“What has she done?”
“She has entered the Ravamere portal. Look around you. This is a witch store. I own this shop, and I have been continuously trying to help your mom fight the urge to keep going back and forth,” she places her hands on the top of my shoulders, “she’s fighting off the mystics that have been coming for her when they should be coming for you. If she continues to enter the corrupt world, she herself will fall into corruption. The guy she’s with is too much of a strong influence.”
Maybe this is the reason why Mom has been acting the way she has lately. Distant and so ready to leave.
“I know you two found the rose in your home,” Miss Canary says. “Don’t let anyone get to it, and keep it safe.”
I don’t know what she’s talking about. There isn’t a rose in my condo. I open my mouth to explain to her, but she ignores what I’m about to say and walks off. I walk after her.
“Why is it bad that she’s going to Ravamere? Wouldn’t she be fighting the mystics there?” I cross my arms.
“No, you slowly become corrupt.” She looks up at me. “I know you are curious to know what your mother has done to even go to Ravamere, but the more I tell you, the more conflict it’ll cause.”
She walks in front of me, fixing up her store. “Don’t try to ask me anything else, Eliza Rose.”
I ignore her. “Doesn’t the transportation bother you? I mean, it’s like hours away from where you live.”
“If you go through the forest, it doesn’t seem that long.” She lowers her eyes and smiles.
“Why are you walking through the woods alone?”
I remember what my grimoire said about elves. I’m worried she might run into a mystic going through the forest.
“I’m only joking, although it wouldn’t be harmful to at least try it once.”
“I’m not too keen on going into a forest around this time.”
“There’s a lot one doesn’t know unless they try.”
She stops what she’s doing to glance at me, pursing her lips. She talks as if she’s from another time. It’s weird. She picks up a dagger from a box. This is my first time ever conversing with her completely. Back at home, I only ever said hi or bye to her.
“Be careful. Those things are crazy weird,” Dawn warns her.
“Poisoned tipped.” She grins as she picks up a blue tip dagger. When she waves it around gracefully, the lights above us bounce on to its clear blue shaded silver material. My mouth drops.
“You’re a witch,” I whisper as I walk closer to her. Miss Canary glances down, hiding her smile, and places the dagger back on the rack.
“No, Eliza, I’m not. This is just something I am interested in.”
“E-Lee-Suh,” I correct, looking at the dagger she placed onto the rack. “I thought you would be interested in gardening and not…well, deadly weapons.”
“I’m sorry. There’s a lot you don’t know about me.”
“It’s fine,” I say. “So, now what? Where’s the spell books and the skulls?” I snicker.
She glares at me, annoyed, and walks back to the cash registers.
“You should go.” She looks at the clock as thunder roars outside. “I believe it’s past eight.” She glances at the clock. Both of our ears perk up from the tick-tocks.
“Right, I should.”
If Miss Canary knows the time, that must mean she knows about mystics. Miss Canary quickly looks down at the cash register when she notices my reaction. She then walks through the beads that hang from the ceiling and into the back room.
“I, uhm…”
I gulp. Dawn grabs my wrist softly, leading me to the door.
“Nice seeing you,” Dawn says. She turns to me and pinches me. “Don’t say anything. Let’s get the hell out of here please.”
Placing my hood back over my head, I breathe in the stiff air only to remember the conversation Miss Canary had with my mom and her boyfriend, about the rose and the one Mom took away from me. My head hurts. Miss Canary said that I’ve found the rose already? How could that be? I place my hand over my forehead.
My trip to Witcher’s Place wasn’t exactly how I planned it to be. We ran into Miss Canary, of all people, and I realized there must be more of my kind somewhere. My mother on the other and has been travelling to a corrupt world with her new boyfriend. This is not good news, I need to learn more. Dawn pulls on my arm to get my attention.
I turn around and see the same boots and polished black shoes rushing off into the darkness. Mom turns around to glance at me and then back ahead of her. The man places his arm around her shoulder as she holds out her broomstick, her button glowing on and off red. Her markings are glowing along with the broomstick.
“Eliza…Isn’t that your mom?” Dawn mumbles, placing her phone in her back pocket.
From that moment, I knew my mom was, in fact, over Dad.
Chapter 13
Pulling out my keys from my messy purse, I watch as my mom vanishes off into the darkness in front of us. I begin to run after her, but I notice a dark figure walking in my peripheral vision. As I turn around to get a better glimpse of what I might’ve seen, the figure darts onto the road, swiftly running down the street. The silhouette isn’t anything new. I’ve seen it before at the beach, when I was attacked by the mermaids. I feel like this is the shadow of the person that saved me.
A cloud of warm breath floats in front of my face while I exhale in disbelief. I clench my fingers on the strap of my purse and turn around to see if Miss Canary is watching me. The gold lights are out and Dawn is ahead of me, walking in the direction where my mother rushed off to.
I turn her around. She searches my face to try and figure out why I’m acting this way. “That’s your mom. We need to figure out the reason she’s going to that place the lady in the store was talking about.”
“That’s up to me, not you, Dawn.”
I glare at the witch store behind me and notice the branches in the forest move roughly, as if someone wandered off into the woods.
When I turn back around, I realize the figure is not too far in front of me.
“I think there’s a mystic around here, I just saw someone running away down the road.” I turn her around and see the dark figure running through the cars.
“I think this is some witch business. My mom we can deal with later. That’s her life and she can choose what she wants to do with it. She’s hidden so much from me already…” I say, pursing my lips.
I pull out my broomstick from my purse. “I’d rather take down a mystic that could potentially harm someone.”
I press my broomstick. It glows and scrapes, becoming larger. This is the perfect chance to test out these new skills Jared said I was attaining. I need this transformation to complete somehow.
“Woah, you’ve got my attention. Where’s the mystic?”
She looks in her purse for the pepper spray she showed me back at home. She gets a defensive yet determined look. She flips her hair from her face and notices the figure in front of us. Completely leaving me behind, she darts in front of me for the figure. I jog up to her and call for her.
“Dawn, you’re crazy! Get back here!”
“If we don’t catch up to it, it’ll be gone. What if it kills an innocent?” She shouts against the wind.
“You’re being reckless! We can’t just run up on a mystical creature.”
I needed to find out who saved me, and if the figure in the water was a witch. I need to find out more about this person—or thing.
With the way Dawn is acting, she might as well be the witch. She’s far more interested in killing it.
With my newfound agility skill, I race onto the street, following the figure in front of me, inhaling and exhaling cold, wet air and gracefully dodging parked cars on the side of the sidewalk. Now I’m in front of Dawn. I leap over a few large rocks on the ground. I hear Dawn screaming my name.
Pacing myself and breathing calmly was never this easy. Confused by the amount of stuf
f happening, I bump into a car and set off the alarm. I lift up my eyes to see the dark figure swiftly leap over a fence and disappear.
Limping to the sidewalk, I sit down on the edge and catch my breath. Dawn stops next to me, panting. “I should’ve thrown this purse at it…”
I shake my head at her, placing the lingering hairs in front of my eyes behind my ears.
Wet, thin droplets start to trickle down from the great grey sky. We ran a pretty far distance from my car. “Great,” I mutter under my breath.
“I guess you can say it was a good work out.” Dawn pants.
Just as I’m recollecting myself, I sense a presence creeping from behind me. Everything becomes quiet and my ears perk up at the slightest sounds. I hear breathing and the same rotten smell crawls into my nose. The streetlight above me flickers on and off slowly.
Dawn is thrown across the street. She lands on her back and rolls over in pain. The air thickens as cold, almost freezing hands grip around my neck from behind me. They’re dry, scaled, and ragged.
My hands shoot up. I try to pry the grip that’s fiercely around my throat. Brittle skin scratches the palm of my hands. Shocked by the feeling, I panic. I can’t scream. Instead, I choke, and my throat swells, immense pain searing the inside my throat.
Stay calm. You’re not going to die. You’re a witch, for God’s sake. Pull it together, damn it!
I stop panicking and instead focus on quickly thinking of solutions to free myself. The anger I felt when attacking Alex back in the store to protect Dawn returns. I head butt whatever is choking me. I hold onto my broomstick, thrust my arm in front of me, and quickly pull it back as my elbow jabs the middle area of whatever is attacking me only to feel its hard structure sting my elbow.
I jab once more, only harder this time. My elbow is throbbing in pain as the hard, cold skin punches against it. The more I jab against it, the more the grip tightens. My jabs are doing nothing to save me.
Think.
Quickly, I throw my hands back up and grasp the fingers around my neck. I bend down and purposely fall to the ground, causing the figure to stumble down in front of me.
Perfect!
I’m a lot more flexible now than I used to be. I purse my lips, slithering out of its now loosened hold. Throwing myself up from the ground, I back away, locking my eyes on it. I press the button on my broomstick. It becomes longer in my hand.
The creature stands up, stretches out its arms, and cracks its neck. The streetlights bounce off of the skin of my attacker. Dark green and black scales flash in front of me. They’re jagged and sharp. Scales travel up the body and around the neck. The mystic is clothed in normal human clothes, but they’re ripped.
Yellow-green eyes beam toward me, and the mystic watches me carefully with its black, diamond shaped pupils. A pink sharp tongue slithers out of its mouth and licks the air. The shifter weaves its head around. It looks like it is half snake half human.
A shifter.
It walks toward me slowly, tilting its neck to the left as it gets closer to where I’m standing. I freeze in place under a streetlight, breathing frantically. It stops. Its sharp white fangs slide over its dry lips. The tongue slithers out quickly once more. Long, thin strips of venom drip from the tip of its fangs and on to the gravel, sizzling and burning the ground.
I’m not going to sit here and let this shifter kill me. I direct my gaze at Dawn, who is still on the ground. I press my lips together and focus on the mystic. It shows its teeth, hissing at me. I twirl my broomstick in between my fingers and get into a defense stance.
The mystic takes that as a challenge. It charges at me. I breathe in slowly, trying to remember what my mom did. Then I freeze.
The mystic claws the air. I step to the side, dodging the attack. I see the mark of its scratch imprinted in the cement. I turn around, slamming my broomstick on its back. The hard scales I jabbed my elbow in seem to be vulnerable from this attack. How could this be if my elbow did nothing?
The mystic screeches. It lifts its head when it sees me from behind. It swings its arm, knocking me across the ground. I hear the sound of my weapon colliding on the ground with me. The mystic turns around swiftly, then runs and grunts in my direction. I roll over, dodging its next swipe once again.
I pick up my broomstick and swiped the end of its pole, like a baseball bat right underneath its scaled chin. The shifter becomes dazed and staggers back a bit. I don’t wait a second to do my next attack. My legs feel like they’re moving by themselves as I glide toward the mystic. Everything feels like slow motion.
I twirl around, hitting the creature again with my weapon. The lines on the broomstick begin to glow vibrantly, and I feel its energy surge within me from grasping it so tightly. The impact from my attack sends the mystic flying across the street.
There we go, keep it up. I narrow my eyes.
It lands on a car, making the alarm sound off.
I turn around to look at Dawn. I feel tears building up. I should’ve been able to protect her from the mystic. With a burning grip, the creature grabs my waist and forces me on my back.
My eyes flutter open and, now that he’s so close to me, I realize that certain features are familiar. Suddenly, I remember the guy making out with Stacy in the parking lot.
I remember how she smirked at me, throwing her head back against the car seat. Then it hits me. This half human thing on top of me, hissing in my face…
This mystic…
Is David Small, Stacy’s missing boyfriend.
Chapter 14
His monstrous dry scaled structure looms above me while the street lights flutter on and off. They’re about to bust out.
“David…please,” I whisper in fear.
David clenches his fists. It’s as if he’s fighting to resist something. As I reposition and brace myself underneath him, he immediately forces my hands on the ground, disabling me from moving.
I attempt to act like I’m not afraid. This person in front of me is not David, the popular ambassador at my university, the fun-to-be-around guy and obviously someone who fell into temptation with Stacy. He’s a mystic, allowing his gooey drool to slide down from his mouth onto my chest, but I know he’s still somewhere in there.
“Please, I know you can hear me,” I say slowly, trying to get to him.
David hisses. His sharp tongue tastes the air, searching for something to sink his fangs into.
“David, this is not you,” I say calmly. His head twitches as if he’s hearing things. His diamond pupils eventually find their way back to me.
“I know you don’t know me, but please.”
He tilts his neck roughly and his scaled fingers twitch. He slams my back against the wet gravel. I grunt in pain. Rain starts to pour down on us and lightning shocks the sky behind him. The water drowns my emotions. I look up to see his yellow eyes glaring at me. Venom from David’s fangs drip on to my neck, burning my wet skin.
“David! Please!” I cry out from the pain, closing my eyes. He leans over me and stops when his mouth is hovering above my neck. His cold, wet tongue tickles the side of my neck. I try to move away, but he holds me tightly.
“David, please!” I mutter.
The tip of his fangs pinch my neck. I close my eyes. The strong vinegar smell coming from his mouth overwhelms my senses. Suddenly, just as I’m sure I’m done for, I feel him release his grip. He runs away, his claws scratching the ground. We were on the sidewalk next to the road. I bite on my bottom lip, hoping that if a car drives past, the person inside won’t hit Dawn.
When I open my eyes, David is gone.
I wipe the little droplets of rain from under my eyes. Dawn is still on the ground. I promised to keep her safe and now she’s hurt. Her arm is out to the side of her and the purse she was holding is on the ground, next to her lifeless fingers. Her cellphone’s music is playing. The world starts to spin.
As I force myself up in pain, a lady rushes over to Dawn. She places her hands on her chest and then loo
ks at me. The rain becomes hectic. In one blink, Dawn and the lady are gone just as fast as David was.
My heart starts racing. I rub my eyes. I’m so tired and confused. I grab Dawn’s cell phone and headphones and look around the business area for any trace of Dawn. Nothing. A car drives through a puddle of water and soaks me. Now I’m drenched and cold. I don’t know how long I’ve been walking around in this storm.
I notice a girl in a bohemian sun dress running toward a building nearby. She turns around to glance behind her. She is fast and it seems effortless for her to run at this speed. There is a man in a black hood chasing after the woman.
The girl is frightened and disappears behind what looks like an office building. The lights are still on, indicating staff members are still inside. I see part of her sun dress rip from clinging on the corner of the building’s wall. The only realistic thing to do at this time is to call the police. I reach in my purse for my phone and discover that it’s soaked and the screen is white and flickering.
Gosh, everything is coming down on me tonight.
I rub my head, looking around to see if there is anyone nearby to help me. I feel a sudden urge to protect the girl from the guy. The man bumps into the brick wall beside him. He recollects himself and tries to keep up with the girl, soon disappearing behind the building. I purse my lips and look both ways before crossing the street and running over to the building they ran behind. My legs and sides are hurting from my encounter with David and the raindrops burn my neck.
I approach the side of the building and hear them arguing.
“Let go of me! I did nothing wrong.”
“I’ve been tracking you for weeks.”
“You freak! Leave me alone,” the girl yells.
I come to the conclusion that this could be one of those weird stalking-killing cases. I’m the witness that he might see and come after next. I bite my lip and wipe my face from the rain.
I place my hood over my hair and zip up the jacket. I step around the corner just a tad to see the man and the lady standing with an awkward space between them.
Mystical (The Mystical Trilogy Book 1) Page 13
