Bella powerforce's Arc

Chapter 6 of 6

The number hung in the air, and then it broke. Cyndi jerked back from the scanner and threw her hand out. The stolen pull snapped off her fingers in a bright arc and hit the front row where they stood frozen. The freeze cracked. People stumbled forward. Someone in the back threw a bolt of blue at Bella's shoulder. She turned it aside with her palm. Then everyone was moving. Magic went up in every direction. Green from the ridge. Red from the far stones. A woman near the path threw fire at Cyndi and missed. Cyndi threw it back and did not miss. Goldie grabbed Sierra's wrist and pulled her down behind the outer stone. "I can't hold the whole circle," Goldie said. Sierra said, "Then hold half. I'll hold the other." Bella crossed to them through the noise. A bolt clipped her sleeve and burned through. She did not stop. Heather came down the far path with her pink hair loose and her hands out flat, calling names into the crowd to pull them back, but the crowd was past listening. The peace was breaking in front of them. Bella had seconds. She knelt between her daughters and Cyndi's daughters and set the cracked case on the ground. "Goldie. Sierra. Give me your hands." They gave them. Bella opened the case. What was left of her stored magic sat inside like water in a cup. She poured it into their joined palms. "This is the time," she said. "All of it. It is yours now. Hold it together or it goes out." Goldie's hand shook once and steadied. Sierra did not shake. The magic sank into their skin and did not come back out. Heather reached them. Bella caught her sister's wrist. "Silver," Bella said. "Call her. Now. And Cyndi's oldest, the one with yellow hair sitting behind us — no, the other one. Silver and Cyndi's second girl." Heather understood. She turned toward the ridge and spoke Silver Powerforce's name aloud, clear over the noise, and then she spoke Cyndi Cylendar's name — not the mother, the child in the circle who shared it. The prophecy pulled tight around both names. Above the stones, the air folded and dropped the weight of the realms into two places at once. Silver felt it on the porch of the house and stood up. The younger Cyndi felt it behind the outer stone and lifted her head. Cyndi the mother saw what her sisters had done. She screamed and threw everything she had left at Bella. Bella did not dodge. She stepped in front of Heather and took it on her chest. Heather grabbed Bella's hand and held on. The magic hit them both and had nowhere to go, because the roles were already passed and their hands were already empty. Bella felt her feet set. Her fingers set. Her jaw. She looked at Heather and Heather looked back, and neither of them let go. The gray came up their arms. It reached their throats. It stopped their mouths mid-word. The circle went quiet. Cyndi stood alone at the center stone with nothing in her hands. The crowd stepped away from her. Goldie stood up with time running clean through her fingers, and Sierra stood up beside her, and the two of them together stopped the last bolts in the air and set them down. On the ridge, Silver arrived with her white hair catching the light, and the younger Cyndi walked out from behind the stone to meet her. The realms had rulers. Time had keepers. The peace held. Goldie went to the two stone figures at the edge of the circle and put her hand on Bella's stone hand. It was warm. Sierra put her hand on Heather's. Silver came down from the ridge and stood with them. Nobody spoke for a long time. Then Silver said, "We take them home." They lifted the two stones between them and carried them out of the circle, and the crowd parted, and the older Cyndi was left standing in the empty center with her hands open and nothing in them. Bella had passed the role. The