some more snippets since i can't for the life of me finish a full chapter rn lolol
from Jo's piece, set in the Hits Different verse:
“But I’m not a witch,” Jo says, her fingers tightening in her hospital gown. “My magic is gone.”
She regrets the words the moment she says them, tensing herself when Kai bristles. Before she can correct her phrasing, Valerie nods.
“That’s not how it works,” she says gently, giving Jo a poor attempt at a reassuring smile. “You were born a witch and it is witches blood that flows through your veins. The babies themselves will almost certainly have magic, and I - I think that they might be siphons.”
Siphons -
Jo turns to Kai before Valerie’s finished speaking, needing to see his reaction before she can form her own opinion. Nerves coil through her when he freezes, going so still she’s sure he’s stopped breathing.
“...both of them?” she asks, wishing he would look at her and feeling worse when he doesn’t.
“Given the amount of magic, I have to assume the answer is yes,” Valerie agrees, ignoring the tension building between them. “I drew it away, but-,”
“Ow,” Jo shifts as another sharp sensation blooms to life under her left ribs, more of a spasm than a kick.
Not quite pain, but not entirely comfortable, the telltale rush of siphoning magic hums from inside her womb. She braces her weight on Ric’s shoulder, finally recognizing the strange internal pinch for what it is.
The girls, her precious girls, have been drawing on her body's magic this entire time.
HIYA:
“He’ll get over it,” Bonnie sighs, though even as she says it she realizes it might not be true. She’s never known Kai to back down from a fight, but the look on his face when he’d left their office had seemed far closer to defeat than his typical calculated rage. “He’s just pouting because I’m not giving him what he wants.”
“And that would be what, exactly?” Elena asks, steam swirling with her breath when she takes another sip of her coffee.
Bonnie levels her with a flat stare, trusting the silence to speak for itself.
“Oh,” Elena whispers the moment she decodes the blank look on her face. She sets her mug aside to scoot closer on the couch, her eyes glinting with mischief for the first time since Stefan died. “You didn’t tell me things were getting that serious.”
“Because they aren’t,” Bonnie says, a beat too quickly. “They aren’t,” she insists again when Elena starts to laugh. “Everything just feels so…complicated. This is why I told Ric I didn’t want any help! I made the decision to stay out of a coven for a reason.”
“You can’t stay scared of other witches forever,” Elena reminds her, doing her best to stop giggling. “It can’t be good for you.”
“I’m not scared,” Bonnie snaps.
Elena gives her the same disbelieving smile she’s had since high school, the one that screams of skipped cheer practices and poorly chosen boys. “Yes, you are,” she says, matter of fact. “Because you like him.”