“I remember now. Adelaide always came half asleep, and we’d forget she was there. Then she’d wake up and use Shadow to pop in a movie.” I grinned.
Again, she threw another bolt and then another until she could only throw fire. Clearly, she was exhausted.
“You missed,” I whispered, waving the flame off to the side.
“Go to hell.”
“I went and came back after I saw you all were there, too,” I replied.
Her fist bunched, and once more, Simone lifted her hand, but I tossed her back into the wall so hard she put a dent in it and slid to the ground.
“Ah!” She slammed her hand on the wooden floor, pushing herself up as she glared at me. “I don’t give a shit how powerful you are. I swear! I fucking swear that I will kill you, Druella! You traitorous bitch!”
I stepped forth. “I’m really happy to have not only a friend but a rival like you, Simone.”
“Screw you—”
“I bind you, Simone Ward,” I snapped before she could once again try to fight again. Her eyes widened, fear for the first time projected in her eyes.
“Druella!”
“May your magic dwindle, and may the gifts upon the earth…”
“No! Ah!” she screamed as she twisted on the ground, and I bit my lip, aching to see her in this much pain. But I spoke louder. “May the gifts upon the earth find you not of their worth. I bind you under the moon!”
“Druella, please!”
“I bind you under the sun! I bind you under all the heavens and over all earth, Simone Ward!”
She screamed out, crying and trembling on the ground. Kneeling beside her, I put my hands on her head.
“You will be a good circle leader, Simone. One day, maybe you should lead the coven—in fact, you have to. I’ll stop Uncle Axel,” I whispered, my hands shaking. “And the
only one left to lead the way will be you. There is no Druella Zirie Omeron. She was not in your coven. She was not a witch.”
I placed my hand on her head once more, healing her wounds before rising and walking into her room where the golden mirror stood, hating the version of myself reflected back. How broken my eyes were, and I had only started. Pressing my figures into the glass, I waited for it to allow me in. However, it didn’t, of course—the coven had rejected me. And therefore, locked me out.
Or so they thought.
Breathing in slowly, I pressed into it harder, feeling the magic wall pressing against me, but I pushed back with so much force that the magic shattered, allowing me to step inside, entering the grassy clifftop under the changing sky. Usually, it was always sunny here. The only time it wasn’t was when there was an intruder. A darkening cloud signally that an outsider had invaded our space. But there was not a Wiccan in sight to see it. All of them either resting or searching for me. They would come soon.
Over the grass, at the same place I always use to stand and the same place that killed Magdalena, I gathered the magic in my hand, and with a scream of fury, I threw down fire on top of if it.
The winds howled around me, and lightning and thunder blocked out the sun above as it burned.
“Druella!” Tate screamed, the first enter, in his hand a weapon I’d only seen once before—a twin-headed spear, its handle wrapped in red cloth, a Native American tribal amulet dangling from the neck, with three feathers and a spell carved on the staff.
“You are really going all out, Tate!” I called over the raging storm. “The spear of Raweno? I remember seeing that in your house. It’s been in your family for generations. Used to defend against all evil? It can even kill vampires.”
“Who knew we’d have to use it against you,” Tala said from behind me, wearing a craved white buffalo skull over her face and protection beads around her neck.
“We should wait until everyone is here,” I said to them.
“We do not take orders from you anymore!” Tate hollered, coming through the flames toward me.
I froze him and stepped aside, then started him again, allowing him to fly right by. “I do not want to fight any of you—”
“Good!” Tala hollered as she appeared, slashing my back with a dagger of ice.