Anna's Hope Episode One (20 page)

Her eyes drew wide.

She could feel it approaching. The soul
catcher.

Scott paled even more – an impossible feat
considering he already looked whiter than powdered bone. He tried
to fight against the snakes binding him, but they only slithered
tighter against this body. “Goddammit, you asshole,” he screamed at
the wizard, “you can’t do this. Stop!”

The wizard looked up at him. “I can. I
will. I am.” He brought his hand up, and Anna shot into the air,
held there by his ghostly grip.

Her wrist was about to break, and she gasped
and writhed in agony.

She couldn’t break free though.

The soul catcher continued to approach.
There was heavy, pounding footfall from outside. But then, just as
it appeared it would break right through the far wall, it stopped.
A door opened towards the back of the church, and someone entered.
The soul catcher. She watched its enormous troll-like form change
in a crackle of black smoke, until a woman walked forward.

With a slight frame and shocking emerald
eyes, she walked towards them, her long black hair tapering down
her naked back. Her two bare feet padded softly against the cold
stone floor as she made her slow way towards them.

The wizard knelt, pressing his head to the
floor. “You’re Highness.”

As the woman approached, she raised a hand,
her elegant fingers splaying as fine traces of magic sparked
between her nails. They made the air around her crackle and spit,
like water thrown on coals.

The wizard’s head jerked back, as one of
his eyes suddenly lit up like the sun. The iris flared with
shocking blue, lines bursting from it and travelling down his face
like an infection on fast forwards.

Before
Anna could wonder if the soul catcher
had killed the wizard, the man pulled himself to his feet, a
triumphant smile curling his lips. Half of his face glowed, one eye
still alight and burning brightly.

Anna
had never seen anything like it.
She’d never read anything like it either.

She had no idea what was going on.

There was only one thing she was sure of –
she was about to die.

“What soul do you have for me?” the soul
catcher asked, her long neck tilting to the side as she stared down
at Anna.

“Not her – we can do something better with
her,” the wizard intoned darkly.

“What is that, child?” the soul catcher’s
voice was melodic and light, tinkling through the room like
clinking glasses or light bells.

“I want you to transfer my soul to her
body,” the wizard answered.

“Why? If you are after the fragment of
soul you lost to her, I can get it back. And then I can feast on
what’s left in her.” The soul catcher smiled at Anna, bringing a
hand up and running a single fingernail down Anna’s
cheek.

“No, I want that body. She has something
that could help us.”

The soul catcher inclined her head slowly
towards the wizard.

“If you’re hungry, you can feast on that
bounty hunter,” the wizard gestured to Scott, “he’s not a witch,
and he won’t further out plans, but at least it’s another soul to
add to your collection.”

The soul catcher patted a hand down her
lustrous, silken hair and stared over at Scott. She didn’t blink as
she surveyed his body. “Yes,” she agreed. “I will take him.”

“Then complete the ritual and give me her
body. I don’t know how much longer I can sustain you – my caller
candle is already burning low.”

The soul catcher tipped her head in
agreement, then walked unhurriedly towards Scott.

She was going to kill him. That woman was
going to draw the soul from Scott’s body and feast on it.

Anna
struggled against the ghostly grip
holding her in place. She tried to yank her hand back, she tried to
shove her shoulder back and forth until she found the purchase to
free herself.

If she’d paused to notice, she would have
realized she was moving. Through desperation or time, she was
beginning to regain control.

She twisted to watch the soul catch lean
over Scott. He watched her with fixed, unblinking eyes, sadness and
guilt and anger twisting through his expression.

The soul catcher brought up a hand, and the
snakes holding Scott in place disappeared in wriggles of black
smoke.

Scott fell to the ground. He tried to back
away, but the woman spread her fingers and locked him in place. His
body froze under her influence, his open eyes and mouth becoming so
still, they looked like stone.

She leaned down.

Magic built around her.

It was the same magic from before – the
new, powerful, strange force Anna had first experienced several
days ago.

It wasn’t soul magic – it was something else
entirely.

It made her allergies surge. Though her
body had previously felt numb and detached, now feeling returned in
a wave of tingling, burning heat.

She had seconds – seconds before that soul
catcher killed Scott.

God, she had to do something!

As her allergies went haywire, Anna fought
harder against the ghostly grip. She could feel her body again, and
she was determined to use it. She twisted and yanked – fighting
with everything she had.

Both the soul catcher and the wizard turned
to look at her.

“Contain her,” the soul catcher said.

The wizard stalked
towards
Anna, bringing a hand up and balling it into a
fist.

Anna
’s wrist broke. The snap of bone
echoed through the hall.

Her eyes burst wide and she wheezed, gulping
in an agonized breath.

And yet, despite the pain, she didn’t give
up.

The wizard reached her, and with a satisfied
smile brought his hand towards the ground. She slammed into the
floor, landing on her injured wrist.

More pain exploded through her. It was more
burning and intense than any she’d ever felt.

And yet, despite the pain, she pushed
herself up.

The wizard stood over her, shaking his head.
“You should have stayed down.” He brought his hand back, and sent
her skidding across the floor.

“Do not play with her, contain her,” the
soul catcher admonished.

“I’m doing both.” The wizard jumped down
from the pedestal and followed Anna.

She had to do something.

Now.

She may not have much in terms of power,
determination, and ability. She was the girl who’d lost her job
before she’d even started it.

Anna
was the kind of girl everyone
ignored. She could surprise no one. Though sometimes it was novel
seeing just how loudly she could sneeze.

Now, everything rested with her. If she
couldn’t defeat this wizard and stop the soul catcher, Scott would
die.

The wizard reached her and leaned down on
one knee. “Done fighting me?”

She looked up into his eyes. She held his
gaze. She ignored every blaze of pain, every stab of her allergies
and broken body. She held that gaze with all the determination of
Luminaria von Tippit herself.

“No,” she said.

Anna
fought back.

When she’d searched her soul to find the
wizard, she’d practiced soul magic. Now, she did it again.

It was almost an unconscious thing – it just
happened as she gritted her teeth and lurched towards him. While
she shoved her shoulder into his side, she moved against him with
her mind too.

A scrap of the wizard’s soul was still
inside her. While that meant he had access to her and could control
her, didn’t it mean the opposite too?

Couldn’t she control him?

The wizard was caught off guard, and
stumbled back, grabbing his head as he did.

She caught hold of his soul lodged in her
heart, and she pulled. She yanked at it like you might a weed.

He stumbled back again, breathing hard, that
blue light tracking down his face suddenly turning a muddy
brown.

Anna
kept moving forward. Though her wrist
and arm were broken, she didn’t let that stop her. She rammed her
shoulder into the wizard again, sending him toppling
over.

She heard the soul catcher shift quickly
away from Scott.

Anna
had seconds. She had to defeat the
wizard before that woman could reach her.

So she used every scrap of magic she had.
Every memory, every dream – every twist of fate – she called on it
all.

And Anna Hope Summersville
practiced soul magic.
Real
soul magic.

The wizard’s eyes drew wide as she forced
her way through them into his mind.

He suddenly drew slack. His legs crumpled
from underneath him, and he fell to the floor, frozen like she had
been minutes before.

She heard the soul catcher snarl from
behind her.

Anna
knew what to do.

During her ordeal, the clues had been
sliding into place.

She knew how to defeat the soul catcher
without even turning to face it.

She closed her eyes. She reached into the
wizard’s mind, she grabbed hold of his magic, and she snuffed it
out.

Every spell he was casting, stopped. The
light along his face died, the lines dropping from his face and
disappearing in puffs of smoke.

Far off, a candle stopped burning. A caller
candle. The very same candle the wizard had been using to sustain
the soul catcher.

The soul catcher gasped.

She disappeared.

It happened in a flash. She did not writhe
or twist as the magic sustaining her was ripped from her body. Her
eyes simply drew wide as her body blinked out of existence.

Anna
had time to turn to her, time to lock
onto the soul catcher’s gaze. Then, the woman vanished.

Silence returned to the church. Eerie,
quiet, still.

Not even dust filtered down from above.

From outside, the full moon stopped shining,
and the once-other-worldly glow bathing the stained glass windows
withdrew. Now only the softly flickering torches lit the room.

“Oh my god,” Scott croaked.

She yanked her eyes off the comatose wizard
to turn to him.

“You did it. Christ, you did it!” he managed
through a wheezing breath.

She ran up to him. Or at least she started
to. Very soon she realized how injured she was. She let out a
punctuated “oh my god,” of her own.

“Just be careful. You went through a hell of
a fight,” he said as he tried but failed to pick himself off the
floor. “I don’t know how you did it, but you got rid of that soul
catcher and the wizard. I was wrong about you,” though it looked
painful, he lifted his head to stare at her, “you are a great
bounty hunter. I’m kinda sore Merry hired you before I could.
Actually, I’m kinda sore all over.”

Anna
reached him and carefully made it
down to her knees without falling and landing on his chest again.
She offered him a pained, tired smile. “You okay?”

“Oh, hell no. I’ve been tired to a chair by
magical snakes for a day, and my soul was almost stolen by a soul
catcher.” He gave the gruffest laugh. “But that’s not important.
How are you?”

She didn’t immediately answer. She had to
think about that one. How was she?

She turned over her shoulder to stare at the
wizard.

She’d beat him. And in doing so, she’d
learnt soul magic to boot.

“That was incredible, Anna. How did you do
it?”

“I realized he was sustaining the catcher
through a calling candle, so I reached in, took control of his
magic, and snuffed the candle out.” Even as she said it, she
couldn’t quite believe it.

She brought her hands up. The bruises and
cuts and swelling confirmed she really had done it.

Scott somehow found the energy to shift up
and rest a hand on her shoulder. “Thanks for saving my life. And
congratulations on your first bounty.”

“... Ha?”

“There’s a substantial bounty out on that
guy’s head. You brought him down, so you get it. My first bounty
was a toothless vampire suffering from magical dementia. Yours was
a dark wizard calling soul catchers – you’re going to have a hell
of a career in this town, Anna Hope Summersville.”

It felt weird listening to his words, really
weird. He was talking about her, right?

Right.

As he smiled her way, a little light
returning to his tired eyes, there was no doubt he was referring to
her.

“I still have magical allergies,” she tried
to point out.

“Then you better always pack some tissues
and eye drops.” He somehow found the strength to hobble to his
feet. Then he reached a hand down to her. “Come on, Anna. I suspect
there’ll be people waiting for us.”

Anna
accepted his hand.

Almost immediately, she heard a noise
filtering in from the opposite side of the chapel. It sounded like
frantic footfall thundering down the stairs. Indeed, it was, as in
a second, the door burst open to reveal Aaron and a team of burly
wizards.

Somewhere at his feet, darted Luminaria.

“What happened?” Aaron raced towards them,
his tie flapping behind his shoulder. He didn’t stop until he leapt
up the pedestal coming to a rest in front of them. His eyes darted
over Anna then settled on Scott. “You’re alive.”

“I’m sorry to disappoint you, but yes.”
Scott stiffened.

Anna
could have stayed out of it, but she
didn’t. “Scott, he’s not disappointed. Now give your brother a
break. Also, give me a break. You’re leaning on me, and you’re
pretty heavy.” She handed him over to Aaron.