Reaching underneath, I managed to pull the squashed creature free. I held it carefully and carried it back out into the open. Kids were tough, but I didn’t want Micah to get too close. Nobody needed to see this mess of crushed bone and flat organs.
“I found your cat, Micah. I’m sorry, but there’s nothing we can do for him,” I said, keeping my distance.
Jumping to his feet, Micah sprinted toward me. “Fluffers!” he yelled. “Fluffers, don’t go!”
“Holy hell!” I almost screamed as the cat wriggled in my arms, its ears pricking up and its eyes blinking open. Somehow, it seemed to re-inflate, like a grim sketch from a cartoon. Beneath my hand, I could feel its heart beating rapidly, and a soft meow came from its mouth. I wanted to drop it and run, but Micah’s presence stopped me. This was his pet. I couldn’t just hurl it away, as much as I might have wanted to.
He reached up to me with eager eyes. As freaked out as I was, I could see how much Micah adored the cat. Carefully, I settled the orange tabby into his arms. He held on to the kitty for dear life, and it contentedly purred against Micah’s shoulder. For me it’s dogs, for you it’s cats. I guess that’s cool. That’s right, Harley, tell yourself everything’s A-Okay when you’ve just had a cat come back to life in your arms.
Wade walked up to us, a confused expression on his face. Evidently, he’d just seen what I’d seen. “Micah, can I ask you a question?” he said, crouching low.
Micah nodded. “Yes.”
“How many times have you made Fluffers wake up like that?”
Micah counted the number out on his fingers, reaching six before stopping.
“Looks like Fluffers has three more to go,” I joked.
Wade ignored me. “You’ve made Fluffers wake up six times?”
“Yes.”
“Oh my God,” he murmured.
“What?” I replied.
“Well, either Micah is a Necromancer, like Alton, or this cat is Micah’s Familiar. If it’s the latter, that’s incredible for anyone to do, let alone a five-year-old.”
I frowned. “A Familiar?”
“They’re extremely rare, but a Familiar is an animal that a magical takes on as a sort of highly gifted pet. They have special abilities of their own, acquired through a series of magic rituals. However, it takes years for a magical to find an animal they can form that kind of bond with—it’s a soul bond, so it runs deeper than anything ordinary. That tends to be why only elder magicals have them, because they have spent years discovering their Familiar and helping them gain abilities. It can be any animal.” He paused in thought. “If the Familiar dies, it causes incredible pain to the magical owner, as that soul bond is broken. It’s supposed to be worse than living through a Purge.”
“Then how can this cat be Micah’s Familiar?”
“One of the cat’s abilities may be Necromancy, though I’m struggling to believe Micah could give Fluffers that gift. Then again, I’ve seen crazier things recently. It might be that he has some kind of magical power related to animals, which has allowed him to acquire a Familiar so young. I’d have to check a couple of books to see if there’s an ability that matches up.”
“Occam’s Razor.”
“Huh?”
I smiled. “A bit of philosophy for you. The simplest solution tends to be the right one.”
“You’re probably right.” He turned to the others. “We need to get moving. Bring those two along—we can drop them off with the surveillance team and get them to bring them back to the coven.”
“Good idea,” Channing replied, attempting to reassert his authority.
I took Micah’s hand as we moved toward the front entrance. A lock dangled from the middle, preventing us from leaving. Undeterred, Dylan grabbed the side of the metal door and hauled it open, using his Herculean abilities to prize it from its hinges.
We were about to step out into the open when a blast of ice-cold air powered through the derelict factory, a rumble like thunder rising to a deafening roar behind us. I whirled around in time to see a portal split the seams of time and space. A red-haired woman emerged. Despite never having met her before, I recognized her face immediately.
Katherine Shipton.
Thirty-Two
Harley
I gaped at Katherine. How the heck did you manage that, you evil bastard? A moment later, I understood. Trailing behind Katherine, her wrists lashed together with a glowing rope, Isadora stepped out of the portal. She looked miserable, her chin dipped to her chest, a dappled mass of bruises and burns covering the bare skin of her arms and chest.
“No…” I whispered.
Katherine smiled as she spread her arms wide, like a corrupt politician taking to the stage.
“How nice to meet you all,” she said.
An incredibly powerful wave of Telekinesis pummeled into us, throwing everyone against the hard wall. My skull smacked against the stone, and I crumpled to the ground. Beside me, Garrett lay still, knocked unconscious by the impact—I hoped he was only unconscious. I shoved him in the shoulder, trying to get him to wake up, but he wouldn’t budge. A blinding pain pulsed behind my eyes, searing through my brain. It took every ounce of strength I had to shake it off and stand once more, turning to face Katherine.
I reached out toward her with my Empath abilities, attempting to feel for any kind of emotion. A blockade of nothing met me. I had felt that kind of emotional wall often enough to recognize it. She was definitely a Shapeshifter. As if you weren’t bad enough.
“Tatyana, Dylan, take Micah and run!” Wade cried, raising his hands toward Katherine. His ten rings glowed as he sent a wave of Fire back toward Katherine. She swept it aside as though it were nothing, an amused expression on her face.
Strength in numbers, Auntie dear.
I lashed bouts of Fire and Telekinesis at her, while Channing and Stella jumped into action. Channing sent a pulsing ripple of Earth energy through the ground. A semicircle of stone shot up around Katherine, blocking her exit from behind. Stella matched it with a swirling vortex of Fire that hurtled toward Katherine, hitting her in the shoulder as she ducked to get out of its way. Wade shot out another wall of searing flames, the blazing fire almost hitting its mark. Katherine was quicker, sending up a Telekinetic shield that blocked the attack.
Raffe began to smolder again, until he was entirely enveloped in a dense mist of black smoke. I stared at him in shock. I’ll never get used to this. Snapping out of my trance, I sent fireballs after Raffe to help him as he barreled toward Katherine, leaping on her with the force of a lion. She collapsed beneath him, only to throw him back with a renewed thrust of insanely fierce Telekinesis. Raffe sailed through the air, landing on his feet with an impressive skid that dug deep into the ground. Bite marks had appeared on Katherine’s shoulders, a trickle of blood meandering down the front of her emerald-green dress.
Tatyana and Dylan raced toward the entrance with Micah in tow, but a whipping lasso from Katherine’s palms swept them off their feet. They hit the dirt with an unsettling thud, Fluffers letting out a screeching meow. I retaliated with a lasso of my own Telekinesis, but she merely smiled and pushed it back. Focusing on the exit, she swiped her hand through the air, slamming the metal door back into place, blocking our escape. Dylan jumped to his feet and tore the door away again, but Katherine was one step ahead. She picked Dylan up with her Telekinesis and slammed him into the earth.
“Hide here until we come for you,” Tatyana urged, as she ushered Micah through a small gap in the entrance. He grabbed his cat and tucked himself behind the door, keeping out of sight, while Tatyana turned around and wasted no time in calling to the spirit world. Her eyes glowed white as she transitioned into Kolduny mode. Her voice echoed eerily, several glimmering wisps appearing all around her.
The air in the factory went cold, the spirits charging forward at Tatyana’s request. Light was practically pouring out of her, her whole body lit up by the ghosts she was channeling. Dylan followed it up with a show of his extraordinary strength, while I tipped the stagnant water from a nearby barrel over her head in an attempt to distract her. With Raffe at his side, the two boys hurtled in Katherine’s direction. This time, she wasn’t fast enough to stop them. With everything else being thrown at her, she couldn’t keep everyone at bay at once.
Dylan landed a blow to her face, her neck snapping to one side, while Raffe began to pummel at her as though she were a punching bag. A second later, they soared backward, carried on a violent wave of Telekinesis. Raffe hit the wall first, the impact barely affecting him. Seeing that Dylan was careening toward the same fate, he jumped up and caught his friend, lowering him safely to the ground.
Meanwhile, I launched every attack I had at her. Torrents of water poured down above her, while fireballs thundered, and my lasso of Telekinesis sought out her throat. She fought back against every single one, undeterred by our greater numbers. Although a few of our hits got through, they didn’t seem to bother her in the slightest. She matched us blow for blow, always able to retaliate before we could make a dent in her magical armory.
Why did I get the feeling she was holding back? This wasn’t all she had; I knew it wasn’t.
As if sensing my thoughts, she upped the ante. Smiling at us all, she gathered a shield about herself. It slithered across her skin, removing every cut and bruise and burn.
“Are you kidding?” I yelped, turning to Wade. “She can heal herself!”
“Then we keep going. We break her down!” he replied, though his expression belied his concern.
A moment later, every Elemental power rained down on our group, while barrage after barrage of Telekinetic attacks hit us with unyielding force. Our bodies and our minds were taking a savage beating. We fought back with everything we had, but it wasn’t enough. We couldn’t break through. Not even Dylan or Raffe could make it past her onslaught of Telekinetic tidal waves. She had been going easy on us, testing out our strengths and weaknesses, making us reveal them to her.