Goddess of Magic: A Snow White retelling (Kingdom of Fairytales Snow White Book 4)

spells.”
His grin widened to almost comic proportions as he flung his arms around me.
“You are so good at this. You’ll win for sure.”
Sweat dripped down his face wetting my cheek as he hugged me.
“Are you feeling alright?” I asked. This wasn’t like him at all. Where was the bitterness, the sarcasm?
“I’m great. If you win, it will be a victory for all of us. You are wonderful.”
“Huh?” He’d never been nice to me like this. Sure I’d had my fair share of back handed compliments and he’d kinda been nice when he was drunk. I’d not seen any wine bars on the way through the course which meant something was wrong.
“Did you get hit by a spell during the course?” I asked, pulling out of his grip and checking his face.
“No. I’m nowhere near as good as you though. I probably should have been hit,” he enthused.
He was still pale, unusually so. His pallor was beyond paleness. He was almost grey. Looking around, so were the others.
“Jake.”
“Yes?”
“How’s your hangover? Did the potion from Louise work well?”
“Yes. Louise is a star!”
“You told me you got a potion from a girl called Stacy,” I said leveling my wand at him.”
“Er what?”
I closed my eyes and let the spell shoot out of my wand. If I was wrong I was going to be the first Enchantian Princess to go to prison for murder.
I opened my eyes just in time to see Jake’s head explode.
The scream
caught in my throat. What had I done? But then his body turned into a blue mist and evaporated into the air. A loud ping sounded out from somewhere, but I didn’t have time to worry about the source of the sound. All the other contestants were now pointing their wands at me. Except they weren’t contestants. They were part of the course.
Streams of blue magic from the fake contestants were shot my way. I ducked and rolled back into the empty tent I’d previously come from. Now I understood what the blocks were for. They were for hiding behind.
I ducked behind one at the far end as the contestants raced in. They spread out, shooting spells my way.
Shooting at them went way beyond my comfort zone, but reminding myself that they were not real helped. The real contestants were probably all enjoying a cider outside and wondering what was taking me so long.
I held my breath as I shot a spell at one of them, a young man who I’d not spoken to before. I’d picked him because I figured it would be easier to start with someone I’d not had any interaction with. Still, my heart almost bounded out of my ribcage as my spell hit its mark and he too exploded. Another ping rang out. It was all too real until the point where they dissolved into blue smoke.
Blue spells flew left and right as I weaved through the blocks, shooting my own spells at anything that moved.
The sound of the spells hitting the inside of the tent was deafening. There was no doubt the noise had been magically enhanced but it wasn’t helping my nerves. I was pretty sure the magic they were shooting out wasn’t fatal. It probably wouldn’t even hurt me if they scored a direct hit, but I knew I’d have points deducted if they got me. Maybe it would be game over and I’d have to leave the tent.
I quickly got into a rhythm of hiding behind the blocks then ducking out to shoot.
It was working well until one of the blocks I was hiding behind completely disappeared leaving me exposed. I rolled across the floor, a flash of blue zipping right past my eyes, and ducked behind the next block. Within seconds, that one too had vanished. I was outnumbered and the hiding places were becoming fewer and fewer. Without being able to hide, I’d be a sitting duck, so I needed to think fast. I shot spells quickly without precision, hoping that they’d hit their target. Pings rang out every time they did. I almost threw up on the floor as I zapped Adam and watched him turn to blue smoke. I wouldn’t win this way. I needed to concentrate. Taking a deep breath, I ran to the block at the very end of the tent, hoping it would be the last one to disappear. From there I peeked out and calculated my shot. Without wavering, I let a blast of magic out, getting two at once. The blocks began to vanish more quickly until there was only the one I was behind left.
Three of the competitors were still in except now they no longer looked like the people they had just moments before. In front of me stood pale versions of Rhi and Topher. As my eyes turned to the third figure I gulped back tears. My mother, or a pale, almost ghostly version of her smiled at me.
I swore loudly under my breath and tried not to let my emotions take over.
“They aren’t real,” I whispered to myself.
I closed my eyes again and shot at the Rhi figure. After the sound of her body exploding, I heard another ping.
The block in front of me paled and then vanished.
“Don’t do this,” My mother begged as I held my wand out in front of me, waving it between the pair of them.
“Don’t shoot me, I love you.” Topher added.
I gulped again and tried to quell the hammering in my chest. Neither of them tried to shoot me. Instead Topher looked at me with terror in his eyes whereas my mother crinkled her eyes and smiled widely as she held her arms out for me.”
“Come to me, my darling. I can see you are hurting. Let mommy make it better.”
This time the tears flowed freely down my cheeks. Both of them had regained some color and with each second that passed, they appeared more real.
Topher opened his arms too. “Yes, come to us. We’ll take care of you.”
It