Witchling Wars

by Shawn Knightley

  ‘Too late.’

  I went spiraling out of the tunnel and toward the ground, crash landing into a patch of green. I only had enough time to open my eyes and swoop my long hair out of my face to see where I was.

  ‘Okay, this definitely isn’t where I wanted to land.’

  We were in the middle of the White House lawn. The large fountain with a red circular lining of flowers was only a few feet to my side. I just narrowly missed landing in the water. I peered up to see the United States flag waving high above the White House, fearing the absolute worst. In my attempt to escape Victor, he managed to plop us into the most visible and heavily watched area in the entire country.

  ‘He’s insane! He can’t use magic here. He’ll reveal witchlings to the whole damn world!’

  At least it was a relatively soft landing. I stood up to see the moon rising over Washington D.C. But that certainly didn’t mean the most heavily secured area in the country was asleep.

  Bright lights flashed in my eyes and I had to cover them with my hand. My hand that still had magic swirling around in it from trying to take over the destination of the vixra tunnel.

  ‘That was a bust.’

  “Freeze! Hold it right there!” A man dressed in black from head to toe roared.

  ‘Oh my god. Is this it? Is this how I expose witchlings and start the war? Did I just fulfill the prophecy? All to get away from Victor?’

  I knew it was a matter of seconds before I had countless guns pointed in my direction. I had to get out of there as fast as I could.

  Victor stood up ten feet away from me. The landing had broken his leg. He leaned over and snapped it back into place with a horrible crunching noise of bone snapping over bone. Then he trudged toward me.

  Idiot status confirmed. Or he just didn’t care.

  ‘Don’t even think of using your vampire speed here, you son of a-’

  He threw his arm in the air and ripped open the tunnel again, tearing into the air as though he was pulling down on something enormously heavy as sparks burst all around the hole he was creating.

  Secret Service agents started circling us with guns in their hands.

  “Don’t move!” one of them shouted.

  ‘Yeah, try telling that to a psycho vampire.’

  Before Victor could finish I raised my arm in the air and carved an opening to a tunnel directly behind me. And that was when I started to hear gunfire.

  One went right through my chest and I fell backwards into the tunnel. It sucked me in and I disappeared right before their eyes.

  “No!” I heard Victor yell.

  I went flying through the tunnel in a whirlwind of chaos, doing my best to picture somewhere else in my mind through the pain of a bullet shredding my lungs and filling them with blood. And thanking Edmund in my mind for giving me enough of his magic to go back in time five seconds.

  I landed on my knees only two feet from where I had been standing before the gunfire went off. I nearly fell to the ground. I could feel blood starting to spurt up the back of my throat and threatening to come barreling out of my mouth. Before I could give it a second thought, I lunged forward and knocked myself out of the way, forcing myself to dodge the bullets headed straight for my chest. I watched as my body from only a few seconds ago started to fall to the ground. As soon as it hit the grass, the pain evaporated from my chest. And my consciousness went right back into my old body.

  I ripped open my jacket to see there was no blood on my chest. The bullet wound was gone. I just changed the past. I prevented my own death. This time.

  ‘That’s a trick I wish I had months ago. Could have saved me a lot of trouble.’

  Victor didn’t give me time to enjoy it. He threw the rope of fire from his hand right at my neck and it wrapped around my skin, burning right into my flesh and pulling me directly toward him like a lasso snatching cattle. I kicked at the grass and tried to stop him from dragging me any closer. I could hear the armed men firing bullets at Victor. It must have surprised them when they had no effect at all and he kept on pulling me closer and to the vixra tunnel behind him. My hands reached up to try to break the fire rope around my neck, but that only burned my hands the second I tried. I was inside the tunnel in a matter of seconds, spinning about endlessly with the fire rope pulling me away.

  I reached my hand down below me and carved a massive slit in the bottom of the tunnel, desperately trying to tear it open enough to slip through the cracks and escape him. But that only created a long tear in the bottom below me. I tried to envision where I wanted to go but my thoughts were consumed with my skin burning on my neck and hands. I plunged my leg down to try and stop him. That only resulted in feeling like my head would tear from my shoulders.

  ‘Do it quick.’

  I had both hands on the fire rope and let out a scream as I yanked back on it as hard as I possibly could, letting my magic out of my hands and using its force to help me.

  The rope broke and I went plummeting down through the large hole I created beneath my feet. Only I didn’t hit the ground. I was falling through the air high above Washington D.C. I guess I didn’t have a clear enough picture in my mind. Because I was free falling as though someone had pushed me out of an airplane mid-flight.

  My hands went straight for my throat and I tumbled hundreds of feet in the air. My magic tore through the fire rope and ripped it from my neck. It disintegrated into dozens of pieces and fell alongside me until the wind put out the flames.

  ‘How the hell did I end up so high?’

  I tumbled through an array of clouds and saw the city getting closer. The street lights were burning bright and cars were barreling over the highways below me. It didn’t matter where I landed. I was a dead woman if I didn’t manage to stop my descent. Or at least slow it down.

  I brought my hands under me in an L shape once more and tried summoning my magic. It sputtered from my hands but didn’t shoot out. I had used too much. I was getting weaker. The vixra magic was wearing off. And to make matters worse, my palms were shredded with burns. There was no way I was going to get my magic to work.

  ‘Just fucking perfect.’

  Through the flickering light in my hands, I saw the space a few thousand feet below me. Like someone had taken a pair of scissors and cut straight through the air.

  It was a gash in the sky. Like an open wound. And I could see straight through it.

  Victor had opened a vixra tunnel right beneath me. And I was falling right into it.

  I formed another L shape with my hands again and did everything I could to get my magic to pierce through my palms. I used my anger. My fear. My desperation.

  Nothing. It flickered in my burned hands like a match getting ready to die out.

  There was nowhere to run. Nothing more I could do.

  I closed my eyes as I fell straight through the tunnel and into the darkness of the unknown where Victor was waiting for me.

  ‘At least I won’t fall to my death.’

  The foolishness of that thought struck me before the ground did. But by then it was too late. Victor had me right where he wanted me.

  Chapter 10

  I crash landed right on the ground beneath me, scraping the side of my face as I rolled over what I could only assume were rocks. By the time I stopped tumbling, I could taste dirt in my mouth. I lay there letting my body heal with the final shred of vixra blood that was in my system. My hands still felt like they were on fire, along with my neck. But I wasn’t free falling and I didn’t have a bullet wound. So I figured I should count my blessings. For the moment. My heart, on the other hand, still felt as though I left it ten thousand feet in the air above me.

  I turned my head when I heard something crash five or so feet away from me. The edges of the figure’s body started taking shape and I could see straight again. At first glance, I thought it was my reflection. Once Victor appeared staring down at me I knew it wasn’t. It was Georgeanna. He went back to fetch her and brought her to where ever he had finally
trapped us.

  I struggled to get up on my hands and knees.

  “You’re better off down there, kruxa,” he said with a thrust of his boot in my chest. My hands went out from under me and I fell back onto the ground.

  “There’s no need for cruelty,” said a voice nearby. “I told you that I need them both alive and in one piece.”

  “They are alive and in one piece,” Victor argued.

  “Then you did your job well and you may go.”

  I could see who it was. The voice. The face. I had only met him a couple of times, but he was difficult to forget.

  “Daniel?” I muttered.

  He didn’t say anything. He didn’t even look at me. He walked from one nearby pillar to another with a large torch in his hand, lighting the top of the pillar until the flames soared into the sky. Then he moved onto the next one. There were five surrounding us in a large circle. He had three of them already lit. The flames burned high into the clouds scattered throughout the night sky like torches.

  Victor took a few triumphant steps around me. Once he was far enough away, I crawled over to Georgeanna. Only I didn’t get very far. There was a wall between us. An invisible wall that I couldn’t see but I could certainly feel and touch.

  “What the hell?” I mumbled as I brought myself up to my knees.

  She was moving. Georgeanna was waking up. And this time she wouldn’t have a noose around her neck to strangle her to death again countless times. Even so, she must have expected to, because her hands shot up to her throat the second she stirred.

  “It’s gone,” I said. “You’re okay.”

  Well, that last part might not have been true. For all I knew she wasn’t okay and we were probably in a great deal of danger. But at least she wouldn’t have to feel the unrelenting torment of a noose around her neck again. Or a rope made of fire like I did.

  Georgeanna started coughing. Her hands were wrapped around her neck, tearing at it like there was still a rope looped around it. Once she realized it was gone she wrestled her way up to her side and sat up.

  “Harper?” she said my name in a state of confusion.

  “Yes, it’s me.”

  “Where are we?”

  I searched around us and took in our surroundings. I saw nothing but an open field, woods encircling us, the pillars, and some mountains in the distance glowing in the bright moonlight. It was cold. Colder than I was used to. The bite in the air tore through my jacket and gave me chills. Not even the fire burning high on the pillars around us could warm me.

  ‘Oh dear god.’

  Daniel had lit five stone pillars with fire. He even cast a spell to trap us so there was an invisible wall between us.

  I slowly stood from where I was sitting, using the invisible wall between us for leverage. When I reached the edge of the pillars encircling us, I felt another wall. An enchantment of some kind had us completely trapped inside the circle of pillars.

  ‘He created a witchling circle. What the hell is he doing?’

  I leaned against the invisible wall for support with my hands out in front of me. “Daniel!” I hollered.

  He was still ignoring me. He took the torch and pointed it down to the ground. The fire spread quickly across the dirt and traced the circle surrounding me and Georgeanna. We were trapped by a circular ring of fire.

  I stumbled backward before it covered the wall I was leaning on to see that it formed not just one, but two circles entwining with one another. One around me, one around Georgeanna, and one encircling us both.

  Daniel took a wand in his opposite hand and put out the torch, then he tossed it to the ground. His features glowed from the light of the fire and moonlight cascading through the trees behind him. Even with whatever magic he was using to trap us, I could still sense each and every emotion pouring from his body. Relief. Joy. And pure delight. I could see it in his swagger as he finally made eye contact with me and took a few steps forward, staying just out of reach of the fire circle.

  Whatever conquest he was pursuing, in his mind he had already won. And for all I knew, maybe he did.

  “Let’s begin, shall we?” he said with a calm tone to his voice. It didn’t matter how composed he tried to appear. I could sense he was very pleased with himself. Like he had accomplished the impossible. Something that had taken him an immeasurable amount of time.

  “Begin what?” Georgeanna said. I could see the fear starting to settle in as she realized we were trapped inside a witchling circle. One not of our making.

  ‘Nathaniel was right. I should have stayed with him. I never should have left his side.’

  Daniel raised his wand into the air. I saw objects from behind him soar through the sky and then come back down. Each floated between the pillars of fire and began to glow. I couldn’t make out what they were when I first looked at them. They looked like normal everyday objects when they weren’t glowing. Only when I looked closer did I see what they were.

  To one side of the pillar near Georgeanna was a long wooden staff. The one I had been carrying and used in my first life. The life I lived in ancient Scotland, fighting off the Romans alongside Tobias. The staff I used to harness my magic. The one the Romans took after they captured me. Between the next two pillars was a dagger. But not just any dagger. The one Tobias gave me after the villagers tried to drown me in the river after they accused me of witchcraft. Between the next set of pillars was a group of silver coins. Coins that Tobias gave me after he forced me to board a wooden ship to flee the vixra who were searching for me. Ones I never ended up spending. They were the last thing that Tobias ever gave me before he disappeared on the dock and I never saw him again. The pillars just behind Georgeanna had an item I didn’t recognize. But I knew Georgeanna did.

  “Where did you get that?” she shouted at Daniel.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “A brooch. A brooch I owned for centuries. I thought I lost it.”

  I recalled one of the memories that came back to me when I was in Lenora’s house. The memory of Tobias rushing me into a carriage.

  ‘It was Georgeanna. That was one of her memories. Tobias forced her to run to America. She was wearing the brooch. Did Tobias give it to her too?’

  I looked up to see the pillars closest to me. My gun was floating between them. The one I dropped after Victor stabbed me.

  The pieces of the puzzle slowly started coming together. Daniel had gathered items from each of my lives. Each century that I was reincarnated.

  ‘What the hell is he doing with them?’

  The moon turned into an eerie orange color. The sort I only ever saw in the fall. Its light showered over us and made the flames soar even higher as Daniel closed his eyes and started mumbling words I didn’t understand.

  “Daniel!” I shouted. “Daniel!”

  He opened his eyes to stare at me.

  “What is this? What are you doing?”

  “You’ve been hiding something,” he sneered. “I sensed it the second I met you in Tobias’s house.”

  “Hiding? Hiding what?”

  He aimed his wand directly for me. My arms shot out to the side as I felt my body leave the ground. I was floating in the air and I couldn’t move a single part of my body. Except for my lips. I couldn’t help but let out a yelp once my feet left the Earth.

  “You have something of mine and I want it back,” he said.

  The wand inside my jeans started to move without me touching it. He was pulling it out of my clothes with his magic. It tore straight out of my jeans and floated in the air until it was pointed directly at me.

  “Tell her, Harper,” he said with an odd amount of glee. “Tell Georgeanna what you’ve done.”

  “I-” My lips moved but I couldn’t speak. I could hardly even breathe. I didn’t know what Daniel was doing. Did he mean to kill me? Or torture me to get what he wanted?

  “Spit it out, kruxa,” he hollered at me.

  “It’s not done yet,” I stammered. “It’s not finished.
”

  A crooked smile crossed Daniel’s face. One that made the hairs on my arms stand on end. And that was without the cold breeze running straight through my clothes.

  “Easy enough to find out,” he said.

  The wand before me flew back to his hand and he pointed it to his side. A form started to appear. One that I clearly recognized.

  “What are you doing? Stop it!” I cried.

  Daniel didn’t hear me. Or if he did he ignored me. He had his eyes closed. He was focused. And he was enjoying every second of my torment.

  A light started to shine before him as a hole tore open with a radiant glow. A man was struggling and wrestling to avoid coming through the hole Daniel created in the air.

  “Nathaniel,” Georgeanna said from below me.

  ‘Good lord. He’s forcing Nathaniel through a vixra tunnel. How is that even possible?’

  But that wasn’t the worst of it. Nathaniel would see that Georgeanna was alive.

  He fell to the ground on his hands and knees, completely out of breath and clothed in a clean suit. He had gotten out of bed, was fully dressed, and was probably waiting for me on Lennox Street as I told him to over the phone.

  ‘Victor must have heard me. He told Daniel exactly where Nathaniel would be.’

  When Nathaniel peered up, his eyes didn’t see me first.

  “Harper,” he said.

  I couldn’t tell if his voice was relieved or curious. Maybe both.

  I fought to move my head. I could twist it slightly to see what was happening, but not by much. When I finally got it to move a few inches to the side, I saw him make eye contact with Georgeanna. She shook her head at the sound of my name. And Nathaniel went from curious to downright confused.

  Anger filled Nathaniel’s eyes. I could see his wild vampire instincts churning inside of him. Or at least what was left of them. He took a deep breath and then slowly stood to face Daniel. Only Daniel wasn’t interested in him. He turned his head to look at me and Nathaniel followed, seeing me suspended in the air as though I were a marionette attached to strings controlling my body.

  Nathaniel looked at Georgeanna and back to me, then took a few generous steps away as the realization struck him.