Echo, p.36
Echo, page 36
"Eíbùr." I shielded her from the current, revealing my presence. The effects of the potions wore out at the moment time unfroze.
"You." Jivar peered at me.
"Explodere." I directed my spell at Doyle. The explosion couldn’t hurt him, but it did blow up the chains, allowing him to launch at Jivar with a punch.
Jivar summoned a sword.
Closing my eyes, I focused on Doyle’s saber, which he had left in the house. Conjuring worked similarly to teleportation. By visualizing the saber, I pulled it out of the mental image and into Doyle’s grasp.
He danced past the swing of Jivar’s sword and stroked him in the back of his knees, throwing him off balance.
This is it. Doyle is giving me the time I need. I pulled the portable altar out of my pocket and summoned my grimoire.
"Come to life," I chanted, and the words were scrivened on a blank page. Magic lingered at the tips of my fingers like a soft tingle.
My spell required undivided focus, yet my heart was preoccupied with Doyle. I gasped when he neared the ledge, almost tripping but bouncing off at the nick of time.
"Come to life," I repeated. The energy stung my hands.
Jivar teleported and attacked Doyle from behind. The edge of his sword cut through Doyle’s shirt, grazing his back.
Doyle whirled around and whipped his sword at Jivar, who parried.
Focus, Echo. I smacked my head. Time is not on your side.
The two men stepped back. "I don’t intend on harming you, Doyle, but if I have to..." Enhancing his speed, Jivar lunged forward and pointed his sword at Doyle’s neck.
"Come to life!" The spell rippled through my body and exploded out of my palms. Like a piercing wave, it hit Jivar, forcing him to recoil and drop his sword.
"What did you do?" He clutched his chest.
"I woke them up." I squared my shoulders and wiped the blood off my nose.
***
Closing a portal required a basic spell any witch could do. Closing seven portals was a more complicated matter. On the roof of Shady Mews Hospital, ten witches joined their hands.
"Don’t let yourself be distracted," Cona guided them telepathically. "Focus on the spell and trust your friends... Repeat after me. Claude portale. Eice bestias."
"Claude portale. Eice bestias."
"Protege terram nostram contra omnem calamitatem"
"Protege terram nostrum."
Right above them, a beast shot up. Dragon Kirby grabbed it by the tail and tossed it away. The witches shut their eyes so the fight wouldn’t intimidate them, but fright struck their hearts as they listened to the bangs, the thumps, and the screeches.
"Contra omnem calamitatem."
On the other side of the roof, Viessa’s voice bellowed through the megaphone, "Eleven o’clock, green."Rose, Zachery, and the remaining witches followed her orders. "One o’clock, orange."
Glancing down, Viessa spotted a crowd of people marching towards the hospital. In the lead, a man with a purple coat swaggered. Doyle had assigned one of the newcomers, Joshua, to guard the hospital gate in case any soulless soldiers appeared. Viessa trusted that he’d do a good job, yet she felt the urge to do something...to help.
"You’re in charge now," she said as she handed her megaphone over to Ahmed, a nineteen-year-old witch with a well-chiseled face and bright hazel eyes. She hurled herself to the door and darted down the stairs, clueless that she was on her way to a family reunion.
***
The relationship between a soul and its essence is like that between a tree and its root. The essence stretched, searching for life force while the soul grew into the world. As long as the root was safe, the tree could regenerate itself.
When Jivar fed on souls, he separated them from their essences. While the souls went to the Unknown, the essences remained dormant in Jivar’s astral body.
"I woke them up," I told him. Using the Magic of Recreation, I watered the roots, reviving the essences and allowing the tree to grow. "The souls you’ve been consuming for years, I brought them back from the Unknown."
"How is this possible?" Jivar’s chest rose and fell as the souls forced their way out of his body. He gagged and wheezed, and his face contorted with pain.
"Release," I shouted.
Jivar rolled up his sleeve. The souls popped out on his arm like bumps, crawling up to his shoulder and busting out of his mouth with a pain-filled groan.
"Appear to me." He tried to call his grimoires, but none showed up.
"It’s pointless, Jivar," I said. "You’re no longer noble, but you’re up against two of us."
I gestured for Doyle to go. The Katarus needed him more than we did. "Give up, Jivar," I said. "Your plan failed, and your Dark Magic can’t win against two noble witches."
"She’s right." Ebba mustered the courage to approach him. "Go home, Jivaros. Free yourself from all the hate." Her eyes watered with overflowing sympathy." You can’t bring Rimanis back."
Jivaro’s face showed a crazed expression uncharacteristic of him. My spell must have evoked feelings that belonged to the awakening souls. "For a thousand years, I have been patient," he said. "I learned to wait, to endure. I opposed fate and negated the laws of nature."
Although Jivar tried to reclaim his superiority, his voice revealed the emotions surging within. "Because of you, my plans have crumbled. Do you think you know everything, Echo? You know nothing of loss, deprivation, and emptiness. You know nothing of the Unknown you implore. I have lived in it for a thousand years, and I have been patient."
"And you." He turned to Ebba with a sneer. "You did all this. You cursed me into what I am... If this day I shall die, you will escort me to hell. Adi la basi alaku."
"Ebba," I hollered.
Chapter 35: New Beginnings
Towards the hospital, Zaros swaggered along with a parade of his soldiers. Away had their souls gone; only the walking flesh remained. A conceited smile crossed Zaros’s face as the breeze blew his green scarf. The victory day had arrived.
"Explosion!" a woman shouted. A handful of strange capsules rained down on Zaros and his soldiers, exploding into flames.
"Sahapu." Zaros enveloped his army with a transparent shield as his gaze swiveled, looking for the culprit. At the first-floor window, a woman stood. She rubbed her hands together and elicited a sneaky laugh.
"This is not a witch—" The second explosion interrupted Zaros’s thoughts.
It seemed that some of the capsules took longer to explode. The shield contained the blast, intensifying its impact on the inside. Many of Zaros’s soldiers collapsed, and those who were left coughed nonstop.
To let the smoke out, Zaros removed the shield to see a man in his thirties waiting. His shoulder-length blond hair flew up when he waved his arms, launching an air blast at the fire hydrants, which exploded with saltwater.
The soldiers were incapacitated.
Blowing into the air, the witch discharged a sphere of wind that darted towards Zaros, who reciprocated with a fireball. The two attacks hung together in the air until Zaro's fire grew larger and ate the wind away.
Fear struck the witch’s face, but it didn’t slow him down. "Infernum foraminis," he chanted, and a black hole broke in the sky and hauled in Zaro’s fire like a vacuum cleaner collecting dust.
Zaros threw another blaze. The hole exhausted it.
"Not bad," Zaros said. Snapping his fingers, he created a fiery eagle that rose in the sky and breathed out a glaring flame.
The witch tried to flee, but his leg was scorched. He fell to the ground, growling, "Infernum foraminis."
The black hole pulled at the eagle’s wing, but it couldn’t trap it no matter how many times the witch repeated his spell.
"There is no point in fighting," Zaros told him.
"Infernum foraminis." The witch persisted.
***
A flash of light caused the two witches to shut their eyes. Viessa sneaked in to pull her friend away, but before they could get into the building, the light faded, and they were seen.
"How idiotic," the man in a purple coat said. "Coming out of your hiding just to save your friend."
Viessa threw a handful of capsules, but he burned them. She threw another and another. He was untouchable.
"Get out of here," Joshua begged, tugging at her sleeve. "Run."
"I’m not leaving you." She glanced at his torched leg, nauseated by the smell.
"You can’t fight him," Joshua said. "I’ll stall until you run."
"No." Viessa continued to throw handfuls. The tightness in her chest intensified as the enemy escaped the attacks and approached her.
"Leave her alone," Joshua cried out.
Viessa screamed when the man stomped his feet on her friend’s abdomen. He reached for her face and stared into her rebelling eyes. Another person would break down crying or beg for their life. Not Viessa, though. She wouldn’t go without a fight.
Holding onto a handful of capsules, she slapped the man in the face, burning his skin as well as her hand.
"You pest." He shuffled back and flung his arms.
"I’m not a pest," she said, grimacing to mask the pain with pretend confidence. She straightened her back yet wished she had prepared a potion for bravery. "I’m a Blackwood, Viessa Blackwood."
"Viessa?" the man’s blistered face shot open, mouth agape and eyes widened. For a second, the attack ceased, and his expression jumped between shock and confusion. "It’s you." His voice softened. "Lord Jivar told me about you. I don’t want to hurt you."
Viessa stood on guard, unable to read him. Reading people wasn’t her strong suit. "You want to hurt my friend?"
"He’s not your friend," he yelled. "None of this is real, Viessa. I’m your brother, and Jivar is our family."
"You’re insane." Viessa shook her head.
"No," he said firmly. "You are."
Viessa stepped back before he grabbed her by the shoulder. Panicking, she threw another one of her flash bombs, forcing him to look away.
Into the building, she dragged Joshua as fast as she could, eventually laying him down in a safe corner.
"What was that man talking about?" Joshua asked in a faint voice.
"I don’t know."
Peeking through the window, Viessa saw the mighty Lone Mountain and thought about her mother. "Oh, Mom. I hope you’re safe up there."
***
"Ebba. Talk to me," I cried.
It all happened too fast. Jivar cast his spell, and an electric bolt pierced the sky and darted towards Ebba. Once she collapsed, he leaped at her, trying to take the amulet, but she used her last magic to make it disappear.
"No." I pushed Jivar away and surrounded Ebba with a barrier. When I got to her, she was lying on the ground, her body jerking and her face twitching.
"Ebba." I held her in my arms and tried to shake her awake, but her face turned colors. I tightened my grasp when I felt her body getting colder. Pressing my hand on her chest, I whispered a healing spell, but there was no way to reverse Jivar’s magic.
"Echo." She uttered the softest whisper.
"Yes, Ebba. Talk to me. Please, talk to me."
"M-my daugh-ter." She wiggled her fingers, trying to move her hand. The stench of urine and burned skin surrounded her.
"You’re worried about Viessa?" My tears dropped on her forehead. "She’ll be okay."
Memories streamed into my mind, those of the times Ebba and I laughed together, the times we wept together, the times we fought and made up. We loved and hurt each other. We cared for and annoyed one another. But even in our worst moments, our blood tied us together as family.
Stop. I tried to stop the thoughts. I’m not going to say goodbye. "Grimoire. Heal her injury."
As the words appeared on the blank page, I glimpsed Jivar, who watched with a stone face.
"Hang on, Ebba." I put my hand on her head and repeated, "Heal her injury."
"Stick with me, Ebba," I begged, but begging couldn’t defy fate. The light in Ebba’s eyes withered away.
I poured my heart out in a yowl that rose above the sounds of the battle, the beasts and the Katarus ripping each other apart.
Only when I ran out of breath did I calm down and close Ebba’s lids. I stood before Jivar, rage pulling at my nerves and firing up my heart. All I wanted was to twist his neck or drive a knife through his ageless body.
"You killed her," I shouted in a tearful voice. "You killed her, yet you feel no remorse."
"I do not," he said carelessly.
"Then you should get what you deserve."
***
"Claude portale. Eice bestias. Protege terram nostram contra omnem calamitatem." The witches chanted their song, closing the third out of seven portals.
"Two o'clock, pink," Ahmed shouted through the megaphone. Viessa had left him in charge of the troop while she and Joshua fought Zaros and his soldiers.
"No, it’s green." The twenty-year-old witch, Mindy, showed him her notebook. "Use green for monsters that look like a mushroom cape."
"This is not a mushroom cape," he said with a scoff. "It’s an onion head."
"Onion head?! There’s nothing about onion heads here."
"Make up your mind," Sara, who was Mindy’s age, yelled. "This thing is coming our way."
Ahmed drew on a serious face. "Viessa put me in charge, so use the blue one."
"The blue one won’t do," Mindy shouted.
"Screw this," Zachery broke in. He grabbed a handful of the blue capsules and another of the green and threw them at the approaching beast. The mixture exploded, clouding the air up with greenish-blue embers.
"Unless you work together, you’re going to kill us all," he told the witches, but it was a bit too late for a life lesson. While the witches argued about the mushroom-onion beast, they missed a much bigger one that swooped down over the chanting witches and snatched Cassandra with its talon.
She screamed, and the chanting witches scurried away. "What’s going on there?" Cona shouted in their heads.
"The young girl!" Zachery ran to the hose and signaled Rose to open the tap. The blasting water hindered the beast from flying away with Cassandra.
"Why are you watching?" Rose turned to the frightened witches. "Don’t you have magic? Use it."
The shock of the attack froze Ahmed and his troop, but Mindy’s scream grabbed their attention to more incoming danger. "Mushroom things are coming our way."
"Everyone, back to the capsules," Ahmed spoke into the megaphone. "Blue and green, now."
***
"Oh, Mom. I hope you’re safe up there." Viessa let out a long sigh.
"Come out, Viessa. I know you’re still here," the man in purple shouted from outside. "Let me talk to you."
Viessa’s chest tightened. His voice triggered an alarm inside her, an intense, primitive one she didn’t understand.
"Don’t listen to him," Joshua said. "We need to get upstairs and treat our injuries."
Viessa thought of how to do that. It wouldn’t be easy to carry Joshua, and the elevator was far away. As she arranged her thoughts, she felt a weight in her hand. Out of nowhere, the amulet appeared.
"What is this?" Joshua asked.
"Did Mom send it to me?" Viessa went blank. "Maybe they already won, and she doesn’t need it anymore." A part of her knew that wasn’t the truth. "Does Mom want me to use it? If she thinks I should..."
Viessa brought the amulet to her neck. Her eyes glinted in the glow of the blue diamond, and as the power surged through her, memories flashed in her mind. Zaros, Jivar, Doyle, Dorothea—the gruesome memories stung her brain with their poison.
"Viessa," Joshua shouted when she fell to her knees.
"No, no." She pressed her hands to her head. "Voices, stop. This isn’t real. Stop!" She smacked herself against the wall. "This isn’t me."
"Viessa." Joshua reached out for her.
"Mom, where are you?" she cried. "Help me."
***
For a few minutes, Viessa was swept by the shock of regaining her memories. Once she came back to herself, she looked outside to see Zaros waiting. He adjusted his scarf and clenched his mouth, clearly shaken.
"Where are you, Viessa?" he shouted. "Why are you hiding?"
"Hiding?" Viessa tittered as she emerged out of the hospital’s main gate, sashaying with one arm crossed over the other. "Who said anything about hiding...Brother?"
"Brother?" Zaros froze. "You remember?"
"I remember everything," she said with a simper.
"Then I’ll cut to the chase." Zaros balled his fists. "If you return to the castle, Lord Jivar is willing to take care of you."
"Funny," she cheered. "You think I need someone to take care of me."
"Make your decision, Viessa," Zaros yelled. "Either come with me or die."
Viessa stood still with her old wax-doll stare, both menacing and captivating. "You know, Brother, you used to scare me a lot. More than Jivar, more than anyone." She gave a cheeky, innocent grin. "But today, I’m not scared."
"Is this a declaration of war?" he asked.
"It’s the end of one." She toyed with the amulet. Her old self would’ve animated the soldiers’ bodies and used them to kill Zaros. That was her signature move. Her new self, however, thought out of the box.
"Ati me peta babka." She chanted a spell to open a door, and the asphalt beneath Zaros cracked.
"What’s happening?" He cried out when a portal sucked him and his army like quicksand. "What are you doing to me?"
"Don’t worry, Brother. I’m sending you somewhere real nice." Viessa said. "It’s a wonderland."
Before the timeline changed, Viessa had used the amulet to create her own sub-dimension. Although that version of herself ceased to exist, her wonderland remained the same, as it never abided by the rules of space or time.
"You’ll regret this." Zaros waved his arms and tried to grasp to the ground, but the more he resisted, the further he sank.
Viessa found herself wiping off the tears in her eyes. "Why am I feeling this way?" She pressed her hand to her aching heart. "I hate him, don’t I? Then why does it hurt to see him suffer?"
