The Rebel Witch (The Coven: Elemental Magic Book 3)

by Chandelle LaVaun

  I spun in a circle, trying to make sense of where we were and how we got here. There was no staircase, no ladder, no bridge hanging over. It was like we were in the bottom of a bowl.

  Oh no. My stomach turned and my pulse quickened. I licked my lips and looked around with new light. I knew where we were. “From within the cauldron, comes your chance.”

  Emersyn gasped and spun around in circles. “No, no, no. That is not how I thought that line would turn out.”

  “JUMP!” Tegan screamed.

  I leapt into the air without hesitation, then used my Air magic to keep me up.

  Willow and Chutney shrieked. I spun in time to watch the vines coil around their legs. They screamed and sliced their daggers through them, but the more they chopped, the more the vines grew.

  “Don’t cut it!” Tegan yelled at the girls.

  Willow grabbed Chutney’s arm and dragged her toward the back. The vines slithered after them like snakes, nipping at their ankles. The girls ignored Tegan’s words and kept chopping them off. They jumped onto a boulder and huddled together, like they thought they’d be safe there.

  I summoned a gust of wind and flew over. The girls screamed and swatted at the growing vines with their bare hands. The more they struggled, the faster the vines spread.

  “Stop moving!”

  They gasped and looked up to me with wide eyes, but they froze. The vines stopped growing instantly. They were thicker than my arm and black as night. They wrapped around the two girls like a bug in a spider’s nest.

  My eyes widened. The vines’ job wasn’t to kill its victims, just trap them. The bones. Realization hit. I reached out and gripped the vine in my right hand. I squeezed and pulled, but with one hand, I wasn’t doing much.

  “Don’t cut them!” Tegan shouted again.

  I looked over at the sound of her voice and found her hovering above the ground with Emersyn hanging on her back like a pet monkey. It didn’t make any sense. Why did the vines grow faster if you cut them off? Were they like a weed? If so, that was a part of Earth. Tegan and I should’ve been able to manipulate them.

  I yanked on the vines with all my strength. “How do you suggest we free them if not by cutting them? We don’t know what this creature is—”

  “It’s a hydra!” she hissed. “We have to fight the monster, not the vines!”

  I spun around to face her. The shadow moved behind her. I blinked. “I thought hydras were water creatures?”

  Tegan scoffed. “What part of the last few days have you forgotten?”

  She had a point. Nothing was playing by the rules as we knew them. From within the cauldron comes your chance. That was the last line of the prophecy. The last step to proving we deserved to get the Book of Shadows back. We weren’t going to do that standing back and waiting to be eaten. I flew forward to the center of the cauldron.

  “What are you doing?” Emersyn screeched.

  “If our task is to kill this monster, then let’s get it over with before it eats our friends for dinner.” I adjusted my grip on my sword. Why do I have to be one handed for this? “It’s now or never.”

  I called on my magic and let it simmer in my veins a few seconds before I shot it straight into the darkness. Green lightning struck the shadow. The animal roared. The force of its breath slammed into us like a brick wall. We flew backward and rolled. I cursed in agony each time my shoulder hit the ground. When I skidded to a stop, I scrambled back to my feet and raced forward.

  The hydra leapt into the light. Its massive body was dark green and slimy, like algae in a canal. It towered over us on four legs and with three giant dragon heads. Six red, beady eyes narrowed on the three of us standing below it. It hissed and spit fire from each head.

  Emersyn and Tegan threw their hands up and shielded us from the flames. The hydra shrieked. It whipped its tail. I felt the air pull away from me just before the spiked tail slashed across the space. Tegan and I jumped over it, but Emersyn wasn’t so lucky. The tip of its tail slammed into her stomach and threw her back into the shadows behind it.

  “EMERSYN!” Tegan screamed.

  The hydra spit fire again, but it had nothing on Tegan’s power.

  She flicked it away like it was nothing. “EM!”

  “I’m okay!” Emersyn shouted back, though we couldn’t see her.

  “Tegan, we need a plan. We have to kill this thing. It’s just playing with us right now.” I moved closer to her. “You’ve read books on these things, so how are they killed?”

  She sighed and shook her head. “All I can think of is Hercules. He chopped each head off then lit it on fire to stop it from growing back.”

  “Okay, so we do that.”

  She scoffed. “He’s Hercules!”

  I grabbed her elbow and turned her to face me. “And you’re the most powerful witch in the world. You’ve got the next strongest two by your side. You flew a damn plane with no wings.”

  She stared at me a moment, then nodded. Emersyn, Tenn’s gonna fly you onto its back. When a head is chopped off, you burn the wound, she said into our minds.

  “WHAT?” Emersyn mumbled something about us being out of our minds. “I can’t create fire, Tegan!”

  “No, but I can.” Tegan growled and spun back to face the hydra. She shoved her daggers back into her thigh holsters, then wiggled her fingers. Two big balls of fire flickered to life. She waved her right arm in a giant circle then pulled her elbow back.

  I gasped. She’d made a bow and arrow out of flames. I grinned. “That’s my girl,” I whispered before I could stop myself.

  She peeked over her left shoulder at me and winked. I’ll distract. You chop. Em burns.

  I nodded and turned toward the monster. All of its focus had turned to Tegan’s weapon of flames. I pushed my magic out until I sensed Emersyn’s aura, then scooped her up into the air. To her credit, she didn’t scream in alarm. She didn’t make a sound. When she landed on the hydra’s middle neck, she looked every bit the raging Empress. Her hair whipped through the air. Her golden eyes were wild with raw, hot energy.

  “Light ‘em up, Kitten,” I whispered.

  Tegan shot arrows of pure fire right into the hydra’s face. It snarled and hissed back. She fired arrow after arrow. I flew forward until I was under its body then slithered up its arm until I was behind its head. I looked to my left at the neck in the middle and found Emersyn’s eyes on me. She held her arms in the air, and flames coiled around her hands. She nodded. Tegan’s flaming arrows slammed into the hydra’s neck.

  I flew up behind the head but stayed close so the others wouldn’t see me. The neck had to be six feet wide. At least. Maybe with two hands I would’ve been able to manage it up close, but definitely not with one. I shot myself into the air far above it.

  Don’t mess this up now, Tenn. I tightened my grip on my sword then dove full speed at the hydra like a torpedo. The world blew by me in a blur, but all I focused on was my target. I swung my sword through the air in an arc and brought it down on the monster’s neck. I pushed all of my strength and magic into my blade. It sliced through like the thing was made of butter.

  The hydra shrieked and flailed around. Blood gushed like a fountain. The severed head plopped to the ground and rolled to Tegan’s feet. Emersyn threw her flames at the open wound.

  I grinned. Yes! Yes, we did it!

  But the head on the far side dipped down and spit water onto Emersyn’s flames. The fire sizzled into smoke. The neck thrashed around until two new heads grew out of it. Now there were four heads. My pulse skyrocketed. I looked down at Tegan and found her wide-eyed and frozen in place.

  Now what? I mouthed.

  Something grabbed my shirt and yanked me back. I realized too late what had happened. The hydra’s sharp teeth sliced into my skin. I thrashed and sliced my sword through the air, except it was too far out of my reach. Green and blue lightning flashed from my sword and smashed into the monster’s neck. It growled and snapped its head. The pressure of its teeth li
fted, and then I slammed into the dirt. My bones rattled. The air was sucked back out of my lungs. I rolled to my side and coughed.

  The severed head moved, drawing my attention. At first I thought it might reattach, but those thick vines shot up from the ground and wrapped around it.

  My stomach turned. Is it going to eat its own head? Wait. Move, move, move, I yelled to myself. I tried to push myself up, but I ended up in barely a crawl. My body was numb and tingling from the hips down. I tried not to think about what that meant as I scurried to get up. It was too late. The vines sensed my presence and snatched me up like the others.

  I froze in place, knowing it would stop spreading if I stopped moving. Only my neck and right arm remained free. Tegan was still shooting her flaming arrows at the monster. Emersyn shot thick blasts of fire into the monster’s sides with one hand. With the other, she pulled the smoke from the cauldron walls and whipped it around the hydra’s heads. It coughed and blinked, like it couldn’t breathe through it.

  TENN, are you okay? Tegan screamed into my mind.

  “Yeah,” I yelled back. But I wouldn’t be for long if we didn’t figure out how to kill the thing. “Give me water!”

  She flicked her hand back, and a massive ball of water rolled to a stop in front of me. I wasn’t sure what water would do to a hydra, but it was time to try something else. I pushed my magic into the bubble until it grew bigger and bigger, then I threw it right at the hydra’s feet. It squealed and flopped around, almost like it enjoyed it. The hydra jumped up and down on all four feet like an excited puppy while spitting fire into the sky. It leapt off the ground straight up, and wings popped out of its back. It spun around in circles in the air squealing and flapping the new body parts that most definitely hadn’t just been there.

  Something bounced off its back— Emersyn! I pushed my wind right at her to catch her, but the hydra reached down and plucked her out of the sky. She screamed and tried to wiggle free while throwing fire balls at its face. I thrashed against the vines, but they only spread higher over my chest, squeezing my wound. I hissed as the pain made the world spin. Lie still, dammit.

  “EMERSYN!” Tegan screamed. “I’m coming!”

  She squatted down then pushed off her feet and shot into the night sky like a rocket. I smiled. Come on, Kitten. You got this.

  She flew like Superman, with aim and direction. The hydra was completely engulfed in flames by the time Tegan got up there. I watched with my heart in my throat as she disappeared into the fire. The only thing I could see was the hydra’s tail. Wind surged up and wrapped around them. They flipped and plummeted into the ground. NO! Dirt and fire exploded from their impact. Emersyn bounced into the air, hit the ground, and rolled to a stop beside me.

  Where’s Tegan? Where is she?

  Em jumped to her feet with flames still dancing from her fingertips and hair. The dirt trembled, and vines shot out at her feet. She snarled and flicked little balls of fire then stomped them with her feet. The vines melted away. She smiled in victory then raced over to me. She dropped to her knees and gripped the vines holding me down. Within seconds, they vanished.

  “Go get the others free,” I said.

  The hydra roared so loud the ground shook hard enough to knock the twins down.

  “NO!” Tegan screamed.

  Tegan. I sighed with relief. I hadn’t seen her emerge from the fall. When I finally pulled myself up to my knees, I found Tegan standing between us and the monster.

  It crouched low and whipped its tail back and forth like a lion about to pounce. Four heads with smoldering red eyes were focused on my soulmate. Its wings flapped in the breeze.

  “No,” Tegan repeated like they were having a conversation.

  She threw her arms wide, her long black hair whipping through the air. Her stance was wide and her fingers curled. She threw her arms forward, and water gushed from her hands like a geyser. The hydra’s four heads snapped up in alert. She pushed the water into one giant wave, then slammed it right into the monster. I held my breath and watched. Is she trying to drown it?

  The hydra squealed as the water covered its entire body. It dipped each head under one at a time…then repeated it. My jaw dropped. My mind went utterly blank. Tegan swirled her arms, and the hydra lifted into the air with the water still around it. If I hadn’t known any better, I would’ve thought the creature was smiling. It looked down at Tegan and blinked a few times, its eyes a light aqua color. What the hell? The red was gone.

  Tegan dropped her arms and sighed. “You’re free now. Go home.”

  It shrieked again and did a few rolls then shot straight up into the sky until it was completely out of sight. I exhaled the breath I’d been holding and dropped to my knees.

  “What…” Cooper coughed from suddenly right behind me. His big, warm palm landed on my shoulder, and he squeezed lightly. “What the hell just happened?”

  Tegan spun around. She had a small smile on her face and a sparkle in her eyes. She opened her mouth to speak when the mountainside rumbled again. I braced myself for another hydra. When it stopped, a narrow cobblestone staircase emerged from within the rocks.

  I sighed and stared at the staircase. “I think that’s our way back home.”

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Tennessee

  Tegan ran over to the base and looked up. She shook her head. “It’s not going to be an easy one. I can’t see the top.”

  Of course not. I nodded and peeked over my injured shoulder. “Is everyone all right?”

  Willow and Chutney were pale and visibly shaking, but they nodded. I felt bad for them. They were young and had never experienced anything like this quest. Chutney rarely fought, and when she did, it was because she happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Willow had had her battles with demons, but always on our home territory where we knew how to win.

  Emersyn stood up and faced us with a bleak expression. Behind her, Deacon was crouched next to a dark object. Royce. My stomach turned.

  “Royce is unconscious, but breathing.” Deacon stood and scratched the back of his head. “I guess I’ll carry him because we need to get out of here.”

  “I’ll help you,” Cooper said and ran over.

  I pushed myself up to my feet, hissing through the scream of my shoulder. Fortunately it wasn’t my leg, or otherwise we would’ve really been in trouble. I clenched my teeth and joined Tegan at the base of the stairs. When I looked up, my heart sank. The staircase ascended into darkness, and there wasn’t an end in sight. Talk about a stairway to Heaven.

  “Are you okay?” Tegan whispered. She reached up and squeezed my left hand.

  Despite being numb from the sling, I still felt the warmth of her skin and the pressure in her hold. I smiled, though I worried it was mostly a grimace. “You’re alive, so yes.”

  She blushed and looked at the ground. “There was so much blood when we landed… I thought…I thought…”

  I tipped her chin up to bring her gaze to mine. “I’m okay, though. I’ll heal.”

  “You better,” she whispered.

  “Okay, let’s get this over with,” Deacon grumbled, suddenly right behind me.

  I jumped back and prayed it looked natural. Saved by the bell. I’d been about to kiss her right in front of everyone. I cleared my throat and focused on Royce’s big, unconscious body draped over Deacon and Cooper’s shoulders. His feet dragged the floor behind them. They started for the stairs when a thought occurred to me.

  “Hey, wait. Let Tegan take the lead.”

  Cooper frowned and peeked over his shoulder, and Royce’s arm, at me. “You want Tegan to take the lead and not you?”

  “I want the back. I want to make sure no one falls behind.” I stepped aside and waved the girls forward. “Tegan can handle anything that comes at us.”

  Tegan nodded and pulled one dagger from her thigh holster. She gave me one hard look, then charged up the steps. Deacon and Cooper followed after her. With Royce hanging between them, they j
ust barely fit on the staircase. Emersyn sprinted up the stairs after them. She held her hands out like she expected them to drop Royce at any moment. I waited for Willow and Chutney to go up before I started. I paused on the first step and held my right hand out. My sword flew into my palm. I shoved it into the holster around my hips then began my ascent.

  I wasn’t counting the steps as we went…but Chutney was. Maybe she didn’t realize she was doing it. Maybe she needed the distraction. All I knew was that at step sixty-four, Tegan shouted about fog. At step seventy-one, I walked through the thin cloud of fog and emerged in full sunshine on step seventy-two. I squinted and looked down to shield my eyes. It seemed like we hadn’t seen the sun in days.

  Heat barreled down on us. With every step, my breathing grew heavier and heavier. My entire body was covered in a thin layer of sweat. It rolled in beads down my spine. My shirt was completely soaked and clinging to my skin. Every time I wiped my forehead, it seemed like I came away with a puddle on my forearm. My hair was drenched and dripping water like I’d just gotten out of the shower. I wanted desperately to pull it up on top of my head, but I only had one hand to work with, and I didn’t want to make us all stop just so I could put my hair up. Not when Deacon and Cooper were carrying another person.

  Chutney still counted steps, but she was way into the triple digits and I refused to hear it. I didn’t want to know. I looked up and blinked through the sweat dripping in my eyes. Willow and Chutney had their hair tied up in a ponytail, and Emersyn had braided hers like Lara Croft. I didn’t even need to look to know Tegan’s wild hair was up in a messy bun. But I hadn’t expected her to leave on the leather jacket. Tegan, however, didn’t seem to be moving any slower than the rest of us.

  I sighed and wiped the sweat off my brow with my arm. There was something off about these stairs. When we’d first started, Tegan and I had both tried to fly up them, but we only managed to hover a few inches off the ground for a second or two. Now, here I was dripping in water, and I couldn’t even control it. I wasn’t used to it. Water was my element, so it made no sense that I couldn’t make it go away.