The Witch is Back

Chapter Thirty-Four




I was moving more slowly now. Both because of the stress of the last challenge and because I knew the next one was going to be even harder. Better to take it slow than wear myself out completely before I got to the end.

As I walked, I began to wonder who might’ve been eliminated from the competition already. I liked to think that the rest of the Cleri were smart enough to get through each of the obstacles, but even I had to admit that they’d turned out to be more difficult than I’d expected. Still, fourteen girls were left in the game, which meant there was a chance everyone had survived so far.

Unless the others hadn’t gotten to the third challenge yet.

I couldn’t get the image of the panther’s toothy mouth out of my head. Its hot breath on my skin, saliva dripping from its teeth . . . Was everyone going up against the same creature? Or was the challenge geared toward the individual? After all the trauma that Jinx had been through, I despised the thought of her having to face something like this.

Especially since she’d made so much progress in the healing department.

I shook my head to clear the obsessive thoughts and found that I felt a little fuzzy after. Stopping where I was, I tried to get a grip on what I was feeling. Slightly dizzy and a sudden difficulty in focusing.

I blinked my eyes to try to clear them, but it was like I was looking through fogged-up lenses. Something was . . . off.

Was this what post-traumatic shock was like? Had the panther thing traumatized me?

I couldn’t think of another explanation. There was no reason I should feel this exhausted or out of it. This . . . tired.

My body started to get heavy and my head begged for me to lie down and rest. So I obliged. I plopped down onto the ground as gracefully as a hippo and let the palms of my hands graze the top of the grass beneath me.

I smiled lazily. I liked the feel of the blades between my fingers. Soft and silky. My head lolled on my shoulders as I looked down to see that it wasn’t grass that I was touching at all. It was flowers. The scent infiltrated my nostrils and I inhaled deeply.

Ahhhhh, lavender.

“Lavendula,” I said slowly. I was surprised to hear my words were slurred and I giggled at the sound. “Often called lavender . . . you can tell this plant . . . by its purple-blue color . . . and sweet floral scent. Helps aid in sleep and relaxation.”

My head flopped to the right and I spotted another flower I recognized. This one was white with a yellow center. Rows of them lined the dirt trail, making it into a pretty sort of walkway.

“Chamomile . . . A daisylike plant . . . most widely used to help bring on . . . sleep and has antianxiety properties.”

I cocked my head as I started to sense a pattern, but I was having trouble putting it all together. Spotting yet another nearby plant, I placed my hand to my head and rubbed it wearily. Everything around me was fading away.

“Valerian . . . Sweetly scented pink . . . or white flowers . . . that’ve been known to possess . . . sedative values . . .”

My words trailed off as it all seemed to click. I had to get out of there. Looking forward, I could see that I still had quite a ways to go before the flowers around me dispersed. I wouldn’t have to go as far if I backtracked, but then I’d be moving farther away from my goal. If I stayed then I wouldn’t be going anywhere. Except maybe to sleep.

In the end, I decided my only choice was to move backward and find some other way to get to where I needed to go. So I began to drag my tired body along the ground. It was all I could manage at that point. Every inch felt like a mile’s worth of exertion and I had to ignore the voice inside of me that kept telling me to just give up and take a nap.

Winners never sleep.

The mantra randomly appeared in my head and I moved a bit with every word.

Winners.

(Drag.)

Never.

(Drag.)

Sleep.

(Drag.)

After a while of doing this, my head began to clear. It was slow at first, but then it was like I was waking up, little by little. In fact, when I was able to finally stand again, I realized what had just happened. The flowers I’d just stood in were better than an Ambien. All we needed was a herd of sheep and even the biggest insomniac would’ve been down for the count.

“You sneaky little witches,” I said under my breath, still retreating from the fragrant bouquet behind me.

When I was finally at a safe distance, I studied the woods around me for something that could help get me through the Garden of Sleepville without passing out. The answer ended up being much easier than I thought. In fact, it was almost as if this particular obstacle had been created just for me.

Catching my second wind, I rushed around the forest, looking for all the flowers and plants I could find that could help me.

I ripped flowers from their roots and pulled petals from the stems, mentioning what each thing was used for, for the benefit of the counselors who were watching. When I’d gathered everything I needed, I sat down and began to make my serum. Stuffing the broken and mashed-up petals, stems, and flowers that I’d collected into the bottle of what was left of my water, I shook the contents vigorously. As I let the oils mix together, I performed my mom’s infusion spell.

When I was finished, I opened the cap and studied the contents carefully, then looked at the flower patch ahead. Wearing the perfume wasn’t going to be enough to get me through this challenge. It was going to take more than that for it to work.

With a deep breath, I tipped back my head and swallowed the remaining water.

“Ugh!” I said, shuddering.

It was like drinking potpourri. Pleasant to smell, but not meant for drinking. Without pausing, I shook the rest of the contents out into my hand and smashed it up into a gross-looking mixture. Then, using it as a paste, I rubbed it underneath my nostrils until I couldn’t smell anything else.

A boost of energy and alertness burst through my body, better than a shot of espresso. My head started to buzz excitedly, and my legs wanted to move, and I knew that the concoction was doing its job.

I was going to fight flower with flower.

Taking a running start, I tore through the field of lavender, chamomile, and valerian. At first I felt nothing. Just my surge of vigor and eagerness to go, go, GO! But eventually, the paste began to fall away and the other flowers began to break through my force field, leaving me feeling woozy again.


I willed myself forward, even though my legs had begun to slow, because as tired as I was, I could see the end of the path now. The foliage started to disperse around me, and pretty soon, there were just a few sprigs scattered about.

Finally lumbering to an area free of blooms, I fell to my knees dramatically. Taking in one more whiff of what was left of the paste, I wiped my face clean and then sat there just breathing the normal air.

Talk about flower power.

My bracelet glowed purple and I stood up to meet the last challenge.



As I walked away from the flower patch, six more jewels lit up red, signifying those who hadn’t made it to the last round. That meant, out of the thirty of us who’d begun the challenge, only eight were left, including me.

I wished I knew who was still in the competition. Not that it would help anything. There could still only be one winner in the end—and I was determined that it would be me. But, if for some bizarro reason it wasn’t, I at least hoped it would be another member of the Cleri or even Colette.

Actually, pretty much anyone except for Brooklyn and her sidekick would be fine with me.

I trudged forward. It had been a long day and I was running out of patience and steam fast. All I wanted to do was wrap this challenge up.

“One to go,” I reminded myself as I speed-walked along the path.

If the obstacles were meant to get harder each time, the last was sure to be a doozy. Would we be dodging firestorms? Swimming through rivers of hungry piranhas? My mind couldn’t begin to guess what they had in store for us as a finale.

I just hoped I was ready for it.

Even before I arrived at the top of a hill, I knew this was it. I’d reached the end of the road. What I’d do next would determine whether I won this whole thing or went home a failure. One thing was for sure: if I was going down, I was doing it in a blaze of glory.

The butterflies had been building up in my stomach as I approached the peak, but I pushed them deep down and forced a look of resolve onto my face instead—which immediately fell again once I saw what lay below.

“Well, that can’t be good,” I said.

Before I could psych myself out, I sprinted down the hill toward the only thing that stood between me and winning the competition.

A giant black hole.



What I’d thought was just a hole in the ground actually turned out to be more like a hollowed-out crater. It extended from one force-field wall to another and was at least forty feet in length. Maybe longer. The point was, it was too far to jump over. Even with Michael Jordan–type skills, no one was getting across.

Also, it was pitch black.

For some reason I couldn’t see past about two feet below my shoes. It was as if light just couldn’t penetrate the area. Like I wasn’t meant to see what was down below. And that was scary.

Stepping into the unknown with no idea what you could be up against? Not my idea of a good time.

I took several steps back and placed my hands on my hips as I thought about my options. Looking around, I tried to find something I could use to cross the open space. But there was nothing. I tried casting a spell to close up the hole, but that was a waste of time. I’d even done a spell to pump water into the area, thinking I could swim across it. But the water just kept coming, while the hole never filled. I sent an orb of light over the edge, but it fell until it disappeared, swallowed up by the blackness like a smothered flame. I placed my hands on top of my head and looked up at the sky in frustration.

Because I’d known all along what I was going to have to do.

“You’re really gonna make me go in there?” I asked. My hands dropped to my sides dramatically. “Fine! Suit yourself. But FYI: bad things tend to happen when I’m in the dark, and I can’t be held responsible for what happens next.”

Then, with a flourish, I jumped into the abyss below.



On principle, jumping into a black hole is usually never a good idea, but for some reason it was what the counselors wanted us to do. So I obliged, because . . . well, what other choice did I have?

If I wanted to win, that is.

I have no idea how long I fell, or how far down I went. It was an unusual experience. Like I was entering a place where time didn’t exist. I kept waiting for the ground, wondering if not knowing would make landing less awful. Was it better not to see the terrible things coming at you? Or did knowing help you to prepare yourself for the inevitable?

The last thing I’d anticipated was water.

I’d expected the hard ground. Or maybe a bed of snakes. Or even goo. But my body slipped through the icy surface of the water, shocking me back to reality. I didn’t have time to think, to close my mouth, or take one last breath of air. I disappeared into another kind of darkness, hoping it wasn’t forever.

Fighting my way to the surface, I pumped my arms as hard as they would go, knowing that there wouldn’t be much time before my air ran out. I counted the seconds that I was under, until finally I broke through and gulped at the air hungrily. Gasping and sputtering, I frantically treaded water as I waited for my eyes to adjust to where I was.

When they didn’t, I pushed hard with my left hand and lifted my right one into the air above me.

“Ignatious radiulma!” The words echoed in my ears.

A faint glow began to fill the space around me and within moments, I could see what I was dealing with. It appeared to be an underground cavern. Dark and dank. The kind of place you hoped to never end up. Yet here I was.

The place was so big that my magiclight wasn’t quite able to spread to every corner, but it illuminated enough for me to see a shoreline to my left, so I headed for it. When my feet finally touched the ground again, I silently rejoiced and did a sort of runny-jumpy-hop thing until I was back on dry land again.

Shivering in the low light, I started to miss the burning rays of the sun. It was cold down here and being soaking wet didn’t help.

“One homemade dryer coming right up,” I said in the dark. I’d never realized how much I enjoyed talking until there was nobody around to listen.

I wonder what that says about me?

I shrugged and said, “Aeromus une cyclenae!”

Immediately, a burst of air whipped around me, pulling the droplets from my skin and clothes and tossing them every which way. Ten seconds later, I was dry again. Not exactly warm, but I figured if I got moving, that would change, too.

So I headed in the direction of the only opening I’d seen in the room, pulling the light along with me with magic. The tunnel I walked into was small and it was hard to see where it led. The directions kept changing and every few minutes I’d come to an L in the passageway and have to turn another way. But I kept going.

Because I was being led somewhere. Toward who or what, I wasn’t sure. Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait long for my answer, because as I rounded one last corner, I saw a faint light up ahead and walked toward it until I entered a room smaller than the one I’d been in with the mini-lake.

And there, waiting for me, was someone I recognized.

“You,” I said.

“You,” the voice hissed back at me across the darkness. “Please tell me I get to kill you now.”