothering me, so I suppose a break would be beneficial. I can't think of a good reason for you to leave, and I can think of several reasons for you to stay inside the lodge."
"I agree; being here is better than leaving. That's why I'm going to go for a walk rather than a drive." A drive to the coffee shop sounded relaxing, but it wasn't the responsible thing to do. I needed to be here, learning everything I could from Varro while he was around. I would continue my education as soon as my brain stopped hurting.
The men nodded.
"You should take Ty with you, and if you are not back in an hour, I will start searching for you," Elron said.
"Deal." I smiled at him as I pulled a coat out of the closet and bolted out the door.
The tension in my head eased the moment I stepped outside. The fall air was crisp, the fallen leaves had turned the ground golden, and the mountains cast long shadows. I spent a few minutes at my altar, finding a taste of tranquility, something that had been in short supply lately. The nearby oak tree swayed in the breeze, and the white pine dropped several pinecones. Under me, the earth was a steady and soothing presence.
I bid the clearing good-bye and hoped I didn't get any forest-dwelling visitors. The one was all I could take today. Life in general had been more exciting than I liked, and if I made it through killing the demon, I was looking forward to quieter times. It would be nice to get back to flaming vases and disenchanting the items from Union County.
Ty started grunting and wagging his tail as soon as he caught sight of me from his favorite spot at the corner of the lodge. I went over to pet and hug him, glad to see the big guy.
"What do you think about giving me a ride?" I whispered.
He nodded enthusiastically.
I climbed up a tree and dropped onto his back. Ty was rounder than the chubbiest pony, and I couldn't get a good grip. From this angle, the ground looked more than twelve feet away, and I vowed to get a helmet before I tried this again.
"All right, Ty. Let's go down the driveway… gently." If he kept to a walk, I should be able to hold on, but if he moved up to a trot I was done.
Ty moved out at a slow walk, carefully picking his way around Landa's garden, missing flowerbeds, hedges, and sculptures. We made it out of the garden, and I started to relax into his gait, which at this speed was an exaggerated sway that reminded me of the way people looked riding camels.
Each thump of his foot shook the trees, sending red and gold leaves raining down upon us. Throwing my head back, I soaked in the evening sun trailing across my skin. The breeze picked up, and I opened my eyes to see funnels of leaves dance across the ground.
At the end of the driveway, Ty looked both ways before swinging into the road to make a gentle circle before taking me home. Thankfully, there wasn't a car in sight. One of these days I would have to figure out what to do if someone happened to see Ty. It wouldn't do to alarm the locals.
Besides, I'd never get over it if they went from saying, "There's gold in them thar hills," to "There's a T-Rex in them thar hills." Not to mention all the ruckus that would come from people trying to hunt Ty. By the time the memory faded and only a handful of people remembered there was a dinosaur hiding in the North Georgia woods, it would've caused me more than one headache.
The air was forced out of my chest by the heavy object that hit me in the ribs. My fingers clawed at Ty's back, but without anything to grip, I slid off. The fall seemed to go on and on. Ty's shoulders, ribs, and stomach slipped past me, and I tried to think.
I should've worn a helmet. Mom had told me over and over that helmets saved lives, and I'd never gotten on a bike without one. Riding a dinosaur had to be more dangerous than a bike. I should've gone on foot with Ty walking next to me. His knee flashed in front of my eyes. This was going to hurt. If only the ground wasn't so hard.
The last thought sparked an idea. I scrunched my eyes shut, focused on the ground under me, and whispered, "Orzu."
My back hit the ground, which bowed down and absorbed the impact. My head wasn't even jostled by the cushioned landing. I lay there, wrinkling my nose at the less-than-pleasant scent permeating the air, and looked up to a snorting Ty.
"I'm all right."
His snort turned into a snarl. Mouth open, he lunged at me, snapping his jaw shut inches from my right arm. Before I could protest his attitude change, he lunged forward, a big foot looming overhead.
"Fehu." The ground under me solidified, and I rolled to the side, his foot just missing me. The second foot was on the move, and I scrambled out of the way, scraping hands and knees in the process. Looking over my shoulder, I saw a dark shape lunging for me. I shuffled to the side, lost my balance navigating over roots, and landed on my butt.
Ty was backing up to extract himself from the trees that had delayed his pursuit of the human-shaped thing attacking me. It ran into a sunbeam, giving the ghoul more detail than I'd wanted to see. There wasn't a good way for me to figure out if it was a greater ghoul, but assuming it was, I didn't have enough time to put together a good spell, and I couldn't outrun it. I crab walked backward, trying to buy myself enough time to make a plan.
The ghoul launched itself at me, and I plopped down, held my hands out in front of me, and hoped Elron's trick worked. The staff settled into my hands, and by some bit of luck I got it positioned correctly, holding it across the ghoul's chest. For being mostly bone, it was heavy.
My arms started shaking, and its fingers scraped my ar
ms and chest as it tried to grab me. The odor of rotting flesh filled my nose until it was all I could do to keep my last meal inside my body. The trembling in my arms had gotten bad enough that the ghoul was swaying inches closer to me.
Letting my right arm dip gave me enough room to get a foot on the ghoul's pelvis. As its fingers scraped my neck, I held my breath and heaved it off me. It didn't go far, but it was enough room for me to get to my feet and get a better grip on the staff.
The ghoul charged at me again, and I whacked it across the rib cage. The impact ruptured tendons, leaving strips of muscle dangling off its bones. The thing stumbled back, steadied itself, and slowly approached me.
When it was within reach, I aimed the staff at its legs. The ghoul jumped over the staff and, before I could get it back in a defensive position, knocked me down. I tried to get the staff up, but my hand slipped, and the staff wasn't in a useful position when the ghoul reached down. A dark shape loomed over the two of us, and the ghoul was picked up and hurled into the woods.
Ty kept his eyes on the ghoul, which had crashed through a few limbs, while I sucked in clean air. I vanished the staff, called in my wand, and tried to think of the best thing to do now. Ty's growls had probably alerted the lodge, but they didn't know what was out here, and Varro had said we needed to capture the next creature. It would've been nice if Gremory had sent an annoying but mostly harmless creature like a gremlin or spider, but that wasn't his style.
The ghoul was up and running at us, minus an arm. I stepped back to give Ty room to work. If Ty could keep it away from me, I might be able to adapt a spell Varro had been teaching me. One of these days I had to put aside some time to practice purifying power and spells.
Ty tossed the ghoul back into the woods, and I started tracing runes in the air with my wand. Haphazardly mixing the elements of two spells wasn't ideal. The shield bubble needed to be purified so the ghoul couldn't get out, and it needed enough power to sustain the spell for a while. This would be a lot of effort for nothing if the ghoul got out in a few hours.
Under my fingers, the wand was warm and buzzing, as if it was generating its own energy to augment mine. I got the power purification runes right, and the rest slid together easily. Ty was getting ready for his next defensive move when the silvery sphere encapsulated the ghoul.
The ghoul had picked up its missing limb when he was in the woods and was using it as a club to beat against the inside of the sphere. Breathing a sigh of relief, I took a moment to look around. Sometime during the scuffle, we'd moved off the road and into Landa's driveway. With a little luck, no one had driven by during the scuffle. The police showing up at the house wouldn't improve anything.
I dismissed the wand and patted Ty. "Thank you, buddy, I don't know what I would've done without you. He lowered his head, and I leaned against his cheek. "You are a very good boy. Do you think you can help me get the ghoul back to the lodge?"
Ty nodded.
I walked over to the silvery sphere and gave it a push. It rolled across the ground without much effort, sending the ghoul tumbling around. Once I got it going, Ty took over, nosing it around like a dog herding a ball. The ghoul somersaulted and flopped onto the bottom of the ball, clinging to that spot long enough to ride it up before being hurled back to the bottom. Ty ran after the sphere and nosed it again. I really needed to make some dinosaur-sized toys. He loved to play.
The trip home was slower, mostly because we were restricted to my tired shuffle. The two of us rolled the ghoul into the parking lot, and I plopped down on the stairs. I needed a shower. Between rolling through the dirt and grappling with the ghoul, my clothes were bloody and torn, cuts on my hands and knees continued to ooze, and I smelled like rotten corpse.
If I'd had any doubts about my parents leaving, this had silenced them. Dad's house might not be safer or under my watchful eye, but Mom would've had a fit if she saw me like this. The ghoul wouldn't have gone over well either. Dad would've been bit more relaxed, but even he was bound to get upset at some point.
The front door opened and Elron's voice drifted out. "We were getting worried. Where have you… Never mind that. Are you all right? What happened?"
Elron bounded down the stairs, knelt down, and started patting me for injuries. I can't say the attention helped my bruised body, but the worry was charming.
"I'm banged up but fine. Turns out, Varro was right; taking a walk was a bad idea. We were at the end of the driveway when the ghoul jumped me, but I captured it so we can move on to the killing-the-demon part of things. That's good, right?" The moment the words escaped, I wanted to call them back.
Elron's hands shook, but that didn't slow down his inspection of my leg. When he spoke, his voice was steady. "That would be beneficial."
"Ty and your bracelet saved me." His eyes met mine, and I continued. "You were right. I didn't have enough time for a spell, but the staff kept it off me until Ty could help."
"When things settle down, we will be practicing three times a week."
"Three? Is that really necessary?" I groaned, but that could've been from his poking my scraped knee.
"It is. When I learned the staff, I had to practice daily. Three times a week is my concession to your busy life and other skills. We can always practice more." He winked.
"Three is good."
Elron set down my leg and studied the remains standing in the opalescent sphere. Ty's attention was fixed on the ghoul, which was reattaching its arm.
"What are we going to do with it?" I asked. Sure, the spell was holding, but I wasn't sure how long it would last. That was one of the dangers of cobbling together complex spells on the fly—the parameters could get lost, overextend, or be insufficient.
"That is a question for Varro." Elron touched a finger to the wooden railing and a slight shudder radiated into the building.
Between the fight and the slow walk home, the sun had drifted closer to the horizon, and the mountains were casting long shadows over the ground. The breeze cut through my sweater, raising goose bumps on my arms. The chill crept under my skin and into my heart. With the captured ghoul, we were ready for the last part of Varro's plan.
Tears welled up in my eyes, and I ducked my head so Elron wouldn't see. Varro had drilled the plan into our heads. Once we captured the demon's next attacker, we would use it to draw Gremory to us and kill him. Whether he'd want to start that part of the plan tonight or tomorrow, I couldn't say, but this night could be my last with Elron.
Since finding that diary, I'd felt like there was an invisible timer counting down until things changed again. Between Gremory, Sylvia, Elron, and Varro, there was so much that could happen. Moving forward, every path had some or many undesirable results.
A sharp whistle caught my attention. Blinking furiously to clear the moisture out of my eyes, I looked up to see Julius gliding into the parking lot. He landed and examined the ghoul on his way over to us.
"It's good to see him captured. I noticed his arrival but lost him in the forest and ended up searching for him in the wrong area. My apologies that I was not nearby to help," Julius said.
"It's fine. Ty and I got him."
Julius looked over his should to see Ty nodding. "I see. Excellent work."
"So it has happened," Varro said from the porch.
Elron's hand tightened around mine, and I gave what I hoped was a reassuring squeeze. Varro stepped around us as he came down the stairs to look at my catch. He exchanged a curt nod with Julius and paced around the ghoul several times.
With a sigh, he turned back to us. "I had hoped we would have more time, but that won't be the case. There is much to do and little time. Elron, help Michelle get cleaned up. Julius and I shall store the ghoul."
"But what if the spell fails? I made up that spell on the spot; I don't know if it will hold." However, considering the energy it had sucked out of me, it should hold for a while.
"Does it feel like it's going to fail?" Varro asked.
"No," I mumbled.
He nodded. "Then I think it will be fine, but Julius will help ensure that the ghoul doesn't escape. Go clean up. We can handle this."
"It is the least I can do after losing the ghoul in the first place," Julius said.
"Thank you, Julius." I smiled. "Varro, you said we didn't have much time. How much time are we talking about?"
"We should finish the spells and be ready for action by one in the morning." Varro spoke to me but kept his eyes on Elron.
I nodded, as did Elron. Turning to Elron, I softly asked, "Could you help me up? I'm afraid I've gotten stiff while sitting here."
Elron hoisted me to my feet, and I bit back a groan. What the fall hadn't bruised, the tussle with the ghoul had. As he helped me up the stairs, I called over my shoulder, "Thank you, Ty. You were a good boy. Have fun, but keep watch."
Ty snorted loudly and started around the corner of the lodge. Varro and Julius followed him, carefully rolling the ghoul-filled shield. The ghoul had finally gotten the hang of being rolled and was crawling forward with the movement of the sphere.
"Do you have any healing charms?" Elron asked.
"Yup." I'd made a fresh batch the other day. They were a necessity in my line of work, though until recently they'd been for colleagues and victims. Maybe when the demon was dead I could reduce my injury rate. There was nothing good about being beaten up, no matter how good the cause. Given the option, I'd rather solve problems in a way that didn't involve cuts or bruises. I didn't mind holding the line between criminals and the rest of the population, but being on the bleeding edge of the line wasn't fun.
"You should use one. The salve won't treat all your injuries."
I wanted to argue, inform him that I wasn't injured and didn't need to be healed, but I couldn't. My leg had tightened up enough that it was a struggle to set it on the next step. Elron sighed, lifted me up, and carried me to the top of the stairs.
Swallowing what remained of my pride, I spoke softly. "Thank you. I thought I was in better shape than this."
A Witch's Trial (Witch's Path Series: Book 3) Page 19