Hi!
An early update this week! Oh, and so much trouble ahead... MOUHAHA! Is Anna going to be able to save herself and New York? Or will she need some help to get herself out of this one?
Lara
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Chapter 35
"You almost got my brother killed." Joshua rolled his shoulders and fixed his eyes on me. "Raphael said I could kill you."
A swarm of ravens dipped low, almost grazing the rooftop we were standing on, then rose again into the night air. In the distance something stirred, a sonic boom on an auratic level that caught my breath. Time and space shivered with the impact.
The third null bomb just went off. Anna, you're running out of time.
Joshua's grin widened as his hands erupted in electric bolts. I recognized the power, the dark twist and the burning rift in the aerial set up around us. This magic was meant to kill.
He shoved his hands forward into the space between us and the night exploded with deadly magic. I pulled on the cuff, drawing up another wall of air. The dark magic bit into my erected walls, scraping, eating up my air magic as if it was nothing. I squeezed my eyes, pushed forward with all I had, reaching for more magic.
There was more motion on the rooftop in the front â a struggle, then someone stepping forward. I could see it from where I was standing. The next witch was going down.
I was running out of time. If they managed to break through another layer, only one ring of protection stood between Medici and the Invisibility Cloak's headquarters. I shook my head and shoved against Joshua's dark magic.
Now or never.
I let go in a sudden move and the wall of air dissolved. I grabbed what air magic I could get, manipulating the air in front of me. I raced through space, heard the soft tear and crash of dark magic colliding with something solid behind me. My feet were carrying me to the front of the roof.
Bolts followed in my wake, heavy footfalls tracing mine. I ducked and darted through a hailstorm of dark magic, electric fissures tearing through space in front of me. Joshua was right behind, so close, I could feel his darc aura like a breath of cold air. I had to be fast.
The small water tower was behind me, and I was making my way past ventilation shafts, right to the front of the rooftop. Right towards-
I stopped dead. Shadows elongated and yawned forward within the blink of an eye. Five rogues stepped out of the shadows and got right in my way.
"Where are you going, sweetheart?" Marley said, stepping forward.
Another familiar face among the ranks of my enemy. Again, someone I'd talked to casually had turned into an enemy in a deadly fight. Marley's mane of black hair looked like it was part of his cloak, swallowed by the darkness. The scar on the rogue's forehead stuck out even in the shadowland of the rooftop.
I lifted my hands, palms up and drew up walls of air â for protection and to buy me time.
The rogues circled me, faces grim. The physical reality trembled. My head snapped up. A portal opened in the front of the roof, tectonic plates shifting. I saw scraps of long blond hair, motion in the form of a struggle. The witch yelped before she was dragged into a portal by one of the rogues.
I gritted my teeth. The next witch was on her way down to set off the next null bomb.
Too late.
"She's not going anywhere." Joshua stepped forward, touching my walls.
Electric bolts sizzled up and down tight-knit particles. Marley mirrored him, hand facing my walls. I felt the moment his palm connected with my walls of air â a cold shiver like a subtle electric shock against tender skin. The other three rogues stepped forward noiselessly, moving as one. Three more palms flat against my walls of air, electric bolts eating at them.
I wasn't going to last long, dammit. What now?
I peered between the veil of dark, sizzling magic. We were surrounded by a dozen ravens, sitting on the rooftop like a small army of tin soldiers. Their commander was probably watching through their eyes.
Damn Medici.
Another ripple in the landscape from below. The fourth null bomb.
My eyes went to the headquarters. Only one more ring of wards left. If this ring stood between Medici and his entrance to the Invisibility Cloak's headquarters long enough for the Force to come, everything would be alright. The Raven was missing one more elemental witch to set off the final null bomb.
Marley followed my line of sight and chuckled. "You think Raphael didn't plan on losing at least one witch?"
My head snapped to him.
The rogue grinned. "We brought one more witch and an extra null bomb. Just in case."
No. No, no, no!
All those people. And it would be my fault for not stopping the Inri Brotherhood. A lump in my throat made it hard to swallow, or breathe.
No.
My hand dug into the pockets of Medici's leather jacket. There was only one way of stopping Medici now.
My fingers closed around one of the magical artifacts the Raven had stolen â not knowing they might, one day, be used against him. The brooch felt heavy in my hand, the broken needle stinging my palm. I traced the flat that depicted a female profile, feeling the outlines and the brittle bronze.
I remembered the day I visited Sonya Bernards in the black market. The moonlighting witch might have betrayed me, but I believed her when it came to the magical artifacts. She said the cloaking spell imbedded in the brooch could conceal a whole village. No, this spell could not only conceal, it would also protect.
Sonya Bernards said only the witches that spelled the magical objects would know exactly how to use them. If I evoked the spell, I was going to have to channel the power myself. The magical backlash could ...
No. I shook my head. I wouldn't think about that.
The moonlighting witch knew more about illegal artifacts than anyone else I knew â here in New York. But I'd been to a place where advanced magic was part of the daily grind. The Lumenis' wards were far more complex than anything I'd seen here. And my godmother Giuliana showed me how they were cast.
No matter who, no matter where and how, it would take a lot of power â far more than a small ward would. Probably more than I had. The magical backlash was going to be...
I swallowed. Yeah.
Time had run out. I blinked up at the four rogues facing my walls of air, the silent, black feathered birds at their backs like a second set of shadows. Then further behind the outlines of the Invisibility Cloak's Headquarters.
I had to get down there. Fast. Only how?
My eyes settled on the birds.
Now or never.
I focused on those beady eyes, on the ravens staring at me with the empty gaze of a set of lifeless mirrors. I widened my awareness, opened my senses to the endless, drumming rhythm of life and nature. I'd felt the element of earth before, used it.
Even here among a city of dead concrete and smog-inducing metal, there was an undercurrent of nature. Trees, earth, animals. These were more than lifeless creatures. In the night they came alive with a harsh intake of breath.
The world stopped, stood still. The birds halted, beady eyes deepening and stretching, as a haze of green tinged my eyesight. I could feel their attention like soft pins and needles â each coming alive inside my mind.
Stop obeying him. Help me.
The world started turning again. The birds moved as one, feathers flying in all directions as they launched themselves against the rogues. The ravens dug their claws into Joshua's and Marley's shoulders. Sharp beaks coming down on unprotected heads. The rogues cursed, trying to shake them off. One, two three, four palms left my shields of air.
One moment of distraction. It was enough. Enough time for me to step into a portal and vanish into in between space.
The portal spit me out at the back corner of the building. The street seemed empty. No rogues, no elemental witch on this side. Not here. Not yet. The first spot would be the easiest.
I gripped the brooch tighter, welcomed the pain as the broken needle imbedded itself in my palm. This was it.
Blood dripped on the asphalt, hissing like a silent whisper. I closed my eyes, readying myself for the next travel via portal.
* * *
My palm was bloody. More drops of blood hit the asphalt. I was at the fourth and final corner of the building. The final focal point for the spell. I used the same method the Lumenis did, perhaps a dirtier and quicker version â equal to the hot-wiring of a car. Giuliana told me they poured power into elements, bit by bit, day by day. I would be doing it all at once.
Same principle. Assuming I could use and mold the spell in the brooch to my own and use it just like the Lumenis did. I was going to bet a lot on that.
I peered around the corner, using second sight.
Shit.
Another figure was approaching the building from this side. Another strong red aura. They were going to release the final null bomb now!
I stepped away and faced the building. I gripped the brooch with both hands, opening myself to the magic. The floodgates opened, a looming shadow that threatened to take me under. I stared at it wide-eyed, felt the first vibrations tear at me.
I'll take it. I'll take the magical backlash.
The metal grew hot to the touch, like a pulsing vein.
"Potentia exaudi me. Auxiliam per protegere desidero. Omnia in hoc loco custodi!"
The magical object broke with a crack that left a stinging ring in my ears and the magic exploded out. The magic tore through me, using me like an electrical conductor, burning veins and soft tissue. The night trembled with the rise of magical color and the suction of power.
The world stood still â me in the eye of the storm. Firecrackers in a methodic melt down, caught and stuck in that moment of explosion.
Red color burned my eyelids, tinging the world into rain and fire. The power shot out, racing to the first set of blood drops and tore through the asphalt. Seconds and the power had rounded the building, connecting the first and last blood drop.
I screamed, but all that came out of my mouth was a silent gasp. Blood red color shot up, rising up against the walls like a giant hood being pulled over the building, it swallowed the concrete behemoth whole. The red reflected, like a mirror reflecting sunlight and for a moment all I could see was a blinding light.
Then nothing.
I crashed to my knees, hands taking the brunt of the fall. My ears were ringing with white noise that made me feel disconnected, as if I'd taken a step back from myself â now just a frowning bystander. The world tipped and tilted, the asphalt racing towards me in fast forward.
I blinked against black dots in my eyesight, saw blood on the asphalt underneath my face. Slowly I raised myself on shaky hands and looked up. Nothing but empty space where the Invisibility Cloak's headquarters had stood like a silent giant. The building had vanished from sight.
I did it.