Everyone has stopped chanting now, I can feel the energy coming from my son’s magic and it terrifies me. I thought my magic was dark, but I can’t imagine anything more terrifying than the magic that is my son. If my magic were dark, this is a black hole, nothing could escape it as I feel myself being drawn to it.
It starts to absorb everyone’s power. Consuming our magic like it is nothing but air. I feel the air become trapped in my lungs as I fight the urge to let go of Astral’s hands.
“Hold the circle, don’t let it break!” Astral screams. Sweat beads all over my body as I fight against the urge to let go and run. “Keep it centered, push it inside itself!” I try to do as she says, but it is like pushing on a brick wall.
Everyone is straining, trying to hold on when suddenly, I feel it pierce me. The magic hits me in the center of my chest. Stabbing pain radiates throughout my body and I feel every hair on my body stand on end.
“Fight it, Imogen, it can feel your magic. Ground yourself!” Her voice is hypnotic, running through my head.
Suddenly, I see images flashing before my eyes. Like an old black-and-white movie. Images of my childhood, images of my mother. Memories flood into me and memories of my father.
Memories I didn’t know existed, suppressed, and hidden away.
He was always there. Then, he would leave, taking the memories with him and each time, taking a piece of my mother who was left to find the only happiness she could, in the bottom of a bottle. Only to return and her light would return, only for it to leave once he would go again, and I recognized that sadness that fell over her. It was the sadness of being without your mate.
Memories of my magic before my mother took it away, memories of her giving hers up for me. The last memory I have of my father is at a park and a woman I instantly recognize as Bianca, arguing with him. I was just a child at the time.
Memories of my mother dying, memories of Tobias and Theo and the months of being together. Every memory we shared, all flashing before my eyes at lightning speed.
I hear Astral scream for me to find my grounding and push the magic out. That’s when the picture stills and I find it. My grounding place, my meaning for living. The very person my life is worth fighting for. The one thing that matters most in this world. My son, smiling back at me as he grasps air for me to pick him up. That one image, yet in it I feel nothing but love, nothing but acceptance. The one person I will lay my life down for, repeatedly, just to make sure he can live his.
I feel tears run down my cheeks, and a strength I never knew I had built within me, as I feel light consume me. I scream as I feel it burst from me, shoving the darkness back before wrapping around the darkness, gripping it tightly.
My surroundings become that of the yard and the witches surrounding me. Like an elastic band, everything snaps back into place. I watch as my magic grips the darkness, strangling it and holding it in place, when suddenly Astral breaks the circle but my magic still holds. She then walks to the center of the circle with my bracelet in her hand and I watch amazed as it is sucked into the charm before I feel the ground shake and air rushes past us before everything stills. The clouds up above are clearing and the storm is dissipating.
Astral then walks over and places the bracelet in my hand. “Keep this safe.” She says.
I nod before placing it on my wrist. The pendant glows angry but the magic is trapped forever, concealed within the confines of the vines and pentagram.
Silence falls over everyone before they murmur excitedly, and I’m left feeling nothing less than whole. Finally, my life makes sense, as a new sense of clarity washes over me. Bending down, I pick up Thaddeus and he happily tugs on my shirt. I kiss his head and Tobias and Theo come over hugging us.
“I saw him.” I whisper.
“Saw who?” Theo asks.
“My father, he was always there. I just didn’t know it.” I tell them.
Everyone stays for coffee and lunch and by the time everyone leaves, I am exhausted. Crawling in bed, I lay between Theo and Tobias. Thaddeus asleep in his crib.
“What a week?” I mutter, completely drained.
“Hmm, it’s nearly over though, one more obstacle then it’s done,” Tobias says, rolling over and wrapping his arm around my waist. “Are you nervous about tomorrow?”
I shake my head, as barbaric as it is to fight to the death, I’m not nervous. I just want it all to be over with so we can move on with our lives. “No, I can handle Bianca. It’s after that I’m nervous about.”
“Why is that?” He asks.
“Because we can finally move on with our lives. We have always had distractions, things getting in the way, it will be strange when it’s just all of us for eternity.” I tell them.
“What do you mean?” Theo asks, rolling over to face me.
“I mean that after it is all said and done, I need to do what my mother did to protect me. I need to give up my magic and become like you.”
Waking up the next morning, I grab Thaddeus from his crib. Tobias is still snoring like a chainsaw and is probably the reason Thaddeus has woken. I seriously don’t understand how Theo hasn’t smothered him in his sleep. Most of the time I don’t notice, but now we have a kid, his snoring is annoying when it wakes the baby.
Grabbing my pillow, I lob it at him, and he darts upright. “What?” He says, looking around the room.
“You woke him again. Seriously Tobias, you might need to sleep outside. It is getting ridiculous,” I tell him.
“Doesn’t affect my sleep,” he says, yawning and stretching.
The smell of bacon wafts through the house and my belly rumbles. Walking down the stairs, I hear the radio playing and can hear Theo rummaging around the kitchen. As soon as I walk in, Theo greets us with a kiss as I sit down on the stool with Thaddeus in my arms. Theo places a steamy cup of liquid gold in front of me and I almost orgasm from the sight of my oversized mug of coffee.
Tobias comes in, sits next to me and pinches Thaddeus’s cheeks. Suddenly, Theo turns the radio up and the host is talking about weather change patterns and about a freak hurricane that swept through the city. We all look at each before looking at Thaddeus, who still has his cheeks pinched between Tobias’s fingers. I kiss his nose.
“Well, I didn’t realize it reached the city.”
“Yeah, had some freak talking about conspiracy theories call up the station earlier, claiming the government is behind the severe weather patterns,” Theo says. I raised an eyebrow, obviously an eccentric nutter. Theo hands a coffee to Tobias before he pulls out a highchair from the pantry.