Page 56 of Practically Witches

“It’s mine!” she screams and another of the overhead lights blows. There is a loud boom—thunder inside the building.

I flinch because I don’t like thunder when it’s outside in the sky. I sure as fuck don’t want to be alone with it inside.

“Where is the Scepter of Power?” Without touching me, she lifts me from the ground and I can’t breathe. It’s as if the hand she has curled in the air is actually gripping my throat.

I can’t answer her because I can’t speak or breathe or see how this is going to end well for me. I clutch at a hand that isn’t there, trying to break free to get oxygen to my lungs while I kick my feet trying to reach the ground that has fallen away from me.

The edges of my sight are tinged in black that is getting thicker as it moves in.

And then I fall, and it feels as if the drop takes forever before I crash to the floor.

“Stand up, RJ!” I can hear Aimee’s voice in my head and I don’t know how or why, or maybe if she’s standing at the door watching because this is quite the commotion and they’ve all probably come running, but I get to my feet and look around for her, and see her standing by the door.

“I can feel them all here, waiting for me.” She shoves open the door at the side of the gym that leads to the hallway. It slams shut behind her as I run to it and push as hard as I can. The damned thing won’t move.

“Get out of the way, RJ.” Dad pushes me to the side, then throws a bolt of what can only be lightning by the way it explodes the heavy metal door and leaves a molten puddle for me to jump over.

I still don’t have the scepter, but neither does Elizabeth, so I chase her. She’s opening doors—every door—and looking inside for the congregational meeting of magicians that should be happening right now. I shake my head and run past when she opens a closet and looks inside.

As soon as she sees me, she closes that door and follows, walking as though she’s in no big hurry.

The Hall of Greats has trinkets and treasures inside that belong to the first families. I don’t know if they have magic or not, but when I turn into the room, my dad is already there—he can probably teleport and didn’t think that was important to tell me either—along with Aimee, Zane, Finn, Piper, Circe, Aurora, Dylan. Aimee and Zane have no power but are here to help in any way they can. Probably to get their power back as soon as I’ve…done what I have to do.

They are all ready, standing where they should be standing, holding the enchanted objects of their families, watching the door with anticipation. Although, and I’mashamed to admit it, my anticipation is for an entirely different reason.

Mine is because my mother told me that when I end Elizabeth, there will be a glorious moment when the power of the four witches drains from Elizabeth’s body and will flow through me before it returns to those from whom it was stolen.

I haven’t stopped thinking about it since she said it. Since she told me.

I haven’t stopped wanting it. She also said, like it was some sort of cautionary tale instead of an enticement, that when that power passed through me, all of my cravings would awaken and I would have to be strong, fight not to hold onto the magic.

Use extreme caution, she’d said.

But I could never take Aimee’s magic.

Before I can finish the thought, the door to the Hall opens and Elizabeth is there, standing in the doorway. “I can feel it. Give me the scepter, brother.” She walks toward my father and lifts him the way she did me. He’s gasping, eyes bulging, fingers clawing at the skin of his own neck. Yeah. Been there.

Aimee opens her long jacket and pulls out the scepter to hand to me. As soon as I touch it, the power flows into me. I’m holding the magic of nine families in my hand and the power of it is surging through me. I want to savor it, but my father is turning blue, the room is in chaos—the wind is back and there’s chanting from somewhere—and they’re all shouting for me to stop this.

But I want to hold the scepter for another minute before I aim it at her. I want to enjoy this feeling before I have to give it up.

“RJ, please!” Aimee says franticly beside me. “Save him. Save us!”

Everyone in this room knows that when she’s finished with my father, she’ll come for each one of them. But she drops him and turns to me. She wants the scepter.

It’s unfortunate because so do I.

I lift it into the air. It’s glowing now, spinning in my hand so the jewels on top blur into a purple haze that rises above, circles the room, then flows into me. The spell is complete and I throw the scepter to the side and the metal clinks along the tiled floor until it comes to a stop at the pillar holding the bust of Sir Allister Strain, the first English Lord who was proven to be a witch and came to the Americas to avoid being killed.

He’s the great or great-great or three times great grandfather to Finnick, who is standing beside Zane as they all watch me. They’re expecting me to use the power I just drained from the scepter to kill Elizabeth. It’s the right thing to do, the plan that I was forced into agreeing to carry out. But the power inside of me is intoxicating, and I wonder if this is how Aimee feels every day of her life.

There’s a voice inside of me saying I could keep it. I could have this power and use it for good. I don’t have to hurt anyone. I don’t have to drain another witch.

But then I hear my mother’s voice. The one that’s always in my head when I’m deciding whether to be good or bad.RJ, that power belongs to the first families. All of them. Not you.

I know.

You can’t keep it.

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