Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 130924 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 655(@200wpm)___ 524(@250wpm)___ 436(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130924 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 655(@200wpm)___ 524(@250wpm)___ 436(@300wpm)
But then Brom’s voice came inside my head.
I’d never been so overjoyed to hear him in all my life.
Never felt so proud as a teacher, either.
He quickly filled me in on the plan. For the time being, he had complete control of the horseman. He was able to control the Hessian’s physical form and he was able to take the Hessian’s strength and use it for himself. The coven didn’t know he had already made a bargain with the horseman, for what I’m not sure, but we’ll have to cross that bridge when we come to it. So the coven was intent on using the horseman to capture Brom and bring him to them, which he did.
With Brom controlling both the Hessian’s physical body and his own, he was able to do some acting, pretending that he was possessed and ready to do their bidding.
Their bidding, of course, involved capturing Kat, drugging her with laudanum, and then having Brom essentially rape her, spreading his demon spawn inside.
He told me all of this as he captured Kat, holding her safely by the throat in a way that I know was modeled after me, and then brought her over to the Sisters, acting like the dutiful soldier in their control.
I was delighted to find that I could still use my voice, too, which meant I could use it in other people. I wanted more than anything to tell Kat what was really happening, but instead I trusted her with Brom. I trusted her life in his hands. And I sank back into the shadows, and started running around the campus and projecting my voice into everyone that could hear me.
I told them all that their magic was needed. That they had a chance to fight back against the powers that held them at the school. And I told them that if they didn’t do this, they’d all flunk my class.
I don’t know if anything will come from that. I didn’t have time to wait around and see if some student was going to come out waving elemental magic. Even if they’re too scared to do anything, I at least let them know what the dangers really were, and what they were up against.
I just wish I had done that a long time ago.
But now I’m running back inside the cathedral, wondering what scene I’m going to find.
Sheer chaos.
The physical horseman is being fried by lightning that’s coming out of Leona’s palms, Sister Ana is missing a head, and Sister Margaret is flying through the air at From.
Brom, who is naked, with a broadsword raised, looking every inch the glorious warrior, making my blood run hot despite the circumstances, while Kat is being kept back behind him. She looks ready to use her own magic on Margaret, but Brom beats her to it, slicing off Margaret’s head with the sword.
I plan to slink through the shadows until I’m close enough to Leona to set her ablaze without her seeing me, or perhaps I have enough to time to load up the shot with my gun, but then I realize that there’s a huge bloody mess on the floor by the altar, and what looks like the decapitated head of some humanoid creature. My eyes follow a wide smear of blackish blood over to the wall, just behind Kat, then up the wall and…
Before I can yell, a horse-sized spider descends from the rafters of the cathedral, right behind Kat, eight spindly legs shooting out and wrapping around her.
She screams as it yanks her up into the air.
I shout, running forward, my palms raised, ready to ignite the thing but I can’t do that without setting Kat on fire, too.
“Ichabod Crane!” Leona yells at me now, having defeated the Hessian solider that lies in an electrocuted heap beside her, its body twitching. She comes at me, hands out, flying through the air toward me until Brom takes his sword back behind his head and whips it forward at her.
The sword goes flying through the air, doing several rotations, until it strikes her in the back and she lets out a blood-curdling screech as it pins her to the ground.
Get Kat, Brom says to me, running over to Leona to finish the job.
I’m already sprinting toward the opposite wall, staring up at the rafters where that beast has Kat in its grasp, wondering how I’m going to get up there.
Then I notice the thick string of a spider web dangling in front of me, leading up the way the spider went.
I take in a deep breath and put my hands around the sticky string and shudder profusely.
Hold on, sweet witch, I project into her head. I’m coming for you.
I start climbing up the sticky silk strand, the disgust turning into anger the further up I go.