Page 100 of Rewitched

“I should hope not,” Bronwyn went on. “Those girls were woeful. They should have stood up for themselves from the beginning. Rather than letting Father ever tell us who was and wasn’t worthy in our family. That oaf Savaric, especially. Removing him from the picture was the best thing I could have done. I never regretted it for a moment.”

Belle was surprised to see Morena falter almost imperceptibly, the magic emitting from her palms flickering just the smallest amount. In a moment, it was back to its solid, controlled form. Perhaps she’d imagined it.

“And isn’t that exactly what you’re doing now? What you’ve been doing all of these years? Dictating who is and isn’t worthy of a part of all of this?” Belle shouted, the hypocrisy enraging her.

“Silence, you utter waste of precious sorcery,” Morena spat. “How dare you factor yourself into this! This is far greater than a fool like you could ever pretend to understand.”

“Don’t you dare. Ever. Speak to my daughter that way!” Bonnie thundered, her rage careering through the room. Before Belle could stop her, Bonnie threw her right palm up towards the sky and brought a crashing ripple of magic from the Gowdens’ swirling supply towards them in a vehement gesture, breaking apart the barricade, the shock so sudden that they were both almost knocked off their feet.

Morena quickly adjusted herself and sent one back in return, the strength of the wave so enormous that Belle could feel it resound in her lungs as it hit. Another was sent roaring back in the Gowdens’ direction, but it didn’t come from Bonnie. Belle’s head flung around just in time to see Rune’s magic cascade across the courtroom, mighty enough that the pendulum shuddered as it resonated against the bronze.

“Isn’t this just adorable?” Bronwyn giggled, though a thunderous temper was clearly visible behind her eyes, fracturing the façade. She gathered the magic back around her as though knitting together a string between her palms. “A mother and daughter act, a useless old sidekick and the handsome, hapless hero? I couldn’t have written it better myself.”

“And what does that make you both? The villains? Or just a pair of bitter, self-aggrandising old hags who anointed themselves as better than everybody else to feel powerful? You said it yourself, Bronwyn. ‘The truth always outs in this coven.’ ”

“Call me a hag one more time, girl,” Morena spat.

It was only then that Belle noted the pendant hanging around Morena’s neck over her cloak. A sooth stone, but Morena’s own was still encased in the ring she wore. As her eyes fell upon the jewel, once encased in a delicate shell brooch, it turned from grey to radiant gold, connecting to her. Her own stolen sooth stone. She could have exploded for the rage that burned inside her.

“Won’t everybody please just take a breath?” said Artorius. “This is going to end in—”

“Enough from you, little brother! You’re still unwanted, even now.” Bronwyn cast out a palm specifically towards Arty.

Her spell threw him into the air at impossible speed, and he landed in a heap against the courtroom wall. His small body didn’t move.

“No!” Belle cried out. She ran to him, a bundle of oversized jacket, glasses knocked to the floor.

“Arty, are you okay? Can you hear me?” Belle quickly manifested a pillow to place under his head, the best she could do in that moment, and said a silent wish to whatever it was that witches were supposed to believe in. She turned back to the scene just in time to see her mother send another blow in response, the effort visible across her face enough to break Belle’s heart by itself. A chaotic storm of magic flew in every direction across the courtroom, ricocheting from the brass pendulum. The noise was enormous, too. Thunder cracks, implosions of what Belle could only assume to be the atmosphere itself, as the women’s powers broke through normal planes of speed and light. It smelled distinctly of burning.

She called as loud as she could over the crashes, “Rune, stay here! Get everybody to safety. Whatever it takes,” Belle yelled, struggling back to her feet to run to him, dodging flying bolts of magic. “Mum and I will deal with these two.”

“You’re sure?” he shouted back, manipulating a sphere of solid magic between his palms, which he sent careering towards the nexus. “I’m going to bring it down, the pendulum. It’s what all of the magic is attracted towards, like a magnet. If that comes down, it should break the spell they’re holding over the coven, at least temporarily. It’ll be chaos, but—”

“Got it,” Belle yelled, not even attempting to understand what he’d just said. It sounded good.

“And Belle, I didn’t mean it.” He swallowed hard, holding her with a stare. “You were wrong.”

She rolled her eyes. “Just for a change, is this really the time?”

“Not like that…I mean, I was wrong to agree with you when you said we shouldn’t have kissed. It was the best possible thing. You’re the best possible thing.”

Her heart gave a kick.

“Be careful.”

Without thinking, she grabbed one of his hands and held it for just a fraction of a second. Their palms brushed, the static of magic snapping between them as they separated. She dashed to her mother’s side, shielding her eyes as best she could as Bonnie battered the Gowdens again with shocks of magic.

“Mum!” she shouted, straining her voice. “We need to get them out of the courtroom, into the atrium, to move all the magic away. Rune will protect the coven members.”

“It sounds like you have a plan, darling.” They were screaming at the top of their lungs but still only barely able to hear each other as the room began to crumble around them, unable to withstand the forces of five witches at war, the unbalanced magic. Huge chunks of ceiling, wall, shelving and fireplace were crashing to the ground now, books flying at all angles, stone splitting open and sending a thick choking dust into the air.

“When do I ever have a plan?” Belle replied. “All I know is that when Rune brings the pendulum down, we run. They’ll follow us. It’s personal. They’re hell-bent on it.”

“I do love our girly time together, Belle,” Bonnie shouted back sarcastically as a huge stone boulder missed her head by inches.

“It’s coming down,” Rune yelled, pulling the pendulum out towards them, seizing it from its hinges. “Get out!”

Bronwyn shrieked, “Rune, do not—”