The Darkness Within (22 page)

“Knock it off!” Dylan grabbed her wrists, pulling her hands from the steering wheel. The car turned off the road and onto the grass. We all screamed and bounced around in our seats. Ethan’s Mazda wasn’t exactly an off-road vehicle, and if this spell totaled the car, Ethan was going to total Shannon.

“Undo the spell! Undo the spell!” Ethan was gripping the seat, probably more out of fear for the car than for all of us. We came dangerously close to hitting a huge tree.

“Shannon!” I didn’t know what else to do to snap her out of her shock or whatever it was she was going through. She wasn’t listening. Dylan started mumbling a spell, and my heart raced, willing him to hurry up and finish it. The car must’ve hit a big rock or a tree root because we were actually airborne for a moment. Dylan’s head slammed into the passenger door. He slumped sideways in his seat. “Dylan!” I reached for him, but there was blood dripping down his face. He wasn’t going to be finishing the spell. Shannon was screaming hysterically in the front seat, still wrestling the steering wheel. Little Miss Spells-Work-for-Everything was doing everything
but
using magic.

I gripped Ethan’s hand. “Follow my lead.” I had no clue how to undo another witch’s spell. It was completely foreign territory for me. So instead, I focused on stopping the car. That was it. Not ending the spell. We’d deal with that later. My mind raced, and I swear my brain was being jostled around with every bump we hit. The words weren’t coming to me. Of all times to choke and freeze up, I had to pick now.

Ethan squeezed my hand. “Say what you want the car to do. The spell doesn’t have to be pretty to be effective.”

He was right. I’d done some really awful spells before, as far as wording goes, and they’d still worked. I took a deep breath, got jostled again, and started the spell. The first thing that popped into my head was a spell from
Harry Potter
, but I was no Dumbledore, not even close. I took Ethan’s advice and went with my own words, not caring that they were nowhere near as cool as the headmaster’s.

“Stop the car. Go no far.” Totally craptastic.

Ethan picked up with the spell. It sounded better coming from him, and at least we’d be making fools of ourselves together. We chanted, letting our magic build and surround the car. The brakes squeaked, which I knew broke Ethan’s heart. But brakes could be fixed. If the spell totaled the car, Ethan wouldn’t be able to afford a new one, not even an old clunker.

A tree was directly in front of us. I pushed my feet and right hand against Dylan’s seat. This was the point in Driver’s Ed where the instructor stomps on his brake from the passenger seat. I didn’t have a brake, but my foot didn’t seem to understand that. I chanted louder, as if that was going to make the spell work any faster. I felt my magic growing in strength and threw all of that force behind my words. The car swerved slightly and came to rest only inches from the tree.

“Oh my God. Oh my God.” Shannon was panting, and her knuckles were white from her death grip on the steering wheel.

“Is everyone okay?” I asked, knowing we weren’t. Dylan was bleeding and out cold in the front seat. Shannon was a wreck who apparently could only mutter one phrase, and Ethan… His eyes were locked in front of us. “Ethan?” A chill went through me, starting at my hand, which was still in Ethan’s. No. He wasn’t using his dark magic. I was imagining things. He was shocked and relieved that we hadn’t hit the tree. That was all. It had to be.

Shannon stopped saying “Oh my God” and turned toward us. Her eyes fell on Ethan. “Sam.” Her face lost the little color it had left. “Get out of the car. Now!”

“Shannon, relax. It’s okay. He’s stunned. That’s all.”

“Don’t be an idiot. He tapped into it again. Look at him.”

I stared at Ethan’s face, which was emotionless. “Ethan, look at me. Please. Focus. Fight this.” I touched his cheek. He felt clammy. I was about to say his name again when something moved across the back of my hand. A greenish glow wound around Ethan’s and my hands, tying us together.

“What is he doing to you?” Shannon’s eyes were huge, and she had her seat belt off, ready to bolt. I knew she was thinking about the green snake that had attacked her in the clearing.

“I don’t know. I’m okay, though. It doesn’t hurt.”

“Get your hand out of his before that thing attacks you.” Shannon’s voice squeaked.

I didn’t want to let go of Ethan. I felt so disconnected from him already. I summoned my own magic instead. I focused on sending calming waves of energy at Ethan. I had to calm him down, get him to block the darkness within him.

“Sam.” Shannon’s squeak was worse, but I ignored her, continuing to concentrate on helping Ethan. This had to work. I wasn’t losing him to this magic. “Damn it, Sam!”

What was her problem? Couldn’t she see I was in the middle of a spell to save Ethan?

Creaking and the sound of wood splitting made me jerk my eyes open. The enormous tree in front of us was shaking. Literally shaking, despite its monstrous size. “What’s happening?”

“Ask your boyfriend. I have a feeling he’s behind this. Look at him.” Shannon unclicked her seat belt and started her own spell.

She was right about Ethan. He was focused on the tree. His stone-cold face was nearly unrecognizable. How was this happening? He was going to bring the tree down right on us!

“Ethan!”

“That’s not going to work.” Shannon reached across Dylan and pushed his door open. He sat up in his seat.

“Dylan, are you okay?”

“He’s under a zombie spell. He can’t answer you. I ordered him to get out of the freakin’ car. Now, you do the same.”

“What about Ethan? I’m not leaving him to get crushed.”

Shannon was out the door already, but she paused and looked at me. “I’ll try a zombie spell on him, but there’s no guarantee it will work. He’s doing a hell of a spell of his own right now. I may not be able to break through.”

“Try it.” I pried my hand from his. His grip was so strong, but Shannon’s spell was weakening him slightly. The tree continued to creak and sway. Some of the limbs came crashing down around us. I jumped with each thump and shake of the ground.

“It’s not working,” Shannon said, her face twisted in pain. “I’m giving this every ounce of strength I have.”

“Go. Get out of here.” I couldn’t let her die. Ethan was my responsibility.
I grabbed him and tugged him toward the door. He barely moved and stayed focused on the tree. My thoughts swirled with stupid idea after stupid idea. Nothing was going to move him. He was determined to crush this car with him inside. It made no sense. “This isn’t happening!” I pulled myself onto his lap, putting my face in his and blocking his view of the tree. “Ethan! Look at me! Look at me!”

“Sam, get out! The tree is coming down!” Shannon ran, but her eyes stayed locked on me.

I turned in time to see the tree falling on the car and hear the crunch of metal.

23

M
Y
hands flew up like I was going to catch the tree that was about to bash my skull in. A whoosh of energy burst out of me in a golden light, and then everything got still. Time seemed to stop. The tree was on the car, but it wasn’t crushing us. I was actually holding it up, not with muscle, with magic.

“Holy crap!” Shannon rushed to the back door and yanked it open. “How are you doing that?” It wasn’t so much the fact that my magic could support the tree. It was the fact that I’d been able to react and summon my magic in time, while still panicking. I had no clue how I’d done it.

“Can you help me? The spell is slipping, and I still need to get Ethan out of here.” I couldn’t look back to check on him. If I did, the spell would break. I was using all my magical strength to maintain the spell and keep us alive.

“Okay.” Shannon raised her hands and mumbled under her breath. Hearing her made me realize I’d cast a spell without saying a word. I’d never cast a spell of this size without speaking the words aloud. This was huge. My powers were really coming around. “I’ve got it,” Shannon yelled. “Get out.”

Even though Shannon had her own spell going on, I was afraid to drop my hands. I tested it out, slowly lowering just one, making sure the tree didn’t come down on the car any more. It held. I lowered the other hand. Still good. Ethan’s head was resting on the back of
the seat. His eyes were shut like he was sleeping. What had happened to him? “Ethan.” I cupped his cheek.

“Um, we kind of don’t have time to coddle him right now. This tree is massively heavy.” Shannon’s voice was strained. The weight of the spell was wearing her out. She didn’t have the power of two witches inside her like I did.

I grabbed Ethan’s arm, wrapping it around my neck. I wedged myself into his side and tried to lift him up. He slumped forward, nearly crushing me.

“Use a spell!” Shannon was in serious trouble, which meant I was in even worse trouble—dead trouble.

I concentrated my magic on lifting Ethan. He wasn’t using any spells now, so his magic didn’t fight me. He moved—well, like a zombie. Like Dylan had. Where was Dylan? I couldn’t think about that. I had to keep going. The second Ethan and I were out of the car, Shannon dropped to her knees. I pushed Ethan forward so he wouldn’t get hit by any branches. He slumped onto the grass. Shannon groaned as she lost control of her spell. The tree finished its fall with a squeal of bending metal. The remaining branches lashed out, hitting Shannon and me on the back and shoulders.

I went down hard, so hard my head bounced. My nose smacked into the ground on the second bounce. My eyes shut, and I drifted off. Not to sleep. To some weird semiconscious state. I knew I was hurt. I felt the pain in my back and nose. Yet I was somewhat detached from what was happening. I felt more like I was remembering an injury, rather than experiencing it. Like it was days or weeks old. Warmth spread throughout my body, making my face and back tingle. My magic was healing me. I didn’t remember telling it to. It sort of did it on its own.

“Sam?” Ethan’s voice sounded strained, filled with pain. Was I imagining him? I saw him fall down. He was unconscious, like Dylan. Maybe I was dead. Maybe we all were. “Sam.” Hands gently lifted my head. “Can you hear me? Can you open your eyes?”

My eyelids fluttered. Ethan stared down at me. He sighed, and his entire body shivered. His eyes were bloodshot and filled with tears. “I thought you were dead.” The words were a whisper on his lips, like he wasn’t really intending for me to hear them.

“Is she…?” Shannon rushed over. “Oh, thank God.” She had this look like she wanted to reach out and hug me.

I tried to sit up, but my body wasn’t ready yet. My back was still healing. My magic was strong, and it was working as quickly as it could to fix me. That could only mean my injuries were pretty bad. I had no doubt I’d be paralyzed if I didn’t have this magic inside me. My spine certainly felt shattered.

“Take it easy. Don’t try to move yet.” Ethan’s bottom lip quivered. He was trying to act normal, but he knew this incident had happened because of the darkness within him. He used his shirt to wipe the blood from my nose.

“Do I look like I just went four rounds in the ring with…?” I couldn’t think of a single boxer’s name. My mind wouldn’t function properly, probably because it was focused on the magic healing me.

“You look like you. You’ll be fine. Shannon and Dylan will heal you.”

“We don’t need to,” Shannon said. “She’s doing it herself.”

“It sort of happened on its own. Weird, right?”

Shannon shook her head, still looking like she wanted to wrap her arms around me. God, I must have looked awful for her to be that concerned. “It’s not doing it on its own. Your subconscious told the magic to heal you.”

“Huh. Well, that’s good to know.” I was trying to lighten the mood, but Ethan and Shannon were not having it. “Where’s Dylan? Is he okay?”

“He’s still unconscious. I was going to heal him, but after I healed my shoulder, I wanted to check on you.”

“Go help him. I’ll be fine.”

She swallowed hard and nodded, but her face gave her away. She wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to heal myself.

“Ethan, how bad is it? Really.”

He brushed his hand against my cheek. “I’m never doing magic again. Never. I hurt you, Sam. God, I hurt
you
, of all people. I brought that tree down on us. And the worst part was that there I was, sitting in my body as if it didn’t even belong to me. I was watching in horror, screaming on the inside, but my body wouldn’t listen to me. The magic wouldn’t listen to me.” His breathing was shaky. He took a
minute to calm down. “When the tree fell and you stopped it—I’d never felt so relieved. I thought it was over. I saw you holding the tree up and then I blacked out. When I woke up on the grass, you were…”

“I was what?”

“You were pinned under the branch.” Pinned? I’d thought the branch had just hit me. But it had trapped me.

“I got it off you.”

“How?” He must have used magic. There was no other explanation for how he could’ve moved the branch.

“It was the last spell I’ll ever do.”

“Don’t say that. We’ll fix this.” My back pinched—no, it was more like someone was jamming my spine back together. “Ahh!” My body went completely rigid. Not that I would’ve tried to move. I was afraid to even breathe. The pain was so intense I couldn’t see straight. Ethan was a blur, though I knew him well enough to know his face was contorted in panic.