Seth and Jessica pulled to a stop in front of Emma’s house. Seth let out a long, shaky sigh.

“We don’t have to do this,” said Jessica as she turned off her Volt. “We can just rescue Andrew and get this over with.”

Seth shook his head. He had more reasons for this than disbelief of Emma’s heavy involvement in the coven. He felt like he owed her, like he had to right the wrong he had done her during his disappearance with Nicole. “No,” he said, his hand on the door handle. “I’m doing this.” He got out of the car and walked up to the cast-iron gate at the foot of the driveway. There was more than just Emma’s car in the driveway beyond, and Seth hoped that the two other vehicles belonged to her parents. Then again, at noon on a Friday, he wasn’t certain of the chance that doctors would be home rather than at work.

Seth reached for the buzzer, but the gate began sliding open before he pressed it. The front door opened, and Emma stood on the threshold, dressed in all-black clothing like she had been the morning she came to Seth’s house with the basket of blueberry muffins. Her eyes flicked from Jessica to Seth. “Come in. I have food ready.” She turned, her face lacking any expression as she headed back inside. Seth glanced to Jessica, and then led the way in, up the steps and across the threshold.

The scent of fresh baked bread hit him as he entered and walked down the entryway to the kitchen in the back. Emma sat at the kitchen island, currently buttering a slice of French bread. Two whole loves sat on a large decorative plate on the counter-top, accompanied by a bowl of strawberries.

Seth looked around what he could see of the house. No sign of anyone, but the house was big enough that her parents—or a couple of witches—could well be far and away from sight. Seth paused a minute and concentrated, opening his third eye with even more ease than last time. The house gleamed with a subtle aura, nothing so powerful as the mirror’s surface back at Ralph Lauren, but instead a serene magenta sheen over everything. It was most concentrated on the bread. He ground his teeth together and blinked, willing his second sight away.

Was she trying to hurt them? He pointed at the bread. “Really?”

Emma gave him a quizzical look.

“The bread’s magic,” he said.

“Magically delicious,” she said with a playful smirk before she took a bite. “Please, eat. Both of you.”

Jessica crossed her arms and leaned against the wall. “I’m good.”

Seth moved to the edge of the kitchen island and leaned in. “You know why I’m here. Why didn’t the coven reach out to me when you rescued Andrew?”

“How do you even know that?” Emma didn’t look puzzled, she only concentrated on her food.

“I can see the bread is magic,” lied Seth. “I can see other things.”

“Mm.” Said Emma. “This is good bread. I’ve really outdone myself.” She looked up at Seth. “We didn’t tell you, because it wasn’t time. We needed to make sure the shamans didn’t turn him.”

“Like the witches turned you?”

Emma raised an eyebrow.

Seth felt frustration growing in his chest. According to Jessica, they were planning on killing Andrew, and Emma made it sound like they were having a delightful afternoon picnic with him. He slapped a hand on the counter. “Dammit, Emma. I know what’s going on.”

“I’m… pretty sure you don’t.”

“You’re killing him for the hedge.”

Her expression faltered. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. We’re conducting a ceremony to complete the hedge. Andrew will be fine.”

Seth looked to Jessica, who remained leaned against the wall, her expression stone. “How long have you been a witch?” Asked Jessica.

Emma’s face turned hostile. “I don’t know how much you know, or think you know. I barely know you, and I don’t know why you’re here with Seth.”

“I said she was coming,” said Seth.

“I’m starting to not like her.”

“You know I’ve been friends with Jessica for years now.”

“Because all of your relationship choices have been good, right, Seth?”

Seth felt his anger growing, but before he could speak, Jessica came off the wall. “You’re an acolyte, right? Not even a full-fledged member of the coven?”

Emma stood off of the stool. “I am a member of the coven. I am no acolyte, and you should move back,” her voice warped into a growl.

“Alright, I’m just going to assume you’re not important enough to be told anything,” said Jessica, crossing the rest of the way to the kitchen island. Her and Emma stood on opposite sides of it like two rival caged animals in a some sort of disturbed menagerie. “But they are going to kill Andrew.”

Emma raised her hand in sort of backhanded slapping motion. There was the sound of a spark… and then nothing. Jessica raised an eyebrow. “Please.” She curled a finger and flicked it. Emma flew backwards and crashed into the wall, cracking the drywall.

“Jessica, no!” Seth moved to stand between them as Emma struggled to her feet.

“This was a waste of time, Seth,” Jessica said. “She’s turned. She’s one of them. We take her out now, and there’s one less to deal with.”

“Move, Seth,” hissed Emma.

Seth held his hands up to both of them. “Back down, both of you.”

Jessica held up a hand, and a flickering blue light appeared in her palm. “You think I can’t just move you aside?”

Emma had one hand up, two fingers to the sky. “Move, I said!”

“Wait, both of you!” Shouted Seth, loud enough that his voice echoed throughout the house.

Emma surged forward.

“I said wait!” Seth caught her momentum and took her to the ground with as gentle a leg-sweep as he could manage, fully aware of his metal augment’s potential to fracture her leg. The wind rushed out of her, but she hit the ground mostly unharmed. Seth looked up. Jessica still had the light flickering in her hand. “I swear to god, Jess. Don’t you fucking dare.”

She thought for a moment, and the light disappeared. Seth swallowed. “Alright.” He looked down at Emma. “This is your one chance, because I swear I will end you myself if you don’t just tell me what’s going on.”

Emma hesitated, her eyes darting back and forth in pure terror. Then she whispered. “We’re doing it early. Please. Stop it. I can’t do anything… The Goddess owns me.” And then she screamed.

“Sisters! Help!”

Seth stood up, pulling Emma off the floor into a chokehold tight enough she couldn’t slip away but loose enough he wouldn’t knock her out. Jessica’s hands both blazed with blue fire as two witches surged down the stairs in the entryway and stopped in the hallway as they saw Seth standing with Emma there. Jessica leveled a hand at each witch.

“Let her go,” said the one on the right, a dark-skinned woman with beautifully arrayed curls on her head. “Let our sister go. Now.”

Seth made a show of tightening the choke. “You move and she dies!”

The witches looked at each other, and then the dark-skinned woman raised a hand, speaking words Seth didn’t understand. Hellfire blazed forth from her palm in a zigzagging line through the air, racing for Seth and Emma.

“Devi murimi!” Shouted Jessica, opening her hands and spreading her arms. A shimmering wall of translucent white light sprang into existence, and the flames smacked into it, sputtering out. Jessica brought her palms together in front of her and closed her eyes. “Tellum.” The wall coalesced into a single, bright point and rocketed forward, blasting a smoking hole in the witch’s chest. Jessica opened her eyes as the witch fell in a heap. “I have an idea. How about we just leave?”

The other witch looked at her dead compatriot with terrified eyes, then back to Jessica. Her expression slowly became tranquil as she held out a hand over the body of the dead witch and closed her eyes.

“Think again!” Yelled Jessica. She made a violent motion with her right hand. “Segmantaro!” The witch’s reaching arm separated from her body with an eruption of blood, the cut midway through her upper arm. It was a clean cut, like it had been made with a surgeon’s knife. The witch dropped to her knees, screaming in shock and pain as she clutched at her stump. Jessica moved swiftly to her. “You violate the Grimm Laws with the very nature of your magic. As an initiated Wizard of the Order of Saint Grigori, I sentence you to death.” She made the same motion, said the same word, dragging it out just a little bit longer, and the witch fell to the ground, headless.

Seth released Emma and she fell to the ground, shaking. “Patricia! Danica! What have you done?” She screamed, tears welling in her eyes.

Jessica turned to face Emma, her face ablaze with a look Seth could only describe as righteous fury. “I will do the same to you, witch, if you do not heed my words.” She stalked towards Emma. “Stay away from the coven, stay away from all of it. You were pulled into something darker than you could possibly imagine, and this is my one offer of mercy.”

“Jessica, she-”

“Shut up, Seth. You don’t even know the problem here. You don’t know why witches are hunted by the Orders. You don’t know what the hell actually went down in Salem and so many other times in so many other places.”

“We were unjustly persecuted!” Said Emma, tears welling in her eyes as she stared at the dead witches in her entryway. “The Orders want to keep magic as their own, they oppose the free practice of it.”

Jessica crouched in front of Emma. “I don’t expect you to understand. You’ve been in this world less time than Seth has, but what your Matrons have told you is all lies. Your coven practices pact-magic and the all-too-pleasant euphemism of source-magic. You practice necromancy of the worst kind. It is a sin to use the life of another to fuel your own magic. It is wrong, it is against the laws of nature.”

“And burning us at the stake isn’t?” Emma looked up to Jessica, her eyes filled with pain and anger.

“The beings you serve are no gods. They are immortals from planes beyond who wish to rip the Intersection apart and make everything anew in their own image. We protect humanity by burning you at the stake when you won’t listen. Do you know how many times the Knights Ignis-Sacer offered witches a place in their ranks? Do you know how many times the Order of the Maligned Faith, the Enclave of Saint Brigid, and the Guardians of Carcosa offered witches protection from the forces that had their hooks in them? I’m doing it again, I’m offering you that protection, and you won’t listen! You serve a being that wants you turned to ash and scattered across the whole of reality.”

“The Goddess returns threefold-”

“The Goddess gives you parlor tricks in exchange for blind obedience,” said Jessica. “See the truth, please. Just open your eyes and see it. You know what they’re going to do with that ley line, you have at least some idea.”

Emma wiped tears off her cheek. “It will be our source, and we will never again have to claim lives for our work. It will honor the Goddess.”

“Goddammit, it’s not even a she. It’s not a he, or anything in between. You don’t serve a god. You serve a thing beyond your understanding. And it wants you dead.”

Emma shook her head, lips quivering. “I can’t not. She… owns me.”

“Oh, gods, no,” said Jessica. “They made you channel already.”

Emma nodded.

“Oh, I’m so sorry.” Jessica suddenly pulled Emma into an embrace. “I am so, so sorry. You’re so young, they should have never done such a thing.”

“She is within me…”

“I know. I know.” Jessica pulled back, her face gone from anger to compassion. “Do you want out, Emma?”

Emma’s face devolved as she began crying again. “I can’t!”

Jessica shook her. “Emma! I can get you out, but I need your will!”

Emma shook her head. “I am bound to the Goddess and she to me. I am her daughter and she is the owner of my soul-”

“Somni.”

Emma slumped to the ground.

“What did you do?” Asked Seth, moving down to check her pulse.

“Nothing,” said Jessica. “Nothing to harm her. She’s in a coma, one that I control. She’ll wake up when I let her, and hopefully by then this will all be over.” Jessica swallowed. “I can’t believe they did that. What kind of sickos make a kid channel?” She sat back onto the floor, staring at Emma’s tear-stained face. “No one should go through that pain, let alone a kid.”

“She’s eighteen,” said Seth.

“Yeah, a kid. Just like you and me. And she hasn’t had the benefit of what I went through in my childhood. I’m fucking sick thinking about what that had to do to her soul.” She turned her eyes to Seth. “There are laws of magic for a reason, and this coven is violating every single one of them. I didn’t kill those witches painfully enough.”

Seth looked over the blood-spattered hallway. “We need to get out of here… And what about the cameras? Emma’s family has them on the property.”

“I’m leaving that to Hunter-33. They’re good at that kind of thing, but for now, we need to get Emma to my place. She needs to be safe. What happens next isn’t going to be pretty.”