The demon teen spun around screaming, trying to pick Theo off his back, but Theo was bigger and stronger, and kept the teen's arms pinned behind him.
"Just defeat it while I'm subduing it," he grunted, twisting to avoid the demon's attempt at a backward butt.
"Defeat it how?" I looked around the crypt. I had no idea what it took to beat a demon, not that they really existed except in my own delusions. "You'd think that if my mind was going to snap and go to the trouble of imagining all this, it would give me a big demon-bashing club, or a cool samurai sword, or something like that."
"Use your Gift," Theo said, grunting as the demon jerked them both forward.
"The weather thing? You've got to be kidding."
"Just use it!"
The demon suddenly kicked up his legs, twisting at the same time, pulling Theo to the floor where the two of them wrestled inside the circle.
I parked my hands on my hips. "I doubt rain is going to do anything but make him more slippery to hold. Ow. That had to hurt. Um. Noelle, can you help us?"
Her voice came out of the shadows, filled with regret. "I am the proctor. I cannot assist you in any way or the trial would be void."
"Portia, use your damned powers!" Theo demanded. He was sitting on the demon, who was pinned to the floor, but writhing with what looked like incredible strength. The demon bit Theo on the wrist, drawing blood.
I raised my hands, letting them fall helplessly. There was nothing in the room I could use as a weapon. "I don't know how!" I finally admitted, unsure of what I could do to help Theo. Even if this was all a figment of my distraught imagination, I didn't want to see Theo hurt. "How do I use weather to defeat someone?"
"Gather it up and direct it at the demon." Theo's voice was garbled as the demon slammed his head into Theo's thorax, his arms and legs thrashing wildly. Theo was holding him down as best he could, but it was evident that, sooner or later, Theo's strength was going to give out and the demon would have the upper hand.
"That's impossible! No one can do that!"
"Oh dear. I'm afraid this is getting out of hand. I am authorized to stop the trial if it's clear that the test subject is not in control," Noelle said, taking a step out of the shadows. She had a notebook in her hand and was making notes.
"You must do this!" Theo snarled, his face bloody. "Now! One more failure and it's all over!"
I took a deep breath, made an apology to what I hoped was a still sane part of my brain, and concentrated on gathering up weather.
"I'll see you in Abaddon," Theo swore to the demon as the monstrous teen used both hands to claw him, his shirt coming away in shreds to reveal long, bloody streaks. "Do something, woman!"
"Weather, weather, weather," I said hurriedly to myself, wringing my hands as the teen continued to slash at Theo, his demonic mouth open in a wordless snarl, his eyes filled with hatred. "What is weather? It's rain and wind and snow. It's particles of water suspended in the air. It's atomic elements, protons, electrons, neutrons, gluons, positive and negative charges, electrical charges..." The word electrical glowed in my mind with an intensity that blinded me to all other thoughts. "It's lightning. Lightning is electrically charged, superheated air that is released in tremendous blasts of energy - "
I closed my eyes, holding out my hands, allowing myself to feel what I was thinking. "Energy is the ability to do work."
My fingertips tingled.
"Portia!"
"Work is force times distance, which is also kinetic energy."
Around me, tiny little motes of static electricity gathered, as if I was summoning it to me.
"I'm going to have to call this," Noelle said in a sympathetic voice. "I can't let the demon get out of control. I'm so sorry."
"You've got to do something!"
I kept my eyes shut despite the plea in Theo's voice, imagining myself pulling from the stone and earth and air surrounding us the electrical charges that existed in all atoms. "Kinetic energy can be transformed into potential energy."
"Gargh!"
I opened my eyes to see the demon on top of Theo, ripping with long, vicious swipes at his arms and chest. Around me, the air glowed blue with static, the hairs on my arms standing on end.
"I'm sorry, I must stop - " Noelle started forward toward the circle.
"Now!" Theo demanded, interrupting her.