In its place, flowers.
Dozens of them. Hundreds. Growing in wild profusion in the space the tree had stood. Irises and lilies and roses and flowersRamona didn’t have names for. In colors that shouldn’t exist in nature — deep purple irises shot through with gold, roses that faded from pink to blue, lilies that seemed to glow faintly in the afternoon sun.
“I didn’t mean to,” Posey said softly. “I was just standing here, thinking about how ugly that tree must have been, wishing there was something beautiful to balance out all the darkness. And then, well.” She gestured toward the garden. “They just grew. I didn’t even cast. Didn’t speak. Just thought about flowers, and they appeared.”
“That’s…” Ramona didn’t have words. “Posey, that’s incredible.”
“It’s terrifying,” Posey corrected. “What if I think about the wrong thing? What if I accidentally grow something poisonous? Or invasive? Or—” She stopped. Took a breath. “But yes. It’s also incredible.”
Felix was grinning. “So the ritual supercharged all of us. Kashvi can see and channel ghosts. Gerald can fly like a tiny feathered acrobat. Posey can grow flowers with her thoughts.” He paused. Looked at Ramona. “What about you?”
Ramona held up her hand. Thought about light. A ball of pure white light formed above her palm. Steady. Controlled. Perfect.
No stuttering. No flickering. No explosion of chaos.
Simple magic. Working exactly as she intended.
“It’s clean,” she said. Her voice was thick. “My magic. It just works. Like it should have always worked.”
“Because it should have,” Felix said gently. “The curse is gone. This is who you always were underneath.”
Ramona dismissed the light, looked at Felix. “What about you? Did the ritual amplify anything for you?”
Felix stopped. Frowned. “Actually. There’s been something weird. With technology.” He pulled out his phone and didn’t touch the screen. Just looked at it.
The phone unlocked.
“Okay, that could be Face ID,” Kashvi said, rolling her eyes.
Felix kept looking. Apps opened. Closed. The screen flickered through menus without him touching anything.
“But that’s not,” Ramona said.
“It started this morning,” Felix said. “I thought my phone was glitching. But then…” He looked at Kashvi’s laptop. It woke up, opened a browser, and started playing a YouTube video of pigeons.
“Felix,” Kashvi said slowly. “Are you controlling my laptop with your mind?”
“Maybe?” Felix looked equal parts excited and terrified. “I think — I think the convergence point gave me technopathy, or at least amplified it. I’ve always been good with computers but this is…” The laptop opened six more tabs. Closed them. The volume adjusted up and down. “This is weird.”
Gerald cooed smugly, like he’d known all along that his human was special.
Cammie was being quiet. Too quiet. She kept glancing at her phone. At the door. At anything except the people in the room.
“Cammie?” Ramona asked gently, remembering the silver in Cammie’s eyes before she was distracted. “Are you okay?”
Cammie looked up. Bit her lip. “Yeah.” She smiled, sipping her coffee.
“Anything new?” Ramona pressed.
Felix, Kashvi, and Posey looked equally confused.
“Still just a boring human,” Cammie said with a shrug.
Ramona knew for a fact that wasn’t true, but it seemed as though Cammie wasn’t ready to say much more.
“The convergence point amplified all of us,” Kashvi said. “Made us more of what we already were. Or revealed what was always there.”
They sat in silence for a moment. Processing. Adjusting to their new normal. Ramona felt the loss of Zara like a physical ache. The silence where the tether used to be. But she also felt… different. Each of them were so different. Changed, amplified, powerful.
