Adrianna shielded herself with her hands from the incessant rains and gale. She ran to Inyanga and Haldir and shouted so that they could hear her against the whipping and lashing sound of the rain, “I saw the blast of electricity on the door of the restaurant. Explain.” 

“My Queen,” Haldir said in a worried voice. “Please go back inside.”

​​

“Yes Adrianna. Go and protect Ileus. There is something that is horrible in nature. It is floating around here,” Inyanga persisted. 

Adrianna’s eyes grew wide in horror. Why was Inyanga relating the horrible thing to Ileus? There was heaviness inside her chest. “What is it?” she asked in hoarsely. 

“It looks like a spirit, and a powerful one at that.”

“How can you say?” she couldn’t believe it. Her legs became shaky at the word ‘spirit’. Only a year back they had fought off Vikra and now there was another of the same instances. She felt nausea rising inside. She turned around in the deluge to check on Ileus. The group seemed frightful on the inside but they were fairly okay. 

“Because I could feel the sensation,” she said. “It scraped off my skin and I could get the tingly feeling. It was creepy. I shivered. It moaned like a wounded child. There was so much pain and dread in its moan that it shook my heart. But then spirits are known to weave you in their web of lies. It attacked the moment it cried.” Inyanga became quiet and shuddered as though she could still feel it.

“What else? Is it still around?” she asked. Her voice was breathy. 

“It is right here,” Inyanga said. “The blast that occurred was because it must have tried to penetrate the electric field created by Haldir.” 

Adrianna brought her hand to her mouth. She was so drenched but the redness in her eyes, which were a manifestation of her worries, were clearly seen even under the flickering streetlights. 

The three of them stood with their backs facing each other and conjured magic. “Be prepared to attack it.” She mentally communicated with Dmitri, “Don’t come out and don’t let anyone come out of the restaurant until I ask.” But she didn’t get his affirmation. Worried, she pushed her thoughts again towards him. All she got was blackness once again. “Dmitri!” she shouted aloud as she also pushed herself in his cell this time. 

“Adrianna, what is happening?” asked Inyanga. “Why isn’t Dmitri responding?” 

Adrianna had entered his cell and the vision she saw left her shaky. She caressed him mentally and said, “I am there. Don’t worry, okay. Nothing is going to happen. Just focus on Ileus.”

“Yes Adri…” came a soft voice. 

“Tell Niiya to close all the doors and windows of the building and tell the entire staff not to step out.”

“Okay…”

“Dmitri saw the vision of the spirit. It is a small fragment, with a deformed head and has its eyes rolled out of its sockets. So that���s what we are looking for.” Adrianna informed the others. 

While they waited for the spirit to attack them, they noticed that the rains had reduced. It was only drizzling now. The lamps still quavered above. “Is it gone?” asked Haldir. 

Inyanga was about to say something when they heard someone clawing. The sound was like thin iron claws scratching over a rock. This was accompanied with unknown language, which was so crooked that it didn’t make sense. The sound picked up as if the spirit was trying to claw over the electric wall that surrounded the diner. Adrianna followed the source of sound and sent a full blast of ice in that direction. The ice banged with the wall and shattered into thousands of shards that flew in the air. The sound immediately subsided with a whimper. 

“I think it’s gone,” Haldir said when they didn’t hear anything for the next few minutes. 

“The rain had stopped completely and the trees had stopped swaying. It was so windy just a few minutes back and now the sir didn’t even move. There was not a single noise except their accelerated breaths that could be heard. It wasn’t spooky. It was eerie. It was a kind of silence that fell just before a storm. It sent shivers down Adrianna’s spine.

A door in the back creaked open tearing the silence. Adrianna’s blood chilled in her veins and a whimper was heard along with iron nails clawing the electric wall. 

The spirit immediately made its way to the door. 

Adrianna cursed the person who opened the door. Niiya couldn’t give even a small instruction. She gritted her teeth. “I am going inside,” she declared. 

“I am also coming with you,” Inyanga said holding her hand. 

“Haldir you stay out and keep attacking any source you see is shady, okay?” 

“Okay, My Queen,” he replied. 

The two wizard Queens got sucked in a vortex and they entered the restaurant. They noticed that everyone was quiet. Ookashi had shrunk in fear. She was huddled in Niiya’s arms. Nate was holding their baby while Liam and Fleur were with Dmitri who had Ileus pressed against his chest. 

“Adrianna, that thing is here,” he croaked. 

Everyone looked at him with wide eyes. What was he talking about? “What is it?” asked Niiya. 

“I can’t explain,” he replied with a slight shrug. 

Fleur created a protection shield around the group and came to Adrianna. “What is it? Please tell me.”

“Fleur, come back,” Liam shouted. 

“No, I will come after we have dealt with whatever is here,” she answered. 

“There’s a spirit. I suspect that some stupid staff opened the door from behind and it might have entered inside,” Adrianna explained. 

“But I saw an electric blast outside. That means that it couldn’t enter,” Fleur said. Her answer surprised Adrianna. She wasn’t expecting anyone to know that. 

“I am also a witch, Adrianna. And I had been in your personal security. That means I am a highly specialized witch,” Fleur winked. 

Adrianna nodded with a faint smile. “It’s just that I am suspecting. It is possible that I am wrong. It is possible that the electric force repelled the staff. But I don’t want to take the chances.”

— 

On the backside of the restaurant, the Junior Chef had sneaked out for a smoke defying the orders of the owners. However, as soon as he had stepped out, a white crackle of beam appeared in the air in front of him and he stumbled back and turned away to protect his face. To say that he was shocked was an understatement. He rubbed his eyes to affirm whether what he was seeing was not a dream. With shaky breaths, he extended his hand as if to touch the air that felt like a wall. As soon as his finger touched the wall, the light crackled again but this time his body jerked. He shivered uncontrollably. His finger was stuck to the invisible wall as if someone had glued it there. After a few seconds his body was thrown a few feet away and he slammed in the wall. The Junior Chef cocked his head and got up. The black of his eyes expanded. Throwing the cigarette, he walked out of that place with the back of his head bleeding. The blood dripped down his neck.