Chapter Three

Visiting Hok'evale was a welcome reprieve to the darkness surrounding Octavia Falls. The people there seemed so happy and carefree. I wanted that for our coven, too.

We flew on Leslie's back high above the trees. I still couldn't take my eyes off the magical creatures. I'd heard so many stories about them, but I'd never seen them with my own eyes. Hok'evale was certainly a place I'd like to return to one day, when this was all over.

We returned to the clearing, where Miles and Chloe were playing with the magical creatures. Miles slowly tip-toed toward a creature with a lion's body, the tail of a scorpion, and long, leathery wings. "Here, kitty kitty."

"Leave the manticore alone," Chloe called as she stroked the head of a large feline. "He's going to bite you."

"I'm sure he's—" Miles cut off as the manticore let out a loud roar. He quickly scurried back across the clearing in our direction. Chloe laughed.

We slid off Leslie's back, and Sam fed her a few treats.

"You two look like you're having fun," Nadine remarked as we approached Chloe. "It seems you made a friend."

Chloe sat cross-legged in the grass, and the feline she was petting rolled over as she scratched it under the chin. The cat was nearly as big as she was, but it didn't look like anything I'd seen before. It had the backend of a dog, and its long tail thumped against the ground happily. Although it had a mane like a lion and the pointed ears of a feline, its snout was blunt like a bear. Brown fur covered its body, and its eyes were a strange light gray with no irises or pupils. Two small horns protruded above its eyes. The creature kept its head low, never locking eyes with anyone.

"She's beautiful, isn't she?" Chloe asked. "I want to take her home with me."

Sam chuckled. "I'm sure she'd love it if you took her home, but magical creatures aren't allowed outside our borders. A glawackus like her snuck past the borders back in the late 1800s. It made it all the way to Connecticut and caused quite a ruckus with the lumberjacks. Killed a lot of livestock, too."

Chloe scratched the creature behind the ears. "She must like the habitat by us."

"I'm sure she'd be happy there," Sam said. "But it'd be too dangerous. These creatures may be blind, but if you look them straight in the eyes, they'll completely wipe your memory."

Chloe looked up at him. "She seems so docile."

Sam laughed. "Until she gets mad. You're lucky she likes you."

The glawackus sniffed Chloe, then put its head in her hand, like it wanted to give her something. Chloe gasped as she pulled her hand away, and a single whisker remained. "Look what she gave me!"

Sam furrowed his brow. "Is that… significant?"

Chloe nodded. "In witch culture, it's a good omen when cats give you a whisker. They're offering it up to use in your spells of protection and good luck. She's giving me some of her magic."

Sam's eyebrows shot up. "You better hold tight to that whisker. She's a very powerful creature."

Chloe subconjured the whisker, so she wouldn't lose it. "I will."

"Thank you for everything, Sam," I said. "We can't stay long, but we appreciate all your help."

"Anytime." Sam waved, and we said our goodbyes.

The glawackus let out a strange bark—almost like the sound of a hyena. The creature bowed its head to Chloe, before I opened a portal to the safe house. We stepped through it and into the hallway. Voices came from the home library a few doors down.

"They've been gone too long!" Helena insisted.

"It's only been a few hours," Verla assured her. "I'm sure your granddaughter is fine."

"Nadine and Lucas can handle themselves," Professor Warren added. "Hok'evale is a safe place."

We approached the open doorway. The library was one of the largest rooms in the house, apart from the main living area. The walls were lined with bookcases, and a narrow staircase led to a second-level balcony. A big mahogany desk stood in front of a large, ornate window. A couch and matching armchair sat in the center of the room next to a coffee table.

Grant, Talia, and Onyx sat on the couch, and I noticed another guest had arrived while we were gone. Hattie sat in the chairs, stroking her wolf Familiar's head. Usually, Hattie stayed within the borders of Octavia Falls. She kept us updated on what was happening in town, and the priestesses didn't know she was working with us. It was dangerous for her to come here, but Verla must've called her in. This was important.

Helena paced the room, while Verla and Warren tried to comfort her. She heard the sound of our footsteps and whirled around. Her eyes lit up when she spotted her granddaughter. "Nadine, you're all right!"

"We're fine, Grammy," Nadine promised.

Helena frowned. "What took you so long? We were worried sick!"

"You might want to sit down," Nadine suggested. "We have a lot to tell you."

Everyone gathered around, and we told them what we'd learned while in Hok'evale. There was a lot of information to go over, and it took nearly an hour to come to a conclusion.

"If I'm to obtain the Mortana Wand, I need to pass the Warlock's Trial," I said. "That's how I will become a member of the Reaper Order. Once that happens, the reapers will pass the Mortana Wand on to me. We don't know what this trial entails, though. Every apprentice needs a master, but mine hasn't appeared—for whatever reason. Since there isn't magic we can do to summon a reaper, we'll have to go to Edgar Nowak so I can complete my training."

"How are you going to get to him?" Talia asked.

"That's a problem, because I can't portal between realms yet," I said. "Our first step is to track Edgar down, then find a way to him. There's no point in discussing our options until we know where we're going."

"Then let's find him," Grant said. "How exactly do we do that?"

"I have an idea for a tracking spell that should work, if we all combine our magic," Nadine announced. "The priestesses and I used something similar before. I don't think it would normally work, except that Lucas is the Reaper's Apprentice, so he has a connection to Edgar. With Lucas's reaper magic in the spell, we should be able to learn where Edgar is."

"Then let's get to work," Verla said. "What do we need?"

"A crystal ball, for starters," Nadine requested.

"I've got you covered." Talia conjured a crystal ball and set it on the coffee table.

"Everyone join hands," Nadine instructed. I took her hand on one side and Hattie's on the other.

Verla stepped out of the circle we were forming. "I won't be of any help. I had to use magic to cover my tracks when I went to meet up with Hattie earlier today, and I haven't been able to cast any spells since. I took every precaution to prevent being followed, and it drained my reserves."

"It's got to be the Waning," Nadine theorized. "It's like the closer you get to town, the more it affects you."

It was the Waning for sure, because Verla was a powerful witch, and though her spell was complicated, it shouldn't drain her completely. I sighed heavily. "Damn the Waning."

Chloe chuckled. "If we succeed, we may do just that. Let's give the Waning hell."

"All we need now is an incantation," Nadine said. She thought about it for a moment, but I'd already quickly formed an incantation in my mind.

"Through this crystal ball we'll see where he's been. Show us the realm we'll find Edgar Nowak in," I suggested.

Nadine nodded, then addressed the others. "Lend me your power and repeat the incantation. I'll do the rest."

We began to recite the incantation. Magic surged through me, and it was so powerful I nearly lost my grip on Nadine's hand. I held on tighter. My friends' magic pulsed throughout our circle as we combined our power into a single spell. Above us, the lights flickered, and then went out.

Onyx gasped, and Grant gave a start. Talia shot nervous glances around the room, and Miles looked a bit shaken. Helena didn't take her eyes off Nadine. Chloe, Hattie, and Professor Warren remained relatively calm.

I watched Nadine as I continued speaking the incantation with the others. She had her eyes closed, looking deep in concentration. Slowly, the magic pulsing through me evened out, and it flowed effortlessly.

Nadine opened her eyes and stared into the crystal ball. Smoke swirled within the glass, and all gazes turned to watch the images taking shape. It was like watching a movie. We saw a cloaked figure with bones for hands and a skull for a head appear. A bright light shone behind him—so bright I had to squint to see anything. I couldn't make out any shapes except for the reaper. I assumed this to be a depiction of Alora.

Then the scene shifted, and it showed him stepping through a portal. His surroundings turned dark, though I could make out the shadows of gravestones in front of him. He approached a figure in the cemetery and spoke with them for a moment, before the scene shifted again and he appeared inside a home. I recognized Helena's living room, and I saw Nadine as the reaper took her soul from her body.

The incantation had asked us to show us where he'd been, and it was playing out the night we'd encountered him—the night of Nadine's Evoking Ceremony when I'd sent him to the Abyss so that he couldn't take Nadine there.

The scene sped up, until it depicted three figures in the woods—Edgar, Nadine, and me. Edgar and I fought, until I kicked his skull off his body and sent it sailing through the portal. Edgar's headless form approached me, and he blasted off another spell that ricocheted off my shield. The spell hit him, shooting him through the portal. Thunder cracked, like it had that night when the portal slammed closed.

Nadine and I disappeared from view as the scene followed Edgar's perspective. He tumbled downward into a dark, fiery landscape. He landed on black, crusted ground that looked like the remnants of cooled lava. His bony fingers felt around until he found his skull and positioned it back on his head. Though his eye sockets were empty, Edgar shifted his head from side to side, taking in the fires of hell. His jaw hung slack, and he quickly lifted his hands like he was going to create another portal.

Nothing happened. Edgar drew a wand from his cloak. The end glowed a bright red, and sparks flew out of the end of it…

But the portal never came. Edgar was stuck in the Abyss.

The smoke inside the crystal ball faded, until the glass became clear again. The lights overhead turned on, and our magic dissipated. The whole room remained silent for several beats.

Nadine was the first to speak. "Edgar is in the Abyss, and he has been since Lucas sent him there. Lucas, you said that reaping is different from portal magic. Even though reaping uses portals, it also affects the soul. Edgar was in the middle of reaping me, but he fell through the portal and reaped himself. Your powers could've amplified the reaping, too. It must've damaged his soul, so he can't escape. Edgar's been stuck there all this time."

"I never meant to hurt him like that," I admitted. "I only wanted to protect you."

"You couldn't have known," Nadine insisted.

I furrowed my brow thoughtfully. "This actually makes a lot of sense. This must be why he hasn't come to mentor me. Maybe he wants to contact me but can't because of something I did that night."

"At least we know where to find him, and he isn't going anywhere," Professor Warren said. "We know we need to get to the Abyss to get the Mentalist Wand. Now we know the Mortana Wand is there, too. We can get them both in one journey and bring them back together."

Verla stepped forward. "We have to go to Malovia as soon as possible, so we can find a portal to the Abyss and get those Wands."

"This is dangerous," Helena insisted.

"But necessary," Nadine argued.

Helena placed her hands on her hips. "And once you get to the Abyss, how are you getting out?"

"The same way we got in," Nadine stated. "Monsters slip through portals to Malovia all the time. If they can get out of the Abyss, so can we."

We'd gone over this before, and Helena never liked the answer. Helena sighed. "I'm merely stating that you must be prepared."

"We've been infusing crystals with magic all summer, so we'll have extra power to make our spells stronger," I reminded her. "The crystals will give us an edge if the Waning affects us while we're down there, but I don't believe that'll be a problem. The Waning has barely touched us all summer. It's like the further we are from Octavia Falls, the better our magic performs."

Talia looked thoughtful. "Maybe it's not about distance, but about uniting. The divide in the coven is causing the Waning. Perhaps our magic is working because our group is united."

"I think you're on to something," I mused. "But there has to be a connection to town, too. Verla said her magic has been affected since she approached town earlier, when she met up with Hattie."

"Either way, if division is causing the Waning, then uniting is the solution," Miles said. "If we can convince everyone else to unite, the Waning will go away, right? If that's the answer, then why aren't we focusing on uniting the coven instead of finding these Wands?"

"If we don't get them, the priestesses will, and then we'll be powerless to stop them," I explained. "They've already summoned a demon. They can do it again and use it to locate the Wands in the Abyss. All it takes is for them to make a deal with a demon to give them the Wands, and if they offer a demon the right bargain, he'll get the Wands for them. We need to get them first."

"Who cares if the priestesses have the Wands?" Miles argued. "If the coven unites, everyone can defeat them together. Besides, even if they get the two Wands in the Abyss, they still don't have the Curse Breaker Wand. The priestesses are powerless without Nadine."

"That's not true," Nadine cut in. "With four Wands, they would have the power of four Casts at their fingertips. They could take magic from everyone except me, and then they could kill me in an instant. The only reason they didn't kill me earlier is to prevent an uprising, but we're past that now. We have enough wards that the priestesses can't curse us or track us down right now, but if they have the power of all four Casts, they can overpower all the coven. No one is going to be able to revolt if the priestesses are controlling their magic. Even if we unite the coven and bring an end to the Waning, none of it will matter if the priestesses have the Wands. They'll create a Waning of their own to control people. Then the priestesses will use the Oaken Wands to divide us further."

"It's imperative we keep the Wands out of the priestesses' hands, because they've shown they'll only use the Wands to control people," I added. "We can use the Oaken Wands to restore the magic we've lost and end the Waning. Once the Waning is over, the priestesses will no longer have control over the coven, and our people can make choices for themselves again. They can choose to unite on their own, instead of this false union the priestesses are forcing that's only dividing us further. This divide will get worse with the more Wands the priestesses obtain. They're ruling by fear, and if we eliminate the threat by ending the Waning, people's hope will be restored, and we can work together again. The coven can choose who to put on the council, to build a better future. The only way to stop the priestesses' tyranny is to give the coven's power back to its people."

"So how do we get to the Abyss?" Grant asked. "Our Malovian contact is dead, and that was our ticket to hell. We can't just waltz into the fae capital and ask them where to find a portal to the underworld."

"Nadine and Lucas have been working on getting past Malovia's wards with portals all summer," Miles pointed out. "Why can't they just portal us to one of these entrances?"

"Nadine and I can combine our powers to get into Malovia, but we don't know where we're going from there," I replied. "Roaming around Malovia is dangerous, because if we stay too long there's a big chance we'll be spotted and killed. Not to mention Malovia is crawling with monsters, and we aren't familiar with the terrain. We have to know exactly where one of these entrances are before we show up, and we need someone to show us the way. Entrances to the Abyss aren't exactly tourist destinations. We need a guide."

"Lucas is right," Verla agreed. "We can't spend more than twenty-four hours in Malovia, or we'll surely be found out and executed. Even just getting in to deliver a message could prove deadly. It's not the same as Grant and Talia meeting their contact at a remote location. We can't simply portal into their capital city of Dolinska. Even if our portals didn't set off alarms, our presence would. They'll smell that we're witches and hang us before we make it a block. We need a powerful ally on our side who has authority in the city, so they can help us if we get into trouble. If we're going to do this, we need protection. To outsmart the fae, we need a fae on our side."

"Establishing new contacts could take months," Onyx pointed out. "The priestesses could summon a demon and get the Wands before we're ready."

"They will not," Hattie spoke up. "Rumor has it, the priestesses do not wish to summon another demon, as their last attempt failed. Professor Leto did not deliver an Oaken Wand to the priestesses as promised, and they'll want a sure thing before they take such a risk again. The priestesses need to be in control to maintain their power, and demons aren't controllable."

"Then they must not know there are Wands in the Abyss," Chloe said. "If they did, they would've already made a deal."

"As far as I understand, they do not know where to look for the other Oaken Wands, but that doesn't mean they won't be able to track them down," Hattie said. "I do not know the means in which they will do this, but I do know they won't stop until they have all the power of the coven in their hands. Octavia Falls has changed in just a few short months. You would be surprised to see how quickly people have converted to the priestesses' side. The religious group they call Miriam's Chosen was only the beginning. The members are following them blindly, going so far as to hand over their businesses and their properties to the Imperium Council in exchange for false promises. The Chosen believe that this is the road to salvation."

Nadine grimaced. "That's horrible. The priestesses can't keep taking without giving anything back."

"That's exactly what they'll continue to do, unless we stop them," Verla stated.

Grant cracked his knuckles. "I say we curse them."

"If we could, we'd have done that by now," Verla said. "Their wards are as strong as ours, if not stronger. To curse the priestesses, our powers would have to outperform theirs, and that takes energy away from us that we need to use for other purposes. Our focus needs to be on the Wands. If we're going to establish new connections in Malovia and get to the Abyss before the priestesses, we need to act quickly."

"There's a fae couple on the throne who we've met before—Ethan and Emma," I pointed out. "If we can get close enough to speak with them, they can help. I believe you know them, Hattie."

The fae had come looking for Hattie the night we ran into them outside Octavia Falls' border last November. Emma said Ethan had been possessed by a forest demon, and Hattie had since exorcized the demon.

Hattie gave a light nod. "It's true that I have met Emma and Ethan, but things are different now in Malovia than they were a year ago. It will be impossible to get in contact with the monarchs. However, their court may prove useful. I know someone connected to them who will help. She's a dark magic sympathizer. I haven't attempted to contact her yet because her enemies already have eyes on her, but we've run out of options. If I can get her a message, I'm confident she'll help us, but it will take time to make contact from the outside. The Malovian Revolution has taken over the country, and slipping a message past the fae's borders won't be easy. The messages will have to be coded, because if discovered by the wrong people, she'll be killed for speaking with witches. It will require several messages so that even if these notes are intercepted and decoded, the full message remains unread. I have to be extremely careful."

"Then let's get her a message, whatever it takes," Nadine said. "In the meantime, we need to develop a spell that will disguise our scent once we're in Malovia. Like Verla said, the shifters will smell us the second we arrive. We'll have to blend in, even if it's only for a short time."

Grant conjured a bundle of herbs. "I have just the thing. It's wolfsbane. Talia and I got it while we were traveling. Some shifters are allergic to it, so we brewed it into a tea to help cover our scent when we crossed the border."

"Wolfsbane, as in monkshood?" Chloe asked. "That plant is poisonous."

Grant shook his head. "It's a different herb called wolfsbane—a fae plant. It affects shifters, but it's safe for witches. There are no side effects. But it only affects the wolven Faction, and there are three other Factions of fae shifters—dragons, griffins, and alicorns. If we're to cross through the city, we'll need something stronger. Onyx and I can research how wolfsbane affects wolvens and locate similar herbs for the other Factions. It will take time, but we can brew a potion that will help disguise our scent."

"We'll need to disguise our outer appearance, too," Talia added. "The fae dress differently than we do, in regal dresses and elaborate, colorful cloaks. Helena's got a sewing machine in her room, and there are extra blankets and curtains in the linen closet that we can repurpose into cloaks."

"What about weapons?" Miles asked. "Iron is deadly to the fae. We might want iron weapons on hand in case we're discovered."

"No," Verla said. "They'll sense the iron, and it will give us away immediately. Our own magic shall suffice as a weapon. A scent-concealing potion and physical disguises is all we need, and we must be ready with them once it's time to move."

I nodded firmly. "Then let's get to work."

I knew what I was asking my friends to do, and it was risky. If anyone wanted to back out, I wouldn't blame them, but nobody did. We were all on the same page. It didn't matter the risk, because there were two Wands in the Abyss.

We couldn't afford to lose them.