Chapter 33 Lily's Magic Manifests Stronger

Chapter 33 Lily's Magic Manifests Stronger
Lily's POV

Mommy's eyes were glowing gold and she was deciding whether to erase Aunt Vanessa's brain.

I could feel it through our family bond—Mommy's magic had gone wild, trying to protect us by making everyone forget what they'd seen. She'd already erased the memories of twenty people. Now she was looking at Aunt Vanessa, Uncle Bear, and Iris like they were next.

"Mommy, stop!" I screamed.

But she couldn't hear me. The magic had control, not her.

So I did the only thing I could think of. I wished.

I wish Mommy would remember who she is.

The wish exploded out of me like a bomb. Golden light—brighter than Mommy's, brighter than anything—burst from my chest. It slammed into Mommy, wrapped around her, and yanked her back down to the ground.

The gold faded from her eyes. She collapsed, gasping.

But the magic I'd released didn't stop. It spread through the bakery like wildfire, touching everyone.

Aunt Vanessa suddenly laughed. "I wish I had a million dollars!"

Reality hiccuped. A briefcase appeared at her feet, full of cash.

"What the—" Vanessa stared at the money in shock.

"I wish my knee didn't hurt," Uncle Bear muttered.

His knee cracked, healed instantly. He stumbled, testing it. "That's... that's not possible. I've had that injury for fifteen years."

People started wishing for things. Small things. Silly things. A woman wished her coffee was hotter—it started boiling in her hand, burning her. A man wished he'd parked closer—his car smashed through the wall, nearly running people over.

"Lily, what did you do?" Daddy asked, pulling me against him.

"I just wanted to save Mommy!" I was crying now. "I didn't mean to make everyone's wishes come true!"

Iris's device was screaming, flashing every color. "The child's wish magic just became reality-altering. Anyone within fifty feet of her can wish things into existence. This is exactly what the Council feared!"

"Make it stop!" I begged. But I didn't know how. The magic just kept pouring out of me.

A little boy in the corner wished for ice cream. Gallons of it appeared, flooding the floor.

Someone wished the shadow creature would come back so they could fight it properly. The shadow started reforming in the corner.

"Everyone STOP WISHING!" Daddy shouted.

But people couldn't help it. Humans wish for things all the time without meaning to. Every casual thought—I wish this day would end, I wish I was somewhere else, I wish I'd never come here—was becoming real.

The bakery started collapsing as contradictory wishes fought each other. Walls appeared and disappeared. Time moved forward and backward. One woman aged thirty years in seconds because someone nearby had wished to "see the future."

"Lily, you have to take it back!" Mommy grabbed my shoulders. She looked exhausted but her eyes were clear again. "The wish you made—undo it!"

"I don't know how!"

"Yes, you do. Deep down, you know." Mommy's voice was gentle despite the chaos around us. "You're a wish-weaver. You can create wishes and uncreate them. Feel the magic you released. Follow it back to its source. Then wish it back into yourself."

I closed my eyes, trying to feel the magic. It was everywhere—wild threads of power connecting me to everyone in the bakery, granting their wishes whether they meant them or not.

I wish my magic would come back to me, I thought desperately.

Nothing happened.

"You have to mean it," Iris said. She was holding up a crumbling wall with her bare hands. "You have to want it back more than you want to help people."

But that was the problem. I liked helping people. When Uncle Bear's knee healed, he'd smiled for the first time in forever. When Aunt Vanessa got her money, she'd looked so happy.

"I can't," I whispered. "I don't want to take it back. It feels good to make people happy."

"Even if it destroys them?" Mommy pointed to the woman who'd aged. She was crying, looking at her wrinkled hands in horror. "Some wishes shouldn't come true, Lily. That's why wish magic needs control."

Daddy knelt beside me. "Baby girl, I spent three thousand years giving people what they wished for. You know what I learned? Most people don't actually want what they wish for. They think they do, but real life is more complicated than wishes."

A man near the door wished he'd never moved to Rosewood Falls. He started flickering, being erased from reality as the wish tried to rewrite history.

"Okay!" I screamed. "Okay, I'll take it back!"

I reached for the magic, feeling all those wild threads. Then I yanked, pulling them back into my chest like sucking up spaghetti noodles.

The magic fought me. It wanted to be free, wanted to grant wishes, wanted to make everyone happy.

But I was stronger. I pulled harder.

The threads snapped back into me. The man stopped flickering. Aunt Vanessa's money disappeared. Uncle Bear's knee started hurting again. Everything went back to normal.

I collapsed, completely exhausted.

When I woke up, I was in Iris's house. Mommy and Daddy were arguing with Magistrate Theron, who'd appeared while I was unconscious.

"The child is clearly unstable," Theron was saying. "She nearly destroyed fifty people with uncontrolled wish magic. This proves the family magic is too dangerous."

"She's seven years old!" Mommy shouted. "She's still learning control!"

"And how will you teach her control when your own magic is equally unstable?" Theron gestured to Mommy. "You rewrote memories. You nearly erased your best friend's mind. The corruption Oracle Cassia predicted is already beginning."

"We're not corrupted," Daddy said. "We're scared. We're under pressure. But we're not evil."

"Evil rarely recognizes itself." Theron pulled out an official scroll. "The Council has made a decision. In two weeks, we will perform the Severance Ritual. Your family magic will be sealed permanently. You'll live as normal humans with no memory of ever being supernatural."

"No!" Mommy looked like he'd stabbed her. "You can't—we passed your test! I painted your truth portrait!"

"You passed one test. But today proved the magic is escalating beyond your control." Theron's expression was almost sad. "I'm sorry, Maya. But I can't let another family destroy themselves the way mine did. Two weeks. Make peace with what you're losing."

He vanished.

Mommy collapsed into Daddy's arms, sobbing. Through our family bond, I felt both their hearts breaking.

I'd tried to save us. Instead, I'd proven we were exactly as dangerous as the Council feared.

"I'm sorry," I whispered. "This is all my fault."

"No, baby." Mommy pulled me into their hug. "This is nobody's fault. We're just... we're in an impossible situation."

Iris cleared her throat. We'd forgotten she was there. "There might be a way to stop the Severance Ritual."

We all looked at her.

"But it requires doing something the Council explicitly forbade. Something that could get you all executed if you're caught." Iris's expression was serious. "And it requires trusting someone who already betrayed you once."

"Who?" Daddy demanded.

Iris pulled out her communication crystal. A face appeared in it—beautiful, dangerous, and smiling like a cat with a mouse.

Victoria.

"Hello, little family," Victoria purred from inside the crystal. "I hear you're in trouble. How delightful. I might be able to help—for a price, of course. But this time, the price isn't magic."

"Then what do you want?" Mommy asked.

Victoria's smile widened. "I want you to break into the Council's vault and steal something for me. Do that, and I'll give you a power strong enough to fight the Severance Ritual. Refuse, and in two weeks, you'll forget you ever loved each other."

The crystal went dark.

We stood there in shocked silence.

Finally, Daddy spoke. "She wants us to rob the most powerful beings in existence. That's insane."

"But it's also our only option," Iris said quietly. "The Council vault contains artifacts of immense power. If you could get one—"

"We'd be fugitives forever," Mommy finished. "Hunted by every supernatural authority in existence."

"Or you could let them erase your magic and forget everything," Iris said. "Forget being a Cupid, Dante. Forget your gift, Maya. Forget you're a wish-weaver, Lily. Just be normal humans who don't remember what they lost."

Through our family bond, I felt Mommy and Daddy's terror and determination mixing together.

"When do we leave?" Mommy asked.

Iris checked her device. "The Council vault is guarded by ancient magic that only weakens once every century. The next weakening happens in seventy-two hours. You have three days to prepare for the most dangerous theft in supernatural history."

She pulled up a hologram showing a massive fortress floating in another dimension.

"Welcome," Iris said grimly, "to the impossible heist."