The Witch's Key

Episode 9: Unprepared

Yikes. This guy was braver than most. Or dumber.

Anger flashed around Ms. Greer in the form of a bright red pulse emanating from her eyes. Bates took two fumbling steps backward until he hit the door.

He quickly lifted his hands, throwing up a magical shield to block himself from Ms. Greer's spells. From here, I could just make out the faint shimmer of the shield in the moonlight.

It didn't last long, though, and fear grew on Bates's face as Ms. Greer calmly stepped toward him.

He tried to recast the shield, but he didn't seem to have the focus to do it. He looked like a clown, fumbling around. Magic danced on his fingertips, but he couldn't seem to get anything going.

I glanced at Kai. This guy was not some demon mastermind.

He didn't even seem all that powerful. Truth be told, he acted high on something. I wished I could get a closer look at his eyes, but as it stood right now, I wasn't convinced anymore that he was our guy.

Unless Ms. Greer was the mastermind and this guy was just her lackey. That could be it, too.

Ms. Greer reached into her suit pocket for something, and a second later, she was holding a fist high over her head.

Bates shouted. "Don't you dare. Stop it, now."

But she wasn't listening to him. She tossed whatever was in her hand high up into the air. Golden particles swirled above her like a galaxy of stars. She casually twirled her wrist above her head, making the particles swirl faster and faster.

Kai moved closer to me, his shoulder pressing against mine. "What's she doing?" he whispered.

"I have no idea," I said. "I've never seen this spell before."

Kai put his arm around me, and moved to partially shield my body with his. If my heart was racing before, now it was practically exploding out of my chest.

Despite the fact that I was seventeen, I'd never had a boyfriend before. I'd never even been this close to a guy before. It was extremely uncomfortable and slightly intoxicating.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Protecting you," he said. "Just in case she's about to blow that building up."

"Well, let's hope not if the girls are inside," I said. "Surely she wouldn't hurt them."

Still, I scooted just the tiniest bit closer to him.

Part of me wanted to run up there and stop her. Confront her and find out what she was doing out here. Another part of me just couldn't believe she would blow up that building with five innocent human girls inside.

Meanwhile, the golden galaxy above Ms. Greer's head had grown massively larger. If she did plan on blowing up that building, she was going to take half the forest with her.

Bates was trying to get to her to stop the spell, but she held him back with her free hand and some kind of restraining spell.

"Ostendo," she shouted as she hurled the spell toward the large building.

I braced myself for impact, huddling under Kai's arm. He leaned his head down to shield me from any magic as the floor of the forest trembled.

I waited for a full-on explosion, but nothing came. Instead, I heard the tinkling laughter of several women.

Confused, I looked up to see what in the world was going on.

My jaw dropped, and it took a second for my brain to catch up with my eyes.