The Empire Witch

by Chandelle LaVaun

  The ground rumbled and sent jolts of electric energy vibrating into my feet.

  Emersyn gasped and stuck her head out the window just as a massive black cloud rose up into the sky over the buildings.

  “Oh, Goddess…” my heart sank into my stomach. I felt like I was going to throw up.

  Emersyn groaned and chewed on her thumbnail – without letting go of that door handle. “Come on, come on, come on.”

  “We’re almost — WHOA!”

  Stedman cursed and our car fishtailed. Tires screeched and smoke billowed up from the ground. People sprinted by the car, screaming and glancing over their shoulders. They were everywhere, filling the streets and blocking any kind of traffic. It was a scene straight out of a million movies. The car stopped with a wild jostle that sent both Em and me slamming into the door. I crashed into her then bounced off and slid across the leather bench seat.

  “GO, GO, GO!” Stedman screamed.

  Emersyn threw the door open before the car finished rocking. She leapt out of the car and lunged forward. I scrambled to get upright then jumped out behind her. We ran right up the center of the street but we were salmon swimming upstream.

  I threw my magic out ahead of us. WALK ON THE SIDEWALKS!

  Everyone in the street froze in place then slowly walked to the sidewalk.

  Emersyn was five inches shorter than me but with her body glowing like a supernova, I was having a hard time keeping up with her speed. Her fair flew behind her, the ends whipped around and sparked when they touched.

  A shrill whistle ripped through the street and then the sky exploded. The ground shook like an earthquake. Fire burst several stories high.

  And then I saw them.

  I recognized those black SUVs and the men in matching black combat gear.

  The Duenill.

  Emersyn cursed as she obviously came to the same conclusion I had.

  My stomach rolled. There had to be twenty SUVs and dozens of those shifter hunting pricks — what the hell is that?

  A few of them rolled out something like a pirate’s cannon. One pulled a trigger and the whole world rocked. The cannonball-thing shot through the air and slammed into the front of the school. Neon blue mist exploded from where it hit but the school was untouched.

  My breath left me in a rush.

  Those charms I helped Claudia put up on the school worked as a massive forcefield. The school seemed unscathed so far, I just had to hope nothing and no one had gotten inside.

  One of the Duenill leapt out from behind an SUV with a long cannister strapped to his body. He planted his feet and flames shot out in a thick stream.

  Emersyn growled and flicked her wrist. Those flames curved up in the air and slammed back into the guy holding it. He screamed and swatted at the flames but they swallowed him whole in the blink of an eye.

  We were almost there. Half an avenue at most. The Duenill hadn’t noticed us yet. They looked to their melted friend then up to the sky, like they were looking for a dragon.

  I grinned. Not quite. But she breathes fire better than they do.

  The front doors of the school flew open and banged against the stone walls. Teenagers came rushing out like a stampede with Christian and Marcy at the front. I spotted both witches and shifters running alongside each other. The air flashed a bunch of times and then different types of animals stood in student’s places. The big brown bear that was Christian jumped up and tackled four of the Duenill to the ground. Marcy’s mountain lion self shot like a rocket, landing fangs-first into the throat of a Duenill holding a flame thrower.

  Witches leapt into battle with their swords drawn, swinging without hesitation. Wands popped out all over the army of students and magic flashed. Ropes suddenly wrapped around SUVs, trapping their men inside.

  I felt their courage and their anger rushing through their veins and I swore to Goddess it brought tears to my eyes. These students weren’t messing around. This was their home now, and they were going to protect it.

  Emersyn gasped. “Holy hell, get them out of here!”

  The students had stolen the Duenill’s sole attention so not a single one of them noticed our arrival. But then one of the Duenill snuck around the back with a flame thrower and unleashed a fiery river of pain.

  Emersyn dove in front and sucked every ounce of fire into her.

  The students all cheered.

  I jumped behind her and threw my arms out, then pushed with my magic. I concentrated on what I wanted to happen. With my left hand, I focused on the humans and forced them to calmly but quickly evacuate the area. With my right, I went for my peers. The SOMA students. I loved their bravery and tenacity, but this wasn’t their fight. They weren’t properly trained for this. I thrust my magic even harder at them, pushing each and every student back. They all stopped fighting and ran backwards until their backs hit the stone wall of the school.

  “If they get past us, you can have ‘em,” I shouted to the students.

  Christian’s bear side growled and fought against my magic, but gave up quickly.

  The students’ eyes all shot up to the sky. I spun around and found all of the SUVs hovering five stories high. The men clung to the handles and shouted to each other.

  Emersyn stood with one hand raised to the sun, the air pulsed all around her hand. The Duenill on the ground looked up, then their gazes snapped to Em with hatred in their eyes. They grabbed their weapons and charged for her.

  I threw my hand out toward them and pushed my magic out. A cloud of red mist slammed into them and their feet stopped walking. They shouted and looked down then turned back to us. I couldn’t control their entire bodies, I had my magic stretched as far as I could already. I’d pulled just enough away from the humans to use against these shitheads.

  And if I let go of the students, I knew without a doubt they’d come rushing into battle. And I wasn’t having that. No student blood would be spilled on my watch.

  But just as I realized what the problem would be, so did they.

  They pulled their firearms out and started shooting.

  OH SHIT.

  Emersyn threw one hand up and the bullets froze mid-air. She clutched her crystal necklace with her other hand and then light flashed. That double-sided sword was as tall as she was. And it was dripping in fire. She pulled a move straight out of Tennessee’s playbook and threw her weapon into the air like a boomerang. The Duenill kept firing, but each new bullet just joined the others.

  And then her weapon sliced through the air like a rocket and blood splashed all over the street and fire burned their broken corpses to ash. She held her hand out to the side and her sword slammed into her palm.

  Then she looked up to the SUVs still flying over us and her own hand holding them there. She curled her fingers and the metal of the SUVs screeched and groaned as they crumbled into balls. She grinned like a madwoman and swung her arm down to her side. The SUVs slammed into the pavement. Fire exploded from the ground, but Emersyn just sucked it all into her palm.

  “AHHHHHH!” One of the few dozen Duenill left alive screamed and pulled out his flamethrower. He kept screaming as he pulled the trigger.

  Emersyn chuckled and shook her head. She thrust her hand out and the flames hit the thrower.

  I would’ve thought these guys would abandon their mission and retreat at the sight of her and what she could do. She was crumbling metal and burning everything in sight, yet they still fired bullets and flames at us.

  “You gave them a chance, Em,” I yelled, feeling her hesitation.

  She didn’t want to hurt anyone. But in our world, it was kill or be killed. She sighed, then lit the entire street on fire, scorching each and every last one of them alive. Their screams echoed between the skyscrapers and gave me chills.

  Just as we all took our first breath of relief…eight helicopters opened fire from the clouds.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Deacon

  I felt a rush of heat slam into my face that wasn’t coming f
rom Emersyn, so I turned toward it and found the four teenagers I’d met last night running straight for me. Maddox was in the front with Tor hot on his heels, then Kiev and Steve behind.

  Maddox leapt into the air, there was a flash of light and then he shifted into a dark blue dragon right over our heads without slowing down or stopping. He flapped his long wings and shot straight up into the sky like a great white shark hunting. There were three more flashes but when I turned, I only saw three dragons flying up to follow Maddox.

  The students gasped. My jaw dropped. I didn’t think I’d ever get used to seeing shifters shift. Especially not dragons changing on the fly like that. Maddox led the way, flying faster than the bullets the Duenill were shooting. His big navy-blue dragon body slammed the underside of a helicopter. It flipped upside down and crashed into the helicopter behind it. The two exploded in a cloud of metal and fire.

  Maddox didn’t waste any time. He tucked his wings in tight to his body and dove inside the next helicopter. He flew straight through, knocking all of its riders out, then did the same to the next helicopter. Kiev hovered below, waiting for each of the falling Duenill then swatting them into the sides of buildings with his spiked tail. He looked like the happiest little kid on the playground.

  Tor swerved and flew above one of the helicopters, then reached down and grabbed the propeller wings with his hands and ripped them off. As the ‘copter fell, Tor’s tail caught it and threw it into the helicopter beside him.

  Steve, the friendly orange dragon, flew circles around a helicopter like he was taunting them. The men screamed and fired their bullets, but Steve didn’t notice. Finally, he bit the tail of the ‘copter and chomped down real hard…then shook his head side to side so fast it blurred into one blob.

  “Damn, he’s shaking that things like a basset hound with a possum,” Christian shouted up by the front doors of the school.

  Emersyn smirked. “Could you sound more southern?”

  Christian whistled like he was calling his dog. “Come on, boy, I reckon we got one more!”

  The last helicopter wised up and didn’t try to beat the dragons. Instead, it landed on the street. The men inside swerved their heavy artillery toward us. I gasped. My pulse quickened. Em was good, but was she that good? I didn’t know. I didn’t want to find out.

  Kiev, the dark red dragon, landed just beside the helicopter. He snarled and stomped down on the tail of the copter then reached in with his claws and dragged a guy out. The Duenill guy fired his gun into Kiev’s shoulder. Kiev roared then ate the guy whole, like he was just popping a cookie into his mouth.

  Steve, the orangeish-brown dragon, landed behind him. There was a flash and then it was Steve standing there in human form – shirtless and in jeans. “Man, you know you can’t eat them. There ain’t enough Rolaids in the world for that stomach ache. You know this, bro.”

  Kiev snarled then pulled another Duenill out of the helicopter and chomped down on him. Blood gushed.

  Steve shook his head and put his hands on his hips. “I don’t want to hear a word tomorrow, bro. You gotta learn from your mistakes, man.” He dove forward and shifted right back into his dragon form…and sat down by the front doors of the school like a guard dog.

  I sighed and stumbled back a few feet. “Is that it? Are they all dead?”

  Em narrowed her eyes and held her hands up. “I don’t feel anything else.”

  Tor landed in front of us. He nodded but didn’t move to shift back or try to say anything. He just watching Kiev playing with his human-food and shook his head. A shadow passed over us, but when I looked up it was only Maddox.

  Cars honked and rolled up to the corner. Doors flew open and the real adults poured out. My father looked a little green in the face and his eyes were bloodshot. His vest and jacket were unbuttoned and his tie was just hanging there. My mother had bags under her eyes and her hair was tangled. She was in flats. Behind them, Claudia and Marshall stumbled out of another car. Marshall was barefoot and his shirt was inside out. Claudia had two different shoes on and her dress was on backwards.

  I sighed and glanced down at my watch. It was only eight in the morning. On New Year’s Day. No one had expected this, which made it rather brilliant from our enemy’s point of view. The city’s Aces and Pages jumped out of the cars, followed by a whole truckload of New York’s Knights – a whole army of soldiers trained as Swords in Edenburg.

  And they were all too late.

  The fight was over.

  “Deacon!” My mother hurried over, sweat glistening on her forehead. “What happened?!”

  “Uh…” I shrugged and gestured to the school behind me. “Well, the charms worked.”

  Em was out of breath from using so much magic, but she was trying. “We got…the…outside, you might wanna…check the inside.”

  Marshall cursed and scrubbed his face. “You heard her, check every inch of this school and make sure we’re safe. Knights, give us a perimeter.”

  The Knights took off in unison. The Aces and Pages I’d known for years rushed through the front doors.

  My father groaned and shook his head as he looked around at the damage to the other buildings. “Claudia, can you fix this?”

  She put her hand to her stomach and closed her eyes. “In theory.”

  Christian cleared his throat. “Yo, pretty boy with horns?”

  I frowned and turned, pointing to myself. “Me?”

  He grinned. “You wanna let us go now?”

  “Oh, shit.” I hadn’t realized I was still holding them in.

  I released my magic and the students rushed to the dragons with huge grins and cheers of excitement.

  Emersyn sighed, but I felt the weakness in her body like it was my own. I turned back toward her and cocked my head to the side. Somehow, in the panic of the morning, I’d missed one very important detail. She was wearing my white t-shirt and her cowgirl boots. Nothing else.

  She looked to me and frowned. “What?”

  I cleared my throat and eyed her eight-mile-long legs popping out from under my shirt. “Just real quick, are you wearing pants?”

  She narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips. “Ummm…”

  “Deacon?”

  I jumped and spun toward my name.

  Maddox appeared beside me in human form. “May I use your phone?”

  I nodded and held it out to him. I walked over to Em and wrapped my arm around her waist to give her strength.

  Maddox’s call was answered on speaker, on the second ring. “Hello?” A very, very deep gravelly voice answered.

  “Kothari, the Duenill have attacked. It’s over, we handled it, but you better get over here,” Maddox said, getting right to the point.

  Koth growled and then glass shattered. “Coming,” he snapped then hung up.

  Emersyn groaned. “I have to call him.”

  Before I could ask who she had to call, her phone was ringing on speaker.

  “What now?” Tenn answered on the first ring, his voice almost as rough sounding as Koth’s.

  Em exhaled loudly. “Listen, I don’t have pants on…just get over here.”

  I arched my eyebrows and blinked. “That’s how you say that?”

  She shrugged and went to hit the end call button when Tegan said in the background, “Babe? What happened?”

  “I don’t know, your sister doesn’t have pants on. Let’s go.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Emersyn

  Bright white flashed and then Tennegan walked out onto the New York City street. Calling them by their couple name just made so much sense, they were practically one person these days. And with all that black from head-to-toe it was hard to tell where one ended and the other began. Especially since they tended to be touching in more ways than one. And now they had matching sunglasses.

  And as they scanned the carnage me and the dragons had left behind, Tennegan wore matching scowls. The air around them pulsed. Blood rose off the ground in little bubbles of horror.
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  When my sister’s gaze finally landed on me, she arched one eyebrow and nodded. “She really doesn’t have pants on.”

  Tenn threw his hands up and looked to her. “How come she gets to go out with no pants on, but I get in trouble for not wearing a shirt?”

  “Babe, if you wanna walk around with no pants on, I’m all about it.”

  He stared at her.

  She winked.

  He chuckled and shook his head. Heather looked like she was dying to speak to them, but he passed her over with just a nod. His mismatched gaze landed on me. “Do I want to know?”

  “Definitely, no.”

  He arched one eyebrow at me. “Deacon? What happened here?”

  Deacon took a deep breath, then launched into the retelling of what happened. As he said it, I couldn’t believe he was talking about me. That I’d done those things.

  Tegan appeared in front of me. She held her hands out and suddenly I was wearing dark blue jean pants.

  I gasped and looked down. “I love magic.”

  “Dude, me too.” Tegan smiled, but her eyes were sharp and watching me. “You’re fairly weak right now. I mean, right after last night, too? Your magic is wiped.”

  I frowned. “I feel —”

  “Sit.” She snapped her fingers and my ass suddenly hit the cold, firm surface of the front steps. “Heather, can you call one of your healers, please?”

  “Of course.” She pulled out her phone, hit a few buttons then held it to her ear. “Come out front, please. Thanks.”

  Rainbow magic spilled into the air around Tegan and then she pressed her hands to my shoulders. Warm energy seeped into my body. Pressure I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding eased away. My breathing came lighter and easier.