To Catch a Witch [Spells of Seduction 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (12 page)

Pondora moved in front of Jacob. “Fine, now that you found me, let them go. They are innocents and mustn’t be harmed.”

The cackling laughter returned. “Your soft heart had always been your undoing, Velona. These innocents have seen me and know too much now. They must die as you will. But first I must have your powers before I kill them.” She turned to look at Merlin.

Because of the connection through the dream spell last night, Serona must have seen the orb Merlin held and knew it contained Pondora’s powers. Jacob turned to look at Merlin and saw that he pointed his wand in the air and was chanting some sort of spell. He aimed his wand at Serona. Lightning sparked on the tip and shot fast at her.

She held her hand up and formed a transparent shield before her, which deflected the lightning energy and sent it downward to the earth. The grass turned black as it burned from the intense heat bombarding it.

Serona looked at Pondora. “Really, how they trapped you in the first place, I will never know. Their petty tricks are hardly magic.” The evil sorceress waved her hand.

Jacob’s heart sank. He knew the spell Merlin cast. It was the most powerful attack spell Orion had ever taught them. He himself knew of nothing more powerful, and the sorceress deflected it with ease as if it was just a nuisance.

Jacob had never seen any sorcerer or sorceress with powers to deflect the spell. He realized now that they were dealing with a different type of magic and most probably all of their spells would be inert against Serona, including perhaps the one that Merlin wanted to cast during the eclipse. Jacob looked up at the sky and saw that the eclipse would be happening soon. They had mere minutes before it transpired.

Not knowing what to do, he just stood there dumbfounded, racking his brain with ways to save them all. His brain felt like quicksand, and his every thought kept sinking.

Merlin walked over to the other side and chanted the same spell, shooting lightning at Serona. Once again, she deflected the energy to the ground. Merlin continued an endless, futile attack on her. Jacob couldn’t understand why he wasted precious time on a spell that obviously wasn’t working.

“Enough, you meddling fool!” Serona shouted, having deflected a fourth attack. She fisted her hand, which turned bright blue, then green, then yellow, then orange, then bright red, and thrust her hand out at him. A round ball of light radiating all the colors her hand had emitted formed and grew as big as four feet in diameter and flew upon Merlin. He fell to the ground.

Jacob couldn’t believe what he saw. He ran to him and knelt by his side. “Merlin! Merlin!”

But his brother didn’t open his eyes, nor did he move. He shouted at Serona with all his anger spewing forth. “You killed him!”

She laughed. “No, not yet, but that is coming next.”

Her hand fisted again and began to change colors when he heard Pondora say, “Enough, Serona. Please don’t kill him. I’ll do anything you ask.”

Serona lifted a brow and looked at her, though her fisted hand continued to change colors. “Are you willing to come back?”

Pondora looked at Merlin’s still body then at Jacob and gave him a sorry look. She lifted her head and replied, “Yes, if you promise not to hurt them anymore, I will come back with you.”

“Agreed.” She opened her hand and it returned to normal. She looked at the fallen Merlin and said, “But we must get your powers back. I saw the orb through the dream connection last night. Find it.”

“I’ll get it,” Pondora said as she walked over to Jacob, who clung to the bag with both hands. She knelt beside him and mouthed low, “Please, Jacob, give me the orb.”

“No, I will not! I thought you wanted to fix all the wrongs you did in your past?”

She lowered her gaze. “I do, or rather I did. But I cannot bear losing you both. I’d rather go back to my past than have you both die. I love you too much and cannot bear that.”

His heart warmed with her proclamation. He sighed. “I love you, too. So does Merlin. Even though he has never told me in so many words, I see it in his eyes when he looks at you. That is why you cannot go with her, but stay with us.”

“We cannot defeat her, Jacob. She is too powerful.”

“We can at least try.”

“This isn’t a time for farewells, Velona. Hurry and get the orb,” Serona shouted to her.

“Yes,” Pondora answered back and then returned her gaze to Jacob and with pleading eyes, said, “Please.”

He took a deep breath and slipped his hand into the bag. He found the parchment with the spell Merlin had shown him, and he remembered what his brother had told him. He gazed in the air, and the moon had completely aligned with the sun. The lunar eclipse was happening right now. He also noted that they were in the center of the stone circle formation, exactly where Merlin had said the spell must be recited.

He whispered to Pondora, “Please let me try.”

Pondora gazed at him and the parchment and gave him a slight nod so Serona couldn’t see.

Jacob looked at Serona. “Merlin and I cast the spell stripping her of her powers, so only one of us can reverse it.”

“Fine, well then do it and make it quick. My patience is running thin.” She huffed.

Jacob picked up the orb and the parchment. Unrolling the parchment, he began to recite the spell in ancient Gaelic. And although the spell made no sense to him because it spoke of the Seal of Solomon and transferring the beast’s powers to the bearer of the ring, something started to happen.

The ring on Merlin’s left ring finger turned bright red, and so did the orb. Then he heard Serona scream, “No it can’t be. He has the Ring of Solomon.”

He didn’t risk pausing, so he didn’t dare look up at her. Instead, from his peripheral vision, he could see changing lights beaming. Serona was getting ready to hit him with a ball of energy like she did Merlin.

He began to chant the spell faster and faster. He hoped he was pronouncing all the words right. If not it wouldn’t work.

When he saw she had manifested what looked like a death ball of energy because it was double the size she created for Merlin, he knew it was over. And when she catapulted it to him, he closed his eyes, waiting for the end to come.

After a few seconds passed and the end didn’t draw near, he opened one eye to peer in the direction the death energy ball came. There was nothing there. What he did see when he opened his eyes wide was Merlin’s ring radiated a bright white light, and his brother had awoken.

He sat up, alert and energized as if nothing had ever happened to him, and he chanted a vanquishing spell, pointing the ring in Serona’s direction.

She turned to run, screaming, “No!”

But her escape was impossible as the power from the ring beamed on her, and her body instantly turned to crumbling black ash that blew away with the easterly wind.

Pondora fell to her knees and hugged Merlin. “You’re all right.” She kissed him hard on the lips.

Merlin hugged and kissed her back and laughed. “Actually, I never felt better, or as powerful.”

Jacob’s raging heart slowed its pace as he regained his senses. He put out his hand for his brother to take, and he pulled him up. Hugging him, he smiled. “I thought I lost you there.”

Merlin sighed dusting off the dirt from his tunic. “When I first thought up the plan, I wasn’t sure if I would have survived it myself.”

Jacob’s nostrils flared, and his eyes almost popped out of their sockets. “What the devil? You did it on purpose to have her attack you like she did?”

“Yes, I was buying time, so the moon would align with the sun.”

“Not a bright idea, dear brother, because she knocked you out and could have killed you.”

“True, but she would have killed us anyway, and I knew you would know what to do if something happened to me, as I had told you all the instructions you needed to perform the spell yourself.”

“Oh. But exactly what did I do?” Jacob frowned confused more than ever.

Pondora responded to Merlin, “I think I am beginning to see the details of your plan.”

Jacob lifted his arms in the air in frustration. “Would you mind just telling me what in God’s name just happened!”

Merlin placed his hand on his brother’s back, tapping him gently. “Yes, let me start from the beginning...”

Velona kept pinching herself, making sure it wasn’t all a dream.

She stood there in awe, listening to Merlin.

“So you’re telling me you planned this all out from the very beginning?” Jacob asked.

Merlin nodded. “Yes, when you told me that a demon came to you through the spying glass and then I found out it was Serona. I knew she wasn’t just a sorceress but a demon, as well.”

“She’s more than that,” Velona added.

She realized the time for confessions had come. After they heard all of what she said, would they still love her? She hoped that her prayers and dreams had finally come true.

Taking a deep breath, she began to tell them everything about Serona and her true relation to her.

Once she was done, they stared at her in silent wonder.

A few seconds after that, Jacob tapped his finger on his lips. “So Serona was your sister. But why did she call you Velona?”

“Because that is my name.”

Merlin squinted. “Then why do you go by the name Pondora?”

Did she dare tell them the truth about Pondora? If she did, the others would hunt her down and try to kill her. They would do the same to Jacob and Merlin. Upon further thought, she realized that once the others found out Serona was dead, they would come after them and try to kill them just the same. Knowledge was power. In this case it certainly was.

If Merlin and Jacob knew exactly who or what they were up against, they had a better chance at surviving.

Taking an encouraging breath, she began, “Pondora is not one sorceress, as you and the country have been led to believe. Pondora is a clan of demon sorceresses like myself and my sister, all working in a collective to wreak terror and destruction on the population.”

“There are more like you?”

“Yes, some even more powerful than Serona was. And when they find out that my sister is dead, they will be coming after us to avenge her death.”

Merlin crossed his arms in defiance. “Well, now that I harnessed your sister’s powers in the ring, we can fight back.”

“Yes, but you’re the only one who now possesses demon powers through the ring. You are the only one who is a formidable enemy to them, and they are many.”

“True, but we have brains to our advantage,” Merlin joked, pointing to his head with his index finger.

Jacob amusingly punched him in the arm. “Funny. By the way, how did you know Serona would make her attack at Stonehenge? Your plans depended solely on that factor. If she attacked before or after that, we were doomed.”

Merlin nodded. “Indeed. But I just had a strong hunch, and you know my hunches have always been right.” He winked at Jacob.

Jacob crossed his arms, grinning. “I won’t comment to that second, even funnier remark.” He paused and added, “Where in God’s name did you find the spell we used and the Ring of Solomon, anyway?”

“A very old wizard I met in Camelot many years ago gave them to me. He said that a time would come when I would need them to vanquish a demon.”

“Really?” Jacob blinked.

“Yes, he said that it would be the first step to a new beginning. Many things would change because of this, for the better and the worse. A chain of events would unfold hereafter that would change the world forever. He gave me many other charms and spells and said I’d know when the time was right to use them.”

“Sounds so oddly cryptic, don’t you think?” Jacob waved his hands in the air.

“Indeed.”

Velona asked, “What was the wizard’s name?”

He laughed. “You’ll never believe it!”

“Tell us anyway.” She smiled.

“His name was Merlin.”

“So how many will come?” Jacob asked Merlin as they arrived back at Merlin’s cottage.

“If all who promised will come, we will be ten strong.”

“Will that be enough?”

“Velona said there are a dozen more demon sorceresses in the clan. Considering they are more powerful than us, no, it isn’t enough.”

“Then what do we do?”

“We search for more sorcerers and spread the word to other countries. We’re bound to get more that way.”

“Yes, I suppose you’re right.” Jacob pushed down the doorknob and was about to put the key in the hole when the door opened.

“Did you do that?” he asked Merlin.

Merlin took out his sword. “No, but we will find out who did right now.”

He kicked in the door, expecting to see a Pondora Witch, the term he recently made up for their enemy, lying in ambush waiting. To his delightful surprise, he saw a very naked seductress lying in his bed, smiling at him and Jacob.

“Velona!” Jacob said grinning.

With sultry eyes, she sighed. “I hope you don’t mind I made myself at home. You did say I could move in here with you and Jacob, Merlin.”