Witch Rising

by Paige McKenzie

  “Sorry, buddy,” she told the Slugma card, and picked again. Charizard, the final form of Charmander. Much better. She set it down on the rug next to a flickering candle. Charizard would represent the fire element, corresponding with the South.

  “Let’s begin,” she said once the others had arranged their magical items, too.

  “Wait… why are you the coven leader today?” Aysha asked, sounding vaguely annoyed.

  “Because-Mom-likes-me-better,” Binx singsonged. “JK! Div asked me to fill in while she and Mira and Greta deal with the City Hall sitch.”

  Aysha rolled her eyes. “Whatevs.”

  “I hope Greta’s mom is okay.” Iris picked up a piece of rose quartz, moved it to the right, then moved it back again. “I hope they were able to free her. If not, well… maybe we could cast a big ol’ group spell to make it happen. Like maybe liberum?”

  “Or maybe liberandum? It’s more advanced,” Torrence suggested.

  “Liberum is better,” Iris sniped back.

  Binx glanced at the pair. Hmm, Ridley was right. There’s definitely a love-triangle vibe happening.

  “Guys, can we… can we please start the meeting? We really, really need to find ShadowKnight and”—Ridley looked down and twisted her hands in her lap—“and Penelope, too.”

  “Of course,” Binx said gently. Her best friend had been a mess since ShadowKnight had revealed this little nugget to them, if it was even true. Which Binx seriously doubted, since ShadowKnight was an evil, lying liar. Besides, how in the hex could Penelope possibly be alive? They—Binx, Ridley, Iris, and Greta—had found her very dead body at that construction site in the Seabreeze development. Days later, they’d attended her funeral and paid their respects as she lay in an open casket covered with pink roses… and Iris had accidentally touched her and been blasted with an unwelcome vision that the girl’s heart was gone. Gone.

  Time to find that self-important jerk and blast him back into the past for good. Because what’s going to happen if and when he needs more heart-fire? Also, I need a revenge fix.

  Binx initiated the calling of the quarters ritual, which they often used to begin a meeting. Charizard was definitely the right card for today; she sensed the magical energy in the room spark and buzz and elevate. Ever since her discovery moment at age nine, when she’d wished that her favorite Charmander stuffy would talk to her and it had, she’d made up her own style of craft that combined her considerable computer skills with her love of Pokémon. These days, post the 2016 upload by the anonymous descendant, Binx’s system had grown into a complex hybrid of cyber, Pokémon, and C-Squared’s spells and potion recipes. Which worked for her. And these days, she could feel her skills, her powers, growing at hyperspeed.

  Maybe she could even be a real coven leader someday? For now, though, she was cool with being just a sub. For now.

  After the calling of the quarters, she launched into the urgent matter at hand—finding ShadowKnight.

  “So in the last twenty-four hours, since our ‘beach party’”—Binx made big, extra-sarcastic air quotes—“I’ve been trying to develop a new geolocating spell that combines GPS technology, a Witchworld username search function, and one of C-Squared’s classic location spells, inveniet.”

  “Any luck?” Aysha asked.

  “It’s buggy, but I’m hoping to have it operational ASAP.”

  Iris raised her hand. “Excuse me, fellow witches? I’ve been trying to make myself have a magical vision about where ShadowKnight might be hiding or not hiding or whatever. Nothing was happening—no vision, nix, nada—but then when I got home from school today, I came across this.” She uncurled her palm, displaying a small, crumpled scrap of brown cloth.

  “What is it?” Ridley asked her curiously.

  “It’s a piece of fabric. My little sister found it in my silver Jadora quiver that I made for WitchWorldCon because she was going through my stuff like she’s not supposed to but she always does, anyway. And I originally found it on the floor of Binx’s family’s beach shack when we were there yesterday. I must have tossed it into the quiver and forgot.”

  “Uh-huh, but what is it?” Aysha prompted her.

  “My guess is… was… still is… that it must have ripped from ShadowKnight’s Dargon costume. It’s the exact same color. Plus, it was at the spot by the kayak where he was our prisoner and then not our prisoner. Near an old life preserver that smelled like an expired tuna-salad sandwich. Dargon, for those of you who don’t know, is a half-human, half-witch character from Witchworld. He was exiled by the High Council for trying to K-I-L-L all the members of the Low Council with a deadly potion made from the breath of an ice dragon. And his mom was one of the Low Council members, can you believe it?” Iris snort-laughed. “Anyhoo… I was going to mention it at the time, but he’d poof! vanished into thin air and all heck was breaking loose, so I threw the thing into my quiver and totally forgot about it. Until an hour ago, because of Nyala.”

  “Did the cloth inspire any visions, then?” Binx asked.

  “Yes. A mini-vision, more like a micro-vision actually, because I had to stop with the visioning to help Ephrem—he’s my little brother—and then I had to leave for this meeting, and I wasn’t sure I could get a ride with… well, anyhoo, I saw some shiny gems in my micro-vision. Something black and also bloodstone… I think. Wait… bloodstone isn’t made from blood, is it? Because that would be gross. Oh, and I saw a pinball machine—you know, like one of the ones in the arcade at the mall—except this one was antique-y or vintage or whatever. The theme was bride of Frankenstein or bride of something, or someone, else. But then Lolli tried to eat the cloth—she’s my familiar, for those of you who aren’t familiar with her—get it, familiar with my familiar?—sorry, old joke, right?—so I had to, um…”

  “Did you say ‘bloodstone’?” Ridley spoke up.

  “Affirmative. Well, affirmative-ish. Why?”

  “When you said that, it reminded me of… I don’t know, I’ll try to remember.”

  Iris sat up. “Yes, that’s it! Weren’t you and I and Greta talking about bloodstone at our last coven meeting?”

  “Right! Sorry, my brain’s kind of shot right now.”

  “Can I see that?” Torrence asked Iris.

  “Ummm… I guess?” Iris reluctantly passed the cloth to him.

  As Torrence studied the cloth, Binx wondered if he would have preferred being part of the Greta’s-mom-rescue-squad at City Hall versus hanging out with the B-listers here. Probably, right? Especially since Iris was throwing so much hostility and shade his way? Whatever the case, Div had texted her earlier with a progress report, saying that Mr. Jahani was making some VIP phone calls to try to fix the situation, adding that if for any reason that should fall through, she planned to enlist Hunter’s help when she saw him at a New Order meeting later tonight.

  We should be focusing on destroying the New Order, and all the rest of the Antima scum, too. But instead, we have to spend our valuable time chasing down that vile super-villain man-boy to make sure he doesn’t kill more scions or whatever. This is all on me, since I totally fell for his lies.

  “Would there be a benefit to repeating the group agnitionis, like we did the other day? With Greta’s scarf?” Torrence offered. “I could conjure up three pieces of azurite again.”

  Iris side-eyed him.

  “Yeah, that might be worth a try. Although there’s no need to conjure the azurite, Torrence. I have some here.” Binx leaned over and retrieved the stones from a shelf. “Done! Now let’s set the Dargon cloth down in the middle of the circle.”

  “I’ll do it!” Iris reached over to grab the cloth from Torrence.

  Honestly. These two.

  Binx arranged her azurite pieces on top of the cloth in a triangular pattern. Then the five witches joined hands and closed their eyes.

  “Agnitionis,” Binx said quietly.

  “Agnitionis,” the others repeated.

  Silence. Binx’s mind was blank; she wondered if an
yone else was having a vision.

  “I’m not getting anything,” Aysha announced after a moment.

  “Me neither,” Ridley added.

  “Me neither, three,” Iris piped up. “Maybe we should start over?”

  “Wait!”

  Binx’s mind was no longer blank. A strange plan of action was fomenting, seemingly of its own accord. She let go of Ridley’s hand to her right and Iris’s to her left, then laid her Charizard card on top of the cloth and azurite. She added her phone/grimoire, first making sure that her beta-stage ShadowKnight-locating app was open.

  She closed her eyes and concentrated. Come on, come on, come on. She felt in her bones that she was onto something.

  Seconds later, a frigid wind rushed through her. Cold… she was so cold. Her body was freezing, turning into stone. But then a flame erupted out of nowhere, and her body became pure heat. What was happening to her? She was liquid magma… no, liquid molybdenum….

  There he is. ShadowKnight. He was sitting at a table and lighting candles… thirteen of them… and also arranging gems in a circle. At the sight of him, fury and sadness and regret coursed through her, mingling with the river of molten fire. She’d liked him. As in, liked him. And she’d invested in him all her hopes and dreams of destroying the Antima and the New Order and liberating witches forever.

  Maybe he still wants to destroy the Antima and the New Order and liberate witches forever. But the heart-fire stuff is definitely a deal breaker.

  Suddenly, energy zapped her fingers where they hovered over the cloth and other items. She yelped and opened her eyes. A bizarre blue light was sparking and crackling from her phone screen like some sort of reverse lightning.

  Lillipup woke up from his nap, spun around and around, and began barking like mad.

  Binx grabbed for her phone and then dropped it; it was burning hot.

  “Frigidum!” she shouted. Cool down.

  The phone morphed to icy white. Binx picked it up again—the cold was bearable—and stared at the screen.

  47.8 something, something, something and 123.9 something, something, something

  Below them was the image of a small bluish sculpture.

  She recognized the numbers as partial GPS coordinates and matched them quickly against a map.

  Yessss! Gotcha, you conniving catfisher!

  “Ridley!” she said suddenly.

  “What’s happening? Are you okay?” Ridley demanded.

  “Those photos you showed me. The ones Aysha took. From your field trip.”

  “You mean the Kai Rain Forest trip?” Iris asked.

  “Yes. I think he’s there. At that invisible mansion!” Binx told Ridley.

  Torrence’s gaze bounced between them. “Invisible mansion?”

  Ridley held up a hand. “I’ll explain in a sec, Torrence…. Binx, how do you know ShadowKnight is there?”

  “I saw the lamassu. The magical sculpture from ancient Mesopotamia, remember? And I have partial GPS coordinates, too. I looked them up just now; they correspond with the northwestern part of the state, where the rain forest is located. That way.” Binx pointed, and at the same moment realized that Lillipup was facing in that direction, too. Good dog!

  Ridley’s eyes widened. “Oh! Of course! That explains the bloodstone and the black gems… they were black onyx. I’m remembering now; I saw them at the mansion, too, along with some herbs.”

  “Excellent.” Binx picked up her phone—it felt normal again, whew—and fired off a text to Div explaining the situation. A moment later, Div wrote back:

  Can you all head over to that location immediately? All is well here but I must head over to the Jessups’ house for a meeting within the hour.

  Binx typed:

  Sure, no problem. I can drive us. Is Greta’s mom free?

  Div replied:

  She should be shortly. Re SK, please use care to assess the situation. Don’t put yourselves in unnecessary danger.

  Binx wrote:

  We won’t.

  “Guys? Road trip,” Binx announced as she pocketed her phone. Already, she was formulating a possible strategy to inflict maximum damage points on ShadowKnight and defeat his sorry butt. Which should be within Div’s parameters… after all, she hadn’t said anything about necessary danger.

  21

  THE DESCENDANT

  The work of healing is often misunderstood.

  (FROM THE GOOD BOOK OF MAGIC AND MENTALISM BY CALLIXTA CROWE)

  “You’re on the list, Ms. Florescu. Please go on through.”

  “Thank you, Douglas.”

  The Jessups’ security guard opened the electronic gates, and Div proceeded down the long gravel driveway. Even though it was a moonless night, there were many stars in the sky. Div thought she recognized several constellations, including Cassiopeia, the beautiful Greek queen, and Scorpius the scorpion… she wondered, briefly, if any witches in history had ever had a scorpion for a familiar. Could be interesting.

  The long, majestic pine trees that flanked the driveway began thinning out as Div’s Audi approached the vast, pristine front lawn. The house—or more accurately, estate—was just beyond the marble fountain and the semicircular driveway, which was lined with cars. The New Order members must have started arriving for the meeting already.

  Div parked in her usual spot near the family’s eight-car garage, pocketed her smart key, and headed briskly for the front door. As she walked, she checked her phone. No further messages from any of her witches. Hopefully, no news was good news, or at least not bad news.

  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw two officers standing on either side of the Jessups’ front door.

  She bit back her alarm as she slowed her steps and continued scrolling busily through her phone. What in the hex were they doing here? And then she remembered there were police at Saturday’s New Order meeting, too. This group is really serious about security.

  “Good evening, miss,” one of the police officers—a woman—called out.

  Div smiled and waved. “Good evening, Officers.”

  “Your name?” the woman asked her.

  “Divinity Florescu. I’m here for the meeting.”

  “Right. Douglas has already cleared you. Please go on in.”

  “Thank you.”

  The second officer, a man, had been silent during the entire exchange. Now he stared at Div with a curious expression and rested his hand casually on his gun holster. What the hex? Just to be safe, she mentally cast animo legere in her head, to glean his thoughts and make sure he didn’t know about her witch identity. No, he doesn’t seem to. Then she switched to transpicere and quickly scanned him from head to toe. Aha. He was wearing a T-shirt under several layers of uniform, and on the sleeve of the shirt was a patch. An Antima patch.

  Actually, not the usual Antima patch. This one had the image of the birdcage burning over a fire, except that the fire part consisted of the letters N and O in the shape of flames.

  The New Order.

  Both officers stepped aside as Div rang the bell, still pretending to check her phone, all the while furiously assessing and analyzing. The New Order rebranding of the Antima had obviously begun. And the police were part of the effort now? The entire situation was spiraling out of control. Not to mention the fact that any day now, the US president planned to sign an even more draconian version of 6-129, called 6-129A, into law. On top of which, Div and her coven, and Greta and her coven, too, had to deal with Maximus Hobbes aka ShadowKnight and this heart-fire business. He seemed unhinged, dangerous. And what did he want beyond just staying alive? Power? Wealth? World domination? All of the above? Something else entirely?

  At least Div finally knew the true leader of the New Order. She’d tasked Binx with researching Dr. Jessup’s background and trying to hack into her private emails and such. So far, Binx had turned up little beyond available public information. Jane L. Meritt, born in Sorrow Point… top of her class at the medical school at the University of Pennsylvania… head of p
ediatrics at Sorrow Point Hospital… married to real estate mogul Jared Jessup since 1981… mother of Hunter, age seventeen; Colter, age sixteen; and the twins, Cassandra and Caitlin, age ten. And now, she was the head of the most powerful anti-witch organization in the country.

  The door opened. Hunter stood there. Grinning, he pulled Div inside and swept her into his arms.

  “I am so glad to see you!” he murmured, hugging her tightly. “I had two midterms today, so I’m ready to chill. Well, the meeting first, then we can chill.”

  “How did you do on your midterms?” Div asked, hugging him back.

  “I won’t know until Professor Brody and Professor Sayed do their grading. But if I had to guess, probably A’s?”

  “So you’re basically a genius.”

  Hunter laughed. “Yeah, but we already knew that. Come on in.”

  As soon as he’d closed the door behind them, he pulled her in closer and kissed her. Div allowed herself to enjoy the physical sensation for a brief moment. It really was too bad that he was the enemy. Otherwise, he would be the perfect boyfriend—not the falling-in-love-with kind of boyfriend, or the “I-can’t-wait-to-marry-him-someday” kind of boyfriend, either, but a hot guy to go on dates with and make out with whenever the urge might strike. All fun and pleasure and entirely dispensable.

  As it was, she was just relieved he had bought into her ruse so completely. He truly believed she was sympathetic to the cause. As for Mira… she was still fake-dating Colter. Although, Div could tell that a part of her was having a hard time accepting that her faux boyfriend and his family, or at least the family minus Cassie and Caitlin, were card-carrying Antima-now-New-Order members who believed in 6-129 and that humans were superior to witches. That witches shouldn’t exist.