“I can…feelthe magic inside her,” Mona said in astrained voice. “It’s searching for an echo of her power. Her soul. It’s… trying to heal her. To knit her back together.”
Prue’s mouth opened in surprise. She tried to sense her own magic, but with it buried inside Gaia, she had lost her connection to it.
Mona had always been better at sensing magic than Prue.
“Can it bring her back?” Prue asked, her voice laced with desperation. Goddess, she wouldn’t be able to bear it if this didn’t work.
“I—” Mona made a frustrated sound, followed by a soft gasp. “There! Yes. I feel it.”
Prue’s heart lifted, and she squeezed Gaia’s hand tighter.
“Come on,” Mona urged, her brows drawing together. Sweat trickled down her brow, and Prue had no doubt her sister was mentally coaxing her magic onward. Mona had more experience with healing. If anyone could do this, it was her.
Warmth slowly spread into Gaia’s hand. Her fingers twitched in Prue’s grasp.
“Holy shit,” Prue whispered.
Gaia’s face filled with color, and her eyes flew open. She inhaled a deep, rattling breath. Several loudcracksechoed as the bones in her body repaired themselves. Her back arched as her spine realigned, and a low, keening moan poured from her lips. Her eyes were wide with confusion and terror until they landed on Prue. Warmth and disbelief struck her face, and she slowly sat up. Her eyes slid to Mona, and she pressed a hand to her chest, her eyes filling with tears.
“My… my darlings,” she sobbed.
“Mama.” Prue fell into Gaia’s open arms, and Mona didthe same. They held one another, all three of them sobbing, their cries broken by relieved laughs. Prue’s heart was soaring, her insides weightless. She couldn’t stop the tears from flowing down her face. She was sobbing so hard she couldn’t even see straight.
So much emotion. The fear in her body dissipated, but she was still so tense, so full of a volatile intensity that she needed to release somehow.
Gaia was alive. Prue and Mona had brought her back.
Their mother was alive. She washere.
When Gaia released them, she looked at each of them in turn, her eyes full of love and affection. She glanced to the space next to Mona, then frowned.
“Where is Trivia?”
Mona and Prue exchanged looks. “We don’t know,” Mona said. “She’s close by, though. We heard her?—”
Gaia’s face grew pale, strikingly similar to how pale she had looked in death. “You must go to her.Now.”
Prue frowned. “But Mama, you’rehere. You can help us. We can?—”
“I cannot,” Gaia said, her voice firm. “My mantle has passed on toyounow. When Trivia returned from the dead, she sealed the prophecy of the three witches. Together, you now hold the key to unlocking the Triple Goddesses’ power. And the Titans know this. They are trying to keep you apart, and they will stop at nothing to do it.”
“Trivia returned from the dead?” Mona sputtered. “How?”
Gaia rose to her feet, helping Prue and Mona to do the same. “There is no time to explain this, my darlings. But withthe power of the Triple Goddess now flowing through you, the Titans are bound by sacred laws and cannot kill you. But they have stolen many souls to fuel their magic. That’s how they conjured the sirens. It’s how they altered their appearances.”
“Stolen souls?” Prue asked in horror. “I thought they were using Lagos’s death magic.”
“They were,” Gaia said. “But it wasn’t enough to summon the creatures to do their bidding. They needed more.”
Mona’s face drained of color. “Oh Goddess… The Thanassian Empire.”
Gaia nodded gravely. “The Thanassian Empire is no more. The Titans slaughtered all the mortals in the kingdom… and devoured their souls.Thatis what is giving them power. And they won’t stop until they’ve consumed every last soul in the entire realm.”
EVERYTHING
MONA
Mona staredat her mother in horror as her words sank in.
