Family Magic, Chloe Price [christmas read aloud .txt] 📗

fighting a losing battle that would mean the end of us all if he failed.

He reached for Mom, not for support, but with a wave of love. She threw her new-won power to him—and I blocked her.

Dad looked at me. My demon looked back. I reached out to him, to Jared and touched Uncle Frank all at the same time. Dad’s whole being burned with understanding. Alone, we didn’t stand a chance.

I was depleted, but I could still be a focus. As they sent everything they had to me, I found I wasn’t quite so empty as I thought. My demon mustered her last reserves. Swelling with this new surge of force, the odd sensation of the different types of magic flowing through me, I took control of the witch’s sources of power and slammed Batsheva Moromond into the earth.

With her collapse, the stolen magic recoiled. The site fell into total silence, a heartbeat of utter stillness in which I held my breath. The column of blue and amber rose from her in a rush, entwined with the now familiar green Sidhe and the ghostly white of the undead. I felt the wind of its rebirth blow my hair back, crushing my rumpled clothing to me. I squinted as the gusts rose, sending debris flying. The spinning vortex hummed as it spiraled higher and higher, winding tightly together until the whole thing was tinted a soft, sunlit yellow, pulsing like a young star. It sent its power out to engulf us, restore us. I heard Sassy cry out but was too wrapped up in the experience to look his way. My whole body vibrated with it, senses overloaded, and I knew what it was to be immortal.

It wasn’t to last. Unable to sustain itself for long, the power began to vibrate, four sources not meant to be bonded shaking into their diverse parts. Feeling the finality of the buildup, I covered my face with my hands just as the volatile core of power reverted and shattered. I felt it pass through me in a hot rush and knew it returned to those it had been stripped from. The missing spirits of the twins and the fallen coven members went back to their bodies, the echoes of their release from the hold Batsheva had on them touching all of us.

It wasn’t over yet. To my horror I saw blue, pink, silver and orange magic rise from Batsheva, thin strings, transparent spirits, fleeing toward the sky. These unfamiliar souls sang with relief at their freedom. Their tender thanks brought tears to my eyes. I wondered how far Batsheva’s evil spread and if her last coven disbanded after all.

The song faded. I found myself on my feet, once again in the quiet dark, feeling great, fresh, like I just had the best night’s sleep of my life. My family experienced the same effects as me. And Sassafras, my fat cat friend, was shiny and whole, his fur intact, Persian body perfect.

He winked one huge yellow eye at me and started to groom himself.

I couldn’t help but laugh. Until I saw my father’s face. A shiver ran through me at the fear in his eyes. He tried to hide it, but it was too late. I knew what I was able to do was not only unusual, but it was enough to terrify my demon father to the point he let it show.

It triggered my familiar barrier, the one I ignored since the threat to my family forced me to choose magic over what I wanted. Fear slid up my walls like ice, reinforcing them, hardening them beyond my old shields. I tried to ignore the howling of my demon now trapped on the other side. If Dad was afraid of her, so was I. There was no way I would ever let her out again.

Quaid made a grab for Dominic when he attempted to escape. I watched as he manhandled his father into submission. I caught one last look at Dad in time to see him fade from his statue, a sad and troubled expression on his face.

I sat on the hard ground and hugged myself. As much as I wanted to be happy it was all over, I couldn’t shake the feeling we hadn’t seen the last of big trouble for the family. The power I possessed was a threat to us, as well, I knew, a power that could break out and destroy us if I let it. I tried to forget the feeling of my demon next to me, the knowing I could do anything, have anything and no one would be able to stand in my way if I chose it.

That was so it. At the first opportunity, I was going to make my mother wall up my demon for good, no matter what it took.

Mom stood over Batsheva, sadness on her face but a strength in her I recognized. My mother was back and more powerful than ever, thanks to Batsheva’s meddling. The core of the coven, the ghost of the Hayle magic, was once more in Mom’s possession. Combined with it, I could feel the very power Batsheva tried to steal. I wondered how Mom planned to explain her new Sidhe undead abilities to the others.

I felt a hand on my arm. Gram grinned, drool running down her chin, her crazed gaze gleaming in the dim illumination of the candles.

“Still all here,” she said. “Darkness loses.”

“Light wins,” I finished for her.

“Light wins,” she said. “Now give it back.”

Crazy old lady. Chapter Thirty Eight

The wailing started and would not stop. It was a horrible, broken sound, full of frustration and despair. It pierced me like a knife.

We all came together over the hunched form of Batsheva Moromond. I felt Quaid join us, his face expressionless but eyes soft as he watched his mother, wretched, shattered, shriek her sanity away into the night.

As she did, they started to arrive, slowly at first, in ones and twos, then large groups of them all at once, the coven, our family, come to pass judgment on the saboteur who almost destroyed us. None of them approached, leaving us alone, keeping their distance, standing guard over the Moromonds to allow us our moment together.

By the time the witches gathered, it was getting close to dawn.

“We should go,” Uncle Frank said to us. Sunny shone beside him. She brushed my face with her fingertips in thanks.

“Stay,” Mom said. “You are welcome here, both of you. From now on, you are always welcome.”

Frank grinned at her. “Thanks, and any other time, we’ll take you up on it.” He looked to the east and the growing dawn. “We don’t exactly have much choice at the moment.”

We hugged them. I closed my eyes as I felt them dissolve and fly to safety for the day, feeling Uncle Frank’s energy hug me as he left.

“Love you, too,” I whispered.

I opened my eyes at the brush of fairy magic. Jared stepped forward. He reverted to his human state. I saw Erica in the crowd, her face pinched with guilt and anger that he fooled her for so long.

“I, too, have to go,” he said.

“You are welcome with us, Galleytrot,” Mom told him. I saw the hope and gratitude that crossed his face. It faded.

“I can’t, but you are a generous woman to offer. You have been nothing but kind to me. I need to offer something in return.”

“You already have,” she said. “I feel your power in me, now, and I thank you for it.”

We all knew it hadn’t been his choice to make it a gift, but he didn’t try to take it back, either.

“All I can grant you is a warning,” he said.

“The others will come,” Mom answered. I shuddered. I almost forgot about the Wild Hunt.

“I’m afraid so,” he said. “They have been asleep for so long, but Batsheva and her meddling has brought them to the edge of waking. When they do, they will know about you.”

“Thank you, Galleytrot,” she said. “I will be watchful. I will know when they rise.”

He sank into his other form. The coven gasped as Jared became the huge black dog.

“Know this,” he growled out in his elemental, gravelly voice. “Whatever advantage you think you have from knowing, whatever plan you have to stand against them, when the Wild Hunt wakes, they will come for you, Miriam Hayle, and no power, not even that you have from me, will be able to stop them.”

With that, he disappeared.

If it hadn’t been for the perfectly serene look on her face, I would have been afraid. But, after what we went through, I figured we’d face it when it came and worry about it then.

Mom caught me watching her and winked.

My mother turned to the gathered coven, drawing Meira, Gram, Sassy and I to her as she faced those who let her down. I shook in fury. I wanted to tell the whole lot of them off. If they just stood behind her, if they were stronger, Batsheva would never have been able to come between the family and my mother.

I felt her hand on my shoulder squeeze followed by the gentle brush of her familiar power over me. I recognized how much I missed it, the perfect, warm weight of it. I was terrified it was gone forever. I calmed under her touch, trusting her to deal with them and for once keeping my big mouth shut.

“My coven, my sisters and brothers,” she said, “my very good friends, what has happened has happened. There will be no blame placed from this moment on.”

A groan ran through the gathered witches as they felt her forgiveness and love and her renewed bond to them.

“What of the Moromonds?” Erica asked. “Surely they are to be blamed?”

There was a murmur of agreement, an anger rising as the self-doubt and guilt turned outward. I saw the greatly reduced Dominic shrink back from them, terror etched in his pinched face.

Batsheva stayed stubbornly unrepentant. Her wailing ceased as she listened.

Mom held up one hand, calling for silence. It came in a breath.

“They must be punished,” she said, “but they will be treated to the letter of our laws. They will have a fair and honest trial led by the High Council. There will be no old world justice here. I will not have its negative energy weaken us any further.”

I had Superwoman for a mom.

“And the boy?” Celeste said. “What of the boy?”

My heart dropped. “He is innocent,” I said.

“You speak for him, Sydlynn?” Mom asked.

My eyes locked on him. He bowed his head to me with one of his smirks and stepped forward, smile fading as he faced my mother.

“I seek asylum in the coven,” he said. “I’m too young yet to leave them on my own. I need your permission to break from them and be free.”

Mom’s fingertips brushed his cheek.

“Granted,” she said. I didn’t miss the speculative look she gave me out of the corner of her eye.

“It is done, then,” she said, magic carrying it to the furthest corner of the crowd. She turned to face Batsheva and Dominic. The sadness in her face aged her.

“I hereby cast you out,” she said, “and order you to be taken before the High