“And a couple of spiders are going to provide this much protection?” Dadga didn’t quite sound belligerent; but it’s awfully close.
“That would be ridiculous, now wouldn’t it?” Isla replies. “It will take millions of spiders.”
“Millions. Of spiders. And I have to call them.” I so did not sign up for this. When Dad became a ghost, I quickly taught Zac to be the spider killer in the house. I don’t go near the things.
I look over to Kallen for moral support and both he and Kegan are trying hard not to laugh. I even catch a smirk on Dagda’s before he’s able to cover it up. They won’t think it’s so funny when we get eaten alive by rabid spiders.
Half an hour later, Isla has gathered the grimoire I need for the spell and the items that go with it. I’m sitting glumly on the terrace anticipating the feeling of a million little spider mouths tearing at my skin. So caught up in it, I jump when I feel a hand on my shoulder. Instantly, I’m flooded with magic.
Kegan puts his hands up and backs away from me. “Whoa, it is just me. I thought maybe you needed cheering up. But if it is target practice you need, I will leave that to my cousin.”
“Yes, only the strong survive when Xandra uses her magic. You would wither like the delicate flower you are,” Kallen says as he comes up behind Kegan and lightly punches him in the arm.
Meanwhile, I try really hard to push the magic back down. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Dagda watching me and I don’t like it; he’s creeping me out. I shift my chair so I’m pointing farther in the opposite direction.
Kegan and Kallen exchange a few more barbs, but Kallen backs off after a minute. He comes over and kneels in front of me. “I believe Kegan was right, you do look like you need some cheering up.” He brings his lips to mine in a sweet, gentle kiss.
In a flash, his lips are gone. I open my eyes to see him sprawled on the floor of the terrace with Dagda standing over him. “You will not disrespect me by treating my daughter like that in front of me.”
Kallen rises to his feet with a rage and starts to go after Dagda, but I stand up quickly and step between them, putting my hand on Kallen’s chest. “Kallen, please, let me handle this.” He is full of magic and so is Dagda. I’m not at all curious who would win this fight.
When I’m reasonably sure that Kallen is going to stay put, I round on Dagda. “First of all, don’t ever refer to yourself as my father. I have one of those and you are not him. And secondly, if I want to kiss the guy I’m planning become hand-fasted with, you have absolutely nothing to say about it.”
“She is correct, Dagda,” Isla says and it’s his turn to be startled. He should be on guard a little better than that with people trying to kill him. Then again, so should I. “The hand-fasting is to occur when this situation will not mar the festivities.”
Dagda looks even more pissed now. “Then why have I not heard his petition for permission?”
“As High Chancellor, it is my job to hear petitions for hand-fasting, not the King’s.”
He better not say it. I’ll be really pissed if he does. “I am not speaking as King. I am speaking as the girl’s father.” Wow, he actually said it.
He seems surprised when he goes flying off the terrace. I don’t know why. I did warn him. I walk to the wall and peer over it with my arms crossed over my chest. Dagda is sprawled in the sand. I think he got the wind knocked out of him. “You really should start listening to what I say. You are not my father. Do not act like you are.”
Dagda picks himself up. “You are pushing me too far.”
I shrug. “Thanks for sharing.”
Isla says softly behind me, “Xandra, tigers and sticks.” A little louder, she says, “We are ready to begin. Dagda, if you want to be inside of the protected area, I suggest you come back up here.” Dagda glares at me as he’s brushing the sand off his clothes. But, I ignore him and start to focus on spiders eating me again.
Amidst the spider horror show going on in my head, there’s a nagging at the back of my mind that I can’t shake. I keep thinking that I forgot about something. If I could just fig…crap. “Um, Isla?”
She turns towards me. “Yes?”
“I still have Rhiannon pinned to a chair in the sitting room.”
There’s a tiny tightening around her eyes. Other than that, there’s no reaction to the news, other than saying, “Let her go so you can focus all of your magic on the spell. I will ask Tabitha to see to her until we are finished here.” Yeah, finished getting eaten by spiders. On the bright side, it looks like Rhiannon will be eaten, too.
I walk to the edge of the terrace where Isla told me I need to stand. Dagda passes me on his way up the stairs and I can see that he’s just itching to retaliate, but he doesn’t. That could be because he sent his last two bodyguards home just in case they were the ones who ratted out his location. There’s no cannon fodder between him and me, now.
Kallen and Kegan jog around from the back of the house where they were finishing up laying crystals. These will give the spiders a starting point for their webs. Isla lights four black candles and places them around me in the north, east, west and south positions. And for some reason, she just happened to have a giant jar of bugs just lying around the house for the guys to spread out between the crystals. Yeah, that’s not suspicious at all. She could have just said that she had a vision that we would have to do this. I just hope in the vision that I did it successfully. I don’t want to die a spider death.
Isla places the ancient grimoire in my hands. I almost drop it. I didn’t realize the thing weighs like twenty pounds. I try not to glare at her for not warning me that it’s heavy, but I don’t think I succeeded. That’s okay; I’m think I’m a little overly sensitive right now.
The book is already open to the spell. I read it over once in my head before speaking it out loud. When I’m done, I look around to make sure everyone is inside the protected area. Tabitha is inside dealing with Rhiannon, but everyone else is on the terrace. With a deep, worried breath, I begin to say the spell.
“As the wind blows south, east, north, and west, I call my plea to you, the great mistress. During this, my hour of need, as malicious forces come to feed, grant me your power and wisdom, as in this realm I create a schism, between virtuous and baneful, well-being and peril. With sand and earth, crystal and flame, I offer a sacrifice in your name.”
Isla hands me a small silver knife similar to Mom’s athame. I use it to cut my arm until a stream of blood begins to run down over my hand. And, yes, it hurts as much as I thought it would. Ignoring the pain, I turn in a circle, letting the blood continue to flow, and I use it to douse each candle.
“Brightest day, turns to blackest night, guide me with your eternal light. Magic black, I am forced to use, justified as thine enemy pursues. An unnatural course of nature and time, your sacred creatures I will bind. Bend their will to run this course, protect us from this evil force. In your name, eight legged creatures I will hold fast, arachnids, I beg, answer this call for your next repast. Bring your silk, more precious than gold, a fortress now, your gift will hold. Nature has bestowed upon you the power; spin me a web in this darkest hour. Your mighty strings will hold all at bay, only I may choose who will stay. Hear my call, come to feast, leave your gift, your will unleashed.”
This is the part that I really, really don’t want to say. But I do. “If you find my mind and soul untrue, this body of mine I offer to you. If my heart is just and pure, my safety you will help ensure.”
Magic bursts from the ground, rushing through me with a painful force that brings me to my hands and knees. Kallen rushes to my side, but I hold my hand up to stop him from touching me. I don’t even know how I have the strength to do that as my body is being fileted from the inside out. But if he touches me, my magic will burn through him with so much heat and unleashed power, that I don’t know if he could even survive it. It’s forever before the burning of the black magic finally lets my body rest as it shoots visibly outwards in all direct
ions like it has a life force of its own. Even Dagda’s and Isla’s mouths are hanging open as they watch the fireworks of magic explode around us for as far as the eye can see. As quickly as it started, it subsides as it begins its search for the creatures I’ve called forth.
For a moment, there is nothing as I try to breathe again. Even the sea seems to quiet. And then it starts. A rumble at first, and then thunder, and then an explosion of sound as from every direction of the sand and forest, spiders big and small come out of their hiding places and converge around us. The ground has turned black and the pounding of millions of eight-legged creatures is unbelievable deafening.
The longest moments of my life are the ones where we watch in hopeful fear to see where the spiders will stop. Will they be bound by the crystals left as a map as to where their webs should begin; or will they climb the walls and stairs of the terrace and leave no web at all. Just bodies. Or bones.
A scream from the doorway causes all of our heads to swing in that direction; mine more painfully than the rest. Rhiannon is frozen in place next to Tabitha. The only thing moving is her vocal chords. With the last few ounces of my magic that is not working the spell, I take her breath away, leaving her to scream silently in the open air.
Now, I can’t move at all. I’m the anchor that the magic clings to as it tries to coerce the spiders to do my bidding. It’s draining me, and I feel myself weakening. I’m going to lose consciousness soon. As my eyes close to darkness, I see the first signs that the spiders have begun to spin webs.
Chapter 14
For the first time, I wake up exactly where I passed out. Well, sort of. I’m pretty sure that I fell on the ground and now I’m cradled in someone’s lap. It better be Kallen’s. My body is sore everywhere. I feel like someone turned me inside out, threw me in the dryer, then took me out and put my skin on the outside again. Hmm, maybe not that bad. I feel much worse than that.
I crack my eyes open, thinking that I’m going to be accosted by burning rays from the sun. I must have been out for a while because it’s dim and shadowy. The sun must be setting. Kallen doesn’t notice I’m coming around because his face is turned up as he looks intently at something. Opening my eyes a little wider, I discover what that something is. And why I’m not being accosted by the sun. Not because I’ve been unconscious for a long time. It’s because, apparently, if you have a million spiders weaving a giant web, it can get thick enough to block out the sun.
I startle Kallen when I sit up; he’s so engrossed in watching the spiders. I still must have been out for a while, because the spiders are about three quarters of the way done. And it’s the scariest thing I have ever seen in my whole life. I really hope I never see anything scarier.
There is a solid wall circling the house made of both spiders and web. Spiders of every shape and color are swarming over the silk, reinforcing it and moving it ever higher. Soon, it will join together at the center and we will be completely isolated within this spiders’ womb. I’m not usually claustrophobic, but being trapped like a fly in a giant spider web is pressing all of my panic buttons. I take several deep breaths to try to calm my heart rate. They don’t help. Especially as the question of how many spiders will be trapped in here with us rolls through my mind.
I look around the terrace at everyone, and their faces display a range of subdued fascination to out and out horror. The latter is Rhiannon. I think she’d still be screaming if I had let her keep her voice. I’m betting she has nightmares of this day for the rest of her life. She did try to drown me, so I can’t say I have a lot of sympathy for her.
I can still feel the pull of magic as the spiders do my bidding, but it’s not the wrenching and tearing it was earlier. Now, it’s a soft strain. Enough magic holds on to me to anchor the spell, but most of it is spread out amongst the spiders.
“What have you done?” Dagda asks in awe. I’m not sure if he’s talking to me or Isla. Probably both. “We are literally their prisoners.”
I don’t like the sound of that. I don’t think anyone else does, either. So, we ignore him and continue to watch the spiders in absolute quiet. Kallen has wrapped his arms around me, pulling me close. I lean my head back against his chest and marvel at the power of black magic. I’m wondering if the spell was forgotten because it was impossible to perform, or was it forgotten to prevent anyone from being entombed alive. Dagda’s right. If nothing can get in, then nothing can get out, either. And there goes my blood pressure again.
I can’t take the silence any more. “Um, why did we do this again?”
Isla answers. “To give us time to prepare our defenses without the possibility of ambush.”
“Oh. That’s right.” It sounded much better when it was just a theory. Now, it sounds asinine considering what we have gotten ourselves into.
It takes another hour for the spiders to bring the wall together at the top. Someone says something every now and again, but no real conversations get started. As the wall on top gets closer to being finished, a collective sigh of relief is breathed over the terrace as the spiders file towards the last tiny opening, putting themselves outside the wall. And then, our tomb is complete.
“Where did they go?” Alita asks. “Are they still on the outside of the wall?”
I shake my head. “No, the spell set them free once they did my will.”
As if to prove me right, a whoosh of magic rushes back into me and it takes everything I have not to cry out with pain. It feels ten times worse than having been filled with lava. Okay, I’ve never been filled with lava, but I’m still sure it’s ten times worse. My back arches and I’m gasping for breath. It takes me a minute to realize that I’m not holding all of it. Kallen’s arms have fallen from my waist and his chest is no longer behind me. Instead of flowing through me and flowing to the ground, it’s looking for escape. And Kallen’s body was the only one touching mine. It’s only line of outflow besides the ground.
“He can’t take that much magic!” I hear Isla shout. “Dagda, take her hand or he will die.”
Oh god, what am I doing? Where are my wings? I barely register hands on mine until the magic spreads out in three directions now. I feel their struggle to push the magic back inside of me, but it won’t go. I hear Isla calling for Kegan and Tabitha to join them. Even Rhiannon is made to fight my magic. My magic that is killing Kallen. Why are my wings letting this happen? This is what they are for! They wouldn’t let me kill Rhiannon, why are they letting me kill Kallen?
Unless I’m not really in trouble. Unless I can control this magic. Urim warned me about this. Standing up, I painfully fill my lungs with oxygen, close my eyes and with extreme determination, I take control. The first thing I have to do is draw the magic from Kallen. He’s unconscious and not able to fight against it. With a force that makes me stagger, I wrench my magic from his body. It rushes through me and tries to use the outlets Dagda and Isla have created. If they had been lesser Fairies, they would not have survived it. But, I need them to stop fighting it. It sees them as a threat. With a will I didn’t know I possessed, I pull their magic towards me and then fling it back to them. This much magic in one place and time causes an imbalance and a sonic boom tries to deafen me as the grips on my hands fall away. Now, it’s just me and my magic. And I will conquer it.
I force it bit by bit back through me. The pain is intense; I can feel the tears flowing down my cheeks. But, it’s going. I don’t know how long the struggle lasts. I just know how relieved I am when I am finally magic free. Now, I can open my eyes and assess the damage.
Dagda is holding a hand to his head and blood is trickling between his fingers. Kegan is sitting against the wall nursing his arm and knee. Tabitha has bloody knees; she must have fallen hard. Rhiannon is crying. I don’t know if it’s because of everything going on, or if she’s in that much pain. Isla’s gray streaked hair is singed and she seems to be having trouble standing on one of her legs. I feel badly about hurting them, but, honestly, Kallen is the only one I care about right n
ow. I drop to my knees beside him and lay my ear against his chest. I can hear his heart beating. It’s weak, but regular, and his chest is moving up and down in shallow breaths.
I move so I can lay his head in my lap. Stroking his pale face, I debate whether I should let him heal on his own, or if I should pull magic to heal him.
As though she can read my mind, Isla says, “Xandra, let him be. He is fine. We need to get him inside, but he is not in danger.” Just short of hobbling, she makes her way to us. She attempts to kneel down next to Kallen, presumably to help get him inside.
“Isla, you are injured. Let Kegan and I bring him inside.” I have to admit, I’m shocked. After all Dagda’s said to Kallen since we came to this realm, I wouldn’t have thought he would do anything to help him. Obviously, he still cares about him.
“Yes, Grandmother, I agree,” Kegan says and he almost stumbles when he rises to his feet, but he’s able to right himself.
In a moment, he and Dagda have lifted Kallen from the ground. Dagda is holding him under his armpits and Kegan has his feet. I want to help, but they won’t let me. I think they’re afraid I might accidently touch them and bring on the pain from earlier. I can’t blame them. It’s a long trip up the stairs, but they manage to get him to the top. Isla is following slowly behind us.
Witch Fairy book 3 Page 18