Prue stepped forward, eyeing the empty lectern, then scanning the attic for a sign of the book, running her fingers through her hair.

  “How? How? How could they take it?” Piper wailed.

  “They can’t. It’s protected. There must be some other explanation,” Prue reasoned, racking her brains for an answer. “Piper, are you sure you didn’t move it?”

  “It was here!”

  “Oh,” sighed Leo.

  “‘Oh,’ Leo? A demon has the Book of Shadows! ‘Oh’ doesn’t quite cover it!”

  “I don’t think a demon has the Book of Shadows, Piper,” Leo said remorsefully.

  “What does that mean? Did the Elders take it? They’re playing hardball with us, is that it?” Prue asked accusingly.

  “No, of course not, but I think I may know who did.”

  “Who?!” Prue and Piper screeched in unison.

  “Well, Paige came over on her lunch break, and—”

  If Leo thought this explanation would calm Piper and Prue, he was mistaken. “And you let her take the Book of Shadows out of the manor?” Piper fumed before coughing loudly.

  “Unbelievable,” Prue huffed. “A secret sister we’ve known for five minutes, and she’s already taking our stuff without asking.”

  “I didn’t let her take it,” Leo protested. “In fact, I told her that it doesn’t leave the house, but looking back, she left in kind of a hurry. She didn’t have it with her, though, or else I’d have stopped her.”

  As a thought occurred to her, Prue craned her neck. “You’ve gotta be kidding me,” she said, gesturing to the open window.

  “Out of the window?!” Piper yelled incredulously. “Why would you even leave her alone with it?”

  “Because the book belongs to her too, Piper. She’s your sister.”

  Piper let out a mirthless laugh. “Not for long!” she said, storming from the attic.

  Paige watched as Billy and Lila approached her desk. Lila was staring at his face while speaking animatedly, no doubt still discussing the miraculous things happening to them. Little did they know that this wasn’t divine intervention at work; this was the work of a witch. Her work, to be precise.

  “God, this day is amazing,” said Lila, now in earshot. “I mean, first, you went and got cute.”

  “You think?” Billy asked, blushing.

  “Totally. And then my car loan comes through, like, out of nowhere. And my credit is worse than Paige’s!”

  Paige smiled, feeling a little smug, then returned her attention to her phone call. “I am taking full responsibility for being late with the application,” she said. “I’m simply asking for a deadline extension.”

  “Well, I can’t give you a deadline extension,” the unreasonable admissions clerk she was conversing with replied.

  “I’m just asking that you not punish Adam O’Brien, who’s already had a tough enough life, for my mistake. Sir, all I’m saying is…” Paige peered down at the Book of Shadows lying open across her lap. “These words will travel through the minds, of stubborn parties and unbind, the thoughts too rigid to be kind, a compromise they’ll disentwine.”

  After a few tense moments, the man replied, “How does six o’clock on Friday sound?”

  Paige beamed. “Six o’clock Friday is perfect. Thank you so much,” she said, then hung up the phone. Turning to Lila, she declared, “Victory!”

  “You got the extension?” Lila enquired. “Unbelievable! You’re into all that witchy stuff, right?”

  What did that mean? Did Lila know? Had she seen the book? “Excuse me?” Paige asked.

  “Well, I’m just thinking there must be something in the stars today. I mean, Billy’s face, my car, now this… Is there a full moon or something?”

  Paige relaxed. Lila was just kidding around, so Paige responded in kind, “I don’t know, but whatever it is, I’m going to call my student loan sharks and take full advantage of it.”

  “Ooh, good. Me too!” said Lila, returning to her desk with a devilish grin.

  Paige laughed, feeling so good about herself in that moment. Her moment was ruined, however, by Donnie’s arrival. “You know, Paige?” he spoke into her ear. “As a lawyer, I can get those nasty creditors off your back so easily. And if you can’t afford to pay me, we could always just take it out in trade.”

  “Or I could just sue your ass for sexual harassment and pay you with my big fat punitive settlement,” she retorted.

  Donnie smirked. “The way you dress, the judge would admire my restraint,” he said, swaggering away.

  “That’s it!” Paige muttered angrily, turning the pages of the Book of Shadows to the Instant Karma Spell she had noted before. “To make a demon feel the pain he inflicts, huh? Perfect! Demon, dirtbag, what’s the difference?”

  Piper slammed the door of her Jeep and stalked across the South Bay Social Services parking lot. “I don’t understand how someone can be that stupid,” she spat, clearing her sore throat.

  “Don’t you think you’re overreacting a little bit?” Leo asked.

  “Overreacting?” Piper repeated. “She stole from us, Leo! Why did you even come?”

  “I came because you’re not acting like yourself, Piper. Paige didn’t steal anything. I told you, the book is as much hers as it is yours.”

  “And she threw it out of the window! Our family heritage!” Piper coughed loudly, whether from straining her voice or due to the Fury attack, it wasn’t clear.

  “And I’m sure she’ll feel bad about that if you take the time to explain the book’s significance to her, but if you go in there all guns blazing, you’re just going to push Paige further away.”

  “This isn’t a typical family squabble, Leo,” Prue interjected. “While we’re here, chasing after the book, the Furies could be out there right now killing an Innocent.”

  Before the three of them could enter the building, the doors flung open, and a man emerged, fleeing from the throng of women that followed. “Hey! Hey! Get away from me!” Donnie cried as they surrounded him, grabbing at his body, fighting over the toupee that one tore from his head.

  “What the hell is going on?” Piper exclaimed.

  “Come on. Give Mama some sugar,” fawned Lila, among those who were now lusting after the man, swarming over him.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  That was when Paige surreptitiously exited the building, drawing a green cardigan tightly over her chest for some reason. She smiled sheepishly when she spotted Piper, Prue, and Leo approaching.

  Her magic alarm bell ringing, Piper told her, “Oh, you are so...busted?”

  “Oh my God,” Prue groaned as she pulled Paige’s hands away from her chest, confirming her suspicion about what she was concealing beneath her cardigan—an enormous pair of breasts. It was as if she had a couple of basketballs under her top.

  “Yikes!” said Leo, turning away, unsure where to rest his eyes.

  “You stole our sacred book, so you could perform magical plastic surgery on yourself?” Piper accused, incensed.

  “And you didn’t want to consider something in a D-cup first? Maybe an E? You had to have the deluxe set?” Prue quipped.

  “And instead, she got the booby prize,” joked Leo, trying to stifle his laughter.

  Paige frowned indignantly. “Very funny!” she responded. “You think I did this on purpose? My body was perfectly fine just as it was, thank you!”

  “I mean it! Get away from me!” Donnie warned loudly.

  Piper turned in his direction with a growl of irritation, her teeth bared, and her hands raised. The rabble of women and Donnie suddenly went quiet, frozen in time.

  “Piper, what the hell are you doing?!” Prue chastised immediately, so surprised by the action that the words just spilled out of her mouth. “You-you could have blown them up!”

  “Not to mention that you’re risking exposing your magic!” Leo added, furtively scanning the empty parking lot.

  “I took a chance,” said Piper airily.

  “A chance?” Leo repeated, exchanging a worried glance with Prue.

  Ignoring them, Piper looked Paige in the eye, then down at her chest, “What happened?”

  “I don’t know. They just...grew,” she answered innocently.

  “Oh, right. And you had nothing to do with that? You didn’t, say, cast any spells?”

  “One,” Paige admitted with a shrug, then, when Prue raised her eyebrows, “Five.”

  “Five?”

  “One of them being responsible for this, I’m guessing?” Prue asked, gesturing toward the motionless crowd.

  Paige confirmed this with a guilty nod, “I just wanted to give that slimeball I work with a taste of his own medicine.”

  “Well, our magic is for protecting the innocent, not punishing the guilty,” Prue explained. “Whatever spell you cast, it must have backfired and done the same thing to you.”

  “Which you would have learned if you had bothered to ask,” said Piper. “But now, instead of vanquishing demons, we’re gonna have to spend the afternoon fixing your mess!”

  “It’s not like you’ve been around to ask,” Paige offered meekly in her defense.

  Prue rubbed her temples, deciding it was time to move things along, “Okay, Leo, you Orb that guy back to the house. Piper, do you think you can keep him frozen for a while without blowing him up?”

  “I’m not promising anything,” Piper groused.

  Leo frowned, unable to detect the usual sarcasm in his wife’s tone.

  “Right. We’ll pick up the car later. Paige can drive me while I deal with,” said Prue, eyeing their other bigproblem, or pair of problems as the case may be, “these.”

  While retrieving the Book of Shadows, Prue had the presence of mind to grab a pen, some paper, a cheap scented candle, and a box of matches from Paige’s desk, her plan being to reverse the girl’s botched spell on the way home.

  The two women hadn’t spoken a word to each other since getting underway. Before that, Prue had merely barked advice about moving the driver’s seat back to accommodate Paige’s bust behind the steering wheel.

  Paige wanted to speak up, to engage the eldest of her new sisters in idle chitchat at least, but every time she mustered the courage, she stopped herself. She found something about Prue intimidating. Then again, Piper had been just as scary and imposing today. Both of them were these beautiful, confident, successful women who basically moonlighted as superheroes.

  If that weren’t enough to make Paige feel small in their presence, there was the fact that they were just mourning their sister, when boom! Here comes Paige, ready to take Phoebe’s place like an understudy waiting in the wings.

  Taking Phoebe’s place was the last thing she wanted to do, of course, and she would never presume to. She simply had no idea how to navigate this bizarre situation and was terrified of saying the wrong thing, particularly to Prue, who had been short with her in their few interactions to date. Hence, the awkward silence.

  In Prue’s case, it could be attributed to other factors. She told herself, and would tell Paige if questioned, that she was simply preoccupied with searching the book for the Instant Karma Spell, but the truth was more complicated than Prue was prepared to admit. A small part of her had been open to getting to know the girl. Then, they found out about Phoebe. Finding her had to be the priority right now. Anything less would feel like a betrayal.

  “So, err, Piper seems…different,” Paige finally spoke.

  Prue took a deep breath, resigning herself to having this conversation. She couldn’t very well ignore the girl. “Different how?” she said uninterestedly without looking up from the book.

  “I dunno. Like, kinda angry, I guess?”

  “Of course she’s angry, she just lost a sister,” said Prue robotically, trying not to take such a ridiculous observation to heart. “Wouldn’t you be?”

  Paige felt like she’d been punched in the gut. She had lost a sister too, hadn’t she? But maybe that wasn’t a fair comparison. She had seen Phoebe with Prue and Piper at P3 and wondered about them from afar, but they had never really met. Even so, there was a part of Paige that somehow felt her loss. “I just mean, compared to last week, she seems…out of sorts, maybe?”

  Prue bit the inside of her cheek. Was this girl really lecturing her about her own sister? She barely knew Piper. “You have to understand, the Book of Shadows is more than just an irreplaceable heirloom; it’s like a part of the family. The thought of losing it after just losing Phoebe….”

  There it was, the one-two punch! Prue had her on the ropes without even breaking a sweat. If her passive-aggressive jabs weren’t so lethal, Paige would have been impressed. Deciding to change the subject, she asked, “Did you find the spell yet?”

  “No,” Prue answered, turning pages when she found something else of relevance. There was an entry about Furies. Prue read the details, her stomach sinking as comprehension dawned. According to the book, the Furies’ smoke was used to kill their victims, but in the case of good people, people like Piper, ‘it consumes their humanity and turns them into a Fury.’ “Oh no!”

  “What? What’s wrong?” Paige asked. Not a second later, Prue’s head suddenly lolled forward, and her body slumped against the passenger seat window, held up only by her seat belt. She appeared to be unconscious. “Oh my God, Prue! What’s happening? Oh God! Hold on!” With some difficulty, owing to her crazy boobs obstructing access to the gearshift, Paige put her little green car into fourth gear and sped to Halliwell Manor for help.

  “Whoa, hey!” Donnie protested, landing on the parlor couch after a shove from behind.

  “Easy, Piper,” advised Leo, unsure why his wife was being so rough with the man. As a powerful witch, she shouldn’t be affected by Paige’s spell. Besides, it made the other women lecherous toward him, not aggressive.

  “What, are you protecting him now?” she responded tetchily.

  “Wha-wha-what the hell is going on?” Donnie asked. “And what’s with the chicks? They’ve gone crazy!”

  “This chick just saved your ass, you sniveling ingrate!” she barked.

  “Do you see what I mean?” said Donnie fearfully, looking to the other man for support as he got to his feet.

  “Who said you could get up?” said Piper, shoving him over the back of the couch with surprising strength.

  “What’s the matter with you?” Leo questioned. “Okay, honey, look, I don’t know what’s going on, but we really need to talk.”

  “Leo, you know what?” said Piper, raising her hands. She had held back the last time he lectured her. Not this time. “I’m sick of talking.”

  As shocked as he was to see the familiar hand gesture, Leo didn’t Orb out in time to avoid being hit by Piper’s power. He was more shocked when he took the brunt of her combustion power, rather than being frozen. He was blasted to bits, or Orbs. Thankfully, his Whitelighter powers allowed him to rematerialize in seconds, just as Piper was closing in on Donnie, who was squirming away from her. “Now, we really need to talk. Piper, you do not use your powers on a mortal! Do you hear me?”

  “Back away slowly, Leo,” Cole advised, looming in the doorway.

  “What?”

  At that moment, a pale red blur appeared in the foyer, growing rapidly until Prue’s astral body took shape. “I just read the book, and I think Piper’s…” she started, trailing off when she took in the scene before her.

  “She’s becoming a Fury,” Cole finished, indicating toward Piper’s hands, the fingers of which she flexed at her sides, pointed black claws a sign of her gradual transformation. “There’s no reasoning with her now.”

  Understanding the situation but ignoring Cole’s warning, Leo stood in front of his wife. “Piper, you’re a good witch. Do you hear me? Fight this,” he told her.

  Looking as though he was getting through to her, Piper searched Leo’s eyes, caressed his face, and then shoved him over the couch. With him out of her way, she stalked toward the cowering Donnie.

  “Oh God! Help!” he cried as she raised a claw, ready to take a swipe at him.

  Before she could make contact, Prue grabbed her arm and spun her around. “Piper, stop!” she pleaded, but her sister immediately propelled her backward with newfound demonic strength. When Prue toppled over, Piper pounced. Her attack was interrupted, however, when a small Energy Ball hit her on the hip, sending a sizeable shock through her body.

  “Cole!” Prue admonished.

  Piper turned to the man, eyeing him warily. “That wasn’t very nice,” she said, before disappearing in a puff of smoke.