Jennifer stood. "They're losing control. What's the matter?"

"I have no idea," muttered Bitty.

Inside the circle, the girls were at war with one another. Amber was the problem. She wasn't fully joined to the circle. Physically, maybe, but not emotionally. Amber couldn't help it and it was fucking with the ritual.

Amy and Jasmine could now see the horrible blood coloured rope that ran out of Daniel's head and disappear into the distance roughly toward where Gwydion lived. It pulsed like it was alive and, in all probability, it was. It was as thick as a light post and made up of smaller and smaller ropes. It glistened with wetness. Amy later swore she could smell it and said it smelt like an afterbirth.

They railed against it. It passed so easily through their spirit shield, but that was expected. They had to sever it. Or remove it.

Seeing it and destroying it were two different things.

What became clear to Amy was that Amber was not helping. She was trying, but her heart was not in it. Amy was running out of ideas and then one came to her. A simple solution, but harsh.

She only thought for a second and then acted. She had to become the heart of the circle. Amber could not be the heart with Daniel in the circle. It only took a heartbeat. Between one beat and the next, Amy became the heart.

She only had to express her love for Jasmine, Amber, and Daniel. She was full of it. Overflowing with it. She opened her heart and let them in. It was like throwing a switch. One second, they were struggling, and the next, it was over. Amy only had a moment of thought to consider just how easily and willingly Amber had allowed it to happen without a fight. Then she realised that perhaps there had never truly been a heart. The position had been waiting for someone to claim it.

Amy did and embraced it. Immediately, she could sense the others as if they were a part of herself. She became the focal point. Magic rushed through her in volumes that staggered her. She had never wielded so much power and she looked down at Daniel, still struggling against Amber's excellent knots.

She looked at the red, pulsing tendril. It was obscene. Evil. She could see where it attached to Daniel and spread throughout him. But she couldn't see any way to tear it free.

Perhaps I don't need to? thought Amy. Magic was new to her. She didn't understand the rules or implications. She glared at the tendril, wishing it gone.

Daniel was part of her circle. He loved her and not Gwydion. The pulsing tendril was an intruder. A vile, unwanted intruder. She growled and made a chopping motion at it, pulling on the circle for strength.

The tendril from Gwydion was sliced clean through where it passed through the power sphere. The tendril leading to Daniel withered and then burst into smoke and blew away. A psychic scream could be heard in their heads that sounded like a woman being flayed alive. It went on for a long time and then abruptly stopped. The sudden silence staggered the witches from where they stood.

Amy looked first at Jasmine, and then Amber, and saw fat tears cascading down her face.

Amy closed the ritual and the sphere of power collapsed.

"I'm sorry, Amy," sobbed Amber as she collapsed to her knees, holding her face.

Amy merely nodded at her, her love for her clear across their bond.

Jasmine slammed into Amy and hugged her hard.

Daniel stirred on the ground. "Hey, can someone untie me? Please?"

The ritual circle, having only been recently closed, still had their emotional bonds open and what flooded them all from Amber stunned them. She looked over at Daniel tied up on the ground with her expert rope work and so clearly vulnerable, and she orgasmed. Hard.

Her head was thrown back, tears still streaming from her eyes, but with an expression of pure pleasure on her face.

"Oh Gods," moaned Daniel after a moment spent writhing on the ground against his restraints and moaning. The front of his pants was stained dark with semen. "Is that how a female orgasm feels? So huge.

It doesn't end! Gah!"