Disclaimer: I own nothing!
Cinder
Cinder growled as she kept her wand steadily pointed at the headmistress. "Okay, clearly you're not thinking straight, but let me just make this absolutely clear. I'm. Not. You're. Niece!"
"The only thing that's clear right now is that you're in denial." Levana hissed back. "All of the evidence points to the same conclusion. You just refuse to accept it."
Cinder barked a laugh. "Oh, and you're an expert on gathering evidence, are you? When you were trying to accuse my friends and I, your points were as weak as wet tissues. You're no detective Levana."
"I know I'm right." She snapped, "Whether or not you agree doesn't matter. Right now, only one thing really matters: your death."
Cinder tensed as Levana pulled back her wand, but shock still sparked through her veins as the crazed witch screamed an incantation she never, ever thought she'd hear in real life.
"Avada Kedavra!"
Cinder screamed in panic and terror as a bolt of green light burst from the tip of Levana's wand. Desperately, she scrambled out of the way, shuddering as she felt the heat of the spell singe the air as it passed by. It struck the ground with a great bang like the guns the muggles use. Where the light touched, the forever-green grass turned dry and brown.
She gulped and looked up at Levana. Cinder wasn't sure if it was the curse that she had only narrowly avoided that would have taken her life, or the madness and anger sparking from her eyes. But in that moment, she knew that only one of them would be leaving this fight alive.
And no way was she just going to roll over and let Levana have her way.
She thrust her wand out in front of her. "Stupefy!"
A bolt of red light erupted from the tip, but dissipated harmlessly on a shield Levana had created.
The other witch waved her wand in a strange, swirling pattern. Several black snakes with glowing red eyes and wicked fangs exploded into existence and immediately surrounded Cinder, hissing gleefully as they closed in for the kill.
She wrinkled her nose against the sour stench of their venom and swept her wand in a wide circle, vaguely outlining the deadly reptiles. "Vipera Evanesca!"
Instantly, the snakes bodies dissolved into foul-smelling black smoke, their agonised hisses lingering in the air.
As the last wisps of smoke drifted and swirled into nothingness, Levana raised her wand again. But Cinder wasn't going to just wait around for her.
"Incarcerous!" Thick ropes whipped out from her wand and wrapped themselves tightly around Levana's ankles. The older witch gasped in surprise as she tumbled to the floor, but before Cinder could finish her off, she flicked her wand along the bindings, and they came apart in a sharp, clean slice, as though cut by a knife.
Cinder snarled. Alright, no more holding back. She was going to take this lady out if it was the last thing she did.
"Reducto!" she yelled, pointing her wand at Levana's feet. The ground beneath her exploded in a shower of dust and rocks. The witch screamed. In shock? Or in pain? Cinder was ashamed to realise that she didn't particularly care.
As soon as the dust cleared enough for her to make out Levana's rough outline, she pointed her wand and screamed, "Glacius!"
A jet of freezing cold air erupted from the wand tip. As it streaked towards its target, frost grew on the tips of the grass blades and coated the particles of dust. It hit Levana's silhouette square in the chest and she shrieked in pain as ice rapidly spread across her torso.
This was it. Cinder was winning. Soon, it would all be over.
"Ventus." She murmured, and a gust of wind burst from her wand tip, blowing away the lingering dust and knocking the figure of Levana down to the ground. Finally, Cinder could see her clearly again. The ice from the Freezing Spell had covered her entire torso and had spread down to just above her knees and past her elbows.
Cinder narrowed her eyes. There. She'd won. All she had to do now was kill her. To finally end it. To put an end to all the atrocities this woman had committed. Images flashed across her mind: the werewolves in the forest, enslaved under Levana to be her personal killing machines. Thorne bumping into walls due to blindness that Levana had inflicted on him. Scarlet, with blood oozing out of her mutilated hand, a hand that Levana had forced her to injure, simply as a threat for Cinder and the rest of her friends.
This woman deserved death. Merlin's beard, she deserved worse than death!
But Cinder just couldn't summon the will to finally end her life.
And that was all that Levana needed.
Cinder's fingers suddenly opened up, and her wand dropped to the floor. Her muscles were stiff, rigid, like a statue.
Levana struggled to her feet, growling in frustration as the ice limited her movements. She pointed her wand at the frozen shell encasing her body, and Cinder could only watch helplessly as the ice melted away, a harmless puddle at her feet.
The headmistress tossed her head and smiled deviously at Cinder. "Well Selene, I don't really see the point of dragging this useless little battle any longer, do you? So how about we just end this here and now?"
Levana raised her wand. Her mouth opened, ready to recite the incantation that would end Cinder's life. Desperation flooded her veins and, as a last resort, she reached for Levana's mind.
The other witch froze, her gaze blank. But Cinder could feel her, struggling against her control. She grit her teeth, trying to keep her grip on Levana, but she was too strong. It would only be a few moments before she would be free again. And then Cinder was dead.
She thrashed and writhed against Levana's hold over her muscles, begging them to move, to do something, anything. A familiar glow was peeking out from her glove and boot, growing brighter and brighter by the second, but for once, Cinder didn't care. Who cares if someone saw her stupid prosthetics? In a few moments, she won't even be alive to use them anymore!
Her hand and leg started to grow uncomfortably warm as Cinder struggled. Slowly, a spark of awareness started to glow in Levana's eyes. Her lips started to move. Her voice murmured, weakly saying the words that would wipe Cinder off the face of the Earth.
"Avada…"
Golden fire burst from Cinder's hand and leg and she shrieked in pain. Darkness threatened to close on her vision, but she shook it off. She couldn't pass out. Not now!
Wait a second… she shook it off. She could move!
With a cry of rage, she charged at Levana, brandishing her flaming hand in front of her. The incantation on Levana's lips dissolved into a scream of terror as she scrambled back, her terrified gaze fixated on the flickering flames that was Cinder's hand. She lunged forward and managed to grab hold of Levana's gown. Quickly, the fire spread, tearing through the fabric like a starving monster. Levana shrieked and desperately splashed the fire with water from her wand. But the liquid that should have been her saviour only dissolved into useless steam against the flames' unforgiving heat.
As Cinder stood there, watching Levana flail and shriek in her panic to extinguish the flames, she felt something that she didn't think she'd ever feel for the tyrannical headmistress: pity.
She was going to die. There was no way around it. There was no stopping the flames. There was too much anger, too much desperation behind them. There was only one way to end her suffering.
Cinder reached down and picked her wand up from the ground. Her hand was steady as she pointed it at the terrified witch. The whispered words from her lips full of conviction and surety.
Green light burst from the tip of the wand, flooding the entire area and searing into Cinder's eyes. When it finally faded, she allowed the exhaustion that had been struggling to get a grip on her mind to finally take over, and she fell forward as her vision turned black.
A/N: Final boss battle! I hope it didn't disappoint! ;)
Please review!
