Chapter 44
FORTY-FOUR
Clara was a little in awe of the book she had placed on the desk in her office.
Truth be told she was also a little fearful of it.
That silly woman had caused the death of one person and seriously injured another and had come to the attention of the English women’s familiar, which surely meant she had come to the attention of Sephy, Lenny, or Dora.
Why does everything of importance in this town always lead back to the Englishes?
It struck her as odd that neither of Dora’s aunts was interested in the council.
Had they never wanted to be in charge of it?
If there was to be a vote now between Sephy or Lenny and Clara for the leadership, she knew that she would lose hands down and it irked her.
The power they held and did not use was a complete waste, not that the council would agree with them running all over town doing their own thing.
She paused, but they already had without consulting her and succeeded in banishing Corwin with very little ripples in the community.
Of course, she had made it sound as bad as she possibly could to Sephy, but only to keep her in her place.
Now though, Clara leaned across the desk to lovingly caress the soft leather cover.
Now that was all about to change. The tables were about to turn, and the power would be all hers when she was ready to cast the spell.
She untacked the pictures of Sephy and Lenny from the wall and placed them on the table next to the book.
Tiny red and purple sparks flew from the pages towards their beautiful faces, and she watched in fascination wondering if they would set the photographs alight.
The sparks stopped snapping and she nodded in approval.
Reaching out she picked the book up and turned the velvety soft vellum pages until they reached the spell she wanted.
A Spell to Make One’s Power All Mighty
Ten drops of thy own blood, fire, words below written on parchment, sacrifice of a small black animal. In a secluded place, bare foot on grass say the following:
Here I stand alone yet strong
I take what is mine from where it doth not belong
My power increased tenfold to anchor me
Under the light of the crescent moon set a fire, big or small, add thy blood and sacrifice’s blood, chant the words x 3 then burn them.
How perfect for Clara. It was a new moon and she could have everything she needed by tomorrow night, and even if the sky was cloudy the moon phase was just right.
The spell was a bit short for a power spell, but she knew they worked because of that stupid girl meddling in things she had no right to meddle with.
She wondered about the small, black animal she had to sacrifice.
Would it make the spell stronger if it was a familiar?
That meddling crow would be the perfect size; its blood powerful because of who it belonged to, and she would slit its throat without a second thought.
However, she knew they would not let this go lightly if they discovered what she had done.
If it ever came to light that Clara had killed their beloved Hades, she thought that Lenny would be the one to take her on, Sephy would be too distraught so would Dora, but Lenny had a fire inside of her that was not to be taken lightly, she was a fighter.
Would fight her to the death if she wronged them, which was why if she did this, she would have to make sure they did not know it was her; she was going to have to cloak herself for protection.
Or maybe she could lay the blame at Morana’s door, for with her lack of inexperience they might believe she was responsible after everything else she’d done.
Clara smiled to herself. Come nightfall, she would work this magic and change everything.
Where could she do this without being seen though?
That was the thing. The common was, well it was too common.
The wharf was always busy; the gardens at the Ropes Mansion were always accessible.
The cemeteries were out of bounds and if it went wrong who knew what errant spirits were lingering inside of them, because it was almost Samhain and the veil was at its thinnest. She didn’t want someone’s dead gramps stealing the power and not having a clue what to do with it because he was haunting the right place at the right time.
Then she thought about it, she knew the perfect place for this.
The gardens at the House of the Seven Gables.
They were closed after five, she was sure of that, and by eight all the staff should have left.
Clara knew there would be cameras, but if she cloaked herself and took what she needed in a small bag, she would be able to climb over the gate and turnstile at the back.
She nodded, that was the perfect place to do her power spell, drenched in so much of Salem’s history and as secluded as she needed it to be.
It was time to gather what she needed and spend time preparing, for when the crescent moon shone brightly in the inky night sky above the black painted gables down by the shore, she would finally claim what should always have been rightfully hers.