Chapter 14
What the hell is this? Lars dodged to the right as the terrifying vision in the center of the room hurled dark magic at him.
Mary Riddle. Corinna brought her back from the dead, Amanda explained telepathically, ducking and springing forward for her next attack.
She doesn’t know how, and she’s not really helping us figure out how to undo it.
All we know is that this woman was once an incredibly powerful witch, and she’s not too pleased about being here.
Lars grunted in agreement. He lifted a shield of energy right in front of Amanda. It stopped Mary’s next attack, and he sent another wave directly toward the spirit. This doesn’t seem to be making much difference.
I was noticing that, too.
He could hear the thoughts that Amanda sent to him, a confirmation of their fated bond. Lars could also feel the rising anguish and dread within her. She was starting to worry that this was hopeless, and she didn’t need any words to communicate that to him.
The Crimson Veil was storing energy in the geodes, Amanda relayed as she dove in front of Erin’s bobcat, trying to protect the smaller shifter from Mary’s next launch. I thought if we destroyed them, we could destroy her. I broke one of them, but she’s just as strong as ever.
Lars glanced only briefly at the shattered crystals on the floor.
It was a clever idea, even if it was being used for the wrong purpose.
The hollow shape of the crystals would allow the power to bounce back on itself instead of flowing back down into the earth.
Clearly, it’d worked. The overwhelming power and energy in the room were disorienting, even for him.
So we’ll have to try something else, he reasoned. An inky jet of dark magic raced over his head, only missing him because Erin was still racing around the room.
But our magical attacks aren’t doing much of anything. Amanda stomped the floor as she pulled and sent another radiant wave toward Mary. Sometimes she can even throw them back at us. Lucille is trying to find a spell, but whatever arcane knowledge brought her here is a mystery to me.
Lars went to the left and Amanda to the right. They each sent more blasts of energy, but all they got in return was more furniture hurled at their heads.
Then Mary did something they hadn’t seen yet. She pressed her elbows at her sides and curled her hands toward the ceiling, her bony fingers like bent twigs. She moaned, and the dark voids that served as her eyes seemed to grow even deeper. Her face stretched as her mouth opened wider.
Beneath her, the dark magic that she’d been throwing at everyone began to coalesce. It spun in a lazy circle, building up like a thunder cloud.
That can’t be good. Amanda moved backward, her bear rump hitting the wall as she tried to get away from it.
Lars didn’t know anything about this kind of magic. What is it?
I’m not sure, but I’d say she’s putting power together for something. Amanda swiveled her head as the house began to groan and creak around them. I think she’s taking things to the next level. She’s going to pull down this house and everyone in it!
What then? Would Mary be free to destroy the rest of the world? How much power could she channel, and what would she do with it? Lars knew he had to do something. Suddenly, he had an idea.
Tina sent a blast of purple magic at Mary, but the specter absorbed it into her body and moaned louder. The cloud beneath her spun faster.
When Lars moved back toward the doors, out of the line of fire, he could take the time to truly sense the cycle of energy in the room.
The geodes were flashy and bright, but they remained that way because Mary wasn’t pulling any of that power out of them.
She’s drawing her power straight from the ley lines.
She’s capable of pulling up far more than anyone else I’ve ever encountered.
The drain that The Crimson Veil has already created is about to get far worse if Mary finishes what she’s doing.
Not that he really knew what that was. His own powers were nothing like the magic that the witches used. His gut told him that if they let it go, the results would be terrible.
Everything we’re firing at her is only making it grow, Amanda noted.
“I think I’ve found it!” Lucille cried from the doorway. She lifted her hand toward Mary. “Dust of bone, shard of soul, across the veil you must go. Back to the realm, your soul must flee. We release you, so shall it be!”
Mary hissed and screamed. With a swoop of her hand, she gathered a pile of splintered wood and flung it at Lucille.
Lars couldn’t tell if the spell had any true effect on Mary or not, but Lucille hadn’t given up yet. She ducked out of the way and then returned, reciting the spell again. “Dust of bone, shard of soul…”
He took a few seconds to study the power in the room again.
It rose up from the floor in a brilliant blue light.
It wasn’t a light that anyone else would be able to see, but his clan’s longstanding duties at the polar node had helped them develop this sensitivity to it.
Mary was gathering all of that power and concentrating it.
I have to rebalance the ley energy back into the earth, he decided.
Lars moved forward again, but he didn’t launch any of his power toward Mary.
Instead, he pulled all the ambient energy from the room and began funneling it back down into the earth.
He used all the skills he’d learned growing up, checking the flow and the strength, pushing it gently, and extending it out over as big an area as he could reach.
Mary hated it. The old witch knew what he was doing. She fired at him relentlessly, even pulling from the cloud of magic under her to attack him.
He tucked his head and grunted as the blows came. This battle couldn’t be won with fighting.
Suddenly, the onslaught lessened. Amanda was next to him. She was fighting just as hard as he was, but not in the same way the battle had begun. She’d built a wall of energy around him, shielding him from Mary’s attacks.
The other witches had changed their plan, as well. They’d retreated to the doorway with Lucille, and they were back in their human forms. Their teeth chattered as they repeated the spell. “Across the veil, you must go!”
Lars splayed his feet on the floor, pulling and stretching the ley power like a plasma that could be pushed and prodded. He put his trust in Amanda to protect him as he drained the energy from Mary, shoving it into the earth.
But only so much power could be shifted at a time, and he was starting to run out of space.
He could ground that energy into the earth under the house, but it was going to take time to flow back out into the ley system.
Mary had pulled so much of that power up above the surface, essentially flooding the air with it.
“Back to the realm your soul must flee…” The witches continued to chant, the rhythm of their voices rising and falling, always staying in harmony.
Lars used it as a beat to work to, pulling the energy from Mary, pushing it away. Slow and steady, though the urgency of the situation made him long for a quicker process.
“No! No!” Mary screamed. “You brought me here! You can’t do this to me!” The dark cloud that had been forming under the floating witch was beginning to shrink.
Lars felt hope rise within him, and he felt the reflection of it within Amanda as she held their shield strong. Her mind was a steady thrum as she moved and controlled energy in her own way, blocking the ever-weaker attacks from Mary.
“You’re killing me!” Mary cried, her voice turning from fury to sorrow.
We’re not. We’re only sending her back to where she came from, where she belongs.
Lars took comfort in that reassurance as he continued to work. The pitiful protests were just Mary trying to gain an advantage in a different manner.
We release you, so shall it be! Amanda had joined in the spell, reciting it in time with the others in her mind. Dust of bone, shard of soul…
Yet another voice joined the witches. It was Lorelei. “Across the veil, you must go.”
His confidence renewed, Lars pulled a heavy load of power from Mary. There was no more room in the earth, and he merely shoved it away. As long as Mary couldn’t get to it, that was all that mattered.
“No! Please! No!” Mary’s body twisted. Her shoulders buckled.
Her legs writhed, making her feet wiggle under the hem of her tattered gown.
Her gaunt face sucked in on itself, her lips disappearing into her mouth.
Her nostrils stretched as the voids of her eyes expanded.
All the air in the room went rushing toward her, sucked down into the black hole that her face had become.
“So shall it be!”
The cloud beneath her had completely disappeared now. The spinning vortex of her face sank lower and lower toward the floor, sucking in the rest of her spiritual body as it went. With a final rush of air, she was gone.
The room stayed silent for a long moment. The ley power lazily occupied the space in large clumps and thin strands, displaced from the lines in the earth. The physical damage that’d happened was very real, but the spirit that had caused it was no longer.
Cautiously, Lars shifted back to his human form.
His skin tickled as the fur disappeared, and he felt the familiar ripple along his shoulders and ribs as his muscles and insides changed shape and orientation.
He turned to Amanda, who staggered slightly as she also regained her human shape.
He instinctively put his hand on her elbow. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah.” She blinked and then widened her eyes as if she was still trying to understand everything that she’d just seen. “I think I am. I wasn’t sure for a minute if we were all going to survive that. You pulled off some pretty impressive work.”
“What was that, anyway?” Kristy asked as she approached them.
“It was the only thing I could think of,” he explained. “I was draining her energy. I couldn’t put it all back where it needs to go, exactly. I just did the best I could.”
Lucille came forward and gave him a hug. “You were the key that wasn’t in the book. None of it was going to work alone. We needed both the spell and your powers.”
Lorelei poked her head into the room. “Is…is she gone?”
“Yes,” Amanda told her with a smile. “I don’t think you’ll ever have to worry about her again, unless Corinna does something she shouldn’t.”
Shyly, Lorelei stepped into the room. It was still chilly, and she rubbed her hands on her upper arms. “Um, Corinna isn’t here.”
“What do you mean?” Lucille asked.
“When things started getting really bad, she just slunk out the door,” Lorelei admitted. “I was focused on what was happening, and by the time I noticed, there wasn’t anything I could do.”
Erin tapped her fingers along her chin. “Should we go find her?”
“She’s long gone by now,” Lucille reasoned, “and everyone here is probably the better for it.”
Kristy moved closer to Lorelei. “Is there anything we can do for you or the rest of your coven?”
“Well, I hate to ask for anything. You’ve all been so kind already, and I don’t want to take advantage. Especially after you risked your lives,” Lorelei hesitated.
“Hey, that’s just what we do sometimes,” Tina said with a smile. “We’re always happy to help out another coven.”
Lorelei looked at the remaining two geodes.
They were still glowing with energy, but they were no longer pulsing and flickering.
“I can’t say that I understood all of what Corinna was trying to do here, but I never felt it was right.
Is there anything you can do to fix what she’s done to Salem’s ley lines? ”
All of the Artemis Eclipse Sisters turned to look at Lars.
“Yes,” he replied immediately. This was the job that he’d literally been born to do, even if it wasn’t there in Salem. “I need a little time to rest, but then I’d be happy to come back and work on it. Amanda, I could use your help.”
Her eyes went wide as she looked at him. She appeared to suddenly remember the sad conversation they’d had just a few hours ago after Arden’s play, and that things weren’t exactly calm and normal between them. Mary Riddle had made everyone forget reality for a little while.
But Amanda took a deep breath and nodded. “Sure. I can do that. We need to get it all fixed so that Kendrick and the others will start feeling better.”