The Power of Three

Three o'clock in the afternoon is said to be the hour of the Divine Mercy.

But there’s also a popular belief that 3:00 a.m. is the devil’s hour or the witching hour. Do you believe it? Was it coincidental that many supernatural activities occur at three in the morning, or was it merely a result of the distorted beliefs of the confused and paranoid ones? 

What if I tell you that whatever you say or do, whether it’s good or bad, will always come back to you threefold? Would you still do it? 

Three is such a powerful number. It is so sacred, too, that even supernatural entities avoid bumping against anything that comes in threes. 

Because

Bad things come in threes.  

But, what if good things come in threes, too?

****

“Mom, what if I don’t get my wolf today? I have been waiting for it for three years now. Why did Nas and Sean get theirs three years ago, and I didn’t?” Amara groaned. 

“It’s fine, sweetie. That’s not my concern right now. Whether you get your wolf or not is immaterial; it won’t affect how powerful a witch you will become. Let’s go to the campsite that your dads had prepared for tonight,” pointing to the clearing where several tents stand, surrounded by three wooden torches and a campfire. 

Amara, one of the triplets and the eldest of Agatha’s three daughters, celebrates her sixteenth birthday with Nas and Sean. They all walked inside the deep forest with their mother, Agatha, their fathers, Nathaniel and Sebastian, and their younger twin sisters, Willow and Freida. As the clock strikes twelve, Sean and Nas shift into their wolf forms and run to the forest with their fathers, Nathaniel and Sebastian, while Agatha stays with Amara. 

As they watched the four alpha wolves go for a run in the forest, just as they had always done since they got their wolves on their thirteenth birthday, Amara’s expression soured.

They stepped out of the canopy of tree branches covering the forest floor, where the silver rays of the moonlight shone brighter. Just then, three lightning bolts hit the ground surrounding. Agatha and Amara, separating them from the twins, followed by the appearance of Amara’s grandmothers out of nowhere, wearing the widest smiles across their faces. 

“Happy birthday, Amara,” their high-pitched voices echoed through the empty forest, slicing the deathly silence of the night.

“Mimi, Mimi Haze, Mimi El, you came!” She exclaimed. 

“Of course, we will not miss it for the world, Amara. You are coming of age.” Glinda responded with an unreadable expression. 

“Now, sweetie, let’s get to work.” Glinda clapped her hands twice and locked her gaze with her granddaughter. “Spread your arms and focus on your center, then order these lightning bolts to sit on your hands,” she ordered Amara excitedly.

“Mom.” Agatha protested. 

“Don’t Mom me, Princess. I was not there after you have come of age. I didn’t guide you how to use your power. You struggled and trained on your own. It was my biggest regret in life, and I won’t let that happen again with Amara. We are all here for her.” 

“Isn’t that my job as her mother, Mom?” Agatha asked indifferently.

“Yes, it is, Princess. But since you are as new to transition as Amara is, let me show you how to train a young witch when they come of age. You can do it on your own when Willow and Freida turn sixteen,” Glinda said diplomatically, trying not to offend her daughter. She doesn’t intend to overstep boundaries, but Agatha’s power is on a different level, so much so that even if no one trained her, she still managed to figure it out. Although Amara and her twin sisters are also powerful, they are hybrids, and it’s impossible to gauge their magical abilities at a young age. 

Agatha nodded with a faint smile. She stepped back and bobbed her head at Amara.

Once the mother-daughter pair was a few feet apart, Amara stretched her hands sideways, closed her eyes, and mumbled something to herself before raising her head to face the moon. 

The lightning rays began circling her in synchrony before merging into a single beam.

After a few seconds, the rays diverged, each of her palms held one, before the final ray settled on her heart. 

Amara’s eyes remained closed for a full minute. Everybody had their breath in silence. Anticipating. Waiting. 

Once her eyes opened, the lightning rays she was holding coursed through her body and exited through her eyes, shooting them back up to the night sky. As the last ray of light vanished, Amara fell to her knees. She pressed her palm against the ground to balance her weight and prevent herself from falling.

Agatha rushed to her daughter, but Glinda stopped her. “Let her be.” 

“But, Mom.” 

“She’s fine, Agatha. She’s an adult now.” Glinda approached Agatha before giving the remaining instructions to Amara. Once the coming-of-age ceremonies were over, Amara’s wolf came forward, and she shifted swiftly as if it were not her first time. She ran a few laps around the campsite before shifting back into her human form just in time for her brothers and fathers to return from their run.  

They spent another hour sitting around the campfire, laughing and celebrating with the triplets’ favorite chocolate cake. When it was time to return to the packhouse, the three fairies appeared. 

“Happy birthday, Amara! Happy birthday, Alpha Nas! Happy birthday, Alpha Sean!” Gale, Belle, and Pheony chorused their wishes for the triplets excitedly. 

Glinda narrowed her eyes at the three fairies. They are not supposed to be there, but they ignored her. Instead, they flew in front of Agatha before bowing curtly in the air. 

“Agatha, we came to deliver a message. Eon is in critical condition. He wanted to see you before sunrise.” The fairies said in what sounded like a well-rehearsed telegram.

As the last word escaped their mouths, Agatha looked into the horizon. The sun is about to rise. She panicked. There must be a reason why Eon specifies the time. Without saying a word, she vanished, taking no one with her.

She reappeared in Eon’s quarter inside the coven a second later. The seer was lying on his bed. His skin was paler than she could remember, and his cheeks sank. “You sent for me, Eon?” She asked softly after bending to the Seer’s level.

Eon opened his mouth, but only a low grunt came out. Just then, Agatha’s mates and children appeared behind her, teleported by the three elders. 

“My time has come, Agatha. But I must inform you of my last vision.” He struggled to breathe. He has been like this for the past few months. No one could find a cure for his illness, and no amount of magic could improve his health either. His age must have caught up with him.

Agatha bent forward to hear Eon’s barely audible words.

“Lilith will… ret... Argh… argh…” A choking sound came out of Eon’s throat, abruptly stopping him from revealing the rest of his vision. A few seconds into choking, the Seer’s breathing stopped, and his once white eyes turned into midnight black before his eyelids buried them forever.  

A few minutes after Eon breathed his last, a handprint appeared on the soft flesh of his neck.

Agatha’s face paled as Eon’s last words played repeatedly in her mind. She wanted to ask more, but Eon ran out of time. Or was there a more powerful force that prevented him from revealing his vision? As her head lifted, she scanned the room and noticed all the eyes on her, unblinking. Without thinking, her mouth opened.

However, she collapsed on the ground before she could even say a word. 

Five years later…

“Mom, will you come to the coven to see me? It’s my spring break. I don’t get to see you much nowadays. You keep travelling with Dads, and if you’re not traveling, you are hanging out with Willow and Freida. you don’t even spend time with me anymore,” Amara protested over the phone. 

“Stop complaining, Amara. You will soon take over the coven. Consider that as your internship. Besides, your Mimis are there with you, didn’t you say they are cool?” Agatha coaxed her.

Amara didn’t say anything back, but her heart was racing. After her sixteenth birthday, she spent all her free time in the coven, learning spells, creating potions, and helping maintain harmony in the forest. Now that she’s in her final year in college, she’s at a crossroads. She often questions her role in the family. Her brothers, Nas and Sean, took on pack management after their fathers stepped down, while her younger twin sisters enjoyed their lives as they awaited their coming of a