AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A lot of magic operates on the rule of three. The sacred geometry. This spell might, too. I read the whole chant through two more times. Then I wait.
Maybe it’s because I’m alone that nothing more happens. Prolly a good thing.
The witchlight flickers again. I swear, no matter how much Miss Moss hates me, I’m complaining.
Something skitters along the edge of my vision. A hunched figure, like a tiny man with a crow beak for a nose.
Remembering where I’ve seen something like that before, I swallow hard. I place my hand flat on the reading table and pull on my Element, turning everything to stone. The Acta is priceless, as are some of the other Arcana we have out on the table. I’m not strong enough to turn the whole library to stone, but I can protect what’s in front of me.
A faint metallic whirr, like gears grinding, is all the warning I get before a huge, bristly, spear-shaped leg shoots out of mid-air at my chest.
I throw myself backwards, toppling over the chair with a crack of wood. Hitting the ground knocks the wind out of my lungs. I slam the back of my head against the parquet floor so hard I see stars, but the spear-leg misses my head by a half-meter.
I scramble out of the broken chair’s embrace and try to shake the whirling spots out of my vision.
The leg’s disappeared again. I settle onto my back foot and get my guard up, black streaking up my arms to my elbows, those long claws curling where my fingernails should be. Now might be a good time to find out what those can do. The silver ring Doctor Prince gave me burns on my finger.
The woman herself appears on the other side of the table, stepping out of the Air like she’s walking through a door.
A huge, hooded shadow rears over her. I blink at it, not sure what I’m seeing.
She puts a finger to her lips.
I nod.
She moves around the table, gliding silently on bare feet. Her toenails are polished a deep, ocean blue. Why I notice that, rather than the spear-leg that whistles at me from another direction, I’ll never know.
A massive, whipping tail knocks me flat as the spear-leg clips my shoulder, opening a burning gash despite my StoneSkin spell. My whole vision flickers as my head hits the wood a second time. I roll, trying to shake it off, but the tail thumps across my back, keeping me on the ground.
A huge, black, gold, and blue-scaled snake rears over me. It looks at me once with Doctor Prince’s cold, intelligent eyes. Then it turns its hooded head and hisses out a cloud of vapor that fills the library.
The vapor outlines the giant spider-woman crouched on the reading table. Klotho rears back and stabs her two front legs at Doctor Prince’s snake.
The snake sinks its fangs into one leg as the other impales the snake through the neck.
I throw my arm over my face as yellow venom and black blood rain down over me. The venom sears my arm and I grit my teeth against the pain before I pull on the well of power within me and heal the burn. Then I slap my palm on the snake’s tail and push my Element into the snake. The fountain of black blood slows to a trickle. When Klotho pulls her leg back, the snake’s scales seal smoothly.
With a yank that I feel ripple through the tail still draped over my legs, the snake rips off Klotho’s leg and spits it across the room. As Klotho screams, the snake lunges and snaps another of the spider’s legs between its huge fangs. Despite two legs slashing like swords across the snake’s belly, the snake rips the leg free.
I pump more healing energy into the snake. The gashes close more slowly than the first wound, and the scales remain pink instead of taking on the snake’s pattern. Earth-healing works with the patient’s own energies, and the snake must be tiring. But that doesn’t stop it from striking again, this time at Klotho’s bloated, black belly.
Over another grating scream from the spider as the snake’s fangs find their mark, I hear the click of the door.
“Teddy!”
“Don’t hurt the snake!” I yell at my boys, who have returned at just the wrong moment.
“Gabe, fire spear!” Darwin shouts.
I push myself up as much as the snake’s protective tail allows. My view of my boys is obscured by the reading table, but I see Darwin clap his hands together in a swirl of flame. Gabe spreads his hand around the flame, twisting it between his fingers, before shoving his hands toward Klotho.
A lance of flame shoots across the room and slams into the spider’s back. The smell that billows up from her along with a plume of gray smoke makes me retch. I’ve never smelled anything so bad. Worse than the basement of Bodeman A after homecoming.
“Teddy,” Gabe grates. “Help me close the portal.”
I slap one hand on the floor and reach the other towards Gabe, drawing hard on both my Element and the wellspring inside me, and throwing everything I have to Gabe through our link. Gabe reaches out with both hands. Air blasts through the reading room, toppling shelves and blowing everything not stone onto the floor. The whip of his magic across my eyes makes them run with tears but I hold open the channel, pushing as much power as I can toward my Air-mage.
With a growl like a thunderclap, Gabe closes his hands into fists.
