by Sara Stone
"I called everyone together because I have some things to discuss," she said, her eyes rounding with alarm. Whatever she was about to say was not good.
"There have been recent issues where those among us are no longer acting like themselves. I believe it has to do with our magical community, but I am not yet sure as to what that means." Harsh murmurs traveled throughout the room. She held up her hand to call for silence.
"Witches from our other counties have been having the issues within their covens, as witches have started acting strangely before slowly dying. They have been warning us that they have no idea of the cause outside of the possibility of a curse," she said. Everyone at this point was asking questions, some yelling above the others to be heard. I was enthralled with the whole thing.
"How many have been affected?" a short woman in her late 30s asked, her face pale with worry with her dark brows drawn together.
"12 witches." This enlisted another gasp. That was a lot of people dead.
"13 is usually one of our lucky numbers. This isn't good," Hattie whispered in my ear.
"With Mabel gone, who is the new coven leader? You were only appointed to be a temporary, Rose." A gentleman with a long white beard asked from her left. Gram's letter said she had been in a coven, but not the head witch. That was another whopper of a surprise heaped on top of all the others I was already trying to deal with.
"I'm glad you asked, Michael, and yes, I am only temporary. I need to initiate the leader, and that's the second reason we are here tonight," Rose said, smiling softly. Her smile seemed sad, bringing up the absence of my gram. She straightened her shoulders and continued.
"As you all know, we lost Mabel a few weeks ago and miss her dearly. She left me in charge of you all until this meeting would happen," she said, turning to me, "Lia, we are deeply sorry for your loss." I blinked back some tears, uncomfortable with all eyes landing on me. I nodded at her to show my thanks. I couldn't voice it, my throat raw with the unshed tears.
"Can you step up here, please?" She looked at me expectantly while the eyes that had already been on me were followed up with whispers.
I looked at Hattie and Judson, my eyebrows almost touching my hairline with my surprise. They both looked back at me expectantly, nodding for me to stand. Nerves ran rampant in my belly as I stood on my shaky legs. She must have more to say about Gram. I didn't really feel like crying in front of all these people. When I stood next to her, she put a hand on my arm, her grip soft yet commanding.
I stood there and took in the room of people. Some were older and nothing like you would expect to be at this meeting, looking more like they should be in a retirement home, and others were young, dressing in gothic clothes with dark charcoal lined eyes. It was an oddball mix. I noticed Ulric at the back, leaning on the wall. I hadn't seen him come in. His lips smirked up on one side in a small smile.
"Lia, I now transfer the coven along with authority to lead them to you in the wishes of your grandmother, Mabel, the former coven leader, so mote it be," she commanded, her other arm raising into the air. The hand on my arm started to warm, sending a warm light into me. It crept up my arm into my chest, where I felt the weight of what just happened to settle there. I was now in tune with everyone in the room as they were my coven. I could feel their fear, doubt, mixtures of emotions battling what Mabel wanted and what they thought should have happened. I felt Rose's relief as she passed on the responsibility of the coven, Ulric's bewilderment of the choice to put me in charge, and Hattie's excitement as it radiated from her. Judson nodded but had conflicting emotions that kept bouncing around. My feelings were instantly hurt by his lack of clear support, so I didn't push to get through the storm going on within him. I stood there in shock for just a beat before the chaos erupted.
Chapter Three
What in the ever-loving crap noodles had just happened?
Everyone in the room started shouting at once. Some trying to calm others, and some were yelling about how I had never even been to a meeting. They called my gram’s sanity into question for making this choice. Hell, I was questioning it as I sat there numbly, trying to process what happened.
“She doesn’t even have her magic under control!” The guy with the beard yelled at Rose. Well, there was one reason this shouldn’t be happening. I didn’t even want magic, but I wouldn’t tell Grandfather Time that.
“Mabel made a mistake! Take the coven back! We will vote on a leader!” A girl decked out in the most gothic, I hate everything outfit yelled. I hated to judge based on appearance, but before I could stop the thought, I realized she wouldn’t be a candidate.
“She’s just a girl! She can’t do this!” a plump woman shouted. I wouldn’t classify myself as being just a girl. I was almost 25, but I would take her comment as a compliment.
Rose held up a hand, and everyone stopped talking. I turned to her, my face red with embarrassment and confusion. I tried to tell her with my eyes as I shook my head; I wanted her to see I agreed with everyone in the room, except for those thinking Gram was nuts to have made this choice. She was a lot of things but not that. Rose was having none of it, not from me or anyone else in the room.
“Mabel had talked to me about this decision way before her untimely death. Being her second in command, I wholeheartedly understand this decision and stand behind it completely. You all knew her and loved her, so trust she knew what she was doing. If you leave this coven, I understand.” She looked everyone square in the face. She wasn’t messing around. She was straightforward yet delicate in the way she had addressed them. I was not those things. I used sarcasm and jokes to guard my feelings. I hated being the center of attention, especially when most of them doubted me before even knowing me.
Many people walked out following the old man who didn’t acknowledge anyone on his path to the front door. Some sat there watching the group leave, looking torn between watching the rest of the train wreck or following the wanna-be Gandalf out of the coven. Well, their confidence in me was self-affirming... I felt sick to my stomach. The weight of the coven was bearing down on me, making me feel claustrophobic. I couldn’t process why I would have felt their feelings. I had so many questions, including when Rose would say just kidding and undo this mess.
“The meeting has come to a close. We will address updates as we investigate the issues, and please understand that Mabel made the right choice. We will make sure we train Lia until she is the coven leader Mabel hoped for. Thank you all for coming,” Rose said, smiling at everyone who stayed. They didn’t look noticeably confident in what she was saying, and frankly, neither did I. They all got up and said their goodbyes, leaving a few of us behind.
“Rose, I think...” I started. She held up a hand, cutting me off. She kept it there until everyone except Judson, Ulric, Hattie, and I were the only ones left.
“Lia, your grandmother believed in you. As her second in command, and now yours, I have no doubts this was the best course for this coven. I will be here to guide you, and they will be here.” I looked at the other three standing next to me. I hadn’t even accepted this as reality, and these strangers were holding me to Gram’s standards of crazy.
“What happens now?” I asked, weakly walking over to a chair and plopping down, rubbing my chest. The weight of it made me wonder how the older woman stood without hunching over. It was hard to decipher who was feeling what, especially peeling apart their feelings from my own.
“You will get used to those feelings,” Rose said, taking the seat next to me, grabbing my hand and giving it a squeeze.
“I will train you, help you tap into your magic, breaking the spell put on you,” Ulric walked over from the wall he had been holding up. How was I supposed to learn something that wasn’t even real to me?
I shrugged in response. I couldn’t even try to fight any of this. They were all being sincere. I knew it wasn’t logical, but I had felt the weight of it. Felt myself feel everyone once she had done it. Something was there, but was it all they made it
out to be?
“We all know this must seem crazy and understand your hesitance,” Hattie said, her mouth picking up in a reluctant smile. Leave it to her to be so understanding.
“Yeah, tell me about it,” I said sarcastically, “Makes the rabbit hole seem not so crazy for poor Alice.” It came off more bitter than I wanted it to.
Hattie burst into laughter anyway, full-on clutching her sides and tears streaming down her face, which sent me into hysterics along with her. It took us a while to calm down, but the laughter had been a relief from all the other feelings.
“If you two are finished, we will head outside to undo your grandmother’s spell,” Rose admonished. She had her own look that somewhat matched Gram’s. I felt like I had been caught taking a cookie out of the jar.
We walked into Rose’s backyard, filing out the back door. To say it was immaculate was an understatement. A patio sat right outside of the sliding door—a glass table with a cute umbrella surrounded by padded chairs overlooking luscious green grass trimmed with wildflowers.
“How does your yard look like this when your house looks like it’s falling apart?” I asked, astounded by the beauty of it.
“That’s all just the glamor to keep people away. If I weren’t out here with you, it would match the front of the house,” she said nonchalantly. I didn’t understand the workings of magic, but I wasn’t going to underestimate what it took to do something like that either. Everything in my life seemed to be all falling back on magic. Gram being a witch, the people I was meeting all being part of the coven, and now who I should be was as well. My mind didn’t want to accept what I couldn’t see, but it was hard to dispute what I felt. Was I going to be able to feel everyone all the time? I was already nervous, so feeling the waves of emotion coming from each person around me amplified it.
Rose walked to the middle of her grass, kicking off her shoes as she went. With a bottle of salt in her hand, she spun slowly and gracefully in a perfect circle around her. She raised her arms above her head, whispering to herself with a flash of blinding white light, the salt circle took on an iridescent glow.
“Take your shoes off and join me in the circle.” I raised my eyebrows in question. Hattie was already following suit, walking into the circle barefoot and grabbing Rose’s hand.
“The earth is full of its own magic. When you are touching it without boundaries, it helps with your own spells. Some more than others as they are elemental witches, like Hattie.” Hattie nodded with a proud smile.
“This should be a straightforward spell. Once we join hands, I will start the spell, and you will look within yourself for your spark. The words will help guide the spell, sometimes it’s unnecessary, and we only focus on intent, but since we were not the ones to spell you in the first place, it needs to be precise. You need to focus your intent the most since this is for you, although I am the one casting. If it helps, you can close your eyes.”
I took off my shoes, feeling the cool, damp grass beneath my feet. I stepped hesitantly into the circle and clasped hands with both women. She began chanting, and I followed orders, closing my eyes, trying to center myself as if I were doing yoga. Not that I ever did yoga. Part of my brain tried to process what she was saying, but most of the words were archaic and confusing. Rose squeezed my hand as if she sensed I was off track.
I took a deep breath and tried finding my center. I didn’t know what a spark was or what it would look like, but I followed along like I knew what I was looking for. As I was calming myself down, Hattie joined in the chant, their voices rising into the night. I started to notice the air went from a slight breeze to nothing but static hanging in the air, teasing the hair on my arms. I began to glimpse a hazy purple light above my middle under my heart.
As I focused, it got bigger under my scrutiny, and I used my mind to focus on grabbing it. How I saw inside myself with just concentration was baffling.
As I fully grasped it, the warmth spread through my middle, into my shoulders, and down into my hands. It was a strange yet light, airy feeling. I opened my eyes and let go of their hands, only registering Rose’s warning not to step out of the circle. I was sure when I looked down, I wouldn’t see anything since it had all just happened in my head, in my calm state. There was no way I would see what I was feeling. Sure enough, my fingertips were glowing with the same purple I had found inside myself. Sparks were dancing between my fingers, feeling like a slight tickle you’d get from a feather.
With one final chant thanking the goddess, Rose released the spell and the circle surrounding us. They were seeing what I saw and in awe of it just as much as I was.
Rose asked me to join her at the patio table. Hattie had gone inside for a drink, and Judson stood by the back door, looking unsure of what to do next. I sat down in a chair, feeling as if it drained and excited me. Ulric set a white candle down on the glass top, extracting the umbrella from the middle and excusing himself to go inside.
“I want you to use your power by lighting that candle. You will envision the candle being lit, and it should light,” she said, looking at the candle briefly. As she did, it lit as if she had used a match. It was a neat trick. Part of me still wanted to see if she had done something too quickly for my eyes to follow. I wanted to prove it was nothing more than a parlor trick.
“You don’t blow on it?” I asked, remembering the scene from Practical Magic.
“No, why would you need to blow it?” she questioned.
“In that witch movie, Sandra’s character blows the candle to light it? I always loved that part,” I said, laughing at the shock on her face. She obviously never watched it.
Rose looked at Judson in wonder as if she couldn’t believe I had just compared her magic to an imaginary witch. He just shrugged. When Rose looked away, I saw a hint of a smile play on his lips. He understood what I had meant. Ha.
“Okay, now focus. I need to see what we are working with,” she instructed, back in teacher mode.
I squared my shoulders, leaning forward towards the table. My sight never wavering from the candle’s wick as I thought about it being lit. Nothing happened. I huffed. I closed my eyes, seeing the candle’s flame in my mind. I opened my eyes and focused again. This time a little smoke came off the wick. I looked at both Rose and Judson to make sure they saw what I was seeing.
“Very close. Try again.” She was nodding with approval, so I did.
I sat there so long trying to get the candle to light; I became frustrated. The tiny puff of smoke was the only sign I had even tried. I started yelling in my head for the cursed candle to light while thinking of it having a tall, fierce flame.
As soon as I yelled it in my mind, a giant flame burst from the candle so tall I was glad Ulric had the sense to move the umbrella, and just as it reached its peak, the whole candle exploded, sending hot wax onto everything within two feet of the table, including my face and arm. It burned like all get out.
“As impressive as that display was, we need to work on your patience,” she said, pointedly wiping the wax off her face with a cloth handkerchief. People still carried those things.
I was in shock that anything besides smoke had come of the display. I sat there transfixed by the mess I had made with only my mind. It happened because I thought about it. There was no denying the candle’s demise took place because I did, in fact, have powers. I couldn’t rationalize it away. The proof was right in front of me. The excitement of having evidence and the fear of messing it all up had my head reeling. I got up to get a rag to clean up all the wax and to hide away from the feelings, but before I could, Rose spoke again, distracting me.
“Allow me.”
She chanted a few words, and with a wave of her hand, the wax slowly formed back into the candle in the middle of the table. When all the wax was smooth and unblemished, there wasn’t even a hint it had even exploded. Just as I was about to think magic would come in handy, Rose told me the energy I put out into the world would come back to me when wielding my powers. If my
intentions were wrong, then I would get bad karma in return, so to speak. Good to know. It made sense why it was so draining. Even with the things that made complete sense, there was still a part of my brain yelling at me to wake up from this crazy dream.
“You have to be exhausted. Let’s get you home for some rest,” Judson said, still standing by the door. He was the observing type. Tall, brooding, and silent.
“I am pretty tired,” I dragged my feet as I made my rounds to tell everyone goodbye.
I thanked Rose for everything and promised to come train with her every couple of days, waved bye at Ulric, and then got a shoulder crushing hug from Hattie. That’s when I remembered we would have to walk through an empty cemetery to get back to the truck.
“I don’t want to go,” I paused in walking towards the door. Judson turned to stare at me.
“I thought you were tired?” he asked, his impatience showing through as he wiped his hand down his face.
“I don’t want to walk through a cemetery in the dead of night,” I crossed my arms, ready to argue my way out of it.
“It won’t be that bad. You have your power remember?”
“Oh...right... it’s glamor.” I shook my head. I couldn’t keep track of what was real or magic anymore.
“Yeah...” he had a strange look on his face, but I didn’t question it.
I walked down the stairs with him, following the now neat stone pathway to the house. I couldn’t help but glance back to see that the glamor was indeed gone. The house was just as beautiful as the inside and backyard had been. Not feeling so bad about the walk, we continued out her now manicured front yard through her gate. I noticed that the cemetery was still there and halted.
“Wait! You said it would be gone!” I yelled.
