“And now, my sisters,” Deb called out loudly, almost startling me after so much quiet. She had raised her hands up above her head again and turned away from me. “Please raise your hands with me and face north to the North Winds,” she commanded, and, as one, the eleven other women and tiny Trisity all mimicked her, and those who needed to, spun on the spot to face north. I had placed myself in the north position at the table, either out of habit once in a circle or by happy coincidence, so I had to turn around to actually face north while Jodi angled next to me and Steven was able to stand still; being in the south position, he was already facing north.
“Hail, Angels of the North Wind!” Deb called out in a clear, commanding voice, and was echoed by twelve others, their voices ringing out in the night like the chiming of bells on the wind. They continued the invocation. A breeze rolled around us, sending chills up my arms and over my head. I could feel the tension rising up between Jodi and Steven and tried to send them warm reassurance, but it was muted by the icy breeze.
The incantation went on in a rolling echo each time Deb spoke a line and the energy of the wind increased. I could feel it biting at my face, freezing my fingers and ears, and wreaking havoc with my hair. I realized, seeing Deb in front of me and little Trisity at her side, that they seemed untouched by this swirling, deafening air. I was desperate to turn and look at Jodi and Steven to see if they too were immune to the air, but I was afraid of breaking whatever spell they had started.
The witches nearly yelled the final line in the spell, but I couldn’t hear them anymore; the wind rushed around us, reaching a crescendo before crashing down around us, into me, through me. Knocking me to the ground with its force, it pushed out all the air I had in my lungs, pumping them full of ice. I couldn’t breathe, my body was frozen to the ground, the green and browns of the area around me driving me mad as my mind told me it should all be white, white with ice.
A scream was caught in my throat, stuck behind a large piece of ice that threatened to drown me if it ever melted. As it was, I was already suffocating. This is how I’m going to die, was all that I had time enough to think when the world went black and everything was silent. I was floating in a void. I would have said darkness, but I could see my hands in front of me and the tendrils of hair that floated around me, but other than my body, there was nothing. I had just a moment to panic at the thought of eternity floating here in this nothingness, terrified that all the atheists were almost right – that there was no heaven or hell, but there was no returning to the earth like so much fertilizer either – before I saw the tiniest of pinpricks of light in the distance.
I concentrated on that light to give my mind an anchor. If I died and this was merely the terrible purgatory the Catholics had made such a fuss about, I didn’t want to lose my mind just yet. I could get through this, I told myself. I had gotten through so much worse when I was alive. But all this blackness picked at my fear of the dark, or at least what I couldn’t see in the dark. But that beautiful spot of light beat those thoughts away quickly when I realized it was just a bit larger now than it had been only moments ago. Yes, it was definitely growing, even as I watched it.
I waited as patiently as anyone floating in oblivion could, fighting the desire to scream for whatever it was to just hurry up. Eventually, just as my hands began to itch with the desire to rip out my own hair in frustration, I saw the spot of light begin to take shape, the shape of a human figure. Now my curiosity ran over my impatience, and I watched intently as it came ever closer to me. A golden hand reached out for me, and I found myself reaching towards it in return. Just before our fingers met, I looked up and saw the face of a man I had only seen a few times before; my guardian angel smiled benignly at me, huge, terrible wings drifting lazily behind him.
When our fingers touched, the world exploded and I was lying on my back, looking up at the night sky, scattered with stars. Sounds, like they usually did, came back to me next, and I could hear the soft murmuring of the women that were around us. I realized that I hadn’t died, but the ache already forming in my shoulder told me I had definitely passed out and fallen to the ground.
The grass had already begun to tangle with my hair, the Earth reaching to me in a most familiar way. I pushed slowly away from the ground, extracting my body from it as I rose up, seeing that both Jodi and Steven were struggling to sit up as well. I furrowed my brow at them in a silent question and they both nodded to me, letting me know that they too had passed out when the icy winds had struck.
Although we were struggling to regain our footing, it appeared we three were the only ones struck by the magic the circle of witches had called up. Once I was back on my feet, not bothering to dust myself off like the other two were, I turned towards Deb, who was standing back in the larger circle as before. All thirteen of the witches were standing along the border of the larger circle again, all of them with their hands turned up to the sky and singing softly together.
“Deb?” I asked carefully. To my relief, she opened her eyes and smiled at me and stopped singing. One by one, the others stopped as well, and they all lowered their hands to their sides.
“We thank the Angels of the North Wind!” Deb called out as clearly as before. “As we will it so, so mote it be!”
“So mote it be!” echoed around the ring of women until they had all repeated it in time. In another moment, the circle was breaking up and the older woman who had cut a door into the circle for us was cutting the circle again and erasing it as the others worked to uncast the circle in quick movements, showing just how often they all worked together.
“Deb?” I asked again with Jodi and Steven now standing beside me. I felt Jodi’s searching fingers reach for mine and I took her hand; it was just as cold as mine. I could feel through her that she was holding Steven’s hand with her other one. They were a little afraid of the foreign magic we had just witnessed and what had just happened to us; I couldn’t blame them at all.
“Yes, love?” Deb finally answered me as she stepped around some of the women gathering around us.
“Care to clue us in?” I asked, trying to check the annoyance in my voice.
“Well, honestly, I can only tell you what we intended,” she said, never letting her gentle smile falter. “I cannot explain what happened to you after you fell asleep.”
“Asleep? You think we fell asleep?” Jodi asked, not bothering to check her annoyance as I had.
“Okay, just explain what you can,” I said, stopping Jodi from speaking further. “I noticed the wind didn’t seem to touch any of you.”
“Wind?” one of the other witches asked, causing the question to be repeated over and over as the others heard it being asked. But rather than clarifying, I just waited for Deb to answer me, knowing somehow she’d know what I meant.
“You felt the North Wind; that is wonderful!” she said excitedly, actually clapping her hands in front of her. “We called on the Angels of the North Wind for your protection; I imagine it was quite cold?” she asked, and I heard Steven snort behind me in response.
“Yes, ‘quite cold’ is one way to put it,” I said carefully as both Jodi and Steven’s thoughts swirled in a myriad of reds and yellows in my mind saying, To put it mildly, you mean! I nodded in answer to them, willing them to calm down. “It felt like we were being frozen from the inside out,” I explained and was happy to hear a few surprised gasps erupt behind me.
“Really? That’s much more violent than I would have expected, but then, they are a violent and righteous lot,” Deb said, sounding like she was thinking through my words. “And even their incantation calls for an icy wind.” She shrugged her shoulders almost lamely as she looked at me. I closed my eyes and shook my head, taking a moment to shake off my annoyance that they hadn’t given us any warning.
“Fine,” I said, waving my free hand in front of me. “Can you just explain why you invoked them for us?”
“The Angels of the North Wind are destructive against negativity and evil,” Deb
began, and I felt the air around us shift in answer. “They rip anger from the planet and seek to destroy those energies that wish to harm the universe. They protect those that are in danger when trying to do what is right or defending themselves against evil.”
“Sounds like you created them just for our purpose,” I said, running Deb’s words over in my head again. She smiled that same patient smiled at me.
“For every need in the universe, Goddess sends us an answer,” Deb said, patting my cheek gently. “Now, the time of their magic is midnight; no matter what, they will be with you, but they are at their strongest at midnight.”
“We understand,” I said, squeezing Jodi’s hand almost unconsciously. “Is there anything we have to do to invoke them? Or call them to us?”
“No, they have been charged with what you need. They obviously agree with your intentions; otherwise they would not have answered your call,” Deb said.
“You mean your call,” I corrected, but she only shook her head.
“No, love, your call,” she repeated. “Put it this way: we knew their phone number and dialed it for you, but you were the one speaking on the receiver,” she said, and I had to stop myself from laughing at the layman’s terms. But I appreciated her effort because I felt both Jodi and Steven’s dawning comprehension through our joined hands.
“Can you at least give us an idea of what to expect when they come to our aid?” I asked, gesturing with my free hand again. “I mean, if we’re going to feel like we’re freezing to death from the inside out, I’d like to be forewarned before we’re out in the water.”
“I wish I could, love, but they did not come to me, and I am not part of your circle of power. I cannot know what they will or won’t do,” she said sadly, and I truly believed her regret at not being able to answer me. “I couldn’t even tell you what you were going to experience here, in our place of power,” she said, sweeping one hand wide to indicate the clearing around us.
“I understand,” I said, even though a tiny part of me, a part that Jodi and Steven were feeling as well, didn’t really understand, but there was no point in pressing the issue. “Is there anything else left for you to do?” I asked instead.
“You have drunk our tea and entered our circle,” Deb said, her sisters crowding closer around us again, and I felt the warmth of life pulsing through them with their joined spirit. “We have called to the angels and they have answered. We can do no more for you without tipping the scales of the universal balance.”
“Thank you for all that you’ve done, all of you,” I said, turning my head this way and that, “thank you.” I heard their murmured responses and looked back to Deb, wishing their help was something more tangible, but trying to lend myself over the trust she was asking me to give her. She’s never led us wrong, I thought to the other two, but I was also trying to reassure myself.
“Go now, with the Goddess’ blessings, and try to be safe. The Angels watch you now,” Deb said, and again the air shifted around us and I thought I heard the whisper of feathers off in the distance.
Chapter Fifteen
We were back on the beach. The sky was clear and scattered with stars. The waxing moon hung heavy above us, making the water shine like quicksilver. The sand was packed firm, the low tide exposing rocks and the sand bar separating the Rivermouth from the ocean. Our bags were tucked into the shadows of the rocks. We were already dressed in our rash guards and bathing suits. I could smell the sour, metallic smell coming off of the spray of the waves and tried not to crinkle my nose at it.
On our way here we’d each shared what happened to us when the power of the Angels came crashing down upon us. I wasn’t entirely surprised to find we had all had very similar experiences, right down to each of us thinking we were dying.
“Is it okay that I really don’t want to do this?” Steven’s question broke into my thoughts, and I turned my head to look at him, his dark hair glinting blue in the moonlight.
“Of course it is,” I said, reaching out and taking his hand in mine, giving it a firm squeeze. “I don’t want to do this either, but if not us, who?” He nodded reluctantly. When Deb had told us that they couldn’t interfere with the workings of elemental creatures, Steven’s heart practically broke knowing that he would probably have to go back out into the water again.
“Still no answer from Jensen?” Jodi asked, tucking her short blonde hair behind her ears.
“No,” I said, feeling a little disappointed, looking at my phone in my other hand. I had called and texted him about a dozen times with no answer. I guess he was more upset about me taking off than I thought. Maybe Steven was right; maybe he was tired of dating someone like me. I guess I couldn’t really blame him; if the roles were reversed, I don’t know how I would feel. “Nothing.”
Jodi’s pressed her lips together in a thin line before nodding. I had the feeling she was biting back a comment, and I didn’t press her for it.
I let go of Steven’s hand to walk forward to the edge of the water. I sank down and sat on my heels, reaching out and cupping a handful of water. Even in this small amount, I could feel the bacteria in it and the skin of my palm looked red through the water. I spilled the water back onto the sand and shook my head sadly.
“We’re probably going to get sick this time,” Jodi said, and I remained silent. I had already thought of that, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. I had bottles of water waiting for us in the car that I planned to use to counter the effects of the nymph’s trance like I had done with Mark, but that’s all I had; if we got Red Tide Sickness, we’d have to go to the doctor. I reached out my hand again and let my fingers sink into the loose sand and closed my eyes, concentrating on the ebb and flow of the sands and water, finding the link to the actual tide.
It was erratic and not only pulled away from the shore, but off to the side. Opening my eyes, I pulled my hand free of the sucking sand and swirled my hand in the water to wash away the grains that clung to my skin before I stood up and shook off the filthy water.
“What’s the matter?” Steven asked, finally joining us at the water’s edge.
“The current,” I said, careful not to look at him, not wanting to see the fear laid naked on his face. “The riptide is getting stronger.”
“Seriously?” Steven asked, his voice pitching in anxiety, and all I could do was nod. Steven wasn’t a strong swimmer, and if you got caught in a riptide, you couldn’t panic, otherwise it would just pull you out faster and you increased your risk of drowning. You had to remain calm and either allow it to pull you along until it died away and risk being pulled out to sea for a mile or more or swim sideways and extract yourself from the current. But not everyone learned to swim sideways; it was awkward and took concentration, something most people lose when they get taken unawares.
“Yeah, seriously,” I said, and I turned to look at Jodi instead and poured energy into our connection to open it further so she could hear me without me touching her, but I split some of the power to build on the shield against Steven so he couldn’t eavesdrop as we spoke. I think we need to leave him here.
It’s probably the best thing to do, but don’t we need his male energy? Jodi’s yellow thoughts were neither bright nor dull as she answered me. She was as calm as I was; I think we had accepted this before we ever set foot on the beach.
I’m thinking it’s worth a try to leave him here. After all, I paused, looking out to the water, the nymph offered to take our souls in exchange for the boys’; maybe she’ll come to us now.
I had the same thought, Jodi thought at me, looking out to the water as well.
Besides, if Steven gets caught in the riptide, they’ll take him before we can do anything about it. That’s how they got me that very first day, I thought, and Jodi simply nodded her agreement.
“Steven,” I started to say, but he cut me off.
“No,” he said firmly.
“No, what?” I asked, a little confused.
“You are not leaving me h
ere while you two go and risk your lives. We’re not discussing it.”
“You’ll be risking your life even more than we will if you go out there,” Jodi argued, and Steven turned an angry face on us, crossing his arms over his chest.
“No,” he said, trying to sound intimidating.
“Look,” I said, making them both look at me. “We’ll be worried about you being caught in the riptide. If you get caught, they’ll get to you before we can get you out. You don’t know how to get out of a riptide in the best of situations, and neither of us can pull your weight to keep you out of it altogether.”
“So I’m just supposed to sit here, totally safe, and let you two go out there and risk your lives, just like when you fought that sylph?” And right there I felt the cutting edge of his words, his regret and embarrassment that he hadn’t been there in that garage to help us.
“Are you kidding me!” Jodi exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air.
“Steven,” I said in a careful voice. “You were in the hospital with second degree burns that you gave yourself because you saved me from that sylph. You did help with her.”
“I just feel so useless sometimes,” he said in a small voice after a few tense and silent moments.
“You are not useless,” Jodi said, stepping forward to take his hand. I was glad to hear her come to his defense before I had to prod her into action; after the showdown they had had in the parking lot the other night, I was worried there would be some tension between them in this case. Steven looked into her face, and I could tell he was looking for something in her words or her tone that would negate what she said.
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