NOVPUB"I am okay." Shark shared--not that anyone had asked.
Meanwhile, Claire was crawling on the ground, following a group of ants and the pendant around her neck which was raised. It seemed to be pointing her in the direction where the ants were going.
"I know a heart fire witch that has lived once to the age of fifty. She knows what she is so she has never attempted to date. She chose to open an orphanage and look after abandoned children. There are other ways to find fulfillment, other types of love. It is not a must that everyone must find that fairy tale kind of love. Your kind wants nothing but fairy tales love."
"Fairy tales are not real by the way." Shark out loudly, peeking around the pillar cautiously.
Even though he was hurt and scared, he was not giving up. Arrow had said one heart fire witch could kill up to eighty men in her lifetime. How could he leave the witch alive or free?
"You say that because you are free to love whoever you want." Belva exploded and the fire exploded with her. "Love for us is food, it is power, it is everything. I loved then so much, why couldn't they love me back? I would have done anything for them. I could kill for them, and I loved them so much that I wanted to crawl under their skin and live there." Her voice had a dreamlike quality. "Haven't you ever loved someone like that?"
"If I want to live under someone's skin then take me out to the pasture like a cow and shoot me dead." Shark felt the urge to wretch, and he felt cold. He wondered what the magic freak with red eyes was waiting for to fry the witch so that they could go home.
The fire picked up speed and strength. Arrow sent a gust of wind towards the fire, bringing it down.
"Give up witch, you fight with fire, and I fight with ice. In this fight, I have the advantage." He told her.
"Is that all you have got!!" Belva bellowed. She chanted a spell, turning the small sparks under the sage into a bigger fire than before. The sage increased in number and size, growing like a weed rapidly. As it increased, the fire blossomed.
Arrow chanted as well, shattering the winds and pulling in all the snow from outside. From it, he pulled water that he turned into ice. He fired ice shards at Belva while drowning the weeds in ice and water.
"Hey guys, think I found something." Claire called out. "There is a barrier here of some kind." She was talking about the area around one of the pillars which she could not get through. Something was blocking the path, and the ants were crawling all over the pillar.
Belva and Arrow turned their heads in Claire's direction quickly. Arrow threw the crimson blade Claire's way. "Stab the pillar as hard as you can over and over again until you see red blood...or until she stops moving"
He had blocked Belva behind as ice wall which was shattered very quickly. Belva tried to dash Claire's way, but he leaped at her, his foot kicking her away.
Belva was a seasoned witch, as she fell back, she summoned a broom to fly through the air. The broom was on fire and at the back, the sparks it was giving off were falling to the ground like bright fiery flakes of snow.
Shark came out hiding and he fired his gun at Belva; he figured she could not dodge bullets and fly at the same time.
Arrow shot up a wave of water that was in the shape of an arm. that caught the back of the broom, extinguishing the fire which was driving the broom. Then, he pulled it down and Belva fell off. "You are not getting away from me killer bitch." he growled out.
He slapped her with his water fist, sending her into the wall.
"Is that all you have got Castille?" She taunted, standing up while wiping blood from her lips. "I thought you were better than that."
"Show me your little fire witch." He taunted back. Heart flame witches could only use fire spells.
Belva's chanting picked up speed the sparks in the air turned into fiery balls. Meanwhile, Claire struck gold as blood started to flow down the pillar and the barrier around it shattered.
Belva screamed and the fire balls she was planning to launch fell to the ground.
Then, Arrow grinned."You feel that witch."
Belva fell to the ground clutching at her chest, wailing and screaming. She conjured up whatever power she had and attempted to press forward. Arrow caught her easily by her neck.
He drove an ice shard that was in the size and shape of a cone into her chest. "This one leaves no trace on the body but delivers everlasting pain, and it is silver coated." He looked into her eyes, smiling manically. "You don't like silver, do you? Your kind are like werewolves in that way."
With all the crazy stabbing that Claire was doing, having found the heart hidden in the pillar, Belva could no longer summon her magic. Her heart was dead which meant her source of power was gone.
Arrow tossed Belva aside like a rag doll, "Count yourself lucky that the human detective wants to arrest you or I would finish you off here."
Shark was already on Belva in instant; he turned her over and locked her wrists in handcuffs. "You are under arrest." he heaved out.
"Arrest, hunter you must be out of your mind to let a human arrest me." Belva laughed. She whispered the words, her voice like smoke. "How is he going to prove my crime?"
Shark pinned a truth telling talisman on Belva's back quickly and he got the confession that he wanted. From the age of fourteen, Belva had left dead bodies in her path. A total of nine men had died because they broke her heart by rejecting her advances or ending the relationship with her.
"Even with the confession, how are you going to prove how she burned their hearts?" Arrow asked Shark.
"Claire will come up with something, even if she had to forge it. I promise you that she will pay for her crimes and if she doesn't then you can send her to your supernatural prisons." He spoke candidly.
The coroner he was counting on approached them with a heart that had been stabbed multiple times. When she started the stabbing, it had been beating but now, it was dead.
Arrow took the heart and froze it. Then, he put it in a container that looked like a hand sized freezer. "No heart, no fire, no witch." he said.
He took his blade from Claire and said, "Go home and cleanse yourself as you have touched something with dark magic. Did Phoebe teach you how to do it?"
Claire nodded.
Arrow sprinkled some holy water on Shark and Claire, and he left with the heart.
Back at the academy, Phoebe was in a trance like state that she did not hear her father call her, it was not until David lightly jolted her that she returned to earth and closed the book.
"It's time to go." He helped her sit up and they left the library. 𝘯𝘰𝑣𝘱𝑢𝘣.𝑐𝑜𝑚
Rufus created a portal that led them back to the Mayfair manor. "Check your arms, those tiny tattoos are temporary gate passes to the school, you will only get permanent ones after the crystals clear you." He informed them.
Dissatisfied by how small his was and how big Phoebe's was, Andre muttered a complaint. "Why is hers different?"
Rufus let out a sigh and pushed him out of the portal. "Go home and sleep Andre." He ordered, ignoring his question completely.
The portal and Rufus disappeared altogether, bringing an end to an adventurous day.
