CHAPTER NINETEEN
Nyx leapt off the chest, back arched and teeth bared, as the fog began to seep along the floor of the café, curling around chairs and table legs as it drew ever closer to where Nyssa and her friends sat.
Each object it touched began to rattle, and Nyssa had barely gotten to her feet before one of the chairs a few feet away from her levitated a few inches into the air and flew at her with lightning speed.
Nyssa reacted on instinct, her hands coming up as the same shield spell she’d used in her second trial fell from her lips.
‘I beseech the ancestors, to lend me their aid,
and summon Earth, Air, Water and Fire to form this blockade.’
The spell was a lot easier to cast without the pain of the brooch rippling through her body. A translucent, golden barrier appeared before her half a second before the chair made contact, sending the offending object crashing into a splintered heap at her feet.
‘It’s that damned warlock,’ Alaric cursed, glaring daggers at the rattling chest. ‘He must be trying to get out!’
‘Not on our watch!’ Liora grumbled, already moving towards the chest. One of the knives from the draining board flew at her, only missing her by a hair’s breadth as the bard shifted out of the way just in time.
‘He’s not going to make this easy,’ Nyssa said. ‘Everyone come behind the barrier spell. Quickly.’
More and more objects were floating about the café now, poised and ready to fly at them at a moment’s notice. Nyssa huddled beside the fireplace with her friends, her brow sweating from the effort of keeping the barrier spell going after not having cast one in so long.
‘We have to stop him!’ Liora said as the other board games began to fall from the rattling shelves. Even the walls seemed to be shaking – if they didn’t do something soon, the entire place could come down on them.
Of all the things she hated Morven for, it was the prospect of him destroying this place that truly made Nyssa’s blood boil. This was her space. One she’d created to be a safe haven for people like her.
And there was no way in all the hells she was going to let him destroy it.
‘I need a diversion. Something to keep the magic distracted while I go for the game and neutralize Morven’s magic.
’ If the wards weren’t strong enough, it was the only other thing Nyssa could think to try.
There were just a handful of neutralization spells strong enough to have a chance at working against a warlock of Morven’s calibre, most of which Nyssa hadn’t read since the last time she and her coven had gone up against him.
Even though it had been years, Nyssa had studied the neutralization spells so many times she was fairly certain she could recall at least one successfully.
Hopefully.
‘Oh, a diversion we can do.’ Alaric grinned. The air around him began to shimmer as the sharp tang of the earth just after rain tickled Nyssa’s nose, and, between one blink and the next, the druid before her shifted from human to wolf.
It was the first time Nyssa had seen the druid shapeshift, and she wished she had more time to appreciate just how beautiful his lupine form was.
Unfortunately, the lid of the chest containing Familiars chose that exact moment to break open, emitting from its depths the now fully reformed, living version of the game’s owl.
Elowen instantly drew the vines of the few plants in the café towards her, wielding them like a whip, whilst Liora picked up her lyre from the table.
‘El and I’ve got this one!’ she said, fingers already beginning to pluck a soothing, enchanting tune.
Without the protection of her earplugs, the effects of it immediately began to loosen Nyssa’s muscles and calm her heart rate.
Thankfully, Nyssa was now well-practised at resisting the music’s allure without the earplugs, and so instead of slowing her into the same confused, hazy state the owl was currently in, Liora’s tune only helped Nyssa keep her fear at bay.
It made maintaining the barrier around her as she began to weave her way through the now-wrecked café a little easier.
Alaric stalked ahead of her, a second shield against any objects Morven sent flying their way; in his large, lupine form, it took the druid no effort at all to bat them aside, and Nyssa couldn’t help but wince at the sight of her beloved furniture and decor getting smashed into pieces.
Rather them than us.
She was more than halfway to the chest now. Sweat had soaked her jumper to her back and plastered strands of hair to her face, and there was an awful, drilling pain behind her eyes that made her stomach roll. Just a little further.
Nyx jumped up on to her shoulder from a nearby shelf, her presence an immediate boon against Nyssa’s magical exhaustion. It gave her the burst of strength she needed to take the final few steps to the chest, where the fog and the heavy presence of Morven’s magic was at their strongest.
‘Alaric, I need you to keep Morven occupied. He’ll focus on whoever he deems the biggest threat, so make it showy.’
In response, the druid let out a dramatic howl and pounced towards the chest, teeth snapping at tendrils of fog and tail bashing away any projectiles that came his way.
Liora and Elowen came up to stand beside Nyssa, the former now with a subdued and very sleepy-looking owl on her shoulder and the latter commanding the vines under her control to snake around and reclose the lid of the chest. It was the opening Nyssa needed – and she wasn’t going to waste it.
Quickly dropping her barrier, Nyssa began to chant one of the neutralization spells she’d spent so many evenings studying:
‘I call upon thy sacred power,
to aid me in my darkest hour;
Bind the magic, hold it tight,
I shall prevail against my foe tonight.’
There was a moment when the air in the café seemed to hold its breath, when the fog curled around everything Nyssa had built and made her certain she’d failed as it seemed to thicken and spread.
Please work, Nyssa added silently. Please.
And then, with a gust of air so strong the windows of the café shattered, the fog – and the magic fuelling it – disappeared.
Silence descended over Nyssa and the others as they watched the chest for any sign the spell hadn’t fully worked. It was only when the owl on Liora’s shoulder transformed back into its clay form that the quiet was finally broken.
‘Aww, darn. I was hoping Mr Featherton wouldn’t be turned back,’ the bard sighed, cradling the figurine in her hand. ‘Oh, well.’
The comment was so ridiculous with everything that had happened that when Nyssa met the eyes of Elowen and Alaric (who, during Liora’s mourning, had shifted back into human form and pulled his cloak around himself), she burst into hysterical laughter.
She expected the others to look at her as if she’d gone mad (honestly, after everything, she wasn’t sure she hadn’t). Instead, they descended into fits of laughter with her, their eyes watering and their hands clutching their stomachs as they doubled over.
‘I’ll say one thing,’ Alaric said, once he’d managed to catch his breath, ‘life with you around is never boring, Nyssa Hawthorne.’
He hadn’t meant it as an insult. Nyssa knew it from the affectionate smile he wore as he gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze.
But the words still caused Nyssa to remember the other-Nyssa from The Mirror Spell.
The one that had been so eager to remind her that everything that had happened to Nighthaven lately – to Liora and Alaric and Elowen – was all because of her.
‘Ah-ah!’ Liora said when Nyssa opened her mouth to apologize.
‘I know that look! This is an apology-free zone. Everything is fine …’ She looked around the café and winced.
‘All right, almost everything. But furniture and glass are easily fixed! We’ll have this place back to normal in no time at all. Come on, let’s get to work!’
Nyssa reached out to stop Liora as she moved to start picking up pieces of a broken vase.
‘Not tonight,’ she said firmly, putting on her best ‘head mage’ voice.
‘You’ve all done so much for me already.
You’ve taken care of me every time I’ve needed it, and stood by me even when I haven’t deserved your support.
If you won’t let me apologize, at least let me thank you by making you all a nice dinner. ’
It was what her grandmother would always do whenever Nyssa was upset. Food feeds the soul, she’d say, while heaping out generous portions of homemade stew or casserole.
‘I’m not going to say no to that,’ Alaric said, patting his stomach; ‘shifting always makes me hungry.’
Nyssa wasn’t sure if that was true, or if the druid was just saying it because he knew how badly Nyssa needed to do something for them, but she offered him a grateful smile all the same. ‘Great. Find whatever seats are still useable, and I’ll work as fast as I can.’
With that, Nyssa scurried off into the back room. She let out a deep sigh the moment the door shut behind her, her knees threatening to buckle as a sob built in her throat.
I will not cry. I will not.
Nyssa wiped at her eyes, took in a deep, defiant breath, and headed towards the small kitchen, where the familiar dance of chopping up ingredients and boiling water helped quiet some of the noise in her mind.
She was barely a quarter of the way through her prep for the stew she’d decided to make when the door clicked open, admitting Elowen and Nyx.
Her familiar immediately began to weave around her legs, while the elf shut the door behind her and came to a stop a few inches away from where Nyssa was currently stirring a pot of potatoes, carrots and swede.
She leaned in, eyes drifting shut in a way that was awfully distracting as she took in a deep breath through her nose. ‘Mm, that smells amazing.’
‘It’s just a simple stew, but … thank you.’ Nyssa hoped Elowen would assume the flush in her cheeks was from the steaming water and not because the elf had just praised her.
‘Can I help?’ She was too close. Nyssa couldn’t focus on anything with Elowen’s warmth pressed against her, the scent of her causing something pleasant and reassuring to settle in her lower stomach.
‘… It’s fine, you should go and relax with Li and Alaric. I’ve got this.’
‘I know you do,’ Elowen said, voice suddenly serious, ‘and I don’t just mean the cooking.
I mean the game, Morven, everything. I know you blame yourself, but when it came down to it, you took charge.
You’re more than capable of leading your coven, Nyssa, and if they can’t see that, then they don’t deserve you. ’
Nyssa stopped her stirring to look at Elowen. ‘How do you do that so easily?’
The elf tilted her head. ‘Do what?’
‘Believe in me.’
Elowen bit her lip, the gesture drawing Nyssa’s attention to her thin, pretty mouth.
Her cheeks were rosy now, eyes slightly glassy as she moved into Nyssa’s space and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear.
‘Because it is easy,’ she said in a low voice that made Nyssa’s entire body tingle.
‘I’ve seen how much you care, and how no matter what happens, you keep trying.
Even when it’s hard. Even when walking away would be far easier.
Believing in you, Nyssa Hawthrone, is the easiest thing I’ve ever done. ’
It was too much. The exhaustion from using her magic in ways she hadn’t for months.
The intensity of Elowen’s words and the way she was looking at her, as if she were something precious to behold.
Nyssa wasn’t even sure which of them moved first; all she knew was that her lips were brushing softly, questioningly, against Elowen’s, and Elowen was softening beneath her, lips parting to welcome the kiss.
And as she did, everything that had happened tonight – the flying objects, Morven, her own self-doubt – began to fade, dissipating like fog.