Chapter 18
High Priestess
“Is everything okay, High Priestess?” Cassi asked as we assembled around the small table at the back of Witch’s Brew.
I smiled at the three ladies who’d been put in my life at such a time as this, so thankful that I’d lived to be here with them. To know them. “I would say things are moving along splendidly, dear.”
Elyse snickered. “They’re something…”
I glanced at her. “Would you like to do the honors?”
Placing her hands on the edge of the table, she took a deep breath, then exhaled. Once she’d found her center, she said, “We’ve found Ego.”
Carli’s eyes widened, and she reached out, clasping her wife’s hand in hers. “You did? Please tell us he’s okay.”
“He’s…well, we haven’t seen him yet, but from what we’ve been told, he was having a little trouble adjusting, but we think there’s been a solution.”
“Adjusting to being a sound witch?” Cassi asked.
Elyse licked her lips, delighting in drawing out their curiosity.
“Elyse,” I scolded playfully.
Elyse’s tinkling laugh filled the small shop. “He’s been at his mini-castle for at least the last month.”
Carli gasped. “Shame on him. Why didn’t he tell anyone? Sky’s been worried sick about him.”
Her wife side-eyed her. “Feels like something you’d do.”
Carli jutted out her lower lip in an exaggerated pout like she was offended, then she grinned impishly. “It kinda does, doesn’t it?”
Cassi smiled fondly at her wife, then she focused her full attention on Elyse. “There must be one doozy of an explanation.”
Elyse and I exchanged a smirk before she said, “As a matter of fact, yes. Ego is the fledgling Hecate told us about.”
A loud clatter came from the center of the tables. Booker, the young sorcerer that King and Sky had rescued and the wives had taken in, stood over the tub of saucers, cups, and plates he’d bussed and dropped, wide-eyed and mouth gaping open.
“Close your mouth before you swallow a fly, dear,” I advised.
Other than slamming his mouth shut, he remained unmoving, just staring at our little table. Cassi’s mouth moved, but I shook my head, and we all waited patiently on the young sorcerer. Finally, he said, “So vampires really are real.”
“Of course, they are,” Lysandro said as he strode into the room, dressed as colorfully as the patterns on Elyse’s skirt. He quickly closed his umbrella and made his way to our table. As he sat, he smiled over at Booker. “Come. Sit. Sit. We have much to discuss.”
Elyse looked at me, surprised by his sudden appearance. “I wasn’t sure we’d see you today.”
“There’s much to do. Much to learn.” He smiled at Carli. “The gods and goddesses don’t always have to speak through you when sometimes, all they need is me.”
He gave jazz hands, which was really so delightful for someone so old. Usually, the older beings got cranky. Lysandro was still full of youthful fun. He turned back to Booker. “Come on, young sorcerer. You need to learn all you can.”
Booker shook himself out of his stupor and stumbled toward us. He looked to his wards. “Is it okay?”
Cassi smiled warmly. “Of course. You’re here to learn all you can.”
Carli pushed out a chair for him next to her with her foot. “Sit.”
He smiled shyly at all of us before focusing back on Lysandro with awe. Lysandro clucked his tongue. “I’m sure we’ve met before when I’ve come in, but let me formally introduce myself. I’m Lysandro, and I’m a vampire.” He held out his hand.
Booker shook it, saying, “I’m Booker, and I’m, uh”—he glanced to the wives for reassurance, which they each gave with a bow of their heads—“sorcerer, I guess.”
Lysandro smiled sweetly. “No guesswork about that. Your aura shines so brightly. You’ll do marvelous things.” Then his gaze swept the table. “Speaking of someone doing extraordinary things…” His smile went mischievous.
“Ego?” Carli asked.
Lysandro shook his head.
“Scotty?” Cassi asked.
Lysandro shook his head no again.
With a certainty that made me proud, Elyse said, “Ego and Scotty together. They’re entwined.
” She cocked an eyebrow to allude to her statement being a question, but she knew, as well as Lysandro and I did that Ego was Scotty’s and Scotty was Ego’s.
“We were told that Scotty is Ego’s anchor, so tell us what they need,” Elyse said with the tone of a mother lion, ready to tear the world apart for her cubs.
“Support,” Lysandro said. “From all of us, because not only do they have their own stuff to figure out, but something is coming…I don’t know what yet, and I don’t know from where, but those boys are going to need us.”
“Me, too?” Booker asked, hope ringing in his tone.
“Most definitely you,” I said with a reverence he didn’t understand yet, but he would. Oh, someday, he certainly would.
As Lysandro went on to explain the place of an anchor in a fledgling’s life, which sounded a lot like the tether for a Dreamwalker, I sat back and thanked my goddess, sure that she would bolster us through whatever changes were coming.
Because meccas like Willowhope didn’t happen without storms.