Page 45 of Familiar of the Witch

‘We need it soon.’

‘It will be delivered as soon as possible,’ she promised tersely. She gestured to the door in clear dismissal, and I guessed it was time to leave. We slid out of Melva’s – Liyana’s – office.

‘Amber,’ Nell called as I walked out.

I turned back. ‘Yeah?’

Nell sniffed. ‘I’ve seen salads dressed better than you. Try looking in the mirror next time.’

Try as I might, I couldn’t stop the broad grin sliding onto my face as we walked out. Bastion shook his head. ‘Women are strange,’ he said finally. ‘Why are youhappythat she insulted your dress sense?’

Oscar started the engine. ‘Because it’s a return to the status quo,’ he chimed in. ‘Nell has always insulted Amber.’

‘Exactly,’ I agreed.

We were ten minutes from the Coven tower when a truck blindsided us from a side road. There was the crunch of metal and a short, sharp, scream. Mine. Luckily this time I didn’t hit my head; it already hurt enough without concussion being added to it. I was still blinking in confusion when Oscar and Bastion climbed out of the car.

I followed them and my sense of déjà vu increased. Our attackers were ogres, just like they had been last time. But this time they were undead ones.

Chapter 36

The ogres’ bodies were horrifyingly familiar. I’d have bet my bottom dollar that these were the same ones that had attacked us last time. Their flesh had started to decay and their clothes had a fine covering of dirt. They smelled of earth and rot and my stomach roiled.

‘Ogre zombies! Oh Goddess. They’re already dead! What do we do?’ I shouted at Bastion in panic. I fumbled for my athame. I was not a warrior, I was just a witch.

‘We kill them again!’ Bastion called back. ‘Permanently this time. Do you have a bomb?’

I reached into my pocket and encountered the reassuring weight of the potion vial. ‘I do!’

‘Keep it in reserve unless things get dicey,’ he called. ‘Stay out of the way and leave this to Oscar and me.’

The thing is, I’m not too good at following orders. I could definitely dosomethinghelpful; hanging out withJinx had taught me to think on my feet. I ignored the adrenaline rush, pushed away the panic and forced myself to think. Then I opened my tote bag and looked at my potions. I could work with this.

I had the bone-setting potion with me and I could tweak its use. Maybe. If not, I’d paint some runes on the ground. No harm, no foul. I pulled out a brush and paintedgengenteto provoke the opposite reaction to the potion I was using. Instead of bringing something together, I wanted to divide. Then I painteduruzfor power or force,dagazfor transformation andhagalazfor destruction.

I stepped back from the huge runes I’d painted and pulled my magic forward. The runes lit up and the ground trembled a little at first, and then a lot more. Whoops. Maybe I’d used a little too much power; I’d intended to make a small pit to shove the ogres into, not start an earthquake.

The tremors increased in force. ‘Hold on to something!’ I shouted in warning to Oscar and Bastion.

‘What have you done?’ Oscar asked as the ground started to rumble.

I didn’t bother to answer because it would soon be evident. The road rippled and trembled. A small hole appeared at first, as I’d intended, but before I could crowin triumph I noticed that it didn’t stop growing. Soon it was bigger than a council-neglected pothole. The ground shuddered under our feet then tore open.

A large ravine appeared, cutting through the road and into the grass verges. The rift was as long as I could see. Rune ruin! That was a mite bigger than I’d intended. Still, a huge chasm would be useful. And although the earth had been divided, I was sure I could heal it again. Probably.

I sent a triumphant grin to Bastion. Ha! I was not just a pretty face. ‘Stay out of the way’ indeed!

The zombie ogres were slow to react to the gaping ravine – the undead aren’t the sharpest athames in the box – but Bastion’s reaction was lightning fast. He shifted into griffin form and flung himself upwards. When he was airborne, he grabbed one of the eight-foot ogres with his claws, effortlessly rose up with him in his talons then dropped him into the hole.

Oscar took a similar approach; he used the IR to shove the ogre closest to the chasm into its gaping maw. Nice.

The men quickly found their rhythm and the undead ogres found their doom. I could hear their bodies whump as they hit the bottom but such was the depth of the hole I couldn’t see them. When all of the reanimated bodies had been reburied, we took a breath to evaluate the situation.

‘Nice work,’ Bastion commented with a half-smile. ‘But you’d better fix the sinkhole before the Connection get wind of it.’ Calling it a sinkhole was like calling a hurricane a breeze, but not much fazed Bastion.

‘I’m on it,’ I confirmed. I used the bone-setting potion again but this time I didn’t usegengenteto reverse it. I painted on a largeuruzfor power before adding ajerafor completion and asowilofor health. After a moment’s hesitation, I addeddagazfor transformation.

I was suddenly nervous. Without the threat of the ogres looming over me, I doubted the wisdom of my action. My head still hurt and I wasn’t thinking as clearly as I should for this sort of thing. I couldn’t afford to make a mistake.

---