Part Three




"Leo!" Phoebe jumped up for a quick hug. "Please, tell me that you're here to help, because we're coming up empty."

"It's good to see you too." He replied with an endearing smile. "Yes, I'm here to help."

Devona stood slowly, studying him. "Are you the Leo that my 'friend' talked about?"

"Yes, Devona, I am. I'm here to help you as much as I can. Go ahead and sit down." His voice was kind and soothing, his tone obviously meant to give encourage the anxious young woman to trust him.

For one moment, it seemed she would argue and insist on standing. Instead, she sat slowly, focusing her attention on a strange mark at the base of one table leg and worked to ignore the events now taking place around her.

"Can you tell us what we're up against here, Leo?" Prue asked, getting straight to the point.

"You need to protect Devona, for now." He smiled at Prue then moved past her to kneel next to Devona's chair and, sensing that she wouldn't react well to actual physical contact from him until she could be certain of his motives, put one hand on the armrest near, but not touching, her arm. "Are you alright?"

She gave him an ironic look, then nodded slightly, "Just scrapes and bruises," Her lips twisted in a wry smile that was more strained than joking, "and confusion and terror. I really don't understand what's going on. A week ago I wouldn't have believed any of this could happen but I've suddenly found myself in the middle of a supernatural thriller."

He smiled reassuringly, "I can help you. WE can help you. I have seen these girls save more people than you can imagine." He itched to heal some of the more severe injuries Devona sported, but wasn't sure how to broach the subject without scaring her. He looked to Piper for moral support, than pushed on, "I know this is all very new to you, but I'm a healer, I can help with the pain you're in."

The look she gave him was acidic calm over barely contained panic. "You want to what?"

Piper stepped in, "Devona, I know that you don't know us and you don't have any reason to trust us, but Leo can make you feel better. I swear, he would never harm anyone in this room, including you."

Devona wavered, her need to trust anyone warring with her fear of further betrayal, but in the end the burning pain from the previous night's run for her life won out. "Fine, go ahead."

Leo smiled at her and began to heal the cuts and bruises he could see. She flinched away from his hands at first, then relaxed as the soothing warmth of the healing began to work on her pain and terror soaked nerves.

Prue cleared her throat, "Leo, what can you tell us?"

He stood and turned to face the Charmed Ones, "The warlock that's after Devona, Asura, is a descendant of a long line of warlocks that were well known centuries ago. At one time, his family was considered to be the most powerful of all the warlock families; they were so evil that it's said they might have managed to permanently upset the balance between good and evil forces in the world."

"Well what happened?" Phoebe asked, "What stopped them?"

"A line of witches emerged, the Harstones, born with the exclusive power to vanquish them. They were nearly wiped out, there were fewer than fifteen left alive in the 17th century. The Harstone witches followed them to the Americas and then to Salem, Massachusetts."

Phoebe exclaimed, "Wait! As in, witch trials, Salem?"

Leo nodded, "Exactly. They probably used the chaos to hide themselves and helped keep the hysteria going long enough to force the Harstones underground, giving them time to escape. They never regained their position, though. They vowed to destroy the Harstone line, kill them all."

Phoebe whistled, "That's some revenge."

Leo nodded and glanced cautiously at Devona, who hadn't reacted to anything he'd said. She was much too calm, like none of his words had sunk in. "Devona?"

"Yes?" One word was enough for Leo to see that Devona wasn't nearly as unaffected as he'd first thought. She seemed calm but her voice was shaky and uneven, balanced delicately on the brink of hysteria. Her fists were clenched tight, her knuckles pale and bloodless while her fingernails had carved red crescents into several places on her palms, though she didn't appear to be aware that she'd hurt herself.

"Do you remember what your grandmother told you a few days before she died?"

Devona frowned, thinking. "She said...she said that I was chosen. That my mother was wrong not to trust me...tell me. She said I should always trust in my feelings and in my power." She bit her lip for a moment, then looked at the people around her, "She was talking about this? Wasn't she?"

"Yes, Devona, she was." Leo responded gently. "There's a prophecy that dates back to your family's beginning, that one day a Harstone witch, the last of her line, would complete her family's quest to destroy Asura's family."

"Me." It wasn't a question.

Leo could tell that her newly awakened powers were working in his favor; she could feel the truth in what he was saying and wasn't going to deny it. "Yes, you. You are the last Harstone witch."

"Why didn't anyone tell me? Why didn't I know?" Tears threatened to overflow her eyes and spill freely down her cheeks. "Did my mother know about this?" Leo nodded silently. "Why didn't she tell me? Why?" Phoebe moved to kneel beside her and hugged her as she began to cry softly.

Leo knelt on her other side and put one hand on her knee, when she looked at him he said, "She meant to protect you. She knew your destiny, how powerful you were. She knew that they would sense your birth and that she wasn't powerful enough to protect you before you came into your power, so she hid you instead."

Phoebe stroked Devona's hair absently, "Did she bind Devona's powers? The way Grams bound ours?"

"Yes. She cast other spells too, protection and concealment spells before Devona was born. Asura believed that her mother was the last of the line; until she died and her spells around Devona began to fade. That's when Asura discovered her and began to stalk her."

"So all we need is a spell to vanquish Asura then, right?" Prue asked.

"It's not that easy." Leo explained, "The only place it exists is in the Harstone Book of Shadows, and we don't have it here."

"Do you know, Devona?" Piper asked.

"Know what?"

"Do you know where your family's Book of Shadows, spellbook, is?"

Devona shook her head and gestured toward the Book on the table, "Like that? No, I've never seen anything like it. I sold most of my mother's things after she died, there were some books, but I never had time to go through them all, I just packed them up."

Prue sighed. "Do you remember who bought your mother's books?"

"Yeah, the entire estate was bought by an auction house. I think they have offices here in the city, I sent them to San Francisco somewhere."

"Do you remember the name?" Piper asked.

Devona chewed on her bottom lip, "Not really. It was something with a 'B', I'm really not too sure though."

Prue cocked her head, "Bucklands?"

"Yeah, that sounds right. You know it?"

Prue had to laugh at the irony, "Yeah, I used to work there."

Phoebe stood up and said matter of factly, "Well, we'll just have to break in and see if it's there."

End Part Three


Yay! This part has been driving me nuts. That, and figuring out a power for Devona. It's so cliché to just give one of the charmed ones powers, right? So she needs one of her own... oh well, not an immediate problem...but if you think of a good one, let me know.

Part four may be a little while in coming, I'm still working on my outline a bit...i want to do a lot with this story, so I've got to do it in the right order.