Chapter 28
“This mind is saturated in my magic,” Moire declared. “Here, I reign supreme.”
“You should know better than most, constructing those futile telepath traps that when it comes to the mind, I am the one who reigns.”
“Hubris will be your downfall.” Moire summoned tentacles of fire, ice, and electricity. Each element blazed with power.
“Putting your hands on my student will be your downfall.” I waved a hand, conjuring a gust to smother the protective tentacles. “Katherine, this is your mind. Anything you will into belief will aid you. Trust your magic, trust yourself.”
“Right.” She nodded nervously, still shaken by having her autonomy stripped away by this vicious witch.
“The girl was but a tool, one with a potent enchantment branch, but I’ve brought down witches ten times her level.”
“You haven’t faced anyone of my level.” Katherine took a shaky breath and whispered a spell, summoning the same elemental tentacles as Moire. “Just as you were in my head, I was in yours.”
“Learn much did you?”
“Memorized every wicked spell, from the foulest constructs to the most deadly of assaults.” Katherine waved her arms in Moire’s direction, commanding her elemental tentacles to lash out.
As Moire leapt away, I stomped my foot onto the ground, willing the earth to reach out and stop her. Clawed hands made of mud and gravel grabbed at the witch, each one slowing Moire’s escape, stalling her evasion.
Water and fire collided, coiling around the witch in a steamy explosion, followed by a dozen other elemental bombardments. Katherine didn’t relent for a second, channeling more magic into the spell and binding Moire within a hundred elemental tentacles.
“You two truly believe that will be enough to stop a witch of the Celestial Coven,” Moire said from behind us.
I whipped around, only to get struck back with a powerful pulse of telekinesis.
“You read my spells, girl.” Moire breathed a piece of twine between her fingers, extending her hands far apart to show the length of the thread.
“But you have no understanding of spell craft magic. We are creation itself. The greatest of all magics. It is I alone who keeps the Celestial Coven safe from threats; it is I who conjures the necessary craftsmanship these witches require to be the supreme deities they aspire to be once more.”
Katherine clapped her hands, creating a gray spark between her palms. It darted ahead, sizzling along the thread Moire held until the magic in her spell fizzled out.
Did Katherine just use a spell to copy Kenzo’s branch?
She must’ve done that without his permission because no way was Kenzo going to sit down and assist Katherine in that spell.
“I will admit, you have some top-tier spells,” Katherine said with a smile. “More elite than anything I’ve ever laid my eyes on. It took me weeks to decipher the codex you used in your grimoire. And when I finally did, I still couldn’t comprehend the levels of some of your creations.”
Spell craft allowed an enchantment witch to write their own spells, speak them into existence, but a witch only had so much magic to channel. Katherine’s mind whispered ideas to exploit Moire’s energy, drain her, and bring her down.
“You really believe she’s at her limit?” I linked our minds.
“Nowhere close,” Katherine replied. “But I learned something about her while she was controlling me.”
“What’s that?”
“I just need you to distract her long enough for me to regain control of my body.”
Of course, even with Katherine’s mind made her own again, her body was still entranced by Moire’s grasp.
“I’ll kick her out of your head.”
“No.” Katherine glared at Moire. “I don’t want her getting away.”
Perhaps Moire’s body was far away, tucked somewhere safe. If I expelled her now, Katherine would be free, but the witch would have the advantage of an ambush. With Tara and Caleb already fighting against Amara, I couldn’t risk letting Moire escape to counterstrike later.
“Okay.” I cracked my neck. “What do you need me to do?”
“Hold the bitch back while I work on a new spell.” Katherine dropped to her knees, immediately going to work, tracing symbols into the dirt.
“Oh, little one, I’m tempted to let you write out whatever sad spell you think will offer you victory.” Moire sauntered toward us. “The devastation when you realize you’re up against someone far superior to you will be delicious.”
“How about you focus on me?” I said, teleporting behind Moire and swinging a fist.
Before I connected, she created a green shield, protecting herself.
“Nice barrier.” I commanded the shield to bend inward, wrapping around Moire and slowly crushing her. “Anything you can do, I can manipulate. You might have a million spells, but I have a billion bizarre thoughts.”
Moire screamed, creating a skull-crushing headache that shook my focus.
Once free, she flew away, hurling fireballs at me.
I smacked them back toward her, commanding they take on a lion’s form.
The fiery cats lunged for Moire, roaring furiously with the full intention of tearing open the witch’s jugular.
But Moire hissed a spell, calling forth rain clouds. The lions roared as they were engulfed by a watery death. The droplets splashed down on me, harmless at first, but almost instantly followed by a painful pinch.
“Fucking hell.” I brushed away the watery monsters.
Moire had used a spell to make it rain spiders. Spiders made of goddamn water. The more I destroyed, telekinetically waved away, the more that gathered into larger water spiders. Soon, a dozen spiders half my size surrounded me.
I willed myself to relax, ignoring the chittering hisses of these watery monstrosities.
Ben’s constant curious comments popped into my head.
Ever since his trip to the animal shelter, since getting that damn dog, he’s been obsessed with all things animals.
The kid would probably end up a veterinarian or zookeeper or running his own haven for untethered familiars.
Unable to remember the exact origins of the predator, I focused less on specifics and more on sheer force. If Moire wanted to create water spiders, then I’d create a horde of electrical wasps. Ben mentioned they hunted spiders to feed their young. He also mentioned they’re vicious.
My manifested magical attack buzzed through Katherine’s mind, tearing apart the spiders until nothing remained. I directed the horde to strike Moire.
Thousands upon thousands stung the witch, sparks of electricity stunned her, and soon she screamed an anguished defeat, consumed by the wrath of the wasp horde.
“Are you done with the dramatics?” I asked, listening intently to where she might reveal herself.
“I thought you’d enjoy the flair.” She leapt from my shadow, a blade in her hand.
I spun around, catching her arm, but tumbling backward. We crashed onto the ground and rolled around, each fighting desperately to avoid the blade’s edge.
“You do so enjoy murdering my coven.”
I fought against the blade, panicking as the tip pressed to my neck. Dying in the mind wasn’t a true death, but it might as well be. As a manifested extension, if I died here, I wouldn’t be able to help. I wouldn’t be able to protect my students. I wouldn’t be able to end this coven.
“You killed my best friend,” Moire screamed, tracing the blade’s tip along my scar.
How poetic, planning to end me the way I’d damn near died at Theodore’s hands.
“Sorry about your psychic witches,” I groaned, bending Moire’s hand and forcing the blade away. “But they put their hands on Milo; there was no coming back for them after that.”
And while the Global Guild, along with every other government agency, wanted to detain the Celestial Coven witches if possible, I would never go back and change my decision.
I stood by it, proudly, knowing those horrid sisters deserved to be sent to their deaths, if only to free the unwilling mind of their host body, and prevent a thousand more to follow in such a cruel fate.
“The Sisters Three?” Moire scoffed. “You think I give a damn about those petty witches.”
I crinkled my brow, perplexed and also exhausted, fighting to keep Moire off me.
“I speak of my sister, my daughter, my creation.” Moire lifted the blade high, snatching it free from my grasp. “You killed her like she meant nothing.”
A flash of my battle at Gemini Academy appeared on the surface of Moire’s mind, completely unguarded. The anguish of losing her loved one struck when I ripped the bone staff magic from Amara. I shattered it, releasing the many souls bound to it.
“One of the fallen members of the coven,” I said, out of breath. “When I released them, you lost your loved one.”
“No, you fool.” Moire laughed lightly. “Those fragments held no memories, only magic.”
“She’s speaking of the staff itself,” Katherine said, standing up again, and holding her hands in a weird position, almost as if she held an invisible object. “The staff was sentient, much like Moire has become over the centuries.”
“What?” I blinked, more confused by every passing word.
“That ends now.” Katherine pulled her hands apart in a ripping motion.
Moire screamed, her body shredding apart before me.
“What the hell?”
“She’s the grimoire,” Katherine explained, continuing her tearing actions. “Now that I have control over my body again, I’m ripping her apart one spell at a time.”
Moire’s bloody and broken body began falling apart like paper sent through the shredder.
She wasn’t a witch with enchantment magic. Moire was the enchantment magic, a sentient spell gone awry. And the skull staff that Amara once wielded was Moire’s creation, an attempt to breathe life into another spell, conjure a living being out of magical energy.
I forced myself up, furious and disgusted by this creature. She reminded me far too much of my doppler, the stray persona that nearly ruined my life.
“I will not be defeated.” Moire’s severed limbs and broken bits fell away, leaving only a string of symbols that took on the form of a giant beast.
“I’ve had enough of sentient magic to last ten lifetimes,” I said, unleashing as much telepathy as I could spare to shatter the enraged consciousness of this living grimoire.
“I am the most powerful witch in the world,” Moire screeched, bleeding ink and shattering nearby memories.
They wouldn’t be gone permanently, so long as I had a chance to mend Katherine’s mind later, but if Moire kept this up, she’d leave Katherine a broken shell.
“Enough of this.” I used all the magic at my disposal to contain Moire’s wrath.
“I created more spells than any enchantment witch before me,” Moire roared. “I offered the Celestial Coven greatness. I am far more than any pillar. I am the knowledge itself. Unstoppable.”
“How’s that superiority taste?” Katherine asked, holding a flame between her hands. “Is it as delicious as you thought?”
I created a buffer long enough for Katherine to chant a new spell, one which lit Moire ablaze. As the grimoire burned outside, Moire burned in here. Soon her beastly form crumbled to cinders and floating ash.
“Get the hell out of my head,” Katherine wheezed, fully exhausted, but standing triumphant against a member of the Celestial Coven.
“Good job,” I said with a small smile and a nod of approval. “You were amazing, Katherine.”
“I wouldn’t have been able to do this without your help, Mr.—er, Enchanter Frost.”
“Either is fine,” I said. “Now, let’s go help the others.”
“Right.” Katherine nodded. “I might have the perfect spell to give them an edge against The True Witch.”
“Good.” I carried my consciousness toward the surface of Katherine’s mind, prepared to do all I could to assist in Amara’s defeat.
When Katherine fully awoke, she stared at the burned grimoire, torn and scorched pages scattered all around her.
All signs of Moire’s consciousness had vanished.
Definitely a cruel fate, but she didn’t leave us much choice in the matter.
I wasn’t about to let an evil grimoire shatter Katherine’s mind and leave her body a living puppet.
“No,” Katherine whispered in absolute horror.
Her petrified expression nearly locked me in place, lost in her fear. I turned to see Caleb and Tara defeated and unconscious at Amara’s feet.
“We’re too late.”