RETURN OF THE HYBRID (Book III)

Chapter 18

There was panic everywhere in the city. It was burning, people were running for their lives children and women crying everywhere as those with power took the opportunity to amass more wealth. They got into houses and robbed them. Most of their men were in the Kings army fighting the enemy little did they know what there were more enemies left behind in their midst and those were even more dangerous. The three witches walked side by side with Ariella in the middle.

"This is what I have always wanted" said Helen.

"And what is that?" Ariella asked.

"A world where witches do not hide and pretend to be oracles, thank you" Helen said.

"You are welcome" Ariella said smiling.

That was all her, she deserved the credit. Suddenly she started feeling dizzy and powerless. It was unusual for her. Ariella couldn’t remember the last time she felt that.

"I think you are bleeding" Dahlia said.

"What? Where?" Ariella asked perplexed.

"From your nose!" Dahlia said.

She wiped her nose. It was blood. Something strange was happening to her. She felt as though she was going to collapse the next minute.

"I think my brother is up to something" She said stopping.

The two supported her.

"Who?" Dahlia asked.

"Zeli" She said.

"What? Zeli is your brother that means..."

"She is Ariella" Helen said, "Come on what came we do to help?"

"Get me some grass" She said collapsing.

Ariella was so weak she couldn't stand on her feet without their support. Dahlia was left catering for her as Helen went to bring the grass.

"Stay with us"

"Am fine, go help her. Get as much grass as you can and make a ring out of it" she said.

"But I can’t leave you alone"

"Go I said am fine!"

The two girls went further in the vast grasslands to look for grass. It was not that common in that region due to the effects of the drought coupled with the random fires that were consuming up majority of vegetation.

"What does she want to do with grass?" Dahlia asked.

"She is Ariella, the mother of dark magic she can do anything with anything" Helen said.

"Okay and what about Cassandra?"

"What about Cassandra?"

Helen was avoiding eye contact.

"Don't you think she will feel bad we joined forces with Ariella?"

"It's too late to worry about that now" Helen said confidently, "Come on let's go"

They brought the grass in a ring. It was a boundary spell she wanted to enchant as long as she was within the circle Zeli could not posses her. It was painful. The when possesion process felt like her soul was being ripped out of her body and she figured Zeli might have outsmarted her while carrying out the spell to send her back in time.

"I will need help with this"Ariella said struggling to get back on her feet.

They went by the roadside.

"What do we do?" Helen asked.

"Just and hold our hands together and repeat after me" she said getting inside the circle.

They did as asked. The three of the holding hands then she started chanting. Their grips became tight around each other's hands. They, Dahlia and Helen felt so much powerful than before when she stopped the feeling kind off disappeared and they felt a bit weak. Ariella was standing in the circle looking refurbished. Poor girls, she did to them what she did to Debbie sometime in the future. Siphoned their magic.

"I feel different" complained Helen stating at herself.

"Me too what have you done to us?" Dahlia asked.

"Nothing, it's just a side effect of the spell it will wash off come on let's get a chariot I need to stay in this circle or else Zeli will kill us all" she said holding the circle with both hands.

As though the gods heard her prayer, there was a man passing with a chariot. Ariella dropped the circle and choked him to death with her hand. There was no time to act nice around anyone. She was not feeling nice herself.

"Why did you do that?" Dahlia asked surprised at her brutality.

"We don't have time come on who among you knows how to ride?" She asked picking up her circle.

They both looked confused. They had no idea how to ride a horse. None of them had rode one in their lives.

"Maybe you should have thought about it before killing him" Helen teased.

"Check if there...."

A man emerged from the back of the chariot. It was their unlucky day, the two were looters who were taking advantage of the unrest to rob people. The already poor people. He did not look much rich himself which proved one point, in Clivestone kingdom the poor were enemies of the poor and not the rich as everyone thought.

"What's going on? Why did we stop?" He asked counting shekels of gold.

The awkward silence forced him to look up. Three women were staring down at him and his friend was dead on the ground. The skin full of coins dropped from his hands. He was afraid.

"You know how to ride a horse?" Ariella asked looking straight into his eyes.

"Yes"

"Take us to the palace" she said.

The man obediently got on top of the horse as the witches went inside the back of the chariot.

********

"You knew that all this time?" Leon asked staring at her angrily.

"No, I summoned my grandmother trust me if I knew I would have told you the moment we met"

"We don't have time"

They had a lot of ground to cover. If he could split himself Leon would have done exactly that. The lands were huge and the five kings were well protected it was going to be hard if not impossible to get to all of them on time before Ariella did. She had the advantage. Unlike Leon she didn't have to find all the kings. She only needed to make one of them disappear to break the chain. Without the blood of one there was no opening of the wizard Allen's tomb, no getting the sword of life and death and no saving the future. What was even more demoralizing was the fact that he was going to be stuck in 1823 forever.

"What should we do?" Cassandra asked.

"Am trying to think"Leon said walking out of the cave.

“Then try and think loud am not good at reading minds like you”

From far he could see smoke. It was Clivestone that was on fire. He was too late, there was little chance he was going to find Rhode Alive or maybe Hector or Herman. Cassandra joined him.

"Ooh my goodness!"

"It's on fire already that's Ariella once unleashed she is unstoppable"

"We need to split up into four" Cassandra suggested.

Just then Johannes and Gaia arrived with Johannes holding her in super speed. They were both breathing heavily.

"Baxter and his men have surrounded the forest" Johannes said.

"We need to split into two groups" Leon said.

"Why?"

"To cover more ground, we just need the blood of each king just the blood dead or alive" Cassandra said.

"Gaia and I will take Baxter" Johannes suggested.

Leon looked at Gaia just in case she did not want to be his team mate.

"We can do that but how do we get out of here?" She asked.

"We will handle that, I will take King James of the northern kingdom" Cassandra announced.

"Alone?" Leon asked.

"Yeah, I can take care of myself besides I have friends there who can help me get what I want" she assured.

"Good and I will take Rhode who from the look of things might be dead, that's three what about the remaining two?"

If only they had extra hands but they didn't yet they needed it to get done as soon as possible or else Ariella and her crazy brother were going to take total control.

"We meet here then go after the other two together" Gaia suggested.

"Sounds like a plan to me" said Leon.

"Me too" Johannes said.

"Let's get going then, be careful you can ask Helen and Dahlia to help you" Cassandra said.

"I will"

That's how they split into three groups promising to meet again. Of the three Leon had the toughest task. The help he was asked to seek had already aligned with the enemy and they had no powers anymore. But he was a ruler of adversity. He thrived in it. That was just another test he was preparing to pass like the rest of them.

***Zeli's realm****

He could feel the spell was working but she was resisting. Zeli was infuriated. He was used to things going his way, a stranger to failure. To some extent considered himself a god of magic. There was no magical spells he didn't know about or have an idea of. Nothing in the magic world happened without his knowledge.

Out of desperation Zeli was starting to think that maybe the girls played him. That maybe it was not only Ariella who was resisting. The more he cast the spell the more he felt weak and he was having this weird memories.

"One more attempt" he said.

It was now worse than the last time.

"What are you up to siz?"

There was another way. And it was not working too. He could not demonize anyone anymore. That was strange too. Something was wrong to him.

"Wake up girls you played me!" He announced getting in their prison.

That's when he realized. They were nowhere to be seen.

"f**k!" He cursed out loud.

Zeli was going nuts. They had played him. The spell had some bits that weakened him. He started feeling blurry and collapsed as he crawled towards his enchantment room until he couldn't anymore. He went into slumber. And when he slept his fantasy world was no longer in his control.

"Is he out?" Lydia asked.

It was Debbie who went to check while Shamla and Lydia watched from a distance.

"He is out let’s try to leave" she said walking back to them.

Lydia was still lagging behind when Debbie came to fetch her.

"We don't have much time" she said.

"What's going to happen if we walk out of that door?" Lydia asked sounding worried.

"We don't know. Maybe Zeli booby trapped this whole place but whatever it is, good or bad we are going to face it together like we have always done" Debbie assured them.

If they had the physically capability they would have hugged each other but they couldn't.

"Remember if it works we make the ring" Shamla emphasized.

Debbie and Lydia nodded in agreement before Debbie opened the door. It was dark, like a dark bottomless pit. She turned to look at them.

"What?" Lydia asked.

"If it doesn't work or it takes us to separate locations just know I love you girls, you are the best inmates I would ever wish to have" she said breaking into tears.

"Come on go, you said we don't have time" Lydia argued, “you will tell us that back home, am sure we will make it"

"Me too" Shamla said.

"Here goes nothing!" Debbie said and waked out followed by Lydia and shamla. They couldn't stop falling.

***Old fort, winter of 2016 One year after Zeli's defeat***

In what used to be whiskers hideout, the same place Lydia had hidden the kids Grace was collections firewood to light a fire from the above the ground store. She was dressed in all black, it was winter. Black boots, black cotton trousers and a black pull neck. A trench coat on top of it. She had a dog. Her name was Carly.

"Come on Carly" she said waiting by the door.

Carly kept barking coming out of the store.

"Let it go, you can't eat all the squirrels here" she said finally locking the door.

She carried the wood with one hand the other carried Carly, the dog licked her face and nose.

"Okay enough, let's get inside shall we"

Grace was living all alone there. James came to check on her once in a while. He was always busy with finding Don who didn't want to be found. When she got inside she could feel a heartbeat. Grace put Carly down.

"Grace?" Debbie asked.

"Debbie! Ooh my God Debbie you are up!" She said rushing to hug her.

The two women hugged each other tightly. Debbie was crying.

"Where are the others?" She asked cupping her face.

"On the way I think, how long have we been asleep?" She asked looking around.

"A year and a few months"

"And where are we?"

"In whiskers hideout, can I get you something to keep you warm?"

"Please, but before that can we get some grass or anything vegetation that can make a ring!" Debbie asked breathing heavily.

"How bad do you need that?" Grave asked.

"My life depends on it" Debbie said.

"It's winter, but you stay here with Carly I will be right back"