Last Witch Standing

chapter 23



The Present

Mount Kilauea



Rachel placed her palms against the rock. Below, the magma was more than fifteen hundred degrees Fahrenheit. The group had locked their bikes together and entered the lava fields. Around them, the jagged terrain, barren of greenery, recalled to mind pictures of the Martian landscape taken by the Mars Rover. Ahead, near to the caldera, noxious sulfur dioxide gases seeped from the ground, giving the appearance of steam rising from an underground stream.

Queen Annalisse came beside her.

Rachel stood up. “I have never drawn energy from something so hot as this. Even the hot springs on Pangea were barely above boiling point – at most two to three hundred degrees Fahrenheit. This is at least five times as much.”

“Do not worry, child-witch. Your kind can draw at a far greater temperature than this. With training, you could even draw from the surface of the Sun,” Annalisse reassured her.

“What do I do?”

“Start slowly. Draw not from the magma itself, but from the heated ground around it. Pull only a bit at a time, a slender thread of energy is best,” Karen said.

“Steady and even. This is only a practice session. Remember the lesson of the candle,” Annalisse said.

Rachel knelt once more. Composed of volcanic rock, the shelf was rough from irregular cooling and she had to rise to adjust her position and avoid scraping herself on the sharp ground. Through her palm, she detected the layers of heat. Parts below her were extremely hot, with pockets exceeding two thousand degrees Fahrenheit. To the side of the pocket and several feet up, lay a cooler segment. She drew from this. First, only a slender thread, less even than from the swimming pool the night before.

Slowly, in nearly imperceptible increments, Rachel drew power. This is not like the pool. I am still using more power to do this than I am drawing. She stood up. “I need a second.”

“We are in no hurry, Rachel. Take as long as you need to remain comfortable,” Karen said.

In the distance, they could see Jakob riding his bicycle. If someone approached, he raised his left arm over his head as an alarm. The shadows of the rocks lengthened as the afternoon turned to early evening.

Rachel breathed deeply. Next to them stood a large boulder of igneous rock. Drawing from it would take a lot of power – likely more than she would draw – but it could serve as a buffer between her and the molten rock below. She walked to it and placed both palms against it. First, she felt for temperature differences and any currents within or directly underneath that she could mine.

Cool. The rock was relatively cool, retaining only the heat from the afternoon sun. Rachel detected a warm current in the ground, far below it, but she would have to channel the Power nearly to her limit of channeling undetected. She went back to the ground and knelt.

This time, knowing the terrain and the currents below, Rachel was able to directly seize upon a thread of magma that was neither the hottest nor the coolest. She drew the heat from it, starting at the level she had ceased at earlier. Energy flowed through her.

More. She wanted more. This was like a drug rush.

Power filled her, the ground blurred and her hearing zoned out. Like an electrocution victim, unable to remove a hand from the live wire shocking them, she was held to her position. Something pushed her away and off the lava field. Rachel blinked, staring upwards at the sky. Where was she?

Figures filled her field of vision. Katie had summoned help for her in her tent. Good. They would take her away from Earth and to the Mountain Witch village where she would meet Gertrude and Eustice. Yet, how did she know their names before meeting them and why did she see the sky overhead and not tent canvas?

“Let her be. She will regain her bearing shortly,” one of the figures said.

“She’s not breathing!” a second said.

“She does not need to,” came a third reassuring voice, this one male.

Rachel turned her head in the direction of the man’s voice. A bicycle lay next to him. Where was his Labrador, the one he used to walk through her neighborhood in Melville? Jakob. It was Jakob.

“She’s coming back,” Karen said.

The sky and figures gathered around her came into focus.

I am here, on Earth, and Katie is gone. She was my first friend; I cannot betray her.

Rachel breathed in deeply and sat up. The ground cut her pants.

“I’m okay.”

Candice moved to check her vitals.

“I am fine. Remember, I am no longer human.” Rachel smiled at the detective.

They made Rachel stay still and rest. Finally, she stood up. “I’m okay, now.”

“Let’s go. We can try again tomorrow. Rachel, can you ride?” Jakob asked.

“Yes, I think so. In a minute, but we can start out now. I can walk beside the bike until my balance is back.”

The party collected their bicycles and started down the path that would take them to the parking lot and their van. Rachel paid little attention to the scenery around as she considered her dilemma. Loyalty was a two way street. Katie didn’t reciprocate Rachel’s sense of loyalty – or did she? If Rachel were truly in trouble or danger, Katie would come. The sorceress did let Rachel’s human body die – perhaps even caused her death – but Katie thought she was doing her friend a favor in this.

“Katie cannot be harmed. I am bonded to her. I don’t know how or why, but I think I would fight to protect her – whether I wished to intellectually or not.”

Karen and Jakob shared a look.

“We know this, child,” Queen Annalisse said. “You will not be asked to fight against your maker.”

Her bearing restored, Rachel rode with Jakob, who pedaled most of her weight along with his own. Candice took Queen Annalisse and Karen took Jakob’s single bike. The sun cast long shadows from its position at the horizon when they made it to the van.

Jakob unlocked the sliding door and opened it. On the bench opposite the opening sat several Upper Mountain Witches. Rachel looked for Trudy, but that witch was not among the three. Jakob nodded to them. Two got up and met Queen Annalisse outside. The third moved to a back seat.

“My sisters tell me the sorceress has left Earth. Most likely for Pangea,” Queen Annalisse said when they were underway.

“She will return for the girl,” Karen said. “The bond goes both ways, I think.”

“It does give us a breather to set the ground before her return,” Candice said.

“It is a stroke of luck,” Jakob said.

“I think she went to Pangea to collect her tools. She has created hundreds of scientific devices. It wouldn’t surprise me if she could track me with one even if I did not channel,” Rachel said.

“In any case, we should be ready by the end of the week. Dan Edwards will arrive on Saturday, with his family,” Karen said.

“Why is his family coming?” Rachel asked.

“I believe it will balance him, add to his power over the sorceress. Also, it would be kind of hard for him to just take off for Hawaii on a personal vacation.”

Rachel sat back into her seat and closed her eyes. Most would assume she was tired from her ordeal, and she was, but what she needed to do now was think this through. Katie cornered, Eric coming to Hawaii with his father, Rachel dead to Earth. Where was the endgame in all of this? Would Katie be taken peacefully? What kind of friendship could Rachel have with Eric when she wasn’t even alive?