Aria arrived home a mere fifteen minutes before her mom and aunts orbed into the back yard. She was still shocked that they could travel all the way from New York to Rosewood in a matter of seconds. Her mom had told her that Paige was learning the craft very quickly and mastered orbing after only a week.

Ella let herself and her sisters in through the front door, so as not to arise suspicion as to how they got there. It wasn't as if they could orb straight into the house, especially if Byron or Mike were there. Paige hadn't been able to master sensing before she orbed so was settling for orbing in to secluded places just in case someone was there. That said, Paige was progressing well with her witch powers and her staying under the same roof as her sisters could only help matters.

"Hi mom." Aria greeted when Ella came in to her daughter's room.

"Hi sweetie." Ella smiled back. "How was it at Hanna's?"

"Good. We were just going over the calculus assignment." She lied. "What was it you needed to tell me?"

"Your aunts are staying here for a while."

"You could've told me that over the phone." Aria pointed out.

"But I couldn't tell you why. Phoebe had a premonition." Ella said solemnly. Aria could tell immediately by the tone of her mother's voice that it was worse than her normal premonitions. She stayed silent, allowing Ella to explain. "The Source has sent one of his assassins to kill Paige. He's the same demon that killed Prue."

"What?" Aria exclaimed.

"I know it's difficult to understand this Aria but I just wanted you to be aware. He could come for her at any time and only the power of three can vanquish him. Phoebe and Paige are in the attic checking for the spell as we speak."

"What are we going to do if he shows up?"

"You're not going to do anything. You're too young to be fighting these battles so call Leo or Paige and they'll orb you out of danger."

"I can't run away forever." Aria protested, as much as she was screaming with fear inside she knew these demons would come after her too and wanted to be able to stand a chance against them. So far she hadn't been taught much more than how to make a few potions and master her telekinesis power. Although she had been able to sneak in to the attic a couple of times and was reading up on some of the demons in there. She'd read as far as B for Belthazor and noticed that her aunt Phoebe had added some personal information about him. She was starting to notice a pattern with her family having forbidden romances.

"I don't expect you to but for now let us handle the Source and Shax. They are way too powerful for you to vanquish on your own. We're not even sure how to vanquish the Source even with the power of three. I will give you the spell to vanquish Shax though. You won't kill him but if you need to it will hopefully wound him enough until we can orb to you."

As if on cue, Phoebe and Paige rushed through the door.

"We've found the spell." Paige said, handing Ella the sheet of paper they'd written it on.

"Great. I'll just copy it out for Aria. That way she can fight him off if he attacks."

"Will it even work without the power of three?" Paige asked.

"I was able to wound him last time when he hurt Piper and Prue. He went away but I didn't vanquish him." Phoebe recalled.

"And I'm hoping Aria will be able to do quite a bit of damage. Remember our powers grow stronger with each generation." Ella pointed out.

"Good point." Phoebe agreed. "Now when can I have some of my sister's amazing home cooked food I've been promised?" She asked and everyone followed her to the kitchen. Ella set to work making a nice meal for the whole family to enjoy, hoping to win Byron and Mike over to the idea of her sisters staying with a nice treat. Plus she loved to cook and it was a welcome distraction from everything else going on in her life. She knew she'd have to talk to Byron eventually about what she'd found out but she was honestly trying to postpone it for as long as possible. Besides, she wanted to keep the marital drama to a minimum around her kids, and even more so now Phoebe and Paige were in town. It wasn't as if Phoebe wasn't used to it though with all the problems she'd had with Leo. That was different though, she reasoned, Leo would never cheat. Pushing thoughts of both Byron and Leo to the back of her mind, she focussed on what she was cooking while Phoebe and Paige were gossiping o the couch. She couldn't hear Aria and assumed she'd just gone upstairs to do homework.

Meanwhile, Aria was lying on her bed reading when Leo orbed in.

"Is now a good time?" He asked when he noticed the worried look in Aria's eyes. For once she wasn't worried about what 'A' would say but this tie what Leo would say to her and her mom.

Closing her book, Aria sat up on her bed and Leo took a seat next to her.

"Look I know what you're going to say but you don't understand." She started before Leo cut her off.

"No I actually understand better than you think." He interrupted her. "But you do have to tell your mom."

"I can't. She'll go insane and Ezra will end up in prison or turned into a toad or something."

"With your mom it's more likely to be a rat." Leo laughed. "But what I actually came here to say is that she may understand better than you think. When your mom and I got together it was unheard of for Whitelighters to have relationships with their charges, let alone marry them. If anyone understands forbidden love it's her. And before me she was engaged to a warlock named Jeremy and fell in love with a ghost called Mark. I'm sure she'll cut you some slack."

"If she doesn't blow him up first."

"She won't do that."

"Phoebe told me she blew you up."

"That's different. I'm already dead." Leo pointed out, not wanting to get into their relationship problems with his ex-wife's daughter. "She's got a temper but she won't do anything rash, especially not with someone else around when you tell her. Just think about it." He pleaded.

Aria sighed. "Ok." She said, admitting defeat.

"And don't wait too long or I will have to say something. Neither of you are normal charges and the same rules can't always apply when it comes to you." He warned, knowing full well Ella would blow him up if she knew he'd even thought about keeping this a secret from her for a second. He wanted to give Aria a chance though; it was going to be hard for both of them. Although he shouldn't have been listening, he knew that she was going through a rough patch in her marriage and with her sisters and didn't want to add any extra stress to her life. Leo glanced up to the ceiling as if he was hearing something which Aria could not. "I've got to go and help another charge. See you later." He said before orbing out.

Aria knew she'd have to tell her mom about Ezra now, if she didn't already know. Who knew what 'A' had already told her? What if her mom had some other secret that 'A' was holding over her as well? Apparently she was very good at keeping them, having kept the witch secret from Aria her entire life.

Bringing her thoughts back around, Aria tried to figure out how she was going to tell her mom about Ezra and stop herself from getting paranoid about her keeping some other dark secret. For all she knew that was what 'A' wanted: to keep everyone paranoid and break them apart. How was she going to explain to Ezra why she was going to tell her mom and potentially ruin both of their lives? There was no way she could go about this without hurting someone, if not everyone she loved. Although she knew that her mom had been in a similar situation there was no way she would take the news calmly. Aria was sure that if she was angry enough she'd have the power to blow up the entire house if she didn't keep it under control which is why she knew she had to have someone else there too, someone who she couldn't show magic to. She'd have to tell her dad as well.

Thinking about him made Aria remember what she'd asked Prue to tell her mom about. She knew that must've been why she was at Phoebe's and why she was upset, unless that was all to do with Phoebe's premonition. Wow her mom really was going through a lot right now. Aria was starting to consider backing out and not telling her when she received a phone call from Ezra.

"Hey Aria is everything ok?" The voice on the other line said when she picked up.

"Ok? Yes, why wouldn't it be?" Aria panicked.

"That man who was here earlier said he was going to talk to you about... about us. How did it go?" He asked.

"He told me I need to tell my parents." She replied. Technically Leo had only told her to tell Ella but she didn't want to explain why she had to have her dad there as well.

"Then I want to be there when you do it." He said.

"What? No, Ezra you can't be here. They'll be mad enough as it is."

"I'm not letting you tell them alone, Aria. Please don't argue with me on this. Let me be there for you, for support."

Knowing he wouldn't back down, Aria agreed to let him come. She knew he was just being protective but he didn't know what he could be getting in to when he came to this house, especially now her aunts were here too. Aria knew she'd have to get them out of the house before she told her mom. It was a private matter and, although she hadn't known them long, she knew they'd take her mom's side on this and there would be no way she could talk all three of them round.

She had arranged with Ezra to come over after dinner so that they could get it over with. After hanging up the phone she went downstairs to help her mom in the kitchen, hoping to soften her up a bit before she told her.

Once Byron returned home from work and Mike was back from practice they all sat down together to eat.

"Thanks for letting us stay for a while." Paige said to Byron as she put some more salad on her plate. She'd only met him once and still wanted to make a good impression on her new found family.

"Yeah thanks." Phoebe agreed. "After the fire in my apartment I needed a place to stay and we thought what better way for Paige to get to know her knew family than to stay with them all." Ella tried to resist the urge to chuckle at their cover story. Phoebe definitely had the ability to exaggerate what had happened and make it sound true. How she'd been able to lie so easily and turn a burnt pizza into a big fire made her smile. There was the good old Phoebe she'd grown to love growing up.

"It's no problem. We already have the extra rooms." He replied.

"I'm just sorry about the mess." Ella said, referring to the few boxes scattered around the house that were still to be unpacked. With all the marking and lesson plans that she and Byron had to do, plus spending every spare minute teaching Aria the craft, she had been left very little time to finish unpacking from their trip to Iceland.

"You know we make our fair share of mess living together." Phoebe joked, referring to all the demons they'd had to vanquish in the manor. Byron paled slightly at the thought but Ella tried to brush off Phoebe's comment.

"I'm sure it won't be like that now. Besides, it was always you and Prue that did the fighting. It was a shame sometimes that I couldn't just freeze you both until you calmed down." Ella said and Phoebe laughed, knowing that the comment had gone straight over Byron and Mike's heads. They'd both missed this connection they had and just wished it didn't have to come hand in hand with a new demonic threat. Even though Paige was still new to the family, she didn't need a premonition to be able to tell they'd one day be as close to her as they were to Prue. Thinking of her older sister gave her the idea to conjure her at some point so that Paige could finally meet her.

Dinner went by surprisingly free of drama. She knew Byron wasn't very happy about having her sister stay with them but he was too polite and too concerned with keeping up appearances to argue. Besides that, Ella was getting some small pleasure in the little things that annoy him even though they could never amount to the hurt he'd caused her.

There was the odd comment from her sisters and herself that anyone in the know would be able to tell was a joke about their wiccan lives but no one said anything outright. They all knew they'd have to talk about Shax properly later and come up with a plan to vanquish the Source once and for all but it would have to wait. Ella wasn't in the mood to freeze the room and discuss it casually over dinner with the other witches. Besides, it wasn't something she wanted Aria to be involved in any more than she had to.

"You know, there's a function at Hollace next week that staff and students are all invited to." Byron mentioned to Ella while they were clearing up the dishes in the kitchen. "We should go."

"Yeah, that sounds nice." Ella replied, biting her tongue to stop herself from saying what she really thought. She knew in all likelihood the girl he was having an affair with would be there too and Ella wasn't sure if she could face that. Suddenly tired of the menial task of cleaning up, she suggested that Byron left her to do it alone so she could have a little magical help. If Phoebe could do it, why shouldn't she?

Once she was sure that no one could see her, she chanted the spell from memory. "Let the object of objection become but a dream as I cause the seen to be unseen." Seconds later everything was washed up and back in its rightful place. Ella took a seat at the counter and took a minute to get her head around everything that had happened that evening. She couldn't believe that it was barely five hours ago that she'd summoned Prue. The day had seemed so amazing then from the second she said the spell and her sister appeared in front of her. Now everything was different. Her marriage was falling apart, there was a direct and certain threat on her youngest sister's life and Leo and Aria were hiding something from her. That is, if 'A' was telling the truth. But then again, when had 'A' been wrong about anything?

At Aria's suggestion, Phoebe and Paige had gone out to explore the little that Rosewood had to offer, leaving her alone with her family. To an onlooker it would look like nothing other than a normal day for the Montgomery family but it had been anything but that. If anything else went wrong today she didn't know if she could handle it. How was any of this fair? She silently cursed the Elders, as if this was their fault. Everything else in her life seemed to be their fault: her problems with Leo, becoming witches and therefore Prue dying. She was sure if she tried hard enough she could find a way to blame them for just about everything but she knew that would be the opposite of productive and she couldn't afford to waste time wallowing in self-pity.

Hearing the doorbell ring, Ella got up to answer it. She figured that enough time had passed to explain how the kitchen was clean. She couldn't tell Byron or Mike and didn't want Aria to know she was using magic for personal gain. What sort of example would that set for her?

She reached the front door and opened it, expecting to see her sisters but found herself face to face with none other than her colleague, Ezra Fitz.