Page 85 of This Coven Won't Break
One of the guns goes off. I duck instinctively, and the bullet goes wide. Mr. Hall spews profanity as I raise the fire higher, blocking their line of sight.
Sweat prickles along my brow, the heat pressing in. Smoke fills the room. Behind me, Cal is typing away on the computer, and then suddenly he stands and pulls one of the vials from his hip, dumping the potion over the controls. The metal twists in on itself, an ear-shattering whine splitting through the room.
The guns go off again, a rapid fire of shots that blankets the computers. Cal drags me into a crouch and pulls the final potion from his hip. “On the count of three,” he says, losing his voice to a series of coughs as the smoke around us thickens. “Drop the flames and make sure they breathe this in.”
Metal clangs in the hallway, then the spray of a fire extinguisher suffocates the first section of flames.
“Or now works,” Cal says, uncorking the vial.
I tighten my hold on the flame’s power and press it as low to the ground as I can. Cal shifts his weight and hurls the vial across the room. It cracks against the wall, and the pearlescent liquid spills out onto the floor.
The Hunters glance back at the vial, and I take advantage of their distraction, releasing my hold on the fire and mixing the air with the spilling liquid, vaporizing it. Mr. Hall covers his mouth and nose. “Don’t breathe it in. Don’t—” But his words only help me guide the mist into his lungs. He collapses as the memory-erasing potion takes hold.
“James!” Benton’s mom rushes to her husband, but then Cal’s magic is in her lungs, too, and she crumbles to the floor.
Cal rubs his jaw where Mr. Hall hit him. “Let’s get them out of here.”
I nod, but kick Benton’s dad—just once—before I grab his wrists to drag him away. Halfway to the exit, Ellen’s voice is in our comms.
The police are seven minutes out. If we’re going to do this, it has to be quick.
“We’re almost there,” I say through gritted teeth. Mr. Hall is heavy and almost impossible to drag, but despite everything he’s done, I know Dad wouldn’t want me to leave him to die.
As soon as we exit the final doorway and step into the chilly October afternoon, I look to Cal for the signal. He nods.
“The building is clear.” With a final heave, I drop Mr. Hall unceremoniously against the parking lot pavement. “Light it up.”
32
HALL PHARMACEUTICALS IS CONSUMEDby flames.
Fire licks up the sides. Windows burst and shatter glass into the parking lot. Cal and I painstakingly drag the Halls to the pile of unconscious Hunters and then join my coven at the edge of the tree line. A few of the Elementals are focused on growing the fire as fast as possible while the rest stand huddled around Alice and Morgan’s dad.
I allow myself a moment to watch the flames tear apart the headquarters. Smoke billows into the sky, and the wail of approaching sirens can be heard above the roar of fire.
My comm crackles in my ear.You have two minutes, Archer says.I’m almost there.
“Stay in your car until we give you the all clear,” Cal reminds him as we all slip more fully past the tree line. We can’t leave yet. Not until the final phase of this mission is complete. Lexie sets a large metal container on the ground, and Coral pries off the top with a crowbar.
“Ready for this, snowflake?” Alice’s magic zips through my veins until my insides are crackling with static. Behind her, Mr. Hughes pricks Mom’s finger and presses her blood against his palm. Mom shifts uncomfortably as the Blood Magic mixeswith her Elemental power, and the rest of the coven looks similarly unnerved.
But they’re doing it. They’re trying.
“Ready or not, we’re running out of time.” I join the circle of witches gathering around the metal container. The white, shimmering potion winks up at me, and the sirens grow closer.
Cal approaches from behind, worry etched across his brow. “We need to hurry. The potion needs to be dispersed before Archer gets here.”
Lady Ariana takes her place in the circle. “Then let’s begin.”
The coven joins hands around the potion, and I scan the ring of witches. Ellen. Mom. Lady Ariana and Margaret Lesko and so many more. All people I love, a family bound by magic and generations of history, all working toward the same purpose.
“As one,” our high priestess says, the tiniest hint of fear in her voice.
We close our eyes, and the Blood Witches at the edge of our circle allow their power to mingle with ours. As Alice’s magic ignites like fire inside me, I’m overcome by the gravity of a moment like this. It’s not just that we’re about to wipe the memories of all the Hunters and scientists lying before the burning laboratory. For the first time since the very creation of witches, the three Clans are working together. Our magics blending into something greater than their individual parts.
Lady Ariana directs the combined power of the coven, and we reach as one for the potion at the center of our circle. The liquid bubbles, and I open my eyes in time to see it burst into the air. As the sirens close in and the first emergency vehicles skid to a stop, we blanket the compound in the Casters’ potion.
Something electric and wild zings through me as thepotion curls in on itself, shimmering tendrils collapsing on a single point, and then it bursts wide, exploding outward like a million microscopic shooting stars, covering a five-mile radius in every direction in case any Hunters slipped past us.
