When the Jeep reached the top of Colony Hill, they saw what could be the only thing more terrifying than an angry mob at her door. Adam cut the headlights and they watched for a second, strategizing their next moves.

It was her Sisters, including Fern, Alice and Birdie, tied up with rope to a bunch of stakes that had been erected in the middle of the burn pile. The angry mob surrounded the pile of yard trash, but they were quiet.

They were listening to someone giving a speech. It appeared to be a paunchy fellow. It was none other than world-class shithead, Hank Snow.

Adam and Morgan exited the vehicle, each of them carrying a loaded rifle. But before they could take a step closer to the crowd, they were both jumped from behind.

Their assailants dragged them up toward the crowd. Hank Snow stopped his speech and looked around. “Oh, the bitch and the detective! So glad you could join us!”

They fought as hard as they could, but there were too many of them. Adam and Morgan were each tied to a stake along with the Sisters in the middle of the burn pile.

Morgan screamed. “Why are you doing this to us? Why are you doing this to Adam?”

Hank mocked her and finally answered. “Why do we do anything as a Church? We do it for the children! No more field trips up to see the Weirdo Lesbians in the Woods. Witches will burn, and the town will belong to us. And we’ll raise the children right, without your kind leading them astray. As for the detective, well, didn’t you know? He’s also a witch.”

Morgan looked incredulously over at Adam in the firelight.

He finally gave up the truth. “It’s true. I also have the magic. I just don’t use it. I’ve been fighting against them my whole life.”

Hank interrupted. “Good story, bro. Now let’s start this party!”

Morgan shouted for everyone to hear. “You told everyone you were doing a healing ceremony tonight!”

Hank snorted. “Oh sweetheart, this is the healing ceremony. Our Lord’s healing power and cleansing fire are going to cleanse and heal this town of the bad elements.”

He went back to speechifying, and Morgan strained against the ropes. Then she realized the ropes she was straining against were the very same antique nautical ropes she had bought yesterday for her chandelier and tossed on the trash pile earlier that day.

Birdie called over to her. “Oh hey, remember when I said I would look into whatever might be blocking your magic, Morgan? Yeah, sorry, but I think it’s that guy.” Birdie nodded in the direction of Hank Snow.

“Yeah, I think we got that figured out.”

Then she heard Alice say, “You know, I realize we’re all about to die and stuff, but I gotta say, these ropes are cute. Where did they come from?”

“From Jo’s Old Things. They’re actually vintage nautical ropes from a fishing boat, I think,” Morgan replied.

“Oh cool,” said Alice.

“They were 50 percent off!” Morgan replied.

“Nice!” said Fern from two stakes away.

Then Birdie’s voice cut through the conversation. “Will you basic bitches try to focus please? We are not gonna die out here with these rednecks!”

Hank laughed. “Here we go, friends. Say good night, witches!”

Suddenly, there was a crack of thunder, and then another. And another. It was so loud that Hank stopped his attempts to light the burn pile on fire and turned to look. At the edge of the tree line there were suddenly 50, maybe 100 more people. Lightning flashed again, and to Morgan it looked as if the lightning was coming out of the crowd and not from the sky.

Then a woman’s voice boomed across the meadow. “I don’t know what kind of party you think this is, but this is not how you treat your hostesses.”

Morgan didn’t know if this new presence was good or bad. She looked at Adam, who had a fresh new expression of shock and terror on his face. He craned his neck to look toward the woods.

“Mom?” he said. His voice cracked like a teenager.

Morgan’s heart raced even faster. “That’s your mom? That’s Magda Corey?”

Hank cut everyone off. “No more cross talk. Light the fires, people!”

The crowd of angry, zombified townsfolk approached the burn pile, but lightning flashed and the voice grew closer and louder, as thunder answering the lightning. The flash revealed an even larger crowd emerging from the woods. The smell of sulfur in the air was strong and Morgan could see the lightning was now coming from at least a hundred or more witch wands.

“Step away from the mother of my future granddaughter, you son of a bitch.” Magda’s voice, so superhumanly loud and terrifying, the children, even though they had been dosed with the poisoned cider the night before, dropped what they were doing and took off running for the woods in the opposite direction. It made sense. Children were harder to corrupt. Therefore, magic never lasted long. As for the townsfolk, Morgan estimated they were under the thrall for maybe another 30 minutes, give or take, if the poison had taken effect at midnight.

Adam’s mother had come to the rescue, and it looked like she had brought everyone she knew from Woodlawn. Morgan recognized from her past forays into social media a few faces from Ashford, and yes, even Salem. Holy shit, it was the fucking cavalry.

Mental note: Maybe social media is good for something.

The fire fight that ensued was nothing short of spectacular. It took only three or four more shots of magical lightning before the minds of the most vulnerable—the cider-poisoned city leaders and the rest of the Normals—were restored. They hunkered down in screams of fear as Hank and the throng of approaching witches battled it out. Morgan had no idea where his powers were coming from, but it was definitely from a dark place and from something very big.

She watched as the legendary Magda Corey cast an unbinding spell that released the ropes. Morgan, Adam and the Sisters were free. They ran to the other side of the clearing to look for the children. This was not a match they were prepared to engage in. Morgan found all of the children she’d spent time with last night during trick-or-treating, and they helped her by torchlight to find everyone else and hid them in the livestock barn.

Alice stayed with the children while the rest of the Sisters and Adam guarded the barn. No way were these idiots getting to the children.

Members of the Church began falling away from the battle, and pretty soon it was just Magda’s crowd versus Hank. It was the craziest thing Morgan had ever witnessed.

Suddenly, though, she realized the Church members had not just given up the fight. They had banded together and were marching in lockstep to the barn. They were coming after the children. The Sisters gripped hands in a line across the entrance to the barn and they fired off a binding spell. It made them stumble slightly. But they kept coming.

“They’re getting closer!” someone screamed. Morgan could hear children inside panicking. “Alice, we need you!”

Alice reached out the window and clasped hands with Morgan. The Sisters were aligned. This should work. But it didn’t. The Church of the Messenger crowd stumbled back a little farther, but they kept coming.

Morgan knew what had to be done.

“Adam, we need you!”

He squeezed her hand. “I’m so sorry. I don’t have that kind of power.”

“Yes, you do!” she screamed. “Do it!”

He fired his gun. He took down one member of the crowd with a shot to the leg. The people walked right over the injured brethren, undeterred.

“What are you going to do, shoot everyone?”

“I can run back to the car, get the guns, and be back in 30 seconds.”

“There’s no time, Adam. You are a witch. Hank knew it. Somehow I knew it. Don’t you remember? We’ve been together for thousands of years. You are a god, man! This is child’s play for you!”

“I don’t know that!”

“Yes, you do!”

Birdie cut them off again. “Bitches, I don’t know what you are arguing about, but somebody better fucking do something right the fuck now.”

Morgan squeezed Adam’s hand and she felt it. His will gave way and he let it happen. The electricity shot out of him and through her and through all of the Sisters. It was just the extra juice they needed. The Church of the Messenger was mere feet away from overtaking them, but the final spell worked. A white bolt of lightning shot out of the Sisters’ joined hands and struck down the mob. They all fell flat, unconscious. Were they dead? She didn’t know.

She looked over and saw the battle was ongoing between Hank and Magda.

Then that booming voice rang out again. “Adam Benjamin Michael Corey. You get your skinny ass over here now and help us!”

Adam and the Sisters obeyed. They ran along the perimeter of the field and flanked the crowd of witches. They joined hands with them, and suddenly Morgan felt a power shoot through her that she had never felt in her life. All of the power from two hundred or more witches and all of their ancestors gave one final push.

Hank screamed an unearthly scream and melted. Literally melted into a puddle on the ground. The puddle then started to pop and hiss. The witches all looked at each other, not knowing what the hell might happen next. Magda looked unfazed. Oh my Goddess, she was going to have to get her autograph when this was over.

Out of the puddle rose a glowing red shape. Hank was dead, but what had taken his place was far worse. A creature twice as tall as the tallest man. Fangs. Hooves. Horns. Wiry hair growing out of places that hair should not be growing out of.

The creature beat its chest and roared at Magda.

Magda sighed and shook her head. “Nice to see you, too, dear.”

Morgan looked at Adam. Adam looked utterly gobsmacked. “Dad?” he said.

“Are you serious? What the actual fuck is with your family?” Morgan asked.

“Would I be close to pissing myself if I was joking?” Adam replied.

“Too much information.”

“Well, get used to it, babe, if you’re going to marry me.”

Morgan had to rewind that sentence. “Wait, are you asking me to marry you?”

“Sure. I mean, yes.”

“I’ll see what happens if we get through this,” she said.

“Of course. And I’ll understand if you don’t want to have anything to do with me after…this.” Adam gestured toward the exchange between his mom and…his dad.

“Come on, man. That’s your dad and you don’t believe in magic?”

“He didn’t always look like that and he left when I was three. I only recognize his voice.”

“His voice? He hasn’t said anything, just roared and beat his chest.”

“I know, I know that’s what it sounds like. It’s a witch thing.”

Morgan couldn’t help but smile.

Magda was shouting and pointing at her ex-husband. The demon. This was truly weird. “Morty, I told you this shit is so boring. You and your stupid games, every eclipse. You’re so predictable. ‘Hmm, the eclipse is on Samhain again, I think I’ll fuck with Magda and see if I can use it to open a portal to hell and get some yummy children to eat.’ I told you after the last time. It’s not gonna work again, Morty. We’re all sick of your shit.”

“Yeah!” shouted Morgan. “Sick of your shit!”

Birdie looked at her like she was insane. Morgan shrugged. “Hey, that’s my future mother-in-law, maybe. Why not earn some points?”

Magda continued, “You got addicted to the spells, Morty. I never blamed you for that. But we could have gotten help for you. You didn’t have to run off to the dark side for more power. We could have helped you to be happy living here. Look at your son, Morty. He’s made something of himself, and you’ve missed it. And now, you’re going to miss the joy of grandchildren, all because this world didn’t hold enough power for you.”

Morty the demon puffed out his chest and roared one last time at his ex-wife. The ferocity of it shook the trees and made all the fires that were still burning flare to twice their size.

Magda finally had had enough of the glowing fanged windbag and zapped him one final time with a binding spell. It was all that the exhausted band of witches could manage together at this point, but it worked. The demon shriveled and tumbled into a pile of dirt. Magda let go of the chain of power and summoned a tiny ceramic jar and used it to stopper up the ashes of Adam’s dad.

“Whoa. And I thought I had issues,” Morgan said.