by Sammie Joyce
They didn’t need to make it all the way to the healing ward. When they heard the disturbance, the healers came to them.
It turned out that there were more cases of exhaustion than injury. What injuries there were were easily treated. Those who had magically exhausted themselves would need time to regain their powers, but with proper care, there shouldn’t be any lasting harm done.
“I should take Hope back.” Mace’s voice was heavy.
Rose almost burst into tears. She’d just about forgotten that when Hope woke up, the chances were high that it wouldn’t be safe for anyone but dragons to be around her. Their fight with Hellith was over, but their battle to help Hope control her powers had only just begun.
“I’ll go.” Jagger plucked Hope out of Mace’s arms. “It’s my turn, you guys have all had your turns leaving to keep her isolated. Besides, I don’t trust my girl with any of you idiots.”
Gavin aimed a kick at Jagger, which Jagger dodged.
Rose hugged him tightly. “We’ll try to come up with a solution for Hope as soon as we can. If we can’t do it quickly, we’ll swap you guys out.”
That would ensure Rose had plenty of time with her dragons, but she still wouldn’t be able to spend time with her daughter until they found a permanent solution for Hope.
“Wait.” Asher was staring pensively at Hope. “You remember that light, when the pillars were destroyed? It came from her, didn’t it?”
Everything had been such a rush of activity since they destroyed the last pillars of hell that Rose hadn’t even thought of the light, but now that Asher mentioned it, she realized he had a point. “Mace? You were holding her. What do you think?”
“It definitely came from her,” Mace agreed. “I don’t know what it was.”
“Magic.” Maria stepped closer to Hope, examining her carefully. “It was definitely a form of magical power. I didn’t realize it came from Hope, though. Everything got so confusing toward the end.”
“What does that mean? Does it even make any difference? We all knew she’s been using magic; that’s how she’s been making things explode and catch fire.” The last thing Rose wanted was to get her hopes up, only to have them dashed.
“Maybe nothing—but it might mean there’s a solution to this.” Maria held out her arms, and Mace hesitantly put Hope into them. Rose sensed Elaine erecting a shield around Maria, ready to protect her if Hope woke up and started breaking things.
“What do you mean?” Asher sounded like Rose felt—like he wanted to shake answers out of Maria.
“I mean, we’ve been focusing on stopping the errant magic escaping from Hope, and we’ve had zero success, at least without hurting her. What if we don’t try to stop it? What if we simply channel it?”
Of course. How had Rose not thought of that sooner? “We could always use more power storage crystals. If we could get Hope’s magic to go there rather than her surroundings, it wouldn’t only be safe—it would be useful.”
“I’ll get a crystal.” Annabelle sounded just as excited as Rose was.
Everyone waited breathlessly until Annabelle returned with a crystal.
“Back away,” Asher instructed. “Only Maria gets close to Hope while we do this.”
“No, it should be me. I’ll be the one who’s close to Hope when her magic gets out of control.”
Asher didn’t look happy, but he nodded, letting Rose take Hope from Maria.
“How do I do this?” Rose had never done a spell like this before, but power transference spells weren’t difficult, at least.
“Erevai is the spell incantation. That should give you direct contact with any power in the nearby vicinity. You need to focus on pulling that power into the crystal, like you would pull a rope. I’ll speak the incantation too, so that if you can’t get it on the first time, I’ll be able to complete the spell.”
Rose was more than a little nervous, but she needed to know if this was going to work. She shook Hope gently. “Time to wake up, Hope.”
Hope moved a little in her sleep, but didn’t wake. Rose jiggled her up and down, until finally, her eyes opened.
Unsurprisingly, Hope let out an unhappy wail at being woken up.
The smell of smoke told Rose that something was on fire, but she would let her dragons handle that.
“Erevai.”
She could feel it at once. The power of every witch in the room was like a ball of light, except this light could be handled and manipulated. Of course, should Rose try to take power from another witch, they would fight her, but Hope was too young to be able to fight.
Hope’s power shone more brightly than anyone else’s. Rose tried to get a grip on it, but it was slippery. A painting to her left was shuddering violently, clearly getting ready to explode. Rose redoubled her efforts, grabbing at Hope’s power and shoving the excess into the crystal Annabelle was holding.
The painting stopped shuddering. Hope continued to cry, but nothing caught fire or exploded.
Everyone broke into cheers. Rose hugged Hope close, murmuring comforting words to her. It was difficult not to jump for joy. Hope wouldn’t need to be taken away after all.
“I should give it a shot next time her power starts overflowing. You can’t watch her all the time.”
“Thanks, Annabelle. I’d appreciate it.”
Hope eventually quieted. Rose put her in her flying holder as they all went to the kitchens. Someone had ordered that a veritable feast be made ready in preparation for the coven’s return from hell. Rose didn’t know who had done it, but they deserved a medal.
She threw herself into a chair, grabbing a plate and filling it with chips, chicken, and vegetables. Some people were talking and joking loudly, while others ate in silence, still absorbing everything.
Rose was sitting between Mace and Jagger. She leaned on Mace’s shoulder, smiling as she ate. She was sure that another problem would pop up tomorrow, but for now, she was happy just to relax and eat with her family.
Chapter Thirteen
When she’d thought that another problem would pop up the next day, Rose wasn’t being literal. She’d hoped they would get at least a few days before they needed to deal with more drama.
Unfortunately, it was not to be.
Maria pulled her away from breakfast early to look at news reports. “I’m tired, Maria, I don’t want to look at the news,” Rose moaned. They’d dealt with enough problems within the coven recently. She didn’t want to deal with the rest of the world’s problems as well.
“You need to see this. You too, Asher.”
Mace came as well, but Gavin and Jagger stayed with Hope, who was being difficult about taking her bottle. Annabelle hovered close, ready to act in case of errant magic. What Rose did yesterday seemed to have taken the brunt of Hope’s wild magic, and Maria theorized that it would be a few days before it needed to be siphoned again. Annabelle insisted on staying, though, just in case.
“Look at this.” Maria had newspapers spread all over her desk, and a muted news channel playing from her iPad. “Over a thousand violent attacks with no apparent suspect last night, and that’s only in the US.”
That did sound like a lot to Rose, but she didn’t understand why Maria was showing her this. “You reckon we should relook at offering our services to the police?”
It was something that had been discussed on and off for years. Most people thought it would be too risky revealing their identity to anyone, but there were always some who were all for it.
“No, I don’t think it’s time to reopen those discussions. What I’m concerned about is that from the reports I’ve read, this looks like ghost activity.”
“Ghosts are really rare, though…”
Maria nodded grimly. “Exactly. Think about it. A ghost is a soul that, for whatever reason, wasn’t able to move on. We destroyed hell. All the souls that were bound for hell can’t go there anymore.”
Rose felt like the bottom had dropped out of her stomach. “This is our fault.”
“That’s my theory.”
“How do we fix it?” Asher glanced between Rose and Maria. “We have to do something, and fast.”
“Agreed. Though what, I’m not sure. Ideally, we’d create a new hell, an empty one, where all evil souls can go, but the power that would take… it’s unimaginable. Creating an entire other realm is no small thing.” Maria shrugged helplessly. She was a powerful witch, but even she couldn’t recreate hell.
“We should have thought of this.” Mace’s hands were clenched into fists. “We destroyed hell without thinking of the consequences to future deaths.”
“We have to work fast.” Rose stood up and started pacing. A thought occurred to her, but it wasn’t a thought she liked one bit. Rose looked down at the newspapers. She didn’t like the idea of people being hurt by ghosts either.
“We could use Hope.”
Asher shot her a warning glare. It wasn’t a look Rose was used to being directed at her, but she pushed on anyway. “Hope has more power than she can control right now. I was able to draw power from her and direct it to destroying the hell pillars. I was able to put her power into a crystal. Theoretically, I should be able to use her power to make another hell, if you can provide the spell, Maria. That and my necklace together should provide the required magic.”
“No,” Asher snapped. “We’re not using her like that.”
“Asher, think about it.” Mace subtly put himself between Rose and Asher, but Rose knew Asher would never hurt her, no matter how angry he was. “Look at all the people who are dying. How long before a ghost decides to go for Hope? If we don’t act now, the number of ghosts will increase exponentially. We can’t raise her in a haunted world—she’d be killed along with the rest of us.”
Asher didn’t seem to have an answer to this.
Rose pressed the advantage. “We’d be careful, Asher. You know I’d never condone anything that I thought would hurt her. We would merely be siphoning off excess energy, not taking enough to weaken her.”
“What if you misjudge it? What if you take too much?”
Maria stepped in. “If that happens, then it’ll be the same as any other witch who overexerts themselves. Hope would have to rest for a few days to recover her power. There won’t be any long-term side effects.”
“She’s just a baby. What means a few days of rest for an adult may be death for her.”
Asher had a point. The last thing Rose wanted was to put Hope in danger. “Are there tests we can run, Maria? To see how the reduction in power might affect her?”
“If there aren’t tests, then we’ll create some.” Maria stood up too. “Whatever we do, it has to be today. More and more ghosts are created every second. We can’t afford to wait.”
Rose nodded. “Tell me where you want me.”
“Us too. The dragons will help in any way we can.” Asher’s face was set in determination. “If we can find a way to do this without hurting Hope, I’m all for it. Otherwise, we’ll need to find another solution, but either way, it’s all hands on deck.”
Rose wasn’t sure how much the dragons could help with a magical matter like this, but apparently Maria had already thought ahead.
“Your clan can start doing research. We’re all already quite well versed in the intricacies of hell, but there are a number of books on creation magic that will need to be read.”
That was how their supposed day of relaxation and celebration after destroying hell became a day of frantic research and experimental spells.
Every hour, more reports of deaths came in. It made Rose sick to realize that she’d caused this. Yes, she’d gotten rid of Hellith, but by destroying hell, she had created a legion of angry, violent ghosts who were not only hurting but killing anyone they came into contact with.
Rose had been casting for two hours straight when it finally worked. She was so used to the indicator blinking red by now that at first she didn’t notice when it glowed green. Rose stared as she looked at it.
“Asher! Maria!”
The two of them quickly abandoned their own experiments and hurried over to hers.
“Look.” Rose gestured at the green light. “It—does that mean…?” She had almost lost hope by now, and was afraid to say it out loud, in case that somehow jinxed it.
“It means you’ve created a model hell.” Maria was grinning widely as she picked up the bottle Rose had been working on. The inside was completely black, just like the inside of hell. “Now we just need to work on scaling it up. I’ll check on the people I have working on that.”
Maria hurried away with the bottle, while Rose slumped onto a chair. The sun was just starting to set. They’d been working on this for the entire day without pause. She would have liked to do a lot more research and planning before starting experiments like this, let alone scaling them up to the final solution, but Rose knew they didn’t have that luxury.
Every minute more people were dying. More ghosts were appearing.
Rose looked at Asher, who had gone back to his reading. Not wanting to disturb him, she settled for gazing out of the window, enjoying the view of something other than books and magical equipment.
Judging by the fact that there were no explosions, Rose surmised that things were going well with the witches who were going to work on expanding hell.
Rose, Maria, and a group of three others would create a small kernel of hell, and the rest of the coven would multiply it. The dragons had all agreed to undergo rituals first that would allow the witches to pull energy from them and turn it into magic.
They had done experiments and found, as Maria suspected, that using Hope’s magic wouldn’t hurt her. Rose knew how to do that already, but she was still nervous about messing up. They didn’t have time for more tests, though.
Maria hurried back into the room, followed by the rest of the hell creation team.
“We’re good to go, Rose. Just do the same as you did for the bottle, except you’ll change the incantation to make it an active version. Ghosts will start being sucked in as soon as it’s done, so the expansion team will need to make it bigger quickly.”
Rose wasn’t exactly sure how the calculations had ended up, but she trusted that the witches who had been on that had gotten it correct. For it to hold not only all souls that were currently consigned there, but all souls in the future who would go to hell, it had to be huge.
“I’m ready.” Rose picked up Hope from the crib they’d moved to the work room.
Asher nodded, standing close, both for moral support and to lend his energy if Rose needed.
Rose took a deep breath and focused all of her energy.
If this went wrong, the world probably only had a few days left before falling into chaos.
Chapter Fourteen
Maria and Rose stood shoulder to shoulder. They had decided not to take the time to do a model that was reactive to their magic, which meant that they were going entirely on feel. Either the light would go green for success, or red for failure. They wouldn’t know until they were done.
Unlike the spell to access Hope’s magic, this one was a good paragraph long. Jagger held up the paper for Rose and Maria to read.
“Ready?” Maria glanced at Rose.
“Ready. On three. One, two, three!”
Together, they read out the spell. The reading was the easy part. Rose felt the change within her, the kernel for another world.
She closed her eyes as she started manipulating it. They were modeling this hell on the old one, except they were adding protection to the pillars, to ensure that this one couldn’t be destroyed.
Maria was trembling slightly as she finished her own power and started drawing on Asher’s. Rose’s necklace was glowing, which was enough for now.
Making an active version of hell rather than just the model she’d done in the glass bottle was very difficult. It was kind of like trying to stretch a too-small elastic band around a huge jar while plaiting seven different strands of silk around it.
Rose’s knees started to weaken as she struggled to pull hell into shape. During the spell, it existed both in this realm and its own. Only after it was fully created, and the right size, would it be banished to somewhere far from the world of life.
Asher came up behind her and put his arms around her. Rose gratefully let her knees collapse, letting Asher take her weight. Next to her, Jagger did the same with Maria.
It seemed to take forever, though in reality it was only a few minutes. Rose was starting to doubt whether they’d actually be able to do it when the final element snapped into place.
Maria gasped and went completely limp. Jagger carefully lowered her to the floor and got a cushion for her head. Rose kept leaning on Asher. Her job wasn’t done yet. Though they weren’t in the room—they’d wanted to be separate so that if there was an explosion, it wouldn’t kill everyone—the other witches were there, ready to take hell from Rose.
She handed it over, feeling the strong urge to fall to the floor like Maria. She couldn’t, though.
Rose started drawing power from Hope and siphoning it over to the group that was expanding hell. Though she wasn’t part of this spell, she could still sense it. The energy it took was enormous.
Her necklace was pulsing angrily, as if demanding that Rose give it a break. Rose didn’t disagree, but they had to get this done now. If they didn’t complete the spell, then this hell would remain overlapping with the world of life.
Rose didn’t even want to think of the implications if that happened. She focused on Hope, judging her energy. Hope seemed to have reserves of magic aplenty—almost too much. Rose wondered if this was why Hope had been having so many problems.
Maybe she simply had too much magic. Witch-dragon breeding was rare, and could have a number of negative side effects they had yet to see.
“Hurry up,” Rose muttered, even though she knew none of the other witches could hear her. Even though she was merely diverting energy, it was still exhausting after the spell she’d just done—a spell more complex than anything she’d ever attempted.
