by Tish Thawer
“Fuck you! We know who you are...Kit, and I know you can feel them coming,” Caris taunted.
A hoarse laughter, like glass on sandpaper, echoed off the cave walls. “You know nothing.”
Caris swallowed past the lump in her throat as she watched the cloaked demon stir his cauldron. A foul green fog slithered from the bowl and coated the floor, rising up to fill the opening of the cave. Solidifying and turning invisible, it sealed the door to her escape or rescue. Tears built behind Caris’s eyes as she thought of what would happen if her family ran into the barrier.
“Please, just let me go.”
“It’s too late for that,” he hissed, tying a gag around her mouth. “You’re right. They are coming, and soon, you will all be mine.”
Jason pulled off the road in the same spot as before. “Okay, it’s about a two hour hike to the cave from here.”
“We don’t have time for that,” Trin snapped. “Give me your hands.”
“What should I do with this?” Kennedy pointed to the basket.
“Put the sachets in your pockets,” Trin replied.
Kennedy emptied the contents into her pants then exited the truck. Gathered in a circle, the three of them joined hands.
“Goddess of the moon, stars, and sun, transport us so that this may be done. Ending the evil, righting a wrong, guided by your loving tongue. Let your words flow through me, as I will it, so mote it be.” The air spun and lightning flashed as Trin was filled with the moon mother’s magic.
The girl’s auburn hair soared upward into a vortex as they were transported to their destination, their feet touching down just outside the cave. Jason shook his head and winked at Trin, giving his silent appreciation of her exceedingly impressive new skills.
Trin cast her thoughts into their minds, “Give me a moment to scan the cave and then...follow my lead.”
Weary, Kennedy took a deep breath but stood resolute. Jason pulled a talisman from his pocket and slipped it around his neck. Trin beamed. It was a worn leather cord, bearing the ring Jeremiah presented to Karina all those years ago. “I thought this might help our connection,” he thought.
Trin caressed his cheek and placed a kiss upon his lips. “Our connection has never been stronger. I love you.”
“And I you.”
Jason and Kennedy stepped behind Trin as she moved towards the opening of the cave. Using the motion of her hands to gather energy, Trin cast runes by drawing specific glyphs in the air. A blue energy circled before her, pulsing with magic and a piercing focus. She slashed her hand towards the cave and watched as her spell ate up the green barrier blocking their way.
Trin stepped forward, motioning for Jason and Kennedy to follow. Twenty steps in, they rounded the bend and entered the heart of the cave. Caris sat tied against the wall, alive and seemingly unharmed.
Kennedy raced to untie her sister while Jason stood guard, allowing Trin to start setting up the spell in her mind.
“It’s a trap!” Caris cried as soon as her gag was removed.
“Of course it is,” Trin calmly replied. “Join hands with Kennedy, and slowly move towards me,” Trin sent into Caris’s mind, surprising her by the sudden connection.
The girls did as instructed, forming a wall with Jason in front of Trin, as she faced the demon’s altar.
“Come out and face us, foul beast. It’s time you stopped your lies and deceit,” Kennedy commanded.
A thick black fog rolled across the floor accompanied by a sinister laugh and two beady-red eyes emerging from the shadows.
“You haven’t seemed to mind the years we’ve spent together. Always happy and well protected. It’s only now that your life is in real danger. I told you, you should have stayed away from them.” Kit’s voice sounded from behind them all.
They all spun around, confused, and saw Kit standing there in her white-pant suit, while the cloaked demon continued to drift at them from the other side of the room.
“What the hell is this?” Jason yelled.
“Stop with the theatrics, Kit. I know it’s you. Drop whatever illusion this is and show your true form, Heinrich,” Trin commanded.
“How dare you speak his name!” Kit bellowed, launching herself at Trin.
Kennedy pushed past her sister and in a swift move, blew a cloud of houndstooth into Kit’s face, immobilizing her where she stood. “Be still like the dog you are,” Kennedy spat.
With a quick glance behind them, Trin summoned the witches ladder from her purse and linked hands with her sisters. “Show yourself to the three, demon of old shall it be, strip away the false and fake, only truth will the Goddess take.”
Trin opened her eyes and gasped. The demon remained the same, cloaked and glowering from the shadows, while Kit stood transformed, wearing a pilgrim dress and holding a phantom child.
“Ann Putnam?” Trin gasped.
“That’s right, sister. Did you think you were the only witch who was tied to the devil?”
The demon cackled and lunged towards his altar but met an invisible barrier when Trin threw up her hand.
“Explain! Now!” Trin demanded.
“What’s there to say? Heinrich found me long ago, long before you, and in order to spare my life, I made a bargain.”
“What kind of bargain?” Caris spat.
“To hunt witches by pretending to be mortal and in need.” She jostled the small apparition in her arms. “How was I to know that Karina’s spell would pull us all through time, forever linked and dependent upon her energy alone to survive?”
The demon began chanting while it writhed against Trin’s shield. Luckily, just as she’d foreseen, the magic between her and her sisters was silently building below the surface. Trin could feel Karina, Caris, Kara, Kennedy, and Kenna, as if each of their signatures was unique and powerful in and of itself. She had to keep talking while the Goddess’s magic unfused the red connection that was twisted between her, Ann, and the demon.
“So, all this time it was you who found me and invaded my life, not Heinrich?” Trin asked, genuinely curious.
“In a matter of speaking. Heinrich and I are linked, as I am to you, but he’s bound to this cave and depends on me to keep him well fed.” She raised her chin.
“You mean by bringing him blood and magic? Witches to the slaughter,” Kennedy spat, appalled.
“That’s right. As long as I kept the three of you apart and played my role, my bargain remained intact.”
Kennedy looked between her sisters and smiled wide. “Guess you’re shit out of luck then.”
Ann’s eyes fluttered between the girls and the demon. Her failure was clear and so was her panic. She never questioned why she needed to keep the three apart, but now, as the binds that had connected them for so long were being stripped away, she realized she was doomed. Unlinked, she was just another witch for Heinrich to feed upon.
The demon clapped his hands and a resonating boom echoed from the walls, causing Trin’s shield to shake and weaken. Ann floated through the air towards Heinrich’s outstretched hand, her feet dragging in the dirt.
“Please! Save me,” she cried out.
“Get her, Jason. If he drains her now, he’ll gain more strength. We’ll deal with her later,” Trin sent.
Jason broke from the group and grabbed Ann, while the girls worked to reinforce the shield. Heinrich was stuck behind the invisible wall, once again, unable to move.
“You will not escape your fate this night,” Trin threatened.
Kennedy, sprinkle the sulfur and salt at our feet. Trin spoke into her sister’s mind.
An insidious sneer marred the demon’s face as he tossed back his hood. “You think you can best me without your full powers? Tsk, tsk, tsk...how mistaken you are.”
Another shockwave exploded through the cave, shattering Trin’s shield into a million pieces. Finally reaching his altar, Heinrich thrust his hand into its center, piercing the petrified wood as if it was liquid. The small scythe he pulled was ancient and hum
med with power. This was the source of his magic.
He wasted no time in slashing his palm, dripping dark red blood into the cauldron. Trin worked silently to align the final pieces of her spell as they all watched his foul potion bubble and hiss.
They only needed a few more minutes for their full powers to return. The magical energy coursing through Trin’s veins was unlike anything she had imagined. But as she stated before, it wasn’t as simple as being in the same room, they could have done that weeks ago, no, there was much more to it than that, and she hoped her sisters didn’t hate her for what she had to do.
Chapter Thirty-Three
“How did you and I become connected? My spell was cast only to save my sisters,” Trin asked, trying to keep him talking.
Heinrich laughed. “You think the pups your mother spawned are your only sisters? How narrow-minded.”
Trin stood silent, happy to take a tongue-lashing if it wasted more time.
“All true witches are your sisters, girl. That’s why your spell pulled every last one of them from my time and into the future.” Heinrich riffled through the folds of his cloak as he continued. “I couldn’t let you rip my only means of survival from the world, so at the apex of your spell, I bound my soul to yours and followed you through time.” His cocky sneer had Trin wanting to burn him where he stood.
“If that’s the case, then how did you become bound to this cave while Ann continued to roam free?” Caris asked.
Mocking turned to anger as the demon spat, “Like they say...all magic has a price.”
Trin watched closely as Heinrich pulled a satchel from a hidden pocket within his robe.
“Ann was bound to me long before you cast your spell. But when I bound myself to you, we were both fully fed from your magical energy. You are one powerful little witch.” He licked his lips. “Only when I needed a boost to maintain the block I placed on you and your siblings, did Ann bring me a snack.” He cackled then opened the satin bag, drawing out long strands of auburn hair.
This is why he hasn’t attacked yet. Trin could feel, as could her sisters, that it was her hair the demon held. His intent was obvious as he dropped the strands into the cauldron. His goal was to reforge their connection; her flesh and his blood, mixing together as they both stood under the same roof, an opportunity he hadn’t had in centuries.
Trin smirked as she felt the final piece of her spell snap into place. She looked at her sisters who both smiled, feeling their powers starting to rise.
At Trin’s silent signal, Kennedy tossed a fireball from her fingertips, turning the hair in the demon’s hand to ash, while Caris dropped a spark at their feet, igniting the salt and sulfur which created an impassable barrier to all demon-kind.
“Times up,” Trin proclaimed as she placed the pendant around her neck, grinning as the demon roared.
The energy between the sisters was now solid and whole, boosted by their mother’s magic that had laid dormant, hidden deep within the pendant for centuries. All traces of the demon’s red signature had been removed by the Goddess’s hidden work just in time. The girls linked hands and gasped when a rush of pure magic flowed through them as Trin began her spell.
“Change in me, reflected be, as the Goddess’s love washes over thee. Under the glow of this moon, we welcome the challenge of all that’s new. Joy and pain, both a part, embraced with strength as this new chapter starts. Change in me, reflected be, as the Goddess’s love washes over thee.”
A whirlwind of smoke and sand, fire and air, all swarmed around them, separating them not only from the demon, but from the physical world.
The history of their family line flowed through them, continuing back to the root of magic itself. At its core, the Goddess stood waiting.
“You are now the most powerful of all my children, go forth and heal the world.”
Transformation was inevitable when you ascend, but the outcome was far beyond anything Trin had imagined.
Empowered and fully in control, Trin opened her eyes to see Kara and Kenna as they once were, and knew she too was her old self.
“Karina,” whispered Jason, who once again wore Jeremiah’s face.
Trin smiled, knowing the next few minutes were only a blip on the wonderful new life that was being laid before them.
“You may have been a powerful demon once, corrupting witches spells and harnessing their magic, but the time has come for your race to end,” Trin stated with an eerie calmness.
Heinrich laughed, unable to process the full extent of their powers. “You may have changed faces again, but you don’t scare me little girl. Did you not think I would protect what’s mine?”
Trin scoffed internally as she read his mind, then gazed at the walls and ceiling of the cave. With a mere thought, she summoned the demon’s tooth Caris had obtained from Lillian into the palm of her hand.
Opening her mouth, Trin’s voice rang loud and clear, creating the sound of tingsha chimes that vibrated and shook the entire cave.
The demon screamed, covering his ears, as the piercing sound shattered his protective net. A fine gray dust fell to the ground when Trin closed her fist, destroying the tooth.
“Your connection to this cave, to me, and to Ann has been severed. You are no more,” Trin proclaimed, evenly.
The level of power she and her sisters now possessed was beyond measure and knew no limit in this world or any other. With a flick of each of their wrists, the demon was destroyed––disintegrated before their very eyes.
With a swipe of her hand, Trin snuffed out the remaining barrier that burnt at their feet and walked towards Jason.
“What shall we do with her?” Jason asked, nodding to Ann who was still crouched at his feet.
The sisters looked at each other, and with an unspoken understanding, moved to encircle the lost witch.
“Ann Putnam, your bargain is done and your life is again your own. The punishment for your deeds will be the stripping of your power, forcing you to live your remaining years as a mortal,” Trin declared.
Ann stared at Trin, awe-struck and humbled as the magic flowed through her, removing even the tiniest spark of power. “I don’t know what to do. I’ve been with you for so long.”
Trin smiled, remembering the good times she had shared with Kit. “Try to make amends.” With a snap of her fingers, Trin transported Ann to Salem, where she hoped the witch would start anew.
Jason reached for Trin, brushing a hand down her arm and smiled as visible blue energy flowed like a river between them. “It’s over?”
“Yes and no,” Trin said as she led them from the cave.
Jason and the girls gasped as they exited into the night.
There in the forest stood hundreds of witches.
“Welcome, my sisters and brothers. Our energy here tonight is what drew you to us, and now that our full powers are returned, we are to hide no more.”
Trin raised her arms into the air. “Power heals and power binds, sending its call throughout time. Divided no more, united are we, the Witches of BlackBrook, forever the three.”
Epilogue
The coven of witches cheered as Trin’s spell washed over the crowd, unlocking all of their powers.
Some vanished with a pop, but others remained in the forest, celebrating the return of their heritage under the starry night. Fires glowed and songs rang out as the witches of old acknowledged Trin as their new High Priestess.
A man approached Trin, tapping her on the shoulder.
“My lady.”
Trin gasped. It was the man from her stoop.
“Forgive me?” he begged with a smile. “I came to your door with a false story, wanting only to see the witch whose magic was calling to my blood. I had felt your presence for months, but only recently was I able to pinpoint your location. I hope I didn’t offend.”
Trin worked out the timeline in her mind. Once Kennedy had returned, their powers as the three must have been like a beacon to all the witches in the vicinity.
/> “I’m not offended at all,” Trin replied. “Merry meet.”
“And to you, merry meet,” the gentleman replied, bowing before taking his leave.
“Are you ready for all this?” Jason whispered at her ear.
“Yes. I could feel them amassing while we were in the cave. Just like my spell before, our energy drew them here. I’m honored they chose me.”
“There could be no one else,” Jason kissed her hand, acknowledging her new position.
Trin found Caris and Kennedy dancing around the fire.
“Are you upset with me?” she asked in a rush, tossing her worries to the flame.
“For what?” Caris begged.
“For changing us back and creating this community for us to maintain?” Trin confessed.
Caris and Kennedy looked at each other, seeing the faces they were both born with and tackled Trin with a hug.
“Sister...you’ve freed us,” Caris said. “Together we will use our magic to heal this world as the Goddess instructed, one fight at a time with the help of our fellow witches.”
Jason joined them and asked the obvious question, “But how are we to return to our lives, now that everything has changed so much?”
“Seamlessly,” Trin replied. “Our lives are still our own, and everyone we’ve ever known will see us as we’ve always been. There will be no confusion for the mortals.”
Jason gathered Trin into his arms and placed a kiss upon her lips. “You’ve thought of everything.”
Trin looked at her sisters and beamed. “Not quite everything. I think we need to reevaluate our living arrangements. With our powers returned we are stronger together and with an active coven, we’ll be conducting rituals and holding Sabbaths on a regular basis.”
The girls laughed and yanked Trin and Jason into a group hug. With a snap of her fingers Caris transported them and the truck all back to the house.
“Welcome home, Trin.” Caris smiled.
“You mean it?”
“Of course! You said it yourself, we’re the Witches of BlackBrook. This is where we belong.”
