AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What do you mean you can’t? Come inside.” Hazel walked out to meet her sister and saw that Gothel was looking at the ruins of the conservatory. “She’s not going to rise from the ashes, Gothel. All of the rapunzel was destroyed.”
“Not all of it,” said Gothel, taking one small flower from the pocket of her dress.
“That’s not enough to bring her back, is it?” asked Hazel, fearful her mother’s spirit could somehow use the flower to rise from the dead.
“I’m not worried about Mother coming back. I’m worried about us. I’m worried about how we’re going to survive without her. Without her blood. Without her powers.” Gothel stood there a moment, looking at the smoldering ashes below. “I thought I’d lost you forever last night, Hazel. You and Primrose. It was terrifying finding you lying there in the darkness so still and so quiet. I thought you were dead.”
“But we’re fine, Gothel. And we’re home. We’re together. Together forever.”
Sisters. Together forever.
Gothel smiled. And then she remembered. “Wait! Primrose! She has Mother’s blood. Some of it, at least. We can do the ceremony again when she’s recovered. Then we won’t be so defenseless!”
“Gothel! We can’t put her through that! Not after what Mother did to her! Not after everything we went through last night.”
“We have no choice, Hazel! We have to! You didn’t see what happened to Mother! The way she died was horrible, and the same thing will happen to us if we don’t replant this flower and learn Mother’s magic.”
“Or we can destroy it and the entire forest and leave this place forever! Live normal lives without magic. There is nothing for us here, Gothel! Nothing! There is no magic to learn now that Mother is gone.”
“Primrose has some of Mother’s magic! She forced her to drink the blood! Maybe it’s enough, Hazel! Promise me we won’t give up. Please. Let’s just talk to Primrose about it when she’s feeling better. I promise we’ll only do it if she agrees. I promise I won’t force her.”
“But we still don’t know how to do the ceremony even if she agrees!”
“We still have all of Mother’s books. All her spells. Her history. The history of our ancestors! Everything is not lost! I can replant the flower and we can start again. We can still have the life we imagined. Please?”
“Okay, Gothel. As long as Prim doesn’t mind doing the ceremony.”
“What ceremony?” It was Primrose. She was standing in the center of the library in the shadow of a large stone bat hanging from the rafters. She looked drawn and pale in her white nightdress, and the cuts and bruises on her face and neck were all the more striking in contrast to her pallor.
“Prim! What are you doing out of bed?” scolded Hazel, running to her sister.
“I’m fine, Hazel. I promise! What were you two talking about?”
Hazel and Gothel just looked at Primrose. They weren’t ready to have that conversation right then—and they knew Primrose wasn’t ready to hear what they had to say.
“What? What is it?” Primrose insisted.
“Nothing, Prim. We can talk about it later. Let’s go downstairs and have some breakfast,” said Hazel, patting her hand.
“No, I want you to tell me what you were talking about right now!” Primrose put her hands on her hips and gave her sisters her infamous I’m very serious look.
“Gothel and I were discussing our options.”
“What options are those?” Primrose was clearly starting to get annoyed.
“Staying here in the dead woods or going into the world,” said Hazel, looking at Gothel.
“Well, we should go, of course! I don’t want to stay here!” said Primrose. “Why in Hades would we stay?”
Gothel sighed.
“What? You want to stay?” Primrose scoffed and continued. “Of course you want to stay! Well, you can stay if you want! You can stay forever for all I care, but I’m leaving! And I think Hazel wants to come with me!”
“Hazel wants to stay with me, Prim! And I wish you would, too! I need you both,” said Gothel as sweetly as she could, trying hard not to upset her sister even more than she already was.
“Gothel was hoping you’d be willing to share Mother’s blood with us, Prim. That way we would all have her powers. At least some of them, anyway.”
“Oh really? That’s why you need me? For Mother’s blood! What’s happened to you, Gothel? What in Hades is wrong with you? Fine! I’ll share Mother’s blood with you, but I’m not staying here. I will not stay in a place that houses dead children! I will not stay here and watch you turn into Mother! I don’t want any part of this sick fantasy you have in your head, the three of us being witches together. Doing magic. And controlling those things out there! Those children! Those dead children! You don’t think I saw you last night commanding them to their graves after you found me and Hazel? You don’t think I saw the look on your face when they followed your orders? You looked like Mother! Just like her, Gothel! And I won’t stay here watching you become more like her every day!”
