Nora silently prayed that this plan would work as she slowly crept along the side of the house, staying as close to the wall as humanly possible. She could vaguely hear Emma and Michael talking, and then the blasts of magic going back and forth. She quickened her pace and found herself standing in front of where it all started. In front of the lilies. She let out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding and reached out to touch them.

"It won't work," a voice said. She had almost forgotten about those weird voices. 

"You don't even know what I'm doing," she whispered back angrily, reaching for the flowers again. Suddenly she saw a soft light come out of a crack in the wall. It grew steadily brighter until there was a beautiful firefly buzzing around in front of her. At this point, she wasn't even surprised. "Have you been in there the whole time?" Nora asked quietly.

"Of course. It is my sworn duty to protect that room. A sacred duty at which I have failed miserably," the bug responded sadly.

"What do you mean?"

"That room was meant by my creator for learning. He filled it with books about the art of magic, and it was used for awful things."

"That's terrible, but there was nothing you could have done about it. You're just a firefly."

"Am I?" It asked. Nora didn't know what to say as the bug started to glow brighter and brighter. She hoped that Emma was too distracted with Michael to see the magical lightshow that seemed to be going on. The light grew to an almost blinding white, and then faded, revealing a beautiful woman. Her hair was as golden as the rising sun, and he skin shown almost translucent in the moonlight. She was wearing a grass-green summer dress, and no shoes. "I should have done something to stop it, but I thought that maybe they were doing the right thing. It was for their family after all, but I was foolish. I never should have let that happen." A single tear slipped down her cheek. Nora suddenly came to her senses.

"I don't mean to sound insensitive, but if you really want this to end, then I need those flowers," Nora said, glancing over her shoulder to make sure Emma was still distracted.

"The flowers alone won't be enough," the woman said.

"Yes they will. They're poisonous," Nora said, reaching towards the flowers again. The woman stepped forward to stop her hand. "I need those," Nora said, fighting to keep her voice down. 

"More than blood runs in her veins," was all the woman said before she turned and looked at the flowers intently. She seemed to be searching for a particular one, and every time Nora tried to reach out, an invisible barrier kept her back. She fidgeted nervously, listening to make sure that magical blows were still being thrown from both sides. The woman finally chose a single flower and plucked it from the plant. She gazed at it for a moment before drawing a knife from one of the folds of her dress. She closed her hand around the flower, and when she opened it, a fairy like dust sprinkled out over the knife. She handed the knife delicately to Nora.

"Thank you," Nora said earnestly.

"Please end this. For all of us," she responded. She glowed bright once more, and then once more became a firefly. But she was no longer alone. At least a dozen other fireflies had emerged from the crack in the wall. Nora nodded to them, and quietly made her way towards where she knew the fight was happening. 

When she got there, Michael's magic was failing. His shields were getting weaker with every blow, and Emma showed no signs of tiring. Nora crept up behind her, until she was barely a foot away. She raised the knife, and loosed a breath as she drove it down, as hard as he possibly could.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed.

I'm still waiting on comments for ideas about a sequel, but I am also starting to come up with ideas of my own.

Don't worry. This part of the story isn't quite over yet. 

There's going to be a couple more chapters.

xoxo

-Sierra <3