I clenched my teeth, pushing on faster now.
We reached the right grave, and the witches all spanned out, taking up defensive positions.
My heart bottomed out as I realized something. Dimitri wasn’t here, was he? We’d come all this way to find him, and he’d gone.
… Which was a good thing, I realized. Because he would have gone to find me at the café, and I wasn’t there. So this had been the right thing to do – coming with Max had been a good plan.
Just before I could ease into that thought, just before I could smile at my own genius, I heard something. A creak. And by god was it one of the most awful things I had ever heard in my life. It sounded like a crypt door slowly being pushed open by a dead, bony hand.
I jerked my head to the side, trying to figure out which crypt the noise was coming from. So did everyone around me. There was a middle-aged witch just by my side, and her grey-black curls flicked over her shoulder as a frown pressed hard across her lips.
The creak sounded again, and this time – this time, I figured out where it was coming from.
From the hole beneath me – from the freshly dug grave.
Clods of dirt were scattered all over the grass, some even piled up against nearby headstones – proving how crazed Dimitri had been in his task.
I was standing probably a good 10 meters away from the freshly dug grave. I had no intention of walking up to the edge and seeing the open coffin beneath.
But the creaking? It was coming from the grave.
Bridgette was the first to act. She sprung forward, heels squelching through the earth-covered grass. She had a magical crossbow in one hand, a whip in the other. She also had the meanest frown plastered across her face – one that told me she was ready to deal with anything.
She reached the edge of the grave and peered forward. Abruptly, she jerked back.
She flattened herself against the grass just in time.
Something rose out of the grave.
I expected it to be Dimitri, jumping forward with all his might. Except it wasn’t him; it was a cloud.
It looked exactly like a cloud from the sky – just up close, like we’d climbed some massively tall mountain and the clouds were playing at our feet.
Except, it didn’t move like a cloud.
It was fast, directed, and was headed straight for me.
Before it could reach me, Max knocked hard into my side, rounding his shoulder and flattening me to the grass. Though I smacked into the earth and instantly breathed in a lungful of dirt, the cloud thankfully shot overhead.
Max rolled to his feet, sprang up, and started wielding the whip – slashing it from side-to-side, the sound of it cracking like thunder blasting through the graveyard.
The other witches started to attack, too. But I had no idea what they were attacking. It was clear the cloud was no mere ordinary fact of meteorological pressure and water droplets, so what the hell was it?
I found the strength to push up, and as soon as I did, the cloud headed for me once more, and once more Max barreled into me, pinning me to the ground. This time, he remained on top of me long enough that I could feel his bulging muscles, feel his stiff fingers as they pushed into my shoulders. “Stay down,” he bellowed.
My heart hammered in my chest, reverberating so hard it could have shaken through my rib cage and shattered Max.
I tried to clutch hold of my magic. Or maybe it tried to clutch hold of me. It was in times of true stress that I could access it the best, and yet, though I’d never been more frightened in my life, those sparking fireflies remained elusive. I simply couldn’t clutch hold of them as the witches continued to scream and attack the cloud.
I didn’t have time to question what it was. Max dug a hand hard into my shoulder and yanked me to my feet. The move was so rough, he almost sent me flying headfirst into the nearest headstone.
This time, I finally caught a proper glimpse of the cloud.
I realized it was no cloud.
It looked as if it had been a picture that had been cut up into thousands upon millions of tiny pieces and stuck in a vortex of wind.
It took my mind a long time to reconcile the picture – but my heart took a mere second. For I was still connected to Dimitri – could still feel his presence, could still sense him.
And that cloud? It was him.
Don’t ask me how, but Dimitri had somehow split himself into thousands upon millions of tiny little scraps. And they all flowed around with the power of a hurricane.
And the cloud-like Dimitri was completely uncontrollable, this chaotic, wild force.
Was this the ultimate consequence of his magic?
Once more, he shot straight towards me, and this time, Max didn’t act quickly enough. Though he shoved into my shoulder, the cloud darted close to my side, so close that I could feel it brush against the skin of my arm.
Pain spread through my shoulder, jolting so hard into my body and shaking my jaw with such force it felt as if every bone in my body would shatter.
A choked scream split from my throat, but before I could draw another breath, I felt two strong arms wrap around my middle.
Max. He pulled me backward, bodily jerking me out of the way as the cloud tore around and aimed at me once more.
By now Sarah and Bridgette were at the vanguard, firing their magical crossbows and snapping at the
