Witchling Academy Semester Eight - Avery Song Page 0,165

out."

"Bring the darkness out?" I questioned, but we were suddenly shaken out of whatever spot we were in as the ball of ice began to levitate to the right.

We braced for impact as we floated into a space of flickering light. All we could do was huddle closer and prepare to attack as something began to hammer through the ice until it shattered.

Jaxsin was in front of me with his fist of black flames an inch from another palm that was protecting Elijah's face.

I gawked at the sight as I took in the two Elijahs. One of them had vivid silver locks with multiple colored highlights that glowed softly, while the other had dark blue hair with silver highlights. Their dark blue eyes were identical, like everything else but their hair.

The darker-haired Elijah was protecting the silver-haired one, but just seeing both of them in one spot was a simple mind fuck.

"Elijah?" I questioned, and their eyes moved over to acknowledge me before lowering to Brianne.

They simultaneously frowned, before the dark-haired Elijah spoke. "We're not enemies right now," he muttered before he looked my way. "We need to wake Brianne now."

"Why?" Jaxsin questioned as his flame seemed to get stronger.

"If she doesn't wake up, she'll self-destruct," the second Elijah said coldly, which caught our attention. Jaxsin stared at them for a long moment before he pulled back his fist and took a step back to give them space.

"What do you mean self-destruct? And why would we trust either of you?"

Jaxsin had good reason to question them, but I could sense their nervous energy while picking up on their concern for Brianne.

"Jaxsin." I was able to get his attention. "I think they're telling the truth."

"Can we explain later? It's already working," the dark-haired Elijah announced and pointed to Brianne's legs. Our eyes widened at the sight of Brianne's legs. Symbols that resembled black cobras were beginning to spread across her flesh like a fast-forward plague.

"Fuck," I cursed, and the twins were suddenly on each side of her legs.

"Can you stop the spread in time, Elijah?" the dark-haired one inquired.

"For Brianne, I will. But if you fucking take credit, I'm kicking your ass," he snapped. "I hate you."

"You've said that your whole life," he barked while his hands began to glow a plum purple. The spread of the black energy stopped right there as he inhaled deeply and slowly let it out.

He kept doing it while Elijah hovered his hands over Brianne's legs. The dark energy began to ooze upward. Their hands were shaking as the energy continued to rise up. Brianne's legs looked more normal as the last bits of dark force floated out of her skin and into the air.

We watched in horror as the energy quickly swirled in the air and morphed into a large cobra, its hollow black eyes locking onto Jax before it snapped forward.

"Eliyahu!" Elijah ordered, and Eliyahu caught the snake before it could strike Jaxsin, who didn't seem fazed by the experience.

The snake fought his hold while his tail began to freeze. The ice spread quickly, but it wasn't fast enough as the cobra slithered through Eliyahu's grasp in an attempt to bite him.

I tried to lift my hand up to stop it, but we all watched a tip of a wand go right through its head. The shrill hiss was silenced by the ice that crept in to finish the freezing process.

We all looked down to see Brianne's black eyes and frowned as she was the clear culprit of the stabbing wand.

"Oops?" There was no hint of sorrow in her emotionless voice. "Took me a little longer to wake up."

Elijah grabbed the ice snake and threw it in the air, and before Eliyahu could do anything, the snake burst into flames and was nothing but ash a second later. Now we all looked at Jaxsin as he shrugged. "What? Can't do anything with a frozen snake."

None of us said anything before we worked on standing up. I helped Marianna, only for her legs to give out.

"Shit!" she cursed and leaned against me as I held her. "What happened to my legs?"

"It's a lingering effect," Eliyahu announced. "It'll go on and off until you can be seen.” She stared at him for a long minute before looking at Elijah. Soon she was frowning, which made me question her silence.

"Marianna?"

"Neither of you is the one I plagued," she declared, which got Jaxsin's attention as he moved to hook an arm around her waist and put her