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"All you have to do is follow

"Sylvia Weald," Aradia said "You were born awitch Your nahter of Hellewise, andyou will be until you die You are my sister"

"I am not," Sylvia spat

"You can’t help it Nothing can break the bondIn your deepest heart you know that And asMaiden of all the witches, and in the name of Hellewise Hearth-Woman, I adjure you: reest thing-but it didn’t seem tobe Aradia who said it Oh, it was Aradia’s voice, allright, Maggie thought, and it was Aradia standingthere But at that mo aura allaround her Someone as part of her, butht dizzily, like a tallwoebrown eyes

Sylvia gasped out, "Hellewise"Her own violeteyes were huge and frightened

Then she just stood frozen

Hunter was ranting on Maggie could hear hiuely, but all she could see was Sylvia, the shudders that ran through Sylvia’s fraof Sylvia’s chest

Appeal to their true hearts,Maggie thought

"Sylvia," she said "I believe in you"

The violeteyes turned toward her, amazed

"I don’t care what you did to Miles; Maggie said"I know you’re confused-I know you were unhappy But now you have a chance toie the world"

"Rivers of blood," Hunter was raving "And noone to stop us We won’t stop with enslaving thehumans The witches are our enemies now Thinkof the power you’ll feel when you drink their lives!"

"If you let this Wild Power be killed, you ’I! beresponsible for the darkness coie said"Only you Because you’re the only one who canstop it right now"

Sylvia put a tre hand to her cheek Shelooked as if she were about to faint

"Do you really want to go down in history as the

one who destroyed the world?" Maggie said

"As Maiden of all the witches "Aradia saidAnd another, deepervoiceseemed to follow on hers like anecho , As Mother o f all the witches "And in the name of Hellewise

And in the name of my children

"As you are a Hearth-Wohter, a true Hearth

Woman

"I adjure you!"Aradia said, and her voice rangout in double tones so clearly that it actuallystopped Hunter in midtirade

It stopped everyone For an instant there was absolutely no sound in the courtyard Everyone wa: looking around to see where the voice had co at Aradia

Then the violet eyes shut and her entire bodyshivered in a sigh

When she spoke it was on the barest whisper of breath, and only soie wa:could have heard her

"As a daughter of Hellewise, I obey"

And then she was reaching for Delos’s ar wildly, but Maggie couldn’t make out thewords She couldn’t make out Sylvia’s words, either, but she saw her lips ers clasp Delos’s wrist

And saw the lance co just before it piercecSylvia’s heart

Then,as if everything came into focus at once

she realized what Hunter had been shouting in i

voice so distorted it was barely recognizable "Kill her! Kill her!" And that’s just what they’d done, Maggie thoughther ulf her body The lance wen right through Sylvia It knocked her backay from Delos, and blood spurted all over thefront of Sylvia’s beautiful green dress

And Sylvia looked toward Hunter Redfern andsie could read the words orher lips

"Too late"

Delos turned There was red blood on his whiteshirthis own, Maggie realized He’d tried to getin the way of the guard’s killing Sylvia But nowhe had eyes only for his greatgrandfather

"It stops here!"

She had seen the blue fire before, but never likethis The blast was like a nuclear explosion Itstruck where Hunter Redfern was standing with hismost loyal nobles around him, and then it shot upinto the sky in a pillar of electric blue And it wenton and on, fro in front of the castle