Chapter 49 Enraged #2
“You,” Sage said, her voice low and tight. “You gave Conri something to make him claim me. Thank Rhen it didn’t work. I never thought even you would do something so awful.”
“Little Miss Perfect thinks she knows everything,” witch-bitch said, her face twisting in anger, “But she don’t know shit.”
Sage advanced, not sure what she meant to do, but not stopping.
Sometimes, violence was all you had left.
Witch-bitch muttered something under her breath, and Sage’s feet stuck to the floor mid-stride.
Sage fell forward, righted herself quickly, then dragged her feet free, ripping at the magic with her will, determined to keep moving.
Knowledge pulsed in her mind, spurring her on.
Witch-bitch could control power, but so could Sage.
Feet free, she rushed witch-bitch, intending to pull that freaky fox skin off her and destroy it for good this time. She’d tried before, and last time, witch-bitch had knocked her flying with some sort of magic defense and Sage hadn’t understood what was happening, but this time she was ready.
Sage lunged, arms out. The magic exploded out of witch-bitch, in a crimson-colored stream.
Sage leapt, shifting to a fox in mid-air, twisting inside her clothes, flinging them from her body in an expert movement that she’d never practiced anywhere but inside her own mind.
Over witch-bitch she went, flipping and twisting until she landed on the other side of her, then she attacked from the back, rolling under the magic that was still bubbling out of witch-bitch.
She darted in and bit at witch-bitch’s legs.
Blood flew and the old lady cried out. Sage ripped through meat and gristle, growling wildly, until more magic doubled back on itself and surrounded her, grabbing at her.
Sage set her front paws and sprang straight up, working from inside the magic.
She bit at it again until she burst through with a triumphant yip, grabbing mouthful of magic with a long tail.
She rotated her neck, spinning the magic like a jump rope, whipping it into a frenzy.
Inside the mutilated bubble of magic, witch-bitch cried out and turned, spinning, arms up, blood flying around her leg in a red arc on the bearskin carpet.
She staggered back. Sage ripped and yanked until the swathe of magic separated completely, spinning her faster.
She used momentum and swung the magic all the way around her body, leaping toward witch-bitch, until SMACK, the tail of magic smacked witch-bitch right in the face.
Sage spit the magic out, then leapt, coming in hard and fast. She hit witch-bitch in the chest with her paws, then grabbed the fox stole by the belly, pulling it away.
YES! She had it. She planted her paws on witch-bitch’s chest, using her for leverage, then sprang away, the fox stole in her mouth, heading to the room she’d come from, her ears pointed back, ready to dodge or counter magic.
Witch-bitch spoke rapidly. “Heavy or light, move, take flight. To the door—you, you, you, you.”
With each ‘you,’ something big and heavy slid across the floor in front of Sage, blocking the door.
Armoires, shelves, bells, even the big table slid wildly by.
She jumped on it and ran across the top while it was moving.
It slammed into an armoire like a car accident, sending Sage flying.
She hit the wall with all four feet and bounded the other way.
Witch-bitch opened a large chest and pulled out a spiral wand.
She pointed it at Sage, and something flew from it.
Sage ducked, weaved, and dodged away from whatever it was, totally out of options.
She jumped to the top of a well, then hopped across other wells like steppingstones, then made a flying leap to the stairs that led straight up, hoping they went somewhere.
Up, up, up, she went, the fox pelt hanging from her mouth, feeling heavier than it should.
Light and sound exploded all around her.
From below, witch-bitch yelled curses and spells at her.
At the top, Sage found a trap door. She butted it with her head, and it did not open. She examined it and found the lock. She put a paw on it and yipped at it, thinking, ‘open up, open up.’ The lock popped open and the door sprung ajar, letting in natural light.
Outside. She was going to get away.
Sage pushed her way out, triumph filling her, giving her strength and speed.
She leapt—and hit her head. She was outside, standing on grass, with trees all around, but still enclosed in a domed, plastic cage.
Sage paced in a circle, distraught, the tail of the fox stole dragging on the ground. She’d been so close to freedom.
She rammed her body into the plastic, then paced around the base of it with her nose low, looking for a way out. Magic shot out of the hole, looking like thick spiderwebs, seeking her. She jumped to the side and whipped the stole through the magic, dispersing it into threads.
A thin, distant scent reached her. Vod in the forest. Did she dare call them for help? Would they help her if she called them? But then she recognized the scent—him. Out of all the vod in Serenity, why did it have to be him?
From behind her, more magic shot out of the hole like flying spirits. The magic sought her, grabbing at her. She ducked under it, desperation spurring her to do what she otherwise never would.
HELP! She shouted in ruhi, aiming blindly at the scent. HELP ME CAN—
A thick strap of magic shot out of the hole and wrapped around her throat and face, sealing her muzzle shut, gluing the stole to her, and yanking her backwards.
Sage shifted to human, and wrenched at the magic with her hands, trying to pull it away from her face so she could breathe.
The magic tightened, suffocating her, strangling her.
Panic filled her, and she used it—building up her own magic, her own will, then exploding it out of her like a guided missile, seeking the wolves.
She felt it leave her and explode through the plastic with a liquid bursting sound.
She imagined it flying over the grass and above the ground, around trees—
More of witch-bitch’s magic flew up and slammed into Sage, joining with what was around her head and face, covering her body, pulling tight, flipping her around and around, then headfirst back into the trapdoor, slamming her onto each step on the way down.
Sage blacked out and her fox took over.