The Council of Mirrors (28 page)

“Neat trick,” Daphne said.

“Thank you,” Sabrina said.

“Any idea how you did that?” Daphne asked.

“Not a clue.”

The girls walked back through the crowd to where they started.

Mirror saw them coming and surprise spread across his face. He snarled and blasted the girls again. This time Sabrina’s hands reacted, and a shield of pink light pushed back against his attack. With another wave of her hand the earth broke open like an egg beneath Mirror’s feet and swallowed him whole. At once, her family also fell to the ground. It was a miracle that no one was hurt, though baby Basil started to cry.

Sabrina reeled from her power. On the one hand, it felt good to let some of it out. It made her feel strong and a hundred feet tall. But on the other hand, she felt the desire to hurt Mirror again. She wanted to stand over his broken body and laugh.
That was when she knew how truly sick she was. She had to end this fast. She took Daphne’s hand and together they ran to the crevice and peered into the darkness.

“Mirror!” she cried.

“You can’t attack him,” Daphne said. “You’re attacking Granny.”

“I know,” Sabrina said. “I . . . this power isn’t good for me. There’s too much.”

Daphne nodded and gestured for Baba Yaga and the Wicked Queen. The crone’s horrible house lumbered behind them.

“Sabrina can’t attack,” Daphne said. “She can only defend, so it’s up to the coven.”

“But the coven is broken!” the Wicked Queen cried. “We’ll try, but without a third—”

“I have solved one of our problems,” Baba Yaga interrupted. “We will rebuild our coven stronger than before. We need to choose a third, and a more appropriate third this time. I am the crone. Morgan was the temptress. Bunny was the innocent, which was laughable at best. What we had was one crone and two temptresses. It diluted the magic, so we never could reach our full potential. What we need is a true innocent.”

Sabrina looked around the crowd, but there was no one else with any real magical abilities who might be right for the coven.
Baba Yaga may have had a point, but there wasn’t much they could do about it. “Who do you have in mind?”

The old witch turned to Daphne. “You will do.”

“Me?” Daphne said.

“She’s just a little girl. She doesn’t know any magic!” Henry argued despite being suspended in midair.

“She tolerates the arcana well,” Baba Yaga said. “Can you not see how it moves through her, Henry? Look how their dog stands by her. He is her familiar.”

“He’s just a dog!” Sabrina cried. “He probably thinks she has a sausage in her pocket.”

Elvis rushed to join them and sniffed at Daphne’s pockets.

“House! Jacket!” Baba Yaga cried.

The door of her hut opened and there was a terrible coughing sound. Then a long trench coat flew out of the doorway and landed at the old crone’s feet. Sabrina recognized it immediately. Many months ago, Uncle Jake had traded it to the witch for her help; its pockets were filled with magical items beyond imagination. Baba Yaga scooped it up in her gnarled hand and helped the little girl into it. It was hardly a perfect fit. It dragged on the ground, and Sabrina had to help her roll up the sleeves so she could use her hands.

“I absolutely forbid this!” Henry shouted, but Bunny had
already reached out her hand and Daphne took it. Baba Yaga reached out her weathered claw and Daphne took that as well.

“NO!” Henry cried, but it was too late.

“We are bound by coven,” the two older witches said.

“We are bound by coven,” Daphne said.

Daphne’s hair stood on end and her hands turned to stone. A moment later she returned to normal except for the unusually large smile on her face.

Then from deep in the abyss Sabrina saw her grandmother’s hand pulling her body back to the surface. Mirror’s eyes glowed and the ground bubbled. Geysers exploded around the crowd, sending steam into the air. A silver ooze gurgled out of the holes and collected in pools, from which an army of creatures then rose. Each was about the size of a large man, but made of what appeared to be mirrors. The second they were solid, the creatures attacked the crowd, forcing everyone to join the fight.

“Now, where were we?” Mirror said as flashing strands of electricity blasted from his hands. Daphne reached into her pocket and removed an amulet and the girls vanished, only to appear directly behind Mirror. There the little girl kicked him in his backside.

Mirror roared and his hands flew upward as if he were conducting an evil orchestra. The ground beneath the army’s
feet shot into the air, twisting into a knotted pretzel of earth, trees, roads, and people. The earth grew higher and higher, almost to the height of Mount Taurus, and took everything with it. Sabrina and Daphne both lost their footing and tumbled down, slipping right over the edge. Sabrina managed to snatch on to the roots of a broken tree and Daphne clung to her leg. Together, they hung there, struggling to catch their breaths and pull themselves up to safety.

Sabrina could fix this, she knew, she just had to let a little magic out. She tried and they soared to the top of the new mountain like rockets, landing on the lonely peak. Once they were on solid ground they scurried to the side and looked over. The wind was whipping in Sabrina’s ears, and the temperature at this height was markedly lower. It did nothing for the fever inside Sabrina, and sweat dripped off her face like rain.

“Do you see Mom and Dad?” Daphne said.

The visions came like a thunderstorm, booming in her head. Her mother and Basil were safely on the ground, having taken shelter in the woods. Her father was on a ridge below them, still fighting one of the mirror men. Uncle Jake was pulling himself up to the top, branch by branch. Puck was flying to meet them. The rest of their friends were alive and fighting.

“Everyone is fine,” Sabrina assured her. “For now.”

“Can you see Mirror?”

Sabrina felt tremors shaking through her. “I can feel him. I can’t explain it, but he’s down there and he’s coming up.”

“Are you OK?”

Sabrina shook her head. There was no more faking it.

“Where are you, Sabrina?”

Sabrina peered over a ridge. Her grandmother was below, hovering midair on a cone of wind. “I’m done with this. I’ve held back until now.”

“We’re not going to let you destroy the world!” Sabrina shouted over the roaring wind. Puck fought the unearthly forces battling his wings but eventually joined the girls.

“I’m not going to destroy the world, kiddo. Where would I live? No, I’m just going to put it back the way it was meant to be. Everafters ruling everything. We’re stronger and smarter than humans. You think I’m arrogant. But shouldn’t the most powerful be in charge? Would you stay silent if you woke up one day to find dogs controlled the world?”

“Is this the part where the villain tries to explain his stupid way of thinking?” Daphne shouted.

“That’s a rookie move,” Puck said.

“Then let me explain something that you can relate to,” Mirror said as he floated up to the peak and set himself down
before them. “Anger. Betrayal. Abandonment. These are things you know. These are things that have made you want to strike out and smash and destroy.”

“I don’t know them,” Daphne said.

“Because she protected you from them, but your sister knows them all too well,” Mirror said, turning to Sabrina. “You know what it’s like to have people you care about turn their backs on you.”

“I’m not angry anymore,” Sabrina said shakily.

“Then let me remind you what it’s like,” he said, and with a wave of his hand, Daphne was sent sailing into the air over the edge of the cliff.

“Daphne!” Sabrina cried.

“I’m on it,” Puck said, sprinting to the cliff’s edge and leaping off the side.

“Now you know what it’s like to be alone,” he said.

Sabrina stared into her grandmother’s eyes, knowing that it was not Granny looking back at her. What she saw was hundreds of years of pain and uncertainty. The look reminded her of the day she arrived at Granny Relda’s house. She had looked into a mirror and seen that same expression on her own face, and she remembered what it was like to wonder if she would ever feel loved again. But in the months that followed she had felt
love: from her sister, from her grandmother, from her uncle, and from Puck. She felt it when her parents were found and from the dozens of new friends that had become part of her family. It had saved her and she knew that her father had given her excellent advice some days before.
Look for your enemy’s weaknesses
.

She grabbed Mirror around the shoulders and hugged him. “I’m done fighting you, Mirror. I understand how you feel and I’m sorry that you didn’t get the love that I did. But I am not like you. Let me show you.”

She placed her hands on her grandmother’s face and let loose all of her magic, but it wasn’t an attack or an act of destruction and hostility. It was love—the love she had been given—and it was pure and brilliant and strong. She sent him every moment of kindness and concern she had ever received. She gave him her memories with her friends. She gave him the feelings she had for Mr. Canis and Red and her uncle. She gave him her father reading a bedtime story and her mother giving her a wink. She gave him her grandmother’s hugs and the tiny, almost imperceptible smiles Mr. Canis sent her that let her know he cared. She gave him the softness of her baby brother’s cheek nuzzling into her shoulder. She gave him Elvis’s happy kisses. She gave him the love that she had once felt for him—all of it opening like an overstuffed jewelry box into his heart—and then she gave him
the surprise of Puck’s first kiss, and then her want for another, and the odd, fluttering feeling inside her whenever he talked about their future together, even when he was teasing. And then she gave him Daphne—sweet, loving, hilarious Daphne. She gave him her sister’s warm hand in her own and the joy she felt when Daphne laughed. She gave him their nights asleep together, their many escapes and daring rescues. She gave him every meal with Daphne stuffing her face. She gave him her sister’s frustrating and yet miraculous sense of right and wrong, and how the little girl could see the good in everyone. She gave him every day that her sister made Sabrina feel stronger, braver, and happier. She gave him an hour of Daphne brushing her hair. She gave him their secrets and inside jokes and silly giggles. She gave him every single new word Daphne ever invented. She gave him what had saved her own life—her sister’s love. She wrapped it all up and slipped it into whatever Mirror called a heart.

And then the mountain was sinking back into the earth, twisting back into the land it once was. The mirror men dripped back into the soil and the wind disappeared. With the last of her magic, Sabrina created a cushion of air that caught her friends before they collided with the ground.

When it was over, Sabrina was still hugging Mirror, and he was hugging her back.

Mirror looked down into her face. Granny was more present, just beneath the surface. He was letting her go. “I didn’t know it was like that.”

Mirror and Sabrina stood silently for a long moment.

Bunny approached, and Mirror’s eyes lit up with happiness. “Hello, Mother,” he said, without scorn and rage.

Bunny flashed Sabrina an uncomfortable look, but Sabrina just nodded.

“Meet your son,” Sabrina said.

Bunny hugged him tightly. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s time to give me back my grandmother. I love her very much,” Sabrina said.

Mirror nodded. “Sabrina, would you do me a favor? I know that you have no reason to, but . . .”

“What would you like?”

Mirror reached out his hand. “Before I go, will you tell me that I’m your friend?”

Sabrina took his hand and held it tightly. “Mirror, I am your friend.”

He smiled and sighed and winked at her. Then Granny Relda’s mouth opened and the black spirit of Mirror slipped out and fell to the ground. Granny Relda collapsed. Bunny helped the old woman revive while Sabrina watched the dark mass flopping
about like a fish unable to return to the sea. Sabrina caressed him and told him that everything would be OK. Then Mirror melted into a puddle of glistening silver. His remains leaked into the soil and were gone.

There was the sound of fluttering wings. Puck landed at her feet. He had Daphne with him, safe and sound.

“You know, as many times as you two get tossed off of tall things, you would think you’d start wearing parachutes,” he said.

Sabrina swept her sister up into a hug.

“How are you feeling?” Daphne asked.

“It’s gone,” Sabrina said. “The magic is gone.”

Granny stirred, and Sabrina helped her to sit up just as Uncle Jake, Daphne, Henry, Veronica, Basil, and Elvis rushed to join them. The old woman blinked and looked around.

“Welcome back,
liebling
,” Sabrina said.

Granny Relda smiled and gave her a hug. “Have you girls been up to shenanigans?”

“Hey, that’s my word!” Daphne cried, and hugged her so tight Sabrina worried the old woman might break. Elvis pushed his way in to shower her with happy licks.

Henry and Jake helped their mother to her feet. She wobbled a bit but finally found her balance.