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Slowly, I get out of the car. I think about calling 9-1-1, but I need every ounce of my focus right now. The forest is still. Too quiet. No birds, no insects chirping. Which is not at all normal for springtime. My gaze wanders through the trees, but I don’t see anything. I turn in a slow circle, my heart beating itself against my sternum relentlessly, adrenaline surging through my veins.
I’ve just begun to think that maybe this is a twisted fluke of fate when I feel it.
That magic that feels like blood and bone and deep, dark places beneath the earth from a time before time. The sensation hits me a moment before I see a flash of movement to my right. I don’t wait. I take off running.
Branches snap as the thing discards stealth and charges after me. I run down the road, heading toward the highway, but I know I’m still at least a half mile off. My blood pulses like lightning, and my lungs begin to burn almost immediately at the speed I’m going. The beast lets out a roar that shakes the forest around me, and terror spikes in my belly.
I can feel it gaining on me. The proximity of that ancient energy, the black fog of it stretching toward me. There’s no way I’m going to make it to the main road. I’m going to die here in these woods, in the same place my aunt died. I, too, will not be burned. I’ll be devoured by whatever that thing is that’s after me.
Through my terror I feel a wave of magic swell inside me. Ven had said that strong emotion was a good summoner. It doesn’t get much stronger than this. It doesn’t feel like it did before, light and harmonious. Now it feels like heat and a tsunami rolled together. Sparks shoot from my fingertips and my chest feels like I’ve swallowed lightning.
I spin and face the creature. I’m not going to be taken without a fight. If I go down, I go down as befitting a witch. I go down in thunder and hellfire.
My hands thrust forward from my solar plexus and a ball of magic blasts outward. It’s yellow and orange like fireworks, and it hits the horned beast square in the chest. The creature staggers but keeps coming. I send another blast into it and this time it stops. It stops and it disintegrates, right before my eyes. Roars as it writhes and shrinks, shriveling to ash and dust. And then it’s just a pile of soot on the road a few feet away.
A wave of dizziness moves over me. I turn and stagger toward the highway. That creature’s master may still be out here with me. I have to get to safety. Rain starts coming down, light at first and then harder. It pelts against my skin, cold and sharp.
Exhaustion tugs at me, my vision going in and out. Working that kind of magic took a lot out of me. I feel like I’m empty inside, a paper doll that could blow away on a breeze. Somehow, I manage to make it… I blink and the highway stretches before me.
The last thing I see before I pass out is a large gray truck coming down the road through the rain.
