Witch in Hiding (#1 in the Witches Trilogy) (EDITING)

Thirty-Two: The Duel

At first, there's only silence. Then she smirks. The expression is so uncharacteristic, so alien on Rae's down-to-earthness that I wince. She cocks her head. "Scared?"

When in doubt, quote. I smile right back, as tauntingly as I can. "You wish."

She flies at me, sailing on wind. Instinctively, I lunge aside and veer sharply around. I hadn't wanted to go on the offensive—I've seen what Rae can do—but she isn't giving me any choice. I shoot forward, off the air, virtually tackling her.

She moves fast. Her wind whips her just out of my reach—for a brief second, there's a spinning cyclone—then she leaps out of the tornado, which dissipates as she lands lightly on the ground. God. That control.

I go for her, skimming the ground, keeping myself low. She waits for me, watching, until I feel like a bull charging for the cape. So at the last second, I cut left and go in the complete wrong way. I look stupid, but that's the idea. Rae is so surprised, so busy trying to figure out what I'm doing, that she doesn't realise what I am doing until, a good distance away, I pivot and punch through the air.

She flies. My solid energy field shimmers briefly, thick and cylindrical, a battering ram. She catches herself neatly, somersaulting in the air—where did she learn to do that?—and landing, but by that time, I've closed the distance. I bring my hand back and thrust it forward in a good old-fashioned punch that should've landed a hard hit, but Rae merely deflects it with a slash of air that cuts my knuckles. Fortunately, I had more behind that punch than muscle power. F

Rae gives a small shriek of surprise as a fireball whooshes at her face. She stumbles, but doesn't fall, which was what I'd been hoping for. Instead, she steps back a few paces and forces down an invisible force on me that knocks me to the ground. The wind roars in my ears. "We don't all need energy fields," she shouts, eyes gleaming. And she's right. Her wind, lashed around me, is as strong as any shield I can summon.

Time to see if the unstoppable force really does beat the immovable object.

With all the strength I can muster, I gather energy and shove outward. The winds groan back,screeching, but they give way enough for me to tumble out and take to the sky. Without hesitation, she joins me.

Unfortunately, I forget about how much extra advantage the open sky gives Rae. She's in her natural element: her powers come from the sky. The closer we are, the closer one of her lightning bolts can strike me.

Rae charges into a full-on offence, keeping up a relentless onslaught of lightning and hail and other weather hazards. The sky lights up.

I summon up a shield as her next sheet of hail comes down on me, and manage to advance, inching closer to her. She keeps backing and swerving away, making it impossible for me to track her through my obscured vision. Damn. Okay, let's try something else. Trash-talking.

"Get out here!" I yell. "Or are you so afraid of looking me in the eye that you're hiding behind your snowballs?"

A short laugh. As I turn, something slams into my shield so hard I'm thrown forward by the sheer impact. But I have some idea of her location now. I levitate a chunk of stone and hurl it in her general direction.

"Missed me," she sings somewhere above my head. I grit my teeth and toss another one. "Missed again," Rae says sweetly.

I shiver in the cold, and suddenly I realise what I should have done from the start—employ fire. Fire trumps ice; how could I have been so stupid? From inside the shield, I thrust out bursts of fire that melted the snow and hail long enough for me to spot her.

I lob a fireball at her; she narrowly avoids it and calls off the winterstorm with a snap of her fingers. Perfect. I take aim, but then she raises her arms and it starts to pour.