“Lies,” Ellie said with a raspy whisper.
Katherine sighed. Frustration bubbled from her surface thoughts, not matching the irritation I’d come to glean from the girl. Katherine’s irritation almost immediately came accompanied by a twinge of guilt because, when people made her mad, she tried her best to see things from their perspective.
But not now. Now, Katherine merely oozed annoyance for the bubbly enchanters. She quickly muttered another spell. I went to warn them until her eyes rolled back. It became clear from the flutter of her lashes and the markings lining the air around that she was casting a divination spell.
What was she looking for?
“There’s something wrong with Katherine,” I linked my thoughts to Ellie and Hayden.
“Enchanter Frost?” Ellie asked.
“Still here, huh?” Katherine tsked. “No matter.”
Ignoring my presence, she turned to the door Hayden had blocked and raised her arms. Chanting a spell, Katherine’s light brown skin glowed momentarily, her voice echoed, and her hair blew wildly, locked in the chaos of a high-tier spell.
“You need to stop her,” I insisted. “She’s summoning something.”
That was about all I could make out from her chant.
“Lock.” Ellie bound the enchantments Katherine cast.
Name: Ellie Reed
Branch: Ward (Skeleton Key)
“Silly, child.” Katherine whistled the same tune as earlier, releasing pale yellow music notes.
Hayden’s eyes drooped, but he teleported away, escaping the slumbering sounds. He even conjured a shimmering false trail for the melody to chase.
Name: Hayden Russo
Branch: Cosmic (Teleportation)
Branch: Cosmic (Glitter)
Except the notes vanished with him and reappeared at his next destination. Katherine managed to add some type of homing feature to her spell.
She was casting multiple high-tier spells in tandem without so much as breaking a sweat or even referencing her grimoire. I knew she was good, but that seemed so off. Everything about her, even her thoughts, had an altered flow to them. This wasn’t Katherine. It couldn’t be.
“Lock. Lock. Lock.” Ellie attempted to bind the melody, but it reached her all the same.
Ellie and Hayden fell unconscious at Caleb’s feet.
“Katherine, stop this.”
She ignored him, returning to her summoning. I didn’t know what to expect, but seeing the wall in front of her shatter and two glass cells being dragged directly in front of her wasn’t what I anticipated. Katherine snapped her fingers, and the symbols keeping those glass cells sealed crumbled away. The glass cracked. Long weblike strands.
Inside each cell lay a pillar of the Celestial Coven. The dust of Grim’s shattered bones and the rotten corpse of Lazarus.
She proceeded to walk closer to the fallen witches, ignoring Caleb’s concern, his confusion.
“It’s time,” Katherine said. “You’re required to retrieve the goddess.”
More guards moved in, following the path of destruction Katherine’s spell created when she ripped the cells through the building, tearing apart everything between her and the Celestial Coven members.
“Sleep,” Katherine commanded, sending those damn musical notes to knock out the incoming forces.
A burst of energy struck a few notes, causing them to coil inward on themselves and implode. Caleb stared at the remaining music notes, attempting to strike with another blaze of perfected banishment.
