Returning Reign

Chapter 30

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We are standing outside Hugos witch friend's house. He hardly had time to introduce Nathaniel and I to her as we walked into her home. The cottage was small and cozy. The outside was made of large taupe colored bricks with white grout and the roof was a rounded triangle. Her home had dark wooden accents and felt homey. It was not a stereotypical creepy witch home.

We had left Vivian locked in a hidden room in the palace with a couple of very loyal guards to watch over her. The witch tells us to take a seat and we all do.

"It has been a long time since I last saw you, King Hugo." The witch talks to us as she pours us some tea. Nathaniel sits to my left and Hugo to my right.

"Fern, it's a pleasure to see you. You look great! You have not aged a day since I last saw you." Hugo replies as he takes a sip of the tea without a second thought. He must really trust her and have a long history to talk to her like that.

"Always a gentleman I see. Now who are these two lovely young adults?" Fern asks Hugo as she dips a biscuit into her tea. I take a sip of my tea and make brief eye contact with Nathaniel. I will need to ask him how hes handling all this later. Afterall, its not just my world falling apart right now.

"This is Vivian's son," Hugo gestures to Nathaniel. "And um this is mine and Josephine's daughter."

"Oh my, this is the girl that I helped send away with the key!" Fern gasps in excitement and happiness. Clearly her magic worked and I am still alive.

"Yes, the one and only." Hugo replies happily and smiles at me. I give him a smile back, he's my biological father. It still hasnt clicked in my head that I have two more parents.

"We need help finding Josephine, Diego, and Alice." Nathan explains to Fern breaking the small moment I had with my father. We nod in agreement.

"You see, your father already knows this but I am sisters with the witch who helped Vivian. Her name is Francesca. She chose the path of dark magic while I chose the path of the light." Fern explains and I gasp lightly in shock. Her sister did all this?

"The good thing about this situation is that no one knows my sister better and her magical tricks better than me!" Ferm exclaims. I sigh in relief, that makes sense.

"It is also possible that the magic she used originally has expired since that's what happens when you mess with dark rotten magical sources." Fern moves her hands animatedly explaining this in simple terms for all of us to understand the foreign subject.

"Let me get some of my books and see what I can do for you all." Fern stands up from her chair and shuffles towards the wall in her living room covered by bookshelves packed with books containing information about magic.

I look over to my father and Nathaniel excitedly containing the giant grin trying to escape.

"Aha! Right here. This will work." Fern puts the book down on a small wooden coffee table next to her sleeping cat.

"This spell can use traces of magic used by the original spell to teleport you to where the magic is located. We can use your daughter as the trace of magic because she was technically present when the spell was cast. Josephine was pregnant and Francessca did not know this because she simply cast the spell from far away and was not there in person. If we teleport you all to where the magic is located then thats where Josephine will be because they are using magic to conceal her." Fern tries to explain the best she can to us all. It makes perfect sense.

"Yes we will do that. What do you need from me?" I ask Fern.

"Simply your presence while I am casting the spell," Fern replies. I nod in agreement.

"Lets do it." Hugo says and we all stand.

Fern starts reading words in another language and holds both of my hands in hers. I guess shes channeling my presence or something.

"Okay now the two of you grab one of her hands as well." Fern whispers with her eyes closed in concentration. Now the four of us are in a small circle holding hands and I start feeling a warmth blossom in my chest. I look around us and we are slowly lifting off the ground and there is a bright warm light all around us. I can no longer see Ferns cottage.

Suddenly we are outside the opening of a giant cave. The little entrance that we are standing on is only about ten feet long before it abruptly stops and becomes a cliff. The pale moonlight shines on all four of our faces and we brace ourselves.

"This is insane," Nathaniel gasps in shock at the sudden change in scenery. His sharp features look childlike with the surprise he has on his face.

"Is Francessca here?" Hugo asks Fern.

"No, I cant sense her magic. She probably never even came here in person." Fern shakes her head at her sister's lack of caution.

"Shes making this too easy. She never thought we'd even get here but she especially never thought of us using Cartia to get here." Fern thinks out loud for us. We all start walking into the cave but it seems like a long dark tunnel.

"Unless she found out recently about me being a trace of the magic and she was the one looking for me when I barely escaped home. Someone had broken in." I tell Fern.

"That's why she took Diego and Alice to try to sever your connection to this realm." Fern connects the dots.

"But they already had the enchanted note planned in case something like that happened." I realize in shock at the true complexity of all the evidence.

They would have lived the rest of their lives in captivity instead of risking me coming back and Vivian and Francessca killing me to leave zero traces of their magic. The overwhelming feeling of crying surges but I push it down. Not now.

After walking for a few minutes the tunnel of the cave ends and to the right is a large opening showing a large room.

We all stop and look into the large room. They're here.

Authors note:
I will be uploading the last chapter soon!! I am still deciding if I want to do an epilogue...
-xoxo Ellie Violet