"Why?" Crwys said. "Because she's afraid of the Arcane?"
"I think that's the main reason. To hurt you is another. And a third is because she believes once Sam's dead—truly dead—then she can have you back." Kyle put his hand on Crwys's shirt. "Bitch be crazy."
Crwys smirked. "You don't know the half of it. I thought I'd killed her once. I hate that I was wrong." He stepped back and pointed to the sky. "How do we stop this?"
Kyle looked up. "Lethe used the Dybbuk's wind and Sam's Sylph to create a sort of…I don't know if there's a word for it…but that thing up there is a physical manifestation of Lethe's anger, rage, fear, devastation, loneliness—it's all there. She's been using the Sylph to siphon it all from herself in her dreams to create it."
Ivan looked up. "You mean it's an ID?"
Crwys looked up at the moving clouds. "A personal miasma."
"Yes. And she taught Gerard how to ward the Cleric Office against its influence. She said having you under its influence would incapacitate you. Force you into Sleep, whatever that is. Then she could take you and Sam would be dead. But then Cosgrove brought you into the office when she told him not to. That cleared your thinking."
Yes, it did. "She's going to use that thing up there as a weapon? How? She's going to rain all that emotion down on the city?"
Kyle grabbed Crwys's arm and squeezed. "It's a lot more complicated than that. The only way Sam can get her Sylph back is to bond with her Elementals."
Crwys whistled. "The Parliament wouldn't like that."
"Why?" Ivan asked.
"Because by doing that her hit points will triple." Crwys was proud of himself for using game lingo he was sure Ivan would understand. "She'll become a seriously powerful Witch. A boss."
"That's what'll happen normally, but Crwys," Kyle said, and he glanced at Ivan, "if Sam bonds with her Elementals and gets her Sylph back—that Elemental's a direct link to the miasma." He looked at each of them. "Do you understand what that means?"
Crwys's eyes widened. "Oh hell."
Ivan looked from one to the other.
Crwys answered. "If she does this, Sam will receive all of that accumulating power and raw emotional spillage all at once. The amount of power behind that emotion…she won't be able to control it. No one would." Crwys balled his hands into fists. "The Witches of New Orleans will be forced to kill her, if she doesn't kill herself first."
TWENTY FIVE
Back when Ina ran the house, the back yard had been laid out much like a working Circle area. Dionysus used that power and the lives of over a hundred innocent victims to create a Coyote Flame in the center of it, and then buried their bodies around it.
Those bodies were long gone, and any biological material or residue left from them burned away by Crwys's fire. He had the back yard rebuilt and landscaped to create a beautiful Circle area that was disguised to look like an English garden. There were still grassy paths between the house and the circular edge of the flowers and bushes planted there.
Solomon and Arden helped me ready an altar as Dharma and Mom consecrated the outer edge of the working area. I wanted to make sure nothing could stop me once I started. The churning clouds overhead worried me. It hadn't escaped me that the storm was unnatural, and I was sure my Sylph was at the heart of it. I could feel him, or else I was fooling myself that I could. Either way, I wanted him back. And once I had him, then I was going after Kyle and exorcising John Domingo. No Well of Souls for him.
Not on my watch.
It was close to nine before we were ready. I could feel the pull of the blue moon, even though I couldn't see it. The wind kicked up around the house, but the physical barrier Solomon created kept it out of the back yard. I had my sacred space. Now it was time to reclaim my Elemental.
I still wore the dress I'd borrowed from Arden, but I'd ditched the shoes somewhere in the house. I double-checked the altar, keeping my measure safe. This was the key to the ritual, having now taken a bit of time to read through it and understand what it was I was about to do. The measure represented my physical as well as magical measurements. It was the tether I would use to bond with the other Elementals.
I could feel them around me, buzzing with excitement. Even Spirit pawed and whinnied with anticipation. The only part of me that felt a bit of hesitation was surprisingly my Arcane.
With Dharma, Arden, and Mom inside the house with Solomon, all of them taking a ritual bath and readying themselves for the work ahead, except for Levi who insisted on guarding the house, I took that moment while standing at the altar to ask the Arcane why she was making my stomach churn.
Other than manifesting in the mirror as an opposite of me, I'd never really seen her. Until then. A version of me appeared on the other side of the altar, just between the north and east poles. Again, she looked like me and had my same shape, except her hair was white and her dress…white. It was like a virgin copy. Only it wasn't corporeal. I could see the flowers and bushes through her.
She pointed at the sky. "That's what's bothering me," she said. "There's something wrong with it. Something unnatural."
"Yeah, I agree. It's not a normal storm, mostly because they don't sit and spin in one spot for several days." I blinked. "Unless it's a hurricane."
"You need to be serious. And you need to be careful."
"You think something bad's going to happen?"
Her white brows knitted together over her nose. Wow…is that what I looked I like when I concentrated? I reminded myself not to do that anymore. "I think something's already happening. There's more than Elemental Power. There's some odd sort of…presence that's covering the city, and it's coming from the clouds. I think…if evil were ever a real entity and not in the heart of man, that's what it would look like. No form. Just a sense of…bad. A culmination of darkness."
I stared up at the sky. It did look evil. It looked like a storm painting, actually. With sooty cotton clouds and flashes of lightning arcing through it. But I trusted Solomon's wards, and I felt better having him, Dharma, Arden, and especially Mom with me.
"My Sylph is up there."
My Arcane nodded. "He is."
"I have to bring him home."
She looked at me and I noticed her dark eyes. "You do. But you have to make me a promise."
"What?"
"If at any point you can't handle this—"
"I can handle a ritual."
"I mean if something goes wrong"—she took a step closer, and I could feel her power—"you'll give it to me."
The large sliding glass doors to the dining room opened, and Dharma, Solomon, Arden, and Mom stepped out. Levi remained just inside. I could see a weapon in his hand. I looked back at my Arcane. "What do you mean give it to you?"
"Just give me your consent now."
Something about that felt weird. "I don't think—"
"Hey!" Solomon said as he started toward me.
My Arcane vanished. I stepped forward. "Is everyone ready?"
I took up my place in front of the altar in the north. Dharma stood in the west for Water. Mom stood in the south for Fire, and Solomon took up a place in the east for Air. I didn't have my mom's athame, so Dharma cut the Circle. Once she closed it, we had even more protection against the building storm.
My Elementals appeared, even my Unicorn, ready to receive their brother back and to finally bond with me, as Spirit and Arcane had. I grinned at them as they lined up in front of the balefire, and I started the ritual.
The words were silent, spoken in my head, echoed by my Arcane. She didn't resist the spell, but I could feel her worry as it ran along the edges of my concentration. In order to bond with my Sylph, I would need the bond of the other four. Spirit stood by me, ready to help.
I started with Water and pulled the chalice to me. My Undine appeared above the cup, hovering there, a little excited mermaid. I had quartered the measure ahead of time and marked it, so here I used a white-handled knife and made the first cut of the white cord. With the cut piece in my ha
nd, I brought it to my mouth and bit it, then I offered it to my Undine who doused it in Water. With the words Dags gave me from the Grand Grimoire, I coiled the cut piece of measure around my finger and submerged it into the water-filled chalice.
At first I wasn't sure what would happen. My Undine looked at me, and I looked at her and then—
Abruptly, I was standing on sharp rocks as they jutted up in the middle of the ocean. The clouds overhead were normal looking, as a storm came up from the left. The wind whipped the water as it came up from my bare feet on the rock, into my legs, my stomach, my arms, and tingled into my fingers. A gigantic wave came up from the sea and curled above me. My first instinct was to duck, but I stood my ground as my Undine and I faced each other. No longer a mermaid, she stood before me as a creature of water. The churning water created a body of blue and green as a face formed with hair of sea foam.
"God Mother's child, I give of my own free will my bond of life. Will you accept it?" she said as she held out her arms and hands of clear blue water.
She spoke! I heard her speak!
I held out my arms and hands and placed them in hers. They were cold and warm at the same time. "I accept. Undine of the Sea, Elemental of Water, I give of my own free will my bond of life. Will you accept?" My voice wavered as I recognized her face now, and I trembled when I really saw her presence.
"I accept." And then she winked at me and stepped out of the suspended wave. She was the same height as me, with soft blue skin, greenish blue hair, and eyes the color the sky after a storm. She pulled me to her as we embraced, and I felt tears run down my cheeks. "My name is Sionna," she whispered in my ear.
I blinked as I was jolted back to the Circle, back to the ritual. I was still holding the chalice when I looked to the other side of the altar, and standing beside the Unicorn was the Undine. For an instant she was the same imposing figure, the same Goddess who'd embraced me, and then just as quickly, she became my beautiful little mermaid.
My Sionna.
My hands shook as I set the chalice back on the altar and realized the cord was no longer inside of it. It was empty.
I pulled the bowl of earth to me as my Gnome stood beside me and held onto the hem of my dress. I cut the next length of cord with the white-handled knife and coiled it around my finger. I lifted a hand full of the earth and sprinkled it over the cord. I handed it to my Gnome who also sprinkled it with dirt. I took it back after she was done, coiled it up again, and then buried it into the earth in the bowl, covering it completely as I said the words from the Grand Grimoire.
There was a pause—
The world changed again, but this time I stood with my feet firmly planted on the ground. Rolling hills and forests stretched out around me at all sides as I turned and gasped at the majesty of Earth. A flower grew out of the thick green grass in front of me. The stalk thickened as it grew, the leaves branched out into arms and legs, and I heard bells chime as the flower twisted until it opened and a soft, feminine face looked out at me. I recognized my Gnome as she smiled at me. The meadows filled with the seeds of dandelions riding the breeze, and butterflies of blues, greens, and golds danced around us.
Her body was that of the green stalk and her eyes were the color of emeralds. She held out her hands and arms to me just as Sionna had. "God Mother's child, I give of my own free will my bond of life. Will you accept it?"
I put my hands in hers and felt the warmth of the world, smelled the earthy tang of life in the air as the seeds stuck in my hair. "I accept. Gnome of the Earth, Elemental of Earth, I give of my own free will my bond of life. Will you accept?"
"I very much do!" She pulled me to her and wrapped me in leaves of soft velvet. I felt her shaking and pulled back in time to see tears in her eyes. "Oh, my Lass. 'Tis a great day. My name is Coventina."
As before, I was suddenly back in the Circle, and Coventina stood bedside my Undine for a few seconds before she once again took on the form of my Gnome. I smiled at both of them, and when it was clear Coventina was crying, Sionna reached over and wiped the tears away.
The bowl was empty. No earth, and no cord.
One more, and then I would be facing the Sylph. I only hoped this worked.
TWENTY SIX
Kyle's cell phone started ringing after they left the Warehouse District. Crwys took over driving while Kyle sat in the passenger seat with Ivan in the back. "Who is it?" Crwys asked when Kyle fished it out of his pocket to look at the face. "Is it Ethel?"
"On the nose." He hit the power button to send the call to voicemail. "I don't understand why she and her little goon squad didn't show up." Then he looked back at Ivan. "You shut off the GPS."
Crwys snorted when Ivan gave Kyle a shit-eating grin.
"That's great and all, but she's counting on Sam doing that ritual, and she's afraid Crwys here is going to stop her."
"She'd be right on that." Crwys grabbed the phone from Kyle and dialed a number while he maneuvered though lighter-than-usual Friday evening traffic in the Quarter. The impending storm had diminished the traffic along Canal, but it wasn't completely gone. He put the phone to his ear.
"You've reached the voicemail of Detective Levi Tulose. Please leave your name and a brief message—" Crwys growled and ended the phone call. He handed it back to Kyle. "Call your aunt and see if she's seen Levi…or Sam."
Kyle dialed and put the phone on speaker. "Vervain residence."
Kyle said, "Hey Cyndy, it's Kyle. Is my aunt around?"
"Kyle!" The woman's volume nearly shorted out the small phone's tiny speaker. "Arden's out with Samantha and the others."
"Others?"
"Yeah, that Papa Dumaine dude, Dharma, that handsome Vampire detective, and another Witch."
"Another Witch?" Kyle waved in the air. "Never mind. Where did they go?"
"The Devonshire house."
He disconnected. "Ina's house. They're doing the ritual right now."
Crwys floored the gas as he turned right on Bourbon and prayed they didn't have the usual barricades up.
* * *
I took in a deep breath and pulled the thick, round fire candle toward me. My Salamander appeared above it, clasping his tiny front hands before him. I felt a special bond with my Salamander since he was the first Elemental I met, and the first one to show me magic. He'd been with me the longest. So when I cut the measure and moved it across the flame, he came forward and took the other end as I said the words from the Grand Grimoire and we held the cord until it ignited.
I half expected to find myself in an inferno, surrounded by volcanoes and molten lava. What I didn't expect was to find myself standing on the roof of a tall building, looking out over a nighttime city. And no matter how hard I tried to identify a building, to tell me what city it was, I couldn't.
The city lights began to burn bright as they blurred in front of me. I put up my hands to ward off the glare and closed my eyes. The light was blinding and the heat pricked my skin.
And just as quick as it appeared, it all disappeared. When I no longer felt the heat or saw the glow behind my eyelids, I lowered my arm and opened my eyes. I was still standing on the top of the building, but the city was dark. The only thing lit up was the beautiful young man in front of me.
He was my height, with hair like Bastien's. Auburn and thick. His face seemed so familiar to me that at first I thought he was Crwys, but then he smirked and I thought I saw Bastien. He wore a pair of jeans and nothing else as he stepped toward me and held out his hands. "God Mother's child, I give of my own free will my bond of life. Will you accept it?"
I put my hands and arms on his and was amazed at the heat. But it didn't burn! "I accept. Salamander of Fire, Elemental of Fire, I give of my own free will my bond of life. Will you accept?"
He pulled me to him in a tight embrace, and I threw my arms around him. "Yes, I accept. It's so nice to talk to you now, Sam. You have no idea how long I've wanted to do this." He pushed back from me but never let go of my hands.
"You
did?"
"Yes. Since that day you first called to me in your crib and you were so cold. I climbed in with you and kept you warm." His smirk became a smile.
I waited for a few seconds. "Your name. Tell me your name."
He lowered his hands. "Once I say my name, we won't see each other like this again. I will always appear to you in the Salamander form. I'm breaching all kinds of protocol doing this, but I have to warn you."
"Warn me?" Protocol?
His expression became serious, and he really, really looked like Crwys. "You have four of us now, bound to you and each other. Getting the Sylph back is going to be hard. Because he's not here, you're going to have to use something to represent him. Something that will solidify him in your mind so he can hear your call. Do you understand?"
"You mean like an object?" Did I have something I could use? "I don't know what. He's Air. I was going to use the incense."
"That's for the Element, but the Sylph needs to know you're trying. You're going to have to show him you still care."
Parts of the city began lighting up now. A building here, a half of one there. He turned when he saw them. "I've run out of time." He wrapped his arms around me. "My name is Belenos, my dearest Sam."
I staggered this time as I came back to the Circle. But when I looked at the Elementals, my Salamander, my Belenos, was in his Salamander form.
"You okay, Sam?" Mom asked and I realized she wasn't at her quarter anymore, but beside me.
"I can do this."
"I'm staying right here with you. I don't like the look of the clouds, Sammie."
I pushed the candle away, the flame extinguished and the measure was gone. I relit the Fire candle, then lit a taper from it and ignited a small charcoal in the center of the sand filled brazier. Once it sparked and smoked, I picked up the bowl of incense and sprinkled it on the charcoal. It immediately smoked and the altar was filled with the scent of Dragon's Blood Rede. "I can't stop now. I have to get my Sylph back."
Elemental Storm (The Eldritch Files Book 6) Page 21
