“Safer to assume none,” Samantha declared, gesturing to the witches. “Come with me.” She led them into the garden and began pointing. “I’ve hidden various crystals—smoky quartz, selenite, peridot, and jet—all for spiritual protection. I also recycled the salt circle and turned it into a binding sigil.”

  “The salt circle I made the barrier from?” Holly asked.

  Samantha nodded. “The spell was gone, so I installed my own. The moment Hazel steps inside, she won’t be able to leave.”

  “She’ll see it coming,” Jin warned.

  “Maybe, but I have a few tricks of my own, vampire. We modern witches know how to innovate.” She swept her arm through the air, gesturing towards the garden. “The magic laid here is hidden from all those who wish us harm.”

  “We’ve just got to trust them,” Patrick said, slapping a hand on Jin’s shoulder. “This battle is for the witches to decide. We can lend them our strength, but we can’t fight.”

  Jin gritted his teeth. “It doesn’t mean I like it.”

  “Wait for us on the verandah,” Samantha commanded the vampires. “The air is starting to feel unstable.”

  As Patrick and the witches moved off, Holly grabbed Jin’s hand. “I’m sorry.”

  “What for?” he asked. “This is a problem only magic can solve.”

  “No,” she murmured. “I’m sorry about everything… About what happened to you because of the Trine, all those years you spent in the mine, and for Hazel. I know you loved her and now…” she trailed off as her throat tightened.

  “No. I understand now…” Jin whispered. “I loved what she represented.”

  “Jin…” Her eyes filled with tears. “I’m afraid.”

  “Don’t worry.” He smoothed a hand through her hair and kissed her forehead. “We’ll get our moment.”

  Holly brushed away her tears and nodded.

  “If you need me, just say the word. You have my strength.”

  “I will.”

  They walked back towards the cottage as the looming danger grew.

  ‘That was the perfect kiss moment, and he planted one on your forehead?’ Hannah exclaimed. ‘What a cop-out.’

  “Hannah?” Holly hissed. “You were there the whole time?”

  ‘You’re the one who forgot I was still hitching a ride.’

  “You have to get out of here. Hazel’s going to be here any second.”

  ‘Darling niece, I’m already dead. There isn’t much she can do to me.’ Holly imagined Hannah was rolling her eyes. ‘Besides, you need all the help you can get. Samantha might be able to trap Hazel in her little circle but severing her link to the anomaly will take everything you three have.’

  Holly looked towards the driveway, her witchy-sense tingling. “I think she’s here.”

  The witches stood together on the path, waiting. Overhead, the sun was setting in an otherworldly aurora of autumn colours—red, orange, yellow, and neon pink.

  “Remember our intent,” Samantha whispered. “Remember who we are.”

  An unfamiliar man appeared out of the bushland, his presence brimming with magic. Brian Doyle was a middle-aged man with close-cropped hair, sprinkled with grey. His shoulders were wide and strong, and his Legacy blew with the power of air. At this distance, he didn’t look possessed, but then again, neither did Fiona.

  He walked up the driveway, glaring at them with all the corrupted power of the anomaly welling inside him. Every step brought the heavy scent of corroded metal wafting towards them, the weight of the power turning Holly’s stomach.

  How the hell were they supposed to stop this?

  “Samantha Dunne, it’s time to finish what we started.” Hazel spoke through Brian, her voice raspy with echoes of her female spirit. She had full control of him, but she was done hiding her presence. There was no need to continue her manipulations at this stage of the game—everyone’s position was clear.

  “Here I am,” the witch said, opening her arms. “Come get me.”

  Hazel smirked, stepping onto the garden path. Her gaze locked onto her prize, and she didn’t notice the salt laid across the gravel until it was too late. Crossing into the sigil-laced trap, she gasped as magic pulsed through her, her spirit shimmering through the body she’d stolen.

  “Surprise,” Samantha said with a wicked smile. “Plants aren’t the only thing that grow in this garden.”

  “Crystals and scribbles in the dirt?” Hazel scoffed. “Trinkets that can be erased in one fell swoop.” She unleashed Brian’s Legacy, calling upon the air to gust down on the garden.

  All three witches held up their hands, their magic driving her back. Fiona’s emerald earth Legacy pulsed throughout the flowerbeds, protecting the sigils. Samantha’s fire ignited the markings, fanned into an inferno by the wind. Holly’s will pushed against Hazel’s spirit, interrupting her connection to Brian long enough to stop the gale dead in its tracks.

  “Tricky, tricky, tricky…” Hazel muttered, narrowing her eyes. “But not even the elements can stand against me.”

  “Are you even hearing yourself? You’re alone,” Holly declared. She felt Jin behind her, struggling with his promise to let them confront Hazel. “You’ve lost everything. You have no allies, except the ones you’ve forced into eternal slavery. You have to stop. There’s nowhere you can go. Hazel…it’s over.”

  “As long as I walk amongst the living, there’s always hope.” Her gaze moved to Samantha. “One life is all it will take, yet here you are, risking the lives of everyone and everything. Give her to me.”

  “You’ve suffered enough,” Holly murmured. “It’s time to free yourself from the corruption, Hazel.”

  “My banishment will have dire consequences, but you can spare all of it with just one life.”

  “Oh, moan about it to someone who cares,” Samantha drawled. “This is the end of the line, Hazel Burke. Your soul and Legacy are corrupted beyond repair, and the damage you have wrought—not only on yourself, but your family—is incomprehensible.”

  “You’re one to talk, Trine witch. Your bloodline is the one who murdered them!”

  Holly stepped forwards, her anger rising. “You’ll give Brian back and then you’ll cross over, Hazel. This isn’t a negotiation.”

  Hazel sneered, her gaze drilling into Holly with chilling precision. “How does it feel? To have everything I ever wanted? A man who loves you, a pure Legacy, and a family who’d stand beside you in the face of utter annihilation? How does it feel?”

  Holly snorted, not wanting to listen to her dribble any longer than she had to. There was a limit to how much drama she could tolerate.

  “Bloody hell, Hazel,” she said, joining hands with Samantha and Fiona. “You’re so…extra.”

  Hannah peeled away from Holly’s body and placed her ghostly hand on her niece’s shoulder.

  The intent of her allies flowed into Holly, and she focused her Legacy onto Hazel. It’d been so easy to push the spirits from the possessed at the gaol, but this time, when her magic struck, it was like hitting a reinforced concrete wall.

  “You’ll have to try harder than that!” Hazel cried, pushing back against their attack.

  A slash of darkness raced towards the witches, and they reached within, forcing up a barrier between them. Hazel’s spell collided with it, but the magic didn’t dissipate. It continued to bear down on them, getting heavier as the witch poured more and more of the anomaly’s power into it.

  “We’re not enough,” Samantha rasped.

  A cold hand pressed down on Holly’s left shoulder, and she glanced up, almost expecting to see Jin joining them, but the smiling face looking back at her belonged to someone entirely unexpected.

  She gasped and her eyes filled with tears. “Sarah?”

  Her friend smirked and wiggled her eyebrows. “Miss me?”

  “H-how?”

  “I’ve been fighting the corruption, hoping you’d all get it together long enough to set things right,” she explained.

  “Sarah?” Samantha cried. “My beautiful daughter… I…”

  “The strongest bond is blood,” the spirit said. “You taught me that. Two Dunne witches, two Burkes, and one witch channeling the power of the mother of us all…the earth.”

  “Two generations linked beyond life and death,” Hannah said. “Fire, earth, and spirit.”

  Holly turned back to the twisted magic. “Fire, earth, and spirit.”

  Fiona tightened her grip on her hand. “Fire, earth, and spirit.”

  “Fire, earth, and spirit,” Samantha echoed.

  Their intent echoed together, their Legacy reaching across realities, and they pushed back against the darkness.

  Fire, earth, and spirit.

  Hazel’s connection to the anomaly snapped, sending a blast of arcane energy into the three witches.

  In that moment, Holly felt her entire being fill with understanding and knowledge beyond comprehension. She saw the path forwards, and it led into darkness and corruption. They were channelling the anomaly now.

  “Hold,” Samantha rasped. “Use the power, but don’t let your emotions touch it.”

  “But…” She almost pulled away, but Hannah’s grip tightened on her shoulder.

  “You must use the anomaly to banish Hazel,” her aunt said. “It’s the only way, Holly.”

  Samantha nodded her agreement. “Remember our intent.”

  “Free the spirits,” Fiona said. “Help them find peace in the next life.”

  “And free Hazel,” Holly murmured, her whole body tingling as the strange magic flowing through the anomaly mingled with her Legacy. “She made a mistake, and we have to show her mercy.”

  Brian’s body writhed on the ground as Hazel fought to keep her spirit locked inside.

  “Mercy?” Samantha hissed. “She murdered—”

  “A lot of people died who didn’t have to,” Holly interrupted. “She messed with something she didn’t understand and unknowingly set off a chain reaction that brought death and torment to countless families. She’s lost who she is—she lost her life, her Legacy—and she spent one hundred and seventy years locked in the vortex of her death. She’s suffered enough.”

  “Holly’s right,” Fiona said. “She crosses with the rest. Whatever happens next is up to the powers-that-be.”

  Samantha snorted. “Very well.”

  Holly drew on her Legacy and channeled their combined intent through the anomaly. The souls of the trapped began to free themselves from the pull of the vortex, and one by one, they began to rise into the sky, reaching towards the clouds.

  She smiled as she watched the spirits claim their eternal peace, her heart filling with joy. They were going to make it. The clouds flickered as the swarm reached them, their light dulling, and it all began to change.

  “Something’s wrong…” Fiona said, her brow creasing. “They’re falling.”

  Holly gasped as the souls began to tumble towards the vortex, their wails filling the air. “It’s not enough,” she whispered. “We’re not enough.”

  She knew the moment they severed their connection to the anomaly, the spirits would be pulled back into the vortex, once again trapping them inside. It was already happening. They needed more power, or—

  “The vortex has to go,” Hannah said, echoing her thoughts.

  Holly’s breath caught and she turned to Samantha. The ritual…

  “The vortex is bound to my life,” the older witch said. “It was always going to be this way… I-I had hoped…”

  Sarah’s eyes filled with horror. “Mum?”

  “Once set in motion, the ritual cannot be stopped,” Hannah whispered.

  “Mum, did you know?” Sarah asked.

  “I had hoped we’d have enough magic to free you all,” she replied. “But…” She closed her eyes as Holly tightened her grip on her hand. “I knew it might come to this.”

  “You’re willing to die for them?” Hazel rasped through Brian’s body. “A Trine witch?”

  “I will do what I must to protect them and this town,” Samantha snapped. “The Trine has nothing to do with it.”

  “Because the Trine is broken.”

  “You broke the magic, Hazel, but you didn’t break our intent…and our intent endures.”

  She scoffed, a single tear escaping from her eye. “I never thought I’d live to see the day…”

  Holly looked down at her ancestor and knew that for the first time, she was speaking to the real Hazel Burke. Free from the anomaly, she was finding herself engulfed in a rare moment of clarity.

  Hazel’s spirit pressed against the limits of Brian’s body, her true face shimmering through. “I made a mistake when I became the conduit,” she said, her voice filled with pain and regret. “The moment I connected with it, I knew I’d woken something…or someone.”

  “Someone?” Holly asked. “What do you mean? The anomaly isn’t alive, it’s just magic.”

  Hazel reached towards her, stretching with her ghostly arm. ‘Beware the ruin beneath.’

  “Oh, shut up,” Samantha declared. “Give Brian back or we’ll force you out of him.”

  Hazel let out a long sigh, her eyes closing. “I’m sorry…”

  Her spirit peeled away from Brian’s body, her translucent body floating into the air like a feather caught on the wind. She didn’t fight her fate, she simply sank into it and allowed their magic to carry her to the other side.

  Holly watched her ancestor ascend into the sky until she couldn’t see her anymore. Her spirit joined the flow of others until the aching scars in Holly’s soul fell silent.

  Hazel Burke was gone.

  “The spirits have crossed over,” Sarah said. “I can feel them calling to me.” She turned to the witches. “It’s almost time.”

  Hannah took her hand and smiled. “This is the easy part,” she told the younger witch. “It won’t hurt at all.”

  Samantha pulled on Holly’s hand, drawing her and Fiona into a circle.

  “I’m sorry,” she murmured. “I’m sorry for what the Trine did to your family, Holly. I’m sorry for taking Hannah’s life. I’m sorry for stealing her Legacy. It’s because of all of it that you were possessed, Fiona, and I’m sorry. I regret all of it. I wish things had been different, but I know what I have to do now.” She let go of Holly’s hand, severing her connection to the anomaly.

  “No,” Fiona gasped. “She’s got your anthame.”

  Samantha held up the ornate silver dagger Hannah had kept in her cutlery drawer. It was the perfect arcane tool to complete the ritual, and for it to be Hannah’s was a circle completing itself.

  Retribution. Penance. Sacrifice.

  “Samantha, please,” Holly pleaded. “We’ll find another way.”

  “No, Holly.” She shook her head. “There isn’t a loophole this time. It’s the way things have to be. This is the price I alone have to pay.”

  Lifting the dagger, Samantha plunged it into her chest, the blade burying deep into her heart.

  CHAPTER 18

  Samantha Dunne stood in the garden, smiling as the swirling vortex slowed.

  “Mum, did you really have to?”

  She looked to her daughter and smiled. “You were right all along. I was just too proud to see that the coven was on the wrong path. I’m sorry I pushed you away.”

  Patrick rushed from the verandah and caught her body before it hit the ground. She watched as he eased her down and called her name.

  They joined hands, knowing their spirits had already passed to a place beyond the living’s sight. Together, they watched the scene they’d left with a detachment that was oddly peaceful. Her life had been defined by so much anger and greed, but Samantha knew she’d finally find the true meaning of peace in death. Her final sacrifice had reunited her with her daughter…her last true love.

  “Samantha!” Patrick cried as Jin joined them.

  There would be no resurrection—his blood had left her system hours ago and healing her again was beyond his power. That, she’d made sure of when she placed a spell on the anthame during her preparations.

  “She’s gone,” she heard Hannah say. “I can still feel her and Sarah, but they’re fading.”

  “They’re finding peace,” Holly said, letting go of Fiona’s hand.

  Samantha smiled as she felt their connection to the anomaly sever. Above, the spirits continued to cross over, free from the pull of the vortex. Soon, they would have to join them.

  “I’m sorry,” she said to Sarah. “I’m sorry I drove you to dark magic. I’m sorry how you died. It was my fault.”

  “No,” her daughter replied. “It was my choice. I knew it was reckless, but I couldn’t handle losing Dad. We had the power to avenge him, but… I was wrong to use blood magic. I should’ve listened to you.”

  “He’s up there, you know.” Samantha looked up at the brilliant white sky. “His spirit is free now, too. We’ll see him soon.”

  Sarah’s bottom lip trembled. “Mum…”

  “I know, sweetheart. You don’t have to be afraid anymore. We have one another.” She smiled and opened her arms. “I love you.”

  “I love you too, Mum.”

  They embraced, crying and wrapping each other in love as their spirits faded into the next world.

  Holly knelt beside Samantha’s body as the power of the anomaly faded within her.

  Across the creek, the uneasy feeling the vortex emitted over the historical diggings was gone.

  She stared at the hilt of the anthame, trying not to dwell on the blood soaking through Samantha’s designer blouse. At the end, the witch gave everything to set the wrongs of the past right. The Trine was no more, the coven was gone, and what the future held was unknown.

  All Holly was certain of was that Hazel and the trapped spirits had finally found peace. The diggings would come back to life, and the anomaly would become dormant, hidden underneath the quartz reef until the day it finally faded away.

  “We’ll make sure she’s buried with Sarah and Marty,” Patrick said, smoothing her hair back. “Dunloe will remember her for her tireless community work.”

  “But we’ll know the truth,” Holly murmured, looking up at the sky.