A smile broke across my face before I raised my wand. “Secare.”
The tree branch holding the fruit instantly broke in half, and when the lemon came tumbling down, I caught it with my open hand and handed it to Penelope.
“Nicely spotted, master,” she giggled.
Before I said anything, Alexander swiftly flew down and perched himself comfortably on my shoulder with a bundle of green herbs in his mouth.
Is this what you meant, Cole? he asked.
“Penelope, is this thyme?” I asked as I gently took the herbs from Alexander and handed them to her.
“Yes!” she said in an excited voice before she patted Alexander on the head. “Well done, Alex.”
She’s hot, but tell her I already have a girlfriend, Alexander chuckled in my head.
“Calm down there.” I grinned before Penelope’s panda wandered toward us, and there were dead, dangling little women with wings hanging from her bloody jaw. Then the large familiar dropped the gore-covered fairies into Penelope’s open palm, and the both of us looked at each other with proud smiles. “Nicely done. Well, now that we have everything, let’s go back and perform the potion and charm, shall we?”
Chapter 5
Penelope and I returned to the campsite with the ingredients safely tucked inside her pocket, and Vanessa and the others were patiently waiting for us. When they heard us approaching, they quickly turned around, and the first one to run toward us was a smiling Beatrix.
“Master, Penelope,” she breathed as she studied the two of us from head to toe. “Did you find everything we need?”
“We did,” I replied.
When the three of us returned to the others, there was a heavy cauldron already hovering over burning wood, and boiling water was steaming into the early morning air.
“Alright, now, everyone, take a step back,” the orange-haired witch requested before she kneeled down, pulled out each ingredient, and then studied them with her focused brown eyes. “Now, let’s see… the first thing I need to do is add the thyme.”
We did as Penelope asked and watched as she carefully placed a small portion of herbs inside of the hot cauldron. After she wiped her hands against her skirt, she took a long deep breath before she looked at each ingredient laid out before her. She spread them around her as she chewed on her bottom lip, and I could tell she was doing her best to recall which one was supposed to go next, but even so, I didn’t harbor any doubt.
“Do you need a hand--?” Nyx began, but then Vanessa whipped her head in the blue witch’s direction.
“Be quiet,” she said, but in a surprisingly low and patient voice. “Just let her work.”
“Sorry,” the horned witch muttered before she shifted her feet and folded her hands in front of her.
“It’s fine, Nyx…” Penelope said without looking up. “I… I just needed a minute to think, but I’m positive I need to add the lemon seeds next, but only three of them. Then the fairy powder and finally the moth heart.”
We watched quietly as the bright-haired Wicca carefully pulled out her bonded blade and proceeded to cut into the ripe lemon before she gently pulled out three seeds and tossed them into the cauldron. Then she muttered to herself, grabbed the dead fairies, and began to wring their little bodies like soaked clothes, but instead of blood and guts spilling from the small, broken corpses, a glittering powder tumbled into the bubbling concoction.
After Penelope tossed the fairies aside, she cautiously carved into the moth and then retrieved a pea-sized, black organ. She dropped it into the steaming black pot, and suddenly, a bright, purple flame burst to life. It nearly knocked Penelope backward, but she maintained her stance and remained steady on her knees. Then she stared hard at the cauldron before she cleared her throat and placed her hand over the boiling brew.
“Satanae permitted orum dare velit consequat,” she whispered in a stern voice as she closed her eyes and kept her hand hovering over the smoke. The steam was clearly causing her pain by the way she was shaking and biting down on her lip, but still, she continued with the spell. “Loquere ad extremum etiam ipsi per leporem sit nobis cunctis diebus vitae tuae erit!”
A strong gust of wind suddenly blew over the forest, and the sound was so shrill, it reminded me of a group of witches burning at the stake and screaming into the air as their flesh melted from their bones. As the violent wind blew over us, deep but welcoming darkness seeped into my bones and filled my heart with pure evil, and it consumed my entire soul. A smile spread across my face as I felt Satan’s presence around us, and that’s when I knew Penelope had successfully concocted the potion.
When the purple smoke finally stopped seeping into the air, Penelope quickly pulled her hand away and moaned before she looked down at her skin. We rushed to her side and examined her palm, and there were red marks and boils already forming on her flesh.
“Penelope, are you alright--?” Morgana began, but the bright-haired witch shook her head and chuckled.
“I’m fine,” she said in a relieved tone. “Don’t worry about me. Besides, the pact will heal me soon, and all that matters is the potion is perfectly devised.”
“Wait, how do you know that for certain?” Marina asked as she tilted her head to the side and frowned. “We haven’t even drunk it yet.”
“Oh, if it hadn’t worked, it
