Right. He couldn’t have been devastated because Roxanne had died, it was all about him and how it affected his life. Roxanne. That was my mother. And she had killed herself so that I would be safe. A wave of gratitude rushed through me for the woman that I had never known, that I would never know, who had done this so I could live.
“What was she like?” I found myself asking.
“She was gorgeous,” Titan replied. “Long blonde hair that reached her waist, blue eyes that sparkled in the sun, a laugh that sounded like music.”
“No,” I said, irritated. “I don’t want to know what she looked like. I want to know what she was like. What did she enjoy? How did she spend her free time? What kind of music did she like?”
“Oh,” Titan replied simply. “I don’t know, really. She liked surfing, I know that. She was always on the ocean on that board of hers. But the rest? She was gorgeous, that’s all I know.”
Ugh. What an absolutely abhorrent wizard Titan was. Roxanne had obviously loved him, and yet he didn’t seem to care about her at all. He didn’t know anything about her, and anger seethed through me at the realization. She hadn’t deserved him. She had been too good for him. I was going to make sure he paid for what he had done.
Chapter 18
“This isn’t going to work, you know,” I said.
“What’s not going to work?”
“This plan to kill me. After all, don’t you understand prophecies? I’m going to destroy you, no matter what you try and do. You should have just slunk back into your hole and hid for the rest of your miserable life.” I was feeling more confident now, spurred on by the news about my mother.
Titan laughed. “Please. Do you know how unreliable prophecies are? Half of them are made up, to start with.”
“If you’re so convinced this one is wrong, then why have you gone to all this trouble to find me? Why didn’t you just continue hiding in your hole until you died a miserable death like the outcast you are?”
“Oh, please,” Titan roared. “Do you really think I’ve been inactive all these years? I’ve been more subtle in my magic, and I’ve been working from behind the scenes, but I’ve been around. The only thing is no one knows it’s me. And I don’t believe in the prophecy, but others do. Killing you is just to put the rumors to rest that you might be the one to destroy me one day.”
“Sure,” I said, channeling my inner Ellie and doing my best to be as snarky as possible. “I’m sure that’s it, I totally believe you.”
“Quiet, witch!” Titan roared. “You may have been birthed from my genes, but that doesn’t make you my daughter. I’ve had it. It’s time for you to die, like you should have done almost thirty years ago.”
He pulled a wand from his robes and pointed it at me. I had just enough time to cast a shield spell as a quiver’s worth of arrows shot toward me. They got stuck in the shield, wavering back and forth for a second before falling to the ground as I broke the spell and immediately attacked. I knew nothing less would work; with a powerful wizard like Titan, if I tried to defend, he would eventually weaken me to the point where my magic wouldn’t work, and then I was done for.
“Jupiter, god of lightning, bring forth some wind, make this scene frightening.”
Wind suddenly whipped around us. My hair was in a ponytail, so it wasn’t too bad, but I knew that Titan’s fancy robes would get caught up in the wind, and it worked perfectly. The fabric spun around, and he began flailing. I took the opportunity to run into the lake, where I knew my magic would be more powerful. After all, we were both from a water coven.
As soon as I found myself in the water, I cast another spell.
“Jupiter, paralyze this wizard, make him move no longer.”
At the last second, Titan got a hold of his wand and cast a reflection spell. I darted out of the way to avoid being hit by my own spell as it rebounded toward me, but the increased resistance in the water caused me to trip, and I fell into the lake, dropping my wand. I reached down, trying to find it, but Titan took the opportunity to cast another spell.
Ninja stars appeared behind him, about forty of them, and I gasped as I realized what was about to happen.
Suddenly, my brain flew back to an old episode of Mythbusters that I’d watched back when I was in the human world. It was one in which they tested whether diving underwater when a gun was shot at you would stop the bullet, and their tests showed that water slowed the bullets down so much that you only had to be underwater a couple of feet to stop them from maiming or killing you.
I really hoped the same theory applied to magical ninja stars.
Taking a deep breath, I dove as deep as I could into the lake. I was still in the shallows, so even as I skimmed the bottom I couldn’t have been more than three feet underwater, but as I felt the touch of cold metal against my leg I also didn’t feel a searing pain to go with it. I dared to look back and saw a slight cut, but nothing worse, and a handful of ninja stars slowly drifting toward the bottom of the lake.
It had worked!
However, there was another problem: I was quickly realizing that Titan really was more powerful than I was. I had no idea how I was going to defeat him, and it was just a matter of time before one of his spells actually worked, and that was the end of me. And on top of that, I didn’t have my wand anymore. I knew I could cast spells without one, but it still made things a lot more difficult.
As soon as I came up for air I dove right back down and began swimming as far away as I could. I knew he would have been ready and waiting with another spell, and I was not going to hang around to see what it was. A splash of water where I’d been a moment earlier made me glad I’d made that choice.
I came back to the surface and immediately cast a shield spell, muttering the incantation but not using a wand to do it.
A flash of motion came from my left and as soon as I looked over, my heart dropped. Ellie, Sara, and Kyran were rushing toward the lake. I couldn’t let them get involved in this. There was no way. I didn’t want them to get hurt.
And that was when I realized what I had to do. There was one way I could defeat Titan, but it meant I was going to have to sacrifice myself.
But if I did it, my friends would be safe. He would be gone forever, and they wouldn’t have to live in fear anymore.
A strange calmness came over me as the realization dawned. I knew what had to happen, and I was going to do it. I looked over at them and smiled. Ellie was running toward the lake, her wand already out. Sara looked terrified as she followed. Kyran locked eyes with me, and, as if he realized what I was going to do, mouthed the words I love you.
I love you too, I mouthed back as I got ready to cast the last spell I would ever cast.
I focused all of my energy on my magic. I thought about Amy, and how I hoped Kyran would find the exam papers and she would become the first-ever lawyer witch. I thought about Sara, and how I hoped she would defend her title as broom riding champion. I thought about Ellie and how I hoped The Witching Flour would become a famous café worldwide. And I thought about Kyran, and how I hoped he would continue to help people and paranormals alike, living his life as a vigilante, without being too distraught by what had happened to me.
I wanted the best for all of them, all of these people who meant more to me than anything in the world, and I used that love for them to power the spell I was about to cast.
I raised my head to the sky as I shouted as loudly as I could, “Jupiter, god of lightning, strike down this lake, with all your might!”
It didn’t rhyme, but that didn’t matter.
I heard Ellie’s voice crying “No!” from the shore and saw from the corner of my eye as Sara stopped her from rushing into the lake herself as the skies above immediately turned black, covered in clouds.
“What in the name of Titan…” my father’s voice said, just as the skies opened up and dozens of bolts of lightning crashed down onto the lake, electrifying the entire thing. I looked over as Titan became stiff as a board, smoke
rising from his body as thousands of volts of electricity coursed through him.
I knew the same thing was about to happen to me.
And that was when everything went black.
Chapter 19
“She’s waking up!”
“She is not!”
“Yeah, she is. Look at her eyelids.”
My eyes fluttered open and I found myself looking right into the faces of Ellie and Sara.
“See? Told you,” Sara shot at Ellie. “Tina! Tina, are you ok?”
“What happened?” I muttered. “Am I dead?”
“No, silly. Although you did your best. You’re insane.”
I took a deep breath and looked around. I was in the same hospital room as Amy had been in, only this time I was the one lying in the bed. Amy was sitting in one of the large chairs, leaning back, looking at me happily.
“I’m so glad you’re alright, Tina,” she said to me with a small smile. “I’d come up and say hello, but I’ve been told that I need to rest for a few days still.”
Kyran was standing at the foot of the bed, beaming at me, and I leaned back against the pillows, closing my eyes. I was alive, and so were all of my friends. This was perfect.
“What happened to Titan?” I asked, not daring to open my eyes.
“Dead,” Ellie replied. “You electrocuted him.”
“Yes, I think we do have a few questions about that,” Kyran said. “What on earth were you thinking?”
“He was too powerful,” I replied. “And I had lost my wand. I didn’t know what to do. I eventually realized that we were both standing in the middle of the lake, and if I called on Jupiter to electrocute it, it would kill us both. But that was the only way I could defeat him. I had to sacrifice myself so that all of you would be ok.”
“There were other ways,” Ellie said, but I shook my head.
“No, I don’t think there were. He was really powerful, and right from the start, I kept finding myself running. I was eventually going to become too weak, so I had to do something. But why aren’t I dead?”
“I don’t know,” Sara said, and every eye in the room turned toward Amy, who always had all the answers.
“I’m not one hundred percent sure,” Amy said. “But I do have an idea. The only people who are immune to lightning strikes are members of lightning covens. Any one of us could have cast the same spell from inside the lake and been fine.”
“But I’m from a water coven. We’ve definitely established that.”
“Right, which is what makes this so strange, and why this is only a theory and not something I’m completely sure about. But I think possibly you may have somehow become a member of the coven of Jupiter.”
“So she’s no longer a member of the coven of Titan?” Ellie asked, and Amy shook her head.
“No, I think she still is. I think Tina might have just become the very first witch in history to be a member of two covens at once.”
Everyone was silent as Amy’s words sunk in.
“Two covens?” Sara finally said, her voice barely more than a whisper. “But that’s not possible.”
“It’s not supposed to be,” Amy said. “But magic is strange. What was the last thing you thought about, Tina, before you cast the spell?”
“I thought about all of you guys,” I said, looking around the room. “I thought about how much I loved all of you, and what I hoped for your futures, which I assumed I would never see.”
“There it is,” Amy said. “It’s possible that by thinking about the three of us—and Kyran, although that would have no impact on your coven—and then casting a spell to save all of us, Jupiter decided to make you a member of the coven, and as a result, saved your life.”
“Wow,” I finally said quietly. “You really think that’s what happened?”
Amy shrugged. “As I said, it’s just a guess. But you had to have been protected by Jupiter somehow. That’s the only way you could have gotten out of that lake without being electrocuted the same way Titan was.”
There was silence for a minute, but before anyone else had a chance to say anything, Heather came rushing in with a potion, followed closely by Chief Enforcer King.
“Oh, good, you’re awake,” Heather said to me, immediately pushing past the other witches and making her way to my bedside, setting the small cauldron down on the bed next to me. “I have another potion for you to drink.”
“What’s it for?” I asked.
“It’s just a general resting potion,” Heather replied. “When the body goes through enormous stress the way you just did, whether mental or physical, it can help to take a few days to decompress afterward. I’ve been giving the same potion to Amy, and I’m glad to see she’s obeying my orders to stay in the chair. Ideally, you’d both be in bed, but I’m afraid bringing another one in here might make this room just a little bit tight.”
No kidding. I smiled as I looked around; with all these people in here, there wasn’t a lot of space left over.
Heather handed me a ladle full of potion, which I duly drank—and was pleased to find it tasted a lot like root beer. Straightaway I began to relax, as if the potion itself had taken a whole bunch of stress away, and I leaned back in the bed.
Amy took a ladle as well, and Heather promised to come back soon, warning the others not to stress me out too much.
Chief Enforcer King took her turn next. “Do not worry about being charged with murder; it’s not going to happen,” she said immediately.
“Well, that’s a relief.”
“I’m pretty sure even if I had tried the entire paranormal world would have turned on me,” she added with a wry smile. “Given the prophecy and your history, I completely believe that you killed him in self-defense.”
“I did,” I replied. “He tried to kill me. I had no choice.”
“I know,” the enforcer said, looking kindly down on me. “It’s alright. He’s gone now. He can’t hurt you; he can’t hurt anyone anymore.”
“Oh, that reminds me,” I said, sitting up again. “He told me before he died that he had been acting in the shadows. He had still been committing crimes and hurting people, but he had been doing it secretly so no one knew it was him.”
Chief Enforcer King nodded. “Thanks for letting me know. It had been suspected in Enforcer circles for years that he was still active, and that he was simply better at hiding his actions. We have a long list of crimes committed across the paranormal world that have long been suspected to have been committed by him. We have no way of proving it now, but at least we hope these crimes will come to an end.”
“Right,” I said. “Thank you.”
“No, thank you, Tina. I never would have imagined when Drake led you into my office that morning that you would end up being the one who killed the most evil wizard this world had ever seen.”
She shook my hand, and I felt a little bit awkward. I had only been trying to save my friends. And yet, here we were. Titan was dead, and he could never hurt them—or me—ever again.
Chapter 20
The next few days passed in a blur. Ellie and Sara would spend their days at The Witching Flour, then sneak outside food into the hospital for Amy and me to eat for dinner.
Amy was finally told about the missing exam papers—Kyran got no further in the investigation—and had to be sedated. She made Chief Enforcer King swear that it was her top priority before she finally stopped hyperventilating any time anyone mentioned it.
Kyran popped by at the strangest hours, as he was wont to do. He mostly sat and held my hand, letting me rest or telling me about his days. I liked hearing his stories from the human world. He also snuck Mr. Meowgi in one day, who was not happy about the situation.
“Do you know how humiliating this was?” my cat said as soon as he popped out of the big paper bag in which Kyran had hidden him. “Your boyfriend had to pretend I was a bag of clothes that he brought from home. Can you believe that? Me, a majestic master of the martial arts, pretending to be that swea
ter that’s been sitting on your floor for three months.”
“Two months, tops,” I muttered as my cat jumped from the bag and onto my lap. I immediately scratched him under the chin. “I appreciate your sacrifice. Thanks for coming. I missed you.”
I smiled at Kyran. “Thanks for bringing him.”
“No problem,” he replied. “Well, ok, it was a little bit of a problem. He didn’t want to go in the bag, even though I told him they weren’t going to let him into the hospital. He wouldn’t accept the fact that cats can be an allergen.”
“That’s because it’s bull,” Mr. Meowgi replied. “I’m a loveable, amazing creature, and I shouldn’t have to hide away like some sort of dog just because some genetically inferior paranormals are allergic to my fur.”
“Well, you’re here now, and that’s what’s important,” I said, holding him close to me. Mr. Meowgi didn’t even fight me or try to claw his way off me, which I considered the most telling of his affection.
“I’m starving, you know,” he murmured as he sank into my arm.
“I know for a fact Ellie and Sara have been coming to the house to feed you.”
“Do you? A fact, huh? Because if you feel my ribs, I’m all skin and bone. I haven’t felt the touch of a can of tuna in days. And trust me, it wasn’t by choice.”
“Right. Well, I promise I’ll get you some roast chicken when I get out of here, ok?”
“A whole roast chicken?”
“Maybe over the course of a few days. But no, I’m not giving you a whole roast chicken to eat all at once.”
“Fine,” Mr. Meowgi muttered, obviously accepting this negotiation.
“I saw Heather coming in,” Kyran said. “She said you and Amy can go home tonight.”
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