Mortal (26 page)

"She didn’t deserve to die...not like
this." Kara’s voice faltered. She had seen good in her
half-sister’s eyes. It had only been there for a second, but she
had seen it. Everyone deserved a second chance. People could
change, and Lilith had deserved that chance. But it was too late
for her now.

Wergoth brandished his sword. The
runes on his skin glowed brighter. "There is nothing more noble
than a clean death—you should be so lucky. You should be thankful
she died quickly."

He glanced down at Lilith’s body, but
Kara couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

"You’re sick. You’re a monster. Your
place is back in death, and I’m going to send you there for good,"
Her voice rang out confidently. But what she saw next made her want
to scream.

Lilith’s blood was flowing towards the
obelisk in a thin red stream. It reached the foot of the monument
and disappeared under the snow. The obelisk gleamed and shuddered,
as though it had accepted the blood as an offering.

Kara felt sick and struggled to keep
from falling to her knees. A beam of green light exploded from the
top of the obelisk and shone into the night sky.

The warlocks chanted and formed a line
in front of the obelisk.

"The ritual is complete—sealed with
the blood of the innocent," continued the dark warlock.

He turned to Kara.

"You are unlucky to be here
on this winter night, elemental. I cannot let you live—you are
too
unpredictable
.
The more blood we sacrifice, the stronger our hold on the mortal
world will be. The blood of two elementals will be far much more
potent than one."

"Wugnor, Wormar, kill her and bring
her blood to me," ordered the dark warlock.

The two warlocks separated from the
line and surrounded Kara. Green fire danced on their fingers. Their
faces were so badly charred by the green runes that she doubted
anything human was left in them. Warlock magic held their skin
together. There would be no sword fight here. Kara’s skills were
useless. They were going to burn her to death with their warlock
fire.

Kara felt elemental energy surge
inside her body. But she needed time to concentrate.

Wugnor attacked, and she charged to
meet him. She faked to the left, twirled and landed by Lilith’s
body. Not chancing a look at her sister’s face, she picked up
Lilith’s sword and sprinted away, just as a shot of green fire
exploded where she had stood seconds ago. She was blinded by the
smoke, and her lungs burned as she tried to breathe. As she turned,
another ball of liquid fire grazed the side of her leg. The heat
blistered her skin. She cried out in excruciating pain, as she
slapped out the fire with her left hand. She planted her feet,
crouched in anticipation and waited.

Wugnor’s face twisted into an evil
grin. "I haven’t had this much fun in centuries. I’m going to enjoy
drinking your blood," he said in a high-pitched voice.

He lunged again, rocketing
green fireballs at her like a tennis ball machine. Swinging the
sword above her head, she hit and diverted the fireballs, using her
sword like a baseball bat. She
sliced
through one fireball after another, splitting them into dancing
shards of heat.
But she couldn’t keep
blocking them forever.

Wugnor laughed at her as he moved
forward.

Kara saw his mistake. She ducked and
twisted away from his shots, rotated her body and slashed an upward
stroke cleanly across the warlock’s neck. His body fell to the
ground beside his head. Kara thought of the headless horseman.
Green flames blazed from the body until only dust
remained.

The warlock, Wormar, suddenly slashed
his warlock fire at her and burned her in the chest. Kara cried out
in pain, as she tried to sidestep the killing flames. She felt her
energy draining away. Sweat dripped down her back. The sword hung
heavily in her hand. She tried to fight the desperation that was
poisoning her, but the warlock attacked again and again. He was
outmaneuvering her as she desperately concentrated on not getting
burned. Sweat dripped into her eyes. Her vision blurred. Kara’s
strength was fading. The sword slipped from her hand. If only she
could call her elemental power—for what good it would
do.

Wormar grinned confidently. "Your will
to live is admirable, but it won’t last, little child."

He stood in front of her with green
fireballs poised in his palms and lifted his arms for the killing
blow—

Kara ducked, kicked up her sword,
caught it, and in the same movement slashed it across his neck. His
head bounced at her feet, and green blood spilled from the stub of
his neck. His body burned in green flames and then turned to
ash.

She heard laughter.

"I’m very impressed by your skills,
but you cannot kill us with a mere sword, little elemental,"
laughed the Dark warlock. "In fact, there is nothing in this world
or in the spirit world that can destroy us."

Kara watched the two piles of dust on
the white snow. A green glow emanated from them, and then a
whirlwind of green glowing ashes rose from the ground. When it
dissipated, the two decapitated warlocks stood up with ugly grins
on their faces—their heads as good as new. It was going to be
harder to kill them than she thought. This sucked,
royally.

Wergoth looked to the sky. "We’re
wasting precious time. I’ll kill her, and then we can begin with
the other preparations." He raised his arms.

A red bottle shot through the air and
hit the Dark warlock in the chest. It exploded and consumed him in
a ball of red fire. Kara staggered back, blinded by the light and
the heat.

When she opened her eyes, Gideon stood
beside her with two more glass bottles in his hands.

"Where have you been?" she said
exasperated.

"Hiding," he answered. "Until the time
was right."

"Yeah...I noticed." It came as no
surprise—the witch doctor had kept himself hidden from the
supernatural world for years. She hoped he hadn’t waited too
long.

"I couldn’t risk getting caught, not
until I had the time to explain what you needed to
know."

Kara didn’t have time to ask him what
he meant.

The red fire dissipated, and the dark
warlock stood unharmed in front of them again.

"Gideon, how good of you to join us,"
he taunted. "You’ve saved me the effort of looking for you. I’ve
wanted to kill you years ago, but you always managed to slip away
from my grasp. You witch doctors are so devious and cunning—I can
never tell what side you’re on. All you care about are your
pathetic potions and cures. You were never true sorcerers, just
outcasts."

"Can’t kill what you can’t catch,"
mocked the witch doctor.

The Dark warlock smiled. With a flick
of his wrist, he blasted a ball of green fire at the witch doctor.
But Gideon was ready. He counterattacked with a bottle of white
substance that hit the ball of fire, shattered and enveloped the
fire in a ball of white gum-like substance. The fireball plopped to
the ground like a giant piece of pre-chewed gum.

Kara used the distraction to examine
David and Jenny. They had stopped moving completely, and their eyes
were dull and unfocused.

"I need to rescue my
friends—"

Gideon held her back. "Not
yet."

She wrestled in his grip. "What?
Why?"

The other warlocks rejoined Wergoth.
Their stench was unbearable. They stood ready and waiting for
another onslaught.

Gideon loosened another glass vial on
his leather belt and lowered his voice.

"He will come at me with all his
power, now. The more he uses, the weaker he becomes. Using magic
comes with its price—it’s not infinite. He has already wasted most
of his powers performing the ritual. After he strikes me down, is
when he’ll be most vulnerable—he will have had to use most of his
powers out to get me—and that is when you must strike him down. If
you try before that, it won’t work, and you’ll die!" said
Gideon.

"But, that means...you’ll be..." Kara
couldn’t finish the sentence. Gideon was going to sacrifice
himself. "No. I won’t let you."

"Don’t worry about me
dear—I’ll be all right. You are the
only
one who can stop them. You don’t
have a choice—this is what needs to happen. Kara, I need you to
focus your powers now. Tap into your emotions and search for the
light. Let your light guide you."

It was hard to concentrate, but Kara
gave it her best shot. She felt a flicker of power.

"I feel something, but it’s not going
to be enough..."

"Very good, my dear," Gideon sounded
delighted. "Keep working at it."

"But—"

All at once, balls of green liquid
fire began to fall from the sky.

Kara jumped out of the way, but the
heat scorched her back, and she slammed into the ground.

Gideon was propelled backwards. He
landed hard, and Kara heard a horrible crack. But the old man stood
up on his shaky legs, his face set.

"Let’s see what you got,
darkling
s
."

He whipped two bottles at them. In the
air, the bottles transformed into a giant orange net. It fell on
the warlocks and paralyzed them momentarily.

With a crack, the net melted into an
ugly orange soup. The warlocks looked really angry now.

"I’ve had enough of you, old fool!"
The Dark warlock charged, blasting a beam of green fire from his
hands.

Gideon threw a handful of yellow
powder into the air. It formed a protective wall around him. The
warlock’s beam of fire bounced back off the wall like a rubber ball
and blasted him in his own flames.

Wergoth screamed in rage. He began to
chant, raised his arms, and released another powerful blow.
Gideon’s wall shook, and then it collapsed. As he reached for
another bottle, a fiery ball hit him in the chest, and he fell to
the ground, his body covered in green flames.

Kara ran over to him. The smell of
burnt flesh rose from his badly burned face and hands. His eyes
were closed, and she couldn’t tell if he was breathing.

"Gideon, please don’t be dead." She
shook him gently, but he didn’t open his eyes. "I need
you."

"He was an old fool to
think that he could beat me. I am a
dark
warlock, the most powerful
sorcerer in this world. He was nothing but a potions master, a soup
maker," he laughed. "You can’t kill a warlock with seasonings and
soup."

"He was more than that—he saved my
life. He was my friend," she hissed.

"You’re going to pay for
this,
warlock
."

A sly smile formed on Wergoth’s face.
"I’m going to enjoy killing you, elemental. Then I’m going to feast
on the souls of your friends." He lashed out.

The force knocked Kara off her feet.
She could smell her own hair burning.

Kara stood up, staggering
and confused.
Crackles of green energy
trailed around her.
The warlocks’ sickening
wet laughs sounded all around her.

She glowered at them all. "I’m going
to save my friends—and my mother!" she cried.

Wergoth fixed Kara with a look of pure
hatred. "No, you’re going to die at the hands of warlock fire, a
slow painful death."

The dark warlock’s skin sizzled with
electric power. He raised his hands. "Good bye,
elemental."

Before she could react, he hit her
with another blast of liquid green fire.

She went crashing down. She cried out
in excruciating pain, but managed to roll over and extinguish most
of the fire. The flames had scalded her arms and burned through her
jacket. She smelled her own burned flesh. She choked as the green
vapors burned her lungs like acid. With the last of her courage,
she focused on her light. She was just able to push herself back on
her feet. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she tried to tap into her
power. A pulse started to vibrate through her.

Too late.

Another ball of fire blasted into Kara
and knocked her down again. They were going to kill her slowly for
fun. She was only just conscious, but she could still hear their
sick laughter.

She turned toward Gideon, but he lay
exactly as before, no sign of life.

"Gideon, what must I do?" her voice
cracked.

Suddenly, the pendant rose from Kara’s
neck. It hovered for a second, and then it broke free. Soaring
through the air like a bullet, it struck the obelisk. It stuck to
the structure, as though it were magnetized. Kara watched as the
tiny stone began to shine with a brilliant yellow light. It pulsed
and swelled like a breathing heart. It stuck there on the obelisk,
glowing as if it were trying to tell her something—

And then it came to her, like a tiny
voice inside her head. She knew what to do.

She crawled to her feet, trembling.
She concentrated on that little piece of light that still lingered
inside her. Her light was the key. It was a spark of hope—of
life.