Like the wail of a death-bringing banshee, a scream echoed through the night; high pitched and desperate it swam beneath my skin as I squeezed my hands over my ears. Wasn’t stopping a damned thing. Jaylene and Mandy’s positions, mirroring mine, told me more than any words.
We were in a world of hurt and Brenda hadn’t done more than raise one hand and her voice.
I had to do something. Anything. Soon blood would pour from our broken eardrums.
Twisting around to glance skyward I spoke to the powers above and around us, thrusting my bandaged hand upwards to carry my words.
“Air, earth, water, all three, I summon thee.”
Clawing my good hand along the gravel beneath me I struggled to get the next words past the pain.
“Elements of earth, smite my enemy.”
I glanced into the darkness.
“Elements of air, surround us and protect us.”
Squeezing tears from my eyes, I snarled the last words.
“Elements of water, rise between us. Darkness banish. Lightness flare forth. Thee I call. Thee I seek.”
This time it was my hand that was in motion, scattering the gravel before me, ringing the three of us in a rush of fire.
I think I was as shocked as everyone else that something had happened as I had no candles, full moon, elder blossoms and rue, or even protection incense to help me pull off a protection spell.
The banshee wail was cut off, leaving the three of us gasping for air.
But Dyslexia was already being propelled forward, directly into the flames.
I stop the blaze and the protection circle would break, exposing us to Brenda’s next move. Leave it be and Dyslexia would burn to death. She was earth attuned, which meant the frailty of wood when faced with fire.
“Halt,” I screamed but Dyslexia couldn’t or wouldn’t hear us.
“Spirits be,”
I shouted, stumbling to my feet.
“Fire abate. Wind replace.”
It wasn’t a good trade off but a desperate one. The blaze sputtered and died as a gust of wind swirled about us, pelting all of us with gravel, stinging skin, making it hard to see beyond our raised arms protecting our faces.
But even with the roar of wind I could hear Brenda casting.
“Enough,” my scream met hers as I straightened, bracing my legs wide.
“Dark to night. Light to light. Power be. Deceive to thee. Witch to spirit, call forth spirits.”
As if the earth heaved, two things happened at once. Brenda pulled back. Doppelgangers, being death omen bringers were second cousins to spirits, both called from the land beyond, and like a lot of family ties, very dysfunctional if brought together.
Take that Doppelganger witch-wannabe! Then I caught sight of Mandy writhing on the ground, this time in a fetal position.
I glanced at Jaylene, who shook her head but had enough sense to say, “She’s a spirit-walker.”
For love of shamans, I had to align with the one type of being who made Doppelgangers look like goodwill ambassadors to spirit-kind.
Spirit-walkers had no souls so could cross that thin line between the human world and the spirit world, but did so at their peril. It was one thing to be able to communicate with spirits from the human side, a whole other thing to cross into their playing field. Shamans could do so in small increments of time, but spirit-walkers were like an aphrodisiac to spirits. All the spirits had to do was catch a spirit-walker unaware and they could hijack their human shells. One second long dead, the next, back among the land of the living.
No choice but to remove the one wall between us and Brenda.
We were screwed.
“Alex!” It was Vaughn shouting.
I turned. She was alone. Disappointment and relief washed over me. Disappointed that Kelly had bailed because her absence meant we were now four, the four Jaylene saw in her visions. Relief because Kelly would live to see another day.
But I didn’t have time to think much as I called to Vaughn. “Did you bring it? The herbs?”
Jaylene was rushing forward to tackle Brenda, the biggest threat, buying me a few seconds as Mandy staggered to her feet. As long as Jaylene was rolling Brenda on the ground, keeping her scrapping, I could turn my attention to Vaughn. I just hoped Jaylene was the street fighter I thought she was.
“I’ve got some of what you want.” Vaughn ran up to stand beside me, her hands full of packages, but not nearly as much as I’d told her to find.
“Bishopwort?” I asked, an herb I could use to banish an evil spirit. And wasn’t that what a Doppelganger was?
Vaughn shook her head. “No. But I have salt.”
Talk about bringing a water pistol to a gunfight.
Come on, Jaylene. I need a few seconds more.
Dyslexia, no longer stopped by fire was almost on top of us as Mandy did a linebacker’s rush, toppling the two of them to the ground. Unfortunately proximity to the dirt gave Dyslexia more power as an earth fae.
Of course. Salt?
“Give me that.” I grabbed at Vaughn’s bundles. “Take the salt and as many large rocks as you can find and stack them over there.” I pointed to the wall of the nearest building, about twenty feet away while keeping an eye on the dust and rocks kicked up by Jaylene and Brenda. Amazon was holding her own, keeping Brenda from screaming, or worse, spell casting.
Now if I could get my act together. I shot a glance at Vaughn, who hadn’t moved an inch.
“Go. Now. Salt and stones,” I shouted, pushing her away.
She turned and started scrambling, shaking her head. I didn’t have time to explain.
I pawed through the small baggies of herbs she brought, sniffing each one . . . hoping. Yes, here it was, cedar.
I let the other bags drop as I started the chant. Dyslexia was already rising to her feet, her attention focused one hundred percent on me, a death stare. Mandy was clutching her stomach where Dyslexia had slugged her, like getting hit with a thick branch.
Brenda and Jaylene were grunting like pigs in a pen. Go Amazon!
I had to turn my back to Dyslexia and Brenda to face the east to begin the chant.
“By the power of the rising sun, seek all evil to be done.”
A quick pivot to the south, moving toward where Vaughn was stockpiling rocks as if a dwarf hoarding gold. I knew I could count on her.
“By the power of the noonday blast, I seeketh control as mine.”
It was working. Dyslexia had paused, tension riding her. Exactly what I wanted. Brenda had Jaylene in a headlock. Time was running out.
My instinct was to bag the magic and join the free for all, hoping I could take Brenda down human to human. But I couldn’t. Only option was to put everything I had behind my magic use and leave the physical stuff to the rest of the team. While I was using magic I had to rely on the team to protect themselves, and protect me. I couldn’t defend myself.
I also couldn’t break Brenda’s control, not without destroying the power transmitter, but I could fracture the earth fae’s attention. Divide and conquer.
Earth faes were suckers for two things—salt and stones. The call of those elements made a cat’s response to cat nip seem mild. My plan was simple; if I could get Dyslexia away from Brenda the earth fae might walk away from this battle in one piece, and without any of us having to harm her.
“Sprinkle the salt,” I called to Vaughn as I turned to the west, scrambling to remember the rest of the psychic shield spell, crumbling cedar in my good hand.
“By the power of night.”
No, that wasn’t it.
“By the power of darkening night, my shield is strong, my power right.”
I had walked myself almost to Vaughn and the wall. Vaughn stepped back, looking between me and Dyslexia advancing on me, each step reluctantly moving closer to me and away from Brenda’s power field.
Just as I reached the pile of rocks I shouted the last words.
“By hidden moon in blackened sky, we are not alone. Help is nigh. Great Spirits, surround us. Keep us safe by night and day. Begone, foul spirit, unbidden here. I cast you back. We do not fear, for we have won. You have no further power over thee!”
As if lightening cracked through the sky a sudden brightness broke the dark, illuminating Vaughn’s wary expression, Dyslexia’s confused one.
“Go thee forth.”
I pointed to the rock pile as I faced Dyslexia.
“Earth to earth, salt to salt. Seek thy own. Remain as more.”
Damn if Dyslexia didn’t do as I commanded, shuffling past me until she reached the stone pile and slid to her knees, her head bowed.
One down.
Even before I turned back to see what Brenda was up to I heard Jaylene shout.
Then Brenda’s banshee-scream erupted. Again.