Chapter 7: Ready for battle

Ambrose heard the sound of the steel being sharpened as he entered into the Desecrated Church. Prudence was in one of the benches of the front row preparing her swords, even with all the noise she was making, she noticed that someone had entered. That night her senses were heightened, preparing for battle.

She turned around to look at who had entered.

"Hey." Ambrose said a bit hesitantly. It was the first time they were alone in months and the weight of all the unsaid things between them filled the air.

"Ambrose." Prudence replied with a nod before refocusing on the task at hand.

He stood next to her for a few seconds, unsure of what to do, what to say.

He decided to say nothing and just went to sit on the platform in the back of the Church. Ambrose looked at his hands unsure of what to do. He had arrived too early, he hadn't thought there would be anyone in the Church yet, but as many other things in his life, he had been wrong. His eyes couldn't help but wander towards Prudence sometimes, to her gaze of concentration as she admired her work.

Ambrose wanted to talk to her but he didn't know what to say so he lowered his gaze, nor a second later Prudence looked up at him and sighed almost imperceptibly, Ambrose Spellman made her feel weak and she couldn't feel that way that night.

She needed to focus, she had a mission to accomplish.

After killing her father and getting her sisters and brother back maybe she could think about Ambrose and the feelings she had for him, because even if she tried, she couldn't keep denying she still felt something for him.

Something that she never thought she could feel for someone other than her sisters.

"Prudence…?" he called her in a hesitant tone, she looked at him straight in the eye.

"Don't," she replied without looking away from him "not tonight. Please."

Ambrose nodded. She was right, this was not time to talk about feelings. This was time to prepare for battle.

The tension that filled the air dissipated slightly when Sabrina entered minutes later, Salem was walking at her side, he meowed before jumping at the platform next to Ambrose. The cat rubbed against his side seeking to be petted. Ambrose scratched his ears absently.

"Hi, Prudence."

"Sabrina." She answered without taking her eyes off her sword.

Sabrina went to sit next to her cousin. He seemed nervous. She was nervous too. No one knew what was going to happen that night.

Were they going to be alive when the night was over?

"You ok?" she couldn't help asking him in a whisper. She gave a brief glance to Prudence. Ambrose shrugged "You should talk to her, you know." Sabrina added "when all this is over."

He nodded.

"Well, you should try that too, cousin." He said and Sabrina looked at him confused until realization came to her.

"It's not the same, Ambrose." She said in a tone that left no doubt she didn't want to talk about it.

Ambrose sighed.

"What a par we are." he added before extending his arm to give her a side hug, she snuggled closer to him before nodding, her eyes closing, she felt comforted being in her cousin arms.

The door creaked open and they looked up to see Nick entering, he only nodded towards them before going to sit in one of the benches at the middle of the Church. Sabrina looked towards him. She couldn't take her eyes off of him.

He didn't look well, he was a bit pale and she could see the dark circles under his eyes and how tense his body was.

"He shouldn't be here." Sabrina said to her cousin "This is not good for him."

"I doubt he'd be here if he didn't want to be."

"I know but… He… maybe, maybe I should talk to him." she added getting up from the platform but could not move forward because at that moment the door opened again. She looked how her aunts entered into the Church.

"Children," Zelda said as greeting before redirecting her gaze to her sister "Hilda, if you would be so kind to prepare everything."

Hilda nodded and started to prepare the candles and the salt circle for the ritual Zelda wanted to perform that night before they went into the mines.

The others remained in silence looking Hilda working, Prudence had ended sharpening her swords and had placed them in her back ready to use them when needed. Ambrose was looking at her.

He couldn't help but remember when they were around the world trying to hunt down Blackwood. And now, they were about to go after the man again.

"All set, Zelds." Hilda indicated some minutes later.

The High Priestess nodded.

"Come." She urged the others to gather around the circle on the floor. Sabrina took Ambrose's hand and extended her right hand towards Nick who was at her side, he hesitated before taking it.

His hand was cold but hers was warm. And he had missed that warmth.

He had missed her. Nick sighed almost imperceptibly.

She couldn't help but give his hand a soft squeeze.

"We are going to entrust our mission to the goddess. To ask for protection." Zelda said in a solemn tone "Hecate. Triple goddess, we implore for your protection in this hour of need."

The rest began to chant, repeating every one of her words.

"Give us your power. Give us your strength."

"Give us your power." They repeated "Give us your strength."

"So be it."

Zelda opened her eyes and looked at them, despite her confident demeanor there was a fair amount of nervousness she didn't show to the others. They needed a leader that night and she had to play that part.

A part of her suspected Blackwood knew what they were up to.

And she didn't want to imagine what he would do to them if he won.

"Ready?" she asked instead of vocalizing her true fears.

"As ready as we can be, auntie." Ambrose said trying to relax the atmosphere. Zelda just shook her head with her lips pursed.

"Lanuae magicae."

The night was unusually cold. A chill ran down Sabrina's back when she saw the entrance to the mines. She could feel the magic in the air but it was a different kind of magic not the one she was used to. Ancient, dark, powerful. And she knew it had nothing to do with the gates of Hell.

It was something else.

"Do you know exactly where he is, Prudence?" Zelda asked to the girl.

The girl nodded, her gaze shifting slightly towards Nick before answering.

"He is in front of the gates."

Zelda nodded before starting the march towards the mines, the rest started to follow her in silence but Sabrina noticed how Nick was staying behind.

She looked back at him.

"You don't have to do this, Nick." Sabrina told him "You can go back to the Academy. Blackwood has nothing against you."

He sighed.

"Sabrina…"

"Why are you doing this…? You don't have to." she insisted.

He gave her a small sad smile. They were about to face their death, maybe it was time to be honest with her. After all, he had nothing to lose.

"It's because of you."

"Nick…" she said his name in a whisper. She wanted to get closer to him, hold him. She wanted to tell him so many things but in the end said nothing.

"I care about you too." He said echoing her words from the other night.

"Nick… you don't have to do this. Not because of me."

"Sabrina, Nicholas, don't stay behind." Zelda said to them, breaking the moment. The others were already almost at the entrance of the mines waiting for them.

"Nick…" Sabrina whispered, she tried to reach for his hand.

"Sabrina!" Zelda insisted in a hushed tone.

The girl sighed resignedly before advancing towards the entrance with Nick behind her.

A small ball of fire that Zelda had conjured was their only source of light while they descended into the depths of Greendale's mines. A rotten scent filled the air making it almost unbreathable. The smell was too similar at the one Sabrina felt that afternoon in the woods.

No one spoke, they hardly breathed as they walked in silence, deep down they knew Blackwood was waiting for them. They could feel it in their bones.

"'Brina? 'Brina?"

She stopped and turned around, only Nick was behind her and he looked at her confused. The voice, that sounded so similar to Roz's called for her again.

And again.

"Sabrina, you ok?" Nick asked, he went to her side and took her by the shoulders. She was trying to cover her ears to stop the voices but they continued calling for her in her mind "Sabrina?"

She wanted to scream. She wanted to run looking for her friends but Nick's hands held her tightly. Maybe too tightly she noticed when his grip became almost painful.

Sabrina looked at him, his eyes were clouded, she could see in his expression that he was too far away, lost in memories. His hands fell from her shoulders before he fell to his knees on the ground.

"Nick?" she hurried to kneel beside him, she tried to meet his gaze with hers "Nick, listen to me, it's not real. Whatever you are seeing it's not real." Sabrina added realizing that she no longer heard the voices of her friends. It was one of those terrors playing tricks with her mind and now with Nick's "It's not real." She insisted, her hands cupping his cheeks.

He blinked before moving closer to her until he hid his face on her neck, Sabrina could feel his shaky breath on her skin. She put her arms around him and he let her.

He didn't pull away.

"Cousin? What's wrong…?" Ambrose asked, everything had happened in less than a minute. He went suddenly silent. The images that only tormented him in his nightmare came to him.

"Ambrose?"

"What the heaven is going on?" Zelda asked in an indignant whisper.

"The terrors, auntie." Sabrina answered her but her aunt was no longer listening, she also had a blank look. Her mind lost in the memories when she was under the Blackwood's spell. When she was nothing more than a doll for him to play with.

"What's going on honey?" Hilda asked.

"The terrors." Ambrose replied this time, his gaze had returned to normal, but his face was pale and sweaty.

Nick came back to reality too, reluctantly he pulled away from Sabrina. She missed him immediately and he missed her too.

So much.

"Agatha?"

"Oh no." Ambrose exclaimed and hurried to Prudence's side.

"Agatha?!"

"It's not real, Prudence." He said, he tried to wrap his arms around her to stop her but she struggled to break free, her sister's voice was like a sharp knife piercing her heart.

"Let go of me," she blurted out "Let go of me, aren't you listening? She needs me! She is here."

"It's not her, Prudence. Blackwood is messing with all our minds. He knows we are here."

"No! It's her, I know it's her." She insisted freeing herself form his grasp and running towards one of the tunnels.

"Prudence!" he exclaimed before following her.

"Auntie Zee?" Sabrina asked, her aunt was unusually quiet. She saw a single tear fall from one of her eyes "Auntie Zee?" she insisted, Zelda blinked rapidly, her eyes losing their cloudiness.

"What… what happened?" she asked still a little confuse.

"Blackwood knows we are here. His terrors attacked us. Our minds."

"And Prudence, poor little lamb, ran out calling for Agatha, Ambrose went after her."

"He knows we are here." Zelda said, she was still confused, part of her still trapped in the nightmare "Come on quickly, Ambrose and Prudence may be needing us."

They ran through the same tunnel that Prudence and Ambrose had disappeared in, they weren't too far away. But they weren't alone either.

Blackwood was there too, sitting on a rock.

"Oh, and here comes my dear wife." He said looking at the newcomers "And her lovely family. Nicholas? you are here too." He shook his head in a disappointed gesture "I must have suspected, what a pity, you had such a bright future."

Blackwood's words made Sabrina feel guilty because she knew the man was right.

She had ruined him.

"Shut up." Prudence said, she wanted to draw her sword but then she realized she couldn't move "What did you do to us?"

The others also noticed that they couldn't move. They were trapped.

"We are going to have a little chat first."

But Prudence didn't want to talk. She wanted blood.

"Where are they?" Prudence demanded ignoring his words "Where is Agatha?" she didn't like the fact of not seeing them there, Blackwood was a crazy man who didn't care or love anyone. A man who wouldn't stop at nothing.

"Oh well, well, we're impatient, aren't we?" Blackwood said, too pleased with himself, too calm "They are somewhere in these mines. But I think you will have to find out where."

She tried to move but again she couldn't.

"By the way, daughter, I didn't thank you for bringing everyone here. You did an excellent job."

"You let me see you here. It was a trap" She said feeling stupid for having fallen into it. Blackwood nodded.

The man laughed in a terrifying way. Madness could be see shinning in his eyes.

"Of course you found me because I wanted you to do it. Brilliant, isn't it? I didn't even have to move to look for you, you came willingly to me."

"We came to end you." Zelda told him.

The laugher of the former High Priest of the Church of Night turned maniacal and echoed inside the walls of the mine.

"Oh, no, no, no, my dear wife. I'm going to end you. All of you."

The sound of something slimy sliding down the rocks on the walls, a rotten smell stronger than before, filled the air. They looked around the place for the source of the sound that seemed to be everywhere.

"Well, I think you already know what awaits you, right? You already had a taste of what it feels like to be inside your worst nightmares, well imagine what it feels like to be in them until you die."

"We are going to kill you first." Prudence blurted.

"And how are you going to do that? You don't have the protection of your Dark Lord anymore and if you think your pathetic attempt to revive a long-extinct goddess' cult is going to work..." he shook his head "You are completely wrong."

"What are you talking about?"

"Prepare to see something that is beyond your imagination. Beyond your abilities. Prepare to face true terror. I think it's time you knew each other. I really enjoyed our little reunion, but I don't think it will repeat in the future."

Blackwood laughed one last time before disappearing into the thin air.

"Shit!" Prudence mumbled as she shed the magical bonds that had held her captive "He's gone."

The other began to break free as well.

"Go after him." Zelda told Prudence.

Prudence nodded. She had a mission.

"Prudence…" Ambrose started to say "let me…"

"No." she interrupted him "I need to do this alone. I can do it."

The girl murmured a tracking spell that showed her the remnants of Blackwood's magic. She followed the trace until she disappeared too behind some rocks.

While this was happening, the substance that had started to group in the middle of the room took the form of a creature none of them had seen before and that left them in awe. It was a being with an amorphous body, apparently without eyes, that stood in front of them with an enormous mouth with teeth similar to those of a shark and long twisting tentacles coming out from said mouth.

"Unholy shit." Ambrose said under his breath.

The creature screeched so high it made everyone cover their ears trying to muffle the noise.

"What do we do?" Sabrina almost screamed to the others.

"We must destroy that thing." Zelda said.

"But how?"

"I could try with hellfire." Sabrina offered "See if it does something to it."

"That…" Ambrose said "might be a good idea, cousin."

"Do it, Spellman." Nick encouraged her and she felt her heart ache a little when she heard him call her that.

Sabrina stepped forward a bit to face the creature that twisted its tentacles as if with them were able to compensate the senses it apparently lacked.

She concentrated and summoned the hellfire in the palms of her hands, the blue flames rose and she threw them towards the creature that let out a new screech before momentarily withdrawing towards one of the mines walls.

Sabrina threw a new ball of hellfire towards the creature before turning slightly to look at her family.

"It works." She said "It works."

"Well done, Sabrina." Zelda told her. Pride could be heard in her voice.

She gave her aunt a brief smile and she was turning back to attack the creature again, when it extended one of it tentacles until it reached twice its size and grabbed her by the neck.

"Sabrina!"

The terror raised her above the heads of the others, she tried to free herself with her hands but only got the creature to grip her tighter. Not only was taking her breath away, when the tentacle came in contact with her skin the terror had begun to show her each one of her fears. Each one of her faults. It was horrible to look at it, but it didn't matter if she kept her eyes open or closed, the images were on her mind and it seemed like they would never go away.

The air became increasingly scarce for her.

Suddenly she felt herself falling and the terror screaming again with what it seemed to be pain, she thought she was going to impact the ground but someone stopped her fall, but not the power of the terror over her. The tentacle was still around her throat, as if it continued having life no matter that it had been severed from it body.

"Sabrina?"

She wanted to say his name but only a strangled sound came out of her lips. She saw the worried faces of her aunts and cousin around her.

Nick reached up to remove the tentacle but Sabrina shook her head frantically. She was sure the thing was able to affect you more when you had contact with it.

She didn't want him to repeat another of his nightmares.

"Don't…" she managed to say "hands…"

He seemed to understand her anyway. With a movement of his hand the tentacle disintegrated into dust.

"Better?" he asked, she coughed before answering with a weak nod.

Nick helped her to her feet. His hand still holding hers.

"How are you love?" Hilda said approaching to her, she let go of Nick's hand while her aunt checked her with her eyes. She worried when she saw the red marks on Sabrina's throat.

"The fire…" she coughed again, her throat felt scratchy "worked?"

Before any of them could answer her the terror did with a high pitched scream.

Ambrose moved quickly, his outstretched hands forming an invisible shield between them and the abomination.

"That wanted to attack us first." He said as a way of explanation "I can try to hold it for a while, but we must do something quickly."

"Let me help you." Nick told him and Ambrose nodded slightly, all his concentration was focused on holding the creature that was beginning to push against the shield with its tentacles.

"What do we do, auntie?" Sabrina asked, Hilda looked worried but Zelda seemed to be deep in thinking. Her eyes twinkled when an idea formed in her mind.

At least they could try.

"We cannot banish it." She said suddenly "but we can try to destroy it in the name of Hecate."

The other looked at her confused.

"Sabrina, Hilda, I will need your help. Ambrose, Nicholas, try to hold on that creature."

"What are you planning to do, Zelda?" Hilda asked.

"We are going to perform a ritual."

"What ritual?" Sabrina asked this time.

"Just follow me." Hilda and Sabrina nodded "We need to surround it, so you must keep it distracted." She said towards Ambrose and Nick.

There was little space between them and the creature and the scent coming from it was almost unbearable.

"Sabrina," Zelda said "I need you to draw a waxing moon on the ground in front of you."

Sabrina nodded, she had a slight idea about what her aunt wanted to achieve.

"Hilda, a full moon."

Zelda also drew a waning moon in front of her.

"We invoke the power of the goddess." She started to say and her sister and niece followed her.

Somehow, they knew what they had to do, it was almost natural, as if the knowledge had always been there waiting to be awakened. Acknowledged.

"We summon the maiden." Sabrina said.

"We summon the mother." It was Hilda's turn.

"We summon the wisdom of the old woman." Zelda concluded.

They raised their arms as if they wanted to touch each other despite the distance between them, Sabrina could feel the power running through her veins. It was a different kind of power, it was not as the one she felt when they performed a ritual for the Dark Lord, this was something else. Something bigger.

Something powerful.

"We invoke the three faces of the goddess. The three faces of the woman. The three faces of the moon."

From the moons drawing on the ground in front of each one of them, a blazing light appeared and rose to the roof of the mines.

"Destroy our enemy."

They clenched their hands into fists and when they opened their hands the abomination in the middle exploded in a cloud of dust.

The three were breathing rapidly, their hearts were pounding and their limbs felt heavy after using so much energy.

"We made it disappear." Sabrina said when she noticed the pile of dust where the creature had been.

"We did."

"We need to find Prudence now." Ambrose said "She maybe needs us."

Despite their exhaustion, the Spellman women nodded.

Prudence walked following the trail of magic until she reached another dead-end, she cursed before turning back. Her father was playing tricks with her.

She left the tunnel, the traces of magic began to fade, although it was not as if they had been of much help to her, they continued to take her from one dead-end to another.

She decided to try another route, something told her that her father was also tired of this stupid game.

"Father." She said when she finally saw him.

With drawn swords she began to approach to him, Blackwood looked unusually calm, as if the two sharp swords weren't actually a real threat. She quickened her pace, fury could be seen in her dark eyes, but when she was about to launch the first blow of her sword, he disappeared. Prudence stopped almost facing the stone wall and turned.

Blackwood was now blocking the entrance to the tunnel. And she couldn't move.

"If you only had known to stay in your place." He told her.

"And what is that place, father? Under your boot?"

"So much wasted potential. You should have come with me."

"You almost killed the entire coven. You almost killed my sisters."

He shrugged as if what he had done meant nothing.

"They must be dead by now." He commented.

"Or your monster may be." She told him.

Her father laughed.

"They don't have a chance against it. You don't have a chance against me either."

She broke free of the magical bonds that held her prisoner and moved forward, Blackwood didn't move and her sword pierced his abdomen.

And he didn't even flinch.

She widened her eyes in surprise and pulled her sword out of his body, it was covered in his blood, so why wasn't he on the floor bleeding to death?

"What the heaven…?"

"You will see, my dear daughter," he said advancing, Prudence began to back into the tunnel because she had no other way to go "I have been given a very special gift." He added, Blackwood lifted his sleeve to show her the mark.

"It cannot be possible…"

"Oh, but it is." He replied "So your little swords don't scare me. You can't kill me. No one can."

He placed his hands on her throat.

"You on the contrary..."

She couldn't breathe. She tried to fight him, to think of some spell that would help her but there was nothing she could do, her vision began to blur.

Blackwood stopped when a terrifying screech filled the mine sending chunks of rock tumbling to the ground.

"Impossible." He muttered.

Then something strange happened, for a moment he was very still, his hands on her neck now lacked of strength and finally she was able to breath.

Blackwood's eyes turned a strange color. When he blinked again, his eyes were back to their usual color.

Blackwood fell to the ground and Prudence fell to her knees, her hands on her sore throat as she coughed and tried to catch as much air as she could.

"Prudence!"

Ambrose.

"But how…" she asked in a small voice as she walked towards him. Ambrose wanted nothing more than to wrap her in his arms and never let her go but he knew she wouldn't accept him.

"Sleeping spell." He explained.

"Right." She replied "why didn't I think about it before?"

"It will not last long." Ambrose replied. The others could arrive at any moment; he had gone ahead because his concern for Prudence had driven him to run faster than the rest "Between all of us we can get rid of him."

Prudence shook her head in denial.

"We cannot."

"What do you mean…?"

"He has… the mark of Cain in his arm."

Ambrose swore under his breath.

"Ambrose, Prudence…" Zelda said appearing at the tunnel entrance "You killed him." She said seeing Blackwood on the ground a big red stain spreading on his back.

They denied.

"Auntie… we have a problem."

"What happened now?"

"He is not dead." This time was Prudence who talked "He has the mark of Cain, I don't know how he got it but… I pierced him with my sword and it was as if I had done nothing."

"And then why…?"

"Sleeping spell."

"Then we better get him to the dungeons as quickly as possible, at least we'll have him where we can see him. Until we can figure out a way to fix the problem definitively."

"But… what about my sister?"

"You're right. He didn't say where they were?"

"You go to the Academy, auntie. I'll help Prudence here." Ambrose replied.

Zelda nodded.

"I can stay to help." Sabrina said.

"Me too."

"I think your skills will be more useful in the Academy, Nicholas. We are going to need your help." Zelda admitted "Yours too Sabrina."

They nodded before teleporting back to the Academy with Blackwood.

Prudence and Ambrose stayed in silence for an instant.

"We must find them."

Ambrose nodded.

"Don't you think he may…?"

"They are alive." Prudence interrupted him "I can feel Agatha, she is close. We only need to find out where."

"Let's go then."

It wasn't difficult to find them, Agatha and the twins were kept gagged and tied to a rock a few tunnels below.

"Agatha!" Prudence exclaimed, she ran over to where her sister was, untying her while Ambrose did the same for the twins. She searched Agatha's gaze with her eyes but she continued with the same blank look from before "Oh, Agatha." She said before hugging her.

"We must go back."

She nodded. She didn't want to stay in that place for another second.