Page 214 of The Warlock's Trial

Chloe’s voice became hollow. “Why would they do this?”

“They claimed it was the best view on the lake,” Hattie said. “They were going to build a luxury lakefront apartment complex.”

“So they could control people’s living situations, too!” Grant raged.

“They’ve wiped out our history,” Nadine said in a horrified tone. “Those buildings stood for centuries, and now, they’re gone.”

I shook my head, unable to believe what I was seeing. “The coven is worse off than I thought, and it’s been going on longer than I realized. All the dying thoughts I hear are so depressing. We shouldn't be treating our people like this. None of this should’ve happened."

The priestesses had gone too far. They obviously didn’t care who they fucked over to gain power. It was clear that to them, anything out of their control had to go, but their quest for power had completely devastated the town. Now we had to rebuild from the ground up.

Grant looked around at the devastation. “This is horrific. We tried to save the coven and defeated the priestesses, but what if we came too late? We might not be able to save the coven now, because the priestesses destroyed so much of our world. We have a lot of work to do. Just because the priestesses are gone doesn’t mean this is over. We got elected to this council, but we don’t know if we’re actually able to help the coven. What if we can’t fix this?”

Chloe sighed hopelessly. “Grant’s right. We made a lot of promises—promises I don’t know if we’ll be able to keep. It’s not just buildings we need to rebuild; it’s the whole town’s infrastructure, economy, and healthcare system. Plus, we need to get the school back up and running, all while providing for our people. We have to completely rebuild from scratch. There’s so much to do, and I don’t know how we’re going to do it all. We’re going to have to pick and choose who we help, because we only have so many resources. We can’t fix every problem as badly as we want to, so someone’s going to be let down.”

“We’re not going to let that happen,” Nadine insisted. “We can’t.”

“I don’t know if you understand what this is going to take,” Chloe said gently. “We’re in a position of power now, but no matter how powerful we are, it doesn’t fix these societal problems, because to do so takes everyone’s cooperation. We’re young and inexperienced, and there’s enough people who aren’t willing to work with us as it is. Besides that, we need power to go up against the priestesses. Having Santos on our side isn’t enough, because gods don’t like to meddle in human affairs. The fact that he showed up to save Marcus is a miracle. We can’t count on him to show up every time.”

“Perhaps the people are enough,” Talia suggested. “Surely the whole power of the coven can rival the Master Wand.”

I shook my head. “We can’t ask these people to fight for us, and even if we did, we can’t guarantee that these people will do that. They don’t want to fight or be made into soldiers, and it isn’t right to make them. The Waning is happening because we’re fighting, and the more we ask them to fight, the worse it will get. We promised we’d fix it, and that means working together.”

“Technically, yes, we have more power together,” Nadine added. “But we’d have to get all these people to agree to fight, and we can hardly get ten people to agree on one thing at the same time. They voted us in, but we still have to earn their trust. We all know the Law of Love, one of the three laws of Miriamic magic. Through love, our magic is stronger, so our duty on this council is not to rule, but to guide through love. We need to support these people in healing first and foremost. The individual comes first, because there can be no community without each one of us working together.”

“Where do we start?” Talia asked.

“We need to get this town working again, or no one’s going to fight for our cause,” Nadine said. “The coven needs access to education, medicine, and housing, and we must restore their sense of purpose. If we’re going to change the coven and undo what the priestesses did, we need to care for these people’s emotional and spiritual well-being first, because turning them into soldiers is going to take away their individuality and purpose.”

Nadine took a breath and looked over the remnants of the Catwalk. “The coven’s job needs to be rebuilding the town, because this is going to take a huge group effort, and that’s something they’ll be motivated to help with. Rebuilding these structures and implementing new programs are things we can delegate to the people, but we promised to go up against the priestesses for them. We need to follow through on our promises, all while giving them back the lives they deserve, and that starts now.”

“The Oaken Wands pull power from the coven. All we can ask our people for is their cooperation, to use the Oaken Wands, and hope that it’s enough,” I said.

“The Oaken Wands don’t work anymore,” Grant pointed out.

“Perhaps we can restore their power,” I replied. “Lilian said she cursed the Wands we were holding—four of them. She didn’t curse the Curse Breaker Wand, because she doesn’t know where it is, and therefore, can’t focus her power on it. Nadine isn’t strong enough to break a curse cast by the Master Wand on her own, but the Curse Breaker Wand may be enough to do it. If we find it, we can break this curse on the Oaken Wands, and gain enough power to stand against the priestesses one last time. We don’t know if the Oaken Wands are as powerful as the Master Wand, but they’re more powerful than anything else we’ve got, so they give us a fighting chance. It might just be enough to stop them.”

“It doesn’t matter if the cards are stacked against us,” Nadine decided. “We have to beat the priestesses regardless.”

“So, what do we do?” Grant asked.

Silence filled the air. It was obvious none of us had an easy answer.

“We just have to keep going, no matter what happens,” I finally said. “You’re right—we don’t know if we can save the coven, because it might be too far gone, but we’re going to try anyway.”

“We can’t keep existing with the priestesses around,” Nadine added. “Either they have to die, or we’re going to die fighting them. We can’t let Marcus grow up in a society like this. If we die, then so be it, but we aren’t going to give up until the coven heals or we’re dead.”

“It’s our only choice, and the coven’s only chance,” I agreed. “The priestesses will be back. They’ll use the Master Wand to try and regain control of the coven, but we have to fight until our last breath to prevent that. The priestesses are going to stay away for a while because they’re afraid Santos will come back, but eventually they’ll find a way in. We’re going to find the Curse Breaker Wand, to break the curse on the rest of the Oaken Wands, so that when the priestesses come back we have the power to defeat them. When they’re finally gone, we’ll destroy the Master Wand, along with the Oaken Wands.”

“Destroy them?” Grant asked. “But they were created to protect us against the fae. If we destroy them, we destroy the coven’s greatest weapon.”

“The Oaken Wands may be our greatest weapon, but they’ve become our greatest threat,” I said. “These Wands were created out of fear. The coven made these Wands to take on our greatest enemy, but we became our own greatest enemy, because these Wands are a bigger threat to our people than the fae ever could be. The coven has proven they can’t handle this kind of magic, and therefore, we need to get rid of it. If we don’t get rid of it, this is just going to happen again. Magic shouldn’t be in the hands of one person. This magic belongs to everybody.”

Only one choice remained. We were going to use the Oaken Wands one last time—and then we were going to send them straight to the Abyss, right alongside the priestesses.

Nadine took my hand. “Then let’s save the coven. Even if there isn’t anything left to save.”

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