Coven Of Catastrophe: Book 3 in the Lorna Maximoff Series

Breakthrough...or Breakdown

With three hours till the Coven would arrive Agatha and I decided to go down to the basement. Agatha had changed into a more witchy looking outfit.
"Wow, you must have a lot of clothes." I said.
Agatha shrugged, "when you've lived for as long as I have."
I nodded, "So...are you nervous, for the road?"
Agatha glanced at me, "I don't get nervous."
She replied haughtily.
I rolled my eyes, "Okay Agatha, sure."
"So these dreams of yours," Agatha changed the subject, "what do you see?"
I took a deep breath, "Well, there are a few different ones, but they all take place in westview for the most part, in the old house.
Usually it starts off normal, I'll be walking down the hallway or something, and then... it's like everything goes dark. I'll hear voices, and shadows and then. It usually starts he's with the room filling with blood, and then I drown in it."
Agatha studied me, "And what makes you think these dreams are warnings?"
"Well it's obvious isn't it, the voices sound like my mother's, sometimes like my brothers...and they always tell me to go to the witches Road. At first I thought it meant she was alive but..."
I sighed, "Its not possible, after she destroyed the darkhold she let all of Wundacore collapse on her. No one could have survived that."
Agatha looked mildly intrigued so I told her the whole story, about strange and America, living with the sorcerers at Kamar taj, Agatha stopped me at that part.
"Ugh, sorcerers, of all places Lorna you chose to live there?"
"They helped me," I insisted, "but...I knew I couldn't stay forever. Lately I've been hurting people, having trouble controlling myself. I had to find you before it got worse."
Agatha raised a brow, "So then, your finally ready?"
I frowned, "Ready for what?"
"You need to be trained by a real witch," said Agatha, "honestly why you even bothered to learn sorcery is beyond me."
I shrugged defensively, "The mystic arts are helpful you know, I can make portals."
Agatha rolled her eyes, "You don't need sorcery, you're powerful enough on your own. So come on, show me what you've got."
I raised a brow, "Agatha I can't fight you when you don't have magic."
She smirked, "Try me dear, I'd didn't survive all these centuries just by being good at magic you know."
I realized she probably knew how to fight pretty well, I mean she'd held her own against Rio.
"Okay, fine."
I ran to Agatha and pushed her hard.
Agatha retaliated and slammed me to the ground. I groaned as the air left my chest, but I levitated up and regained fighting stance. Agatha hit me again, and again and again, she managed to lock my arms and trip me over before I'd even get a shot to use my magic.
I fell face first on the floor multiple times. And I was quickly growing irritated.
I blasted myself back up, but then in a second Agatha pushed me face first into the wall, "Is that the best you can do?" She taunted, "Common Lorna, fight harder! You want to be a witch, you want to protect yourself, or are you just gonna give up? Hmm are you gonna give up like your mother did!"
And then something inside me tore open.
I screamed and the sheer force of power from my body blasted Agatha back.
She landed skillfully on her feet on the other end of the room with a look in her eyes that should have terrified me.

"Come on Lorna, say it." She wasn't giving up on pushing me to the edge. "You're angry aren't you, you blame me! Say it, SAY IT!"
I whirled around on her.
"I do blame you!" I screamed at her, "All of this, it's all your fault."
Agatha scoffed at me and a burning rage surfaced through tears I hadn't realized till now I was shedding.
"SHE NEVER WOULD HAVE PICKED UP THE DARKHOLD IF IT WERENT FOR YOU!" I bellowed, "Because of you my mother is dead!"
I didn't notice the hurt that flickered across Agatha's features.
"I HATE YOU!" I screamed, eyes glowing, hair flowing above my head.
But Agatha wasn't deterred by me. She walked closer and I slammed into her. But as powerful as I could have been, I had no desire to use that power on her.
"I HATE YOU!" I screeched and pounded my now powerless firsts against her chest, "I hate you, I hate you, I hate you." Suddenly I was crying into Agatha's chest, and her arms wrapped themselves around my smaller frame.
Agatha held my through my hysterics, and it made me want to destroy everything. I wanted to hate her! I wanted the I kill her! But she was the only person I had left.
"I miss her." I sobbed finally, "I just want my mom."
I'm not sure how Agatha even heard me at that point, but she brought one of her hands up to stoke my hair.
"I know." She whispered, and the irony was not lost on me that the one person giving me the comfort I craved was the source of all my problems.
Agatha let me stay like that for a long time, until I whispered, "why wasn't I enough?"
The older witch didn't have an answer for me, clearly off put by my emotions. But just saying the things I'd kept inside for the past few years felt like a weight lifted from my chest.
When I finally collected myself Agatha said nothing about it. It was nice, to have someone comfort me without asking any questions afterwards. I didn't feel like talking about it, and thankfully Agatha didn't push me. We sat in silence for a while. Agatha recomposed herself, wall coming back up.
"We should get ready for the road." She said coldly.
"Go, I have things to do."
I nodded, the way Agatha brushed me off hurt, but honestly I was surprised she'd comforted me at all.
It was strange, and brief as Agatha's empathy was, it was a side I hadn't seen of her.

When I went upstairs teen was there making a sign.
Welcome coven it said, with the O being in the shape of a pentagram.
"Do you like it?" He asked.
Agatha wouldn't, but I didn't say that.
"Oh yeah, it's um, nice."
"I worked really hard on it," he said, "oh and look, appetizers."
I glanced at a small plate with tiny specks of foot on it.
"All Agatha had was old granola bars." He added with a shrug.
"I see. Well I'm sure the others will appreciate it."
"What were you guys going downstairs?" Teen asked.
I stiffened, hoping he hadn't heard anything.
"Oh, just training." I replied casually. I had no doubt I'd be bruised soon from the whole ordeal.
"So, how do you know so much about Agatha anyways?"
Teen smiled, "I did my research, Agatha has had lots of cool eras you know, but her Salem days are the most interesting."
I raised a brow, I wondered if this boy knew about Agatha's coven, or rather what she'd done to them.
"Rightttt, and you read all that and just thought "hey I wanna meet this woman"?"
"Well yeah." He said, "She's walked the road and survived, only the most powerful witches have done that."
"And that's what you want, power?"
Teen nodded, "How about you, what do you want?"
So many things, my family back...my childhood.
"Answers." I settled on, "I need to know who I am, why it is I can use different forms of magic."
"Wait what?!" I'd forgotten teen didn't know that.
"Oh uh yeah, Agatha mentioned something about a chapter about me in the darkhold, apparently I do everything."
Teens jaw dropped,
"Whoa, that's like...amazing!"
I shrugged, "Not really, it's confusing is what it is, and hard. The last thing I want is to hurt people..."
And he last thing I want is to end up like Agatha or my mother.
"Well I think it's pretty cool." He said, "Your like, a super witch."
I chuckled slightly, "Super witch huh, I guess I'll put that on the resume."
He smiled, but looked like he wanted to say more.
"So can you show me, I've never seen a witches magic change colour."
I was surprised by the request, "Oh, well I've never actually done anything other than sorcery before, but I guess I could give it a shot some time."
"No worries," he replied, "Maybe you'll figure it out on the road."
"Ya maybe, I guess we'll all find out things about ourselves on the road."
Hopefully nothing too terrible. I thought.
Then again, with the dakrhold involved, there was little chance it wouldn't be.
I just hoped I could escape my fate, that is, before it would consume me.