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Professor Warren’s features went completely pale as all the pieces fell into place. “Clarice, no!”

Verla turned to look at him. “Don’t stop me, Jonathan. This is what has to be done, for the good of all.”

“This isn’t how I wanted things to end,” he said sadly.

“We can’t change what’s already been done,” Verla told him. “I’ve done horrible things, and I won’t ask your forgiveness, because I know it’s something you can never give me. I sold our child to a demon, and there’s no coming back from that. You have to accept me for who I am, and not who you wanted me to be.”

“I know things will never be what I thought they were,” he said. “Perhaps there was a future for us at one time, but not anymore. Even so, there’s a part of me that will always love you, even if things didn’t go the way I planned. I just… thought there was still a chance to get our son back and make things right.”

“I will make things right,” Verla promised. “But to do that, I can’t stick around where my presence is going to keep hurting people. I’m just grateful I get a chance to say goodbye. Believe it or not, I really did love you, Jonathan.”

“I loved you too, Clarice,” he replied.

Judge Calloway stepped forward. “This doesn’t have to be the end. The priestesses didn’t listen to Nicole the night they hanged her, but I think we can all agree that what happened here isn’t right. We can’t keep making the same mistakes, and we have to own up to the role we all played here. On behalf of the entire coven, I am truly sorry. But if Nicole had this vision so she could stop it, then we can still change things.”

“I thought that, too,” Verla said. “But not all visions are meant to be stopped. Nicole warned of the witch’s fate, that her death would mark the beginning of the end. But that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Nicole and I began this conflict, but together, we can end it. All of this happened to draw out what wasn’t working in the coven so we could address our problems and work through them. The end isn’t an end to the entire coven, but to the old ways of the coven.”

“Don’t act so noble!” Nicole spat. “I was the one who had that vision, yet here you are trying to overpower me again , like you always do! I saw the Protection Tree burning, and I witnessed this fire consume you. I tried to save you, and you turned your back on me. Now I get to turn my back on you. You don’t get to choose this. That’s not how this works. I’m going to end you. I’m sick of always coming in second to you.”

Nicole blasted a spell outward, but Verla threw up a shield. Nicole held her spell steady, aiming her magic in a powerful stream, while her sister pushed back. Above us, powerful thunder cracked through the sky. Panicked shouts filled the forest as coven members staggered backward. I grabbed tight to Lucas as my stomach dropped from my abdomen.

Another inky black tear in the fabric of our realm split the sky apart. It was larger than the others, spanning miles in both directions. Debris from all across town rose into the air as the black hole began sucking our town into oblivion. Wind whipped around us, and the flames consuming the Protection Tree burned ten times brighter.

Our world was falling apart, and we didn’t have long before our town and the rest of our people were lost to our mistakes.

“Verla!” I shouted above the roaring wind. “It’s now or never!”

Her eyes sparkled as her gaze locked on me. There was so much left unsaid in that longing stare—so much regret and sorrow I couldn’t even begin to understand.

Verla turned back to her sister. “You’ve never been second, Nicole. I always loved you and looked up to you in so many ways. You think you can only win this by disagreeing with me, but can’t you see you’ve already won, because I agree with you? I agree with your vision, and I’m ready to accept what you’ve known all along.”

Nicole shot a glance toward the darkened sky. “I died because these people put the coven first and didn’t care about me, so now they can perish together. If you really want to die with them, then get it over with already!”

“This isn’t about them,” Verla demanded. “It’s always been about us, and you thought I chose them over you. That’s why you’re still trying to destroy them. It only takes one person to be outcast to destroy the entire group, and I know that, because I lived it. But at the same time, I’m the one who made this choice, and I’m the one who has to fix it. This tree stood as a symbol of protecting the coven, but it’s time to change what that means. Each member of the coven is like a branch on this tree, making up part of a whole. But I’ve been sucking the life from the other branches and suffocating the coven. Now as an individual, I have to decide what I need… and what I need is to let them go, so everyone can thrive.”

The rift above us rumbled as it opened wider. I clung to Lucas desperately as screams rang out around us. His arms tightened around me. Trees uprooted and spiraled upward into the black hole.

“I’m the one who brought you here,” Verla told her sister. “It’s my spell that’s sustaining you, and my soul that’s tethering you here. Otherwise, the demon could’ve brought you back himself, but you needed me to do it, because only my soul could bring you back. You’re already gone, Nicole, and I should’ve realized long ago that I couldn’t bring you back. It’s time for me to let go, and once I do, you can’t stay here anymore. I don’t want to hurt you, but I can’t let you hurt anyone else. The hurt ends here, with us.”

“What happened to doing whatever it takes, Clarice?” Nicole snarled.

“I did that to bring you back,” Verla replied. “And now, it’s time to do whatever it takes to bring the coven back.”

“Then go!” Nicole shouted. “Just like you left me before, you’ll leave me again!”

She charged forward, her arms outstretched as she shoved Verla toward the flames.

Verla’s arms wrapped around her sister in an embrace as she stumbled back. “I’ll never leave you again. You saw me dying alone in this fire, but visions can be changed. Now we can do this together.”

Then Verla leapt into the flames, dragging her sister with her.

The demonic fire burned hotter and brighter. We all scrambled back as red-hot flames shot toward the sky, swirling upward in a vortex toward the black hole. The heat reduced the Verla sisters’ bodies to ashes in mere moments. As the fire took their lives, the magical flames consumed their power, too, and tendrils of magic spiraled upward with the fading embers.

Then slowly, the branches of the Protection Tree began to wither to ash. The ashes were whisked away in the vortex, until the trunk of the tree turned to cinders too and disappeared into oblivion. The flames dimmed as the last of the embers drifted away, and the coven was left standing in an empty clearing. The tear in our realm rumbled one last time, before slamming closed with an echoing boom .

Lucas’s shoulders sagged against me. I looked across town to see the other streaks of black in the sky had vanished. Nicole was gone, sent back to the realm she came from, and the magic that had been shuddering against our world and struggling to sustain her life had receded with her. Verla was dead, and my heart ached for her loss. She’d done horrible things, things I could never forgive her for. But she was still my mentor and somebody I had loved, and her sacrifice had protected us all. Our town had been completely destroyed, but our world had been saved.

All around us, bright white lights began to emit from the heart space of coven members. I looked downward in awe to see that my chest was glowing, too. The ache in my heart turned to warmth, and all the emptiness that we’d felt when the Waning completely took over now disappeared. Instead of an empty, meaningless void in our hearts, magic filled us up and overflowed out of us all at once. The Waning was finally over for good.

It was ironic. All this time, we thought we needed the Oaken Wands to save us. We had used them to return magic to the people and defeat the demon together. But ultimately, the real thing that saved us was trusting our people. We’d shown up for Verla in her most vulnerable moment, and in turn, her sacrifice saved us all.

Cheers rang out around us as coven members drew each other into hugs. Tears of relief fell from my eyes as my shoulders trembled with the release of restricted emotions. All the fear and worry I’d bottled up came flooding out of me all at once, and I felt an immense freedom overtake me. I threw my arms around Lucas’s neck, and he squeezed me close as he buried his nose into my hair.

“It’s over,” he whispered in a calm, reassuring tone. He didn’t have to tell me he’d heard their last thoughts, because I could tell by the certainty in his voice. The Verla sisters were gone for good.

I didn’t ask him what they’d said, because I knew those thoughts were theirs alone. Lucas would carry them with him to the afterlife so that there, the sisters could continue to heal.

“We’ve fought for so long,” I said. “I can’t believe we’ve reached the end.”

“Believe it,” Lucas replied gently. “I saw the look Verla gave you before she dragged Nicole into the flames. She wasn’t just saving the coven, Nadine. If there was anything left here worth saving, it was you .”

I drew away to wipe my eyes. “I don’t know who the real Verla was, and I don’t think I’ll ever know, but I’ll always be grateful for what she did for us in the end.”

To have full access to our magic again felt monumental, because my magic had been unpredictable since the day my powers awakened. I lifted my palm. As if to prove to myself our magic had fully returned, I sent beads of witch lights dancing over my fingertips. Then I formed a large, magical orb in my palm that illuminated the entire clearing. I tossed it into the air, and it hovered above us like a bright, hopeful star.

Talia stepped forward and placed a hand on my shoulder. “Your magic is beautiful, Nadine.”

I draped my arm around her. “Yeah, but it doesn’t belong on its own.”

Talia smiled. She created her own witch light and tossed it upward. It hovered next to mine, and the two orbs swirled around each other in a beautiful dance.

Lucas formed an orb, then Grant and Chloe. Miles and Professor Warren joined in, until everyone gathered in the forest tossed a witch light into the air in celebration. The entire area glimmered with thousands of witch lights, creating our own personal galaxy of independent stars in this coven of connection we’d created.

I never gave much thought to how victory would feel, only how I prayed one day our struggles would end. No one talks about the strange silence that follows your victory cheer, where everyone just looks at each other wondering where to go next. It was an odd feeling to bask in triumph amidst an undertone of melancholy for all the lives we’d lost earlier in the night.

I wasn’t the only one who felt it. Talia’s smile faded to an expression of sympathy. Then she took my hand and began to sing.

You were the crystal on my altar

And the wand that I had conjured

You were the potion in the cauldron

The incantation I once pondered

It was a traditional Miriamic funeral song, one we’d sung many times before. It seemed all so fitting now, even in the wake of victory, because with defeat came the calamitous reminder of all we’d lost to get here.

It wasn’t sad, though, not like this song had felt in the past. This time as I joined her in the song, my heart didn’t ache for what we’d lost, but filled with gratitude for all we’d been given. Lucas took my other hand and began singing. Grant and Chloe joined us, and slowly more and more coven members held hands until our entire people united together in song. The witch lights all around us hovered in our midst, representative of all the souls that had gone on before.

I never thought I’d witness people like Gwen and Camille join us, but they too stepped forward into our circle, then added their voices to the verse.

You were all that gave me power

You lifted me so high

Now at this final hour

I bless you with goodbye

This was a goodbye to the old coven, and a farewell to the people who could no longer be here for it. It was a profound goodbye that marked the end of an era and held so much hope for the future. Never did I think a goodbye could be soothing, but there was no part of my soul that ached for this… only pieces that wept with happiness for all we’d done and shared together.

We had a life together

But if it’s right with fate

I’ll meet you in my spirit

Right at Alora’s gate

As our voices swelled over the clearing in perfect harmony, the ghostly image of a woman appeared where the Protection Tree once stood. At first, I thought it had to be one of the Verla sisters, but as the spirit’s features took shape, I realized I didn’t recognize her. She was my height, with smooth skin and long brown curls. The woman wore a long dress that looked to be straight out of the 18th century.

Lucas, however, seemed to recognize her. He released my hand and stepped forward. “You’re Octavia Barrows, aren’t you? You’re the Curse Breaker who our town is named after. You died to cast the protection spell, and you became the Protection Tree.”

“Yes,” Octavia said kindly. “I have protected this coven for centuries, but I regret to say that I could not protect us from ourselves.”

“You didn’t have to,” Lucas replied. “It was up to us to figure this out, not up to generations of the past.”

“Our mistakes belong to all of us,” Octavia said. “Even your ancestors have to own up to the roles that they played in all of this. These problems don’t exist among a singular generation, but span back lifetimes. But now the coven has learned from its mistakes, and we can move forward into new times. I cherished my time here, but now my spirit has been released from the Protection Tree, and I too can move on. However, there’s one more message I have for you before I go. May I see the Oaken Wands?”

My friends and I stepped forward and presented the Oaken Wands to Octavia. As I gripped the Curse Breaker Wand, I realized something about it felt different. The immense power I felt surging through it at one time wasn’t there anymore.

“What’s happened to the Oaken Wands?” I asked Octavia.

“Their power has been released with my spirit,” she answered. “These Wands were carved from a branch of the Protection Tree, but the tree holds no power anymore, and their spell has been broken. However, the stars are in the right alignment tonight. A member of each Cast lives, and the whole coven is willing to join together. You can recreate the spell that first forged the Oaken Wands if you so desire. The choice is up to you.”

I stared down at the Wands. We’d spent so much time searching for them that it didn’t seem right to give them up. But this wasn’t my choice to make.

I turned to the coven. “The Oaken Wands were designed as a fail-safe to keep other magical societies from stealing our power, but in the entire history of the coven, our greatest enemies were ourselves. We can choose to give power to a small group of people, which could be beneficial in times of war and hardship, but this is the kind of power that started a war that nearly broke us. The choice is up to the coven. Do you want this kind of power in the hands of your council, so that they may call upon your magic when needed, or do we place the power in the hands of individuals?”

Professor Warren shook his head sadly. “We saw what power in the hands of too few people can do. If we’re to truly step into a new era of the coven, we can’t repeat this mistake. Times of war will come again, but the Oaken Wands aren’t the answer. We can’t risk our power ending up in the hands of the wrong people.”

“Jonathan is right,” Judge Calloway agreed. “If war should come, we won’t need magical relics like the Oaken Wands to save us. We only need each other.”

We turned the vote over to the coven, and the decision was unanimous. We wouldn’t create a new set of Oaken Wands, because we didn’t need their power. Their power was already within us.

“Then the Oaken Wands will be no more,” Octavia announced.

She waved her hand, and Oaken Wands began to disintegrate in our palms. I watched curiously as the tip of the Curse Breaker Wand crumbled to ash and drifted away in the wind, returning to join the ashes of the Protection Tree it once came from. The Wands continued to deteriorate inch by inch, until all that remained in our palms was mere dust.

Lucas turned back to Octavia. “Whenever you’re ready, I can help you cross over to Alora.”

A light smile crossed her ghostly features. “You don’t have to take me anywhere, because I’m already home.”

The forest began to morph before our eyes. Ethereal wisps swirled around us, until they began to form large, solid shapes. The pointed turrets of Gothic homes appeared around us, though they had a ghostly glow to them. They were slightly see-through and not quite here, as if the town that appeared around us was layered directly upon the forest.

As the vision became clearer, we found ourselves standing in a town square with brick buildings surrounding us on all sides. It looked like a replica of Octavia Falls, where the buildings the demon had demolished were still standing. At the same time, it seemed even more magical and spellbinding than our town could ever be. Overhead, a full moon shone silver light down upon us, creating an ethereal glow that shimmered around each shopfront. Gentle flames danced from jack-o-lanterns in each window display, and leaves in mesmerizing fall colors of bright oranges, reds, and yellows drifted over the cobblestone. The night air was warm, enveloping us like a warm hug. Everything about it felt like home, down to the sweet scent of spiced apple cider that filled the air.

“What’s happening?” I asked, glancing around the square. It had to be some sort of vision from a Seer, or a projection by a Mentalist. Except I couldn’t explain the profound feeling of love that came with it.

Professor Warren’s eyes watered as he took in the town. “It’s the Law of Love. It’s as I teach in my classes; Mastering the vibrations of love will allow you to tune into Alora’s magical frequencies with astounding accuracy. ”

I realized what that feeling meant. We were witnessing Alora, here with us in real-time. The coven’s power was so strong it resonated through the realms and manifested Alora here with us now.

I went completely breathless. “Alora has been layered upon Octavia Falls this whole time, on another plane. Our loved ones really are with us all the time.”

As I said it, spirits began to take shape before us. Hundreds, if not thousands, of our ancestors had come to witness the miraculous moment.

Meredith must’ve recognized someone, because she blew a breath of disbelief, like she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. “Scott?”

A man with blond hair stepped out of the crowd. I’d seen him once before, the night of the Festival of Santos. The priestesses had dragged him on stage and forced him to disavow his marriage to Meredith because they were from different Casts. Meredith had agreed to marry another man, as she believed it was what the Goddess desired. Scott resolved to the priestesses’ will because he didn’t have any other choice, but they later executed him anyway.

Meredith began to weep. “My dear husband. I’m so sorry for everything that happened. I was wrong to follow the Chosen blindly and give my life to them when I loved you so much. I believed the lies, and I’m ashamed that I ever let any of it come between us. Can you ever forgive me?”

Scott wrapped his ethereal arms around her. “I wish we had both seen the truth then, and maybe things would’ve turned out differently. I know you were scared, and I see now that what I thought was cruelty was only you trying to protect us both. If you’ll still have me, Meredith, I will be waiting for you in Alora.”

Tears streamed down her face. “I will, Scott. There is nothing I want more than to be given a second chance so I can make amends. I treated others so terribly, and I wish I would’ve trusted myself instead of the priestesses. I know things can never go back to the way they were, but I will spend the rest of my life, and into the afterlife if I must, making things right again.”

Meredith turned toward her sister. “And Monica, I’m sorry about how I treated you. I don’t know what truly happened to you, but I’m willing to listen to your story. I hope that you’ll accept my apology.”

Monica wiped tears from her eyes. “Meredith, there’s nothing I want more than to be with my sister again.”

The sisters embraced.

“Shane!” Alex shouted. He’d spotted his brother in the crowd of spirits and ran over to him. Shane had died in the Dungeon of a nightshade overdose our sophomore year. They looked identical, except Alex appeared slightly older and more worn down. The twins pulled each other into a tight hug.

“By golly, you did it!” A short, plump man stepped in front of us. He reached out to shake my hand, and I was surprised to see that his form was nearly solid. He wasn’t quite all there, but our fingers didn’t fade through one another, either.

“Hector?” I asked. I hardly recognized him at first, because the lines on his face seemed smoother, and his hair was thicker than I remembered.

Hector had been the head cook at the Cat-fé here at school. The priestesses had been threatening his family to get him to work for them using the Alchemy Wand to brew poison, before Verla’s poison meant to target the priestesses had killed him first.

Beside him stood an older man. It was William Connor, one of our allies who’d been supporting us against the priestesses and had lent us the safe house we’d lived in for over a year.

“You’ve all done well,” William said with a kind nod.

“I can’t apologize enough that your lives were caught in the middle of all this,” I told them.

“You don’t have to apologize,” Hector assured me. “We knew the risk we were taking on when we joined your movement.”

“We were happy to lend any assistance we could,” William added. “Even if it meant our lives. The coven has been saved, and so, our deaths are not in vain.”

As I gazed around the surrounding spirits, I realized I recognized so many people we’d lost in the midst of the Miriamic Conflict. A group of people from school watched us from the edge of the crowd. I recognized Professor Daniels, a woman who’d taught Demonology and Journalism, whom the priestesses had hanged for a murder she didn’t commit. Beside her stood Professor Perez, who’d been a victim of the demon the priestesses had summoned, and Professor Poppy, who’d died of a viral infection less than a year ago.

Then there was Professor Ward, who’d perished on the pyre the night of the Burning. She stood beside two girls from school I’d only met a few times—Ashley and Christine. The three of them had been researching the Oaken Wands, and the priestesses had burned them at the stake to silence them.

Other familiar faces appeared before us, including Felicia and Stacey, who were students that had been killed the night the school was attacked and the space-bending spell collapsed.

Nearby, Professor Loren lifted a hand and waved to us. I could still picture the image of her frail corpse lying on the battlefield in the wake of the Golem War. She stood beside her daughter, Autumn. The last time we’d seen Autumn, she’d fallen into a pit to the Abyss while fighting off the nuckelavee the night at Octavia Hall. She must’ve found her way out of hell and ascended to Alora. The two beamed happily as they were once again united.

Autumn wasn’t the only one who’d ascended, either. As my gaze roamed the crowd, I spotted Priestess Charlotte standing beside Priestess Stella. The last time we’d seen them had been in the Abyss, when Priestess Charlotte had ascended to Alora and Priestess Stella had stayed behind. We couldn’t help Stella back then, but I saw now that she had progressed on her journey and made the choice to ascend.

I thought all these people might be angry or bitter that their lives had been cut short, but they weren’t. They smiled and waved at us, appearing wholly at peace.

Two kids smiled our way like they knew us. I didn’t recognize them at first, but only because they weren’t the same age as I remembered them. The younger of the two boys, who looked around eight or nine years old now, carried a plastic toy dinosaur with him.

“Caleb?” Lucas asked breathlessly.

The boys rushed forward, laughing as they ran across the square. Caleb stopped in front of Lucas, and he placed his toy dinosaur in Lucas’s hands.

“Thank you for giving my mom and dad peace,” he said.

It was Caleb Thomas and Isaac Miller, the two boys who had been murdered by the Gingerbread Witches. They’d grown up in the time since their death.

“I wish I could’ve saved you both,” Lucas told them.

“In a way, you did,” Isaac said. “We know our families will never stop mourning our deaths, but now that they have answers, they can live their lives knowing that one day we’ll be together again. In the meantime, we’ve got people here to love and take care of us.”

The boys turned, then ran over to a man with a thick beard. I recognized Jude Bennett, who’d lost his life on the battlefield during the Golem War. He’d left behind a wife and son of his own, but as the kids ran over to him and he took them in his arms, I saw that he’d become a father figure to them, too. He’d been a friend of their parents, and the kind nod he gave to us told me he vowed to care for them until their own parents crossed over.

A woman with tight curls and a purple shawl came forward.

“Everly!” I cried. She’d been one of our greatest allies, who had stood up for us and was beaten beside us in the town square for it. She’d died of a curse I hadn’t been able to break.

Everly drew me into a hug. It felt so warm and comforting, even though she wasn’t entirely there. “I am so proud of you all. Seers aren’t like prophets. When witches make a prediction, the outcomes can change. But I knew when I gave my prophecy that you had what it took to fulfill it. Even though I died in the process, I’m happy to have given up my life so that we could reach this moment.”

The prophecy she’d given played back in my mind.

By fire and noose

The coven will fall

Division and suffering

Destruction to all

Great power of the chosen

The coven be made whole

By the only witch of her kind

And a reaper bound to her soul

“You called me chosen,” I said. “Mother Miriam once told me I wasn’t chosen by someone else, but that the prophecy was given because it was the path Lucas and I had already chosen ourselves. But we couldn’t have brought the coven back on our own. This choice was all of ours. Thank you for being a part of it.”

Beside me, Talia sniffled as she caught sight of someone else in the crowd. “Tyler…?” Her voice wavered.

Tate grabbed her sister’s shoulder to steady herself. “Is it really him?”

Tyler approached his sisters and took each of their hands in his. “It’s really me.”