WITCH SHIfT

Mar

Ok if you had told me a few weeks ago I would be headed into war I would have said you were full of shit. Of course if you had told me I would be riding into battle with the hottest guy on the planet sitting next to me and that we were a couple I would have said it was some kind of fantasy epic, hah.

I was scared shitless. I was going to pee myself and most importantly if this was some epic it would be in a fucking beach town, not in the middle of the hills of upstate New York. I was with the hot guy though and it was amazing, so I wasn’t going to knock that part, but we were on our way to fight the strongest witches of our century, so not ideal.

“Mar it is time,” JP said taking my hand. He was driving and we had restructured vehicles at the bottom of the hill. Carolyn and Charlie were riding with us and both were in the back and they put a hand on my shoulder so I could start pulling traces of power from them as well as JP. “The word is Aeternum. You will also have to concentrate on reaching the lodge with your mind. It will be difficult but you can do it.”

I’m glad he had such faith in me, because I sure as hell didn’t. “Aeternum,” I said in my normal voice and I could feel like a mist form in front of us that seemed to form into an arrow head that took up the whole road. It was pink and I would have laughed if I wasn’t concentrating on this vision as hard as I was.

As the vehicle pushed forward the arrow head stayed strong in front of us and I could see little sparks of light as it pushed its way through. It was beautiful until you remembered that possibly any of those little lights might be a deadly spell that could kill us or our friends.

We were a half mile from the lodge when the intensity of flashes picked up and it looked like the northern lights against my arrow fogged head. I was being pushed back in my seat so I drew more and more from my co-riders.

“Wow, they went all out,” Charlie said from behind me.

“You think,” Carolyn retorted. “The bright red ones are fatal spells, it’s no coincidence the shield looks the way it does.”

“I hate my parents,” Charlie muttered,

JP wasn’t saying anything. He was concentrating on the road and it was getting harder and harder to see with all the lights flashing around us. His look though was more than concentration, it was hurt. His parents’ doing what they were doing was killing him. I didn’t know how to make it better but I would.

The ground was softening under us and the road was beginning to slow the momentum of the caravan as we continued to climb the hill face. The lodge was almost within sight when the road beneath us just turned to slop and we were forced to stop.

“Mar shape the shield into a box around all of us as we get out and we will collect the others.” JP said like it was the easiest thing in the world. Maybe that part was, getting out of the vehicle while everyone remained touching was another story. The ground was muddy ooze and footing was horrendous.

Somehow we managed to get out on the side of the road and collect everyone into our box and continue toward the lodge. I saw bodies littering the ground in front of the lodge and my anger picked up. How dare these people get hurt and die because someone thought they were better than them. We would see about that.

A hundred yards from the lodge we saw the coven members standing outside of the lodge in a semi-circle facing us. They chanted, they waved hands, and anything else they could think of, and my shield held up and stopped everything they threw. The problem was we were at a standstill and we couldn’t get to them and they couldn’t get to us. It would come down to who lost their powers first, and to be fair, they had more experience than I did, so I worried.

“Tom, and the rest of you, all touch Mar and let her gather what she can from you. Crestor, get ready to fly.” JP screamed because it was getting harder and harder to hear each other with the amount of force the shield was taking and the crackling noise that it made.

“Mar,” JP said beside me. “I am going to need you to lift the lid on the shield when I tell you. I am going to fly out on Crestor and distract them. If I can I am going to break the bond the coven has with each other. If it is successful, it will be everyone for themselves and no more combined force. Do you understand?”

I nodded not wanting to think what a chance he was taking. I knew a tear was forming in my eye but I concentrated on the shield and the assholes in front of me. Leave it to JP to take the risk for the rest of us. This hero complex shit had to go, as soon as we were done with this.

I felt the power as everyone gave me what they had and I felt alive and strong, but I was still breaking up inside knowing what was coming next. “Ok Mar, now” JP yelled and I opened the lid on our self contained box we had formed.

Crestor launched from the box and into the sky with JP on his back and I would have giggled with joy except the witches across from us were watching them as well. JP’s father began pointing his finger at JP and I knew what was coming next. I reached deep inside and pulled a spell from somewhere and threw it all while keeping the shield strong “Prohibere.”

Peter Worth’s attention went from JP to me in an instant. His look was murderous, bus since that was what they were trying to do, it made sense. I was getting light headed but I was still with it enough to know he was now pointing at me and he seemed to be saying something, this was so not going to be good.

JP

“Not happening father,” I called seeing all his attention on Mar. I visualized what I wanted to happen and screamed as loud as I had in all my years practicing magic because I would be damned if he hurt my girlfriend “Apscindo.”

At first nothing happened then I felt the power flow from me and it was more power than I had ever been able to hold before. I watched, or seemed to watch since I was visualizing my spell, as an arrow of power went right at my father and hit the shield that the coven had placed in front of all of themselves.

The shield was gone, and three members lay on the ground. My father’s eyes shot to mine and I mouthed the words “I’m coming” at him. Then I saw something I had never seen before in my life, he turned and ran. He left my Mother and the rest of the coven on their own and went hightailing it through the forest.

“Crestor, get me as close to the forest edge as you can buddy,” I said to my friend and he began descending faster and faster. I knew chasing after my father was a fool’s errand, but I couldn’t let him get away either. One way or the other this had to be done, now.

Crestor dropped me and immediately took off for the sky. I knew he would keep an eye on things so I didn’t worry about that, my worries were my father, he was the strongest of all the coven members, and my responsibility.

For some reason he headed up hill so I began running through the woods knowing that he could be hiding, waiting for me, but I was willing to risk it, to get this over. I sprinted as fast as my out of shape legs would carry me and I finally saw him up ahead trying to crest a ridge.

I slowed enough to have some energy left for what was coming. He turned and saw me and threw a spell. I ducked behind a tree and heard the air sizzle where I had been standing. What an ass. My own father was trying to kill me, well, we would see about that.

I peaked around the tree and watched as he was running again up and away from me. I dodged from tree to tree while always keeping him in my sights. My hope was that he was older and maybe he would tire himself out. In retrospect I had been eating out a lot with Harvey and I wasn’t in the best of shape so I just kept following and dodging spells.

Finally I saw him leaned over panting at the top of the hill and I tried throwing my own spell to bind him but he blocked it easily enough and stood up and waited for me. Well shit, here we go. Years and years of living under his thumb and his better than everyone else attitude was coming to this.

I’d say I felt confident climbing the rest of the hill opposite him but that was a bold faced lie. My father was the strongest Witch of this century, and I didn’t know who I thought I was, going to face him, but I knew if I didn’t he would try to hurt, or worse, try to control Mar. I couldn’t let that happen.

I made the hill and stood up straight and faced him. To his credit he let me without throwing any more spells. I think he wanted this showdown, which made it even worse. What kind of man was this who wanted to have to fight his own son?

“You don’t really think you are strong enough to stop me do you?” Father called over and I guess I should think of him more as Peter and then maybe this wouldn’t hurt so much.

“Don’t have a choice do I? You are trying to hurt my friends and my future wife, I can’t let that happen. If you give up, I promise to do all I can for you.” I called back.

He laughed. The bastard actually was laughing at me. “Oh Jonathon you can’t possibly stop me, and once I finish off your so called friends and make everyone do as they are told, we can get on with running this country the way it should be.”

“Yeah I heard. You want to be in control of the entire super’s. Does the president know that would only be the first step? I know you father, once you have them all, you will want more. What will you do then, launch your own offensive, and take over the country?”

He smiled at me. “Well good thing that moron doesn’t know me and your mother like you do. I hope your mother spares the Oliver girl, with a focus we could up our time table. Of course if she doesn’t it won’t change anything. The country and everyone in it will be mine, and you aren’t strong enough t stop me.”

“I guess we will find out, but I’ll be damned if I will be around for your so-called revolution where millions will die. We might as well do this now and get it over with.” I said calling my magic and forming a shield around myself. It felt good and strong but I knew that was all in my head because I could never reach his limit of power, but I would try and exhaust him so maybe Charlie could finish the job.

The air shimmered between us and I watched as he called his own magic. I was visualizing now like Mar did on the way here. I could see his shield and it was just like mine. I had never seen this before Mar was able to do it, I wondered if this was a result of the two of us working together.

His left hand began pooling a small ball of red energy and I knew it was a spell and watched as he tried to act like he wasn’t doing anything. I could have smiled if I thought being able to see what he was doing was going to help me, but I knew at least where it was coming from now.

Then he whipped his hand at me and the red ball was flying through the air and was headed straight for me. I watched it come and it seemed like time stood still as I thought about what I could do with it. Then the thought hit me, if I could forge an arrowhead like we did coming up the hill maybe it would hit and splash off on the sides and around me. Well it was worth a shot.

I watched the path it took and formed my shield so it would split the spell and splash around it. It would either work or I would be dead. There was only one way to find out as I moved everything into position and waited for the impact.