Page 56 of Bewitched By the Wicked Witch
"Why?" I demanded, though I suspected I already knew the answer.
Tommy's smile turned predatory. "Because, my dear former classmates, you're not here to rescue these girls. You're here to join them in our lovely facility. The final phase of our purification project requires a very specific combination of magical bloodlines, and you've just delivered yourselves directly into our hands with gift wrapping."
"How thoughtful of us," Cosmo observed dryly. "Nothing quite like walking into a trap with such style and efficiency."
The trap snapped shut around us with the cold precision of a perfectly executed plan. We hadn't infiltrated Tommy's operation, we'd walked directly into the final stages of whatever nightmare they'd been building for decades.
And somewhere in the tunnels above us, the sound of approaching footsteps suggested that our evening was about to become significantly more complicated.
Twenty-Five
Sage
The footsteps belonged to six more council guards, their boots echoing against stone as they filed into the chamber with military precision. Each one carried binding cuffs that glowed with containment runes, the kind designed specifically for powerful magical prisoners.
"Excellent timing," Tommy said cheerfully, clapping his hands together like he was directing a particularly successful dinner party. "Please secure our guests. Carefully—we need them intact for the final phase."
I glanced back at the girls we'd been trying to free. Ashlynn and Chrysanthemum were still unconscious, their breathing shallow but steady. The partial disconnection from the draining apparatuses had given them some relief, but they were too weak to move. Periwinkle's eyes fluttered open, confusion and terror warring in her gaze as she took in the standoff happening around her.
Callum moved protectively in front of me, magiccrackling around his hands, but I could see the calculation in his eyes. Six trained guards plus Tommy, all of them armed and prepared, with innocent lives hanging in the balance.
"Don't even think about it," Tommy warned, somehow reading our thoughts. "One aggressive move from either of you, and I'll drain every last drop of magic from these girls before you can blink. Their deaths will be on your conscience, not mine."
The guards approached with practiced caution, clearly briefed on exactly what they were dealing with. Magic-suppressing cuffs clicked around my wrists before I could react, the cold metal immediately dampening my power to barely a whisper. Callum received the same treatment, his jaw tight with barely contained fury.
"You're a criminal," I spat, my dampened power still crackling around me like lightning seeking a deserving target. "You've been murdering innocent girls for decades, stealing their magic, and all to feed your own sick prejudices."
Tommy's laughter echoed off the stone walls like the cackle of a madman who'd spent far too much time alone with his own twisted thoughts. "Innocent? These abominations are a cancer on our pure bloodlines, Sage. Every drop of foreign magic they carry weakens us, makes us vulnerable to corruption and decay."
"And they call me the bad witch of the town when this has been going on under their noses," I growled, anger building like pressure in a sealed container.
"They're children," Callum said, his voice low and deadly as he stepped forward withanger flashing in his emerald eyes. "Innocent children you've tortured and murdered because of your own twisted ideology."
"Children who should never have been born," Tommy countered, his magic flaring higher with evangelical fervor. "Mixed breeds, half-bloods, genetic aberrations that have no place in a proper magical society."
Something dangerous snapped inside me at those words, a restraint I'd maintained my entire life, the careful control that had kept my true power in check. The shadows around me deepened, shot through with stars that pulsed like a heartbeat, and for the first time in years, I let my magic runcompletelyfree.
"You want to see an aberration?" I snarled, my voice echoing with power that made the very stones tremble beneath our feet. "You want to see what a real dark witch looks like?"
The air around me shimmered and warped as my true heritage manifested, not just the Blackstone magic that ran in my bloodline, but something older, more primal. The magic of shadow and star, of the void between worlds, of power that existed in the spaces between heartbeats.
Tommy's confident expression faltered as he felt the magnitude of what he was facing. "Impossible," he whispered, backing away instinctively. "No single witch has that much power."
"You're right," I agreed, taking a step forward as my magic continued to build like a gathering storm. "No single witch does. But I'm not just a witch, am I? I'm a Blackstone. Descendant of Maud Blackstone, who made apact with powers beyond mortal understanding to protect her people from persecution."
The binding runes on the altar began to crack under the pressure of my unleashed magic, their carefully constructed patterns unraveling like cheap embroidery. I could feel the girls' stolen power responding to my call, ready to return to its rightful owners.
"And you," I continued, my gaze boring into Tommy's suddenly terrified eyes, "have spent your entire miserable life trying to destroy the very thing that could have saved this town from its own fear and ignorance."
"The ritual isn't complete," Tommy stammered, backing away as my power continued to grow. "You can't stop what's already begun."
"Watch me."
But before I could complete the liberation process, the air shifted, charged and electric, warning that we were not alone anymore. I turned in time to see Cate Bennett emerging from the shadows, her pretty face twisted with malice.
"One more step, witch," Cate snarled, raising her hands as dark magic crackled between her fingers, "and I'll make sure these girls suffer for every second longer you delay. I can kill them all before you can break a single binding."
The threat to the already traumatized victims sent a fresh surge of rage through me, but I forced myself to remain still. "This is between Tommy and me, Cate."
