Serene & Janessa BOOK 3

Chapter 41: On Her Own

Janessa's view

The moment Serene's wand touches Brietta's hand, Brietta's hair gets streaks of pink, and Serene's wand flashes away, replaced by something purely Brietta. It's like Bri knew exactly what to do already, pointing her wand at Maleficent with a look of confidence. Her magic is so unique, and not at all what I was expecting. It's a light-rose pink, with gold and pink flower petals somehow being in the sparkle. Something I'd expect in a Barbie movie, not from the spunky daughter of Harry Hook.

Brietta's magic twirls around Maleficent's dragon self, and Maleficent roars in surprise, twisting her lightning away from Serene's broken form and toward Brietta. It's like an awesome movie scene, Brietta's tiny figure facing off on her own against Maleficent's huge dragon self, lightning and fire raining down on Bri but not touching her. Bri's flowery magic surrounds Maleficent until we can no longer see her, then suddenly poofs away and drops a teeny-weeny lizard onto the ground.

Brietta smiles. "Gotcha."

"NO!" Pitch yells, throwing his hand toward Brietta. A huge Nightmare horse leaps from his fingers, galloping her way. But she just turns, and easily points her wand at it. A single sparkly petal is all it takes, going right through the Nightmare and dissolving it. Brietta waves her wand, and petals and glitter surround Pitch and Blake, lifting them up into the air in a cage together.

Next, Brietta looks around at all of us, still frozen in shock looking at her. She smiles at us, waving her wand one more time. Her magic flows to all of us, giving each of us a new energy, like we just got a good night's sleep. It twirls around Reene, lifting her out of the crater. She's completely limp. Now that I can see her, she looks sick, pale, almost like a corpse. She's not burnt, somehow, but definitely not okay. But Brietta's magic takes care of that, restoring color to my little sister and setting her down easily.

My cage dissolves, and Serene stands on her own two feet, looking perfectly healthy again. I run over to her, punching her shoulder before grabbing her in a hug. "What were you thinking, using that much magic?" I demand. "You could've killed yourself!"

Serene smiles. "I had to. The bracelets weren't going to work anymore. Nothing was." She looks over at Brietta. "Um, where did they all go?"

Briette points upward with her wand. We all look up. Pitch and Blake are suspended midair in their flower-petal, gilded cage. Neither look very happy about it.

"And Maleficent?"

Brietta merely points again, her magic erupting from her wand to encircle a fleeing lizard, bringing it back to her in a similarly gilded cage.

"Why didn't we give you a wand sooner?" Danielle demands.

"Because I had to earn it." Brietta explains, holding the wand with a certain delicacy. "If you give someone a wand who hasn't earned it, it's just a wand. For it to be theirs, they have to work for it."

"Well I, for one, am very glad my plan worked." Serene says. "And that you caught it."

"Well, I didn't play catch with my dad all these years just to miss something this important. Although I am wondering why you knew it would do that." Brietta glances down at the wand again. "I've never heard of something like this happening."

"I didn't know it would do that." Serene laughs. "I just knew your magic was the only one left that was unpredictable, and so Pitch and Blake couldn't have prepared for it. But your magic needs an output, and you couldn't have used any of the other wands because of the charm. But I made my wand without that in mind. Not to mention, you're one of my closest friends, so I knew it would let you use it. So I just... gave it to you."