CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
The last time Nyssa had performed a ritual anywhere near this magnitude, she’d lost everything.
It’s going to be different this time, she told herself, her voice weaving with Alaric’s as they began the first of three rounds of their incantation.
‘We beseech the power of the moon,
Of Fire, Water, Air and Earth,
Bind this magic, grant your boon.’
The wind rustling through the trees picked up almost instantly, the sudden force of it whipping Nyssa’s braid around her shoulders and biting into her cheeks. But the candles stayed lit, and Familiars was beginning to glow.
It wasn’t the same sort of light that had leaked from the chest that night Morven had wrought havoc on Nyssa’s café.
No, this light was softer, its shade the warm, golden hue of sunlight, and as it washed over the grove, Nyssa felt the tickle of her grandmother’s apple and cinnamon-scented magic once again.
Emboldened, Nyssa chanted louder, her own magic flooding through her with a rush of warmth, its bitter cacao scent mingling with the honey-sweetness that already hung in the air.
Above the wind, she could hear the gentle melody of Liora’s lyre.
Could feel the magic of it mixing with her own and Alaric’s, bringing them in tune with one another.
Could feel Elowen’s magic slowly coaxing the orb to life.
A second later, she felt the wash of the orb’s power run over her, mingling with the magic pouring from her own fingertips – a soothing wave which grounded her where she stood, anchoring her to the ancient woodland.
As she had felt in the woods at T? Canol, she felt her magic shift inside her, until it flowed in time to the power which pulsed beneath her, through the very ley lines they stood upon. She felt calm. Fortified. Strong.
A faint silver light was rising around the circle, and Nyssa was sure that it was the orb’s warding magic manifesting around them as they continued to chant.
‘A power to bind,
Our magics entwined,
To forge a shield,
Our will be done,
Let this evil be sealed.’
Sweat beaded along Nyssa’s brow despite the biting cold, and even with the orb’s help, it took every ounce of concentration she had to start the chant over when something stirred in the shadows of the trees directly ahead of her.
Nyx was on it instantly, tail bristled as she trotted off to investigate, and as much as Nyssa wanted to call her back, she knew she couldn’t risk breaking the spell.
Please be safe.
Nyssa hadn’t let Familiars out of her sight in days, and she’d felt nothing from it to indicate anything had escaped.
But that didn’t necessarily mean nothing had.
The wolf and the bear had managed to do so without her knowing, after all.
The wind whistled in Nyssa’s ears, the heavy hum of the combined magic in the grove making it almost impossible to distinguish one source from another.
Nyssa thought she felt the briefest prickle of unease, like someone running their fingertips along the back of your ear, but she couldn’t be certain if it was a true warning or simply her imagination playing tricks on her.
Thankfully, Nyx reappeared a few seconds later, unharmed and seemingly unaffected by the current surge of magic within the ritual circle.
In fact, she seemed so unaffected by it that she strode right past Nyssa and into the circle’s centre, where Familiars was now rattling so viciously Nyssa feared the spell currently holding Morven would break.
Nyx – come here!
Nyssa couldn’t break the spell to call out to her, but there had been multiple instances in the past when Nyx had been able to hear Nyssa’s thoughts.
Unfortunately, it seemed that this was not one of those times, because instead of turning away from the board game, Nyx paused once to look over at Nyssa, her eyes shimmering with a strange, yellow glow.
The same glow she’d seen in the eyes of the other creatures that had come out of Familiars.
Nyssa was about to move to stop Nyx’s imposter, but she was a second too late. The enchanted cat nudged the lid of the Familiars box aside with her head, letting out a blast of biting cold magic that stole the breath from Nyssa’s lungs.
No!
Nyssa saw the shared looks of alarm on her friends’ faces as the same fog they’d worked so hard to contain in her café flooded out of the now open box, smothering the glow of the orb’s magic.
It was denser than it had been before, and as it settled over them, Nyssa could only just make out the silhouettes of Alaric, Elowen and Liora through it.
She kept chanting, her words now rushed and breathless, the magic in her veins turning sluggish as a new silhouette began to take form in the fog.
Even obscured, Nyssa recognized Morven’s tall, lithe form.
The predatory tilt to his head and the flash of his green eyes.
There was nothing else like it in the world that could make her feel as terrified …
Or as angry.
Slowly, the fog began to settle. Just enough for Nyssa to make out the smug smirk on Morven’s face as he scooped down to pick up Nyx.
Her real familiar was still worryingly absent, a fact that, with Morven Delamorte before her, Nyssa could currently do nothing to fix.
Please, she pleaded to any ancestors that might still be listening, please let her be okay.
‘I told you not to underestimate me, little witch,’ Morven said, long fingers tipping up the imposter Nyx’s chin. ‘It shall be your last mistake.’
Without hesitating, Morven flung his hand forward, the incantation a hiss as it spilled from his mouth:
‘By strength of mind,
Your power I bind!’
Nyssa’s entire body tensed as she prepared herself for the binding spell to hit her, the words of the shield spell rising in her throat just as Alaric lunged in front of her. His body stiffened as the spell took hold, locking his limbs in place. Morven let out a small, amused chuckle.
‘Druids. Always sticking their noses where they don’t belong.’
Alaric let out a pained grunt. ‘And you’re as arrogant as the stories say, so I guess neither of us are much of a surprise.’
Morven’s eyes narrowed, and before Nyssa could ready a binding spell of her own, the warlock flicked his wrist in a gesture that sent Alaric flying through the air, his body making a sickening crack as it slammed against a gnarled oak tree and slipped to the ground.
The sound was enough to numb Nyssa’s growing panic.
‘Air and earth, I request your aid,
Come forth and be my blade.’
Nyssa whispered the words quickly, her magic pouring from her fingertips.
A surge of wind whipped through the spring, gathering leaves and branches together to form a sword.
It swung towards Morven, sending a blast of magic that caused him to skid back a few paces.
It was nothing like the strength of his blow, but it was enough to incapacitate him long enough that Elowen could send her vines towards him, their speed increased by whatever melody Liora had switched to in order to assist.
A blur of movement in the fog had Nyssa preparing for another attack from one of Familiars’ cursed figurines, but it was just Nyx, her ear bloody and a limp in her step as she lunged herself at Morven.
The imitation Nyx jumped from the warlocks arms, colliding mid-air with the real Nyx with an awful howl.
Nyssa had no time to see if her familiar was all right, however, because Morven was already cutting through Elowen’s vines with his magic as if they were nothing more than bits of string.
‘By strength of mind,
Your power I bind!’
Nyssa cast the spell Morven had tried to use back at him. It held the warlock for barely a second before he managed to shake it off, another mocking laugh rumbling from his chest. ‘Pathetic. It’s no wonder your coven kicked you out.’
Nyssa snarled and recast the spell. It held a little longer this time, giving Elowen’s vines time to wrap around his calves, and for a second, Nyssa thought they had him.
But the fog surrounding the grove began to gather around Morven, thickening until Nyssa could barely make out the sharp lines of his silhouette.
Elowen’s vines withdrew, writhing and half-rotted, and Nyssa only just had time to shout a warning as the warlock sent one of the tainted vines towards her, Elowen and Liora.
‘I beseech the ancestors, to lend me their aid,
and summon Earth, Air, Water and Fire to form this blockade.’
Nyssa instinctively cast the shield spell that she had perfected over the last few months, but Elowen and Liora were too far away from her for the spell’s protection to reach them, and by the time she’d summoned enough power to cast again, it was too late. The vines had found their mark.
Elowen and Liora both let out pained grunts as the vines hit them in the stomach, knocking them to the ground.
The vine that had been sent towards Nyssa ricocheted off her magical barrier, hitting it so hard that it fractured around her like glass.
Nyssa hurried to cast again as the vine reared back, but it was far too fast: her own magic had barely had enough time to recover before the vine coiled around her stomach, forcing the breath from her lungs.
The air rushed by her as Nyssa was dragged through the fog and towards Morven. Distantly, she was aware of Nyx yowling. Of the hiss of the cat from Familiars.
Stop, she begged Nyx, praying her familiar would hear her. Run.
But Nyssa knew Nyx wouldn’t. That for her master, she’d fight until she couldn’t any more.
And so Nyssa would, too.
It didn’t matter that Morven was somehow even more powerful than when she’d faced him with her coven behind her. For Nyx, for her friends, she would find a way to take him down.
Even if it meant going down with him.
The vine stopped moving when Nyssa was just inches away from Morven, releasing its hold just enough for Nyssa to be able to speak.
‘This is … between us, Morven,’ she rasped. ‘Leave my friends out of it.’
‘Your friends tried to help you imprison me for all eternity. They deserve every ounce of pain I plan to inflict upon them if you do not give me what I want.’ He paused, his magical hold on her tightening.
‘You will bring me the Hawthorne grimoire, Nyssa. If you don’t, I will kill your friends, and then everyone in your little town. ’
For as long as Nyssa had known him, the warlock had always appeared in control, from the way he held himself to the perfectly coiffed curls of his dark blond hair.
Now, though, he looked dishevelled: his hair was loose, his eyes wide and bloodshot, and the hand he held up to control Elowen’s vine held the faintest tremble.
‘You can’t handle more power, Morven,’ Nyssa managed to rasp out. ‘If you absorb the magic in the Hawthorne grimoire, it’ll be too much for your body. Eventually, it will consume you.’
Morven’s laugh turned bitter. ‘There you go, underestimating me again. It’s a good job I never tire of proving you wrong.’ The vines around Nyssa tightened their grip.
‘You can … try and force me … to give it to you,’ Nyssa rasped around the sudden tang of copper in her throat, ‘but it won’t change the fact …
that I’m right … and the Morven … I knew …
knows that …’ There was the faintest glimmer of fear in Morven’s eyes as her words landed, and the vines holding Nyssa ever so slightly loosened their hold.
She’d failed him once. Given up on him when perhaps she should have tried harder.
She wouldn’t make that mistake again. ‘He’s …
still in there. I know … he … is. I can help you—’
Nyssa’s words were cut off as the vines tightened once more. ‘I’m not falling for your tricks again, little witch. The Morven you knew was weak, and if the power I seek kills what is left of him, then I shall be glad of it.’
Nyssa’s vision was starting to turn black, and whatever magic she had left kept slipping from her grasp like the fog surrounding them.
Nyx and her twisted Familiars version had fallen silent, and Nyssa could only pray that whatever injuries were preventing her familiar from coming to her aid weren’t fatal.
‘Please, Morven, you don’t … have to … do this. ’
‘You’re right, I don’t have to. But I want to.
You had the chance to join me, and you chose to betray me instead.
And so now, if you fail to bring me your grimoire, you shall die at my hands knowing that it is because of your weakness that your friends and every last mage loyal to the covens shall lose their lives. ’
Tears pricked the corner of Nyssa’s eyes. ‘Morven, please. I was your friend—’ Her voice broke, the words lingering between them.
For a second – just a second – Morven’s expression softened into that of the boy she’d known. ‘You were. Which is why I shall grant you one small mercy. You have one day. If you do not meet me here, with the grimoire, by this time tomorrow, Nighthaven shall fall.’
The fog coiled around Morven, warping his features into something unrecognizable before devouring him completely.
The magic holding Nyssa disappeared alongside it, sending her crashing to her knees. A choked sob caught in her throat as she looked at each of her friends’ injured forms. At Nyx’s heaving chest and the fresh cut across her cheek.
And in that moment, Nyssa’s choice was made.