Page 39 of Destiny of the Witch

Chapter 31

I raced out, my mind blank with no plan in mind. At the threshold, my mouth dropped open when I saw the beast in front of me.

A chimera. Oh shit – we were in trouble. The chimera was somehow genetically linked to the griffins; because of that, griffins had no immunity to her brand of purple fire, and her scorching burns couldn’t be healed in a shift. That was evident from the blistered forepaw that Charlize was holding tightly to her body. Still in human form, Haiku had run to her side to check the extent of the damage.

The chimera roared and the building shook. She was a tri-beast and had three heads: a lion’s in the centre, a goat’s to the left and a snake’s to the right. Goddess, I hated reptiles. As well as her three hulking heads, she had sharpened cloven hooves and a goat-like body with a lethal scaled tail that Emory would have been proud of.

She turned her heads towards Oscar and let out a burst of flame from her gigantic lion’s maw. I wished Lucy was here to pipe her; perhaps she could have talked sense into the creature. Then again, perhaps not.

‘Fuck!’ Oscar swore. He dived to the ground and most of the flames passed over him, but a few stray ones licked at his shirt and set it on fire.

‘Roll!’ I screamed. As he rolled on the ground, the giant chimera thundered towards him.

Flames extinguished, Oscar got to his feet again. He pulled air around him, his greying hair caught in the blast, then he chucked the ball of air towards the chimera. It hit her full in the chest and she stumbled backwards, screaming in outrage. Her tail whipped around her, trying to strike at Oscar.

Bastion, now in griffin form, plunged towards the striking tail, his talons extended as he rent into the chimera’s flesh. She bellowed again and blew great billows of deadly purple fire towards him. He rolled out of the way of the flames – but only just.

My heart clenched with fear. This was one of the few beasts that offered a true threat to Bastion. I palmed the small vial of final-defence potion that rested permanently in my left pocket. My potion bomb was in my right pocket,and I wouldn’t have wanted to mix those up in the heat of the moment. Left pocket for healing, right pocket for harming.

Frogmatch gave a battle cry and ran into the melee, growing in size as he went. ‘Come and get me, goaty!’ he challenged. The chimera gave another scream of rage and turned her attention to the imp.

He was still not much taller than a metre. ‘Oops,’ Frogmatch muttered. ‘A bit premature, that.’ He threw a bawdy wink at me. ‘It’s the only thing I’m premature in, I promise.’

‘Watch out!’ I shouted at the now medium-sized imp. A ball of flames rolled towards him and my breath caught in my throat as they struck his small red body.

‘Frogmatch!’ I screamed. Bastion dived towards him, but I need not have worried. Frogmatch’s red skin danced with purple flames but they didn’t seem to affect him one whit. He was immune to her fire!

‘Thank the Goddess,’ I murmured in relief, leaning on the doorway.

A voice spoke next to me. ‘You’ll find that the Goddess has very little to do with it,’ my father said drily. It was his voice as Shaun, not as John.

I whirled around but he wasn’t there, not physically. It was another audio-astral projection. I resisted the urge to ask how it was done.

‘Now Amber, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way,’ his voice said calmly.

‘Could you be any more clichéd?’ I huffed at him.

He considered it. ‘I could disfigure my face horribly and laugh like a maniac, if you prefer?’ His tone was humorous.

I folded my arms; I didn’t want to joke with my father whilst his minion was breathing fire at my friends and the man I loved. ‘What do you want?’ I snarled harshly.

‘We need your help, Amber. We need the potion that you concocted for Lucille.’

I knew all about the plight of the evil witches’ familiars and I might even have felt a shred of sympathy; after all, it wasn’t the familiars’ choice to be linked to a witch that had turned down the path of torture and death.

I hardened my heart; they had made their choices, and I wouldn’t do anything to help evil witches that continued to hurt and kill. ‘No,’ I said simply. I wouldn’t help them, even at the expense of their familiars. The familiars were a weak point, one I could use to put pressure on the witches and I wasn’t giving away that advantage.

‘I have another chimera,’ Shaun said calmly. ‘This one’s mate. Oscar and Bastion may survive one, but they definitely won’t survive two. Alternatively, you can come with me and I’ll call off the chimera when we’re a sufficient distance away. Everyone gets to live.’

My heart plummeted. Two chimeras! Goddess, Oscar and Bastion wouldn’t survive that.

Even as Bastion was fighting, I saw him turn to check on me as he felt my fear. Seeing nothing and no one around me, he clearly assumed I was scared for him. He sent me a wave of reassurance and turned to battle the chimera again. I watched, heart in my throat, as deadly flame roared past him again. This time it was entirely too close for my liking.

‘If you don’t come with me,’ Shaun said lightly, like we were discussing tea and cake, ‘I’ll tell her to stop playing nicely. You’ll notice that the only one who’s been hurt so far is Charlize. A little warning shot, so they know my chimera is serious. But if I tell her to pull out the stops, that all changes, Amber. I know you’re fond of Bastion, so I’m trying to be nice here.’

‘You’re failing,’ I said bluntly.

He laughed. ‘Maybe so, my dear, maybe so. But whether I’m nice or not, you really don’t have much choice, do you? We both know that you love Bastion. One word fromme and we’ll have another chimera here flame-grilling him.’

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