12. Chapter 12
Chapter twelve
Amelie raised her arms out in front of her body and focused her power into the palms of her hands as she stood directly on the ritual circle line. She felt it when the others did the same, as the wind shifted and the illusions dropped from all their bodies.
Hestia’s little stunt had bought them a little bit more time as now, most of the zombies were already at the center of the circle. But they still had to hurry.
Amelie put all her energy into channeling her power into the circle as she watched Delia begin the chant.
“Ab intra
Abyssus abyssum invocat
Ex silentio
Ad pulverem
Te expello
Consummatum est!”
Amelie felt the pulse of her magic with each word mingling with the auras of the others.
Hestia’s warmth, Regina’s soothing cool, and Delia’s invigorating cold mixed within her veins along with her own magic.
From across the way, Amelie could see Delia’s hair rising up around her as she received the borrowed power and channeled it into the circle.
In her mind’s eye, she saw the purple energy of all their colors mixed together pulsing through the shape of the ritual circle, flowing through each rune point and then back again.
The air crackled with power, and Amelie held her breath as she waited.
For a moment the zombies stood still, their attention pulled in four different directions, but then they began moving again.
Amelie’s heart dropped.
“Delia.” Hestia’s concerned voice rose over the sound of shuffling and the whirr of the magic in the air. “It’s not working.”
“I can see that!” Delia replied, panic evident in her voice. Replanting her feet, Delia took a deep breath and, even louder this time, she tried again.
“Ab intra
Abyssus abyssum invocat
Ex silentio
Ad pulverem
Te expello
Consummatum est!”
With each line spoken, energy crackled through the air in the circle, following the lines Hestia had drawn, but aside from temporarily slowing the creatures crossing the lines themselves, nothing happened.
Amelie watched in horror as the zombies continued to lumber toward each of them, the majority on their way to the redhead.
“Delia!” Amelie shouted, feeling faint with terror. “What do we do?”
For a moment, Delia shifted, and Amelie’s gaze flitted to the door of the cathedral, leading to the kitchen. However, as though she could read their thoughts, Regina called out.
“Don’t break the circle!” Regina shouted from her spot on the circle. “If this is going to work, the circle has to stay intact. Keep going, Delia!”
Suddenly looking very small, Delia’s gaze flitted over to Amelie for a second before she took a breath and began shouting the incantation once again.
“Ab intra”
Amelie stared in horror as the horde began closing in on Hestia.
“Abyssus abyssum invocat”
The ground began to shake, and for a moment Amelie was terrified that it was more zombies were rising from their graves, but then she felt it; the frigid cold of Delia’s power pulsing through the circle.
“Ex silentio”
The plants and foliage inside the circle began to decay at an alarming rate, and when Amelie looked back at Delia, her eyes were cold black.
“Ad pulverem”
Amelie did everything in her power to remain still as the literal ground around her began to crumble. Delia’s power was literally reducing rocks to sand and sending a wave of decay through everything in the circle.
“Te expello”
The flesh that had manifested on the zombies began to tear away, revealing their skeletal structure underneath, but they were still moving.
“Consummatum est!”
The graveyard was literally shaking with the force of Delia’s power being boosted by the other three’s, and for a moment Amelie thought that it had to have worked, but then she heard Hestia’s cry.
At the blood-curdling scream, Amelie’s gaze snapped away from Delia and over to Hestia, where, to her horror, she found that the zombies had reached her and the first one had just taken a huge bite from her arm.
“Delia! Do something!” Amelie screamed.
Delia yelled in frustration and yanked a knife from her back pocket just as the second zombie sank its teeth into Hestia’s shoulder.
Holding her hand out in front of her, Delia took the blade and sliced her palm deeply.
“Just fucking die already!” She screamed as she dropped to the ground, slamming her bloody palm into the earth.
A wave of energy shot through the circle, nearly pushing Amelie off balance.
It was as though the wind itself got sucked into the circle, creating a vacuum at the center and robbing the area of all sound and movement.
The air fell still as Amelie felt all the magic flowing through her body leave in an instant, dropping her like a rock.
Fighting unconsciousness, Amelie blinked away the dark blotches in her vision, brought the herbal charm to her nose, and took deep breaths, focusing on the scent. Then, once the world stopped spinning, Amelie dropped the charm and steadied herself, palms flat in the cemetery dirt.
From the ground, she looked up, gasping for air.
At first, all she saw was stillness; the creatures were still standing, but all movement of any kind had ceased.
One zombie in particular had made it to within 5 feet of her, and as Amelie watched it, staring into the soulless pits of its eyes, she held her breath.
Her lungs started to burn, but still, she did not breathe, terrified to break whatever trance it was in.
But seconds later, a puff of dust floated off its skull, followed by more, and Amelie finally breathed as the zombies began dissipating into dust as they blew off into the wind.
Feeling as though she’d had the breath knocked out of her, Amelie sucked in air until she could feel her legs again before scrambling to her feet.
Delia was on her knees off to the side, and Regina was getting up off the ground, but Hestia was lying in a heap at the foot of the cathedral.
Breaking off in a run, Amelie dodged disintegrating corpses as she sprinted as hard as she could through the graveyard.
Regina got there first, dropping to her knees and cradling the Illusion Witch in her arms, and Amelie expected the worst. But when she finally arrived, Amelie let out a massive breath of relief as she saw Hestia trembling and heard the sound of her sobbing into Regina’s chest.
“Fuck.” Amelie sat on the ground, hard, adrenaline beginning to leech from her body. Trembling and crying weren’t a good sign, typically, but in this case, it meant that the Illusion Witch was alive, and frankly that was better news than Amelie had expected.
Screwing her eyes shut and digging her palms into her eyes, Amelie sat there motionless until she heard a dripping sound next to her ear.
When she turned to the side where the noise was coming from, she was met with a bloody hand, still dripping blood onto the dirt. Jumping into action, Amelie looked up, seeing a very pale Delia, swaying on the spot.
“Delia!” Amelie cried out, scrambling to her feet just as Delia’s legs seemed to give out.
She had barely gotten back to her feet when the death witch’s unconscious body hit her chest, but determined not to drop her, Amelie stood her ground.
The most immediate issue was the bleeding, clearly.
Unfortunately, Amelie had very little experience with healing magic beyond basic herbal remedies, and she certainly didn't have time to whip something like that up right now.
So instead, Amelie ripped off the bottom of her shirt and started packing the wound as tightly as she could with her trembling hands. Then once she was satisfied, she lifted Delia’s hand above her heart and held it there.
About ready to pass out herself and trying her best to figure out how she was going to get everyone inside, Amelie looked to the sky as she heard a massive crack, not unlike the one she’d heard when Regina and Hestia erected the barrier.
At first there was nothing but the sounds of groaning, like a ship caught in a storm, but then fault lines began to appear across the top of the dome.
Relief flooded through her as the barrier melted away and several witches teleported into the area, all looking very official and very ready to hop into action. Amelie had no idea who they were, but the only thing she could think of as she felt her strength failing was… ‘thank the gods’.
“Regina!” A dark-haired woman in deep blue robes hurried across the graveyard and over to where Regina was cradling Hestia, dropping down next to her.
At the sound of her voice, Regina looked up and smiled. “Agatha. I knew you’d come.”
Legs beginning to give out underneath her, Amelie shook her head in amazement. Of course, Regina had said that the Council would come if they couldn’t get back in contact with them. “You’re Regina’s sister.”
Agatha looked up from where she’d crouched down next to the Divination Witch, and a concerned look crossed her face as she hurriedly called someone over.
Amelie’s knees hit the ground just as someone took Delia from her arms, another robed figure crouching down next to her and preventing her from faceplanting into the dirt.
Despite her exhaustion, Amelie watched the man carrying Delia over to another witch wearing white and green robes.
A healer of some sort, Amelie presumed. Only after the healer checked for a pulse and signaled for the man to lay the death witch down and wave him away did Amelie turn her attention back to Regina’s sister.
“I am,” Agatha replied. “And you must be Pumpkin Hollow’s new Hearth Witch. Apologies for the rocky start.”
Amelie waved her hand in dismissal. “It’s okay, you couldn’t possibly have known.”
Agatha’s brows went up, and when she and Regina exchanged looks, Amelie remembered what sort of craft they practiced and burst out laughing.
The area smelled like death, and Amelie knew that her reaction was very likely inappropriate for the situation, but she couldn’t help it.
Tears streamed from her eyes as she clutched her sides; gods, she really needed sleep.
Looking up to apologize through giggles, she stopped short as she saw Regina and Agatha both laughing quietly, hiding their mouths under their hands. Amelie let out a breath of relief when she realized she hadn’t offended anyone and was about to say something when the redhead moved beneath them.
“Unghhhh.” Everyone turned their attention down to Hestia as she groaned.
“Are you feeling alright, dear?” Regina petted Hestia’s head as she waited for the Illusion Witch to respond. The bite on her shoulder was pretty nasty, but the zombie had clearly deteriorated before it could do any major damage.
The bite on her arm, on the other hand, was still bleeding, but luckily hadn’t hit any major arteries. It was gross and looked very painful, but she wasn’t in any danger of bleeding out at the moment.
“Am I going to turn into a zombie now?” Hestia’s voice trembled at the question, and Amelie paused as she realized that would have also been her first question after a zombie attack, looking to Regina and Agatha for an answer.
Regina took a deep breath, relief evident on her face, and shook her head. “No, my love. This isn’t Dawn of the Dead.”
Hestia turned onto her back with a pout, still managing to look stunning with tears streaking her cheeks as she winced.
“Though we might want to get you a tetanus booster and maybe a Hepatitis B shot,” Agatha interjected. “They may have been dead, but they were still humans, and people bites are no joke.”
Hestia huffed as she pressed her face into Regina’s hand, and Agatha waved over another witch in white and green robes.
Then, dusting herself off, Agatha stood and let out a sigh of relief.
Once the healer got to work on Hestia’s bite marks, magically stitching the flesh back together, Agatha helped her sister up off the ground before extending a hand to Amelie as well, pulling her to her feet.
“You all did a fantastic job, all things considered.” Agatha nodded in the direction of Delia, who was now conscious again, sitting up and watching the healer knit her flesh back together. “There’s a lot that we don’t know, but I’m hoping you four can help us fill in some of those blanks.”
“Of course.” Regina smiled, lingering at Hestia’s side.
“Well.” Agatha nodded. “I suppose we should get inside and go over everything that’s happened, hm?”