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The room heated.
“I didn’t do anything,” Willow said through clenched teeth. Her eyes were still shut, tightly.
Joy was shaking her head. “Oh no, you don’t believe that. Don’t lie to me. You say that, but you don’t mean it. And if you don’t believe it, why should we? You must have done something. Why would they leave you if it wasn’t your fault?”
Willow’s breathing wasn’t calm anymore. It hitched and grew erratic.
“Maybe you were too much for them. Asking so many questions, making too many of your little jokes, wanting so much from them. Is that it? Were you just too much? Or maybe they just didn’t like you. Maybe no one likes you.”
The air heated. Some of the candles Joy had extinguished relit with a spark.
“Maybe you weren’t strong enough, hm? Maybe you were nothing but a weak little girl, always in the way, always just a little too much for everyone to handle. That’s why, isn’t it? That’s why they had to leave you.”
“It wasn’t my fault,” Willow snarled. Joy shrugged, though Willow couldn’t see it.
“It doesn’t matter, I suppose.” Her voice was harsh as she circled. “It doesn’t matter what you did to make them abandon you. They left you, and you were so young. So vulnerable.”
Fey could feel sweat dripping down her back. It was insufferable, being stuck in this room, the heat of it, the smoke. It was all too much. The very air felt like fire, and it thrummed around her, coating her skin with oppressive violence.
“How did it feel, Willow? To know you were all alone? To know that no one would help you, no one would protect you?”
The ground shook, and the air crackled with power. Willow didn’t answer, didn’t make a sound.
“You’re alone. You are nothing. And they will hurt you, Willow,” Joy was saying, her voice growing pitched. “They will come, they will find you, and they will hurt you.” Willow’s breathing was erratic and unfocused, her chest heaving, but Joy showed no signs of stopping, no signs of giving up. “Who will protect you? Such an unlovable thing? Such a powerless thing? Who will save you when they come?”
The air was smothering. Lilith inhaled deeply, tilting her head back. Like called to like, and as Willow’s power grew, Fey knew Lilith and Joy could feel it calling to them. Fire calling to Fire.
Fey was alone in not feeling it.
To her, all she felt was the clawing heat against her skin, the overwhelming blanket of smoke around them. Her stomach roiled, and for a moment she thought she might faint.
Joy stopped before Willow and crouched, their faces near to touching.
“Who will save you when they come, little Witch? Who will stop them when they hurt you?”
The heat in the room thrummed. It was a near-physical thing, licking at Fey’s skin.
“You’re alone, Willow.” Joy’s voice was low and cruel. Her lip curled in a sneer as she stared at the Witch before her. “Who will save you now?”
Willow’s eyes snapped open, and the flames from the candles around the room arched, their tips reaching the ceiling, vanishing the dark in the room as they burst with light.
“I don’t need anyone to save me,” Willow snarled, meeting Joy’s eyes. Her power filled the room, suffocating, intoxicating. She bared her teeth, eyes narrowed and dangerous. “I can save myself.”
Power pulsed between them as Joy stared into Willow’s eyes.
Then she smiled.
“Good,” Joy said.
And just like that, the air lifted, the blanket of heat disappearing, vanishing under Joy’s command. Cool air whispered against Fey’s skin, washing away the heat, the smoke, the fear. It soothed where the heat had antagonized her flesh, Joy’s gentle, seemingly endless font of power touching them all, comforting them all.
Joy took Willow’s face in her hands, beaming at her, no trace of her anger or cruelty left. Only love, pure and unconditional love. “I believe you, little sister,” she said, before planting a kiss on Willow’s lips.
And then it was Fey’s turn.
“This is your final test,” Fey told Willow, leading her into the training room.
She stopped right over the threshold, taking a deep breath in, filling her lungs with the smell of the gym. With the obvious exception of her bedroom, this was Fey’s favorite place in the entire palace. This was where she spent most of her time.
