“Oh, yeah. Your boyfriend . . . he won’t be looking for you tonight.”
“What? What did you do to Chad?” I yelled and tried again to get up against the magic that held me down, but again, it was no use.
“Nothing, I can assure you he is perfectly fine. He just happens to think you’ll be spending the evening with your mum.”
“My mum? Who the hell are you?”
Another twig snapped, but this time, it came from the opposite direction. Leaves began to rustle behind me and I tried to turn, then I could hear more movement from farther left of me. It was as if he were moving around me in a giant circle, but how?
“Oh, you don’t know me, but I know you. You’re the little witch that gets to inherit your family’s magic. Magic you never knew you had, and won’t miss when it’s gone.”
“I don’t understand; do you even know why you have me pinned to the ground out here? You’re really not making sense.”
“Of course I do. I’m just waiting for someone to join us.”
“Are you from my father’s family? I have nothing to do with my parents. I don’t even know them.”
“This has nothing to do with your parents. They’re dead, didn’t anyone tell you that?”
“Wait, I’m so confused.”
The leaves began to rustle farther to the right, the direction we had come from. I could see two figures walking towards me. The clouds had completely covered the sun, and a small amount of snow was starting to make its way to the ground, in between the dense forest of trees.
“Finis?” I heard a woman’s voice whisper.
“I’m here.” For the first time, the man moved out from behind the trees ahead of me. I could make out a man, about mid-forties. He was the average size of a linebacker, wearing jeans, a leather bomber jacket, and a baseball cap.
I noted that I was about to be outnumbered three to one, and I tried to remember some of the spells Alistair and Chester had been teaching me. I remembered back to my room when I moved the pillow with a wave of my hand. I looked down. My hands hadn’t been restrained, but whoever was joining the party would be much better at magic than me. As soon as I started a chant of any kind, they’d be able to stop me mid-sentence. I would have to attempt the nonverbal spells my grandfather had tried to teach me.
The woman who joined Finis was about average height, which didn’t tell me much. She was too far away and hidden by the sudden lack of light for me to tell who it was. The other person with her was shorter and kept bouncing around. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought that it was my Aunt Sabina. The one who hated me and my mother, which was clear by the way she spoke.
“Give you any trouble?” the woman asked as she pulled her coat and hood tighter around herself.
“Nah, it was easy. She was right where you’d said she’d be.” He pointed to me then, showing the two where I was. “Although, she seems to think this has something to do with her folks. Doesn’t she know they’re dead?”
“Of course she does.” The woman walked towards me five steps then stopped. “Where is the stone?”
“I tossed it out of the window.”
“What do you mean . . . what window?”
“Of my friend’s car.”
The woman swore under her breath and turned to her companion. Before she could turn back around, a bright white light flashed in front of the three of them. The man was knocked back on the ground. His head hit a tree and he fell, unconscious. The women both fell on the ground as well, but were quickly collecting themselves.
“Elyse, come on.” I saw Clara’s hand before I saw her. Once I registered that she was there, I tried to stand and was able to free my bottom from the ground.
Shit, my hand slipped and I cut my wrist on a twig. I wrapped it quickly with the scarf I had around my neck as I scrambled to my feet and ran, side by side with Clara, to the street below.
I risked a look behind me to see if we had been followed, but nothing in the trees had moved. When we hit the sidewalk, we continued to run straight to my house. I didn’t even pause when I flew open the door and ran up the stairs to my room. Once Clara had cleared it, I slammed the door closed and locked it.
“Think that’s a little overkill?” Clara asked between gasps of breath.
“Nope, not at all.” I laughed, and we both fell across my bed.
“What in the hell was that about?” she asked once we had finally caught our breath and could muster up more than small phrases.
“I don’t know. The guy, Finis is what the woman called him, he grabbed me after I got out of Crystal’s car. He threw a blanket over my head and carried me up there.”
“What did he want?”
“He said something about inheriting my family’s powers, and that I wouldn’t miss them.” I put my hands over my face. The sun had come back from behind the clouds and was shining in my eyes. “Wait. She asked me for the rock . . . stone.”
“Well, where is it?”
“I threw it out of Crystal’s car window. It’s by the plaza.” I squeezed my eyes shut and then sat up. “What could anyone want a rock so badly for?”
“I have no idea, but we have got to find it. I’ll go look. You call Chad and have him come sit with you,” she said, getting up.
“Thanks, Clara.” I managed to say the words without choking on them.
“No sweat, I’ll be back.”
Chad had run all the way to my house when I called him. I was going to go to his house, but he said no, and hung up in my ear. When he ran up the stairs and into my room, he rushed over and wrapped his arms tight around me, settling his chin on top of my head. We sat like that for a while, and then he started muttering something under his breath.
“What are you going on about?”
“This was all my fault. I was so wrapped up in the idea of a real date with you, that I let you out of my sight for too long. You could have been killed, you do know that, don’t you?”
“No! I didn’t know that. Who would want to kill me and why? I didn’t do anything to anyone.” I started to pace my room.
“Your father’s family will do anything they can to get Silas back, if they know he’s alive. If they think you’re Gwen and that Silas is dead, they’ll kill you to get even. They could even use you as a pawn to get them to come out of hiding. Alistair has told you that much.” He ran his hands through his hair in a frustrated motion in an attempt to calm himself.
“Yes, that I know.”
“Well, what were we thinking?” He paced between my bed and the door with his hands folded on top of his head. I just wanted him to hold me and make me feel better, but it seemed he was doing his best to make me feel worse.
“What do you mean?” I sat on the edge of the bed and watched him pace the room.
“We can’t be a couple. I’m supposed to be looking out for you. When I’m distracted and thinking about you one way, I’m gonna miss something, and you’re going to end up hurt.”
“Wait, so we can’t be together because you need to focus on me like a job and not a girlfriend?”
“Yes, that’s exactly it.” He stopped pacing and stood in front of me. “Right now, I just want to curl up next to you and hold you and make you feel better . . . ”
“That’s what I want you to do.”
“That’s wrong, what I should be doing is calling my father and Alistair and letting them know what happened, after I check around the house to make sure nobody is outside, trying to find access inside. Actually, that’s what I should have done the moment I got here, but my first instinct was to be with you.”
He started pacing the room again and finally grabbed the doorknob, yanking on it so hard he almost pulled it clear off.
“Where are you going?”
He stopped with his hand still strangling the doorknob. “I’m going to check the perimeter of the house and make a few phone calls. You’ll be safe up here.”
He was gone just like that, and I was left feeling alone and
a little afraid. Maybe he was right, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t be together. We just had to make sure we did things the right way. Then after everything was done, we could focus on us as a couple. This couldn’t last forever.
I pulled my knees to my chest and hugged them tightly, wishing for once that Michelle or my parents were home to bother me with questions. When I heard someone climbing the stairs, I thought it was Chad, but Clara pounced in the room and shot out her arm to me. In her hand was the rock I found under my bed and had thrown out of Crystal’s car window.
“I found it right where you said it was, so I’m guessing you never told the creep band out there?” She sat on the floor in front of the bed and I slid down off the edge, next to her.
“I wonder what they want this thing for?” Grabbing it, I turned it around in my hands.
“I bet it was something they were going to use to take your magic from you. It sounds like that’s what the guy wanted from you. I mean, he could have molested you or something,” she said, nudging me. I could see by the grin on her face that she was just goofing.
“So, why did you help me?”
“Oh, don’t read into it too much, but I’ve been keeping a pretty close eye on you since we were five and my parents found out who you were. They were afraid that friends of theirs would want to harm you.”
“Are they friends with Sigmis?” Sigmis, I had come to learn, was the last name of my father’s family, but everyone called his father Sigmis because it was easier than saying Silas Sr.
“No, unfortunately, I don’t think so.” She looked sad for me.
I couldn’t stand it. Chad wouldn’t look at me, Clara felt sorry for me, and there was another group of people I couldn’t identify that were after me or my family’s power.
“So . . . you never really hated me then?”
“Nope, I’m just another pawn in the protection detail for Miss Crawford.” I stared at her for a moment and then we both laughed.
When Chad walked back in and saw me and Clara laughing hysterically on the floor, he stomped his foot and left the room. I could hear him say from the stairs as he stomped off, “Glad you both think this is funny.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
After grabbing my box from the closet, we all piled into the Cooper. I drove this time, and headed for the Blackwood mansion on the east side of town. Clara reached over me from the passenger seat and put the code in the box by the gate. “I’ll write it down for you,” she said as she sat back down.
“Thanks.”
I followed the drive up an estimated mile, to the large white house that sat on its own private twenty acres of land. The grass was all beautifully green, as if it had just been painted that way. The shrubs were neat and trimmed with flat tops along the house. The house itself was white, but on closer inspection, I noted the bricks that crawled up from the bottom of the foundation to just under the first floor windowsills.
As we climbed out of the car, Clara’s mother and father met us at the door.
“Oh my, are you girls okay?”
I gave Clara an exasperated look and turned to see Chad, with a stern look on his face, and Chester, slowly emerging from the front door.
“Thanks, Chad.” Clara spat at him as she slammed the door of the Cooper. She shot me an apologetic look, even as her mother’s arm wrapped around her. “Yes, mom. We’re fine. They were after Elyse. I had to help her, but they didn’t see me.”
“Elyse, are you okay?” Chester asked as I, box in hand, pushed past him and into the house.
“Yes, I’ll live . . . see?” I said sarcastically and gave a twirl. “Not a scratch.”
Of course, I had forgotten we were meeting at Clara’s house for the circle, but was immediately relieved when I walked into the large foyer with my box of tools in hand.
The Blackwood house looked a lot like mine, only it was much bigger. The chandelier in the big entrance looked like it was made of diamonds, and created a cascade that reflected light onto the walls of the room. I didn’t get a chance to see much of the house, as we were ushered to a staircase just behind the foyer closet, which led down to the finished basement.
The floors were covered in a beige carpet and the walls were much the same color. As we descended the stairs, I could see a room in the back, which looked like it had been designed strictly for the purpose of circle meetings. The floors and walls were all dark wood. There were shelves wrapping around the room and hung three quarters of the way up the wall. They served as a book shelf on one side and a place to hold their wiccan tools on another. The side of the room, farthest from the circle of people, held lit candles and what looked like an open Book of Shadows.
I placed my black velvet box of tools beside me on the floor and situated myself next to Crystal. When we cast our circle together, the rents cast their circle inside of our outer circle.
As Chester entered the room, he stopped us from taking our usual places. “Today you will cast your own circle.”
“What?” Chad asked as he took the bag of tools from his father.
“It’s time. You need to start preparing for your blood ritual.”
The room had a faint circle etched into the wood of the floor. We took our places around it, expecting the rents to circle around us, but they sat off to the side to observe. We didn’t have an altar, but I placed everything in the middle of us and began to cast our circle. I placed the chalice on the floor, and as usual, filled it with the spring water we had nearby. The athame was placed on its left, and the wand on its right. Five points of the circle were made with large white pillar candles and the one in the middle was lit. I pulled my family’s Book of Shadows out of its box and set it to the side. I then took my place in the circle, between Matt and Chad, with Clara and Crystal both across from me.
The parents got comfortable on the side of the room and waited for us to complete our training. They would have their circle after we left. The rents told us, when we started practicing, that once the circle was cast, we would not be able to hear or see anything outside of it. We would be in a protected bubble of sorts, but I had never really known if it was true before.
As we stood holding hands, I began to chant. I had no idea what was coming out of my mouth and I could hear Chester yelling something to me. The chant took over my senses and the rest started chanting as well. The fire of the candle, in the middle of the circle, began to grow. The chant continued, and I could still hear Chester in the background, but I didn’t stop to find out what he was saying. The flame heightened in a quick flash, almost to the tops of our heads, and the five remaining candles all ignited. The chanting died down and we let go of one another. I looked around the room and saw only us.
“Did anyone make out what Chester was saying?” I asked them.
“Did anyone make out what we were saying?” Matt asked.
“Yeah, that was a little weird.” Clara looked at me, wide-eyed.
“Did I do something wrong?” I looked to Chad, but he kept his eyes down, staring at the flames of the candle in front of him. “Chad?”
He looked up, bewildered, and his eyes were dark. He said something, but it was so low, I wasn’t able to make it out.
“Chad, what gives?” Clara shook him, and he seemed to snap out of it.
“I thought I was going to shift for a minute there.” He looked at me.
“Did I do something wrong? Chester seemed upset.”
“No, I don’t think so. We did what he said; do what comes naturally.” He sat Indian style on the floor, and we all copied.
The book had said the same thing. I wrote down the words we spoke in my own small book to look up later. I was curious to know what they meant.
We went over the ritual as we had done every time we practiced. Being our first circle alone, I could figure out what we had to do a little more clearly.
We had a new ceremonial knife that would be used to pierce our hands and draw blood. Two drops from each of us would be added to the chalice of water,
which we would all sip. At that moment, we would be as one. Whatever happened to the blood we each carried would be felt by all of us. We would share in each other’s weaknesses and each other’s strengths. I would be the high priestess of my coven, because that is what my heritage dictated. Even if I had no idea how to be responsible for four other people, I would be.
The weight of my responsibilities sat heavily on my chest. Up until my birthday, I had no idea magic existed. From this point, I would be responsible for the well-being of four other people besides myself, during a time when my life may be in danger.
“We don’t have to do this.” I looked around at everyone who sat before me. The circle protected us from the adults we couldn’t see standing in the room, but we knew they were there.
“What do you mean?” Crystal asked.
“We don’t have to complete the ritual. Not now, not ever . . . if you don’t want to.”
“Why wouldn’t we want to? It’s our right.” Crystal looked at everyone.
“Don’t get me wrong . . . ”
Clara cut me off before I could finish my thought. “You’re thinking of the mess you’re in because of your parents. We will all be connected after the ritual, and you’re worried for us. You don’t have to be. We are a coven, and whatever you’re going through, we want to help. We can only do that if we complete the ritual.” She looked around the circle and the nods of agreement came from all except one.
“What’s wrong with you?” Clara asked Crystal when she didn’t say anything.
“Nothing. I mean . . . I agree with what you said. I’m just wondering why all of a sudden, you’re on our side of things.”
“I guess I just had my eyes opened . . . besides, it doesn’t mean I’m your friend. So, I guess that still makes me a bitch.” Clara winked at me and I smiled.
We went over the bonding of the blood ritual. We had less than a month to prepare, and I had to admit, our first circle casting was a success. We agreed to continue our circles together as a group. I didn’t feel we would need to have the rents along anymore. It made me a bit uneasy to have to share with them the things that were supposed to be sacred within our own coven. I realized I would need Chester to shed some light on a few things regarding my parents, but I didn’t think that needed to be mixed in with our circle meetings. I was already training with my grandfather, and he had assured me that I was ready for whatever was coming. However, whatever it was, it was a family thing. I didn’t need my mother’s coven to help with it, considering Alistair believed someone in her coven was working with Sigmis.
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