Last Witch Standing

chapter 16



The Present Day

Pangea



Rachel checked herself before entering the cave. Katie was adept at picking up on feelings and Rachel couldn’t telegraph the new optimism Trudy and Sophie’s arrival filled her with.

“They are here.” Katie, at her place by the hearth, looked up from her book. “I sense them. We will have to go. They think they are clever, but they are not. I was already planning on leaving here, anyway.”

“Maybe they just want to talk.” Rachel didn’t want to leave Pangea, not unless it was to return to her sisters among the Mountain Witches.

“Where will we go?”

“Earth.”

“Earth? How can we do that? Why?”

“I go there now and again for books. It is time for me to return. Find out what the scientists on Earth are up to. Pack your bags, we’ll leave tonight.”

“What about the llamas?”

“I created a machine that will feed them automatically. I’ve left them for long periods before. You know that.

They will be fine.”

Rachel went to her sleeping bag and gathered her belongings. She put the books Katie had given her into a suitcase, then folded her bedding over them and shut the case. Not much to pack. Perhaps once on Earth she could make a bolt for freedom.

“What do I do once we’re there, Katie? I’m dead on that world.”

“You will have to shield your appearance, at least when around those who could recognize you from your earthly life. You know how.”

Rachel wanted to continue raising objections, but with Katie it would be no use. Once the sorceress decided upon something, she would not be deterred. Maybe this move wouldn’t be so bad – it would stir things up a bit and her chance for escape might come. Perhaps the Citadel would rescue her? Pangea was Katie’s home turf. Things might be different on Earth.

Katie packed her own satchel and came up to Rachel as she sat on a boulder in the front of the cave, looking down at the valley below. The sunset was a brilliant crimson and orange, with streaks of purple and purple-blue.

“Don’t worry, I will not let them run me off my Pangea. We will return,” Katie said.

From their position on the cliff, they could see a line of torches headed their way up the mountain path. Across the valley, on the cliff opposite Katie and Rachel, Annalisse, Karen and Jakob appeared.

Katie slung her satchel over her shoulder and grabbed Rachel’s arm. The bond between the two snapped into place, sending sparks up around them. Katie rose into the air, Rachel with her. Then fell back down.

.Annalisse’s gazed at Katie from across the distance.

“The little thing is blocking my flying! No matter. We will take the back route. Her tricks will not work once we are further away.”

Crash!

A flame of fire emerged from Annalisse’s musket. Next to where Katie stood, the large rock, the one she liked to rest upon and read in the evenings, evaporated in a ball of dust and fire.

Katie ran inside and to the back of their cave, balls of blue plasma in her palms.

Rachel couldn’t be certain, but it seemed that Annalisse had missed purposefully! She had not been able to control her own channeling, and the heightened awareness the Power always brought allowed Rachel to notice the last-second jerking up of the barrel before Annalisse fired.