#Chapter 48 - A City To Save

Eloise’s POV

Although it had been a while since I’ve controlled lightning magic, I knew that now wasn’t the time to doubt myself. I wasn’t going to allow us to get captured and become Douglas’s prisoners!

As lightning continued to crash all around us, I closed my eyes and called for the storm spirits to help me. A flash of power and justice to behold, lightning, I call your power for me to hold!

I opened my eyes and held my hand to the sky. A bolt of lightning crashed into my hand as waves of intense electricity surged through my body.

Although it was painful at first, I held on to the urge to scream. The electricity zapped every part of my body. It even felt like it was frying my organs and accelerating the beat of my heart.

I took a deep breath and looked on as everyone around us stopped to watch what was unfolding before them. The men had stopped fighting Dylan and even Ben was starting to back away.

“W-who are you?!” One of the men stammered.

A smirk spread across my lips. “I’m a witch of the Wisdoms and I’m going to make you pay for what you’ve done to the Leonard family!”

Their eyes widened and just as they were about to run, I sent a chain of lightning towards them. It connected to Ben and immediately started linking to all of his other men aside from Dylan.

The sound of thunder drowned out their screams as they were getting electrocuted. After just a few seconds, I called for the lightning to come back and their bodies immediately fell to the ground.

Thank you, storm spirits.

Once I sent my silent thanks to the spirits above, the lightning left my body and went back into the sky. Then the storm started to die down until it was nothing but light showers and low rumbling.

I knew I had to try and get Belinda to the carriage down the hill but in her wolf form, she was still so heavy. Not even the adrenaline of having controlled lightning wasn’t enough for me to gather the strength I needed.

I felt a hand gently touch my shoulder and I looked up to see Dylan.

His smile was small but sincere. “May I?”

I hesitated, especially after knowing that he was in on Mrs. Leonard getting kidnapped in the first place. I let out a sigh.

“Since I can’t exactly pick up Mrs. Leonard myself, it seems like I don’t have a choice now do I?”

Dylan’s cheeks were flushed pink from embarrassment but he picked her up without any trouble and began jogging to the carriage. We had to make our way to Noah as quickly as we could.

As we got close to Noah, we were immediately stopped by guards. I looked out of the carriage window and greeted them.

“Please let us through! Mrs. Leonard needs medical attention quickly!”

“Lady Eloise?” One of them greeted me. “We need you at Noah castle right now! Priest Lucas is in dire need of help as do the rest of. the citizens.”

Without another word, we were escorted back to the castle’s medical wing. Almost every single room was filled to the brim with sick people but we were able to find one for Mrs. Leonard.

An apprentice of Priest Lucas came into the room. “Lady Eloise, my name is Alyssa. I’m here to inform you about what’s…”

Her words trailed as soon as she saw the black wolf on the table. “Is that Mrs. Leonard?!”

I nodded my head. “She was kidnapped by rogue werewolves but Knight Dylan and I were able to rescue her.”

Dylan gave me an apologetic look and smiled at me.

Alyssa looked at us with sad eyes. “I’d help you with Mrs. Leonard but something has happened with Noah’s citizens. They’ve all become sick and it seems like whatever’s got them sick is spreading.”

Before Alyssa could go on to say anything else, she was immediately pulled away by a servant who said more people had just arrived in the medical wing.

I looked at Dylan and sighed. “If you really want to help me, you’re going to have to do everything I say from here on out. Do you hear me?”

Dylan nodded. “Yes, my Lady.”

I took out a piece of chalk that I carried in my satchel and started drawing a sigil on the floor.

“What is that?” Dylan asked.

“It’s a sigil, a marking. Sigils are fast-acting markings that aid a witch in casting certain spells,” I explained.

“But what does it—”

I interrupted him. “I can’t just sit here and give you a lecture. You need to help.”

I threw him my satchel. “I can guide you through with helping Mrs. Leonard and getting that arrow out of her but I need to help Priest Lucas and all of Noah.”

Dylan nodded his head and started going through the small vials of herbs and flowers I had stashed away in my bag. “Okay. What do you need me to do?”

“There’s a small mortar and pestle inside of the bag, too. It’s used to crush herbs and flowers into a fine powder. I should also have a small vial of aloe to help make it all into a paste.”

Dylan looked at me with a confused expression.

I sighed. “Don’t worry… I’ll be doing all of the mixing and hard work. Just listen to what I tell you and be ready to act quickly.”

After Dylan was done grabbing all of the jars and things out of my satchel, he placed them all in front of me to look through. My sigil was now completely drawn and now all I had to do was make two different types of healing medicine.

I looked at Belinda whose breathing got worse ever since we got back to Noah. I needed to act fast.

“Dylan, take off your shirt.”

He raised an eyebrow but did so without hesitation.

“That’ll be used as a temporary bandage for Mrs. Leonard after you pull out the arrow,” I said.

“After I do what?”

“You’re going to have to apply pressure to the wound once you take out the arrow so she doesn’t lose a ton of blood,” I informed him.

He looked at the arrow that was lodged into the leg of the black wolf before him. I watched as he shivered.

“I don’t know if I can—”

“That’s not important right now!” My voice came out a little louder than I had intended.

I took a deep breath and began to mix herbs. I calmed my breathing and made my voice gentle. “You can do this, Dylan. You have the chance to right the wrongs you did. Don’t let fear hold you back.”

Dylan’s eyes lit up with determination as he walked over to Belinda with new confidence. He examines the arrow for a little bit before firmly grasping it.

He looked back at me and I smiled at him.

He took in a few deep breaths and in the blink of an eye, he pulled out the arrow and pressed his shirt to the open wound. He threw the arrow to the ground.

I finished making the first batch of healing medicine which was a paste for Mrs. Leonard. I got up from the ground and walked over to Dylan and tore off enough of his shirt to make a bandage.

I then placed the paste onto the cloth and motioned for Dylan to move his hands away. After that, I tightly wrapped the paste-infused shirt onto Belinda’s leg.

We watched as her breathing began to stabilize after a few minutes. She even shifted back to her human form and slept soundly on the bed.

“Now that Mrs. Leonard is okay, I can focus on the rest of Noah’s citizens…”

I went back to the sigil on the floor and pressed my palms against it. I sent another silent prayer up to the Moon Goddess before casting the spell.

The sigil on the ground started to glow a faint green. After a few seconds of me focusing my magic on the drawing, the light got brighter.

I looked up at Dylan. “Grab the jars named primrose, henbane, mistletoe, ginger, and chamomile and throw them into the sigil you see here.”

Those sacred herbs have been helping us witches heal the sick all across time. I was glad to have picked some up while I was back in Witches Land.

“You might want to step back as soon as you throw them in here,” I told Dylan.

He nodded his head and threw the herbs into the sigil. A green smoke immediately filled the room then carried itself out of the room.

After a few minutes, the green light started to fade until it eventually disappeared along with the sigil I had drawn.

“I… I don’t understand,” Dylan mumbled.

Some seconds later, Priest Lucas came into the room with wide eyes.

“Lady Eloise… Was that you?”

I nodded my head.

He immediately pulled me into his arms and began to cry. “Thank you, thank you! You are an extraordinary witch, Lady Eloise! I don’t know how the city of Noah can ever repay you.” Priest Lucas smiled through his tears.

Dylan scratched his head. “I don’t understand, what even happened? All I saw was just a bunch of smoke?”

I looked at the dumbfounded Dylan and shook my head. “Remember when I told you that the sigil was a marking meant to aid witches like me in casting spells?”

Dylan nodded his head.

“Right, well, the spell I just cast was an advanced form of healing that I couldn’t have performed by myself. My powers are weak and sigils are always made with the power of the witch who made it,” I explained.

“If I’m not mistaken,” Priest Lucas spoke up. “Does that mean that sigils allow you to temporarily borrow the magical power of the witch who made the mark so you cast the spell?”

I nodded my head and smiled. “That’s exactly it, Priest Lucas!”

“Because of Lady Eloise,” Priest Lucas smiled, “she saved an entire city of people from certain death—that included my daughter, Lucille.”

Priest Lucas turned to me with kind eyes. “I was holding her in what I thought were her last moments but then your spell… it saved her!”

I couldn’t stop the tears that fell down my cheeks. “I’m so glad! I just wanted to do what I could to help save Noah.”

Priest Lucas smiled as he walked over to Belinda who was still asleep on the bed. After observing her for a few minutes and giving some approving nods, he turned back to me and Dylan.

“You both did a fine job with Mrs. Leonard. The swelling is going down, her breathing is stable, and her regenerative abilities have picked up. She should be healed up in no time.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” I said with a yawn.

Priest Lucas chuckled. “Go get some rest. You’ve saved an entire city and the Headmistress herself. You deserve to relax.”

I nodded my head and smiled at Priest Lucas before leaving the medical wing. My body and spirit were exhausted from the magic I used and I wanted nothing more than to pass out.

But I knew I couldn’t rest yet because I knew there was one more thing I had to solve.

I went to the rose gardens and once I knew me and the man who had been following me was alone, I stopped to face him.

His forest green eyes looked at me with nervousness but I held my ground.

“You need to tell me everything, Dylan. Now.”