Rail thin, most of her hair fallen out, with patches of red welts covering her body, the woman looked near death.
"It's okay," Lydie whispered, squatting in the boat and finding a space on the woman's arm that didn't look bruised and angry to touch. The woman shivered violently and Lydie had her first regret at not waking Elda.
"There, there, you're not alone anymore. I'm here to help you," she cooed.
The woman twisted around and looked at Lydie. Lydie saw recognition in her eyes but she did not know the witch beneath her.
At night, Faustine rarely connected with the witches of Ula telepathically. It was disruptive to his sleep if he did so, not to mention theirs. Still, Lydie reached out to him. She was not telepathic, but Faustine had taught her years ago that intense concentration on another person, even without special abilities, could convey a message. With someone like Faustine, whose mind was open and receptive in a supernatural way, that was much more likely to happen. Within seconds, she felt him.
"What's happened, Lydie?" he asked.
Lydie did not respond, but looked at the witch in the boat, knowing that Faustine would sense her.
"Adora," he said. "Stay where you are. I'm coming."
Chapter 3
Set high in the forest, on a cliff overlooking the ocean, the Sky Mothers had five yurts for their visitors. A beautiful open-air kitchen with a tree growing in its center offered them a place to gather for their first morning at the coven.
Sebastian worked on preparing a French press of coffee while Abby wandered the kitchen, touching things.
"Everything is so deliberate," she said. "Look at this table."
The table was a mosaic of broken glass in a hundred different colors and shapes. It formed a goddess pattern in the same shape as the archway into the Sky Mothers' central house.
"I like it," Sebastian said. "And at the same time, I don't. Maybe it's the whole 'no man' thing, but I feel like more of an outsider here than anywhere I've ever been."
"It's not just you," Abby admitted. "I feel that way too. Like we've stumbled into an alien civilization. Ula is different than the typical world, but there's something very human about it. Everything here feels sort of..."
"Perfect," Sebastian finished.
"Yes, perfect. And cold."
"I dig the yurts though," he said. "Making love to you with the whales calling in the ocean. I could have died a happy man last night."
Abby smiled, remembering.
It had been hopelessly romantic. Through the skylight in the roof of the yurt, they could see a billion stars. The whales sang in their deep baritone cries. Abby felt like she melted with Sebastian. Afterward, she slept better than she had in months.
"Waking up to pee was a bit harrowing," she confessed. "I was scared I would plummet over that cliff in the dark."
"That's why I peed in the bushes," Sebastian told her.
The community bathroom on the cliff was tucked near the woods. The walk only took a couple of minutes, but in the dark with the rush of the sea far below, it had been an unnerving journey.
"Is that coffee I smell?" Helena twittered, gliding into the yurt. She wore a long dress that reminded Abby of the cosmos. Dark turquoise and purples created whorls and spirals within the fabric.
"Coffee coming right up," Sebastian told her. "Cream?"
"Yes, and honey?"
Sebastian delivered Helena her coffee and slid onto the bench next to Abby.
"My head hit the pillow and I didn't move until five minutes ago. I can't remember the last time that I slept so good," Helena said, sipping her coffee appreciatively.
"Us too," Abby agreed.
"I swear I saw one of those ghostly Sky Mothers sneaking out of Oliver's yurt last night." Sebastian grinned.
"No, you did not," Abby exclaimed. "Did you?"
Sebastian shrugged. "That or he's staying in a haunted yurt."
As if on cue, Oliver lumbered in wearing only a pair of surf shorts and a vaguely guilty expression.
"Yes! The coffee gods have blessed us," he moaned, grabbing a mug hanging from a rack carved from driftwood.
"Anyone else bless you last night?" Helena murmured, stirring her coffee and eyeing Oliver mischievously.
He cocked an eyebrow and then looked at each of their faces.
Abby grinned and tilted her head.
A tiny something tugged at her heart, but she ignored it. She loved Sebastian. Any feelings she had toward Oliver were strictly platonic. Why on earth would she care if he had a fling with one of the Sky Mothers? Though she had to wonder how he managed to get one of them into bed after only a few hours.
"My lips are sealed," he told them, pouring an enormous ration of sugar into his coffee.
"Oh, come on," Helena teased. "Just give us a name. How can I concoct a story in my head without a face to go with it?"
"No way, no how," Oliver said. "Plus, I don't even know what you're talking about. I had a perfectly amiable conversation with one of the ladies last night and there's nothing more to tell."
"Who on earth was doing all the moaning last night? Good grief, I thought a monkey was in labor in the forest," Julian complained, walking into the kitchen and heading for the last of the coffee.
Oliver turned red and Sebastian guffawed.
"An amiable conversation, huh?"
"Thanks, Julian," Oliver grumbled.
"What?" he asked. "It wasn't a monkey?"
Abby saw the gleam in Julian's eye.
"Matilda said breakfast in the big house at nine."
"Thank the Goddess, I'm starving," Oliver quipped.
"I bet you are," Helena teased.
****
They ate breakfast in the wind tunnel. The long hallway that opened on the garden at one end and the ocean on the other. A constant soft, salty breeze rushed through the space.
Once settled on the chairs and couches, the wind seemed to rush above them, but they were shielded from the sensation.
"Wheatgrass, goat's milk smoothies, and poached eggs," Matilda announced.
Two other Sky Mothers brought trays of food, setting them on the glass tables and departing without introductions.
"Is anyone else joining us?" Oliver asked, looking around expectantly.
"No." Matilda smiled warmly. "It is Sunday. Our Coven's day of prayer, meditation, and fasting. I am merely here to bid you good morning and then I too must excuse myself. We'll see you tonight for a bonfire."
****
In the healing room, Adora slept fitfully. Bridget had given her a sleep aid and treated her wounds. A shimmering sheet, enchanted with healing light, lay draped over Adora's emaciated form. Elda and Lydie helped Bridget crush herbs and seeds and prepare poultices.
Faustine stood close to Adora, trying to intercept some of her passing dreams.
He touched his temple gingerly and shook his head.
"Her mind is very jumbled. It hurts my head trying to sort through her thoughts."
He stood and looked down at her for another moment before breaking away.
"Bridget, let me know when she wakes up. I'm going to the tower to send a message to Julian." He left abruptly.
Lydie watched him leave and wondered if he was angry that she had not sought help before going to Adora.
"Such a shame," Bridget murmured, walking to the bed and slightly parting Adora's lips. Using a dropper, she placed a tiny amount of a dark liquid inside her mouth.
"What are you giving her?" Lydie asked.
"Bit of birthroot to help with bleeding on the inside," Bridget told her.
"Thank the Goddess you found her," Elda said, handing Bridget an amber glass spray bottle.
"I heard her crying," Lydie admitted. "It woke me up."
"Apparently we need to modify our spells. When a person or witch triggers the protective spells around Ula, Faustine should receive an energetic message, but he felt nothing until you reached out to him, Lydie."
"Will she die?" Lydie asked, not su
re if she wanted to hear the answer.
"Not if I have anything to say about it," Bridget assured her.
"How on earth did she escape?" Elda asked, thinking out loud.
****
That evening, Matilda built a great bonfire on the beach. Five Sky Mothers joined them in total. Matilda, Binda, Kit, Grace, and Jesse.
Abby sat on a cloud of air wrapped in a silk liner. The chair bobbed and undulated beneath her, seeming in rhythm with the movement of the ocean.
Sebastian kissed her head as she watched the dancing flames. The fire shifted and twirled with the conversation. When one of the witches' voices rose, the flames leaped higher and brighter. When the conversation lulled, the flames turned to embers.
Oliver walked to the water's edge.
"It's glowing," he called out.
"Plankton, luminescence," the witch, Kit responded.
She had black dreadlocked hair tied back with a piece of twine. Her mocha skin was freckled and glowed pale in the light of the moon. She wore piercings in her nose, eyebrow, and lip. Unlike the other Sky Mothers, she did not wear a simple white robe. She dressed in dark linen pants and a snug black tank top that showed strange markings, like henna tattoos up and down her arms.
"Kit, those symbols on your arms are beautiful, what are they?" Helena asked, leaning forward for a better look.
"They are part of my aboriginal ancestry. My grandfather was a medicine man. My initiation into the medicine lineage included a branding of sorts."
Helena grimaced.
"That sounds painful," Sebastian said.
"It was," Kit admitted. "Especially at fourteen, but I'd spent my whole life preparing. The pain was a gift, in a sense. Until that point, there was so much value placed on the initiation, without the pain and the markings, I'd wake up the following morning no different than the day before. With these," Kit held up her arms. "I was changed. There is fire in my blood, there is a memory of great pain and an even sweeter memory of surviving. I felt like a warrior when I woke up."
Julian smiled and nodded as if agreeing.
"I believe that's important and perhaps missing for many people."
Kit looked at him.
"Not everyone is meant to be a warrior," she said simply. "Though I see that you are, despite the marks that you do not have. I think your scars are on the inside. And yours as well," she tilted her head toward Sebastian.
He stared back at her.
"Yeah, but I didn't feel like a warrior when I got them."
"Well, that is an experience of a fourteen-year-old girl. It was vanity. I hadn't become a warrior yet, I just looked a bit more the part. My true scars came later as well. Most of them are visible only to me."
Abby felt a rolling sensation in her womb. She pressed a hand on her stomach and smiled.
"Is she talking to you?" Grace asked, tilting her head toward Abby's belly.
"Dancing, I think," Abby told her.
"Pregnancy is so beautiful," Grace murmured dreamily. "It is one of our greatest acts of service - to usher a child into the world. Helena says that she is your midwife?"
"Yes," Abby smiled at Helena. "We're lucky to have her."
"And she, you," Grace agreed. "I delivered twin brothers only last week. Such a miracle with their shining blue eyes and tufts of blond fuzzy hair. It was hard not to take them home."
"Perhaps too much energy has already been spent reminiscing about that birth," Binda told her sharply.
Grace looked as if she intended to say more, but closed her lips and looked sadly toward the lapping waves.
Matilda rested a hand on Grace's arm, comforting her.
Abby got the sense that Grace had more than a service-driven love for babies.
Kit stood and gathered several more logs. She arranged them carefully on the fire. Abby saw the flames lick her hands, but she seemed unaware.
Oliver watched her from the shore and Abby realized that Kit must have been the witch in his yurt the night before.
Kit gave him little notice. She glanced his way and then settled back into her chair, watching the flames intently.
Abby thought about Ezra back in Chicago, another fierce witch that Oliver seemed drawn to. She wondered what part of him had been attracted to her. She could not have been more different than Ezra and Kit.
"Want to go for a swim?" Sebastian asked, his face glowing in the firelight.
Abby looked toward the water. She could see the shimmering green luminescence as it washed over the beach.
"Race ya," she told him and catapulted out of her chair.
She stripped off her dress as she ran, still wearing her swimsuit from earlier in the day.
"Cheater," Sebastian yelled, but he quickly caught up with her. In her witch body, she should have been able to outrun any human, but more and more Sebastian seemed to be gaining similar abilities.
They dashed into the ocean. A million flecks of glowing green and blue water splashed around them. Sebastian dove first and Abby watched his beautiful body, naked except for boxer shorts, slice through the glowing water. She dove behind him. They swam hard and fast into the ocean. They both came up for air and treaded water far off the shore.
"Look at that sky," Sebastian said, tilting his head back.
Abby looked up.
She had never seen so many stars. Even at Ula, perched on an isolated cliff in the vastness of Lake Superior, the stars could not compare to the scene above them. Abby felt like a drop in an ocean of sky. She and Sebastian were just tiny stars embedded in a vacuum of sparkling space.
She felt Sebastian's leg brush against hers and a shiver ran along her spine. He is mine, she thought and felt giddy at the notion. A year ago, Abby would not have fathomed the trajectory of her life. She would have admired a man like Sebastian from afar with his shaggy curls and his intense blue eyes. She would have wondered what it would be like to kiss his full lips, to look into those mysterious eyes, to stay up late talking about their dreams.
"And now I know," she told him, wrapping her arms and legs around him in the water.
"You know what?" Sebastian asked, kicking his legs and running his hand along her slick back.
"You," she said, kissing him and pushing back with a rush into the water. She dove deep and swam into the glittering luminescence.
She had gone swimming in the ocean twice in her life and both times she had been overwhelmed by the sense of infinite mystery that surrounded her. She remembered each experience with the kind of clarity that punctuates major catastrophes or intense moments of joy. She remembered wading into the water with Sydney. She was seven. The waves swept onto the shore in a constant barrage of frothy power. Sydney held her hand the whole time. She promised not to let go as the waves pushed them back and the undertow tugged at their feet.
The second time she had gone with Nick, a decidedly different experience. Nick hated salt on his lips and the stiffness in his hair after an ocean swim. He went in the water one time, up to his waist, for two minutes. Afterward, he rinsed in the public shower, slathered with sunscreen, and read from an enormous law text. Abby swam alone. For hours she ran in and out of the surf. Thinking back, she wondered if that had been the day the seed of doubt about her and Nick took root. How did he see the ocean with such small eyes?
Abby burst through the surface. She saw Sebastian in the distance floating on his back, staring at the sky. She wondered if he thought about his own memories of the ocean. Had he gone swimming in the sea with his parents and Claire? Were his memories buried in grief?
She dove beneath the water and swam to him slowly. The abyss spread out beneath her, and beyond the moonlight and effervescent plankton, an infinite darkness awaited.
Chapter 4
No sooner had Oliver closed his eyes than the dream assailed him. He stood again at the edge of the snowy forest behind Abby's house. Paralyzed, he watched as Dafne lifted the dragon blade and thrust it into her body. The dark red of her blood saturated the snow quickly. She re
ached for him, but his feet denied his demands to run to her.
He woke in the cliff-top yurt. His breath struggled to get out as if someone had clamped a hand around his throat. He fought the pressure away.
"Hey," a groggy voice murmured beside him. "You're thrashing like a stuck fish over there."
Kit.
He reached out his hand and brushed her arm, felt the curve of her naked hip. Settling back against the pillows, he took a long, deep breath and let it out in a rush. The vision of Dafne dying came to him night after night. He hadn't told anyone. Each night, after the dream ended, he wanted it gone from his thoughts. By the light of day, he usually succeeded.
Kit shifted beside him and he felt her hand in the darkness slide over his stomach and between his legs. He moaned and rolled toward her, pulling her against him.
It had been more than a year since Oliver had taken a lover. The appearance of Abby and Sebastian had changed the routines at Ula and the desires of his body had fallen to the back of his thoughts. In the past, Oliver left Ula every few months to seek out a physical connection. Sometimes he went to a bar on the mainland. That was easy. Other times, he wanted more challenge so he opted for chance encounters at a library or grocery store. He could be anyone during those excursions and so could they.
Lately, though, he wanted a witch. The random women were never meant to be more. Observing Abby and Sebastian had caused a longing in Oliver that he had not expected. If he was flat-out honest, he wanted Abby, but she loved Sebastian-end of story. Beyond wanting Abby, he wanted a union that traveled beyond a motel room and a night of sex. He wanted a companion. Perhaps Dafne's death had more to do with that than he cared to admit. Though he and Dafne had never been intimate, there had been a bond between them. She was his teacher, his friend, and often his confidante. Not that she ever confided anything to him. She rarely spoke of anything personal, but she listened as he rambled about the family he missed, his brother in particular.
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