I call to wind chaos and destruction,

Phlegmatic energy of air,

Blow through that which is shadow,

Dispersing all with marked protective care.

The face distorted grotesquely. Small holes appeared, the wind drifting through the mask almost sedately. Xavier hovered there, reaching through the smoke toward his brothers. Both took a step toward him as if they could yank him out of the abyss. Something reached up from below and hooked wicked claws into the smoke, yanking the spirit below. Xavier’s desperate wail hurt their ears, and then the earth slammed shut with a decisive crash.

Xaviero slowly lifted his gaze to the women. Hatred was in every line of his face. His mouth pulled back in a snarl. He lifted his arms to the sky and then made a throwing gesture. A large, spinning rock with crystal spikes burst from the earth and hurtled toward them.

Skyler pushed air at the rock, stopping it before it could strike. You are too old to be throwing a childish tantrum, she chided. We are daughters of the Earth. Do you think our mother would allow you to harm us? Choose another weapon, this one will not work.

The rock dropped harmlessly to the ground. She didn’t fling it back at him, or send it smashing into the hellhounds ringing him. She just let it drop, showing no animosity toward him whatsoever.

His anger grew to a festering rage. You, Xaviero hissed at Skyler. You are the child that should never have been born. The child of every species. Mage, Jaguar, Carpathian, Lycan and human. Your mother deceived us. She was too powerful and had to be killed. We couldn’t risk her coming against us as she eventually would have. And yet our brother stupidly used Razvan’s body to impregnate her. His mistake. His ultimate mistake.

Skyler stared into his eyes, unblinking. Unafraid. Her mother had warned her to stay away from the mages, to hide who she was and her abilities, but she was no longer that helpless child and she never would be again. You did not frighten my mother nor do you frighten me. I pity you with your grandiose schemes and desperate need for control. You have nothing, and you are nothing.

Your mother was nothing. She crawled before us, a child we created. Mage, Jaguar and human for our purposes. Ours. She danced to our tune. She was no more than a puppet, he screamed.

Skyler recognized that he was trying to anger her. That he was using her mother’s past to fuel her temper so he could use that against her, twist her emotions into something ugly. She shook her head. You feared her power and her goodness or you wouldn’t have wanted her dead. Again, I’m sorry for you. She lifted her hands into the air and began sketching a pattern.

For those who lost will,

Let it now be returned,

Taking back their power,

So freedom may be earned.

Your evil will not prevail.

These men no longer belong to you,

Just as my mother never belonged to you.

Most of the mixed bloods who had served Xaviero stopped fighting abruptly, looking confused and disoriented. A few sat down and buried their faces in their hands.

Xayvion slipped into the shadows. Brother. Leave with me now. We cannot defeat them.

They are women. Nothing. Xaviero spit on the ground. These warriors cannot touch me, the hellhounds obey. I will kill all four of them.

Brother. I entreat you. Leave now. Xayvion’s voice faded.

Sputtering, his face red, Xaviero stomped hard on the ground, and then threw two crystal spheres he produced from the pockets of his robe into the hollows he’d made in the dirt. Furious that his brother would think the women, even combined, could wield more power than the two of them left him wanting to tear the four hated women apart limb by limb.

Water bubbled up from the indentations his heels had made, shot into the sky and then rained down over the four women, an acid rain that threatened to consume them.

Tatijana shifted partially into the blue dragon, her wedge-shaped head lifted to the sky, mouth open while her hands followed a complicated pattern.

Waters chemical, acid rain,

I drink your strength having no pain.

You quench my thirst, revive my will,

I transmute this water making it evil’s swill.

When the last drop was gone and Xaviero stood gaping at her, she shifted back and smiled almost gently at him. You taught me that trick when I was ten years old. Have you forgotten? My dragon is a water dragon and you used me, forced me to consume acid rain. My dragon seems to have developed a taste for it. She smiled serenely and gave the mage a small salute.

Xaviero whirled around, ignoring the scattering hellhounds who howled like lost souls, uncertain what he wanted them to do. They began snapping at one another. Two went down in a fierce fight while the others rushed to bite and claw the combatants.

So intent on destroying the four women he blamed for thwarting his plan, Xaviero appeared not to notice. He continued spinning, his robes flaring out in a wide circle, scattering sparks over the ground. Blue flames burst from his fingertips, so that he looked as if he was circled by one long, continuous blue flame. He produced a wild wind that fanned the dying flames of the pyre into a fearsome conflagration.

His hands flowed, his voice rising as he sent the blue fire streaking overhead straight at Branislava. She ignored the screams and shouts to get down, standing her ground, holding Xaviero’s gaze as he smirked at her, certain the flame would devour all four of the women.

As the heated missile bore down on them, Branislava stepped forward, just a little ahead of the others, lifting her arms straight over her head as if putting on a long gown. Her hands moved gracefully in the air, like a dancer telling a story.

Born in fire, honed in ice,

I call to the four corners.

Make your energies mine,

I call to fire, sister kin,

I absorb your abilities,

Taking all within.

She turned to embrace the battlefield.

I call to Pisionics swinging blades,

Spontaneous combustion,

Magick is made.

Take that which is evil,

Return it to realm,

Encasing all in your fire,

So none may return.

Her body shimmered red gold and then the blue flame hit her. Her entire body glowed blue and flames erupted all around her, seemingly engulfing her.

Xaviero laughed gleefully, the sound shrill over the silent battlefield. He didn’t seem to notice the great beasts standing for a moment, uncertain there on the battlefield and then tucking their tails and wandering off. As they stepped into the forest, out of sight and mind of the mage, they dissolved into nothing.

The blue flame danced for a moment, whirling around Branislava almost playfully. Through the blue of the fire gleamed first gold and then red, followed by orange. The colors swirled around her from head to toe and then slowly faded into her body, as if she’d absorbed the flames.