Page 57 of Bewitched By the Wicked Witch
"Oh, but that's where you're wrong," Cate laughed, her pretty face twisted with malice. "This has always been about cleaning up the bloodlines, getting rid of theimpurities that weaken our kind. And your entire family has been at the top of our list since the day your grandmother opened our borders to outsiders."
"Our list?" Callum asked sharply, catching the plural pronoun.
"Did you really think Tommy was working alone?" Cate sneered. "The Pure Blood Society has members throughout the magical community. Councilors, business leaders, even some in the High Council itself."
My blood ran cold as the implications crashed over me. This wasn't just a local conspiracy, it was a movement; one with reach and resources I'd never imagined.
"The disappearances in other towns," I realized with dawning horror. "You've been doing this everywhere."
"Dozens of communities," Tommy confirmed, his confidence bolstered by having another society member at his side. "Hundreds of mixed-blood abominations cleansed from our society. And when we're done, the magical world will be pure again. Strong again."
"You're insane," Callum spat.
"We're visionaries," Cate corrected. "And you, Callum Renshaw, have been a thorn in our side long enough."
She gestured with her free hand, and suddenly the chamber was filled with dark magic, not just hers and Tommy's, but power drawn from the network of binding runes that extended throughout the tunnel system. I could feel it pressing against my defenses, trying to overwhelm me through sheer accumulated force.
"The girls are weakened," Tommy taunted as I fought to maintain my shields. "They can't help you now. Andyour warlock boyfriend? He's outnumbered and outgunned."
He was right. Even with my enhanced power, facing two experienced dark magic users while protecting the rescued girls was pushing me to my limits.
That's when I remembered my grandmother's words from when I was a child: "Sometimes, Sage, the best way to fight darkness is not with light, but with a deeper darkness."
I'd never understood what she meant until this moment.
Instead of fighting against the dark magic pressing in around us, I embraced it. I opened myself to every shadow in the chamber, every whisper of void and star that made up my true heritage. And then I did something that went against every lesson I'd ever learned about magical combat.
I pulled all that darkness into myself.
"What are you doing?" Tommy screamed as his stolen power began to flow toward me instead of his intended targets.
"What I should have done years ago," I replied, my voice echoing with harmonics that shouldn't have been possible for a human throat to produce. "Accepting what I really am."
The binding runes throughout the chamber began to reverse their flow, no longer draining power from their victims but feeding it all to me. I felt Maud Blackstone's original pact awakening in my blood, the bargain she'd made with entities beyond mortal understanding to protect her descendants.
"I am Sage Blackstone," I declared, my form beginningto shift and change as power beyond mortal limits flowed through me. "Heir to shadows, daughter of stars, and the last witch you will ever threaten."
The chamber filled with darkness so complete, it was like staring into the void between worlds. But in that darkness, stars began to appear, not points of light, but hungry entities that fed on fear and malevolence.
Tommy's screams echoed off the stone walls as the stars descended upon him, drawn by the decades of cruelty and hatred that stained his soul. Cate tried to run, but shadows rose from the floor to block her path.
"Please," she whimpered, all her earlier bravado gone. "I was just following orders. I didn't want to hurt anyone."
"Liar," I said, and even I was surprised by the otherworldly harmonics in my voice. "I can taste your enjoyment of their pain, Cate. You reveled in every moment of suffering you caused."
The shadows began to close in around both conspirators, and for a moment, I felt the intoxicating rush of absolute power. I could end them both, make them pay for every life they'd destroyed, every family they'd torn apart.
But then I heard Callum's voice, cutting through the darkness like a blade of pure light.
"Sage," he said quietly. "Come back to me."
His hand found mine in the darkness, warm and solid and achingly familiar. The contact grounded me, reminded me who I was beneath the power and the rage.
I was Sage Blackstone, yes. But I was also the woman who had fallen in love with a gentle warlock who saw past my thorny exterior to the person underneath. I was thecousin who would do anything to protect Paige; the granddaughter who wanted to make Gran proud.
I was not a monster.
Slowly, carefully, I began to pull the darkness back under control. The shadows retreated, the stars faded, and my form returned to something recognizably human. Tommy and Cate collapsed to the floor, unconscious but alive, their stolen magic dispersed harmlessly into the earth.
