Chapter three
"I've never seen Phoebe so defeated before," Paige let out.
"She's scared for Prestyn, Paige. She doesn't want anything to happen to her." The girls were still seated at the kitchen table - each at an end.
"Nothing will happen to any of us Piper, it was a dream."
"But Phoebe's right. What five year old dreams of a man killing her mother demonically? She's never seen Cole before in her life apart from the one photo that Phoebe has. I mean she doesn't even know that he is her father, and she is dreaming about him killing her mother. Put it all together, and Phoebe may just be right."
Leo orbed back into the manor at that point.
"I'll go get her," Paige offered.
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"Phoebe?" Paige knocked and opened the door. Phoebe was hovering over a duffel bag with a few items of clothing in her hand. "Are you going somewhere?" Paige asked.
"I can't take the risk Paige. If I were childless I'd be all for the fighting of the good fight, but I have a child and I have to protect her with everything I have. I can't let him take her and I can't leave her without a mother." She was moving between wardrobe and bag and it was making Paige dizzy. Paige walked further into the room and sat down on the bed, bringing Phoebe down with her.
"Look at me." Phoebe kept packing the clothes into the bag. "Damn it, I mean it Phoebe, look at me." Paige's voice was getting stern, and she hated having to do that, but this was necessary and big. Phoebe did as she was told. "This," she started, picking up the bag to prove her point, "Is not the way to go about it whether you have a child or not. The best thing to do for Prestyn is to stay and fight."
"How is that the best thing to do for Prestyn?" Phoebe snapped.
"How is running away going to be the best thing for her? If you move away for a little while, and Cole finds you, how are you gonna vanquish him without the power of three? You wouldn't have to worry about Prestyn being parentless because she'd be next after you!"
"We're more of a target here, Paige. He'll know to come straight to the manor. If we move away, it buys us a little more time."
"A little more time for what?"
"To plan our next move."
"So we're going to have a sister who is spending her life on the run from a demon? We'll never see you again, Phoebe. I'm sorry, but this," she again picked up the bag, "Is not an option. You need to stay here so if he does come, we can vanquish him first shot."
"What if we don't get him first go?" Phoebe asked. Paige was beginning to feel her big sister give in.
"What if we do?" Paige began to mellow out. "If you stay here, we have a better chance at killing him because we have the power of three. If you run away he'll never die because we'll have the power of two in San Francisco and the power of one in wherever the hell you plan on going and he will never die, which means Prestyn is at more risk."
"How am I going to keep her safe here?"
"Hello! Magic school isn't a leave your kids here for an hour and take them back. If worse comes to worse, we can leave them with Elders."
"They won't take Prestyn. She's half demon too remember?"
"Well if they want her to stay as much a witch as possible, they'll take her. Phoebe I'm telling you, I'm so close to having that binding potion complete. I just need to work out a few of the kinks and she is scaled down from half witch half demon, to full witch. But you need to stay in order for this all to happen."
"If we don't get him first go Paige –"
"Then you can do the necessary; but I'm telling you, we will get him first shot." Paige grabbed hold of Phoebe's hand and squeezed it reassuringly. "I promise."
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Paige and Phoebe walked down the stairs with Paige's arm slung around her sister's shoulders.
"What took?" Piper asked.
"Phoebe got a little into panic mode, but it's okay now, right Phoebs?"
"Right."
"Well speaking of being right…" Piper began. "Phoebe, you were right. Prestyn had a premonition…"
"I can see it in your eyes, Piper. There's a 'but' in there somewhere."
Leo took over. "But it isn't a power of hers."
"What do you mean?"
Leo sighed. Phoebe was not going to like the news. "The Elders sent it to her because they were afraid that if they sent it to you, you would keep it to yourself."
Phoebe's face began turning pink with anger. "You did what!" She screamed, making Piper and Paige jump.
"Phoebe they did it, not me."
"You're an Elder Leo, that makes you part of the them! How could you even let them think of doing it? Are you nuts? Are they? You let them send a premonition to a baby of her father killing her mother! Demonically no less! She is now petrified of leaving me alone, and it is going to be hell for her to get to sleep now, not only because of what you sent her, but because she is gonna be scared that when she wakes up, she might not have a mother! How dare you!"
Leo did not know what to say.
"I agree, Leo," Paige said in a quieter tone that that of Phoebe. "She's just a child. How could you let them send such a thing to a five year old?"
"I did say something!" Leo snapped, happy that he could finally get a word in edgeways. "They said that I was too attached because you were my family, and they wouldn't take anything I said into consideration."
"You could have warned us," Phoebe said, her voice quivering. "You could have intercepted it somehow –"
"They're my bosses Phoebe. I can't go against them."
"We're your family!" She screamed. "All of us! Through marriage or no! We're also your charges; you're supposed to look out for us. We come first!" She took a breath to calm herself down.She continued in a quieter,yet pleading,voice."You would have done it for Chris or Wyatt, what makes Prestyn and me any different?"
"It was necessary. If it were anything not Cole related you would have gotten the message, but they didn't know whether you would have told your sisters or not, so they took the safer option," he answered as gently as he could.
"How sure were they that Phoebe would have told us even after Prestyn had the vision?" Piper finally stepped up.
"Pretty sure…"
"Right, so they still weren't a hundred per cent sure that she would tell us, and yet they still sent something vivid and horrible to a five year old?"
"Why couldn't you have just told us that Cole was back and he was after Phoebe?" Paige asked.
Leo couldn't provide an answer.
"The next time you want to get a message across to me, do so through me! Not my little girl!" Phoebe told him through gritted teeth before walking out of the manor and slamming the front door shut.
