A Witch and her Familiars

Chapter Seventeen - Do You Want to Be a Witch?

"Okay," Daphne said, hiking up her towel and wrapping it more securely under her arms. "Then we'd better get going."

"Wait, what?" asked Sabine, looking at Daphne as though she had suddenly started speaking in Greek.

"I think it's a good idea. I was going to do it myself, but I understand I'll need all the help I can get. That means you guys."

Instead of saying anything, her friends just stared at her suspiciously. "Aren't you going to try to talk us out of it?" asked Rhode at last.

"Or tell us that it's too dangerous for us to go along?" Sabine added.

Daphne shrugged. "It's not like you guys haven't been in dangerous situations before because of me. I figure that you have the right to come along and help if you want to."

"Well, you're right about that," said Rhode, grinning at Daphne. "We're here to save your butt just like always, Ginger. "Daphne giggled. "We're gonna break into the Coven and pull a regular jailbreak for your mom."

"So let's get going!" Sabine cheered.

Daphne's smile froze, and it felt like her heart did too. She had forgotten one crucial element of their grand rescue plan: how to get there. Sabine immediately noticed something was wrong, and it was only a few seconds more before she asked, "But how do we get in?"

"Portal?" Rhode suggested.

"I don't have any more emergency power to draw on," Daphne said. Her eyebrows furrowed together as she tried to think of an alternative.

"We ask another Witch to open one for us?" said Sabine with a faint air of grasping at straws.

Rhode scoffed. "Come on, Blondie. You saw what most of them were like. The chances of finding one that doesn't immediately turn us over to those Coven jerks is next to nothing."

"We have to go back to my apartment," Daphne announced.

"Is there something there that can help us?" Sabine asked hopefully.

"I don't know. Maybe being somewhere familiar will help me think. And there are books there... if those haven't been destroyed, I mean..." A feeling of helplessness hit her like a breaking wave. There was no one to save her this time if she screwed up, no crazy idea they could try. They were really, truly out of options, and there was nothing she could think of to give them more.

Sabine and Rhode must have sensed what kind of thoughts were running through her head, because they both stepped forward. "We'll go to your apartment, then," Sabine announced. "Daphne, we'll find something."

"Or go down trying" Rhode added. Sabine shot her a 'don't-say-that-in-front-of-Daphne' kind of look, but Rhode only rolled her eyes and said, "Oh, go call a car, rich girl."

So she did. The ride back to her apartment was quiet and the atmosphere nervous. The driver cheerily played a synthesizer-heavy song on her radio, but it did nothing to lighten the mood of her passengers. When they stepped out and closed the car door, the music was eerily cut off.

Daphne's apartment looked as it always had, but the warmth of home that usually hung about it like the pleasant smell of baked goods was gone, maybe because Daphne knew what was waiting inside. The key felt cold and heavy in her hand as she unlocked the door.

"Wait!" Sabine cried, pushing Daphne's hand away from the handle. "Let me go in first." Without waiting for an answer she pushed her way through, and a moment later called out, "Okay!"

The smashed room was just as depressing as the last time she had seen it. Dirt and bits of furniture still littered the floor, the sofa was still torn to shreds, the walls still riddled with holes and scratches. On the floor sat the remains of her mother's favorite rug, lumped up into a ball. She instinctively reached down to fix it, so at least something would be right again, but Sabine stopped her.

"The kitty's under there," she said softly. "I didn't think you'd want to see it again."

"Thank you," Daphne replied, looking sadly down at the bundle.

"We can give it a proper funeral later," Sabine said. "Right now, let's just focus on getting your mom back."

"You're right."

"Well, is anything here helping you, Daph?" asked Rhode. "Is this... uh, magic chain thing bringing back any magical stuff that'll help us save your mom?" She dangled a broken necklace in Daphne's face.

She batted it away and closed her eyes. "No. I don't know. I don't know what to do!" she said.

"There must be something here that can help! What about this book? It's a magic book!" asked Rhode, holding up a badly bent copy of Herba Augurium.

She shook her head. "It's a magic book about plants. Not helpful."

"How 'bout this?" asked Rhode, shaking a jar of something. "Is this, like, a magic jar of transportation seeds?"

"Rhode, that's unground black pepper. It's not magical at all," said Sabine, rolling her eyes.

"At least I'm trying to help!" she snapped back.

"Putting 'magic' in front of common objects and wiggling them under Daphne's nose isn't helping!"

"Both of you, please be quiet! I'm trying to think of something that might help..." Something fluttered in the back of Daphne's mind, something she hadn't felt in a while: the hopeful beginnings of an idea. Her eyes widened as the plan unfolded in her mind. "Sabine," she said breathlessly. "Do you want to be a Witch?"

"What?" Sabine's eyes narrowed. "I thought that was impossible."

"Difficult and dangerous and very, very illegal, but not impossible," she corrected. "And since we're doing a bunch of difficult, dangerous, illegal things anyway, I don't think it's pushing our luck too much to add one more." She turned and began searching the room. Where had they left them? There! She rushed over to the piled-up Coven robes they had dropped on the floor.

"The magical robes will make us magical!" Rhode exclaimed.

"It's not the robes I need." Daphne pushed the last one aside and held up the stolen wand her mother had given her. "Here."

Sabine stepped forward. "But... Daphne, how will this work? I know a wand won't make me a witch... will it?"

"No. A wand is just a conduit to direct magical energy, kind of like a pipe for water," she explained, holding up the wand horizontally. "But even after you shut the water off, a few drops remain. That's how we collect the stores of emergency magical power, by 'cleaning out' the wands. With any luck, this one won't have been cleaned in a while, and there'll be enough magic left."

"But Daphne, I don't know how to do magic," said Sabine. "I can't create a portal!"

"I don't think you'll need to. A second source of magic should be all the power we need..."

Sabine swallowed and nodded. With hesitant hands, she reached for the wand.

"Stop! You think and it should be, but what if you're wrong? Didn't you say this was dangerous?" asked Rhode.

"When did you become the voice of reason?" Sabine asked.

"I've always been!" She turned to Daphne. "Ginger, how dangerous is dangerous? What's gonna happen to blondie if something goes wrong?"

"I don't know, exactly. All records of regular humans using magic are forbidden by the Coven." She bit at her bottom lip. "Probably something... not good."

"I'll do it."

Daphne and Rhode turned to Sabine, who stood with her chin up and her eyes determined. "What?"

"I'll do it! Daphne, your mom risked her life to save us. I'll do the same for her... and for you." She took the wand from Daphne. "This is my choice. I'll do my part to rescue your mother!"

Daphne stood and smiled, gripping her own wand in her hand. "Then let's do this. It's time to make another portal!"