by Jen McConnel
“It wasn’t just Fairy.” Marcus spoke quietly, and I could see them straining to listen. “Darlena entered Annwn and found me there. But then we ended up in Hel.”
“Two Underworlds! It’s a wonder you came back at all!” The younger Witch stared at me with interest.
“That’s enough, Lorna. You shouldn’t make them any more arrogant than they are.” Jewel rapped her daughter’s knuckles sharply with her hand.
“What in the world were you thinking? Didn’t we tell you not to take action?” Samuel glared at me.
Exasperated, I threw up my hands. “But I had to try to find Izzy! She sent a Seeming to guide me, but I lost her when we shifted to Hel.”
“How did you make it out alive?” Julia leaned forward. Her parrot squawked at her shoulder.
I glanced at Marcus and he shook his head slightly. No one else noticed his gesture, but I didn’t need to be told twice. I spoke with caution. “There was a volcanic eruption, and we rode the fire out.” There was no way I wanted to tell these people about Loki. No one but Marcus needed to know about our deal.
The women gasped and Samuel grimaced. “This is why we do not have dealings with Reds!” He gestured to us. “They are too dangerous to be dealt with safely.”
“Samuel! Be kind.” Frances spoke urgently, but her son shook his head.
“You all felt it the minute they walked in. Don’t pretend you didn’t!”
One by one, the other Witches dropped their eyes, refusing to meet my gaze. Samuel crossed his arms in triumph.
“Felt what?” I looked around, searching their faces. It was Dr. Farren who answered.
“The force the two of you give off is almost tangible. I’ve never experienced anything quite like it before.”
Marcus shot me a quick look and I shrugged. I had no idea what they were talking about. I mean, I got zapped whenever we touched, but other than Frances’s hug, we hadn’t touched any of the Coven. What kind of force could they feel?
Dr. Farren pressed on, trying to steer the topic away from animosity toward us. “Did you learn anything in the Underworlds about Isadora?”
“Well,” I began, trying to find the best way to tell them our suspicions, “we think—”
“Set has her,” Marcus spoke bluntly and I stared at him open-mouthed. He hadn’t acted like he’d known where she was before; what had changed? Lorna gasped, and Frances swayed beside her husband.
Dr. Farren looked from Marcus to me. “He hadn’t told you, had he?”
I shook my head. “We’d figured out she might be in another Underworld, but he never mentioned who he thought had her.” I glared at him, angry that he hadn’t trusted me with his suspicion.
Samuel shook his head in disbelief. “Set would never be so bold. Isadora is—”
“Isis’s chosen one. It does make a certain amount of sense.” The gentle-looking man who was still sitting on the floor spoke quietly, and everyone turned to look at him.
“Set has always wanted those who are dear to Isis. First it was her husband, Osiris. Then it was her son, Horus. It would make sense that he would take the child she raised as her only daughter.”
“Then she’s not in the Duat.” Jewel spoke softly, fear in her eyes. “That is not a place of power for the Lord of Chaos.”
The title of the god rang warning bells with me. “Wait a minute. Set’s another Red god, isn’t he?”
Dr. Farren nodded. “One of the fiercest. His powers of destruction and deception are rivaled only by one other god.”
I felt my hands go cold. “Who?”
Marcus looked at me in warning as Dr. Farren said, “The Norse god Loki.”
Frances made a hissing noise and pushed her hand in front of her, fingers bent in the ancient gesture for averting evil.
“So where would Set have Izzy?” I asked quickly, trying to mask my sense of guilt at hearing Loki’s name. Marcus shot me an inscrutable look, but he didn’t say anything.
“The Egyptian land of death is under the control of Osiris, his brother and rival.” Frederick spoke slowly, thinking. “Set’s realm is to make a hell on earth.”
Julia snorted. “You don’t really believe all that old propaganda, do you?” She turned to me, smiling slightly. “You might like Set, child. True, he is a god of chaos, but the Egyptians understood that chaos was a necessary part of the balance of life.”
I ignored her. “But where would he have Izzy? And why?”
The Witches looked around the room at each other helplessly. Finally, a voice I hadn’t heard before spoke.
“If Set has had the girl for all this time, then she’s lost. It doesn’t matter where anymore.” He turned from the window and I felt Marcus stiffen beside me. I gasped; the red-headed man might have been a mirror image of Marcus, from his piercing green eyes to his hard jaw. Speechless, I stared at Roy and realized that I was looking at Marcus and Izzy’s father.
“Don’t say that!” Marcus turned to face his father. “Don’t you dare give up on her.”
“Son,” Roy began, ignoring the way Marcus’s shoulders stiffened, “she’s been missing for over a year. We have to think logically.”
“Do you think she’s dead?” Marcus stared accusingly at his father.
Roy paused, then looked back out the window. “Actually, no. But,” he went on, “Set has had her this long; whether she’s still among the living or not, we may as well consider her to be lost. The Lord of Chaos bears no love for Isis, nor would he care much for her sworn Witch.”
Marcus sank onto the sofa, his head in his hands. After a moment, I sat down beside him, close but not touching.
“We’ll find her.” I spoke softly, but my words seemed to echo through the room, and I felt a prickly sensation that told me the eyes of the other Witches were suddenly on us.
“Does the Coven agree to offer whatever aid is in their power to command?” Samuel’s voice rang out suddenly, surprising me.
There was a pause, and then Julia began to nod. Lorna smiled and inclined her head, and one by one the rest of the Coven silently agreed to help us.
“Shall we incorporate them into our circle?” Jewel’s voice was breathy with excitement. Samuel turned ashy, and Dr. Farren looked at us for a long minute.
“That’s a question for them, isn’t it?” She crossed the room until she stood before us. “Marcus, Darlena, we offer you our aid, but there are certain rules that bind us. If you were one of our Coven, we would be more free to help you in your quest.” She paused, letting her words sink in. “Would you join with our group willingly and experience the full aid we can give, or will you remain separate and accepting of the least that we can do?”
I looked at Marcus. Finally, he met my eyes. He shook his head imperceptibly, and Samuel let out a quick sigh of relief.
“We understand that you cannot do everything,” I said, trying to match Dr. Farren’s formal tone. “But we accept what help you can freely offer.”
The tension in the room lessened somewhat, but I felt the weight of my words sinking into my skin, binding me to this strange group. I’d never worked magic with another Witch before, other than with Marcus in the woods, and suddenly, the prospect of working with the Coven was overwhelming. Nobody said anything for a minute, but I could feel tension swirling around the room like an invisible current. Excusing myself, I slipped outside to the wraparound porch.
The air was cold, and heavy clouds hung in the sky, threatening some kind of winter storm. I shivered and rubbed my arms. Looking out at the barren landscape, I realized that I was lonelier than I had ever been. I hadn’t had contact with Persephone since the day Marcus disappeared, and even though I’d spoken to my mom earlier that morning, it felt like nothing. I thought about calling her again, or calling Justin, but I stopped when I pulled my phone out of my pocket.
I realized that I’d been lucky before, to call when Persephone was out of the house. If I called while I was supposed to be home, I might throw the goddess’s careful plans ou
t of whack. Not that I knew what her plans were, but I had to assume she had my best interests at heart. Especially after learning how long Marcus and I had been in the Underworlds, I was grateful that Persephone had taken action to help my parents not worry about me.
Still, I missed them. And I missed Justin. I’d avoided thinking about him ever since Marcus kissed me, but now I let myself remember his warm brown eyes and the way he said my name. I thought about the fragile steps we’d been taking to repair our relationship before I left for Scotland. Most relationships can barely survive mundane concerns, but ours had weathered the storm of my misguided use of Love magic. I knew that what we had was something special, and I closed my eyes, wishing I could feel Justin’s arms around me. I tried to surrender to the fantasy, but for some reason, it wasn’t Justin’s familiar brown eyes that haunted me. I wanted to ignore the thought, but my mind was fixated on a pair of sharp green eyes.
Gradually, I became aware of another presence on the porch, and I stiffened. I didn’t know how long Marcus had been watching me, but when I turned around to face him, the expression in his eyes frightened me. He looked as desperate as I felt, but he wasn’t gazing off in the distance. He was staring intently at me. I felt my spine begin to tingle and heat crept up my face. Did he have any idea what I’d been imagining?
Quickly, I looked away. Trying to kill whatever I had seen in his eyes, I brought up his family. “Have you met Roy before?”
He clenched his fists, and his eyes hardened. For a moment, I felt a pang of regret that I’d distracted him, but I ignored it. We didn’t need to complicate our relationship any further, and there was no way I was going to tell him I had been thinking about the kiss. “Barely. But blood will out, they say. I knew him as soon as he turned around.”
“Will he help us?”
Marcus laughed harshly. “He has to, doesn’t he? The Coven is bound to us now.”
I hesitated. “Did you want to join them?”
“Gods, no. The last thing I need is a sniveling democracy trying to control my magic. I work alone.”
“Except for me,” I pointed out. He looked at me sharply, and I felt myself blushing again.
“A temporary arrangement, if you remember.”
I nodded. “Izzy’s been waiting too long. Besides, just because we have some help, would you really let anyone besides you rescue your sister?”
“True. I wouldn’t trust anyone else to do it.”
“I figured. You just can’t wait to go rushing into battle with a Red god, can you?” My words were harsh, but I kept my tone light.
He grinned. “Witch, I fear you have found my fatal flaw.”
“Pride? Arrogance?” I teased, trying to make him laugh.
He shook his head, his eyes serious. “No. Love.”
I waited for him to say something about Izzy, but he didn’t. The air crackled with electricity, but this time, I didn’t want to look away from him.
Although the Coven had agreed to help us, they couldn’t decide which course of action to take. As night fell, Frances insisted we all stay over so we could get back to work in the morning.
I was relieved to find out I’d share a room with Lorna. The other women were all fairly intimidating, but she had a soft smile and seemed nice enough. Marcus volunteered to sleep in the living room on the couch before his father or his uncle could grudgingly offer to share a room with him. No one argued with his decision; of the two Red Witches in the house, they clearly felt that he was the most dangerous.
Lorna picked a room under one of the gables. The slanted roof made the small space feel cozy, like a secret hideaway. There were two old metal bed frames against opposite walls.
“I’ll take the one over here,” Lorna offered, gesturing to the bed under the low, angled ceiling.
“Are you sure? You might hit your head if you sit up too fast.”
She laughed. “Believe me, I’m a sound sleeper, and I never move until I am fully awake. Rushing into things, even daylight, can be dangerous.”
I wondered if she was chastising me for chasing the Seeming into the Underworld a year ago, but her face was neutral. Plumping the feather pillow, I flopped onto the bed. I didn’t have any pajamas, but I didn’t mind sleeping in my clothes for one more night. The springs groaned beneath me.
“So what do you think your Coven has planned? Or is it top secret?”
She smiled and settled herself on her bed without making a sound. “I don’t really know. I think we’re all waiting for divine inspiration to strike.”
I snorted. “Does that happen often around here?”
“No. But we keep wishing it would!”
“Does it ever frustrate you? Being in a group, I mean. Not having the freedom to work alone.”
Lorna thought for a moment. “Not really,” she finally said. “But then again, I never felt pulled to phenomenal magical workings. I’ve always been more inclined to use simple charms and arts. The Coven suits me.”
“Does anyone in the group go in for a flashier kind of magic?” I asked, thinking of Samuel’s fiery temper.
She chuckled. “Of course! We wouldn’t be a very strong group if our members weren’t balanced. But when we work together, we try to find the middle way between showy and simple.”
Other than Izzy, I’d never had the chance to speak so openly with a Witch whose training was so different from my own. “When did you join the group?”
“Mother sort of made me.”
Her voice was calm, but I thought I saw a flicker of anger in her eyes. “How did she do that? Was it like what Marcus’s mom did?”
“No, nothing so dramatic.” She laughed softly. “You see, I had finished up at university, and Mother gave me two choices: join her Coven and receive all the financial and magical support she could offer, or strike out on my own and give up my claim to her.”
I stared at her, aghast. “That’s awful! She gave you the choice of being disowned or joining her group?”
Lorna shrugged. “It hasn’t been a bad decision. Mother is a very powerful Witch; I’m not sure my life would have been as lovely if I’d cut ties with her.”
Gods, I’d never realized how lucky I was to have the parents I did. “My mom’s a Green. I can’t imagine her ever pulling something like that!”
She smiled at me. “White Witches tend to be a little less flexible than Greens. Or anyone else, for that matter.”
I wanted to know more about Jewel, but I had the feeling that Lorna wouldn’t be comfortable speaking about her mother’s patron. “Are you a White, too?”
She smirked. “No. My one rebellion, as Mother calls it. I declared Blue when I turned fourteen.”
“That’s young. I didn’t declare until last year. Who’s your patron?”
She stretched her arms overhead and rolled her neck. Instead of answering me, she asked, “What do you already know about Blue magic?”
I thought back to my conversations with Izzy. It seemed like another lifetime when I first met her outside of her school. “Izzy told me that it’s elemental. Blue magic is connected to water … ” I paused, searching my memory. “And emotion.”
“It’s also connected to art. Not the fiery kind of art that made Sylvia Plath kill herself or Van Gogh maim his ear. Blue magic governs a softer kind of art.”
“Like what?” I had never thought of magic being linked to art, even though I knew that Shakespeare had been a Green Witch.
“Well, I’m a poet. I write delicate little verses about the natural world. Mostly, I write poems to the moon.”
A memory stirred, and I recalled Aphrodite standing in my bedroom, telling me to look at the moon. She had mentioned the duality of the moon as a goddess and the moon as a big rock orbiting the earth, trying to help me see that things could have multiple natures. I shook my head sadly. Sometimes it felt like I still had a long way to go on that lesson.
Lorna misinterpreted my gesture. “It’s not crazy,” she murmured defensively, “just a mark
of my devotion. Like I said, I express my magic in small ways.”
“No, it sounds nice! I don’t do anything like that.” She relaxed her smile, so I asked another question. “What about your goddess?”
She sighed. “It’s difficult to tell someone about a patron. Without experiencing her for yourself, you won’t be able to understand.”
“Still,” I pressed, “I’d like to know.”
Lorna stared vacantly across the room. Her breathing slowed, and I realized she was putting herself into a light trance. When she finally spoke, her words shocked me. “My goddess is Nepthys, sister to Isis and bride of Set.”
I sat up to interrupt her, but she went on. “Nepthys is the last born of her siblings, and the one most ignored by man and god alike.” She spoke the words as if they were something she had memorized, the text of some ancient ritual, and I shivered.
“When she was matched with Set, she was not happy and hungered for the husband of her sister. With Osiris, Nepthys bore the god Anubis, and Isis raised her sister’s child as her own. Set was furious at his wife’s betrayal, and since that time he has done all he can to control the power of his wife.” Lorna blinked a few times, her gaze clearing, and looked at me. “That’s why I’m not very good at strong magic; my goddess isn’t allowed to use her full power, so neither do I.” Her voice was back to its normal cadence.
“Why did you swear to her?” The question seemed rude as soon as I said it, but Lorna paused thoughtfully.
“Because I like simple magic. There is so much beauty in the simplest things, and Nepthys helps me to create some of that beauty myself.”
I nodded, thinking about what she had said. “That would make sense. But don’t you ever wish you weren’t limited?”
She shut her eyes and lay back on the pillow. “Has power made your life that much better?”
I couldn’t answer her. I sat there thinking in the dark, listening to the old house shift and settle around me. I didn’t sleep much that night; my thoughts were too jumbled. Worry for Izzy warred with confusion over the growing pull I was feeling toward Marcus, and the stories of the gods swirled around my mind, making sleep almost impossible. When I did eventually drop off, my dreams were filled with the harsh sound of Loki’s laughter. I woke up at dawn disoriented. After taking a few deep breaths, I realized where I was. Lorna’s bed was empty, so I padded down the hall to the stairs. I tied my long hair into a messy knot as I walked, not bothering to stop in the bathroom and check the mirror.
