Chapter 23 The Witch’s First Strike

Chapter 23 The Witch’s First Strike
Cleo

The wind shifted before I even saw her.

It wasn’t the usual evening breeze, soft, salt-scented, brushing gently against the shoreline like an old friend. This wind was colder, sharper. It carried something metallic and wrong, like the tang of iron steeped in deep water, laced with the kind of decay that didn’t belong anywhere near the living world. It sent a prickle up my spine.

I was kneeling by the shore, practicing control again. Small currents rose in thin spirals around my fingers, swirling into delicate threads of water that obeyed my thoughts, hesitant, unsteady, but obedient. The sand beneath me vibrated faintly, like the heartbeat of something massive resting just beneath the surface. It was a reminder: the ocean wasn’t just water. It was alive. And it was listening.

Behind me, Aries’ voice cut through the growing chill. “Cleo,” he called, low and tense. “Do you feel that?”

I didn’t even have to answer. The air around us seemed to hold its breath.

And then I saw her.

The ocean darkened in a way no storm ever caused, shadow rolling across the water like ink spilled through glass. Not fast. Not sudden. Just inevitable. The waves twisted, bending unnaturally, as if something beneath them was tightening its grip.

The wind howled, sharp enough to sting, bending the thin trees that lined the shore and rattling the windows of the house behind us.

And then she rose.

The sea witch.

She stood atop the waves as though the ocean were her throne, tall and almost too graceful, wrapped in a shifting cloak of water that gleamed like black glass. Her hair streamed behind her in long, rippling tendrils, alive with a mind of their own. But her eyes, those were what froze the breath in my chest. They were the deep-sea abyss, glittering with a cold intelligence, ancient and cruel.

Her fingers twitched, and the water responded instantly, lashing upward into coils and whips that snapped toward the shore.

Aries stepped in front of me in a single, protective stride. His body was tight, every muscle locked. “She’s here for you,” he murmured, voice steady but taut with warning. “And she’s stronger than anything we’ve faced.”

I swallowed hard. My chest throbbed with a pulse that felt too big to belong to me. My power, newly awakened, stirred beneath my skin like a restless tide. I could feel the ocean humming at the edges of my mind, calling me, urging me, testing me.

But I wasn’t afraid.

Not of her. Not anymore.

“I’m ready,” I whispered, forcing my breath to steady. “I won’t let her take me… or him.”

The witch’s smile curled like a shard of coral. “So bold,” she said, voice drifting across the water like cold mist. “Do you think your little tricks can stop me, child of thresholds?”

Aries growled under his breath, stepping even closer, his presence solid and grounding. “This isn’t just a threat,” he said to me, voice low. “She’s a predator. She will not stop.”

The witch’s laugh chimed, crystalline and cruel. The sand beneath us vibrated under the sound. “I will stop,” she corrected. “But only when suffering teaches you where you belong. The sea claims its own…” Her gaze snapped to me, sharp as a blade. “And you, little threshold, have no idea what that means.”

A tremor ran through me, but not from fear. From recognition.

My grandmother’s voice echoed in the back of my mind: You are the Threshold. Claim it.

The pull of the tide hit me like a heartbeat, steady and fierce. The water at my feet surged upward, responding to a will I hadn’t even consciously summoned.

I raised my hands.

The currents rose higher, swirling with precision that startled even me. The water obeyed without hesitation, spiraling upward in threads that bent toward the sky.

The witch’s amused expression faltered.

“You feel it,” she hissed. “The power that was never meant for a creature of land. Untamed, unstable, unworthy.”

I met her gaze head-on. “I am worthy,” I said, louder now, the confidence rising from somewhere ancient inside me.

The water rose higher, swirling faster, forming spiraling funnels that wrapped around my wrists. The sand shifted beneath me, responding to my command. I felt the connection to the tide, to the moon, to the pulse of the ocean, an anchor I had never realized was mine to hold.

Aries looked at me with a mix of awe and fear. “Cleo…”

“I know,” I said, barely glancing at him. “And I can control it. I have to.”

The witch snarled, flicking her wrist. The waves contorted, forming sharp spears that launched straight toward us. They whistled through the air like arrows.

But my spirals shifted, fast.

They intercepted the spears, twisting them midair, dissolving their force into harmless spray. The witch jerked back in irritation, her hair snapping like living eels.

“You dare defy me?” she spat.

“I dare protect what’s mine,” I said.

Her eyes widened, furious and shocked at once. “You think this is protection?” she screamed, and the ocean surged violently beneath her. “This is defiance! And defiance has consequences!”

She raised both arms, and the sea heaved upward in a massive wave, easily twenty feet high, curling as though ready to swallow the shore whole.

Aries grabbed my waist, grounding me before I was swept off balance. His touch steadied the riot of energy inside me. “Focus,” he whispered. “I’m with you.”

I exhaled slowly, letting the power settle into my bones.

“Together,” I said.

The word strengthened me more than any spell.

The wave crashed toward us, but my spirals surged up, expanding into a barrier of swirling water that met the force head-on. The collision shook the earth, water exploding upward in a burst of spray and mist. But when it cleared, Aries and I were still standing.

The witch’s expression fractured, rage, disbelief, something like fear.

“You are bold,” she hissed, water snapping around her like serpents. “But boldness is not strength. You do not understand the cost of what you claim!”

“I understand enough,” I said, voice steel. “And I’m not afraid of you.”

The air vibrated with fury. The ocean churned around her, frantic and violent.

Then, with a shriek that split the night, she dissolved back into the waves, vanishing beneath the surface in a whirlpool of blackened water.

Silence followed, not peaceful, but tense. Waiting.

Aries exhaled shakily. “She’s coming back,” he said, voice low and almost reverent. “And next time… she won’t hold back. She’ll bring everything she has. Cleo…” He brushed my cheek gently, a grounding touch. “You need to be stronger. Fully awake.”

I nodded, my body trembling with adrenaline, fear, and something else, exhilaration. Power still pulsed beneath my skin, alive and fierce.

“I will be,” I said. “For us. For everything she wants to steal.”

The waves lapped gently at my feet, but beneath them… I felt her.

Watching.

Waiting.

Preparing her next strike.

But this time...

I would be ready.