Page 17 of They Were Broom-Mates

“This is happening much sooner than I thought it would,” Regina murmured.

“Was this part of your vision, Reg?” Hestia turned her attention back to the Divination Witch.

“It was.” Regina picked Salem up out of her lap, placed her on the bed, and stood, straightening out her skirt. “Amelie, if you wouldn’t mind accompanying Hestia to check on the wards, I think I need to make that call to the council sooner rather than later.”

Amelie nodded and stood from the mattress, leaning down to pick up her panties that had been strewn on the ground. Shoving them in her pocket, Amelie made eye contact with Hestia, who simply gestured her head in the direction of the door.

“Alright. Let’s go.” Then, with no further discussion, Hestia took off through Regina’s bedroom door, trusting Amelie to follow behind her. In every other scenario that Amelie had seen Hestia move, it had been almost as though she had been floating, flitting from place to place at her leisure, but now… the way she moved with purpose truly underlined the seriousness of the situation.

Making several confident turns down window-lined hallways, Hestia led Amelie back to her quarters. Pushing the wooden door open, Amelie was hit with a comforting warmth that was almost similar to the feeling her kitchen had.

The living area of Hestia’s quarters was a solarium, built nearly entirely out of glass with a singular circle in the center, just large enough for someone to sit comfortably inside. Then from the circle, the seven lines that Amelie had sensed earlier stretched out in every possible direction. The lines seemed to be made of quartz and were embedded directly into the wooden floor of the space.

With purpose, Hestia marched straight into the malachite circle at the center and closed her eyes, standing perfectly still. Even if Amelie had not been in the room with her, she would have felt Hestia’s powers pooling at her feet and reaching out through the quartz ley lines, but being here to see it was something else entirely.

The crystal at Hestia’s feet sparked as the energy gathered, and once it was completely imbued, the orange magic shot down each ley line, outwards, slightly tinting the quartz a warmer tone. The pair stood in silence for a moment as Hestia searched along each path simultaneously. However, it was only a couple of seconds before Hestia’s eyes flashed back open and she turned her head toward the East.

“Something’s interfering with the Illusion.” Getting down onto her knees, Hestia placed her hands on either side of the ley line stretching directly East and took a deep breath. Amelie felt a surge of energy beneath their feet as Hestia gathered an even greater amount of magic and began pumping it down the quartz path.

“Hestia…” Amelie watched in concern as the redhead’s brow furrowed. “What does that mean, exactly?”

Shaking her head and screwing her eyes shut in concentration, Hestia replied. “I don’t really know. It could be that one of the runes is damaged, but more likely it feels like something is gunking up the pathway, preventing the magic from reaching the border.”

Frown deepening across Hestia’s face, she took several deep breaths before pressing even harder into the ground with the palms of her hands.

“I’m trying to force my way through it right now… almost…. Got it!” Hestia let out a breath of relief as her eyes flew open.

“Did you fix it?” Amelie could feel normal levels of magic flowing through each of the ley lines, but the frown still stuck to the Illusion Witch’s face made her pause.

“For now.” Hestia shrugged, getting to her feet. “But it’s not a permanent solution. If we don’t know what’s blocking the ley line, we won’t be able to deal with it. And if I have to permanently sit here and feed into the Illusion just to get the magic to flow, it’s going to seriously cut into my life force.”

Alarmed at the admission, Amelie stepped forward and placed a hand on Hestia’s arm. “I’m sure it won’t come to that. I know that the town illusion is important, but I am responsible for you and your well-being; I won’t let you torture yourself like that.”

Hestia’s gaze softened as she placed a hand over Amelie’s. “You’re sweet. I can see why Regina fell for you so quickly.”

Amelie felt her face heat up at the admission, but she didn’t have time to process it as just then, the door to Hestia’s living space opened.

Chapter seven

“Ijust heard back from the Council.” Regina, now fully dressed and made up as per usual, made her way into Hestia’s room. As Amelie studied the other woman’s face, her heart sank at the seriousness that clouded the Seer’s expression.

“They said no.” Amelie furrowed her brows, matching the expression of the other witch. But she was confused when Regina simply shook her head, lips pursed.

“They said yes.”

Hestia, who, despite her exertion up until this moment, had seemingly been able to maintain her sense of relaxed control, stiffened.

“They agreed to let you share?” Hestia’s voice was tight as she stepped toward Regina.

The black-haired witch simply nodded and directed her gaze up toward the redhead. Amelie could tell that Hestia wanted to ask more questions, but Regina held up a single hand, stopping her before she could, as she turned to Amelie.

“Where’s Delia?” Regina asked. “Amelie, I need you to find her so we can include her in this conversation.”

“Oh, Gods.” Hestia mumbled. “This affects her too?”

Regina pursed her lips again, solemnly. “This is in regard to her abilities, almost exclusively.”

Amelie thought back to the decay witch, sitting alone in the mausoleum, hesitant to interact, and suddenly a gnawing pit appeared in the kitchen witch’s stomach.