by Isobel Bird
Sherrie collected her coat and her backpack. “ ’Bye,” she said. That was it. No explanation of where she was going. No offer to do any of the work. No anything. Just “ ’Bye.”
Kate watched her go. It was just as well. She could work faster—and better—on her own. At this point, she didn’t even care if Sherrie so much as helped carry a book from the shelf to the table. She sat down and got back to work. Picking up the first rock sample, she began to write a paragraph about it and about the conditions under which it was most likely formed.
She worked for about an hour, then decided that she’d done enough. They—or rather she—was way ahead on the assignment. At the rate she was going, she would be done well before the three-week deadline. I could have gone to New Orleans and still gotten this done, she thought a little sadly. But she pushed that thought from her mind. There was no point in dwelling on it. Besides, she was going to hang out with Sasha that evening, and she was looking forward to that.
She gathered up her stuff, returned the reference books to the shelves, and left the library. It had stopped raining, but now everything was a frozen, gray mess. The world looked washed-out and tired, and it made her feel tired as well. She longed for bright sunshine and warm winds. The Spring Equinox was approaching, and she couldn’t wait. Besides marking the arrival of spring, the ritual would be the first one she, Annie, and Cooper were helping to organize. They’d been discussing ideas for weeks, and pretty soon they would get started on their ideas.
It was hard for her to believe that their dedication ceremony had been almost a year ago already. It seemed like only days since she, Cooper, and Annie had attended that first Ostara ritual. And in fact, Kate had almost not shown up at all. She’d been doubting her involvement in Wicca and had been very close to skipping out on the ritual. But at the last minute she’d gone, and she’d had a good time.
Not only was it her first ritual with real witches, it was where she had met Sasha. Thinking about that made her laugh to herself. Her first impressions of Sasha had not been good ones—probably because Sasha had been wearing the robe Kate had sewn for herself. Sasha had been a much different person then, a frightened runaway hiding behind a lot of bravado. But luckily Kate and her friends had seen through it and given her a second chance. And a third, fourth, and fifth chance, Kate thought, remembering how difficult it had been to get Sasha to trust them, and for them to trust her.
That had also been the ritual where Kate had met Tyler for the first time. Thinking about that made her a little sad. Things with him had not ended the way she would have liked, even if they had ended for the best. It’s just another cycle, Kate reminded herself as she thought about how she and Tyler had gone from being totally into one another to being forced apart by her parents to breaking up after he’d fooled around with Annie. Getting over that had been difficult for Kate, but she’d learned a great deal about herself since that first ritual, and she’d been able to put everything behind her. Things with Annie were back to normal, although Kate didn’t really talk to Tyler much. He’d tried to get back together with her, and when she’d said no he had pretty much stopped talking to her. Not that they saw each other often.
But we would if I join the Coven of the Green Wood, Kate thought. That was one aspect of initiation she hadn’t even allowed herself to think about yet. If they passed their challenges and were offered initiation, they would be expected to choose a coven to join. That pretty much meant either the Coven of the Green Wood, of which Tyler and his mother were a part, or the coven that ran Crones’ Circle. Thinking about that, Kate realized for the first time that she didn’t even know the name of the coven to which Sophia, Archer, and the others belonged. Whatever it was, it would be one of her choices.
She loved the rituals she’d gone to that were organized by the Coven of the Green Wood. She liked a lot of the people in it. But could she really belong to a coven with her ex-boyfriend? That was just a little too weird. It’s like a really bad Jerry Springer episode, she thought. And even if she did join Sophia’s and Archer’s coven, the two covens frequently worked together, which meant she would be doing circles and rituals with Tyler anyway.
She sighed. Nothing could be easy, could it? And this was all assuming that she was offered initiation in the first place. That was far from guaranteed. Cooper and Annie were shoo-ins, she knew, but she was a different story. She’d always been the one of the three of them who seemed the least likely candidate for witchdom. Over the past months she’d become much more comfortable with Wicca, and with being a part of it. Still, she knew she wasn’t classic witch material. Maybe the people deciding their fates would think she wasn’t ready. Maybe they would tell her she could still come to public rituals but not be a full coven member. What would she do then? Would she be able to stand seeing Annie and Cooper doing things with whichever covens they joined and knowing they were part of something she could only observe from the outside? In many ways that would put her right back to where she was when she’d started studying Wicca, and she didn’t think it was something she’d be able to do. She would probably have to stop practicing Wicca altogether. As for her friendship with Cooper and Annie, well, the incident with Tyler and Annie had shown her that nothing could destroy that. Still, it would be changed.
Of course, none of this would even matter if she didn’t get to work on solving her challenge. The question with no answer still had not come to her, even though she’d thought about it a lot. She’d been reading all kinds of fairy tales, looking for clues, and while they’d been interesting, none of them had been particularly helpful, at least not unless she’d been asked what it was that Bluebeard kept in his forbidden room (heads), how to distract an angry dwarf (tell it to count the straws in a haystack), or how to keep a selkie from turning from a woman back into a seal (hide its seal skin). But these questions, she was fairly certain, were not going to be on the final exam, so to speak. No, she had to try something else.
She reached her house and let herself in. No one was home, but when she went into the kitchen she saw the message light on the answering machine blinking. She hit play and listened as the machine played back the messages.
“Hey, kids. It’s Netty. Just calling to see what everyone is up to. I’m flying to Switzerland on Wednesday to shoot some ski thing, so call me before then. ‘Bye. Oh, and blessed be.”
Kate laughed. She was glad to hear her aunt sounding so happy. Since her cancer had gone into remission, she’d gotten back to her job as a photographer, and she was enjoying it more than ever. Because of her experiences with some Wiccan healing circles during her illness, she’d also gotten more and more into Wiccan spirituality, which thrilled Kate. Hearing her aunt’s “blessed be” greeting made her feel like they shared even more than they had before Netty’s diagnosis.
The second message also caught Kate’s attention, but for a different reason. “Hello, Joe, this is Father Mahoney over at Saint Mary’s. I’d be happy to speak with Kate. How about tomorrow afternoon, say around three. Have her come over to my office.”
The message ended and the machine clicked off. Kate stared at it for a moment. She’d sort of forgotten about her promise to her father. But he clearly hadn’t. She wondered what he’d told Father Mahoney about why Kate needed to talk to him.It wasn’t as if he didn’t already know about her interest in witchcraft. After all, it had been his idea that she see a therapist in the first place. He and Dr. Hagen were friends, and while Kate had really enjoyed her sessions with the doctor, she wasn’t sure she was going to enjoy her conversation with Father Mahoney.
She took her backpack upstairs, feeling slightly dejected. When she set it down, she saw Cooper’s gift box and realized that she hadn’t opened the day’s present yet. She took out number 3 and felt it. It was an odd shape, and she really couldn’t guess what it might be. There’s one way to find out, she thought as she opened it.
It turned out to be a bottle of bubble solution. Kate unscrewed the top and pulled out the little pla
stic wand inside. Dipping it into the sudsy water, she blew through it, sending dozens of tiny bubbles cascading into the air. Watching them lifted her spirits a little. It was a silly thing, but it was fun.
She blew more bubbles—this time bigger ones. As each one separated from the wand and floated away, it felt as if one of her worries was leaving her. She blew more and more, sending new ones out before the old ones could burst. Soon she was surrounded by bubbles. She watched them swirling around, and she felt herself cheer up considerably. Everything would be fine. She would finish her challenge. She would talk to Father Mahoney, as her father had asked. It would all be okay.
“Thanks, Cooper,” she said, thinking of her friends and hoping they were having a good time. “I needed that.”
CHAPTER 10
A sea of faces. That’s what Annie saw. There were people everywhere. They were crowding the streets. They were standing on balconies. They were pouring out of the bars and restaurants. She’d never seen so many people in one place in her life. And they were all having a great time. They were dancing and laughing and cheering. Most of them had several strands of brightly colored beads around their necks, and they were calling out for more.
A man whose face was painted in purple and gold swirls waved at her. His bare chest was adorned with numerous strands of beads already, but he clearly wanted even more. Annie tossed him some silver beads and he caught them, cheering and swinging them over his head before putting them around his neck. He blew Annie a kiss, and she laughed.
Mardi Gras was unbelievable. The air was practically crackling with the energy being raised by all the partying people. From her vantage point on top of the float, Annie could see over their heads, and to her it seemed like the very air was shimmering with joy. She had been thrilled when Andre and Juliet told her that she and Cooper could ride on the float if they wanted to. “It’s really the best way to see the parade without being overwhelmed by all the people,” Andre had told them.
The two girls had readily agreed. All that was required of them was that they dress up in costumes made of shiny blue, silver, and black material. Their faces had been painted as well, so that they resembled some weird kind of clowns. Voodoo clowns, Cooper had dubbed them, and she wasn’t far off.
The float itself was gorgeous. The krewe had done an amazing job over the final few days, transforming the bare-bones float into something spectacular. The papier-mâché Marie Laveau looked very real indeed now that she was painted and costumed. She loomed behind Annie and the others, her arms held up to the moon, which was almost full, so that it looked as if Marie were playing catch with it. A costumed dancer stood on each upraised hand, both dancers dressed in simple white dresses and head coverings.
The rest of the float looked like a Louisiana bayou, with giant, dreamlike flowers and lots of blue material arranged to look like water. Both the flowers and the water rustled in the wind, and the whole float looked alive. Annie, Cooper, and the others were supposed to represent the spirits of the bayou, called forth by Marie’s magic. They each had baskets of silver bead necklaces at their feet, and they tossed these necklaces out to the crowd as the float moved down the street.
“This is insane,” Cooper said to Annie. “It’s like being at a rock concert or something.”
“I know,” Annie said. “I just hope we don’t run out of beads. How much farther do you think we have to go?”
Cooper looked down the street ahead of them. There were a lot of floats in the parade, and they were about seventh in line.
“I can’t tell,” Cooper told her. “They turn a corner up there.”
As they continued to rumble along, throwing beads to the onlookers, Annie thought about the past few days. She and Juliet had had several long talks, and Annie felt as if they were really getting to know each other. It still felt strange, having a big sister. She had always been the oldest. She was the one Meg came to with her problems and her questions. Now Annie had someone to do that with, if she wanted to. She’d always had her Aunt Sarah, but that was different. She wasn’t sure exactly how it was different, but it was. An aunt was one thing, but a sister was another.
And pretty soon you’ll have another sister, she thought. Becka. As soon as Aunt Sarah and Grayson Dunning got married and he and Becka moved in with them, she would have yet another sister in her life. The tight little trio of herself, Meg, and Aunt Sarah was expanding rapidly, opening up to include all kinds of people. Annie liked that. It made her think of being part of a coven, where people of all kinds came together to work magic together. That was a kind of family as well.
She still hadn’t discussed the whole Wicca thing with Juliet. She was fairly sure her sister wouldn’t be too weirded out by it—especially given some of the stuff Annie had seen in New Orleans—but she wasn’t quite ready to come out of the broom closet to her.
Something landed at her feet, distracting her. She looked down and saw several shiny silver dimes scattered on the truck bed. She looked out into the crowd. There she saw a little girl wearing a Mardi Gras mask made of white feathers and dressed all in white. She was looking up at the giant head of Marie Laveau, and she seemed lost in wonder.
It wasn’t the first time coins had been tossed onto the float. On several occasions Annie had seen people throw handfuls of coins—always silver—onto the passing truck. Always they stared in reverence at the papier-mâché head. It was as if they were paying their respects to Marie Laveau. And always, after presenting their offerings, the people disappeared quietly into the crowd, as if they had come just to see the voodoo queen pass by.
Coins. Annie’s train of thought brought her, neatly but not happily, to the subject of her challenge. She’d successfully avoided thinking about it for the past couple of days. She’d been so busy sightseeing and helping with the float that she’d been able to push it to the back of her mind. Once or twice she’d thought about her visit to St. Louis Cemetery Number 1, and the pennies she’d left for Marie Laveau, but she’d never allowed herself to dwell on it for too long.
The truth was, she was no closer to figuring out what her most precious possession was than she had been at the moment when she’d chosen her slip of paper from the Challenge Box. She was pretty certain that she knew what it wasn’t, and that was something, but she couldn’t stop there. She had to solve the puzzle and come up with the correct answer, otherwise she would fail. And you cannot fail this challenge, she reminded herself sternly.
She and Cooper had managed not to talk about the challenges at all, which both pleased and frustrated Annie. She was used to sharing things with her friends. They often helped her figure out problems she was having, and together they had come up with all kinds of great magical ideas. Now that they were on their own, it made Annie see even more clearly just how important it was to her to have a web of friends she could talk with and work magic with. While she realized that walking the Wiccan path was ultimately something that each witch did alone, her work during the past year had shown her time and time again that working with others taught her a lot and made it all much more fun.
She knew that something had happened to Cooper on Sunday. Her friend had returned to the house in a surprisingly upbeat mood for her, and she’d worn a secretive smile for the rest of the evening. But try as she might, all Annie could get out of Cooper was that she’d gone somewhere to listen to music and learn how to eat crawfish. She’d even proven it to Annie by teaching her how to suck crawfish heads, impressing Juliet, Andre, and Darcy, who had joined them for supper.
What had happened to Cooper? she wondered. And why wasn’t anything happening for her? After all, she had done the ritual at Marie Laveau’s grave. She had enough experience to know that when it came to magic, things didn’t always happen right away, or in the way you expected them to, but she was getting slightly impatient. They had to report back on Tuesday, and that was only a week away. She had a week to figure out what her most precious possession was.
Well, it can wait a little long
er, she thought. It was Mardi Gras, and she was going to enjoy herself. She had a basket of necklaces left and lots of people who wanted them. It was time to get back to work. She reached down and scooped up a handful of the necklaces. Separating out a strand, she flung it into the crowd.
A brown hand shot up and snatched it out of the air. Annie looked and saw the young woman she’d met at the site of Marie Laveau’s house standing at the edge of the crowd. She was wearing the same simple white dress that she’d had on before. Annie noticed, too, that she was barefoot. She looked up at Annie with her soft, liquid eyes and smiled, revealing her teeth. She nodded at Annie and slipped the silver beads around her neck. Then, to Annie’s surprise, the young woman lifted a hand and crooked a finger at Annie, as if beckoning to her.
Annie was puzzled. What did the girl want? Surely she didn’t expect Annie to get off the float. How did she even know it was Annie up there underneath the costume and face paint? Or did she? Maybe it was just a coincidence that the two had come face-to-face again.
The young woman turned and walked back through the crowd. The people seemed to part for her, although none of them looked directly at her, and she moved quickly and easily, without bumping into anyone. Annie watched her go, watched as her head moved through the throngs of people. And suddenly she was overcome with the desire to follow the young woman. She didn’t know why, but she knew she wanted more than anything to talk to her.
The float had come to a stop, waiting for the floats ahead of them to turn the corner. Before she knew what she was doing, Annie sat on the edge of the truck bed and lowered herself to the ground.
“Hey,” Cooper called out, seeing what she was doing. “What gives?”
“I’ll meet you at the end of the route,” Annie called back. “I have to—um—find a bathroom.” It was the only excuse she could think of, and she knew it sounded stupid. But she had to follow the girl, and she didn’t want Cooper trailing after her.
