Sorren
“The last spell was too heavily weighted toward organic elements. The next one needs more inorganic matter,” Eva says as she paces across the living room. We may have gotten a bit sidetracked in the kitchen, but we are back and focused on the spell work.
“Inorganic, like plastic?” I ask. It would be strange for a witch to use Styrofoam or a plastic straw, but what do I know?
“No,” she laughs. “Minerals and rocks. Crystal magick!” She runs up the stairs, and I hear her opening and closing cabinets and drawers. Before I can even get off the couch to help her, Eva is back in the living room, arms heavy with rocks and crystals of all colors, shapes, and sizes.
“Hand me that, please.” She points to the leyline map on the kitchen counter.
I grab the rolled up map and toss it across the room to Eva, excited to see what her brilliant mind is planning. I stay quiet, not wanting to interrupt her. She’s in the flow state and it’s a sight to behold.
Kneeling next to the map, Eva places orange candles at each of the four corners, pinning it in place.
“See this one right here?” She holds up a small gem that looks like a chunk of ice. “Find five more just like this.”
My hand is drawn to them, like being pulled by a magnet.
Their jagged edges and milky color stand out amongst the other brightly colored stones, but I could find them blindfolded.
While Eva places the clear ones, I instinctively grab two smooth and shiny black stones.
They are cold and unnaturally heavy in my hand.
“Black tourmaline, how did you know I needed those?” Her eyes sparkle with excitement.
“I’m not sure. They called to me.”
Eva pauses her spell work and leans toward me—that same invisible thread pulling me to the crystals draws me toward her.
Our lips touch, and for a moment everything stops.
I bury my hands in her long hair, drawing her closer.
She pulls back reluctantly, but before she can get back to work I catch her lips once more. Then I let her resume the spell.
The black stones are placed where leylines intersect, the clear ones along the line between the two junctions. She scrambles up to her feet and goes to the kitchen.
“Where is it?” I hear her rummage through cabinets and shuffle papers. “Where is it?” she asks again.
I join her in the kitchen, “What are we looking for?”
“My selenite wand. It’s got to be around here somewhere.” She turns over the papers stacked on the table, half of them falling to the floor.
“You have a magick wand?” This witch will never stop surprising me. “Why haven’t we been using it? Can’t you just wave it around, say a rhyme, and whatever you want happens?”
“Sorren, don’t joke. This is important. Where is it?” She runs back to the living room and digs around in the drawers of the end table.
“I’m not joking! Aren’t wands super powerful?”
Without looking up from her search she explains, “Wands have specific purposes. They have to coordinate with the other elements as a focal point for magick to flow—like a magnifying glass and the sun.” She closes the drawer and shoves her hands in the cracks of the couch cushions.
“What does it look like?” I ask, surveying the room. The moment makes me laugh. I could have never predicted I’d find myself in this situation.
“It’s long and thin, has a swirly white look, and slightly tapered on one end.”
“Oh! I know where that is!” I run outside and into my office, the shed. It landed on my head as I fell back into a shelf when that spider dropped down in front of my face. It’s right where I left it, the same strange vibration calling me toward it.
A zing goes up my arm when I pick it up and carry it back to the house. Eva gratefully takes it. Warm white light glows at the points of contact with her hand.
“Woah, that’s never happened before.” She looks up at me in astonishment.
Candles spark when she draws along the map with the wand, following the path of the lines.
“Strength formerly present,
Bring back and restore.
Let power flow freely,
Like rivers that roar.”
Along the lines, the paper burns and turns to ash. Eva drops the wand when the warm glow turns bright and hot. It rolls along the table and drops to the ground, hissing the entire way. She shakes her hand, skin red and burned from where she was holding it.
I pull her close and inspect the injury. “You okay?” I ask. It’s a stupid question, of course she’s not okay.
“It’s not that bad.”
I try to get to my feet to go get some ice for the burn, but my body feels heavy and stuck to the ground, gravity holding me in place.
Eva’s hands drop to the ground like a heavy weight was placed in both palms. Every muscle strains to get up before I give in to the tiredness that overtakes me. I lay down on my back with Eva next to me
“Too much mineral,” she says, sounding just as tired as I feel.
“Did you turn us into rocks?” Now is not the time for jokes, but I can’t help myself.
“I hope not, that would be super awkward. Give it a few minutes, it should pass.”
It takes tremendous effort, but I reach over and drag her to me. I lift her head off the hard floor, and place it on my chest. We lay together while the spell wears off.
“Let me guess, Jeff showed up and is acting like nothing happened,” I say smugly when Malachi’s face comes into focus.
“It’s bad. It’s really bad.” He looks like the pressure is getting to him. His hair disheveled, dark circles under his eyes.
“What did he do now?” This is exhausting.
Eva and I did spell work all night with a few breaks for orgasms. While we didn’t get anywhere with the leylines, the promise of our spell work were incredible.
But it drained my energy. Now I’m tired, and grumpy, and not in the mood to deal with Mephisto and all the bullshit that comes with it.
“He’s gone. Poof. Totally disappeared.”
“That can’t be right. Did you check the conference room on the thirteenth floor? He mopes around up there sometimes, lamenting an afterlife wasted on idiots.” Even by demon standards, Jeff is judgmental.
“We checked, he hasn’t been there in months.”
“Mailroom?” I ask.
“Not there either.”
“The lobby?”
“Please. That’s the first place we checked.”
I start to accept the possibility that Jeff might have actually disappeared. My mind starts playing out the scenario. The Board is going to get desperate, so much so that they might even put out a press release. I groan at the thought. The press will love this. They live for Mephisto drama.
“You’ve got to beat them to the punch. Put out a press release.
Say, I don’t know…” I pause to think, “Operations is going through a planned restructure. That it’s part of the long-term strategy for efficiency and modernization.
” I’m just spit balling here. Whatever statement we come up with has got to buy us some time.
“It’s too late. They went on the record this morning. Your name came up.” The acceptance on Kai’s face is what concerns me at the moment.
“What did they say?” Shit. This is bad.
“That you're MIA, Jeff has gone rogue, and they are handling the turbulent transition left behind by Dad.”
They’ve essentially established their authority and relegated us to the bench. Assholes.
“Sorren, you need to come home. I can’t handle this mess on my own.”
My head feels like it’s splitting open. My breathing is ragged, and my skin feels hot enough to burn.
“Give me a day. I’ll figure something out.”