Chapter 23
Savannah's POV
Jeremy's face was so red, he was so sure of himself. At that moment I knew that I wouldn't remove the curse and he realized that too. His mistake was choosing violence and force instead of honesty and humility. As they left I released my breath. This is over for now. I knew that they didn't give up. They just retreated to figure something else out. I turned towards the witches, but their expressions were still neutral.
“Thank you for coming. Is it true what Jeremy said about your powers?” - for a pregnant pause nobody said anything, until a woman broke the silence.
“No. We practiced in secret. He forbade us, but we didn't listen. We're not as strong as our ancestors were, but not defenseless either.”
“I'm glad to hear that. Can you show me how strong you are?”
“What are your intentions, honestly? Dorothea told us who you are. You're their coven leader. They left our ancestors alone. What's the guarantee you won't?”
“I want to protect you from those people. I know my words don't mean anything. Only time and actions will reveal it. I'm not asking you to trust me, it's no use.”
“Let's say we believe you, what then? You'll force us to join the others?”
“No, I'm not planning to do that. It'll be your choice and I'll accept that.”
“I'm Natalie. I've been leading these witches for four years now. We'll give you a chance to prove your intentions.”
“Thank you, Natalie. You're in charge here, everything will be your decision.”
“Very well. Let's go, we can't use our magic here. We have our own place.”
I understood her skepticism and I wasn't questioning her. They've been through so much. I had to gain their trust.
“This is my house. We can freely practice magic here. We put up a barrier that prevents humans from seeing what's happening on the premises. They only see what we want them to see.”
“This is brilliant. Nobody suspected this?”
“No. We put on a pretense in front of Jeremy and his minions. They thought they subdued us. We acted all timid and terrified. They backed off and left us alone for a while. When he started looking for you and threatening us we had to keep pretending to be afraid and flee. Then we realized that this pretense won't get us anywhere and we came back. Jeremy didn't understand why, but didn't question it.”
“You're clever. You made him leave you alone, but you were preparing for something, weren't you?”
“Yes, we wanted to confront them in the near future and end this madness. Now I'm not sure what to do with you being here. I think he'll realize that you'll help us break free now.”
“He already knows. Are all your houses located in the same neighborhood?”
“Yes, why?”
“We have to put a barrier around everyone's house, in this case the whole neighborhood.”
“We're not strong enough for that. It requires an insane amount of magic we don't have. Even if we manage to do that it won't be strong enough to keep people with ill intentions outside.”
“What if I join you? Will that be enough?”
“Depends on how strong you are. It might work if you're strong enough.”
“We have to try it, Natalie. Even if we fail we try something.”
“You're right. We have to do it now then. The sooner the better.”
“There's just a tiny little problem here.”
“What's that?”
“I don't know what to do. I didn't even know that I was a witch until about two weeks ago.”
“I'll talk you through it.”
“Then I'm totally in. What about my request earlier?”
“We'll show you.”
“Thank you.”
This was a huge step. She accepted my help. It might have only been out of desperation, but that didn't matter. She trusted me enough to help them with this. Then she closed her eyes and concentrated. When she released her magic it disappeared the same way Dalia's did.
“This isn't supposed to be happening. What's this?”
“Uhm, I think I know, but I don't know how you'll take the news.”
“Tell us. This concerns our magic, so we need to know what happened to it.”
“This can only be done by a coven leader. I have the ability to stop the witches who belong to my coven using their powers. It wasn't supposed to happen to you though. You're not part of my coven. You have your own.”
“No, this is your coven too. Iris was our true leader. When she died, someone had to take over. Since Iris, there hasn't been a true leader until you. Now all you have to do is release this hold you have on your magic.”
“Oh, God! Right. No witch can use her magic now. I have to make a phone call to undo this.”
“Here, use mine.”
*“Hi Martha!”
*“Hello, dear! I was about to call you. Can you release our magic?”
*“Uhm, there's a tiny problem with that. How do I release everyone except Dalia's?”
*“Why? What did she do?”
*“Long story short, she betrayed us. She chose revenge instead of working together. She cannot access her magic ever again if we don't want to fight her.”
*“You have to rip her thread of magic from the source. If she's disconnected from the source she won't access magic again. Just search for her thread. You'll know when you find hers. Just grab it and yank it out just the way you yank a strand of hair.”
*“Thanks Martha. You'll be able to use magic soon.”
After I told Natalie what was happening she showed me a room where I could be alone. I was back in my soul or head I wasn't sure. I grabbed the ball of magic and the threads were instantly visible. I touched the one closest to me and a face flashed in front of my eyes. It showed the witch whose thread I was holding. After this discovery, it wasn't hard to locate Dalia's thread. Her image flashed in front of my eyes. With a firm tug the thread was ripped out of the ball. At first nothing changed, but then it started darkening rapidly until it was jet black. When that happened, the now black thread crumbled into dust. Dalia could no longer access magic.