Witches of The Wood

by Skylar Finn

  “Here we wait,” I heard Margo’s voice cut through the darkness.

  Wait for what? I looked around, confused. The others were all staring into space, so I followed their gaze upward. The blood moon was enormous, full, and red. On an ordinary night in my ordinary world, I might have found the sight beautiful. Now I found it terrifying.

  As we stared, I realized why the line had stopped. The eclipse was beginning. At first, it was just a sliver of the moon that disappeared, cast in darkness. But then it seemed to happen more rapidly, as if time itself was condensing and folding inward. I looked back down at the others, scared. Why was this happening? How was it happening?

  But their gazes were all fixed and frozen upward at the rapidly disappearing moon. Their pupils were all dilated, full and black. But none more so than the eyes of Margo Metal.

  After what seemed like minutes, which I knew to be an impossibility but had no other explanation for, the night was plunged into total and absolute darkness.

  “Now the time has come,” intoned Margo.

  As I watched, a series of small lights appeared in the woods with us like lightening bugs: gray, orange, yellow, green, purple, and red. The lights bobbed ahead of us like lanterns, and we set off following them.

  After what felt like another dozen years, the lights paused. I squinted at our surroundings, illuminated by the mysterious lights. I recognized a fork in the path next to the river we’d been walking along. It was the place I’d seen in Gwyneth’s memory I’d witnessed through Aurora’s magic. It was the fork in the road when the deer first appeared and offered her the choice between the lefthand path and the righthand one.

  The lights elongated and grew until they were roughly human-sized. They stretched, grew limbs, and formed faces. I found myself looking at Gwyneth and the witches of the woods. They formed a line in front of us and we formed a half-circle before them.

  Gwyneth looked approvingly down the line. Her eyes lit on me and she seemed to glow from within.

  “I’m so glad to see you all have made the decision to be part of history tonight,” she said. “A decision, I am sure you will see, that is the only decision worth making.”

  Margo approached the figure of Gwyneth, which seemed to shimmer and waver in the fire light. I took this to mean there was still some invisible, watery boundary that kept her from being physically here the way the rest of us were. I just had to figure out how to keep it that way.

  Margo stood next to Gwyneth and addressed the semi-circle of potential dark witches before her.

  “Sisters of night!” she shouted. “Tonight is the night. We will become one with the witches of the wood. We will become one with the dark spirits of the forest, just as they intended centuries before. But tonight, we will be successful in our endeavor. And when we are, we will have powers beyond reckoning, powers no human alive can imagine! We will become unstoppable.”

  A chill spread through my body as I beheld the true scope of what they were attempting. They would be unstoppable. If they succeeded, we would all be doomed.

  At that moment, I glanced behind me without really knowing why. Everyone else in the semi-circle had their attention fixed and riveted to the witches before us. In the most dense shrubbery, I thought I saw the briefest flash of a someone concealing themselves. Was it Peter?

  I turned to the front. I couldn’t think about that now. Between me and my family, along with Peter, if it had been him I had seen, maybe we had a chance. But it also meant that if we lost, the stakes were even higher. I might lose everyone that I cared about tonight.

  As if to confirm my worst fears, Margo swept a hand to the sky and made the following declaration.

  “First, let us bring forth a final vessel!” she declared. She raised her arm, and from deep within the woods, I saw approaching movement. I squinted, trying to see closer. It was Tamsin.

  She drifted into the clearing at the fork between two paths, levitating the way Colin had in the memory I had seen. She was fast asleep. Her hair drifted around her face as if she was suspended in water.

  “Enchanted sleep,” declared Margo. “It’s a little obvious, but I find it does the trick.”

  Tamsin came to a halt in the clearing, still hovering in mid-air. I saw a faint ghostly glow emitting from the nearby woods, and Margo reached out with her hand again.

  “Come forth, sister of darkness, to collect your reward,” ordered Margo.

  Martha drifted into the clearing, looking miserable. Her head was bowed, her expression sorrowful.

  “When we become one, you will have a body again,” said Margo.

  It was then that I felt suffused with anger, a powerful rage, that seemed to subsume my entire being. Who did she think she was, toying with people’s lives this way? She needed to be stopped. One way or another, this ended tonight.

  It also begged the question that, if Tamsin was merely intended as a vessel for Martha, and if that was what they meant by the sacrifice of a powerful witch, was this the final sacrifice that would seal the ancient rite and allow them to fulfill their ritual? It seemed almost too simple somehow; too clean. Gwyneth wasn’t above murdering innocent people, and it seemed less evil than I would have expected to allow Tamsin to live, however altered. If I doubted Gwyneth’s will to commit a third heinous act and influence Margo into doing the same, I didn’t doubt it for long.

  “And now, the third and final sacrifice!” Margo smiled broadly, practically beaming. “As you all know, we have a special guest joining us tonight. Someone many of us here tonight have all grown to love—and love to hate. Without further ado, allow me to present…”

  I thought frantically that she meant me. Maybe I was the powerful witch they planned to sacrifice. Maybe I hadn’t been as subtle as I imagined, and they were aware of my sleuthing this entire time. Maybe—

  A third figure drifted into the clearing, halting my rapid and self-absorbed speculation. I saw then what they planned to do, and I was seized with horror.

  It was Les Rodney.

  Les, unlike Tamsin, was decidedly not deep in an enchanted sleep. As he levitated into the clearing, coming to a stop next to Tamsin, he seemed paralyzed but wide awake and aware of everything that was happening.

  “Help!” he screamed. “What is this?! What’s going on? Is everyone on peyote? Am I?”

  “Silence!” said Margo, waving a hand. His screams were immediately cut off. “As all of us know, this individual has sinned against us—every one of us—countless times. He did it because he felt entitled to do it. He did it because we allowed him to. In all the pain and hurt and suffering he has caused, there were never once repercussions for his actions. Tonight, that will change. Tonight, he will experience consequences. For the first and final time.”

  I couldn’t hear Les screaming any more, but his thoughts were so loud and frantic, they hit me like a freight train.

  What is this, what is happening, I knew she was upset, I knew they were all upset, but what are they doing? Are they actually going to do something—no, Margo wouldn’t do that, she loves me, she wouldn’t—

  I blocked him out. I didn’t know that I could do that, but I wanted more than anything not to hear him anymore, and then I didn’t. I couldn’t focus on anything that was happening in front of me when I was aware of Les’s fear.

  Les was the sacrifice. It made perfect sense. I saw clearly now what I hadn’t before: I thought Les had installed Margo here to earn her forgiveness and regain her trust, that he’d lured me here to serve them, and maybe that had been the case, initially.

  But once Gwyneth found Margo, everything had changed. She had manipulated him ceaselessly to gain followers—all the women he’d ever been involved with, everyone he’d ever wronged—so she could not only gain power, but in doing so, have her final revenge against him. As far as revenge plots go, it wasn’t a bad one.

  But Les, for all his faults, didn’t deserve to be sacrificed to the dark spirits of the woods. Which mean that now I had to save not only T
amsin, but him, too. This was beginning to seem insurmountable.

  In the woods around us, more lights appeared. I realized, upon looking closely, that they were not lights, but eyes. Fear mounted in me as I remembered the story my grandmother had told: yellow and orange eyes, and a single set of red eyes, suspended in the darkness. All were watching us, unblinking.

  “Spirits of the woods! Welcome. Now that you’re here, we may begin.” Margo stepped forward and gestured for us to do the same. The dark witches of the woods surrounded us, forming a circle of their own. I was trapped.

  Margo reached out her hands and grasped Ferrari and Tapia’s. In turn, they held Paulina and Kimmy’s, who grabbed Bridget’s and mine. Once the circle had been formed, I felt sealed into something powerful. Something unbreakable.

  Margo began to chant. The others followed, picking up her words. It was the same chant she started at the kitchen table, the night of the disastrous dinner party when Tamsin first realized she was a witch.

  “Darkness in you, darkness in me. Darkness in you, darkness in me…”

  How could I stop this? I didn’t know anything to say that would stop them. Instead, with my mind, I willed with every fiber of my being that it wouldn’t work.

  “What’s going on here?” Margo opened her eyes, frustrated. “Something is blocking me.”

  “I sense a light presence near,” Gwyneth called. “We have an enemy. Something is here to stop us.”

  If they hadn’t caught me yet, now was surely the moment. I foresaw myself levitating in the clearing, next to Tamsin and Les.

  But I was wrong. I saw it, too. Three bright balls of light, similar to the ones I’d seen earlier had formed in the clearing. Unlike those lights, these were silver, gold, and white. Like Gwyneth’s dark coven, they stretched and elongated into human form.

  It was my family.

  42

  The Root and the Branch

  “By the powers of light, we command you to stop this dark ritual at once,” Aurora’s voice thundered across the clearing. If I thought she was scary at the dinner table, it was nothing compared to the way she looked now. She was lit from within, glowing so brightly that she appeared wreathed in flames.

  “Well, if it isn’t my favorite family,” came Gwyneth’s sarcastic voice from across the clearing.

  Margo, however, had halted. She looked at them wild-eyed, in complete and total confusion.

  “What’s going on here?” she yelled, looking fearful.

  “I wouldn’t worry about them,” said Gwyneth. “They’re not even really here. If I know the descendants of the blacksmith’s daughter, they’re holed up in a room somewhere, miles away. Chanting. Projecting themselves here.”

  Margo reached out and took a swipe at Minerva. Her hand passed right through her. Margo started to laugh, relieved, then doubled over. She clutched her hand, screaming. Minerva hovered over her with fire in her eyes.

  “What did you do?” Margo wailed.

  “I didn’t say you could touch them, you idiot,” Gwyneth scolded her. “Just because they’re not here doesn’t mean they can’t damage us and interfere with the ritual. Stop them!”

  There was a ripple of confusion throughout the circle, none of whom seemed to know any real magic beyond drinking wine in the woods with Margo under the moonlight. Ferrari and Tapia took a few half-hearted steps towards my mother and Aurora, then froze as they turned on them, their expressions ablaze.

  “You have interfered with us before, and you will not do so again,” said Gwyneth, stepping forward. Her dark coven stepped forward behind her. Margo stayed on the ground, moaning.

  Gwyneth raised her hand to the sky. My grandmother matched her movement, but Gwyneth was too quick for her. She vanished in the blink of an eye.

  Margo got up. Her face was no longer her face. It was the face of Gwyneth, but no longer twisted and ruined. It was the same young and beautiful face I had seen in her memory. When Margo spoke, it was Gwyneth’s voice that emerged.

  “Foil me once, shame on you,” she said. “Foil me twice, I will murder your kin.” She raised a hand to Tamsin and she immediately rocketed a hundred feet into the air.

  “One more move and I will send her to this earth so hard every bone in her body will break,” Gwyneth said.

  My family froze, their eyes fixed on Tamsin, high above their heads.

  “Let’s make a deal,” said Gwyneth. “I give you what you came here for, and you go quietly and leave us to our own devices. We’re leaving town tonight, and we might never cross paths again.”

  “We can’t let you do that,” my mother said quietly.

  Gwyneth laughed. “I’m afraid you don’t have a choice,” she said. “Take the deal and leave, or the girl dies.”

  “What’s to prevent you from double-crossing us, Gwyneth?” asked my grandmother. “The way you always do, with everyone you’ve ever made a deal with.”

  “I have something that I want much more than I could ever want your useless daughter, or a ghost,” said Gwyneth, smiling slowly at Minerva. “There is more power in this circle tonight then I ever could have dreamed of having.” Her eyes fell on me.

  She turned to my mother. “Tonight, I will possess the most powerful witch I have ever encountered: your daughter.” With a flick of her wrist, she knocked the hood off of my face. My mother’s face was filled with fear.

  “I have never encountered power the likes of hers,” said Gwyneth. “And when we become one, I will become unstoppable.”

  Didn’t I tell you to stay home? thought my grandmother, exasperated.

  “No!” My mother threw up a hand and Gwyneth, still in Margo’s body, was thrown across the clearing. Margo hit a tree and slumped to the ground. I winced, imagining the damage this was doing to her. She immediately rose again, still with Gwyneth’s face. My mother threw an arc of white light at her. Gwyneth deflected it with her hand.

  The dark coven moved forward. Aurora and Minerva simultaneously produced what looked like shields of light. Gwyneth’s followers shrieked as if blinded.

  I realized in this moment that no one was paying attention to Tamsin. I tilted my head upwards and focused all of my energy on her. As I did so, I scurried into the shelter of the woods a short ways away. I closed my eyes and pictured her descending to the ground unharmed. When I opened them, she was lying on the ground before me, still deep within her enchanted sleep.

  Tamsin, I thought. Tamsin, can you hear me?

  At first, nothing happened. I thought maybe she was so deep in sleep that my mind couldn’t penetrate it. Then I felt the faint trickle of another consciousness, just barely there, as if from a distance.

  Tamsin! I thought harder, focusing everything I had on getting through to her. It felt like the mental equivalent of shouting. Tamsin, wake up!

  Her eyelids fluttered. I watched her, hardly daring to hope.

  Sam? she thought back. Is that you? What is this place? Where are we?

  We’re in the woods, and Gwyneth’s back, I thought frantically. She’s trying to use us as vessels for her unholy coven! You’ve got to wake up so we can get out of here.

  Tamsin’s eyes gradually opened the rest of the way. Slowly, she struggled to sit up with a groan. I’d never been more relieved in my life.

  “I feel like I’ve been in a coma,” she said.

  “You basically have been,” I said. “Margo’s been keeping you in an enchanted sleep.”

  “Margo!” she exclaimed. “I was right, wasn’t I? I knew it!”

  “Don’t you remember what happened?” I asked. “How did she get to you?”

  “I have no idea,” she said, rubbing her head. “One minute, I was in bed asleep, and the next thing I know, I’m here.” She glanced around us. “Is this the place Aurora showed us? Where Gwyneth first sold her soul?”

  “Yes, and she’s got everyone in the woods right now, trying to perform the dark rite they failed to execute before,” I said. “Your mom and my mom and Aurora are fighting them
now, we have to help them!” I got up to run back to the clearing, but she reached up and grabbed me, pulling me back to the ground.

  “Sam, they’re not really here,” she explained, struggling to her feet. “They would never fight dark witches while physically present, they could be killed. Unlike we, who are very much physically here, and can very much be killed. We’ve got to get out of here!”

  “Wait, what about Les?” I said.

  “Les?” she asked, confused. “What about him?”

  “They’re going to sacrifice him,” I said.

  Tamsin frowned, thinking. “Would that really be such a bad thing?” she said finally.

  “Tamsin!” I thought she was coming up with a plan. “We have to get him, we can’t just leave him here to die.”

  “The coven will stop them,” she said firmly. “Gwyneth and her followers aren’t physically here anymore than the coven is. At least, not if they haven’t performed the dark rite yet. I would say they’re equally matched, but Aurora and Isadora and my mom are much more powerful. You’ve never really seen them do magic, Sam. I have. They will stop them, I promise you.”

  “But Gwyneth is here,” I said. “She’s possessed Margo.”

  “What?” Tamsin reached down and grabbed my hand. “Sam, we’ve got to get out of here now! If she gets to you, we’re really in trouble. And I can almost guarantee you that’s what she’s after. You’re a thousand times more valuable to her than Margo ever could be. You’re a born witch.”

  I thought of the way Gwyneth looked at me in the clearing, before she told my mother she planned to possess me. I shuddered.

  “Come on!” Tamsin pulled me to my feet and we stumbled through the underbrush, branches slapping at our faces and tangling in our hair. We ran along the river and I thought of the story of the blacksmith’s daughter. If we could just get to the bridge, we could find our way back to town. We could go to the apothecary, where we would be safe. I tried not to think about what might be happening in the clearing behind us as we ran.