The pain turned excruciating as it lit all her nerve endings.
If either Josiah or Sarah tried to answer, she couldn’t hear them. Falling to her knees, she hunched over. There was nothing she could do to stop it. The curse had seemed physical at first, but when it touched her, the dark net had already melted through her clothes.
She didn’t know enough about how to dissipate spells… she had no Epsom salts, no tub of water to soak in, no time…
The only thing she had was her vial of ocean water.
Ocean water, blessed by the light of the full moon, and filled with nature’s salt.
It was growing hard to breathe. The inside of her lungs felt wet. Coughing, she spat out a mouthful of blood.
She dug into her pocket, pulled out the vial, and poured the liquid over her head.
Nothing happened. There wasn’t enough of the liquid to bathe in, and it wasn’t imbued with a cleansing spell. It wasn’t going to work, but she didn’t have anything else to try. Sagging, she planted a palm on the pavement and tried to keep herself upright.
The water from the vial soaked through her hair and touched her scalp, and a cool, white Power washed over the corrosive pain, soothing it. Gasping, she looked up at the sky as the clouds parted to reveal the moon.
The Power grew stronger. Her magic rose to connect with it, and they fit so perfectly together. Of course they fit. Molly had created the blessing when she had gathered the ocean water. She had put herself in the vial, and as Sarah had told her, all the strongest magics were created when you gave of yourself.
Moon’s light, ocean water, and her magic.
The Power of Three.
The pain vanished. Raising her head, she looked at the warlock. He stood, hands on his hips, watching her with a slight smile, unaffected by the pain he had inflicted or the fact that he thought he was watching her die.
Lightning filled her eyes and mind. Pushing to her feet, she spat out another mouthful of blood. “Now I’ve got a grudge.”
Astonishment bolted over the warlock’s expression. He opened his mouth and raised his hands. Molly didn’t give him time to cast another spell. Reaching deep into her core, she called up her vortex and let it take over.
It roared out.
She had called so much Power—from the elements, from the strength given to her by Josiah and Sarah, from her own well of magic—that she lost control. She was a holocaust, and she didn’t care. Opening her arms wide, she embraced the madness.
The whistle of Air rushing in sounded like a freight train.
The vial of Water she had poured over herself multiplied until it became a gushing flood that spun widdershins around her.
Earth rumbled underneath her feet, and the pavement cracked.
The foreign, racy car exploded, and a gigantic ball of Fire billowed up. It roiled in a massive red thundercloud overhead.
The warlock, she saw, was still standing. That was an offense.
She was the Spirit that united the other elements. She flung the vortex at him.
It picked him up and spun him high into the air. He screamed as his body was swallowed by the cloud of Fire. After a few moments, the screaming stopped.
she thought she heard Josiah say.
Suddenly, Sarah’s presence winked out.
The abrupt loss of so much Power unbalanced the maelstrom. Molly lost touch with Josiah. The cloud of Fire dissipated into black, billowing smoke. The ground underneath stopped shaking and grew firm again. The burned body of the warlock plummeted to earth, and the lightning left Molly’s vision as the vortex died.
Pushing to her feet, she looked at the destruction she had caused. A spiderweb of cracks ran through the pavement of the road, out from the epicenter where she stood. The witch’s car still burned, and an acrid, oily smell filled the air. The witch himself was no longer recognizable in the burned piece of meat sprawled on the pavement.
She had never killed anybody before. She stared at the body. His face was gone.
But he had tried to kill her first. Notching her chin to one side, she straightened her aching shoulders. She planned on living for a very long time. She would have the rest of her life to come to terms with how she’d killed him. Right now she was just glad