Damage Control

Chapter Thirty-Three

It was dawning on Hope that this was a really bad idea. She barely survived through this once, she wasn't sure how she was going to continue to climb the emotional rollercoaster. Especially since she could feel the throb of her magic in her heart as if it was begging for release, knowing it will make her feel better.

She was no longer able to stand, between the despair and the steady beat of powerful magic, Hope was on her knees. Josie had wrapped her arms protectively around her as if she could shield her from the oncoming pain. Hope was starting to regret bringing her, not because she wasn't helping, Hope was sure she wouldn't have made it this far without her, she would have crumbled into a heap long ago unable to continue with life had Josie not been there. But there was this voice in the back of her head telling her she loses everyone close to her and having Josie see all this, it might make her think Hope is too much for her to handle and leave. Hope wasn't sure she'd survive that.

As if she could read her thoughts, Josie's grip tightened on Hope and she could feel her breath in her ear. "You are one of the strongest people I know." She soothed. "And this only proves the strength I've seen in you all these years." Hope felt herself start to curl into herself from the pain. "Don't run from me Hope, I am here and I am not going anywhere."

Hope lifted her hands and grabbed onto the arms that encircled her, her mind told her to push her away, to get her away from her, but Hope surprised herself when she grabbed onto Josie's arms as her life depended on it, steeling herself for what came next.

She wasn't sure how much more emotional abuse her mind and body could take but she had to see it through. She couldn't be anchored by her pain anymore if she was going to try and live a better life, the life her parents wanted for her.

The glow of St Anne's surrounded her past self. So much pain flickered across her younger face as she knelt in front of her father and her uncle's unconscious bodies. The only way she thought she could get her family back together was to take back the Hallow, so it resided in only one person, that way they wouldn't have to stay away anymore.

She spent hours talking Freya into helping her, she put her family in a Chambre de Chasse. It was her way of keeping them occupied as she searched for them, to reunite them.

One by one her hybrid brought her family back, laying them in the white square in the middle of the floor. Once her aunt Rebekah was placed in the square, her aunt Freya helped her start the spell. A swell of cold blue magic pooled from each body, like a snake slithering its way to the centre, it began to ball in the middle of them. Once the last of the power was drained from them, it shot into her body, making her collapse into her aunt's arms as it got familiar with her once again. The Hallow was now inside her once again. Everything went black.

Hope could feel the hum of magic the second she opened her eyes days later. She wasn't sure what she expected but it wasn't the same empty feeling that was there since her mother died. Though a drop of light in the empty space took the form of her father sitting next to her bedside, her actual father, not some astral projection of him. This is what she wanted, this is why she took back this power. She could sit in the same room as her father without the world coming to an end. She reached out to him, her name like a prayer on his lips as he smiled at her. He squeezed her hand so tightly. "Hello, sweetheart."

Hope found herself smiling despite the emptiness she felt inside. "Hey, dad." She could feel the tears threatening.