Chapter 11
Anna was taken down into the chapel. It was the same one from last night. Its stark, majestic stained glass windows let in the moonlight from beyond.
The ghostly grip dragged her across the sandstone, right up to the pulpit.
The wizard reached the lectern, turning and standing with his hands rested on the wood as he read from his book, his lips moving, but no words coming out. He looked like a priest practicing for a sermon.
Anna was brought to a stop just before the altar. One of her hands was held in front of her, the wizard’s phantom grip pulling back the fingers to reveal the soft underside of her palm.
Her eyes were wide with frantic fear, her heart no longer beating, but thundering through her chest.
She was cold all over, despite her flaming allergic rash.
“God, please don’t do this,” she whimpered.
The wizard kept whispering his spell.
Magic started to pull up from the book, collecting over his hands and racing up his arms, crackling along his leather jacket and singeing it.
She tried to cast a spell, tried to call upon her own magic. As soon as she did, his grip became crushing. It jerked her hand to the side, shaking her like a doll.
She began to cry.
Tears spread down her cheeks like blood cut from the vein.
The wizard’s voice began to pick up, until it echoed like an earthquake through the chapel.
The windows shook, chattering like teeth on a cold night.
Anna could feel something coming. That strange magic he practiced suddenly surged. It rushed out of him, bursting through the room like a grenade.
She was thrown backwards, as far as the grip on her hand would allow.
He was calling the soul catcher. She could feel it. Her eyes drew impossibly wide as she stared up at his face. It was compressed with concentration, his lips pressed thin as he brought up a hand and pointed towards her. “Here is a witch,” he announced.
“Yes, yes, we know she’s a witch. No one thinks you’re clever for pointing that out,” came a voice from somewhere behind Anna.
A voice she knew. A voice every Summersville knew and would never forget.
Luminaria von Tippit.
Anna jerked around. Sure enough, Luminaria was casually making her way down the main aisle.
The wizards stopped summoning his spell. Wordlessly, he jumped down from the pulpit, his jeans creaking as he stiffened and straightened. He walked slowly past Anna, casually flicking his hand and sending her skidding towards the wall. The grip pinned her against it.
She struggled, holding her pinned wrist as she tried to tug it free. She couldn’t. Her shoes slipped and slid against the stone, the sound of the rubber soles grating over the rock echoing through the chamber.
“Do you speak, boy?” Luminaria asked as she drew to a stop in the center of the chapel. “Or is this you trying to intimidate me? Because it won’t work.”
The wizard furled one hand to the side, stretching his fingers as magic erupted over the skin. It glowed so violently, it looked as if he’d just summoned a super nova to his palm.
Anna jerked her head to the side and covered her eyes with her free arm.
“Oh, I really wouldn’t attack me. You won’t like me when I’m attacked,” Luminaria snarled.
The man didn’t heed her warning.
He attacked.
He launched at her with a punch, sending a ball of sparks spewing from his fist and lancing towards her.
Luminaria didn’t move. She let the blow land.
She wasn’t, however, flattened and cooked in one go.
With a satisfied chuckle, she rebuffed him.
Luminaria loved it when she was magically attacked. It was the one time she could defend herself.
And defend herself she would.
She dug her paws into the sandstone, stiffened her back, and whipped her tail from side to side.
Just as the wizard whirled around for another blow, Luminaria slammed her front paws into the floor.
A magical wave launched outwards from her move. It sparked so much, the air zinged from it.
Though the wizard tried to jump back, he wasn’t quick enough, and it caught him along the knees, sending him toppling back into a pew.
He snarled, punching to his feet as he kicked the pew, obliterating it with a dash of magic as he brought both hands up and set them alight.
“Child’s play,” Luminaria chuckled lightly, slamming her paws into the floor just as the man attacked.
She sent another wave of power smashing towards him. The man dodged this time, leaping and flipping over another pew as he punched his own blast of magic towards Luminaria.
She didn’t dodge. She didn’t have to. She whipped her tail forward and created a magical shield in front of her body. The wizard’s blast fell against it with a fizzle. “Anna was right – I am enjoying this.” Luminaria walked forward.
The wizard, clearly realizing she was no ordinary cat, took several steps back. He brought a hand up and wiped it over his top lip. His eyes were fixed open, his gaze calculating.
“You won’t win,” Luminaria informed him with a laugh, “you’re already weakening. In fact, if that feeble little witch behind me were more attuned, she’d realize she could break free if she tried hard enough.”
Anna snapped her head around to look at her pinned wrist. She pushed her shoulder into the stone wall behind her and tried to heave herself free.
When that didn’t work, she put a bit of magic into it. She reinforced her arm with a blast of power, and finally, with a great “oomph,” she snapped the grip. She fell to her hands and knees, her hair dropping over her face as she breathed heavily.
The wizard tried to dart around Luminaria, but the cat cackled and sent another blast sinking into his feet and sending him skidding back.
Though it was hell, Anna pushed herself to her feet. She groaned and checked her wrist. It wasn’t broken, but it had been very close. The skin was ripped and bleeding, and it was already swelling a treat.
Luminaria kept playing with the wizard. Though the cat appeared to be winning for now, it might not last. If Anna had learnt one thing, it was that she couldn’t underestimate this guy.
She had to end this. Now.
She stumbled towards the lectern, pulling herself up onto the pulpit and staggering towards it.
She heard the wizard push into a sprint behind her, his boots thumping against the stone.
“Come back here,” Luminaria snarled.
Anna reached the lectern, and used the base to pull herself into a standing position. With her good hand, she grabbed the book.
The wizard somehow dodged every blow Luminaria sent his way. He leapt onto the pulpit.
He reached towards Anna, his hand spreading wide as magic raced over the fingers.
Screaming, she snatched the book, staggered back, and did the only thing she could think of. She threw it, right at Luminaria. “Destroy it!”
The wizard reached her and grabbed her arm, his awful grip eating into her once more.
There was an almighty bang from behind her.
A massive magical shock wave slammed through the room.
The wizard was thrown off Anna, and she tumbled back into the lectern, her head slamming into the wood.
A massive cloud of smoke and rock dust swept through the room.
She blinked against it, her ears ringing from the blast.
“Well that was more dramatic than I thought it would be,” Luminaria mumbled from somewhere near the center of the smoke cloud.
Anna pushed herself up. She had to press her back into the lectern and jam her feet into the floor to manage it. But with effort, she stood.
She stared down at her feet, at the wizard.
He was out.
Or so she thought. Just as she leant down to check him, he snapped forward and caught her hand.
As he did, he began to disappear. A massive, seething po
ol of black magic amassed around him, climbing over his body as he pulled her towards him.
She tried to resist, but he was so strong.
His torso vanished, his body sinking through the floor.
She screamed.
The look in his eyes held her place. Not his grip around her arm, but his look.
Humans have a saying – the eyes are the doorway to the soul. They’re right. The eyes are the gates into the soul. And should you know how, you can shove them open.
She felt him pulling her down, down towards some hell she couldn’t imagine, but one she was about to experience firsthand.
She could hear Luminaria racing up behind her, but the cat would be too late. “Fight it, child!” she roared.
Anna was the kind of girl who always did as she was told. Today was no different.
As Luminaria’s plea echoed at the edge of Anna’s hearing, she resisted.
She closed her eyes, shutting off the connection. It was hard, but the wizard had been weakened by his fight with Luminaria.
She pulled her arm back.
Luminaria reached them, and sent a massive blast right at the wizard’s head. It struck home, and he tipped back, finally releasing Anna.
She snapped her eyes open to see his jerk wide too.
Something cracked.
Something that shouldn’t.
Suddenly Anna was thrown back as a mysterious force slammed into her.
She fell against the stone, her head spinning, her vision blurry, her heart racing.
With a bang, the wizard disappeared. She could feel as that new dark magic vanished, taking the wizard with it.
She tried to push herself up, but her head was still swimming. She felt like she’d been hit by a mountain.
“Oh ... well you don’t often see that,” Luminaria conceded as she leant down and sniffed the spot where the wizard had disappeared. The stone was riddled with cracks and covered in dark swathes of singe marks. Residual magic crackled and spat, dancing erratically over the floor like headless fireflies. In other words, it was exactly the kind of thing you didn’t sniff.
Anna pulled herself into a sitting position. She held onto her head. It felt like it wasn’t attached anymore. “What – what happened?”
“Our little friend got away. Strange kind of magic he practices,” Luminaria licked her teeth, “I’ve never come across it before. Which is odd when you consider I’m ancient and positively powerful.”
Anna tried to get to her feet. She failed.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Luminaria warned as she sat down and glared at Anna. “You might faint. You have a part of that wizard’s soul, after all.”
“Sorry?”
“Silly fool was trying to practice soul magic before he vanished. That’s how he created the portal. It’s also how he was compelling you to follow him. Problem was, when he tried to access your soul, he opened up his own. Then I came along and walloped him in the noggin with a magical blast, and broke off a section of his soul. It slammed into you. Not something you see everyday. In fact, I’ll be honest with you – I’ve never seen it before. But tonight’s been full of surprises, ay?”
Anna’s head stopped swimming – it started whirling around like a tornado instead.
She ... she had a fragment of a dark wizard’s soul!
She fainted.