Chapter 6
Six
Boston, Massachusetts, Present Day.
“Welcome, everyone.” Zara’s mystical voice had the hushed, breathy quality of someone well-practiced in communing with unseen forces. “Tonight is a special night, and I thank you all for coming. Tonight, we gather not just for ritual and sisterhood, but for knowledge and discovery.”
Zara paused for effect, letting the words settle as she swept her gaze over them. Cally sought Eve across the circle, a silent question: was Zara being more Zara than usual? Eve was expressionless, but one shoulder rose in a half-shrug.
“Magic is more than intention, more than belief,” Zara continued, her voice thick with theatrics, each syllable drawn out just enough to sound portentous without quite tipping into parody.
“It is action, connection, and the willingness to step beyond what we know. Some nights, we cast our spells into the universe, trusting the right eyes will see, the right forces will answer.” She took on a distant look.
“And sometimes, the universe peers back.”
Cally frowned. Had Eve already told her? Cally thought they were going to tell them together.
But Eve looked just as puzzled, her brow furrowed as she couldn’t help glancing at Cally before she interrupted. “What does that mean, Zara?”
Priya and Lily stirred in surprise. No one ever interrupted Zara; it was best to let her just finish, so that they could get on with the spells.
“Well might you ask, Eve,” Zara replied, as if she’d been expecting the question, her mystical voice particularly strong. “The reason I called you all tonight is that we are to be blessed with a visitor.”
That explained why Zara wore her best Wiccan dress: a flowing, floor-length midnight blue affair in velvet with bell sleeves, embroidered with silver symbols of the moon and stars, and a surprisingly deep neckline.
It was all the more out of place when everyone else was uncomfortable in damp jeans and sweaters.
Even now, the heavy rain drummed against the window.
“Visitors?” Priya echoed, surprise mingling with excitement.
“Indeed,” Zara said pompously. “Our coven has earned the interest of wise and knowledgeable forces.”
“What did you do, Zara?” Eve asked flatly.
Zara looked momentarily taken aback. “I don’t know what you mean,” she replied, her voice defensive and far less mystical. “I merely shared some of our spells on the forum.”
Eve let her skepticism show. “That forum gets spells all the time, and no one cares. What else did you say?”
“Well, I…” Her gaze flicked briefly to Cally. “I may have mentioned the vision.”
“Uh-huh,” Eve said. “And?”
Zara straightened her back where she sat on the floor, legs folded beneath her. “It is our duty to let other witches know the success of our magics.”
“You told them about the blood, didn’t you?” Eve pressed.
“It’s not uncommon—” A sharp knock on the door interrupted Zara. “Ah! Our visitor has arrived.” It was difficult to rise gracefully from a cross-legged position in a long dress, but she gave it her best attempt, brushing back a curl of her blonde hair as she went to open the door.
Cally met Eve’s gaze with a dubious expression, then pushed herself to her feet. She had no desire to meet anyone while sitting on the floor. As if waiting for her example, the other coven members also rose.
Zara welcomed in a short, rounded, bespectacled middle-aged woman with a friendly face, juggling an oversized handbag with a wet umbrella, which she left by the door.
She beamed as she took in Zara’s small apartment and the gathered coven members, then without waiting to be asked, crossed to one of Zara’s armchairs and perched on the edge of the seat, resting her bag on her lap.
“This is High Priestess Amelia,” Zara said, with a note of reflected pride. “She has come to observe our coven tonight.” To Amelia, she added, “Would you like a cup of tea?”
“No, thank you.” Her gaze lingered on Zara’s plunging neckline and her mouth pursed in disapproval.
“High Priestess?” Cally echoed, trying not to raise an eyebrow.
“That’s right, dear,” Amelia replied. “Don’t mind me. Please continue as you usually would. I’m afraid I don’t have long.”
Eve brushed back a damp auburn curl and gave Amelia a piercing look. “What are you a High Priestess of?”
Amelia didn’t make eye contact. “Spiritual authority, dear.” She showed no sign of elaborating.
Zara returned to the circle, tucking up the long skirt of her dress as she sat once more, and with an air of reluctance, the others followed. Only Priya seemed excited to have an audience, fidgeting with her hands and casting frequent glances toward where Amelia watched.
“Focus, please, ladies,” Zara said, drawing their attention. “Tonight, we shall start with—”
“You said you could make the crystals glow,” Amelia cut in. “I would like to see that, please.”
“Of course,” Zara responded smoothly, while a frown of irritation flickered across Eve’s brow. “Your pins, please, ladies.”
“Wait, glow?” Lily whispered, leaning forward across the circle. The apartment was quiet enough that Amelia would clearly have heard her. “We can’t—”
“Who is this woman?” Eve interrupted. “Why are we performing for her?”
“An interested party, dear,” Amelia replied, though it was obvious Eve had been addressing Zara. “We are all sister witches in the pursuit of Wiccan arts, yes?”
“A coven is a trusted, intimate gathering,” Eve replied, her tone sharper than Cally usually heard from her.
Cally knew Eve’s defensiveness was because she was protecting her, but Amelia might be able to offer knowledge and insights that Zara certainly wouldn’t have.
If she was going to learn more of her magic, she’d need all the help she could get.
“I think sharing a small spell would be all right,” she suggested delicately.
Zara glanced at Cally in surprise, as if not expecting support from her. Eve pressed her lips together, then begrudgingly nodded. Lily looked cynical; Priya, puzzled.
“Good. Then pins, please, ladies?” Zara prompted again. “And I think we should go with the obsidian.”
Cally hadn’t brought a pin. She’d been expecting to talk tonight, to tell the coven the truth of her magic and her vampire bond, but that went out the window with the arrival of their new guest. She cast a helpless look toward Eve, but her friend was already passing over a spare needle.
They rummaged in their bags for their stones and pricked their fingers dutifully, and Cally wiped a trace of her blood on the smooth hunk of obsidian that Eve had produced for her.
Had they ever made obsidian glow? Cally couldn’t remember.
She had always thought she was the only one who noticed the stones lighting up, for no one else had ever mentioned it, but clearly Zara had seen it too.
“We can’t just make them glow,” Eve muttered. “We need something on which to focus.”
“How about a chant?” Zara suggested. “Lily, you wrote one, right?”
Cally didn’t know what that was, but she dutifully held her obsidian toward the center of the circle, where it clinked against Priya’s on her left, and Lily’s on her right.
“Yes, I think I can remember it. Um…” Lily closed her eyes, and the coven all followed suit. Before Cally’s eyes shut, she caught a glimpse of Amelia watching with a bored expression.
“Clear my mind, focused and bright,” Lily recited. “Free of clutter, sharp as light. Now I center, calm and still; focus steady, strong of will.”
It was a simple enough refrain, and as Lily repeated it, the others joined in.
Cally concentrated on the feel of the cool obsidian she held, listening to the voices of the coven around her, and feeling the mild ache where she’d pricked her finger.
Amelia wouldn’t be nearly as forthcoming if they couldn’t make the obsidian glow, and Cally knew that was all on her.
She pushed her single-minded purpose into the stone she held as she chanted Lily’s rhyme, and it certainly felt like her mind was clear and focused.
Until a loud gasp from Amelia broke her concentration.
Cally opened her eyes, shooting her a look in surprise, and caught the obsidian’s glow fading away. The stones had never shone so brightly.
Amelia had her phone out, apparently taking photos, then she tapped a rapid message. “Very interesting. I’ll have that cup of tea now, dear,” she told Zara.
“I didn’t know we could make the crystals glow,” Priya said, her voice quiet.
“Neither did I,” Lily murmured in awe. She narrowed her eyes at Zara. “How long have you known?”
“Oh, a while,” Zara said airily as she rose in pursuit of tea for Amelia. “The occult forces have always been strong around me.”
“Which one of you had the vision?” Amelia asked, leaning forward. Her bored expression had shifted to a sharp intensity that Cally found unsettling.
“I did,” she replied quietly.
Amelia’s appraising gaze snapped to her. “And when did the stones first glow?”
Zara answered from the kitchen. “They’ve been glowing for a few weeks now.”
“They have?” Lily muttered.
“What else has happened?” Amelia pressed.
“Cally made the planchette move on the Ouija board without touching it,” Priya added with enthusiasm.
“We cast a revenge spell on my ex and he broke his leg,” Lily said, not to be outdone. She looked smugly satisfied.
“Did you now?” Amelia’s lips twitched. “When was that?”
“A few weeks ago, just after Cally joined the coven.”
“Interesting.” Amelia focused back on Cally, her expression carefully neutral, but her eyes narrowed.
“It’s not all about Cally,” Zara said, carrying a tray with a pot of tea, a small jug of milk, and a single cup and saucer. “I am the High Priestess of this coven, and—”
“No, you’re not,” Lily said. “We don’t have one. We just let you run this because it’s your apartment.”
“I am the High Priestess,” Zara said firmly, “and—”
“Nothing ever worked before Cally arrived,” Priya told Amelia.