Aegis motioned for me to stand back, then turned Alex. “Get her a chair. She’s unsteady on her feet.” He waited until Alex ran into the other room and returned with one of the dining room chairs.
I sat down and nodded to Aegis. “All right, I’m going to prep a fire spell just in case. Hopefully, I won’t have to use it.”
“For luck,” Aegis said, then planted a quick kiss on my lips.
“You’ve been watching Star Wars again, haven’t you?” I patted him on the arm. “Go get the snake.”
Aegis tried the doorknob. It wasn’t locked, and he stood back as he flung open the door. From where I was sitting I could see a massive coastal taipan. It was a sleek, smooth snake, with reddish-brown scales, lighter on its sides than its belly. It was rearing up, coiling to strike with large, gleaming fangs. But I noticed something different about it.
There was a glow about it that wasn’t natural. Obviously, Jenna had conjured it so it was a summoned creature, but there was more to it than that. It wasn’t just a giant snake. I could feel the energy emanating off of it. It felt hot, prickly with frustration and irritation. And then, I knew.
I opened my eyes just in time to see Aegis throw himself on the giant snake, straddling it as best he could to hold it down. It swiped at him, but he managed to catch hold of its neck and, with his incredible strength, pressed its head to the floor, holding it down.
“That’s a fire elemental.” Cautiously, I stood. Alex was beside me, and he took hold of my elbow, steadying me. “You aren’t going to be able to kill it. But since I work with fire, I can dispel it.”
“Whatever you do, you’d better do it quick, because I can’t hold it for long. The creature’s incredibly strong,” Aegis said, struggling to hang onto it.
I held out my hands, turning to look at Alex. “I need you to steady me. This spell will pack a punch and I don’t know if I can stand through it without help.”
“Whatever you need,” Alex said, swinging around behind me to hold my waist with firm hands. I noticed he smelled like gardenia and vanilla, an odd combination. But the thought quickly vanished from my mind as I focused on what I needed to do.
One of the first things a witch learns after she discovers her prime element is how to dispel that element. I focused on the snake, on the core of its fire, on its heart, which beat with a molten center. I reached out, whispering an incantation to ensnare the fire elemental.
Flare up, flare down, creature of fire,
Bend to my will, to my own desire,
Hear my call, hear my command,
I bind your strength, I bind your brand.
I speak your heart, I speak your name,
I weave a net around your flame,
I bind your will, I bind your soul,
I bind you under my control.
My voice grew louder, and as I shouted out the last, the fire snake slumped to the ground, waiting for me to command it. I turned to Alex.
“Help me get closer. It won’t hurt you as long as I’m in control.” I was shivering. The force exerted by the elemental was incredibly strong, and I felt it struggling against my will. I motioned for Aegis to get off of its back. He quickly stepped away.
As I neared its side, I knelt, laying both of my hands on the smooth, warm scales. It was beautiful, really. Incredibly powerful and strong, the fire snake hadn’t asked to be here. I was just going to send it back to its home. Jenna may have conjured it here, but I was far stronger than she was, and it would bend to my will.
Creature of fire thou art,
Summoned here by mistake,
Begone back to your realm,
You fiery snake.
Now hie you hence, begone,
Never more to return.
By my will, so mote it be.
With a soft breath, I blew on the scales and the snake shimmered, then vanished as if it had never been here. I slumped to the floor, shaking. The amount of energy it had taken to send the fire snake away had drained me of almost every reserve I had.
Aegis knelt beside me, softly lifting me up to set me on the bed, as Alex opened the closet. Sandy and Jenna slowly crept out, hugging each other. Sandy looked strained, but Jenna looked absolutely terrified. She surveyed the empty bedroom and burst into tears as she covered her face.
“I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry—I didn’t mean it, really! Aunt Sandy, I could have killed you.” Jenna was having a full-on meltdown, something I hadn’t seen very often. The girl had a steady head on her shoulders and she was incredibly capable under a strain, but apparently this had been one step too far.
“Why did you conjure that thing up?” I leaned forward, balancing myself on the edge of the bed with one hand.
“She didn’t mean to—” Sandy started to say, but I shook my head at her.
“Jenna has to learn responsibility for her magic at some point. You think this would go unnoticed at Neverfall, or that it would be excused away?”
I didn’t want to come down hard on the girl, but as the High Priestess of the Moonrise Coven it was my job to step in when I saw situations like this. Literally, it was written in the Code of Honor that I had pledged to, that if I came across a gross misuse of magic, especially by someone who was attempting to work magic far beyond their means, I needed to step in. I didn’t pay a lot of attention to others, and I didn’t go poking my nose into other people’s activities, but Jenna needed to learn and learn quickly that she couldn’t just go around trying to summon up elementals she didn’t have any control over. If Neverfall caught wind of this, she’d be expelled.
Jenna swallowed hard. She let out a soft sigh. “I know what I did was wrong. I didn’t really mean to. It just kind of…happened.”
“What do you mean, it just happened?”
“I was sitting on my bed, and I was thinking about my mother. She was always running off, leaving me with the servants, or with friends. I’ve always been angry at her for that. But ever since she left me in Aunt Sandy’s care, I’ve felt a lot happier.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Lately, I’ve caught myself wishing my mom would die, or never come back, so I could stay with Aunt Sandy.”
I began to catch the drift of what she was thinking. “And now your mom is dead.”
She nodded, a bubble of spit forming on her lip as she tried to sniff back the tears. “I should be punished. I wished she was dead, and now she is.”
“So you’ve been feeling terribly guilty over what happened, and you somehow conjured the snake? As a punishment to yourself?”
She silently nodded.
I cleared my throat. “Jenna, honey, listen to me. You didn’t cause your mother’s death. If we could cause death with just a thought—with just our anger—there would be a lot fewer people in the world. It’s normal to be angry at people we love when they hurt us. Your mother didn’t hit you, I assume, but she left you on your own a lot, and that’s a form of neglect. Derry was self-centered and she didn’t know how to be a good mother. It’s okay to be angry at her for that, and it’s okay to be angry that she died.”
I must have stung a nerve because Jenna started sobbing.
“She wouldn’t have died if she had stayed home, if she hadn’t wanted to get away from me.” Her face was a mask of pain, and Sandy slowly edged over to her.
“Jenna, can I sit down?” She paused by the side of the bed.
Jenna nodded, furiously wiping her eyes.
“Your mother loved you very much, but she wasn’t cut out to be a mother. Some women aren’t, and they don’t realize it before they have kids.”
“I know that,” Jenna said, but the look on her face told me she didn’t fully understand. And she probably wouldn’t, at least not for a while. Derry’s death must have seemed like the final abandonment. And we couldn’t exactly say it was an accident. Derry knew she shouldn’t have been out where she was. She had ignored the rules and paid for it with her life.
“Your mother made a
fatal mistake. But you didn’t have anything to do with her death. Sometimes, things happen. Sometimes, life sucks and we have to just take it in stride.” I knelt beside her and took one hand, while Sandy took her other. “Nobody’s to blame, really. Even Derry. She made a fatal mistake, but she didn’t do it on purpose. Trust me on that.”
After a while, Jenna’s sobs lessened and I handed her a tissue. She blew her nose and turned to Sandy. “I’m sorry. I almost got you killed,” she whispered.
“No harm done. We’re all safe and the snake is gone. You needed to express your anger. But next time, try talking about it, okay? You can always talk to me about whatever you need to.” Sandy brushed a strand of hair back from Jenna’s face and then stroked her cheek and booped her on the nose. “You must be awfully tired.”
Jenna nodded. “I am. I feel all worn out.”
“Jenna, did you know that you summoned a fire snake? A fire elemental?” I had to address it at some point and now seemed like the best time.
Jenna startled, whirling around to stare at me. “What? I kept thinking of the snake that killed Derry and I got madder and madder at her. I was so angry, it felt like I was vibrating. And then, just as Sandy walked in the room, the snake appeared.”
“Your anger must have somehow caught the attention of a wandering fire elemental and it came in the form of the snake that you were focusing on. Sandy and I need to teach you how to harness your energy. Neverfall is a wonderful school, but you seem to have some pretty strong gifts and until you know how to separate your magic from your thoughts and emotions, life is going to be too dangerous for you and those around you. Will you work with us?” She had to want to learn, to want to control herself before we could teach her.
Jenna nodded. “I’m afraid of my own thoughts now. Please, help me.”
“We can,” Sandy said, “but the best way to prevent things like this from happening is to talk them out the minute you start feeling upset.”
I glanced at the calendar. “We’ll start on the next new moon.”
Sandy nodded. “We’ll be there. Jenna, you’re a quick study, so this shouldn’t take long.” She paused, glancing at me. “I suppose we’ll have to plan out a Cord Cutting for Derry. She didn’t belong to any formalized group, but she definitely had a lot of friends around the area.” She glanced at Jenna. “Don’t feel you have to attend. When you’re ready, we can do another ceremony for you privately.”
Jenna bit her lip, then let out a sigh. “I’m not ready. I may have hated her at times, but…”
“She was your mother,” I said. “I understand.”
Jenna started to cry, softly, and Sandy wrapped her arm around the girl. “I’m not going to say it’s all right, because it’s not. But I’m here, and so is Maddy, and we’ll help you through this.”
I motioned to Alex. “I’ll just leave you two here together. I imagine you have some things you need to talk about. Alex, help me out?”
Aegis had already withdrawn, so Alex leaned down for me to wrap my arm around his shoulder and, holding me by the waist, helped me out to the dining room, where Aegis had poured himself a drink. He poured me one too—a snifter of brandy. I usually drank wine, but right now, the sharp heat of the liquor seemed just right.
I eased myself into a chair at the table and cupped the brandy snifter in my hands, warming the drink. “How bad is the storm now?”
“Worse. It’s rattling the island. I don’t know that I trust the ‘Vette to get us home in one piece.” He glanced at the lights as they flickered.
Alex crossed to the massive double-sided fireplace that divided the dining room from a parlor. He struck a long match and then held the flame to an already prepared stack of wood and kindling. The fire caught, and blazed to life. Then, taking a long lighter, he swiftly began lighting candles around the room. He moved quickly, but not quite quick enough to beat the lights flickering one last time before they died. But we had the firelight to see by, and Alex finished lighting the rest of the candles.
As I was sitting there, Mr. Peabody waddled over and rubbed against me. I leaned down and caught the skunk up in my arms, cradling him as I stroked the soft fur.
“How are you feeling, Mr. Peabody? Is life treating you good?” I scratched him under the chin, just where he liked it, and he squirmed a little, letting out a squeak of joy. After a moment, I set him back down and he hustled over to Aegis for more attention.
A few minutes later, Sandy appeared, carrying a flashlight. “Jenna’s taking a nap. I got her calmed down. I don’t think we’ll have any more unexpected reptilian guests, but we really need to teach her how to master her emotions.”
I sipped my cognac. The heat burned a trail down my throat, warming me from the inside out. “I agree. She’s extremely talented. I don’t think Neverfall has quite caught on to just how much power she has. Probably because she didn’t present favoring any particular element to begin with.”
Sandy motioned for Alex to pour her a drink and sat beside me. “I’m starting to think she may be a shadow witch.”
“You know, you might have something there.” Shadow witches worked on the astral, more than working with any particular element. They were often more powerful than other witches, and they were definitely a rare breed. “You can ask Neverfall to test her. It’s not a routine test at the school. The tests aren’t easy, I gather.”
“They aren’t. I’ll call the headmaster tomorrow and set something up for next month. I think she needs time to process Derry’s death first.”
We sat in silence, listening to the crackle of the flames, sipping our drinks. Alex brought over a plate of fruit and cheese, and Sandy motioned for him to sit with us. Outside, the wind howled a frightful row. I shuddered, closing my eyes. The storm was alive; there was a sentience to it that I could feel, even inside the house. It was searching for something, or someone, and it wasn’t going to rest till it found them.
“Ralph had to take George to the hospital,” I said, remembering that Sandy didn’t know about what had happened. “George was nearly drained by a vampire.”
At that, the wind raised another row, rattling the windows.
Sandy asked Alex to close the storm shutters. Then she turned to me. “This series of storms the past few nights—you know they aren’t natural. You know somebody’s behind them and you know who.”
I had been trying my best not to think about it, but at her words, I broke down and let the possibility come flooding into my mind. I fished in my pocket for the bronze pentacle, and sat it in front of me, on the table. “Yeah, I know. But the question is, when will she arrive? And what will she be like? And the most important question—why has she returned?”
“I suppose we’ll find out when we find out. Unless you want to ask Auntie Tautau if she knows anything about it.” Sandy caught my gaze, holding it steady. She was as worried as I was.
I thought about it. Auntie Tautau might know something, but whether she would give us any useful information was definitely up for debate. But then, something clicked. A memory. I closed my eyes as the words replayed themselves over and over again.
Auntie Tautau had provided me with a means to procure an herb that had saved Sandy’s life. I had asked her, “Is there a price?” Because I knew full well that when you dealt with the Aunties, their help was never free.
She had said to me, “There’s always a price. You have already paid it, though you don’t realize it yet. You’ll know, when the time comes, what that price has set into motion.”
“I know why. I don’t know the reasoning behind it, but I know why she’s returning.”
Aegis and Sandy leaned in, staring at me.
“It was back when Garret was helping me find the thistlestar.” I told them about going to Auntie Tautau and what she had said. “She told me I’d know what the price was, when it was set into motion. This is it. In the depths of my gut, I know. What I did somehow wove Fata Morgana back into our lives.”
r /> Sandy let out a long breath. “We both set it into motion. You wouldn’t have been looking for the herb if you hadn’t been trying to save me. Well, then. I guess…now…we just wait.”
And with that thought, we fell silent again, listening to the wild keening of the wind as it rolled and rattled and tore through the island, toppling trees and shaking down rooftops and sweeping up trash bins to scatter them through the streets.
Chapter 9
WE WAITED OUT the storm at Sandy’s. The wind clipped along at a good forty miles an hour sustained, and the gusts had to be sixty to seventy, as predicted. Alex brought us all warm blankets to curl up in, and we went into the parlor—to the other side of the fireplace—and snuggled up on the sofas. Jenna came out, looking ragged, and Alex found a sleeping bag and she curled up in front of the fireplace and soon fell back into a deep sleep.
“Trauma wears a body out,” I said, staring at her slumbering form. “She’s certainly had to deal with more than her share.”
“Where’s Max?” Aegis asked.
“He was due home tonight. I hope to hell he isn’t on the ferry.” Sandy pulled out her phone, biting her lip. “I don’t want to seem clingy.”
I could tell she wanted permission to text him. Sandy had no desire to play the clinging vine, but sometimes that worked to her detriment. “Call him already. See if he’s holed up in Bellingham or Seattle.”
She sucked in a quick breath. “All right.” As she put in the call, Aegis and I shifted position. The ottomans fit squarely against the sofa, creating a queen-sized bed, and Alex had brought us an egg crate mattress to put over the top. We were comfortably stretched out, and I felt my eyes threatening to shut. The day had been too long, too full, and there was too much still ahead of us.
After a moment, Sandy was talking to Max. “I was worried. Are you still in Bellingham?” She paused, listening. “Shut down? Good, I think it would be a horrible mistake for them to run tonight.” She paused again. “I love you too. I’ve got a lot to tell you, but that will keep for later.”