Plot Twist Chapter 13: The Cost of Power
The Queen bleeds, the coven trembles, and the countdown begins — two days, two nights, and Willem must decide: confess or hide the truth. Vote on what he chooses!
Plot Twist is an interactive storytelling project where you help decide what happens next.1 If you’re new, start here — and subscribe so you don’t miss a beat.
Welcome back to Plot Twist and our newly titled book: The Price of Her Blood.
Last week, we left Selene passed out in a pile of pine needles, powerless and bleeding. This week, we see what happens when Willem and Ashley’s loyalty is tested.
But first, the results of last week’s poll! Was Selene right in throwing up a barrier, basically imprisoning her ex and her family?
Most of you were torn! And so was I.
Reply and let me know if this week changes your mind!
Happy reading!
Lauren
Willem and Ashley sat awkwardly across from Her Majesty in a room full of tacky, taxidermy animals. “All the money and power in the region and this is where you chose to hide out?”
He spoke up to save Ashley from admitting she’d found it. “You know Selene.”
“All too well.” Her Majesty stared at a stuffed bobcat for a while before continuing. “She’ll come back. She is rebellious and pigheaded, but she’s not stupid. She’ll say her goodbyes and she’ll come back. Like she always does.”
Her Majesty spoke with confidence, but Willem wasn’t so sure. He knew Selene better than anyone. He knew the way she had loved Arielle, how it had broken her to leave all those years ago, the look in her eyes when she saw Sia, the way the wards bent protectively around the child from the start. He knew something bigger was at play here.
Maybe that was why he felt it before everyone else: the oncoming tsunami of power that hit the cabin with a defiant roar.
Her Majesty turned sharply, feeling it herself, recognizing exactly what it was. Ashley looked terrified. Willem just laughed.
“She wouldn’t,” the Queen said.
“Sounds like she did,” Willem chuckled.
“Why are you laughing?” Ashley demanded. “This is horrible.”
Willem kept laughing. “It’s just — this is so Selene.”
“She’s going to get us all killed,” Ashley cried, her voice shaking with fear.
Her Majesty sprang into action. “I’m going back to the Coven Council to buy us time. You—” she pointed to Willem “—fix this. And you—” she turned to Ashley “—keep me updated on everything that happens up here. Don’t make me ask twice.”
Without another word, Her Majesty walked outside and vanished.
“How does she do that?” Ashley asked.
“I have no idea,” Willem said. Transmutation was a rare power — one that only a handful of witches in history had ever mastered. It lived in Selene’s bloodline, shared only with her sister, although neither had shown an ability to transform.
“We have to get to her,” Willem said.
Then, as suddenly as the tsunami had come, the power rushed back — slamming against the wards. Willem froze.
“She’s weak,” he said. “I can feel it. Something happened.”
“She probably used all her power up,” Ashley said. “Like the idiot she is.”
“What is she supposed to do, just let them kill Sia?” Willem asked.
“Yes! She’s putting all of us at risk,” Ashley shot back. “Her power keeps the coven safe. One child is not worth the wards falling.”
Willem looked at her, horrified. “You sometimes really scare me, Ashley.”
“It’s a cost-benefit analysis,” she said, grabbing the keys and heading for the door. “Now drive while I type.”
Willem did as he was told – like he all too often did lately. Gone were the days when he would sneak out of the royal palace with Selene, the two of them running off to drink and dance their way through the gay bars of Hillcrest. Nevermore would he be able to spend months in Manhattan exploring galleries and museums, his only responsibility getting to a show on time.
Irideae died. Gentian transitioned. Aurora abdicated the throne. And suddenly Selene and Willem were thrust back into palace – Ashley scheduling every moment of their lives.
Selene offered to let him out of their blood bargain, tried to undo the magic herself so her best friend could be free. But they’d been bonded since birth, their connection solidified through decades of training and turmoil. He would not let his best friend suffer alone.
Now, as they drove towards goddess only knew what kind of trouble, Willem wished he’d stayed in his little basement apartment in Hell’s Kitchen, leaving Selene to fend for herself.
The wards hissed like static as they made their way down the lane. He saw Arielle first, standing awe-struck, holding the hand of her child, both of them staring down at two bodies intertwined on the floor. The limp one had to be Selene, which meant the woman hovering over her was Arielle’s wife.
“Stop the car,” Ashley ordered, and Willem obeyed, only because he could feel the shield ahead of them. He was getting tired of Ashley’s ordering them around, but today wasn’t the day to fight her on it.
Pine needles crunched under her feet as she marched to the edge of the shield. “Stop touching her!” she commanded. “She needs a healer.”
“I am a healer,” the woman on the floor said.
“Not some back country hippy,” Ashley responded. “We need a real healer.”
Arielle’s wife looked up at her with disdain but didn’t stop what she was doing. She muttered words in Spanish as she dropped a tincture over Selene’s womb, up her body, and into her mouth.
“Don’t you dare feed her your …”
“Ashley shut up,” Willem commanded, and for once, she listened.
“What is your name?” He asked, bending down to face Arielle’s wife.
“Lyra,” she replied.
“What are you giving her, Lyra?” He asked.
“A combination of yarrow root, green tea, and witch hazel. It stops bleeding,” she explained. “It’s all I have here at the house. There’s more at my apothecary, but…” Lyra motioned to the invisible wall that spread out before them, the energy buzzing off of it like electrical wires.
“Thank you,” Willem said, catching Lyra by surprise.
She shook her head and stood. “I can’t have a dead princess on my lawn.”
“Queen,” Ashley corrected.
Arielle grabbed her wife’s hand and looked at Willem for the first time since he arrived. “Hello old friend,” he said.
“Friend?” Her hand tightened around her daughter’s as a maniacal kind of laugh burst out of her. “What about this is friendly? The part where my ex bursts in and tells me you’re trying to kill my daughter, or the part where she locks us inside our home? Or maybe the part where you all have been lying to me for years?”
Willem didn’t really know what to say. How do you explain to a humdrum the consequences of someone like Sia? How do you quickly describe generations of power structures at play? How could he tell a mother that her child must die to save them all?
Ashley spoke instead, ignoring Arielle and speaking to Willem. “We need to get her out of here.”
He nodded his head in agreement. Removing Selene wouldn’t take away the threat, but maybe if they brought her back to the Coven Council, they can buy Arielle and her family time to run. Where they could go and be safe, he didn’t know. But run they must.
Putting his hands in the air, he tested the pulse of the wards, feeling for Selene’s magic. Each person’s magic had a tone, like their voice, a sound that defined them. Willem knew the language of Selene’s power almost as fluently as his own. He read her spell, sorted through not just her words but her intentions, finding a loophole to push through.
“There,” he said finally, touching a hole in the fabric of space and time. “Lyra, pick up Selene’s arm and put it through the wards.”
“What are you doing?” Ashley demanded.
“Trust me,” Willem said.
Lyra shook her head, but followed Willem’s request, lifting Selene’s limp arm and dropping it through the wards. They rippled with the impact, but otherwise held.
Willem bent down and grabbed her hand, unceremoniously dragging the Queen’s limp body across a bed of pine needles. “She made an exception for herself,” Willem huffed, pulling his best friend towards him.
“What do we do with them?” Ashley pointed towards Arielle and her family.
“Leave ‘em here,” Willem hoisted Selene up into his arms and headed towards their car.
“You can’t just lock us in here!” Lyra shouted.
Willem ignored her, laying the Queen down in the back seat and buckling her in as tightly as he could. He shut the door and headed to the driver’s side.
“Willy Gee!” Arielle yelled at him, the old nickname tugging at his heart. He turned around to face her, desperation and fear in her eyes. “Please.”
Willem took a deep breath and walked back to the edge of the wards, facing the family – and the consequences of their actions. “I don’t know why you inherited so much power,” he pointed to Sia and then turned to Lyra, “And I don’t know why you’re up here in hiding. But I do know that very soon the most powerful people in the world will come here to take your child away if we don’t distract them. Selene is the distraction. As long as we can make them believe she caused the power surges, we can keep them away from here.”
“And what happens when they find out it wasn’t her?” Lyra asked.
“Then you run like hell,” Willem said, turning around, heading to the car, and speeding away, leaving Arielle and her family behind.
Time for Your Input!
This week, I want to know: What should Willem tell Her Majesty and the Coven Council?!
He’s on his way back to the palace with Selene barely breathing. When Her Majesty and the Coven Council demand an update, what should Willem say?
For the next week, the poll is open and the comments are waiting for your magic.
This is where Plot Twist truly comes alive so: 🗳️ Vote, 💬 comment, and 🗣️ engage (respectfully) with others.
✨Join in and be a part of creativity + community!
See you in the comments!
Lauren
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