I’d been too preoccupied with what had been going on in the shed to realize what had been going on just outside. Once I’d stepped out, though, I was taken aback by what I saw.
People were running around in states of panic. Some of my friends were being chased by our enemies, while others were doing the chasing. Sparks were flying. So were fists. For a moment I just stood there, unable to believe what I was seeing.
I’d known that things would get ugly when we finally came face-to-face with Samuel and his coven, but I wasn’t ready for the chaos that surrounded me. People were crying out in anger and pain and fear—it was hard to tell the difference.
A zap of magic narrowly missed my face as it zinged past me and hit the wall to my left. Pulled back into the moment, I found myself running for the middle of the fight before I knew what I was doing. I didn’t have time to think about whether it was smart or the right thing to do, I just ran, feeling strongly that I had to get in there.
I pushed my way through the crowd as I tried to get a handle on what was going on. It was hard to tell who needed help and who was holding their own, but I tried to assess the danger levels as I ran by.
I passed Jasmine first, recognizing right away that she had things under control. The girl who was trying to hit her with a spell was beginning to waver as Jazzy dodged every one of her commands with ease. There was a grin on my friend’s face that I recognized—she knew what she was doing and the girl was no match for her. A few seconds later, Jasmine yelled out the words to the spell that she’d shown the rest of us, letting out a satisfied whoop as a hanging plant exploded and the pieces fell down on the Parrishable in front of her.
Our eyes locked for a moment, but then we were both moving again, ready to take on the next Parrishable to cross our paths. Spying a lone shovel lying on the lawn, I stepped onto the flat part and the handle found its way into my hand. I tossed it lightly in the air, feeling its sturdiness.
A guy began to rush at me, arms raised menacingly. I didn’t flinch as I swung the shovel around and knocked him out. Two more guys followed him and I didn’t slow my step as I stopped them, too. Walking through a gazebo my parents had built many years before, I lifted the shovel up and over my head until it rested between the beams and created a bar. Swinging off the ground, my body picked up speed and I kicked a wild-haired woman square in the stomach as she attempted to block my way. I flipped off the bar, landing with ease lightly on my feet, and then followed the woman as she stumbled backward and onto the ground.
I guess my time as a cheerleader had taught me more than just how to boost school spirit.
The woman was older than me, probably around my parents’ age, and it didn’t seem right to hit her like the others. So as she began to raise her hand to cast a spell, I shouted out a sleeping spell that left her snoring on the ground.
Stepping over her body, I kept on toward the back of the house. The noise around me was deafening, between the crashes, explosions, and shouts. Thank God I’d insisted the Cleri be briefed on hand-to-hand, because no way could we have handled another trip to the hospital.
My eyes found Peter as soon as I rounded the corner. He was the smallest person in the fight by far, but I no longer saw him as the most fragile. Peter had taken his time at the cabin seriously, and to my growing admiration I could see that he had a mean-looking muscle head cornered.
Just as Roid Rage was about to lunge, Pete hit him with a stunning spell. The force of it made the guy’s body stiffen, and his eyes went wide with surprise. He hadn’t been expecting the move from Pete, who at first glance might have seemed unimpressive. Fallon, who had been on his way over to help Pete, slowed down as he saw the spell go flying. I shook my head at him to let him know to back off. He did, and we both stood there to watch what the youngest member of our coven would do next.
Unable to move now, the Parrishable watched as Peter walked calmly over to him, stopping only when he was close enough to stare at him nose to nose. Then, without hesitating, Peter pulled back his arm and punched the kid in the mouth.
“Small guys have power, too,” Peter said as a trickle of blood ran down the guy’s face and dripped onto his shoes.
Having done what he’d intended, Pete turned around, noticing me and Fallon for the first time. Within seconds, he was back to his old self, and waved excitedly before giving us a lopsided grin. When all was said and done, he was still the same Peter.
The three of us hurried over to each other and surveyed the damage being done around us.
“We have to round everyone up. It’s not good that we’re all separated,” I said, looking for as many of our coven members as I could. A quick glance showed that although many of us had been managing to stay on top of the fight, a few had clearly not been ready for battle. Rushing to Penelope, who was lying unconscious on the ground just feet from me, I picked her up and hoisted her over my shoulder, then slowly made my way to the porch.
Peter and Fallon were doing the same, picking up the fallen and dragging them back to what we’d deemed home base.
“Cleri! Fall back!” I screamed, hoping everyone would hear me above the clamor. There were already more of the Parrishables on the property than I’d anticipated, and we hadn’t managed to disarm as many as we’d planned, leading up to our pièce de résistance. There were still over two dozen men and women running around, attacking my people with magic and by physical brute force. We may still have been standing, but I knew that would change the longer we let them pick us off one by one.
It was time to band together and use the power of the coven to end this once and for all.
I threw spells into the crowd as our enemies attempted to follow us onto the back porch. When we were practicing with the spell book earlier, we’d managed to recharm the house so the Parrishables wouldn’t be able to get inside, so we were able to leave our wounded in the kitchen and stand our ground in front of its doors.
As my coven gathered on the porch behind me, I began to see exactly what we were up against. The Parrishables were coming in waves now. Some were wounded and clearly angry about it, while others looked like they had several rounds still left in them. But the hate and fury was obvious and I wondered how it had gotten to that point. Why did a group of people dislike us so much that they’d want us dead? Was the promise of power really so enticing that people would be willing to do anything to get it?
That’s when I realized just how much damage Samuel Parris had done over the years, not only to our coven but to his own members. It was the worst kind of brainwashing, and it had to stop. And the only way that would happen was if he was taken out.
“Is everyone here?” I asked loudly without looking behind me. For the time being, the Parrishables were standing their ground in front of us, not daring to move into our territory. I knew the spell we’d done on the house wouldn’t last much longer, since it took all our concentration to keep it up and what we planned to do next would require our total attention. And not just from some of us. From all of us.
“Yeah,” Fallon said, as I felt his presence suddenly at my side. Oddly, this was comforting.
Before I could give this more thought, a booming voice seemed to come out of nowhere and echo through the night.
“And so we meet at the end, finally ready to start a new beginning.” Samuel Parris’s words reverberated across the yard, and I watched as his eerie form appeared at the back of the crowd. His coven parted in the middle as he made his way slowly toward us, his black eyes boring into mine. My insides started to turn to Jell-O, but I continued to stand tall, placing my hands firmly on my hips, planting my feet slightly apart. No way was he ever going to know the kind of effect he had on me.