Angelina said, "Yes, I had to use the clump of charcoal to save you and Riordan!"

Willow was humbled, but she knew that they didn't have any more charcoal left for Angelina to perform her trick. "What do we do now?"

"We allow ourselves to get caught," Christabel said.

"After I've made some more Forever Burning Charcoal, that is," Riordan said.

"How do you make that?" Willow asked.

"Well, Willow, doesn't lightning start fires? We just need to get a piece of wood. You can start the fire, and I will recite the words to the spell to make Forever Burning Charcoal."

"What are we going to do if the guards take our weapons and inject us full of iron?" Willow asked.

Riordan grinned and said, "Well, again, that's where you come in. You turn into a cloud and find whatever it is they use to make people unconscious in these hospitals."

Back at the palace, Tareth waited for his cut-off limbs to reattach themselves. He was so livid that he could hardly contain his anger. That woman had his world-turner ring and the belt! "Guards!" he screamed. Seven palace guards ran into the room. They looked around in total confusion when they saw Tareth covered in blood and a large pool of blood on the floor. Tareth thought of a lie to tell the soldiers to get them to bring Christabel back to him. "Go find Princess Christabel and bring her back to the castle. She has committed treason by aiding Willow Nightshade! Also, her court jester stole a ring of mine!"

The guards left the castle and began searching the city for Christabel, Willow, Angelina, and Riordan.

Willow turned into a cloud of smoke and floated out the door of the room. She hoped that no one would see her. She heard a horrible clatter, like metal falling on the floor. She turned and saw a nurse staring at her wide-eyed in fear. Willow decided that she might have some fun scaring the hospital staff. She screamed and shot toward the nurse, sending her running down the hall, screaming at the top of her lungs. Willow looked at the contents of the dropped tray and saw several scalpels and a bottle of Valerian juice, which she recognized as a sedative. She picked up the scalpels and the juice and floated back into the room.

"You gonna find some Valerian juice for the rest of us?" Christabel asked.

"I will try to." Again, she turned into a cloud and floated out of the room.

She had the most fun scaring hospital staff as she floated through the hallways, looking for something that might be a supply closet. She saw a doctor panic and open a door behind a nurses' station. Willow floated in, and the man slammed the door behind her.

"I caught the ghost! It's inside!" the doctor yelled. She quickly turned back into her human form and put on a doctor's coat that was hanging on a peg. She lit her hand up and read the contents of the medication bottles. She stuffed three Valerian bottles and several small towels into the pocket of her lab coat.

The door swung open, and Willow saw three doctors standing outside. "Where's the ghost?" one asked.

"What ghost? It's just me in here," Willow said. Willow remembered that she was going to be doing business with the hospital as a pharmacist.

"Do you work here?" one doctor asked.

"As a matter of fact, I do. Today is my first day. I am a new pharmacist," Willow said. One of the doctors looked at his clipboard. "What is your name?" he asked.

"Willow Nightshade," Willow said.

"It says you're a . . . oh yes, I see here. You were immediately hired as a pharmacist upon admittance to the hospital," the doctor replied, nodding his head.

"Now, if you will excuse me, I have to finish getting acquainted with this place," Willow said.

"Oh yes! Absolutely!" the doctor said as he and his colleagues moved out of the doorway. Willow walked back to the hospital room and gave the bottles of Valerian to her friends.

"I should try to increase the potency of the Valerian in the bottles so that it will put someone out upon smelling its scent," Angelina said. She opened each bottle, stuck her finger in, and increased the potency of the herb. Each of them tied a scalpel and a Valerian bottle to one of their legs with the small towels.

Riordan decided that it was time to make the charcoal. "Angelina, do you know how to make charcoal?"

"No," she replied.

"Can you grow a small tree in your hand that we could use for wood to make it?"

"I'll try. I've never just grown a plant in my hand before."

She held her left hand out in front of her and waved her right hand over it. A small tree grew in the palm of her left hand.

"Hand the tree to Willow. Willow, you zap the tree and cause it to catch fire," Riordan said.

"I saw a bucket of mop water sitting out in the hallway. I'm not doing this without water to put the fire out," Willow said.

"But the tree has to be burning when I recite the spell."

"I don't care! I will hold my hand in the water so that I won't catch fire!"

She stood up and walked out of the room. She returned seconds later with a bucket of murky water. Angelina cringed at the thought of Willow sticking her hand in it, but she guessed sticking her hand in filthy water was better than getting burned.

Angelina handed the tree to Willow. Willow submerged the tree halfway in the water. She zapped the top of the tree, and it began to burn. Riordan held his hands over the tree and quickly said, "Wood burning brightly, darken your flame to keep your firelight for more than one night. Healing medicine come to life." The firelight suddenly went out.

"That's it," Riordan said as he broke the burned piece of charcoal off the tree and handed it to Angelina.

"Healing medicine?" Willow asked.

"Yes, we always activate the charcoal's healing properties in case we need to use it for our health. It's why Angelina was able to heal us. Charcoal is a wonderful absorbent for poison," he replied.

By that time, night had fallen. The doctor came in and examined Willow and Riordan. He determined that they were healthy enough to be discharged in the morning. Angelina and Christabel slept in chairs in Willow and Riordan's room because they did not want to leave their friends alone at night.

Willow was awakened that night by the sound of people walking through the halls. Someone opened their door. Willow slowly became aware that the footsteps were entering their room.

"You're coming with us!" one person hollered.

She felt a needle pierce her skin. She looked up and saw the palace guards standing over her.

Angelina heard all the commotion and woke up as well. She felt herself getting poked with a needle. She felt someone pull something off her left ring finger and realized the guards were pulling off her world-turner ring! She looked up and saw the palace guards standing over her. Then, everything went dark.

"What are you doing? Let go of me!" Christabel shouted as some of the guards handcuffed her. The four of them were loaded into jail carts and taken back to the castle. Angelina did not realize that the bag fell out of her pocket as they were being loaded into the cart. One of the guards opened the little bag and saw its contents.

As they were riding through the city, Christabel saw a long line of around two hundred people standing outside the bank. Most of them had frustrated expressions on their faces.

Tareth sat in bed, waiting for the servants to deliver his breakfast to him. A young woman walked into his room, carrying a tray with his breakfast on it. She looked strangely nervous as she placed the breakfast tray on the bed.

"Here is your morning paper, sir," she said as she handed him the paper. The headline read "ECONOMY HAS WORST DAY IN 30 YEARS!" in large and all capital letters. Tareth seethed with anger as he read the rest of the article, which detailed how the stock market had gone so high that businesses began hiring people, but then just plummeted. The new jobs were no longer there, and more jobs were lost overnight.

I have to get that belt back somehow! Tareth thought as he slammed the paper down on the bed.

"I know, sir, it's terrible, isn't it? It's only your first week leading the country, and already a recession may be in our near future," the woman said.

Tareth fought back nervousness. He forced a smile and said, "Yes, but you don't have to worry about it. Everything will be okay."

The girl smiled weakly. "I hope so. When my oldest sister was a baby, my mother lost her job in the last recession. She, my sister, and my father had to live on the street. They still have nightmares about it."

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Tareth tried to calm himself down. After all, it was only one piece of bad news for one day. He would have his belt back soon, and all would be fine. "You will always have a job here," Tareth said to the servant girl. She smiled and walked out of the room.

"I wonder what is going on there?" Christabel wondered aloud as she looked at the crowd standing by the bank. Someone was reading the morning paper. The headline read "ECONOMY HAS WORST DAY IN 30 YEARS!" They continued riding through the streets, and it seemed like hours before they came to the bridge over the castle moat.

Christabel was yanked out of the cage by three guards. They dragged her through the front door of the castle. The others were carried off somewhere else. Christabel's heart pounded as she realized Angelina wasn't going into the castle with her, and that she might have to face Tareth by herself.

A servant was standing in the entryway. When he saw Christabel, he ran upstairs and knocked on the door of Tareth's room. "Come in!" Tareth's voice said from behind the door.

The servant walked into the room. "Sir, the guards have returned with the prisoners."

Ah, finally! Tareth thought. He put his sword in his belt and walked downstairs. He would have that belt back and fix the recession in no time.

Tareth ran into the throne room. He saw Christabel standing in the room. One of the guards held her arms behind her back.

"Here is your ring, sir!" one of the castle guards said as he handed the ring to Tareth.

"This is a pouch that one of the prisoners had with her," another guard said as he handed Riordan's bag to Tareth. He opened the bag and laughed when he saw the tiny books. "What's so funny, sir?"

"Oh, nothing," Tareth lied. He did not want anyone to know about the books and their contents.

"That's Angelina's ring!" Christabel spat.

"No, it's mine! It was one my mother gave me!" Tareth said.

"No, it isn't! And your name isn't Halvor, either! You're Tareth, and that is a world-turner ring that you used to travel to other worlds!"

"What?" Tareth gasped, obviously taken aback by the revelation. He leaned in and growled, "How dare you accuse me of such a thing?"

Christabel grinned and said, "Oh, I know a lot of things about you, and there are a lot worse things that I can accuse you of doing. Because, frankly, you've done them. I can accuse you of stealing magical powers from sorcerers and sorceresses and killing Professor Edward Smith from Aralin University!"

Tareth's eyes darted around fearfully. "That's not true!" he shouted.

"Oh yes, it is! Just wait until my parents find out about you!" Christabel snarled.

"You are hiding Banderon's killer!" Tareth shouted.

"Like you'd care! You just came in here four months ago, and somehow, you were able to convince Banderon to make you his heir!"

"I helped him round up the sorcerers!" Tareth replied.

Christabel noticed that the guards were watching their interaction with visible disbelief on their faces. Tareth was growing nervous. He had to make sure that he got his belt back, and that he got it back right now.

"I'll prove to these guards that you are Tareth. You wrote all these things down in your diaries! Sizus Maximus!" Christabel shouted. The bag suddenly grew to its normal size and fell on the ground. "You were Banderon's most trusted advisor! What do you think the other nobles would think if you were caught doing magic in the kingdom?" Christabel said, obviously faking shock and surprise.

The police threw Angelina, Riordan, and Willow in the dungeon. As soon as the guards were gone, Riordan's grandfather came into the dungeon. He pulled out a syringe full of white liquid and injected it into each of them. Immediately, they woke up.

"What just happened?" Willow asked.

"Shhh! I will explain later!" Riordan's grandfather hissed. He unlocked the door, and Willow ran out. He then unlocked the doors for Riordan and Angelina, and they, too, ran out of their cells. Willow noticed that her sword and wand were gone.

They searched around the dungeon for weapons, but didn't find any. Riordan pulled up his pants leg and pulled out the Valerian bottle, scalpel, and rag. So did Willow and Angelina. They doused the rags in Valerian and put the bottles in their pockets.

"Hey!" a man shouted. Willow and Riordan glanced behind themselves and saw two men running toward them. They bolted around the dungeon and eventually found the staircase. The man chasing Willow grabbed her and threw her on the ground. She kicked him in the stomach, causing him to fall down. She jumped up off the ground and stuck the Valerian-soaked rag up to his nose. He immediately went limp, and Willow took his sword. She hit the other one in the head with her sword, knocking him out cold, and took his sword for Riordan. The three of them charged up the steps and slammed the dungeon door behind them.

"Thanks!" Riordan breathed, his chest heaving up and down.

"You're welcome!" Willow said. "Now, let's go find Christabel."

Christabel said to Tareth, "And there's something else I need to tell you."

"And what is that?" Tareth asked. "Never assume that a noblewoman doesn't know how to get herself out of a lock." Suddenly, Christabel's handcuffs fell to the ground. She stomped on the insole of the foot of the guard holding her arms, causing him to buckle in half, howling in pain. Christabel turned around, made a fist, and punched the other one in the face.

She yanked the sword out of the guard's belt, turned to Tareth, and said, "I'll show you how I survived that attack that Desdemona orchestrated to try to kill me!" Tareth yanked out his sword and swung it at her. She quickly disarmed him and sliced off his hand, sending it and the sword tumbling to the floor. One of the guards yanked his sword out, and the two began clashing their swords together.

Christabel saw the blood drain from the other guard's face. "How is it still—" He gasped as he pointed at something. Christabel saw that he was pointing at the hand, which was crawling across the floor. Christabel stomped on the crawling hand, crushing it. She then lifted her foot, and Tareth's hand shot right to his arm and reattached itself. The guard stumbled backward, fell to the ground, and let out a high-pitched scream. "What are you?" he screamed at Tareth.

Willow, Angelina, and Riordan saw a guard running down the hall. He was very distraught and was whimpering something about body parts reattaching themselves. Willow, Angelina, and Riordan thought they should probably run in the direction the guard came from.

He screamed, "Don't go in there! It's a monster!"

Riordan said, "Well, I just happen to make my living slaying monsters in the police force." The man shook his pointer finger at the throne room door and shouted, "It's in the throne room!"

Riordan thanked him. He, Angelina, and Willow ran down the hall. "What do you mean you made your living slaying monsters?" Willow asked, remembering that he had previously worked in the police force pretending he was helping them catch fairy blood folk.

"That's what the government hired me to do. To find out what kinds of monsters were behind the Faeblood Wraith killings," he said.

Willow, Riordan, and Angelina ran through a door and into the throne room. They saw Tareth standing in the middle of it, covered in blood, and the other guards were cowering in a corner. Christabel stared him down and held her sword out, ready to strike him again. He grinned gleefully.

"Hey, Tareth, wanna see something really cool?" Willow asked.

Tareth's face turned bright red. He shouted, "He's been dead for centuries!"

"Not according to your journal!" Willow said as she pointed to Riordan's bag. "And, given that he is immortal like you apparently are, I think it is an extraordinary coincidence."

"You have probably read that I have others on my side!" Tareth said, grinning.

"Yeah, Desdemona and Ambrosia. Speaking of which, where are they?" Willow asked.

"Oh, you will find out soon enough! Especially your noblewoman friend here!" Tareth said, grinning deviously.

Christabel's eyes widened. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"Oh, you will find out if you live!" he replied. He shouted something in a strange language. In the blink of an eye, the rope from the chandelier snapped, wrapped itself around Christabel's neck, and yanked her off the floor.

Angelina watched in horror as her friend dangled from the ceiling. Christabel tried to swing her sword up into the air to cut herself down, but missed. Then, Angelina had an idea. She pulled the coal out of her pocket and threw it to Christabel. "Rub it on the rope!"

Christabel rubbed the coal on the rope, causing it to sizzle and light on fire. It burned part of the rope, causing it to break in half. Christabel dropped to the floor, landing on her feet but crumpling under her weight. Angelina ran and took the coal from Christabel.

"Oh, Tareth! Do you want to see a really, really cool magic spell?" Angelina asked. She knew it was either now or never for her to perform the trick that she had learned back home.

"Hey, look at her!" Riordan screamed. He grabbed Tareth's arms, knocking his sword out of his hand.

"Let me go!" Tareth barked as he squirmed around. Apparently, his physical strength was not as strong as his magic. Angelina held the piece of paper in her left hand, and the charcoal in her right. She rubbed the charcoal on the paper, and it caught on fire. She cupped the fire in her hands, and when she pulled her right hand away, a piece of copper sat in her left hand where the paper had been.

Tareth was thunderstruck. That tiny piece of metal could solve all of the economic problems that had befallen Ethermoor since Angelina had stolen his belt. His eyes widened, and his whole body trembled when he realized that he was standing in the presence of either a witch or a sorceress who was much more powerful than he was. He had never, ever figured out how to make copper in either magic or alchemy. "How, how did you do that?"

Angelina saw his hair suddenly turn bright white. She thought this was extremely funny. She smiled and said, "A good sorceress never tells her secrets."

Tareth's skin started wrinkling. "You tell me how to do that right now!" he thundered.

"That's the thing about wishing for an immortal life, the smallest of things can kill you," Angelina said, smiling triumphantly.

He continued to wrinkle right in front of them. Willow's face twisted in disgust, and the guards gazed at the scene in utter fascination. Tareth stumbled to the throne and sat on it. "Take pity! I am your king!" he whimpered.

"Take pity? You tricked me into helping you usurp the throne so that you could become king and have me arrested for practicing sorcery. You assisted Banderon in killing my parents and other sorcerers and sorceresses! They'd still be alive if it weren't for you!" Willow shouted. She felt fantastic getting all her anger at him out of her.

Tareth's body became rigid, and his face became terrifyingly gaunt. He suddenly dried up. His skin turned to dust and crumbled away. Within seconds, Tareth was a pile of dust sitting in the middle of the throne. There was silence in the room as they all tried to absorb what had just happened.

"Is that it?" Christabel asked. Angelina burst out laughing at the comment.

"Well, that was dramatic!" Willow said.

"It looks like that's it!" Riordan said.

"I am . . . not cleaning that up," Christabel said in disgust, looking at the mummified human dust sitting on the throne.

"Hahaha! He'd dead! We're free, and we don't have to worry about him anymore! Well, we still have to worry about Desdemona and Ambrosia, but Tareth is dead," Willow shrieked.

One of the guards said, "In all my years in the army, that is the strangest death I have ever witnessed.

Another one of the guards turned to Christabel and asked, "Why do you think he wanted you dead so badly?"

Christabel answered, "To try to start a war between Kalnoreth and Oloredian."

Who's going to rule over us now?" the guard asked.

"Let's make Angelina the queen since she defeated Tareth."

"Wait, we need to return Tristan's powers to him in Mount Pyraxia before he turns into a Faeblood Wraith," Angelina said. Willow picked up Riordan's bag off the floor. She looked inside and saw both of Tareth's books in it.

"Wait, doesn't the previous king pick the ruler?" one of the guards asked.

"Well, seeing as they are both dead, we need to do something else now, don't we?" Willow asked. "Angelina here comes from a different country where they vote on their rulers."

The guard's eyes widened. "Well, I vote for Angelina, then!"

"Wait a minute, that's not how we vote for leaders!" Angelina laughed. "We hold nationwide elections on certain days, and multiple people run for president."

"President?" the guard asked.

"Yes, that's what we call the leader in my country. For now, we have more of Tareth's students to find. He did not act alone," Angelina said.

"Why don't we put this dust in some kind of urn and take it back to the library for safekeeping?" Riordan asked. Angelina and the others thought it was a good idea too. They went into the kitchen and found a large jar. They swept the ashes into it and screwed the lid on.

Angelina felt an odd tugging on the belt. She turned and saw Tristan's spirit smiling at her. Then, she suddenly had a flash in her mind of the conch shell that Cecilia had told her about that had belonged to Celestia. "I think that before we go back to Mount Pyraxia, we should try to find other remaining things that belonged to the sorcerers who also became Faeblood Wraiths." Angelina could feel that Tristan's soul was freed from Tareth.