Crow Moon, page 14
“Everyone has magical powers, Leni. They just don’t know it. People deny their strengths. People don’t believe. If your mind isn’t open to the possibility, you can’t have any. It’s the biggest barrier. But if you’ve grown up with it and seen it, that barrier is non-existent. If skilled casters surround you, you get the training you need to hone your skills,” her aunt explained.
“Show me, then. Show me what you can do.” Leni had been trying to deny the magic or explain it away with logic and science.
Diana got to her feet. “Okay. You know how in music class you had to run scales, sort of as a warmup?”
“Sure.”
“This is the first witch scale of spells.” Diana positioned herself in the center of the large room and ran through a quick succession of spells. The room brightened, the room darkened, fireworks exploded in the room. Leni eased away slightly. A bottle of wine rose in the air, fell and shattered causing Leni to jump back. The wine spilled on the floor but then put itself back together, wine and all, and repositioned itself back on the shelf. Several candles around the room lit up, their wicks sprouting flames. Then to finish the scale, Diana turned to her, flicking a hand in her direction. A rush of energy shot through her. There was no pain, but Leni was confused for a minute while the rest of the room returned to the state it had been before the magic demonstration.
Leni shook it off. “What was that?”
“That last bit was a daze spell. The rest was rudimentary magic any trained witch should be able to do once they start school.”
“Show me something harder. What’s the highest level spell you can cast?”
“Remember the cost, Leni. If I cast something powerful, someone loses. Most of the spells I can’t do inside anyway. Weather control and that sort of thing you need space to see. If I cast something negative, there is a risk, as I don’t specialize in it. The beauty of negative spells, though, is that it leaves something positive in the world.”
“How so?”
“Well, if I cast a spell on you that caused you unbearable pain. I take from someone suffering in the world.”
Leni frowned. “So, grandmother is doing good to people somewhere?”
Diana didn’t make eye contact. “You could say that. However, she is doing very bad things to people we care about.”
“Then you and my mother who cast positive spells send out negativity into the world.”
Diane glanced at Leni. “Well, you could say that, I suppose.”
Leni didn’t know what to think. Her grandmother was trying to harness power to use for herself and cast negative spells but that helped the world. While Diana and Debra brought positive spells to those around them creating a negative repercussion. Who really had the family’s best interests in mind?
Almost as if she could read Leni’s thoughts, Diana explained. “The difference is intent. Your grandmother’s intent is to bring darkness down on people she knows. The positive reactions are just a side effect. She doesn’t try to bring good into the world. She brings evil. She brings pain. She brings death. She doesn’t care about those close to her. Whereas your mother and I try to avoid magic to protect those we care about. Any magic we cast is incidental, which is why you haven’t seen a lot of it in the house. We understand it takes away from someone, somewhere.”
The door at the top of the stairs made unlocking sounds and Diana moved protectively in front of Leni, watching eagle-eyed until it opened. “It’s me,” Michaels said, his voice hard.
Immediately relaxing, Diana met him at the bottom of the stairs. “Anything?”
He shook his head, glancing in Leni’s direction. Diana melted into his arms and he held her close. The embrace was something that seemed out of character for both of them, and Leni’s thoughts flitted to Ned.
“Whatever it is, it’s gone now,” he said, his voice gruff.
“Dad?”
“He’s fine. He insisted on standing watch. Jake’s with him.”
Leni couldn’t help but stare at Michaels. His faded jeans and scruffy face. Her aunt must’ve been into the rustic, cowboy type.
Then she realized what he’d said. “Jake? What’s a puppy going to do?”
Michaels chuckled. “Jake is more than he appears. How is our little troublemaker?” He jutted his chin in Leni’s direction.
“Ill-informed but getting better. Is the alert over?” Diana asked.
“I’d like to know what happened to Deb before we leave here.”
“I’ll scry to locate her with my crystal ball. If we’re going to be casting more often, I should get my calendars synced. We’ve explained how the moon can affect casting, but there is also something else to be concerned with. The Void of the Course Moon.”
“What’s that?” Leni was beginning to feel like she was in class as she listened to the lecture and questioned the parts she didn’t understand.
“The hours between zodiac signs on the calendar can cause magic black outs. When Libra moves into Scorpio for example, the hours in between prevent magic. Ours, our mother’s, anyone’s. It’s a magic dead zone. Most casters make sure to cast whatever they may need before that date to be safe. We’ll make sure to double the force fields, anything like that.”
Leni should’ve been taking notes. Luckily, she was bright and could follow everything so far, though believing it was different. She was still in shock. Her mind was still scrambling to come up with excuses to explain it all scientifically. She couldn’t really doubt it anymore though, having witnessed it up close.
Diana cleared the large, square coffee table, removing the tablecloth draped over it and revealing a pentagram underneath. She then set up some candles, a small iron cauldron of water, a dagger, and some incense.
She took her time, manually lighting the candles rather than using magic, getting up to dim the lights rather than casting.
Then she went to the cabinet and took out something wrapped in a silk burgundy cloth. She cradled it in her right arm and took out a little metal stand. She set it in the center of the table, and Leni could see it was made up of three wolves howling at the moon. She placed a crystal ball on top of their snouts, which balanced the sphere in place.
After getting everything ready, Diana sat down, closed her eyes, and started casting.
Leni stood by, unsure of what to do, when smoke inside the crystal ball shifted and churned.
“Deirfiur,” Diana whispered in another language. “Taispeain dom deirfiur.”
Diana tensed and opened her eyes. The smoke moved inside the sphere, and Diana didn’t take her eyes off the orb. After a moment she cringed back, trembling. She reached toward Michaels, to hold on. He threw the silk cloth over the crystal ball and caught Diana as she passed out in his arms.
"'Michaels glanced at Leni and then turned his head to the smudge stick on the side table. “Light it.”
Leni followed his instruction.
“Now bring it here. Wave it around to clear the air around her.”
“Clear the air?” That made no sense to her. It was smoke.
“Of spirits.”
Oh, spirits. Sure.
After Leni had cleared the air, Diana started coming to.
“Well?” Michaels asked.
“She left to find Leni. Mother got her on the front steps before she could get inside the house.”
“Your mother has her, then. Are you sure?” he asked.
“I’m sorry, Leni.” Diana came over and placed her hands on her shoulders.
“Why are you apologizing to me?”
“I let her go. I may have caused you to lose your mother again.”
Leni’s heart caught in her chest.
Twelve
They agreed to spend the night in the panic room. Michaels left periodically to patrol. The puppy and Leni’s not-so-normal grandfather were on watch, which didn’t make Leni feel all that protected, but from the reactions of Michaels and Aunt Diana, she should.
Diana had told Leni her grandfather was her protector by blood, and even though exposure to his wife’s magic drained his mind, he still had use of his protective spells. Not only that, but the guardian had additional strengths to protect his granddaughter. Certain spells were within his ability that could only be used to help Leni. Diana didn’t elaborate, but who was Leni to argue with a witch whose line extended through Salem back to the Druids in Ireland?
“I hate having to teach you this and so rushed, too, but I see no other way. Shielding you from this life which your parents did to you hasn’t kept you safe.” Diana sat next to her, a hand on her leg. “I’ve tried to keep magic out of my life, but at this point, it’s the only way.”
Diana worked on teaching Leni more of the basics, the vocal part of casting, the mental part, the material focus, and the motions. She explained how all four parts strengthened a spell, but the mental part was the most important. It was the visualization, the imagination, and the core power behind a spell. It also registered the intent to do good or do harm.
Diana talked again about moon phases and worked on a large wall calendar while they were there, showing Leni when her power would be strongest and weakest. Then she went over the year calendar with dry erase markers, writing in the Void of Course Moon times, where magic blackouts were likely to occur.
Diana stood back, tapping the marker against her lips as she crossed her arms and examined her work. Michaels had come in for a beer, opening the can with a quick psshht sound that made Leni jump.
“Hmmm,” her aunt said.
He walked up to have a look. “March, you think?”
“It looks that way. Leni, we have to get you ready for the Crow Moon.”
Leni was beginning to feel incredibly stupid. Everything was so new and none of it had ever been in her life that she was aware of.
“Crow Moon, the full moon in March. It looks like that will be a peak casting time for you, and since your eighteenth birthday falls on the full moon, I’d say that’s what we need to be ready for.”
“Ready for evil granny?”
“I think that’s when she’ll put you to the test. March is a powerful month. The spring equinox, the full moon, your birthday…it all makes sense. March ushers in spring. New life. Rebirth.”
“It would be perfect,” Michaels agreed.
“The girls she’s taken before, she always puts them to the test on a full moon. She’s tried all of the moons at one time or another, the hunter’s moon, the wolf moon, and the rose moon. But she seems to run them through the gauntlet on the Crow Moon the most, because of the power of the equinox. I should add that.” She edited her wall calendar with a different colored marker, jotting in the equinoxes, solstices and something she called the Sabbats. “There. The holy days are all there now, too.”
“And if I fail this test, she’ll leave me alone and move on to the next candidate?”
“If you fail, yes. But if you fail you could be injured, mentally altered, or even killed, which is why your mother and I were trying to shield you. It’s why your father sent you to live with me after his death. He knew we would do our damnedest to keep you safe. He knew Michaels was here. He knew our father was here and would do everything he could.”
Talk of her father always made her wonder lately. How had he known all this and why had he decided not to tell her? She wasn’t a child.
“And if I can’t cast consciously? If I get to the point when only erratic spells pop out of me when I’m stressed, what then?”
“Then I guess we’re going to have to make sure you’re mighty stressed the night of the Crow Moon,” Michaels said in his Missouri drawl.
Diana worked with Leni the rest of the night, but Leni couldn’t manage to cast the simplest of spells. She’d always been a high achiever in school, always the brightest in the class, the quickest to master even the hardest concepts in her advanced-level courses. But she was a magical dunce. Being a failure didn’t feel good at all.
She fell asleep on the couch, exhausted and even a bit concerned for her mother. She slipped into a dream state where she wandered through the Bentley Estate woods to the shack. Now that she knew who was inside, the dream wasn’t as ominous as it had been before.
She opened the door and entered. Her grandfather sat in a rocking chair by the dancing fire. Leni walked in and knelt beside him. He glanced at her and smiled, and then put his knotted hand on her head and stroked her hair. In her dream, she closed her eyes, feeling safe and comforted by his side.
Then her dream shifted back to her dark time, the time she forgot. A man talked beside her, but she couldn’t understand what he meant. “One for sorrow, two for joy, three for girl. Wake up, kiddo.”
Her eyes flickered, just enough to catch a glimpse of her grandfather sitting by her hospital bed. Was he casting spells for her? She opened her eyes all the way, back to the shack with him by her side, and then once more to find herself in the magic safe room.
Diana sat beside her on the arm of the couch. “Morning. I think we are heading up now. No new overnight developments.”
“What about my mom?” Leni surprised herself with her own concern.
Diana exhaled. “I’m sure your mother is being taken care of. My mother will need her safe and sound to play her against us. I suspect we’ll see her when Katherine wants us to.”
They headed up for breakfast, the door going through its auto-lock mechanism behind them. “What now? How do we go forward?” Leni asked.
“The property is well protected. You can feel safe here. I wouldn’t be going back to your former house any time soon,” Diana said.
“What about school?”
Diana and Michaels swapped a quick glance.
“What about school?” Leni repeated.
“It would be a lot easier if you took the semester off. Just until after March,” Diana suggested.
“And if I refuse?”
Michaels walked toward her, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Then we’ll do what we can.”
“Then you better work out what that entails.”
She had breakfast and got ready for school. When she headed out to her car, she saw Michaels focusing and circling the vehicle. Diana ran outside with her and dropped something in her purse, and then unzipped her backpack and dropped something in there as well.
“What are you doing? What is all this?” Leni asked.
“Put this on, too.” Diana was draping the chain over Leni’s head already.
Leni eyed the pendant on the end of the chain. A crystal, a feather, a star inside a circle, and a tag with some words on it she couldn’t read.
“Tuck it under your shirt if you don’t like it, but these are protective stones and an amulet. They should shield you. Mother would need ritual magic to get to you.”
Jake dashed in from the back of the house, barking happily in Leni’s direction.
“Oh, and you’re taking him,” Michaels said.
“Jake? To school?”
“It’s either him or one of us,” Michaels told her.
“What am I supposed to do with a dog at school? I can’t leave him in the car.”
Michaels chuckled. “Then let him out.”
“I can’t let him loose in town. What if he gets hit by a car or taken?”
Michaels erupted in laughter, hard enough that he bent over, the sound warm and easy, something she hadn’t expected of him. Diana grinned at her.
“What?”
“Watch.” Michaels made a quick motion toward Jake, as if he was going to run after him and grab him. Jake vanished in the blink of an eye.
“What the–”
A sharp bark came from directly behind her. She turned to see Jake wagging his tail.
“Jake, sit. Stay,” Michaels commanded.
Jake sat. Michaels closed his eyes and muttered a few words. A bear appeared off in the distance. He stood on its hind legs and roared in their direction.
Michaels opened his eyes and glanced at Jake. “Attack!”
With that, Jake morphed into a huge, blond wolf, and went after the bear, snarling, ripping, and tearing at it. When the bear took swings at him, Jake vanished from sight only to reappear behind the bear for another attack.
Leni gasped, and turned away from the animal fight happening near the edge of the trees.
“It’s just an illusion, Leni. That’s not a real bear. It’s for training purposes. The energy needed to manifest this spell comes from dreams and hallucinations. Illusion spells don’t draw on physical energies,” Michaels said.
She turned back to see Jake in wolf form put the final touches on the fight causing the image of the bear to shimmer and disappear.
Diana walked over, explaining. “Jake’s not a puppy. He’s a magical dog. He can disappear, as you saw. He can morph into other canine forms. He can fight. He can watch you during the day without you or anyone else knowing he’s there. And his spells don’t take from anyone. They are a part of him.”
“How is that possible?”
“How can you still question after everything you’ve seen?” Diana asked her. “Some call him a witch dog, some an angel dog, some a familiar. He’s bonded to Michaels. He’ll do what he’s told to do without fail, even at the risk of his own life.”
“How did you get him? Where–”
“Once you come into your power, you can call a familiar. One that finds you worthy will answer,” Michaels said. “Eventually.”
Diana smiled. “It took ten years for Jake to come to Michaels. You have to be compatible and you have to be ready.”
Last night had been a lot to take in for Leni. Training with her mother had been exhausting before that. Finding the book and the portraits on the wall in the first place had been stressful. Each day kept bringing more and more she needed to learn and let sink in. It was harder than college.
She opened the car and Jake jumped in. Michaels gave him a series of guttural commands and told Leni just to let him out of the car when she got to school, and he’d do the rest.
Her car shimmered once she got in, but soon dissipated or she got used to it. Jake sat, still and calm, watching out the window the entire way. At school, she let him out, as she was told. In a blink, he was gone. She could see footprints in the damp grass every now and then when she tried, so he was there. She figured he knew more about this magical life than she did, so he’d be fine. And if she got attacked by a bear, he could take care of it.
