Confined (A Tethered Novel, Book 3)

by Snyder, Jennifer

  No, I have to do this, Theo. I have to.

  I projected in case he could hear me, repeating the words again in my mind as a reminder to myself that it was true.

  “Drink,” Admer called out. His voice sounded like a loud boom in the silence of my living room.

  Each of us pressed the mugs we held to our lips and let the warm, syrupy sweetness inside trickle down our throats, cleansing us from the inside out and readying us for the rite we were about to perform.

  The water was surprisingly warm as it lapped against my ankles. I was mesmerized by the deep midnight blue of it as it mirrored the low-hanging, murky clouds above. It seemed endless, to the point of touching the sky. I stared, struggling to differentiate where one ended and the other began. The wind picked up as the ocean air dampened a little more, holding the promise of rain. Pausing in my walk, I turned to face the ocean directly. Inhaling the salty breeze, I allowed the dampness of the warm air to touch my face and seep through my skin.

  Strands of my dark hair blew across my face in individual wisps as I turned to watch the others gather. Adrenaline pumped through my veins at a nearly nauseating pace, and my heart pounded out a nervous rhythm in my chest as I thought of what I was about to do.

  My eyes shifted from Callie to Adam and then lastly to Kace. After tonight, they would all finally be initiated. After tonight, I would be initiated as well, and the tether between Theo and I would be broken.

  I could feel the power of whatever had been in the tea I’d finished moments before already working its magick throughout my body. It tingled through my veins and awoke my mind, settling me in an eerie calm. I shifted my gaze past the others and down the beach, suddenly wondering where everyone who had been here watching the fireworks hours before had disappeared to. I’d assumed there would have been massive beach parties in full swing by tourists and locals alike, but there was nothing of the sort.

  The beach was quiet and peaceful, leading me to wonder if some sort of disbandment spell had been set into place to assure we would be alone and uninterrupted while performing the rite.

  Della walked past me in her flowing blue robe she’d changed into. It was made of a thicker fabric than my own dress, but gorgeous nonetheless. Her dark hair fell to her shoulders in loose waves, which swayed in the gentle breeze and glistened in the bright moonlight. In her hands, she held four candles—one red, one blue, one green, and one silver—each meant for one of us.

  Susan walked to my side. “Are you nervous?”

  Any unease or anger I would have thought she’d show during the moment was missing. Instead, the spell Callie had placed over her seemed to make her more chipper than ever.

  “Not really,” I admitted, knowing I should be, but the nerves I’d felt while dressing had disappeared entirely.

  I wondered what exactly Admer had put in that cleansing tea of his. Should I be feeling this compliant? The moment I thought to question my languid movements and ease of mind, a nearly numbing sensation coursed through me, which muted it all completely and left me in a state of calm yet again.

  “Let’s begin,” Charles called, drawing everyone’s attention to him. It was then I noticed the four things placed at his feet—a feather, a seashell, a crystal, and a tea candle, which was already lit. “Admer, will you walk the children through as you did us years ago?”

  A large leather-bound book was passed from Charles’s hands to Admer’s. Their eyes locked and a small smile became mirrored on each of their faces.

  “Gladly,” Admer said. “Step forward, initiates.” He glanced around, seeking the eyes of all four of us.

  My legs moved on their own accord directly toward him. This wasn’t something I questioned, but rather something I dazedly noticed. As the four of us formed a line in front of Admer, we were each given a candle from Della. I accepted the red candle from her, and softly caressed its smooth wax with my index finger.

  With each of us now holding a candle, we remained standing in front of Admer, waiting for his next words eagerly. The others took a few steps back and gave Admer center stage.

  “Each of your elements is set with a direction—east, south, west, and north—and in that order. This rite will begin with the east and end with the north. East is Air. South is Fire. West is Water. And north is Earth. Follow my lead and repeat after me,” Admer said loudly, his green eyes glittering like emeralds in the night sky. The oddly placed excitement I’d witnessed burning in the depths of them still shimmered brightly, illuminated by the moonlight. “We begin with east.”

  Everything he said seeped into my brain and clung there like a heavy fog. The strong breeze from the ocean picked up, and a bolt of lightning flashed somewhere in the distance. It was either a coincidence or else someone didn’t like what we were about to do here.

  Both were equally possible.

  I thought of Theo and wondered if he was nearby, watching and waiting. Maybe the wind had come from him. My thoughts cleared as my focus zeroed in on Admer once more.

  He placed a hand on Kace’s shoulder and guided him a few steps away. He moved to do the same with Adam and Callie, and finally me.

  “Each of you now stands in your elemental position,” Admer said. He handed one long match to each of us. “Kace, repeat after me: Here stands the eastern watchtower, the keepers of Air. I call to you to guard over this circle tonight.”

  “Here stands the eastern watchtower, the keepers of Air. I call to you to guard over this circle tonight,” Kace repeated. His voice sounded precise and clear as he uttered the words.

  “Light the candle now,” Admer directed.

  Kace lit the candle without hesitation and held it between his hands firmly.

  Admer shifted to look at me. “Here stands the southern watchtower, the keepers of Fire. I call to you to guard over this circle tonight.”

  I knew exactly what I was supposed to do—repeat his words.

  Opening my mouth to speak the words, they flowed from my lips without uncertainty and instead with a confidence I hadn’t known I possessed. “Here stands the southern watchtower, the keepers of Fire. I call to you to guard over this circle tonight.”

  Striking the match I’d been given to the side of the red candle, I lit it in one fluid movement. When I was done, my eyes met with Admer’s, and I noticed a small smirk twist the corners of his lips. That eerie oddness of excitement glowed even brighter in his eyes.

  “Here stands the western watchtower, the keepers of Water. I call to you to guard over this circle tonight,” Admer said, after shifting his gaze from me to Callie.

  I kept my eyes on Admer, while I listened to Callie repeat what he’d said and then light the blue candle she held. The more I watched him, the more I disliked him for whatever reason. What had my mother ever seen in him? He was the oddest person I’d ever met, and I couldn’t believe that he was my father.

  Next was Adam’s turn.

  “Here stands the northern watchtower, the keepers of Earth. I call to you to guard over this circle tonight,” Adam repeated after Admer in a steady tone, and then followed suit and lit his candle.

  “All four of you, set your candles on the ground where you stand, and say, ‘As above and now so below. This circle is cast and so it shall last,’” Admer insisted.

  Carefully setting the candle down where I stood, I repeated after Admer and along with the others, “As above and now so below. This circle is cast and so shall it last.”

  “Step forward now,” Admer commanded.

  I took three measured steps forward across the silky sand beneath my bare feet. A tiny flutter of panic made its way through my mind, but was gone the moment Admer’s eyes locked with mine.

  “Gather up your elemental representations in your hands and repeat after me,” Admer said.

  Bending down, I reached for the tea light, sure it was the only one of the four present that could stand for Fire. I cupped my other hand over the flickering flame to keep it lit as I held it in my palm and repeated after Admer
as he had said:

  “Air, Fire, Water, Earth,

  Together we are balanced and in balance lies power.

  The four elements are us, in line equal and true,

  Bound as one in all magick we do.

  Through our blood our powers shall free,

  United as one, so mote it be.”

  The sound of the four of us repeating the spell in rhyme sent chills along my skin and made the hair at the nape of my neck stand on end. There was power in those words, and I felt every ounce of it as I spoke them in sync with the others beside me.

  “Now toss each of your elemental representations into the sea’s ever-moving waters. This is to ensure your magick will forever continue to flow through the four of you freely, as long as the ocean still ripples,” Admer insisted.

  Carrying my tea candle in the palm of my hand, I walked to the ocean’s edge with Kace on one side and Callie on the other. The edges of my dress met with the warm water as I paused, preparing to toss the candle out as far as I could. A slight pang of worry slithered along my spine while I wondered whether the tether would be broken now or not, but it was gone just as quickly as it had come, and I chucked the candle out to sea.

  Cheers and claps from those that had been standing and watching the rite erupted from behind us. Della rushed forward with a tray of drinks I hadn’t seen in her hands before the rite.

  “Take one. Let's celebrate!” she insisted.

  I reached out and grabbed one of the little paper cups with moons and stars printed on them. Putting it to my lips, I took a small sip, expecting it to be coffee, and was surprised to find it was a rum and Coke instead. Its spicy aroma tickled my nose as its warmth slid down my throat. Almost as though the drink itself had melted away whatever had been in Admer’s tea, my mind cleared completely, and I realized with a certainty what had just transpired.

  I’d completed the initiation and now I needed to find out if the tether had been broken. When I would get a chance to, though—that was a whole other question.

  It was close to three in the morning before everyone’s parents and Admer finally decided to leave. If there was one thing about these people that I had learned in the span of a few hours, it was that age did not determine how hard you could party.

  After everyone had left, Kace sunk down on the couch beside me, and tossed his heavy arm over my shoulders. We were all still dressed in our initiation attire, and none of us cared to change. It turns out going “commando,” as Adam had called it once before, was actually comfortable and liberating in a sense. I wasn’t sure how much alcohol each of us had consumed, but I was positive I’d passed incredibly tipsy nearly an hour ago, even though I had continued to drink.

  I was celebrating a lot of things tonight.

  I was celebrating having the courage to go through with the initiation, but also the tether being broken. Of course, I didn’t know if that last part was true just yet, but I did know when Kace and I touched now, there was a much stronger sense of magick flowing underneath my skin, waiting to be released by the spoken words of a spell.

  “Let’s head up to that attic of yours and try a spell out,” Adam said. His words slurred a little, but I was inebriated enough to understand exactly what he meant. It was like a second language, but I got it.

  I laughed. “You can’t be serious.”

  “No, I am,” he insisted with a little more conviction than necessary.

  “I don’t know if I could walk up those narrow stairs without killing myself right now,” Callie muttered from where she sat curled up in the recliner.

  “Seriously,” Kace agreed. “But, doing a little something could be fun.”

  “Just one, Avery,” Adam said. “We’ve all been waiting so long for this.”

  I stumbled as I moved to stand, but caught myself quickly. “Sure, fine. Why not?”

  Adam and Kace cheered as we exited the room and started toward the first set of stairs.

  I wasn’t sure how long it took the four of us to reach the red attic door, but I did know that Callie nearly fell to her death twice and almost peed herself in a fit of hysterical laughter more than once because of it. When I finally managed to grip the metal doorknob and swing the door open, Binks darted between my legs and into the room from out of nowhere. Each of us laughed as we entered the room after him.

  “That cat of yours can be creepy sometimes,” Kace said.

  “Awe, but he’s so sweet,” Callie insisted. “Kace, don’t talk bad about him.”

  “I’m not. I’m just saying,” Kace insisted.

  I stumbled over to the large leather-bound book in the center of the room that rested on the podium. Flipping through its aged pages, I paused and directed my attention to Adam.

  “Well, what type of spell do you think we should try first?” I asked.

  Excitement twisted my gut. I never thought I’d ever say those words aloud and it not be in regards to something Halloween-ish or as part of a joke.

  Adam sauntered over to where I stood and leaned his hip against the podium for support as he took over flipping through the book carefully.

  “How about something simple,” he suggested.

  “Like?” I pressed.

  “Like a simple tester spell using all four elements,” Adam said.

  I sobered a little while processing what he’d just said. Adam was smarter than he wanted others to give him credit for. I watched the pages of the book flip as he searched for a spell he thought would suffice.

  “How about one that involves drawing money to us? That way we don’t have to rely on Twila Van Rooyen’s spells any more for that either,” Kace suggested from where he sat, slouched over on the puke-colored love seat.

  “I like the sound of that,” Adam agreed. He continued to flip through the book, only now he turned the pages a little faster since he knew what he was looking for. “Here we go,” Adam said after a little while. “To draw wealth from the elements.”

  I would have been lying if I said the idea of the spell didn’t excite me. Was this really what I could do for myself now that I’d become initiated? Life would be so much easier. I glanced over the list of ingredients, scrolling across the cream-colored page in the same beautiful handwritten script as the others I’d read before.

  — a copper casting pot

  — a pinch of salt

  — one tablespoon of purified water

  — one small green candle

  — one stick of sage incense

  — one incense holder

  Adam repeated the list of ingredients under his breath as he moved about the room, gathering each item. I remained where I stood—at the podium, my body a few degrees warmer due to the alcohol flowing through my veins. Kace lifted himself off the love seat and crossed the room to stand beside me. His hand lightly stroked against my lower back as he glanced over the spell Adam had chosen. Callie peeled herself off the doorframe and stumbled to where we all stood. She leaned against the podium for support as well, and I wondered if Adam was going to be holding her hair back for her tonight.

  I hoped not.

  Adam came back carrying everything the spell called for in his arms and laid it all out on the little table beside the podium. For whatever reason, the way he did so reminded me of Theo. Each of the times I’d stood in this room and watched him organize his ingredients flashed through my mind in rapid secession.

  I scolded myself mentally for even thinking of him. Did thinking of him and remembering all of the spells we’d done in an attempt to break the tether mean that we were still tethered? Or was I allowed to think of him still, even without the tether being in place, because they were still my memories?

  “Okay, Kace, you take the incense. It stands for Air,” Adam said. His eyebrows drew together as he returned his gaze to the page of the book, reading what came next. “The candle is for Fire, the salt Earth, and the water is for…well, Water.”

  Callie chuckled. “Well, duh.”

  Each of us grabbed our repr
esentations for our elements. I held the green candle in the palm of my hand, while I waited for Adam to continue telling us what exactly we were supposed to be doing next.

  “Kace, light the incense, and say, ‘May the watchtowers of Air blow riches toward us,’” Adam said. His eyes shifted to Kace when he spoke. “Then you lay it in this little stand.”

  “All right,” Kace agreed. He pulled a silver lighter out of his front pocket and held the flame to the end of the incense. Then, he repeated everything Adam had said.

  “Now it’s your turn,” Adam said. His attention shifted to me and then dropped back to the book, so he could read what I was supposed to say. “Light the candle and say, ‘May the watchtowers of Fire light the riches’ way.’ And then place the lit candle in the center of this bowl.”

  Kace held out his lighter to me. I took it, letting my fingers graze his in the process, because even though I was focused on the spell we were doing, I was still under the influence of alcohol, and let’s face it—Kace was hot!

  I lit the small green candle carefully, and then said, “May the watchtowers of Fire light the riches’ way.” Carefully, I placed the lit tea candle in the center of my family’s copper casting pot.

  Adam came forward and dumped a little vile filled to the rim with salt over in his hand. He grabbed a pinch from his palm and held his fingers over the copper pot. “May the watchtowers of Earth grow the fortune to us,” Adam said.

  His green eyes were focused on the little pot with my flickering candle flame and Kace’s wisps of incense mingling together. I watched as he sprinkled the salt he’d held pinched between his index finger and thumb around my candle in the pot. He turned his attention to Callie as soon as he was finished.

  “You need to carefully dump the water around the candle in the bowl without putting it out while saying, ‘May the watchtowers of Water cleanse the riches’ way to us,’” Adam instructed her.

  We all watched silently as Callie finished the spell for us. Once the words had passed from her lips, a warm sensation slid through my body, making my breath hitch as it grew in potency. A flood of endorphins splashed through my mind, bringing a smile to my face.