Page 3 of Phoenix Academy: Madness

I exchanged a look with Mom. We both knew that Lizzy couldn't go for much longer. I didn't need to close my eyes and reach my senses out to feel the Heretic's followers on either side of our trail, pinching inward, ready to cut us off.

The only way out was to face them.

But I didn't think we would all survive the encounter.

"I'll draw them out," Mom said. "You and Lizzy head towards the highway and hitchhike out of here. Use your trustworthy spell before you get in a stranger's car, though. I don't want you getting axe murdered."

I shook my head in denial. "I'm not leaving you behind."

"You have to. Someone needs to protect your sister."

Lizzy looked at us with wide eyes, lower lip trembling. "We can still escape, can't we? There's got to be a way out. We always get away from him."

I didn't have the heart to tell her that the Heretic was minutes away from trapping us, his pace relentless, strong beyond all reason despite the fact that he was no supernatural creature I'd ever heard of in my life.

He'd been hunting us for years, and each time he got closer to his ultimate goal. We'd come to the end of the line. Either we died, or we finally killed him.

Mom and I met each other's eyes. And I knew, in a moment, that this was it. She was going to face him, even though she wouldn't live to tell the tale, just to give Lizzy and I time to get away.

"We've got to say goodbye," I told my sister, taking her hand and tugging her close. "There isn't any time to spare."

"No!" She jerked from my grip, stumbling back with horror in her eyes. "I'm not going to just leave Mom to die. I can fight! We can both fight!"

Then she turned and fled into the woods, straight in the direction of the men chasing us. Foliage leapt up beneath her feet, blocking off her path.

"Lizzy!" I screamed her name, frantically running after her, pushing wild vines out of the way. "Lizzy, come back!"

I pulled my machete out of its sheath at my back and hacked at the overgrowth keeping me from my sister, frustration making magic leak out of me.

Then I saw her, yards away from me. One of the men had her in his grasp, and though she squirmed and thrashed, she was too little to fight him. He was dragging her away, no doubt to deliver her like a package to his master.

"Ari!" My mother's voice jerked me back before I could plunge further into the trees. "Get out of the way!"

I ducked as she aimed her rifle at the man and clipped the side of his head. He bellowed, dropping Lizzy, and she ran back towards us, her face white and drained of blood. I put her behind me and pulled my own rifle, sighting down it to put his chest square in my view.

I'd never killed a man before. Rabbit, fish, birds, deer, and even, one memorable afternoon, a brown bear. A man was an entirely different thing to shoot.

But I didn't hesitate to pull the trigger. The rifle jerked in my hand as the round buried itself in his chest and tore him apart, flesh and blood alike.

Lizzy whimpered. I relaxed my grip on the rifle and grabbed her hand, pulling her in my wake. Mom ushered us towards her, scanning the horizon with her rifle in one hand. We got straight back to business, ignoring the fit Lizzy had just thrown in favor of planning our survival.

"There's a clearing fifty yards away. I can feel it. If we make it there and make a barricade, we can face him."

"And Lizzy?"

"Will climb as high as she can in the highest tree she finds, and not make a single sound." Mom gave Lizzy a glare of warning. "No more running away. Got it?"

She nodded, biting her lip. "Got it."

We dashed through the trees, undergrowth lashing our legs, hearts beating as fast as possible.

We left a body behind us. My first kill.

Unlikely to be my last.

Chapter 2

We reached the clearing.I shoved Lizzy towards a tree. Mom and I grabbed deadwood and turned it into a barricade which we knelt behind, rifles in our hands. She gave me the signal, and I closed my eyes to let my senses travel through the woods.

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