Shannon O'Reilly was bullied and everything his older sister wasn't. When his sister Sarah gives him a chance to change things through a single wish things don't go as planned.     I Wish: Book 5 Chapter 29 Larezza the Lustful By Amethyst

Even before Shannon could teleport me to my destination, I summoned my Celestial form. If I didn’t want to be detected by the general of this gatehouse I could have still sensed any nearby demonic auras without changing. I still had my magick sense even if I couldn’t use magick in my human form anymore, but I wanted them to sense my Celestial aura. It probably wasn’t the wisest move that I made in my life, but if my opponent came to me then I would have to waste less time searching for them.

I didn’t feel like waiting so I was announcing myself. As far as I was concerned, the sooner I could finish this fight and go help my sister, the better. When Mom and Dad died, I promised that I would look out for Shannon, protect him, and give him a good life. He may be a she now and may have gone through a lot of changes, but I still intended to keep my promise. She was my little sister, and I needed to keep her safe.

That made a lot more sense before her birthday and her changes. She had changed so much in the past few months that it was hard to recognize her sometimes, and not just physically. She was still the same kind, gentle, and caring person at her core, but now she was coming out of her shell to be more confident, less afraid to show her softer side, and she was quite likely the most powerful magick user that I had ever seen.

Her power dwarfed my own, and Mom always said that I was a prodigy. Shannon though was learning so quickly that I wasn’t able to keep up, but I assumed that Xuriel had something to do with that. Shannon had the power and the knowledge, and I had tried my best to teach her to use it wisely and responsibly, but no matter how powerful she was, I still worried about her. She was my kid sister, my apprentice, and the closest person in the world to me, so how could I not?

I was worried about the others too, of course, but Shannon was on my mind the most. I love my girlfriend, but she’s a certified badass and I was pretty sure that she and the others could take care of themselves and come through their battles alive. I had faith in their ability to persevere. I had faith in Shannon too, but she would be fighting the Demon King, a Demon that made even his Generals look weak by comparison, and she would be doing it alone.

So, here I was, brazenly announcing myself so I could get this battle over with and go fight by my sister’s side in case she needed me. I needed to win this, no matter what I had to do, and hopefully, this time I wouldn’t have to sacrifice myself to do it. There would be no third chances at life, and I had too much to live for to die trying or take my opponent down with me in some pyrrhic victory like I had tried with that damn Incubus. I had my sister, a badass girlfriend that I was head over heels for, and the rest of this family that we had built around ourselves. I would win because they were counting on me to come through this alive as much as I was counting on them to do the same.

I didn’t have to wait for long before my opponent sauntered out of the tower at the center of the courtyard. A tall and buxom blonde Succubus walked toward me with a smile that displayed her confidence. Her aura was strong, not as powerful as Khinara’s had been when we first fought her, but still far above the power exuded by lesser Demons. That confidence, the power, and the looks meant that this could be only one Demon, it was Larezza the Lustful.

On the positive side, she was one of the few Generals that Kisha had been able to give us any information about. That information complicated things though. She was a magick user, like me, and Kisha said she had a reputation for two particular things.

The first was that she was even more sexually voracious than others of her kind. The other was that she enjoyed fighting and defeating Celestial magick users… and then screwing them to death. Just great, this could end up being a firefight and her spells would be hard to predict if she was anything like Khinara, while my magick energy was limited to what I could pull from the four okka crystals I had with me. It would be better if I could end this quickly, now that she’d shown herself.

I was already forming a series of spells in my mind to do so as the Succubus sashayed toward me with that confident smile. “Well, well, well, a Celestial came all this way to visit me?” she purred. Then her eyes narrowed. “No, not truly a Celestial, just a human with a shard of their power, how interesting. I do hope that you’ll make this fight entertaining.”

Even as I focused my intent and let loose my first barrage of spells, I snapped back, “I came here to kill you, not entertain you, Larezza. I have other things to do, so let’s get this over with.”

The Succubus deftly sidestepped the stone spikes that erupted from the ground where she had been standing a moment before and a quickly raised shielding spell blocked the follow-up Holy Lance that I fired at her. Another damn silent caster. That was going to make things difficult.

Some sort of tar shot up from the gaps between the courtyard flagstones but my own shielding spell kept it at bay and I quickly worked my wings to get some distance between me and the ground. I quickly cast another spell to freeze the tendrils of tar and launch it back at her as a barrage of icicles. Larezza’s eyebrows raised slightly as she reassessed me. “You do not cast using those silly rituals and incantations that the Celestials are so fond of. Perhaps you will be entertaining after all.”

“As you pointed out, I’m not a true Celestial, I was born human,” I replied as a blaze of flames materialized in front of her to melt the ice, sparing her shield as she sent balls of the now-flaming tar toward me. Usually, I wouldn’t waste time talking during a fight like this, but it would hopefully keep her attention on me instead of my spells.

I dodged the flaming projectiles as she rose ten feet into the air to match my altitude and a barrage of flagstones flew at me from behind my right shoulder, shattering against my shield spell. Dammit, I needed to channel more magick energy into the spell to reinforce it and was already being forced to use the first of my okka crystals.

“True, and you are very good at hiding your spells,” she admitted with a smile as she dodged a barrage of iron spikes from the guardhouse gates to her right. Somehow, she managed to do it so that she was away from the flash of light that I had intended to blind her with, instead of toward it like I had planned.

I silently cursed and prepared another round of spells as I asked, “Why are you smiling then?” That smile bothered me; she had something up her sleeve.

“I have fought many Celestial spell weavers since our war with them resumed, and you fight nothing like them. Though you are deliciously devious and hide your spells well, I am familiar enough with Celestial auras and the feel of their magick to sense when you are casting a spell, and where it will appear. You cannot keep going for long before you will need to risk drawing on the essence of Heil. This is a battle that you cannot win, but fight on pretty little spell weaver, I look forward to celebrating my victory with you.”

A chill slithered up my spine. Was she just messing with me? No, I didn’t think so, She seemed to know exactly when I was firing my spells and where to avoid them, and I had the distinct feeling that she could at least guess at a spell’s power and nature as well. She was only casting counterspells to keep this fight interesting and feel out my responses. She had also summoned a shielding spell to block the one spell I had cast that could have probably killed her rather than just harry her.

Okay, if she liked devious, I’d give her devious. I just needed to get her in the right spot first. So much for dealing with this quickly, but the others were counting on me to take this bitch down, including my sister. I couldn’t afford to fail. I had to have faith that Shannon could hold her own until I could finish this fight and go help her.

By the time I managed to herd Larezza into position with every minor spell that I could think to throw at her to conserve my magick energy, I had burned through two more okka crystals and would need to use the last one to pull off my plan. She had been deftly avoiding or directly countering everything that I threw at her with frustrating accuracy, and I had even tried physical attacks until I found out painfully that her shield protected against those as well, unlike when we first fought Khinara. I was getting tired and ready to end this. I quickly drained the final okka crystal and prepared my spells.

I had tried to get Shannon as proficient as I was with multi-tasking and casting multiple spells at once, but not even I had attempted five spells at once before. This was going to take some precision as well since I would need to make three of those spells as powerful as I could while conserving enough magick energy to deliver the coup de grâce, in case this didn’t manage to kill her. I dedicated all of my focus and intent to the spells and let them fly.

Three of the spells were the biggest and most destructive beams of holy magick that I could summon, one to her right, another to her left, and a third between and just above the other two. I’d noticed that she preferred to dodge using her maneuverability in the air, if possible, and I hadn’t seen her use anything akin to a teleportation spell yet to try to avoid attacks. These beams were each potent enough to be a real threat to her shield and they would only allow her one direction to physically dodge, down. The other spells were a self-teleportation spell and a simple light flare, cast right in front of me in hopes that it would obscure the teleportation spell from her detection ability.

I had just enough time to see the Succubus’s eyes go wide as she dropped to the ground at the base of the tower to avoid my holy attacks before I reappeared one hundred and fifty feet above my previous position. All three beams hit the side of the massive tower an instant later, causing it to collapse on top of Larezza. “Damn,” I cursed. I hoped that dropping a building on her might finish the job, but her aura was still there so I started to work on my next spell.

I didn’t have time to finish it before a furious and bloodied Succubus exploded out from the rubble and launched toward me like a very angry homing missile, her fists covered in a dark energy that I did not like the looks of at all. I quickly abandoned my spell to pour my remaining magick energy into my shielding spell seconds before she hit me. I managed to take the hit, and the second blow that sent me crashing back to the ground, but surviving hitting the ground took the last bit of energy that my shield had and the pain shooting through my left wing told me that I hadn’t come through the crash completely unscathed.

Reflexively I started to draw in more magick energy, but quickly stopped myself when it felt like swallowing napalm might feel. Shit. I was out of magick, couldn’t fly and now I had an angry and battered Succubus who was quickly healing hovering over me. Maybe if I could get a surprise shot off with my gun…

It was my best bet, and I dismissed my Celestial form so I wouldn’t be distracted by the pain in my wing. I reached for my gun as Larezza landed and looked down at me. My gun was gone; did I somehow lose it when I crashed to the ground? I couldn’t see it anywhere nearby either, just the Succubus standing over me.

Shit. I was beaten. “No,” I told myself firmly. I promised Shannon that I wouldn’t die on her again. As long as I still had breath in my body, I would do everything I could to beat this bitch that was looking down on me. I needed a plan, I still had my silver ring, maybe if… Larezza was reaching out for me and once again, I tried to draw on the magick energy around me out of reflex to protect myself.

“Human, you have lost, but you managed to wound me. Before I kill you, I will bring you to pleasures such as you have never known in life as…”

“Heh… Hahahahahaha!” My sudden laughter interrupted her, and I had to wipe tears from my eyes. It fucking worked. The texture and taste of the magick energy made me feel like throwing up, but it worked. “Magic’s will,” I managed to get out between fits of laughter.

“Are you… laughing at me? Larezza asked in confusion before catching my words and looking at me as if I was crazy. “What are you on about? Without your Celestial ability to use magick, you are a mere mortal. I have beaten you and I will take my prize, this act of yours will change nothing.”

“You know,” I stated conversationally to buy time as I drew in the foul magick energy, “my cousins keep telling my sister and me that magick has a will of its own. I actually agree with them, it has a will, and maybe even an agenda, putting people in the right place at the right time, that’s how I got my Celestial abilities.”

The Succubus knelt down on top of me, pinning me to the ground as she reached for my top while muttering, “I fail to see how that is funny, but if reminiscing makes your last moments…”

I tried not to smile as I felt the warmth of her flesh. Her shield had been depleted when the tower collapsed on top of her, and she was so confident that I was a helpless human now that she hadn’t even bothered recasting it. I made an effort to push her off and fight against her superior strength as I finished drawing in enough magick energy to fuel one last, desperate spell before she could figure out what was going on. A little more time.

I interrupted again as I focused part of my mind on my spell. “Did you know that I was a Witch before I got those Celestial abilities? I lost my magick while protecting my sister from one of your male counterparts. Now, here I am, at your mercy with no way to fight back, no way to use my Celestial abilities, and desperate to kill you to protect my world and others. Well, I’ve also learned that magick has a flair for the dramatic, it loves that shit. So, when do you think would be a really good time for me to get my magick back?”

I didn’t give her time to think about it. My hand was now on her chest and feebly pushing against her in token resistance against her unwanted attention. She never saw the Holy Lance coming before it burned through her chest and she was reduced to ash. She might have been able to read Celestial auras, but at the moment I didn’t have one.

Revulsion threatening to make me throw up, I hurriedly got to my feet, brushed the ashes off my clothes, and fixed my blouse, trying not to think about how close she had come to… “No, you have things to do, Sarah,” I told myself firmly, fists clenched at my sides.

I won and stopped her before she could do anything, and now she was ash. I might need to see Jaenara about this later but right now; I couldn’t afford to let my thoughts drift to could-have-beens. For now, I was safe and alive, that was what mattered. Now I just needed to find my sister and make sure that she stayed that way too.