Victoria knelt beside her and Elizabeth sat cross-legged.
“Earth witches aren’t usually fighters,” Victoria commented as Jill took a couple of practice swings.
Victor set the circle black. Unlike the blue fire and water barriers, this flame wasn’t transparent.
“Tell that to my mother.”
Victoria thought about the healing she had just gone through.
“Is your mother more violent than Jill?”
Victor moved fast to avoid a strike from Jill that could have cut him in half.
“Definitely,” Elizabeth answered.
Victoria glanced away from the sword fight to the sweet-looking witch beside her.
“And where do you rate on the scale of violence?”
Jill was slamming at Victor gladiator style. Her sword was way bigger than a witch her size should be able to handle. No doubt, Jill was using earth-powered strength to swing it and lightning reflexes earned by practice, not magic.
“I’m the wickedest witch of them all,” Elizabeth said.
She didn’t think Elizabeth was lying.
Jill was finally on the defensive. Victor's sword was as big as hers and he had more years swinging it.
The fighting was quick and brutal, no quarter given as he drove Jill right to the circle’s edge.
“Burn,” he growled at Jill. “It’s not just a sword.”
She lit it up with blue. The fire leapt from the blade as she swung, three snakes hissing with forked tongues to attack Vic.
Her crazy brother laughed, dancing back from the fire-snakes to swing his sword in a circle.
He called his own familiar with blue edged by black. The fire-tiger was bigger than Victoria’s familiar and difficult to control. It snapped at Jill’s snakes for a snack and then eyed the witch for supper.
“Enough!” Victor called out, swinging his sword in reverse and forcing the tiger back into his chi.
He told Jill how to do the same, so her snakes were reabsorbed.
They finished off swinging their swords at each other for a few more minutes.
Jill was faster and stronger, but Victor was more experienced. It proved Jill’s undoing in the end.
He got behind her with a headlock, sheathing his sword on his back, one handed.
Jill admitted defeat and he released her.
“Snakes. I guess if they belong to an earth witch, then they’re poisonous as well,” Victoria said.
“What was that?” Elizabeth asked.
“Her familiar. The sword makes it easier to call out your familiar. Usually, it would take a spell, but it’s not just a matter of speaking the words. Few know the Maerenian spells for it, anyway. A fire-sword makes the connection easier.”
Victoria knew the spells. In fact, she specialized in old Maerenian magic and language.
“I can teach you the spell later. You’ll need to master a circle first and a few other things before advanced spells,” she told Elizabeth.
“I’ve never seen Jill’s familiar before,” Elizabeth said. “Our father died when we were young, and our mother doesn’t know much about fire. Jill kind of learned on her own. Can other magic types manifest a familiar?”
“They won’t manifest without a spell or spelled weapon, but everyone has a familiar, if they have magic. Most are too weak to be made visible. They probably wouldn't come out, so close to the edge. The magic needed to make your familiar appear is significant. Most of the time, a familiar lives inside of your chi.”
Jill looked shocked and happy at the same time. She was never going to give the sword back to Victor.
Weapons were a big hit.
Victoria eyed Elizabeth’s slim pickings. She may be very good with daggers, but they were still a small damage weapon.
“Are you sure you don’t want a bow or something else?” she asked. Numbers of weapons could make up for intensity.
Victor dropped the circle.
“I have you, right?” Elizabeth asked.
“Well, of course,” Victoria assured her. “Victor will come, too, and your sister is pretty kick-ass.”
“That will be enough.”
“It won’t replace twenty-five inches of iron. You can still wield a fire-sword, even if you are a wet wick. Just stick the sharp end in the right direction.”
“I’ll think about it,” Elizabeth hedged.
Jill was getting outfitted with a back sheath for her new sword.
Victor had to growl something at Jill to get her to let go of the sword before he sheathed it.
He let her practice drawing it a few times, then added a few more weapons to her arsenal, including a matched pair of short swords.
“Hey, Medusa, let’s get a move on!” Elizabeth yelled at her sister.
“Okay. I won’t be able to walk if I wear any more weapons.”
Jill had to be exaggerating given her earth. She could probably bench Victor.
They were out of spots to strap weapons to her body, however, and Victor felt that was enough.
He stepped back with a satisfied smile.
“What are you bringing?” Jill asked, eyeing her sister’s unencumbered dress.
“My imagination.”
Victoria had no idea why that little comeback made Jill laugh.
Elizabeth was packing seriously light, considering she was also low on air.
“Oh, and Victoria gave me some more chalk.”
Chalk wasn’t going to save her ass in an emergency. Glyphs took too long to write.
“I also got pointy weapons.”
Jill froze for a second. “Be careful with those. I’d rather not patch up anybody getting on the wrong side of your temper.”
Victor interrupted with a frustrated sigh. “She doesn’t need weapons.”
“O-Of course,” Elizabeth stammered, her surprise evident. She’d already said it a couple of times herself.
“Daemon is gone. She can’t be left defenceless,” Victoria said.
“He claimed her publicly. Nobody will touch her,” Victor insisted.
Jill looped her arm with Elizabeth as they walked out of the practice room.
“Aren’t you so glad there is a big, strong male to protect you?” Jill teased.
“Shut up, before I stab you with these baby air-daggers.”
“We need to tell our mother where we are going,” Jill called back.
“A trip to the library?” Victor asked.
He kept repeating himself in hopes they would tell him the real reason they were going to the library, but the Norwood girls weren’t going to tell him anything else until they got there.
Victoria couldn’t break their confidence, especially as her brother would know the truth soon enough.
Victor was right. Nobody would touch Daemon’s witch.
If Elizabeth had been impressed with Jill’s fire snakes, then Daemon’s familiar would inspire awe.
Made of pure lightning, it struck fear into every rogue that saw it, knowing the sight would be the last thing reflected in their eyes.
Bringing the House Down
Elizabeth
“Who builds a tunnel in a fireplace?”
“You’re all fire-breathers, get in,” Elizabeth ordered.
The fireplace was stone cold. What was Victoria worried about?
What lay inside the hidden tunnel should be a bigger concern.
Victor didn’t believe that ‘ladies should go first’ because he grabbed Elizabeth’s arm and held her back, taking the lead, with a little ball of fire in his hand.
Elizabeth went next, and her sister followed.
Victoria took the rear, her ball of light bouncing off the walls as she turned around, once they were all in the tunnel.
“Wait, there has to be some way to close it from this side,” Victoria said.
Jill put her hand on the wall. Slowly the stone scraped shut over the back of the fireplace, locking them into the tunnel.
“Well, that’s one way to do it,” Victori
a admitted, wryly.
Earth witches were encouraged to save their magic for healing. The more brute aspects of their power were considered a bit vulgar. It made some male elementals uneasy to see a witch moving quadruple her weight in stone.
Victor had stopped, but as soon as Jill was done, he turned back around to lead them.
“Thank you, Jill,” he called back. “Perhaps having a team, instead of doing this on your own, is a better idea,” he commented, this time obviously directed it to Elizabeth.
Yeah, yeah. She wasn’t a stone hugger.
Having her sister around was helpful, but it made her nervous, when she didn’t know what was around the next corner.
The danger was why she had agreed to Victor coming.
“Any clue what we’re looking for in this rat maze?” Victor yelled.
“It should be really obvious, like a big, glowing neon sign,” Elizabeth said.
“The ones that say ‘Girls, Girls, Girls’ in classy pink?” Victoria asked.
“Exactly,” Elizabeth replied with a snicker.
What else would a portal in hell look like but a cheap, strip-club entrance?
There was going to be a lot of disappointment when they found out it led to an abandoned factory site in the human realm.
She would like to tell the twins it was a portal to her hometown, but they were still on a need-to-know basis.
It was hard to break the years of habit of keeping her second life secret. If they didn’t find the portal after Elizabeth announced there was one hidden down here, then there would be more questions.
She already had a story worked out if they did find the portal.
“What if it’s not here?” Jill asked, stepping around some questionable, dark lump on the floor.
Damn them all for having pretty fire to help them navigate.
The lump could be mud, but Elizabeth avoided it as well. If she stepped on something foul in her court slippers, the stench would never come out of them.
“It’s got to be here,” Elizabeth said to her sister, perhaps a bit too desperately.
Elizabeth needed this lead because the other lead she had was George.
He was so different from what she’d imagined.
The first night he had saved her, in a way, from being caught eavesdropping on a murder. He had almost been kind after her injury.
She must have misconstrued his actions. His treatment of Victoria and Jill were anything but kind. His scarred body wasn’t the only thing damaged.
Victor turned the corner and called out, “Found it.”
The rest of them piled into the hallway, behind him, staring at the glowing gate.
“Damn,” Victoria said. “It really was a glowing sign.”
The power emanating from the portal was magnitudes stronger than their portal on the edge side that was barely eked out from a weak spot in the dimensional walls.
This portal had been made when magic was still ancient, forced open by so much power that it was a permanent gateway to leak magic and visitors.
There was no way she could shut it down. The repercussive magic would be devastating.
She had to confirm it led to her hometown.
What to do about it could be discussed with her mother and Jill later.
If this was the portal the vampires and demons sent to her human town were using, it would be advantageous to monitor it, might even allow them to track the soldiers back to their traitor general.
They were finally getting somewhere with this investigation.
“Stay here,” Elizabeth said.
Jill nodded, knowing the drill.
“No,” Victor refused.
He put an arm up, with a dagger already gripped in his hand to block them.
She didn’t think the dagger was meant for her. Overprotective male instincts were probably warring with curiosity.
They all wanted to know what was on the other side.
“This is why there are no boys in the club, Elf. They always have to ruin the fun,” Elizabeth said.
It was clear that Victor wanted to go before her, again.
If that portal went to the human side, as she suspected, sending a vampire first may not be the best idea.
Victor wasn’t even dressed in the least way to blend in with humans.
“Are you familiar with this portal, Liz?” Victor asked.
Oh, sure, she knew all about this highly suspicious, secret portal, in the middle of a hidden tunnel in the castle.
Did he think she was going to admit that out loud?
Jill was nervously twisting the ends of her hair in her fingers, while Victor waited for an answer.
Her sister looked guilty of something, but it couldn’t be the portal, since they had done nothing wrong.
She had to keep Victor away from Jill. It seemed like he had already figured out Jill was a terrible liar and he was ready to exploit that fact to find out what he wanted.
“I believe it connects to another portal I know well,” Elizabeth answered. “I would prefer you wait here, with Jill and Victoria, while I check.”
“Uh, that’s not happening, Liz,” Victoria said, protesting. “I can’t let you enter a strange portal without me. I am your Lasier.”
Victoria also had a wardrobe impairment, but Elizabeth could work with it. They were about the same height, so the spare clothing her family kept stashed on the human side of the portal would make do to help Victoria blend in.
Unlike Victor, this twin was under a blood-oath to keep her safe. Maybe the magic behind the bond wouldn’t even let Elizabeth blatantly endanger herself in front of the princess. So, Victoria had no choice but to follow her.
“My family oversees the portal in our edge town. It has become unstable due to unauthorized use overwhelming its capacity. We traced the source of the use at the castle and our investigations uncovered a possible portal here, hidden via an entrance in the library. My mother was the librarian here for a short time, but it was so long ago that I wasn’t sure if the tunnel still existed and she had forgotten the entrance.”
Her mother had a mind like a steel trap, but the rest of it was close enough to the truth, with traceable facts, that the twins nodded acceptance of her fabricated explanation.
“You don’t know for sure where this portal leads?” Victoria asked, emphasizing the risk.
“Well, I can hop right back in on the other side if it is somewhere unexpected, but I doubt it. This portal’s energy feels very similar.”
Now, Elizabeth was lying through her teeth.
She didn’t know squat about portals, except how to use one.
The few facts that Kim had made her memorize to fake expertise for this part of their plan weren’t going to hold up under intense questioning.
“Why wouldn’t we accompany you?” Victor asked, still suspicious, despite her explanation.
Fine, so they were all going.
It would require a bit of an explanation when they ended up in the human dimension instead of a Maeren edge town, but she could simply claim that the portals were all linked.
No one was going to look at the portal specifics that closely, the magic controlling them as complex as human astrophysics.
“I need to examine the portal first, before we enter it,” Elizabeth said, announcing her forced cooperation to let them all come.
“Do you need help?” Victoria asked, sounding happier now that she got her way.
“No!” Jill and Elizabeth said together.
The last thing they needed was for Victoria to get a good look at what Elizabeth was going to do to this portal.
Victoria had used a high-level spell to call out her familiar yesterday.
If Elizabeth was going to use a spell that she could barely manage—after intense training from Kim—then she didn’t need Victoria breathing over her shoulder and figuring it out for a tracking spell, instead of portal maintenance.
“Distract them both, Glinda. Get suited up.”
&nb
sp; Jill nodded and turned to the twins.
Elizabeth pulled a piece of chalk from her little weapons belt. The belt had been a surprise gift from Victoria. It was made from smooth leather that was thin and wrapped on itself in layers to give it strength, split into ties at the end for her to knot it loosely on her hips, over her dress.
Victoria had given it to her, along with the daggers, grabbing it from her room before they left.
Power smacked Elizabeth in the face as she stepped closer to the portal.
It was like walking into the hot, humid tropical display at the zoo, the air so thick and heavy that her lungs seized around it trying to breathe cool oxygen from the dense heat.
Her gown felt suffocating.
The magic was making it loud and clear that she shouldn’t be messing with it.
Jill had the twins busy doing a weapons check.
They carried their weight in sharp and deadly things, so that should busy them long enough.
Keeping her body between the chalk and the line of sight of everyone else, Elizabeth let her lightning trickle out to the chalk, tying her chi to the spell.
This spell was so above her pay grade that Kim didn’t think it was safe to practice it for real, even once. They had run through it in pieces that didn’t connect, avoiding the risk of having a spell tied to Elizabeth’s chi, misfire.
The goal was to do this once and do it right.
The glyphs were perfect. She had practiced them numerous times, without her chi. The pulse of power as each glyph was drawn was new, and she didn’t know if that was because of her chi or the incredibly powerful portal she was vandalizing, but it was something different.
She hoped that meant this was working.
Sweat was dripping down her back and legs now and there was no pretending it was only the heat.
She could not screw this up.
The words. She could think them.
When Kim had her practice, she had said every word out loud and carefully, thinking of each letter and the way it felt on her tongue and lips. She was able to repeat the spell just by mouthing it now.
Victoria had said the magic knew what to do and that the rest was all ceremony.
Elizabeth guessed this was true, in a way, because as she added the words, the pulsing glyphs started to burn white-hot as the magic found its way to them.
Every Witch Demon but Mine (Maeren Series Book 1) Page 38