Bone Spell (Winter Wayne Book 4)

by D. N. Hoxa

  Raising her right hand at me, she began to chant, and I sent my beads straight for her lips and teeth. Falling back with her arms in front of her face, Jane shouted an angry sound that brought chills down my back. Her back hit the window and I took my chance. If I could keep her there for a few seconds, Bender and Julian could get to Ezra and Lynn and release them.

  But I should have known it wasn’t going to be that easy. Chanting an energy spell, I hit her with my fist in her face. The gun in my hand made it a lot more painful, and her head fell to the side. Reaching for one of the spell stones in my hair, I threw it under her shirt, right between her boobs, and charged it with my magic. My beads were still on her face when I stepped back and looked at Bender and Julian, standing right over the frame of the bed, chanting.

  “What the hell are you doing?!”

  “We can’t get to them,” Bender said as he threw another spell at whatever shield Jane had put around Ezra and Lynn.

  The second I turned to her, wondering why the Pretter hadn’t gone off yet, her spell hit me straight in the chest and threw me against the wall. Fire began to burn right under my rib cage and spread all over my torso, making it impossible for me to move.

  Jane had her hands under her shirt, and she took out the spell stone I’d left there. She looked annoyed as fuck, the blood and bruises caused by my beads already healing. I tried to make them attack her again, but it was impossible. I was burning! And I couldn’t even move to put the invisible fire out.

  With a flinch, Jane threw my Pretter on the ground, shaking her head. How the hell was that possible? Had the Pretter master sold me fake stones?

  “You know, right after my siblings come back, the next spell that little boy is going to make for me is going to turn those annoying little beads of yours to dust.” I’d give it to her, she sure knew how to scare the shit out of me.

  When she walked over to me, Bender stayed by the bed, but Julian turned toward Jane with his sword in hand. She moved back in the last second, then raised her hands in front of him. The spell she threw hit Julian’s shield hard, and he slid back with his arms in front of his face until he was by the door.

  “This isn’t going to get you anywhere,” Jane said, looking at me like I disgusted her, but I couldn’t even roll my eyes. The invisible flames had begun to fade, but they still hurt like hell. “Just tell me where the Dust is and you can leave. You have my word.”

  Something that was supposed to be a laugh left my lips. It showed you just how much pain I was in. With a sigh, Jane waved her hand at me, and the invisible flames disappeared.

  I didn’t give myself time to recover. I sent my beads for her, two on her collarbone, three all over her face. If I could break her, just a little, I wasn’t going to stop attacking. Falling back a step, Jane growled. I was already on my feet, my spell at the tip of my tongue. I was going to hold her in place for long enough to cut her head off with Julian’s sword.

  When her hands stopped trying to push my beads away, and indication that my spell had worked, I ordered them back to my side with a grin. Stuck with her arms in front of her, Jane began to laugh. I had only seconds to throw a blast of fairy magic toward the shield that wouldn’t let us get to Ezra and Lynn, so I turned toward them fast—but Julian stepped in front of me.

  “Too dangerous,” he said, racing to catch his breath. “If it breaks, your magic could still reach them.”

  Fuck. I stepped back, feeling helpless suddenly. Ezra and Lynn were both looking at me, begging me with their eyes to get to them already, but I couldn’t use my magic. What if I accidentally killed them both?

  It looked like I’d miscalculated the duration of my holding spell, because through the corner of my eye, I saw Jane move again. With her hands in front of her, her lips parted. Instinct took over and I pushed Julian with all my strength, and I fell back on the other side of the room myself.

  Jane’s spell missed us both. When my ass hit the floor, I ordered my beads to get back to her face and shot the remaining three bullets of my gun. Needless to say, they didn’t reach her. I dropped the gun and reached for my knife. No time to stand up, so I threw it at her sitting. Not my best shot, but the blade did bury in her stomach.

  A hiss of pain came from Jane, and a wave of magic hit me on the side of my face even before I’d made it to my feet, knocking me down. Goddamn it, I couldn’t catch a break with her. My right cheek felt like it had been completely removed from my face, and when I looked at Jane again, she had already removed the knife from her stomach, her white shirt now dark red with her blood.

  My magic roared as she threw the knife to the ground, put her left hand on her stomach and began to chant her healing spell. This was my chance. I could blast her, possibly throw her out the window, and get her away from Ezra and Lynn. My magic seemed to agree. It spilled from the tips of my fingers even before I’d made my mind up. Orange light, like liquid smoke, shot forward, aiming for Jane’s chest. I focused all of my being into the energy until I forgot myself completely. Jane looked up a split second before my magic wrapped around her, leaving her no time to even put her hands up.

  My knees shook when the energy left me, and I fell to the floor. Blood on my nose, and in my ears—which was a first. It would have scared me if I’d let it, but I held myself on my shaking arms and barely raised my head.

  Bender and Julian had gotten through Jane’s shield. They were untying Ezra and Lynn.

  It’s over, I thought.

  Jane sat on the floor, back against the wall, legs wide apart. I didn’t think I could stand just yet, so I dragged myself to her, impatient to be able to laugh already. I’d done it again. Jane was…

  Breathing.

  I saw her chest moving, only slightly, when I was right in front of her. Goddamn it, she was still alive.

  With my shaking fingers, I reached for her ring and pulled it off with all my strength. Once I secured it in my pocket, I felt a thousand pounds lighter. Now, Jane was stuck here. Disappearing was no longer an option.

  “Get o—” but the word didn’t make it out of my lips.

  Jane’s eyes moved and found mine. Wind, like nothing I’d ever felt before, hit me right in the face and threw me back against the wall on the other side of the room. I heard my ribs breaking, loud and clear. Air refused to reach my lungs. Instead, something was coming up my throat fast. It was thick and it tasted like rust. For whatever reason, it didn’t dawn on me that it was blood, right until it spilled from my mouth, down my chin and on my chest.

  Julian and Bender hit the floor right in front of the bed frame. My pain forgotten, I tried to scream at them to stand up because I couldn’t move, but I found out I couldn’t make a sound, either. Blood kept coming out of my mouth, and air barely made it to my lungs. The view in front of me began to blur, too. What the hell was happening?

  But Jane was already on her feet, and she walked over to Ezra and Lynn, now untied, but too afraid to even run on their own. My own cry filled my head because it couldn’t come out of my lips, as I watched Jane grab Lynn by the hair. I’d never seen the witch so angry. Her eyes looked red. And when I began to see two hers, I knew I was in real deep shit.

  “Tell me where the Dust is, or I’m tearing her throat up with my own hands,” she hissed.

  No, no, no…

  Lynn tried to move. She hit Jane on the side of her waist with her elbow, pushed Ezra toward the end of the bed frame, then tried to kick Jane in the chest. Her foot froze an inch away from hitting its mark. Lynn’s eyes grew wide. Jane grabbed her by the hair again and slammed her against the frame. Another scream bubbled from my chest, but no sound came out. Breathing was getting harder by the second. I needed a spell. A fucking healing spell, because I was bleeding on the inside. Half my ribs were broken, if not more, and…I couldn’t focus. The pain, the blur, the inability to breathe wouldn’t let my mind come up with a healing spell. Every time the first word came to me, it was erased in the next second by a stab of pain. All I could do was watch.<
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  “This is your last chance, Winter. The Dust, or she dies.” Holding Lynn by the hair and throat, Jane growled as if to say she meant it, but I already knew that. I could see it in her eyes. This woman was going to kill Lynn and she wasn’t even going to feel bad about it.

  And I couldn’t allow that. I had to tell her about the stupid egg.

  The only problem was, I couldn’t speak.

  Squeezing my eyes shut, I hoped to tell her that I couldn’t move, either. That I needed a second to come to my senses, and when I opened my eyes, I…I saw clearly.

  Where the heck did the blur go?

  A look around the room, and I realized exactly why the pain in my chest started to fade, and why there was no more blood slowly crawling up my throat.

  Julian was still on the floor next to an unconscious Bender. He was looking up at me, his right arm outstretched toward me, and I could practically see the warmth of his magic coming my way, hitting my foot first, then spreading up my body.

  “Well, you had your chance,” Jane said. My whole body jumped, the need to scream terrifying me.

  But before Jane could tear Lynn’s throat out, Ezra moved.

  His whole body shaking, he reached for the pocket of his jeans, and brought out the damned red egg lighting fast.

  Closing my eyes, I allowed the relief to soothe me. Death was the only thing you couldn’t work around—unless you were Jane Dunham, apparently—so as long as Lynn lived, we still had a chance.

  When Jane saw the egg on Ezra’s shaking hands, she didn’t believe her own eyes for a second. Then, she laughed and let Lynn go. Julian’s magic was working wonders. When my ribs fell back into place, the pain of it made me want to wish I was unconscious, just like Bender, but I kept my eyes open against my own instincts. Awestruck, Jane took the egg from Ezra’s hand.

  “You had this the whole time?” Her voice was completely transformed, full of wonder. Ezra only nodded. “Well, why didn’t you tell me? You could have been back home by now!” She laughed like the devil she was.

  “I didn’t know it was what you wanted,” the boy whispered, wrapping his hand around Lynn’s, who was looking up at Jane with all the hatred of the world.

  “Silly me. Guess it’s my own fault,” Jane said, her eyes sparkling as she looked at the red egg. By the time she made it to the middle of the room again, I could move my hands and my feet. I met Julian’s eyes. Thank you. He tried to smile but couldn’t. Sweat dripped down his forehead as he pushed even more magic into me. He was in need of a healing spell, too.

  Jane put the egg on the floor, being extra careful as if the thing could even break, then she stepped back. Closing her eyes for a second, she fell on one knee in front of it, and blew.

  The floor shook slightly. The egg floated up an inch, and the top of it clicked while it opened into four tiny triangles. Holding her arms in front of her, Jane opened her hands and slowly rose to her feet. The sparkly dust inside the egg began to move up in circles, like a small tornado. I was fully healed now, though still exhausted, but I couldn’t let Jane know. Not yet. A surprise attack was my only advantage at this point and I had to pick my moment carefully.

  Jane began to whisper something, so fast it was impossible to understand. The dust began to spread all over to my right, taking up half the room. My jaw fell open as every speck of it, grey and sparkly, continued to dance to some silent tune and rearranged itself until it was shaped into two people.

  I looked back at Julian. Was he seeing this, too? The terrified look in his eyes said he was. Holy spell, Jane hadn’t been kidding.

  It was impossible to tell who those two people were because the specks of sparkly dust moved in circles even faster than my beads, but we could definitely see legs, arms and heads. And Jane walking in front of the dust figures.

  “My babies,” she cried, her eyes full of tears. Never thought I’d see the day. Her whole body shook, as if she were witnessing a miracle instead of a nightmare. She looked at the dust as if she truly believed it was her babies! “I’ve missed you so much!”

  Julian tapped the floor just a little, inviting my eyes to his. Moving very slowly, he pulled his arm up. In his hand was his sword, and he pushed it toward me as much as his hand could reach. I nodded to tell him that I knew exactly what to do. Then, with his eyes on the back of Jane’s head, he dragged himself closer to Bender.

  I had one shot, and one shot only. I was going to fry the stupid egg with my magic, grab Julian’s sword and stab Jane in the back in one movement. Pretty solid plan. But I had to be faster than I’d ever been before. It didn’t help that I wasn’t sure if I could move every part of my body properly after Jane broke half the bones in it, but I was taking my chances but we were running out of time. If she really brought her siblings back…yeah, I wasn’t even going there.

  “We’re so close now,” Jane whispered, her hands folded on her chest. She looked so different than the witch she was just a minute ago, completely transformed into a loving sister—though she was still talking to figures made of dust. “I’m going to get you out of there. Hang on tight. This will all be over very soon.”

  I thought that was the most terrifying thing I’d see all day, but when the figures made of dust turned their heads toward me, I realized that the worse was yet to come. I tried to get as small as possible, but it was useless.

  Um…hi?

  “Oh, that’s right. Winter’s here, too! The same witch who killed you,” Jane said cheerfully, laughing with tears still in her eyes. I really wished she hadn’t, because now, the dusty figures were floating toward me. Oh, no, no, no. I wasn’t prepared for this. What the heck was I supposed to do against dust? The closer they got, the more it looked like the specks were small, bloodsucking flies, blinking in and out of existence, millions of them. The two black holes that were supposed to be their eyes were right in front of me. It was all I could do not to put my arms in front of my face. My heart was beating like mad, threatening to break my just healed ribs all over again. Fuck if this wasn’t the weirdest thing I’d ever come across.

  “Oh, she’s not going anywhere. You’ll have all the time in the world with her, I promise. Right now, you need to learn the spell that will bring you back to me, okay? This little guy here is going to create it for us,” Jane said, unable to keep the joy from her voice.

  I never thought I’d want to thank her for speaking. But then, the dusty figures began to float away from me and turned to Ezra. Shit, this was even worse. The boy looked like he was going to pass out any second now.

  A panic attack was a hair away from wrapping its claws around my whole body, but I didn’t let it. It didn’t matter that the figures were going for Ezra, because they’d never make it to him. As they moved closer and closer to the bed, Jane followed, a huge, proud smile on her face as she showed her siblings her trophies. It was exactly what I’d been waiting for.

  The second her back was turned to me, I closed my eyes and called on my magic. Still a bit weak from having most of my bones broken just minutes ago, it took me a second to gather enough of it into a huge ball of fire. I focused every string of it to the egg floating in the middle of the room.

  Burn, I thought, and released my magic forward. I opened my eyes just in time to watch it fly furiously toward the egg. Too bad I couldn’t watch all the way to the end. Julian’s sword was waiting for me. I pushed myself up and rolled on the floor, my right hand outstretched. The second I felt the handle against my skin, I jumped to my feet, just in time to see the look of horror on Jane’s face.

  “No!” she screamed at the top of her voice, as the flies made of dust that created the two human shapes began to withdraw and vibrate out of control. As if a vacuum was sucking it, the dust moved toward the broken glass on the floor. I thought the thing would take the shape of an egg again, but it didn’t. The dust simply settled round the glass pieces, looking harmless enough to make you second guess your sanity.

  Luckily, there was no time for second guessing. The sw
ord was in my hand, Jane in front of me, and I swung my arm back with all my strength, focusing all of my energy on my muscles. If a blast of my magic didn’t kill her like last time, I wasn’t going to take any chances. Cutting her head off was going to do just fine.

  But, before the blade of the sword could touch the side of Jane’s neck, she screamed a screeching sound that made me want to drop everything and put my hands on my ears. When I fell back, I just waited for the dreaded moment I’d hit the wall again, and the pain that would come after. Fuck, I hated broken bones.

  Instead, I hit the floor on my ass. Jane had thrown me all the way out in the hallway. Eyes red with anger, she walked toward me in a rush. If evil had a face, it was definitely hers. Sending my beads for her throat, I rushed to my feet and reached for my knives because Julian’s sword was too far to reach. I threw knife after knife at her while I moved back, until I almost hit the bathroom door. Only one of them managed to catch her on the shoulder, but she didn’t seem to mind it—or my beads making a mess out of her neck. And when she began to chant, I dropped down to my knees, and focused my beads on hers. Suddenly, Jane fell on top of me with another one of those terrible screams.

  Surprised, I pushed her off me and jumped up in time to see Julian closing the door to my mother’s room, one arm stretched towards Jane, ice shards forming on the palm of his hand. He didn’t have to tell me—I moved out of the way by myself and nearly fell down the stairs as he threw his shards toward Jane’s back. He hit his mark each and every time until she fell against the bathroom door with her face, five pieces of ice buried in her body.