A hybrid, werewolves, and a scooter (gxg)

Ch. 39 - Strike

"So she's like your mom?" Jace asked, also curious.

"Technically," Gretel said, earning a sigh from her brother. "What is it, Hansel?"

Of course that's his name.

"If they wanted us dead, we'd be gone by now," she continued. "It's not like we can put up a fight even if we wanted to."

"Okay, we're getting somewhere." I got their attention. "What can you tell me about the grandwitch? You could start with her name."

"We're not allowed to say her name," Hansel said.

The hard way it is then.

"How long have you been trapped in here by... Salem?" I asked, carefully watching their expressions.

They weren't scared by the name, only confused. Salem wasn't the one behind all of this, which meant that we weren't dealing with a spy.

Or maybe we were. As far as I know, all of Saria's sisters could be grandwitches. I'd have to try all of them.

"We've been trapped since... I'm not sure. I can't remember," Gretel said.

"And why are you here? Do those twins always stop by to harvest more power? They come whenever they want or Samantha sends them?"

Same reaction: Confusion.

"We're just power vessels to help those the grandwitch sends to us. The twins aren't the first ones and won't be the last, and they have access by a portal key as far as we know."

"Why vessels? Isn't Serena powerful enough to supply them with power?"

Strike three. I'm out.

"Her power is too unstable. If she passes it to other people she'll only kill them."

"How does the power transfer work?"

"It's like a system. They get witches, send them to the grandwitch, who harvests their magic, and then this magic is given to us to merge it with ours. Our magic is only used to this dimension, so we have to mix it with the magic of your dimension so they can take it from us and not suffer from it. When it's transfused it loses some of the power though."

Okay, this is weird. They're powerful but unstable.

"The twins have something that the grandwitch gave them that drains our magic. It's a device of some sort," Gretel finished.

Think, Hunter. I feel like I'm so close to having a name to put behind all of it.

"I think I have an idea," Jace spoke up. He wasn't the brightest but I had faith in him.

"Maybe the reason you can't open a portal out of here is exactly that you've been in this dimension all of your lives. When was the last time you tried to get out?"

"We can't," Hansel said, sounding sad. "We've never been taught proper magic. The spells we do are the simple ones we figure out by ourselves."

"But maybe now that you have a connection with the witches from our dimension, you can do it," he suggested. And he wasn't wrong.

"And as I said, we don't know how to do it."

"Then figure it out!" Jace was straight-up yelling now. He was still tired and annoyed, but he shouldn't lose his temper.

"Jace, yelling is not going to solve our problem." I interrupted his tantrum. "Is the grandwitch in this dimension as well?"

"She visits sometimes but she's in a different one," Gretel said, sounding worried.