Cyndi Cylendar's Arc

Chapter 5 of 6

Cyndi drove home from Bella's with her hands still tight on the wheel. She had lost the vial, but she had not lost everything. In her coat pocket sat a thin glass tube no bigger than her little finger. When she had reached for the chain at Bella's neck, her thumb had brushed the stopper of a second vial hidden inside Bella's collar. She had pinched it free without knowing. She found it in her pocket at a red light. A pinch of Bella's stored magic. Not much. Enough. She drove to the stone circle and parked at the tree line. She had told her allies to gather at noon if she sent the signal. She sent it now, from the car, tapping the small screen with steady fingers. Then she walked to the center of the ring and uncorked the vial. The magic climbed her arm like warm water. It was thin, but it was Bella's, and it carried Bella's weight. She lifted her hand and pulled a low sound out of the air, a bell tone that would reach every house within the valley. People came. Not many. Enough to start. She stood on the flat stone and named her claim. She said Bella's time was ending. She said a prophecy had already spoken it. She said the seat belonged to someone who would use it, not hold it. Faces turned up at her. A few nodded. A few crossed their arms. She felt the borrowed magic thinning in her palm and pushed harder, raising her voice to fill the space it left behind. Bella came through the outer ring with Heather beside her and Silver a step behind. Goldie and Sierra followed, holding hands. Cyndi did not stop speaking. She had counted on this. A crowd, a challenge, a sister forced to answer in public. Bella did not answer. She lifted a small round device from her palm and pointed it at Cyndi. The scanner. It read the magic in Cyndi's hand and spoke the number aloud in a flat voice. The number was small. Smaller than the crowd expected. Someone in the back laughed once and cut it off. Cyndi kept her arm raised, but the borrowed magic was already gone. Goldie stepped forward and lifted her own hand. The front half of the crowd stopped moving. Sierra stood at her sister's shoulder, breathing with her, holding the pause steady. Five counts. Six. Long enough for Silver to walk to the flat stone and take the scanner from Bella's hand and hold it up so the rest of the crowd could read the number for themselves. Then time released, and the frozen half of the crowd stumbled forward into the same small number, the same small laugh. Cyndi walked off the stone before anyone could stop her. No one did. That was worse. She had spent Bella's magic and Bella's name and had come out smaller than when she started. Her network had seen it. Silver had held the scanner. The girls had held time together in front of everyone. Cyndi drove home and sat at her kitchen table and understood that she would not take the seat by standing in front of a crowd. She would have to take it by taking one of the girls.