The Mayhem Sisters (21 page)

The elementals were coming.

T
he Hexers descended into the clearing. Three gleaming hover bikes pulled up next to the cottage. Vivi didn’t know how they had found her—a scrying spell, perhaps—but currently, she didn’t care. Sabine was alive, and reinforcements had arrived. The Hexers were not known for subtlety or handholding; they were known for quick and decisive action against a threat. The time for talk or negotiations was over. Hexer Finn jumped off his bike and threw his helmet to the ground. Finn’s two Hexer companions dismounted their bikes and immediately flanked out around Paul.

The young wizard had no idea what he was in for. Vivi almost smiled.

“The bracelet!” she yelled, holding up her wrist, hoping Finn would understand Paul was wearing the magical power source. Getting the bracelet off his wrist was key to a fair fight and was the best chance they had at bringing him down.

Finn and the muscle-bound Hexer named Adam moved left and right, while Hannah came up the middle. Holding a wooden staff in front of him, Adam took a defensive position, preparing for magical combat. A milky blue film covered Hannah’s eyes. She moved forward as if in a focused trance, her jaw set in tight concentration. Pale scars crisscrossed the witch’s arms. Her left wrist was ringed with black rubber bracelets and she carried a staff of wood with a thin sharp metal tip. She was pulling the air with her staff, shifting and moving the wind. Dark storm clouds billowed across the sky the color of slate. A ball of electricity sparked in her right hand.

Hannah was the true elemental.
She
was controlling the storm. No wonder Finn was so curious about elemental magic. It wasn’t for him, but to help his sister.

Paul stood firm. His gaze shifted between the three Hexers, finally settling on the one in control—Hannah. He raised his right arm, pulled it back, and then thrust it forward. The levitation magic he had stolen from Sabine was literally at his fingertips. Taken completely by surprise with Paul’s magical skills, Hannah’s face slackened and her entire body flew backwards as she was thrown against her hover bike. A flare of anger crossing his face, Finn rushed the young wizard, wand raised, to defend his sister while the other Hexer turned back to help Hannah.

Vivi wisely decided this was not her fight. She would just get in the way, and more importantly, the Hexers’ arrival provided the perfect opportunity and cover for her to find Sabine. She crouched low and followed a perimeter of trees over to the cottage. Paul wasn’t keeping her in a rabbit hole, so she had to be inside. She made her way to the side of the house, getting clear of the oncoming battle, and inched to the door. But when she grabbed the handle and tried to push it open, a shock stung her fingers.

“Ouch!” She jerked her hand back. Paul had a security ward in place. Vivi opened up her senses, and she discovered the ward surrounding the entire cottage was a magical protective dome. If she wanted to get inside, she would have to figure out a way to deactivate it. She leaned against the door and ran through a list of security wards. She had studied wards prior to opening The Potion Garden, deciding on the best security magic to protect her store, so she had a decent knowledge of the different types.

The magical ward securing the cottage wasn’t advanced. Paul probably didn’t suspect anyone would find him out here. Deactivating a ward was kind of like picking a lock, but with magical phrases. Hoping to get lucky, Vivi started with a few basic counter spells, but the ward held firm, not surprisingly. Next, she focused on the ward, sensing the magical phrases, understanding twists and turns of the ward’s lock. She uttered another string of deactivation spells using connective dome wards, but none worked. Because the spell zapped her, she assumed he added a warning spell to the dome ward, which was basically like stringing spells together like beads on a necklace. She wiped sweat from her brow and kept experimenting with additional strings.

Suddenly, a burst of magic erupted above Vivi’s head as a deflected spell hit the cottage and sparks and bits of debris rained down on her. Vivi dove for cover as the fight around her intensified. A spell spooled from Finn’s lips. He pointed his wand at Paul, unleashing a series of stunning pulses, but the young wizard was too quick and constructed a protective bubble to deflect Finn’s magic. He grimaced when Finn’s spell ricocheted off the surface, dropped his shield, and flicked his fingers, causing a fallen log to fly into Finn’s stomach and throw him to the ground with sickening force.

“Finn!” Vivi yelled, but he held up his hand, motioning her to stay back.

Finn’s distraction had given the other two Hexers time to regroup. Hannah was back on her feet. She motioned with her fingers as if the wind were an instrument that only she could play. The air shifted violently. Vivi pressed her back against the house and kneeled down to avoid being carried away by the strong current. The gusting wind caused Paul to stumble, but he held his ground. He reached both hands out, sending leaves, stones, and debris shooting toward Hannah in a storm of projectiles. Hannah rotated her staff in widening circles and caught the debris in a gyre of force, thrusting Paul’s magic back toward him.

The wind slapped at Vivi’s exposed skin. Fat raindrops fell from the sky. Thunder erupted. Between Paul’s new kinetic force and Hannah’s elemental power, Vivi wasn’t sure whose magic would break first. She shivered as a jagged bolt of lightning shot from the blackened mass of clouds that hovered above them and exploded into the ground, creating a huge crater right in front of Paul’s feet. His protective bubble collapsed. He cursed and scrambled for cover behind a small grove of bushes.

Within seconds, Paul emerged from his hiding place and stood with his hands outstretched, face twisted in defiance. He slashed his arms back and forth. The effect was immediate. Rain and debris went swirling in all directions. Adam wove a magical net and swooped up as much debris as he could. Hannah and Finn tried to deflect the rest with protective wards and shields, but rocks ricocheted from all directions, hitting them, making dull, thudding sounds.

Vivi’s pulse pounded. Getting the ward down was more important than ever. After going through another series of spells, she heard a small popping sound and reached out her hand. Clasping the doorknob, she pushed the door open. Relief flooded over her as she stepped inside.

Paul’s tiny cottage was the same one from her vision. The cottage had a high-pitched ceiling with a sleeping loft. The main room contained a chair, sofa, and stone fireplace. There was a small kitchen and a wooden table and chairs. Nothing jumped out at her. The surfaces were clean, practically sterile, lacking all personality.

The door to the basement was off the kitchen. Once opened, it revealed a flight of wooden stairs that led down into the dank cellar. Her pulse quickened. “Illuminus,” she said and her ring glowed, lighting her descent.

Vivi carefully navigated the soft rotting boards. At the bottom, she realized that the basement had been transformed into a laboratory. A few dim illuma lights barely lit the room. A stench of sulfur and burnt wood filled her nose. She coughed into her hand and kept going. One work surface was covered in copper cauldrons, glass beakers, and stone pedestals for heating brews. Paul had extensive laboratory equipment and medical devices. Rolls of parchment littered the floor. Stacks of inky pages crowded a desk with ink bottles and quills. He also had the makings of a potion shop, Vivi realized, as she inspected the dozens of ingredients. Unfortunately, he also had jars of blood salt, black ash, and shards of glass and bone locked in a metal cage—all the evidence they needed to lock him away for a very long time.

From the looks of it, the desperate wizard had spent long hours in this lab, developing his magical invention turned weapon. She spun and scanned the room. A thick black drape, almost invisible in the darkness, hung like a shroud, concealing a corner of the room. Her heart pounded, rising in her throat. She pulled the curtain back. Her ring cast a hazy light in the dark corner.

Vivi sunk to her knees when she saw Sabine curled up on the floor, still as a stone. She crawled forward, but stopped up short when she saw a circle of black ash, blood salt, and broken glass that ringed the witch’s body. A thick silver collar hung around her blistered neck and a mass of tangled hair covered her face. Her eyes were closed. Her wrists were burned raw. She was trapped in a circle of toxic black magic. A horrible realization washed over Vivi—without a wand, she had no easy way to break the circle. She reached her hand out and felt a pulse of energy encasing the witch. The circle thrummed. It was sealed. Sabine was trapped.

Vivi was so close. She leaned in and called her name, but the witch didn’t answer, didn’t move. Vivi’s voice choked in her throat. She stood and paced the room. The collar was killing her. She couldn’t let her die when she was so close to setting her free. The image of Sabine’s death haunted her. She had to break the circle. But how?

She hurried over to Paul’s workstation. There had to be something she could use. She grabbed a spell book off the shelf and thumbed through the musty pages. Maybe she could find the spell Paul used to cast the circle. Frustrated, she flipped through the pages, but nothing jumped out at her.

Her mind raced. She stared at Paul’s collection of herbs and ingredients—potion-making supplies. “Potions aren’t weapons!” she yelled in frustration. “Isn’t that what you said, Paul? They won’t hurt you.” It was all she knew, conjurer of the kettle. A potion wouldn’t bring down a circle. She racked her brain, but she couldn’t think of any potions strong enough. Even the best potions couldn’t fight black magic.

But what about the worst potion?
Her heart raced as a memory of her academy days flashed through her head. Vivi wasn’t blessed with the
persuasion
of potion making. She had to study really hard at the academy, and she often brewed up many disasters in the school laboratory. Her greatest failure was her junior-year final when she tried to make a cherry-flavored love potion that she envisioned would cause a spark of attraction. Unfortunately, something went terribly wrong with the formula, and the potion exploded in her professor’s face when he popped the cork, covering him in a bright red, cherry mess and singeing off his eyebrows, beard, and nose hair.

The howls of laughter were deafening. Vivi had been mortified. Her classmates called it the
cherry bomb
for months. But with a few adjustments, she might just take that failed potion recipe and blow a hole in Paul’s black magic cage.

She grabbed a copper kettle and dove into the shelf, digging through the supplies. She had never worked so fast in her life. She lit the burner, measured, sifted, and poured the ingredients into the kettle. Luckily, the potion was not a complex recipe, and Paul had all the basic ingredients. All she needed to do was up the ratios and hope it worked. She stirred the mixture as it began to boil. Under normal circumstances, she would let the potion cook for a few hours, but she didn’t have time. A few minutes of boiling were all it was going to get. She found a small jar, poured the bright red liquid inside, and shoved a cork in the opening.

A swirl of smoke coiled inside of the bottle. The glass started to heat up immediately, forcing Vivi to hold the bottle with a rag. No time to wait. It was her only chance. All the potion had to do was disrupt the circle, not smash through it completely—kind of like a little cherry firecracker. She didn’t want to hurt Sabine, and the potion wasn’t strong enough to injure her, just break the magic seal. Honestly, in her condition, a shock might do the witch some good.

Vivi backed up as far as she could and cocked her arm, sending the bottle flying at the circle. The glass shattered and sparks exploded. Red smoke filled the basement. Vivi covered her face and ran into the chaos. The circle was down. The potion had worked.

Vivi dropped to the ground and gently held Sabine’s hand. It felt like she was holding a fragile bird in her palm. She was so thin, covered in dirt, her hair hanging in greasy tangles. Her neck was raw and blistered and a thick silver collar rested on her collarbone. She wasn’t moving. A terrible feeling washed over Vivi. “No!” Her voice caught in her throat. “Please. Can you hear me?” Vivi cupped the witch’s face in her hands. “Wake up,” she begged, and brushed the tangled hair out of her eyes. Refusing to accept Sabine’s death, she stroked her cheek and whispered a basic healing spell.
Please, be enough.
Wake up.

The witch’s arm flinched. She stirred. “You’re alive!” Vivi said. Tears sprang to her eyes. “I’m here. You’re safe now.”

“Get this off,” Sabine mumbled through her dry, cracked lips. She groaned and pulled at the metal collar.

Vivi tried to unhook the metal clasp, but it was sealed shut. She mumbled a few unbinding spells. Within seconds, she slid the bolt into the lock and the collar broke open. Sabine was near collapse. Vivi practically had to carry the frail witch up the stairs from the lab before helping her to the sofa to rest while she checked outside. Vivi knew the fight between Paul and the Hexers wasn’t over. Wind and debris lashed the windowpanes and shook the small cottage.

Adam was lying flat on the ground. His leather coat was shredded. Spells flew from his wand and were easily deflected or reversed by Paul. Even Finn, who was pinned down behind his hover bike, was having trouble. His sleeve was ripped completely off, and a bloody gash ran down his arm. Hannah was perched on a tree limb, her face smeared with dirt. Vivi couldn’t tell if the young elemental had climbed up into the tree or been blown there.

Paul was overpowering the Hexers with sheer kinetic destruction. Finn threw spell after spell from his wand and Paul deflected each one, using his own magic against him, bouncing spells back in his face. He was barely breaking a sweat and looked mostly unharmed, as if the more he fought, the stronger he grew.

Hannah leapt to the ground and threw her head back and yelled the most complex magical spell Vivi had ever heard. A snapping sensation filled the air. Crackling followed. A string of lightning jumped from one cloud to the next. The energy was building all around them. The hair on Vivi’s arm rose.

The magical power Hannah generated intensified. The air was electric. Paul must have felt it, too, because he focused on the elemental.

Her skin was so white it was practically glowing. Her muscles trembled as she pulled more power down from the sky. Electric currents created a jagged net of energy hovering above them. She sliced her hand through the air and lightning struck, shooting from her fingertips, sending thin electric charges directly at Paul, smashing into his protective ward, shattering his defenses, and hurling him backwards. Encouraged by her success, Hannah intensified the magical attacks on Paul. He staggered, taking multiple hits, recovered momentarily, and took two additional bursts before dropping to the ground.