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Five thousand and seven hundred feet above land, the Lone Mountain flattened out into a narrow plateau before it stretched in a sharp sheer. The clouds overhead shrouded the view of the peak, and the town below seemed like a swath of green, small enough to fit in my palm. Only once did I dare to glance down. My head spun, and I felt unprotected, exposed. Glimpses of my recurring nightmare came to mind.
A few steps away, Zaros set his altar. With a paste of blood, bones, and dirt, he painted an inverted pentacle on the ground. Doyle and Ebba sat in the middle with their hands and feet tied in chains.
"How are you doing?" Doyle asked.
"Can’t breathe." Ebba’s head swayed limply, struggling to adjust to the altitude.
"Keep it together." Zaros held her face and shoved a potion into her throat. "We need your strength for the ritual."
Ebba grunted. The red potion dribbled out of her mouth. Off the ledge, Zaros threw the empty bottle. I couldn’t help but imagine myself in its place. As I fell to my knees, I tried to think of a soothing spell to calm my nerves.
It wasn’t long before the shadows crept in, diminishing the sun into a ring. I looked away to avoid the burn, but I heard Zaros chanting, "Peta babkama luruba anaku."
He’s opening a portal.
For a split second, everything vibrated. I clung to the rocky wall behind me as a shelter. The gravity pulled my eyelids down.
When I lifted my gaze, I saw a breach in the sky. Zaros’s altar became the point where our world and the Land of No Return met. The two suns illuminated the merged worlds, and while my feet were still on Earth, I was steps away from an army of Katarus.
I looked at Doyle, whose jaws quivered with the shock written all over his face. "Katarus can’t fly."
"What?" Ebba whispered.
"This portal—Katarus can’t fly through it," he said. "They are not a part of Jivar’s army. They’re his sacrifice. Am I right?" He looked at Zaros, who snickered and said nothing.
Among the Katarus, Jivar appeared, marching towards us with his arms tucked behind his back. A knowing smirk crossed his face when he saw Ebba, whose nose flared.
"My lord." Zaros bowed down, and the two exchanged curt nods.
"Appear to me," Jivar commanded. Six grimoires came into sight. Earth, Air, Water, Fire, Vision, and the Magic of Minds—I had borrowed all of them on different occasions, though my power could never match his.
"The time has come," he said, raising his hands to the sides. Thunder blasted, and the wind swept his hair to his face. Six portals opened in the sky of the Land of No Return, unleashing beasts of all shapes and sizes.
***
Light streamed through the portals above, concealing the eclipse. Dragon Kirby circled the sky of Shady Mews, flapping his wings and breaking the silence of the town. On his back, Vanna rode. She raised her sword, preparing for the battle.
"Ready to do this, sister?" Kirby asked.
"It’s what we came here for," she said. "Let’s just hope the two idiots are safe."
Vanna felt uneasy because of what had happened ten minutes earlier. She and Kirby were about to leave the house when Zachery and Rose showed up at the door.
"We sneaked into town through an old road I know," Zachery told her.
"We couldn’t leave Doyle behind," Rose added.
"So you decided to commit suicide?" Vanna remained unvexed. "If something happens to you, Doyle won’t be able to live with it."
"We are doing what we think is right," Rose said.
"You’re being selfish," Vanna replied.
"Young lady," Zachery shouted. "I won’t let you speak to us this—"
"Listen to me, you two." Vanna curled her lips in a scowl. "In a battle, every warrior takes a calculated risk. They’re aware of not only what they can lose but what they have to offer. You two have nothing to give. Your participation can cause more harm than good. This is not bravery... It’s selfishness. So get out of here."
Zachery and Rose traded a look. Vanna didn’t care about their feelings as long as they stayed away from the battlefield.
"The eclipse is about to start," Zachery said, pointing up at the darkening sky.
Vanna huffed and crossed her arms, thinking of the safest decision. Neither could she take them with her nor leave them unprotected.
"I hope you don’t mind flying." She signaled them to follow her.
"Did she say f-flying?" Rose whispered to Zachery as they walked into the house.
***
On the roof of Shady Mews Hospital, ten witches joined their hands to close the portals. Viessa and the other ten stood guard with piles of potion capsules at their reach. They waited as the first beast appeared, whirling in the sky with its four wings and gushing gusts of air.
"Viessa," a voice called from behind. Viessa turned to see Zachery and Rose running towards her.
"You won’t believe how we got here," Zachery gasped his words. Rose’s face was as blue as a smurf.
"What are you doing here?" Viessa asked, but the two needed a moment to breathe. Viessa looked up to see Vanna, who swayed her sword, cleaving the beast into halves.
"Oh my God," Rose said, cringing.
"More monsters are coming." Zachery pointed above.
Everyone watched as Vanna flipped in the air and launched herself onto another beast. She slit its throat before hopping on the next one. Kirby flew below her, slowing his speed to cover her back.
Flapping its wings, a fly-shaped beast blew Vanna away, but Kirby caught her on time and attacked the fly with his fire.
No matter how many beasts Vanna and Kirby killed, more kept coming. Within seconds, red, blue, and black blood streaked the town. Corpses of dead beasts dropped, smashing rooftops and school buses. A small one hung on a light pole.
A mischievous smile dangled on Viessa’s lips when a beast escaped Vanna’s sword and dashed towards the hospital. It was a massive, bat-like creature with orange iris-less eyes.
"Demons of Qiashitara, Doyle told me about you," Viessa murmured. She pulled a megaphone to her lips and instructed her troop, "Everyone, get ready. Two o'clock, blue capsule; Now."
***
At the sight of the bloodcurdling massacre, Doyle screamed out his rage. Jivar’s beasts burst in from the portals, mercilessly devouring the Katarus. One of them passed right by me, rubbing its scaly skin against my arm. It had the slenderness of a snake and the pectoral wings of a manta ray.
"Witches are attempting to close the portals," Jivar said, seeming to have sensed resistance against his spell. "Take care of them," he told Zaros before sending him away.
In a glass, Jivar stirred a black powder into a blood-red potion. He walked over to Ebba and removed her chains. Keeping eye contact, he grinned. "The ritual shall begin."
His eyes flashed red.
He pulled Ebba to her feet and motioned her to the edge of the altar, standing with one hand on Doyle’s head and the other raising the glass. "To you, Echo." He eyed Ebba, who gave a sly smile.
After my encounter with Jivar, I realized he had a great advantage over me. Staring into my eyes, he could compel me to do his ritual, and I wouldn’t be able to resist. The best thing to do was to avoid all staring.
Before we left the Miles’ house, Ebba and I had sat around the kitchen table, and I had used a shapeshifting spell on her. She pretended to be me while I was invisible, thanks to the Elixir of Phantoms. And thanks to Ebba, Jivar’s ritual didn’t start. The sigil on her arm protected her from the Magic of Minds. Instead of obeying Jivar’s command, she shouted, "Prohibere tempus."
No longer did the portals swirl. The beasts hung motionless, and the splattered Katarus blood froze in the air. Only Ebba had the ability to bring time to a halt and stretch an otherwise fleeting moment into eternity. "Prohibere tempus," she chanted, stopping time to give me time.
Good job, Grandma. I smiled, watching the worlds around me freeze, but as I readied myself to cast my spell, I glimpsed a blink in Jivar’s eyes.
He’s still moving.
"You thought you could fool me, Lú?" He snapped his fingers, and Ebba transformed back to herself. "Your magic might have worked on me in the past, but remember, you changed time."
Ebba’s lips quivered in rhythm with my shaking hands.
"In this reality, I have a seventh grimoire," he said. Waving his hand, he revealed one last book he had been hiding, a spellbinding, mighty book that forced Ebba to back away.
"T-the M-magic of T-ti-me..."
"It is naive to think you are the only master of time," Jivar preached. "But perhaps the time of learning had passed."A spark of electricity emerged from his palms, growing into a bolt that darted towards Ebba.
"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.
