I prop myself up on my elbow and look over. Lily shifts in her bed, her face scrunching. Her eyes crack open, squinting against the light. "Poppy?"
I roll off Violet’s bed and hurry over. "Hey, Lil."
“What’s going on? Where are we?”
I take her hand and Violet rounds the bed to take her hand on the other side. “It’s a long story, but the good news is, we’re together and it’s over. And, now that you’re awake, we can all go home.”
The standing stones hum around me, the ancient magic of the Hallowind bloodline thrumming through granite and into my skin. I've been home with Violet and Lily for three days—three days of them sleeping more than they're awake.
Three days of answering the same questions over and over as their foggy minds try to piece together five lost years.
Three days of feeling their grief crash into mine every time one of them remembers Mom and Dad are gone.
I want to call Mom to the physical plane and tell her they're home, but am torn about her seeing them struggle when I know she's struggling too.
Adulting is hard.
I press my forehead against the cool stone and breathe. The ancestral magic rises to meet me, feeding my cells as much as my soul. Here, in this circle, I can shut out the world and work onmy own recovery. On my loss. On needing to pick up the slack and pull this family back together.
The Hallowind bloodline pulses through these stones, generations of witches who came before, their power woven into the very earth.
In time, my shoulders drop and the knot between my shoulder blades loosens.
This is what I needed.
The stone beneath my hands vibrates with healing energy, and I sink deeper, letting the connection strengthen. My magic aligns and settles, too. My spirit affinity no longer threatening to push beyond my?—
Pain explodes across my back.
The force of the hit slams me forward into the stone. My forehead cracks against granite, and stars burst behind my eyes. I taste copper. Blood runs warm down my temple.
"Did you think there wouldn't be consequences?" Laurel's voice cuts through the ringing in my ears.
I roll to the side and throw up a shield on pure instinct. Another blast of magic crashes against it—raw, unrefined power that makes my teeth rattle.
The shield holds, but cracks spiderweb across its surface.
Laurel stands at the edge of the stone circle, her silver hair wild around her face. Her light gray eyes—once so full of wisdom and warmth—burn with something close to madness.
"Everything I built. Everything I worked for.Gone!" She stalks forward, magic crackling around her fists. "Because of you."
"Me?No, you did this to yourself." My voice comes out steadier than I feel. Blood drips down my chin. "You betrayed the Goddess Mother and your friends. You kidnapped innocent witches and drained them. You ruined families and?—"
"I was rising to the potential of our kind!" Her scream echoes off the stones. "We were given immense magical potential and then told to live small and to harm none. I wanted to wield true power. Not the soft, watered-down magic the Wiccan world peddles."
She throws a blast of energy, and my shield shatters. She throws another blast and I dodge left. I’m not fast enough and it clips my shoulder. The impact spins me around and I go down hard on one knee. Pain lances through me as her spell sucks the magical energy from me like the leech she is.
"You're crazy?—"
"Crazy?" She laughs, harsh and bitter. "I was a goddess, and you took that from me. Maybe I am crazy. You stole my coven, my reputation, why not my sanity?—"
"Siphoning real magic from elites didn't make you a goddess. The Goddess Mother blesses us with power. You're just a psychotic bitch and I exposed what a pathetic wannabe you were born and meant to be."
"Pathetic or industrious? I saw the potential of what our world offers and took it. I know more about true power than you ever will, and now that my secret is out, I don't have to hide what I can do any longer."
The threat urges me to push to my feet, calling spirit fire to my hands.
My blue flames barely flicker, her spell to weaken me still stinging under my skin. Even with the power of the standing stones surrounding me, I won't be able to defend myself against her next assault.
