~Wren~

Astra had turned around to face death head on, and now she was tugging me around, too. Probably for the best—if I kept looking at my mom for even a second longer, I was going to fully break down. She wants me to die.

Despite my earlier claim that Astra wouldn't need to protect me, I found I couldn't push past her, standing in front of me as if she was going to take all twenty-six of these people on her own. I drew my wand with a shaking hand, but I wasn't even sure if I remembered any spells.

"This is exactly what I meant, Katreena!" Astra yelled over her shoulder, though I wasn't even sure if my mom was still in the room. "Two-faced bitch!"

Under normal circumstances, I might have been appalled at the language, or grateful to Astra for standing up for me. Right now, it just made the tears well up even more. I reached up to wipe them away with my sleeve, praying just that this would be quick.

The next thing I knew, Astra's shield charm was stretched out in front of us, larger than I'd seen her do before. A spell harmlessly bounced off it, and I wondered for a moment if it had been cast nonverbally or if I was simply too out of it to have heard it spoken.

What happened next, I still don't fully understand. It all happened to fast. First there was this flash—some small, dark thing streaking past me. But suddenly that thing was my father, standing front of both of us. Almost like... like he was defending us.

Astra was so surprised that she nearly dropped her wand, but my father had already cast his own shield charm in front of us. I could only stare at him, trying to figure out if I'd already died. What was happening?

"Isaac, what are you doing?"

On top of very clear anger, my mom sounded alarmed, which I don't know that I'd ever heard before. I just kept staring at my father as he shouted back, "I'm not going to sit aside and let you have our daughter killed!"

She let out a frustrated yell, but before she could do anything, my father was glancing over his shoulder. Even though he was shooting spell after spell at the crowd, he still looked back and made eye contact with me. "Run."

"What?"

"It's a stupid plan, but go do whatever you need to do." He hesitated (though the onslaught of spells coming from his wand didn't miss a beat) before adding, "I love you, Wren."

I blinked, something new putting tears in my eyes now. Before I could even think about it, I whispered, "I love you, too."

Astra tugged me sideways just as someone shot a spell at us from the left. As my father turned towards them, he spared one last glance at me. "Go!"

Though I was frozen there, unable to tear my eyes off of the scene (my father is actually defending me), Astra didn't seem to have that issue. She grabbed my arm and took off toward the curtained archway behind us, pulling me with her. We ran right past my mother, who Astra made a point to shove to the side. As we reached the curtain, I glanced back one more time.

Just in time to hear my mother shout, "Avada kedavra!"

Just in time to watch my father fall.

I was fully crying when we came to an abrupt stop in the next room. Astra pulled me into her arms, breathing heavily. I could feel her head turning, glancing between the door and something in this room, but I couldn't bring myself to look up.

Seconds later, I heard my mother dash into the room. I know it was her, because Astra pulled us both back several paces and yelled at her to do something incredibly profane.

Instead of responding to that, though, my mother said, "I'm so sorry, I tried to stop them, but they—"

"Leave them be." Stillens' voice sent a chill down my spine, despite the fact that he was the person we'd come here to see. I quickly pushed away from Astra and wiped at my eyes—this was now the last place anyone needed to be crying.

"I'm sorry?" My mother looked stunned, and I wondered for a moment whether she was feeling any regret. Whether she was even capable of it.

Stillens appeared just as he had six months ago. The same as he had when I was eleven, honestly. But I wasn't eleven anymore. I took a deep breath, standing up straighter when I really just wanted to cower behind Astra again.

"He said shove off, Katreena," Astra snapped. "You're not murdering any more of your family today."

At that, Stillens raised an eyebrow. That was all the surprise he showed, of course, but if he was showing that, he must have been fully shocked. It was pretty easy to figure out who my mother must have killed.

Instead of saying anything about that, he simply waved a dismissive hand at her. "Leave us. I might as well deal with these problems, since they've so graciously handed themselves over to me."

"But..." She blinked at me, and instead of trying to read the mess of emotions on her face, I looked away.

"Send Jasper in when he arrives," Stillens continued. "Otherwise, your presence is not needed."

If she was upset, my mother was smart enough not to say anything about it. I heard her leaving the room as Stillens turned his gaze on us. "What a lovely surprise."

Astra raised her chin. "I've come to talk about your deal."

"I'm sure you have." Stillens glanced over at the far side of the room, which I now realized was a large balcony, likely looking out on the scene below us. "Unfortunately, because of recent developments, our terms might need to change."

"It's pretty underhanded of you to expect me to respond to messages you knew I wasn't getting," she said stubbornly. "It's making me wonder whether I could really trust anything you say you'll do."

"It's hardly my fault that your precious DA can't even pass a simple message along." Stillens sighed. "Is that really why you're here, or do you have some notion that you could possibly defeat me?"

"Unlike you, I'm not a liar," Astra responded. "I want to discuss this deal, because I have some terms of my own."

"Oh, do you?" He almost looked amused. Astra didn't waver, but I was sure that frustrated her. Unfortunately, instead of really addressing that, he turned his gaze on me. "And you? What reason could you have for coming here?"

I opened my mouth, but closed it again when nothing came out. What was I doing here? I could hardly remember. I could still hear my mother's voice, condemning me to death. How could she have done that?

"Wren." I jumped at the edge in his tone. When I looked up, he was frowning at me, clear disapproval and exasperation on his face. "I asked you a question," he said simply, though his eyes said murder.

"I... the same reason." I hesitated, not sure if that were really true. But it was. I was here because Astra was here, and I wouldn't let her face this alone. "To support Astra, really..."

To my dismay, Stillens barked out a laugh. That so rarely happened, and it was never for a good reason. I cast an uncertain glance at Astra, but she seemed on edge, too. Before I could really wonder why that was so funny, he said, "I'm afraid that's not why you're here."

"It's not?" I shouldn't have responded—showing confusion was weakness, and I couldn't afford any more of that right now. But that had been so far out of the realm of what I'd expected him to say.

"No." He turned around and started back towards the balcony, motioning for us to follow him. After a moment of hesitation, Astra nodded, though we kept a wary distance. We'd just come to a stop, and he hadn't even turned around yet, when he continued. "No, Wren, the true reason why you're here, something you may not even consciously realize, is that deep down, you know you deserve to be punished. You keep putting yourself back in my path because there's a part of you that knows you deserve what's about to happen."

"What's about to happen?" Astra demanded, taking a menacing step forward, trying to protect me yet again because I couldn't do it myself. "If you hurt her, I'll never do anything you say."

My uncle seemed entirely unamused. He regarded me coldly for several long moments, and I could only meet his gaze for a few seconds before looking down. I could imagine dozens of things he might do, and I was sure there were still things worse than I could possibly imagine. Things worse than the dementors, even. Surely he'd hear out Astra first, right?

"For the moment, there's no need for physical pain," Stillens said, which wasn't very comforting at all, even if Astra looked a bit relieved. This was going to be something worse.

"No," he continued, "Pain is not enough to truly teach her the lessons she's refused to learn. Time after time, my niece has proven herself a disappointment. Unworthy of the magic that flows through her veins. Perhaps it's time something was done about that."

Though I had no idea what that even meant, my stomach still began to twist itself into knots. What could he do about the fact that I had magic? Break my wand? But the way he'd spoken, it sounded like this was something more, some other way to keep me from using magic that went deeper than a lack of wand. That wasn't possible, was it?

"That's nonsense," Astra snapped. "Unworthy of magic? If anyone is, I'd say it's the man who tortures teenagers just for fun. At some point it stops being some sick form of punishment and starts being gratuitous, you know."

Stillens wasn't listening, to my surprise. He had started walking over to another archway, across from where we were standing. I took a few steps closer to Astra, and she reached down for my hand. While Stillens wasn't looking at us, she turned to me, eyes wide. "Are you all right?" she whispered.

I looked down. "No."

"I'm not going to let anything happen to you. I pro—"

"It's not your fault if it does." I took a shuddering breath. "It's okay."

"We're going to make it," Astra said confidently. "Today is the end, and we're both going to live to see it, okay?"

I couldn't manage a smile, but I tried. She squeezed my hand before letting her gaze drift back to Stillens, over my shoulder. I turned around to see him speaking to a guard through the curtain, though I couldn't hear what was said. A moment later, he'd started back towards the balcony, and a few people emerged from the archway. Two guards that I didn't recognize, who were nearly dragging a third person between them.

A third person who, though she didn't raise her head, looked far too familiar. It would've been enough just to see the discolored streaks in her hair...

Astra let out a choked gasp. "Colette..." I think she'd meant to say it loudly, get her attention, but it came out as a whisper. All I could do was stare in horror.

She looked so familiar, yet so different. There were bruises covering her face and what we could see of her arms, and I had to assume they continued across her body. She wasn't holding herself the way she used to, strong and proud and ready to take on anything. Now, it was like she'd shrunk in on herself, head lowered in defeat. For the first time in my life, I found myself wanting to run at my uncle and knock him to the ground. How could he do this to her?

"We have guests," he said, motioning to us. Colette didn't even seem to have heard, but within seconds one of the guards hit her so hard that I saw blood trickling down from her hair. She barely flinched.

Stillens sighed impatiently and waved the guards off. "I'm sure Ms. St. Pierre is more than capable of standing on her own. And she'll answer me, if she knows what's good for her. Right?" He smiled viciously at her, and I drew a little closer to Astra, tears welling up in my eyes. What had he put her through?

I think Colette must have replied quietly, because Stillens didn't hit her himself. Instead, he gestured at us once again. "As I was saying, we have guests once again, who I know would love a demonstration of your recent achievement." Each word was sharp enough to cut. Colette actually winced away from him, though she still hadn't looked up to see who he was talking about.

Though now I was wondering what he was talking about. A recent achievement? So it seemed he really had forced her to create spells. Perhaps they were a new kind of torture, and he'd brought her out to make all three of us suffer even more than we already had—us, to see our friend in this state, and her, to watch her spells put us in pain.

"I see you've grown quiet," Stillens observed, frowning at Astra. "I suppose you weren't expecting this, were you? I can assure you, I have far more leverage over you than just her."

Astra's other hand clenched into a fist, but she didn't say anything. I wondered if he'd shaken her as much as he had me. All I wanted to do was rush over to Colette and throw my arms around her, but something told me that if I tried, I'd end up getting the cruciatus curse before I was even halfway there.

Our lack of response seemed to be just what Stillens was looking for, unfortunately. He put what might have been a proud, fatherly hand on her shoulder, but the way she winced told a different story. I opened my mouth to say something, protest, but before I could he continued, "Well, I suppose you'd like to know what great achievements our young inventor has accomplished, wouldn't you?" Neither of us answered, but we didn't need to. He kept talking. "Ms. St. Pierre has done the impossible. Though she is reluctant to see the value in her work, I recognize it for what it is: a way to finally free wizardkind of those who would hold us down, those who would waste their innate gifts and fight against progress."

He paused, but Astra didn't give him the satisfaction of asking what he was talking about. After a moment, he sighed and continued, "You are about to witness the greatest advance in magic in the last three hundred years. The world will never be the same again. For our dear friend has found a way to permanently cut off a person's ability to do magic."

I felt the blood drain from my face. A spell that took away your ability to do magic? Was that even possible? Judging by the way Colette had been acting since she'd come in, I had to believe it. But that... that was too horrible. Surely even Stillens had limits...

"And now," he turned back to Colette, "you have the wonderful opportunity to practice on an old friend."

She froze. Astra's grip on my hand grew tight enough to hurt as Colette slowly raised her head, eyes wide with horror. As we made eye contact, time slowed down.

In a way, I felt like I was looking into a mirror, meeting her eyes. I recognized most of the things I saw there—shame, fear, despair. Things I'd been fighting against for years, ever since I was eleven and first learning what those things tasted like. To see them in my friend's face made me want to break down. Or destroy the person who'd put them there. For the first time, I think I understood why James was so protective of me.

We were looking at a shell of our friend. The brokenness in her expression, the way she was holding herself—it was all too familiar to me. The spark that should've been in her eyes, seething at my uncle... it wasn't there. Nothing was there, no hope, no will, nothing. Just the mounting horror of what Stillens was asking her to do, which I still wasn't sure I entirely understood.

She closed her eyes, breaking the moment and snapping me back to what was happening. Next to me, Astra was shaking, but whether it was with tears or anger I couldn't tell. Colette's expression had grown harder, and after a moment she shook her head. Her voice came out as a hoarse whisper, but it was strong enough to carry across the room.

"No."

"Excuse me?" Stillens took a step back, too shocked to hide it.

"No," she repeated, shaking her head once more. "I'm not doing that."

Instantly, Stillens flipped from calm to enraged. "This is not a negotiation. You will do what I say!" He reached out to grab her arm, but Colette backed out of his reach before he could.

Before I knew it, Astra had pulled her hand out of my grasp and was running across the room at both of them. "Don't touch her!" she shouted. I found myself running after her, not sure if I was going to hold her back or help her fight.

Stillens only glanced at us for an instant, but it was enough for Colette to back up to the edge of the balcony. She pressed up against the railing as Stillens turned his focus on her again.

Stillens reached out for her arm, and Colette shot a quick glance over her shoulder before looking back up, straight at Astra and me. Her intensity was enough to bring us both to a stop.

All she said was, "I'm sorry."

Then she leaned back, back and back and back until she'd fallen over.

~~~~

"Elli! Why are you giving us cliffhangers? Do you hate us?"

No, of course not, I love you all. But I do also love suspense, and... well... here we are.

Question of the Day: Do you think Katreena regrets her decisions?

Answer: I suppose you'll have to wait and find out!

Seriously, though, I've been writing some genuinely sweet but heartbreaking scenes and I've made myself cry a few times but it was not over a character death. Things can be heartbreaking in a good way, right?

Vote and comment!

~Elli

Word count: 2905