CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT #2
Nyssa instinctively rolled to the left, away from whatever it was that had soared past her.
As she balanced out, she saw what it was – a ball of lightning, conjured by Morven, streaking through the air until it collided with an ancient oak tree with a sickening crunch.
Nyssa watched in horror as the tree splintered, breaking in two where it had been hit, and she tried not to imagine how the next one might pierce straight through her if she didn’t hurry.
Nyssa had never ridden so fast in her life. The wind bit against her face and fingers, turning them numb, and the bun she’d hastily put her hair in earlier was a mess of knots and loose waves. She could see the cottage in the distance now. Just a little further, and she would—
‘Shit!’
Nyssa was forced to swerve as another ball of lightning – this one twice the size of the first – came flying in her direction.
This time, however, her grandma’s magic was strong enough for her to summon a protective shield.
It wrapped around her just in time for a third lightning ball to crash against it, cracking the magical energy but not – thank the witches above – breaking through it.
Even with her strengthened magic, the shield wouldn’t hold up against many more blows like that.
She needed to regather herself if her plan was going to work, but under Morven’s incessant fire that seemed impossible.
Panic was beginning to form at the corners of her mind, until the outline of the cottage loomed ahead.
Nyssa gripped her broom tighter, realizing that her grandmother’s wards were still up.
If she could get inside the boundary, just for a moment, it would give her the chance to recentre herself and her magic.
Doubt gnawed at her as she whizzed through the air, fearful that the wards might not do much against someone of Morven’s strength. Still, she’d have to take that chance.
Nyssa burst through the wards on to the cottage grounds just as another blast of magic caused her own shield to shatter.
Morven let out a roar that was more animal than human as the wards around the cottage stopped him from following her, firing spell after spell to try to crumble the cottage’s defences.
Nyssa watched Morven’s furious attempts from the garden, breathing heavily as she tried to calm herself down. The wards weren’t going to last long, and now, as she looked out over the lake next to her home, Nyssa could only pray to the ancestors that her plan would work.
With one hand clutching her broom and the grimoire tucked tightly under her arm, Nyssa flew in the direction of the lake, feeling a pulse of Lisabeth’s magic which momentarily slowed Morven enough for her to pass through the wards.
Instead of doing the smart thing and going up towards the treeline, Nyssa went down, until she was hovering just a few feet above the centre of the lake, where her grandma had always claimed the doorway to the next realm was located.
She took a deep, steadying breath, focusing on the magic thrumming at her fingertips.
‘Moon above, I seek your aid,
Bestow your divine light, let darkness fade.’
As she recast the illumination spell and launched another ball of combusting light in Morven’s direction, she marvelled at the ease it took to cast. It was almost euphoric, the spell even stronger than before.
Nyssa’s pulse thrummed as the light she’d created lit up the entire sky above the lake, burning through Morven’s fog and forcing Nyssa to shield her eyes.
Without her vision, Nyssa had only her witch instincts to rely on.
The prickling of her skin. The oppressive swell of energy in the air that always seemed to coincide with Morven’s spells.
Breath held, Nyssa forced herself to stay in position until the last possible second.
Until she could feel the crackle of lightning inches away from her face.
And then she lunged back into the sky.
The smell of charred hair flooded her senses as she flew up, up, forcing her broom to get as far away from the water as possible as, just as Nyssa had hoped, Morven’s lightning spell pierced the surface and lit up the entire lake.
The sight of lightning crackling across the dark water was as beautiful as it was terrifying, and under any other circumstance, Nyssa might have stopped to appreciate such a display of magic and nature intertwining.
But the usually still water was already starting to churn, and there was something moving beneath the surface, its serpentine body thrashing with as much ferocity as the electrified water it called home.
The dark, monstrous tail flicked viciously through the water, its scales glinting malevolently as they reflected the splintered lightning.
Nyssa couldn’t imagine anything as simultaneously mesmerizing and horrifying as the sight of the creature, and it took everything in her to tear her eyes away, searching the sky for Morven.
She spotted him hovering mere feet above the lake, and her heart lurched.
Nyssa had never seen Morven look truly afraid before. But as he stared down at the monster of the lake, its wide, fanged maw opening wide, he looked absolutely terrified.
Years ago, Nyssa might have felt guilty at what she was about to do. She might have even hesitated. Now, all she could think of were her friends crowded into the tavern. Of Morven’s promise to destroy them and everything she had ever held dear.
Nyssa had let him slip through her fingers once before.
She wasn’t going to make that mistake again.
And so, just as she had done against the bear and the wolf, Nyssa let the combined magic of herself and Lisabeth Hawthorne take control.
Light burst out of her in a single, unstoppable wave.
Caused the surface of the lake below to roil and the surrounding trees to creak in the gust of magical wind that blew over the cottage grounds.
Distracted by the creature of the lake, Morven acted a second too late, and while the magical barrier he summoned to protect himself did stop him from being incinerated, it didn’t stop him from being knocked straight off of his broom.
Time seemed to slow as Morven plummeted towards the lake, the scream he emitted piercing Nyssa. It was one of the worst sounds she had ever heard. Not a scream of anger, or betrayal.
It was one of fear.
And despite everything he’d done, tears slipped free from Nyssa’s eyes as she watched him fall, helpless, towards the creature of the lake’s waiting jaws.
It lunged out of the water, trapping Morven between its teeth before the warlock could even try to defend himself.
Nyssa heard the crunch of his bones. Saw the spray of his blood tainting the water.
And then the monster dived beneath the lake, cutting off Morven’s pained scream and plunging the world around Nyssa into an oppressive silence.
Seconds passed before a spark of light appeared from deep within the centre of the lake, growing and growing until everything – the entire body of the lake, the treeline of the forest and the grounds of Hawthorne Cottage – were bathed in a green, otherworldly glow.
Nyssa remained on her broom, her eyes fixed on the centre of that light, waiting for Morven to reappear.
But the light slowly began to fade, and the churning waters settled back into the peaceful stillness Nyssa had always known. And when what was left of Morven’s fog dissipated, taking the weight of his magic with it, she knew her plan had worked.
Morven Delamorte was gone.
Nyssa didn’t have time to sort through the storm of emotions raging through her, because just as it had the last time she’d exhausted her and Lisabeth’s combined power, her body was starting to fail her.
She could feel her grandma’s magic slipping away alongside her grip on consciousness, the scent of it fading into nothing more than a memory.
And as the darkness settled in and Nyssa tumbled from her broom towards the still lake below, she used the last sliver of strength she had to pray that her friends – no, her family – would be safe.