There was a loud cracking sound, and Ronin’s jaw dropped when a thick piece of ice peeled away from the pavement and floated in the air. “Well, what the fuck is this happy horseshit?”
“It’s Monroe,” Cece said. “He’s a water warlock.”
All of them peered over the truck, watching as Monroe, his mouth moving continuously as he spoke an incantation, made a sweeping motion with his arms. The chunk of ice flew at the witch at deadly speed.
“Oh fuck, yeah,” Ronin shouted.
A blast of fire erupted from the dark witch’s hands and met the slab of ice before it could slam into her. It exploded, chunks of ice and water spraying everywhere, and the witch screeched with laughter.
“You’ll have to try harder than that, water witch!” She blasted him with another beam of red light, and fire engulfed Monroe for a few seconds before disappearing. He wasn’t burned, but the light surrounding him was noticeably dimmer.
“Is his light fading?” Briggs asked.
“Oh shit,” Cece said.
“What?” Ronin said.
“Monroe is losing.”
“How can you tell?” Mal took a quick look over the truck.
“Because Briggs is right. His light is fading, which means his magic is weakening,” Cece said.
She shook her head when Briggs tried to guide her toward Clay. “Stop it. I’m not leaving. We don’t know for sure that she’ll stop if I’m not here, and your protection spells will only help until she breaks them. She’s using dark magic. It won’t take long for her to break the spells.”
“The fuck are we talking about here?” Clay said. “I’ll just teleport all of you to the office. She can’t kill us if we’re not here.”
"I won’t leave Monroe to die,” Cece snapped.
“I’ll grab him as well,” Clay said.
“You don’t have a protection spell on you,” Kat said. “If the witch hits you with a spell, you’re dead, Clay.”
“And what if she goes after innocent people in the restaurant?” Cece said. “We can’t just leave, okay?”
Her hands were glowing a soft green, and the colour had returned to her cheeks. Her magic was feeding off of him, and Briggs pressed her even closer against his body, relishing the hit of magic it gave him as well, even amongst the chaos.
“She’s right,” Mal said. “We can end this right here and now.”
“How?” Hudson asked.
“The rock,” Mal said, glancing at Bishop.
“Holy fuck, is it still in the trunk of your car?” Bishop asked.
Mal nodded. “Yes. I forgot to talk to Monroe about it.”
“So you’ve been just driving around with a dark magic rock in your trunk? That’s some badassery right there,” Ronin said.
“If Cece and Monroe can break the protection spell the witch has surrounding her -”
“It’s a barrier spell,” Cece said.
“If they can break it, Clay can teleport up to her and -”
“Hit her with the fucking rock before she zippity zaps him with a spell,” Ronin said with a delighted grin. “Hell, yes.”
“You’re forgetting something,” Briggs growled as Cece yanked down the zipper on her jacket and shrugged out of it. “Cece’s magic isn’t strong enough to beat that fucking witch.”
