Spellweaver (19 page)

So this was it. This
was how she was going to die. She hadn’t quite planned it to go
this way - she had intended to make the deal with Oliver until she
found that he had escaped the basement. She was going to take her
chances with him, because risking her life was better than seeing
Hollie and Jamie get hurt. But it turned out that Oliver had been
honest about at least one thing - that the others were coming. And
now they were here.

She was struck in the
face once again, this time so forcefully and suddenly that she fell
to her knees. Although this was the fate she had accepted, she was
still hoping that she would somehow make it out of there alive,
however unlikely it seemed. Her eyes flitted from left to right,
searching for an escape route, but the objects surrounding her were
moving so fast that they were weaving an impassable barrier. She
felt helpless and weak, and shivered with terror as she cowered on
her knees, hoping that the end would come sooner rather than
later.

But the beings around
her were determined to toy with her, it seemed, for just as she
reached her lowest point, they stopped circling. They formed a
regiment around her, hovering an equal distance apart from one
another, and when Felicity looked up she could finally make out
some kind of shape to them.

There was eight of
them. They appeared to be human, but their image was so distorted
and blurry that she couldn’t make out any facial features and could
only identify limbs by assumption. She didn’t know why they had
stopped - they could have been studying her, or deciding how to
kill or torture her. Felicity could have used that opportunity to
attempt an escape, but part of her knew it would be pointless, that
her mortal abilities would be nothing compared to what these beings
could do, and another part of her knew that if she were to get away
then she would be putting Hollie and Jamie in danger. That was the
last thing she wanted.

They didn’t hover
there for long. After a moment, one of the shapes seemed to
levitate towards her, towering over her menacingly. It raised what
looked like an arm, and then the other, and Felicity could tell
that it was performing the gestures and movements that Oliver had
emphasised were so important to spell casting.

Her time was finally
up. A part of her was relieved, for she knew it would be an end to
the fear and anxiety she had been suffering for what seemed like an
age. No more looking over her shoulder for the next magic-wielding
creature to threaten her, no more wondering whether or not Oliver
was trying to trick her with lies or manipulate her with the truth.
No more friendships, no more laughter. She wouldn’t have to worry
about anything. She wondered if she would see her
mother.

She was just about to
close her eyes, for she was not eager to see how her life was about
to end, when she saw Hollie, closely followed by Jamie, the two of
them hurtling towards her, waving wildly.

Their approach went
unacknowledged by the others, who either didn’t see the teenagers
as a threat or were too concerned with Felicity to notice them at
all.

Felicity’s relief was
swallowed up by horror. She pleaded with her eyes for the two of
them to stop, to turn around, to get away from the park while they
still had a chance, but they were too far away to read such tiny
signals.

She could hear them
calling her name; there was no way that the others could have
missed it. Still, they appeared unconcerned - but for how long?
Felicity couldn’t take the chance that they might decide that
Hollie and Jamie were in their way after all.

“Get away!” she
screamed suddenly, finding within her an energy that she had
thought had left her completely. “Get away from here!”

Hollie and Jamie had
reached the circle now and were just a few yards from where
Felicity knelt on the grass. The remains of the snow soaked into
her jeans. Her body was shivering from the cold. Her skin was pale
and her eyes red. It was clear that the two siblings wanted to get
to their friend, but the strange, hovering beings before them were
making them hesitate.

“Fliss!” Hollie called
to her friend, daring to alert the others to her
presence.

“Run,” Felicity called
to them. “Please!”

Hollie shook her
head.

The apparent leader of
the eight beings closed in on Felicity. She was aware of a pressure
beginning to push down on her chest, restricting her lungs and
making her cough and splutter as she struggled for air. She didn’t
want her friends to see her die, and though there was nothing she
could do about it any more, she hoped that the others would leave
them alone once they were done with her.

A dizziness started to
overcome her. She could feel herself weakening.

Suddenly, she was
aware of Hollie standing beside her. She felt her arm being tugged,
forcing her to struggle to her knees - and then Jamie was there,
too. Through blurred vision she saw him take hold of her other arm.
The two of them were trying to save her.

The
pressure on her chest ceased as she was dragged a few paces from
the centre of the circle the beings had created, but they got no
further than that. Felicity knew they wouldn’t. Hollie and Jamie
had made themselves an obstacle, and the others wouldn’t allow
that; as Oliver had said:
they’ll destroy anyone who gets in their
way.

She couldn’t let that
happen. She had allowed herself to be caught because she thought it
would save her friends, not condemn them, and now they were all in
danger. The others had already resumed their circling barrier to
stop Hollie and Jamie from dragging her away, and now the three of
them were standing like red targets in the centre of a shooting
ground.

Felicity slipped and
fell to her knees again as Hollie’s hold on her arm suddenly
weakened and she cried out in pain; the others had restarted their
torture, and she was their first new victim. Blood dripped from the
wound on her face. Just as Jamie tried to reach out to her, a look
of horror painted on his face, he too was struck. He staggered and
held a hand to his cheek in shock and disbelief.

The onslaught
continued, and it increased in both speed and ferocity. When
Felicity looked up, she saw no less than five red slits tainting
Hollie’s perfect face, whilst Jamie was nursing a bloody nose and a
split lip. The pair of them looked terrified, and yet they didn’t
move from Felicity’s side.

Hollie let out a
scream as another blow came from nowhere, delivering three fresh
cuts, this time to her forehead. Her head jolted backwards as she
was struck, making her lose her balance and forcing her to her
knees. Now at her level, Felicity could see that her face was
twisted in an expression of pain. Tears had begun to mingle with
the blood.

The others were
killing her. But not just her - Jamie, too. The three of them were
going to die together.

What happened next
must have been instinctive, because Felicity was barely aware of it
at all. She remembered closing her eyes and praying to anyone who
could hear her to help the three of them out of this situation. She
thought of God, though she was not a Christian; she called out to
her father, though she knew he could do nothing. And finally, an
image of her mother appeared in her mind, and she found herself
wishing, hoping and screaming for her to save her.

That was when the
bright light appeared. It flashed into existence, lighting up the
park as it washed over the three friends and encompassed them in a
great, shimmering dome. Felicity watched with wide, unbelieving
eyes - her mother had answered her call. She had come to save
her.

The lights trickled
down the side of the dome like sparkling water. The others were
left trapped outside, prevented from doing the three friends any
further harm. Hollie and Jamie, recovering from the attack yet
still bleeding and in pain, stared in awe at the shield surrounding
them.

It was only when
Hollie spoke that Felicity realised that the magic was coming from
her.

“How are you doing
that?” she cried.

Felicity stared at the
shimmering lights above and around her. “I don’t - I don’t know...”
she breathed.

Her arms were
outstretched above her head, and though she didn’t know how she was
doing it, she could feel the tingling sensation of the spell as it
shot purposefully from her palms. It felt warm, as if she had just
held her hands against a radiator, except she knew that the warmth
was coming from inside her. Her eyes flickered from side to side as
a sense of panic convulsed her body. What was going on?

Her desperate mind
clung to one thought and one thought alone. Somehow, her mother had
found a way to cast her magic through her daughter. Her power had
been absolute - everyone told her so. So that was what it had to
be.

She stared upwards,
her entire body shaking from the power of the shield emitting from
her hands. “It’s my mother,” she whispered.

“Huh?”

A smile broke her
lips. “It’s my mother!” she repeated, louder this time.

Jamie stared, unnerved
by Felicity’s smile. “Fliss...” he said under his breath, but he
could find no more words.

When one of the others
struck the outside of the shield, Felicity felt it. She grunted and
faltered, and the lights surrounding them flashed suddenly and then
flickered, weakening under the strain. Instinctively, Hollie and
Jamie ducked.

“Fliss,” Hollie said,
her voice shaking. “Are you okay?”

Sweat had already
begun to form on Felicity’s forehead as the strain of maintaining
the shield started taking its toll. The spell was draining what was
left of her energy, just as the others had been stealing it from
her. Her hands and arms began to shake as she struggled to keep up
the shield, the only thing between them and the others.

“I... I don’t think I
can do this for much longer...”

13.

Felicity’s strength
was wavering, as was the shield. With every strike that came from
the outside, she could feel the barrier grow weaker. It became
smaller, too; Hollie and Jamie had to move closer to their friend
just to remain within it.

“Don’t give up,
Fliss,” Hollie said to her friend as she saw her resolve weakening.
“Please. You can do this.”

The light of the
shield flickered again as the others continued their
assault.

“I... I can’t,”
Felicity breathed.

“You can!” Hollie
cried. “You have to!”

Felicity could feel
her energy being sapped from her body. Every breath and every beat
of her heart was surging through her to her open, outstretched
hands, feeding the shield that was protecting them. She had already
stumbled to her knees as they gave way under the immense pressure.
The shield was growing heavier. Every second felt like an hour. At
any given moment, she would lose her grip on it and the three
friends would be exposed.

Her eyelids grew
heavy. Her lungs couldn’t keep up with the demand for oxygen. The
next blow that came would be the last, she knew. She glanced at her
friends, and their desperate, hopeful faces stared back at her. It
was a bitter feeling, to know that she had failed them.

And yet, that final
blow didn’t come. Beyond the shimmering lights of the magical
shield, the three of them were aware of the others breaking off
their attack. They swirled in the air as if they had suddenly
become indecisive.

“What’s going on?”
Jamie wondered aloud. “Why are they stopping?”

“Does it matter?”
Hollie squealed excitedly. “They’re leaving us alone!”

“Did you see
that?”

Hollie followed her
brother’s gaze. Through the shield, she could see someone
approaching. At first it didn’t look to be anything significant -
just an unlucky passer-by going for an ill-timed walk - but as she
watched, she saw something that both frightened her and lifted her
spirits.

The newcomer had
powers of his own, and he was using them to hold off the others.
The light of the shield made it difficult to see exactly what he
was doing, but there was no mistaking the flamboyant gestures that
preceded the bursts of light and energy that shot from him to their
seemingly mutual enemies. He was like them, but he was fighting
against them.

To Hollie, he was a
hero who had come to their rescue. She didn’t have to wonder about
his objective, such was her relief. “Fliss!” she cried. “It’s okay!
Someone’s come to help us!”

Normally, Felicity
would have been more cautious than to believe such words amidst the
danger of the situation they found themselves in, but her strength
was almost completely spent. Her arms fell loosely to her sides as
she broke off the shield; the lights disappeared instantly. Her
eyes rolled back in her head as she collapsed.

Hollie knelt beside
her and placed her fingers on her neck. “She’s okay,” she told her
brother. “Oh em gee... her heart is beating so fast!”

“I can believe that,”
Jamie said. He removed his coat, draped it over Felicity and then
he looked up at their apparent saviour. “Who is that?”