by Cate Tiernan
A green shopping bag with silver handles lay on top. The logo for Practical Magick was stamped on its side in silver. A gift card was tied to one of the handles. With shaking hands, I pulled it out of the garbage. I flipped open the card and gasped. These are for you, the card read. You know why. The card was signed, Blessed be, Alyce. I dropped the bag as if it had bitten me. Home-baked muffins tumbled out into the snow.
A car drove up and stopped behind me. Once again, I realized, Hunter had tracked me down.
"Morgan, what is it?" he asked.
I lifted my stricken face to him. "It can't be," I whispered. If Alyce had used dark magick to cause Stuart Afton's stroke, then Page
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everything that I thought I knew or understood was wrong. And no one was to be trusted."Get in the car," Hunter ordered. I simply obeyed. My mind whirled. Alyce? Then she was an amazing liar because she had seemed to be very certain that no one should mess with dark forces. Hunter got out of the car and picked up the bag I had dropped. He gathered up the muffins, sniffed them, gazed at them. Then he dumped everything back into the garbage can. He climbed back into the car. "They're not spelled," he said.
"Wh-what?" I asked.
"The muffins, the bag, the note," he explained. "None of it is spelled. Alyce had nothing to do with Afton's stroke." I leaned back and let out a sigh of relief. I felt Hunter's eyes on me. "You suspected David, though, didn't you? That's why you came back out here?"
"I—I don't know what I thought," I said. "I went to Red Kill, to Memorial Hospital. I saw Stuart Afton," Hunter said.
I didn't bother to ask how he had been able to see Afton since he wasn't a relative or even a friend.
"I had heard he'd been acting strangely for days, which they believe may have been signaling the stroke, despite the fact that there was no medical reason for it to have happened. And he was sort of babbling while I was there." "What did he say?" I asked apprehensively. "He said, I did what they wanted. Why isn't it over?'" "That doesn't mean anything," I felt compelled to say. "He could have been talking about work or something."
"There's more," Hunter said. "Remember the dark presence you felt at your garage? I hadn't realized until I drove you there that the garage is right down the road from the Afton gravel pit But when I saw that I realized that the dark
I presence might not have been looking for you at all." I gaped at him. "You mean ... ?"
Hunter nodded. "Maybe it was looking for Stuart Afton." I put a hand to my forehead. I didn't know whether to be relieved or upset. If the dark presence had been after Afton instead of me, that meant I wasn't being stalked. But it also meant that Hunter was right and David had called on the dark side.
"Anyway, I was heading over to his office to do some more checking, then I got this sense that you needed me," Hunter said. I bristled. "I was fine," I said. "It was just upsetting to think that Alyce might have been involved somehow." "Well... good," Hunter said. "So I'll see you later." I turned in my seat to face him. "I'm going with you." "What?"
"I am part of this now," I said firmly. "If you're going to check out Afton's office, then I'm going, too."
For a moment it seemed like he was going to argue with me, but then he sighed. "Fine. You'd just follow me, anyway." I managed a grin. "Gee. I guess you do know me after all." I scrambled out of his car and into mine. Then I followed him to Stuart Afton Enterprises. Hunter took my arm, and we crossed the street to Afton's building. "I want to get into his office and search for signs of magick." "You mean like breaking and entering?" My voice sounded strangled. I'd never even so much as shoplifted.
"Well, yes," Hunter said. "Not to put too fine a point on it" "Don't tell me: You're a Seeker and have some sort of magickal permission that lets you break all kinds of human laws." I crossed my arms over my chest.
Hunter smiled, and I caught my breath at how boyish he suddenly looked. "That's right," he said. "You can back out anytime. I didn't invite you, remember?"
I rolled my eyes. "I'm in."
"Fine. Just so long as you remember who's in charge here." I gritted my teeth in irritation as he murmured under his breath, quickly tracing runes and other sigils in the air. "This is a spell of illusion," he told me. "Anyone looking at us here will see something else—a cat, Page
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a banner, a tall plant—anything but us." I was impressed and also envious of Hunter's ability. I realized again how much I had to learn.
"All right, now. Here's something for you to do," Hunter instructed. "There's an alarm wired into this door. It runs on electricity, which is just energy. Focus your own energy, then probe inside for the energy of the security system and do something with it."
I didn't want this responsibility. "What if I short-circuit the microwave by mistake?"
"You won't," he assured me.
I sent my energy inside the building. It was the first time I'd ever tried to focus on energy that wasn't attached to a person or somehow linked to the land. This was searching for electric currents that had no character or easily recognizable pattern; they were simply circuits, designed to register a response when they were opened or closed. At first all I felt was a general emptiness within the rooms of the building. I probed again and this time felt a lower-level energy around the perimeter of the building, steady and unobtrusive, designed to be noticed only if it were broken. It ran across all the doors and through the glass of the windows. I went deeper into the building and I picked up other kinds of energy—ultrasonic sound waves I and, upstairs, a laser, both motion detectors. And something else on the ground floor: a passive infrared light, designed to pick up on the infrared energy given off by an intruder's r body heat "Well?" Hunter asked.
"This is so cool," I murmured.
"Find the security system," he reminded me. "Right" I cast my energy again, found the security control box in the basement, and let my mind examine it I concentrated harder, sensing a pattern that had been punched in time and time again. "Six-two-seven-three-zero," I said. "That's the code." "Excellent." Hunter tapped the numbers into the keypad by the door, and we heard a quiet click. "Let's go."
Inside, Hunter headed for a big, windowed room at the back of the first floor: Stuart Afton's office. Inside the room he looked around, closed his eyes for a moment, and conyrolled his breathing. Then he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out an athame. The hilt had a simple design, set with a single dark blue sapphire.
Hunter unsheathed the blade and pointed it at Afton's desk. A sigil flickered, lit with sapphire blue light. Magick had been done here. Hunter pointed the blade at Afton's chair and I saw the rune Hagell, for disruption. The rune Neid, for constraint, flickered over the doorway. There were other signs that I didn't recognize. "These are used to mark targets," Hunter explained, holding the athame at some of the unfamiliar figures. "Do you still doubt that magick has been used against Afton?"
"No." Seeing these sigils, knowing they had been wrought with dark intent, was deeply upsetting. "But we still don't know whose magick this is." "Don't we?" His voice was soft, dangerous. He held the athame to the sigil once more. "From which clan do you arise?" he asked. The shape of a crystal flickered above the sigil. "What is that?" I asked.
"The sign of the Burnhides," Hunter said. He didn't sound triumphant, just sad.
"Oh, no," I said. I felt hollow inside.
"This isn't real proof," Hunter said. "There are probably other Burnhides in the area besides David. Making magick is like handwriting—if you know someone's work, you can recognize it. I need to learn David's magickal signature. Then I'll have the proof I need." I swallowed. "Great."
Hunter and I split up after leaving Afton's offices. Needing a break from the strain, I went home.
I walked in to find Mary K. sitting at the kitchen table, white-faced. "What's wrong?" I asked quickly, thinking, Bakker. "Aunt Eileen just called."
"What happened? Are they all right?"
She nodded, loo
king stricken. "Nobody was hurt, but those guys—or some of their buddies—came back last night, This morning they found the front of the Page
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house covered with spray paint."
"What did it say?"
"Aunt Eileen wouldn't tell me," said Mary K. "So I guess it was bad. They just got back from the police station." I felt a surge of irrational guilt If I hadn't gone to I Practical Magick and then been with Hunter...
"I've never heard Aunt Eileen sound so shaken up," Mary K. went on. "She called here looking for Mom, and I could tell she'd been crying. She wants to put the house on the market"
"What? Oh, no! She can't be serious!"
Mary K. shook her head, her perfect bell of auburn hair brushing her shoulders. "They're tired of the Northeast They think that in California, people will be more tolerant" Her voice trembled. "Aunt Eileen wants Mom to relist their house."
"That's crazy!" I said. "It's just three high school kids! Three idiots, three losers. Every town has them."
"Tell that to Aunt Eileen and Paula," Mary K. said. She got up and began taking clean dishes out of the dishwasher. "God, they were so excited about that house. I hate it that anyone is doing this to them!" "I do, too," I said. And I can do something about it, I thought. I glanced at my watch. I had about four hours before I had to be at Jenna's house for our circle. That would give me time to finish the protection charm. And to find a spell to teach those thugs a lesson they'd never forget. 18. Lost and Found
Fiona is dying.
The news of Linden's death broke her, I think. She'd been in pain before, but she had a core of toughness that kept the illness at bay. But in the last two years she has been...fading. Her hair, once bright, is entirely white now, and her green eyes are sunk deep in her gaunt face. I see her agony, but I can't bear the thought of losing her, my dearest love, the only precious thing I have left.
This morning I broke the silence and sent a message to Giomanach. I didn't contact him directly, but I cast a spell that would open a door to him, that would let him know that we're alive. Now I'm living in terror that I've exposed his to the dark wave.
-Maghach
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I was the first one to show up at Jenna's house. "This isn't like me," I said. "I'm never early." The truth was, I'd I driven faster than I usually did. I felt weirdly edgy. Maybe because I was nervous about my decision to deliberately work a dark spell on the jerks who'd been harassing my aunt. Or maybe just because I was worried about going through another circle without connecting to my power.
Jenna took my coat. "All the others are running late. Ethan convinced them to go to a lecture at the Red Kill library with him. It's on sacred space and mythic time. I think it's being given by someone who studied shamanism." "You didn't want to go?" I asked, following her into the Ruizes' comfortably shabby living room.
"With Matt? No thanks. I mean, I'm stuck in the same coven with him, but if I have a chance to avoid him, I take it." "It must be awful to break up with someone after four years of being together," I said inadequately. Considering how I was pining over Cal, whom I had known barely three months, I could hardly imagine what Jenna was going through.Jenna removed a large basset hound from the couch. "Go sleep in your own bed," she said. "We're having company." The dog padded off placidly, and Jenna turned to me. "Yeah. At first I just didn't know how to get through the days. Raven Meltzer!" She wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Of anyone he could have picked. I was so humiliated."
We sat down on the couch, and a big gray-and-white-striped cat jumped onto Jenna's lap, purring. She petted it absentmindedly. "We've been together since I was thirteen. I didn't know what to do without him. And everyone knew. But now—" She shrugged. "It's amazing. I'm getting over it. I'm finding out that I'm different without Matt." She shook her head, and her fine, pale blond hair swished in a shining wave. "When I was with Matt, I was always checking in with him. I don't even know how I got into that habit. But there was nothing I did that Matt didn't know about." The doorbell rang then, and I waited while Ethan, Sharon, Matt, and Robbie came into the house, all talking at once. "Sorry we're late," Robbie said, giving Jenna a casual hug. "We got hung up in traffic in Red Kill." "Yeah, the place was packed," Matt said. "I had no idea that so many people even knew where the Red Kill library was." I felt Hunter coming up the walk, and an unexpected sense of anticipation made me sit up straighter.
"My apologies, everyone," he said as he unzipped his jacket a minute later. He looked around, seeming pleased that everyone was there. "Since we're running late, let's get started. Jenna, what do you have for forming a circle?" "Chalk, candles, incense, water," she answered. "Perfect Then if you'll get them and if everyone else will form a circle ..."
Hunter quickly drew the circle and chanted an invocation to the Goddess and the God.
"I want to concentrate on things that have been lost," he said when we'd raised the energy of the circle. It was flowing among us so strongly that I could almost see it—a ribbon of light, linking and encompassing us in its strength. This time I felt more connected to it. "Each of you, think of something lost that you want to be found," Hunter went on. "Don't say it aloud, but silently ask the energy of the circle to open a way inside you to find what's been lost." What had I lost? My heart, was my immediate answer. [ But even to me that sounded too melodramatic to ask the energy of the circle to act on it. My mind wandered, my connection to the circle weaker. I glanced at Hunter, wondering if he knew. His eyes were open, but whatever he was seeing wasn't in the room. He looked aeons away. I closed my eyes, trying to find my connection again. Suddenly I was filled with a rush of emotion, a deep sense of loss, a yearning that I knew wasn't my own. I saw a man I didn't recognize, tall, with brown eyes and graying hair.
Father, something said within me.
Father. My eyes flew open. Somehow I knew I'd just seen Hunter's father. I had somehow picked up the images that he was experiencing in the circle. Startled, Hunter's head whipped toward me. I flushed. I hadn't meant to invade his privacy in that way. I hoped he'd know that. I felt him refocus, connecting to the rest of the group, and then he Page
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began taking the circle down. Once again we sat in a circle on the floor. Hunter avoided my eyes. He gave the others an apologetic look. "Would you please excuse us?" he asked. "Morgan, may I speak to you?" Before I had a chance to answer, he was on his feet and steering me by my elbow to Jenna's kitchen.
"That was an abuse of power," he hissed at me. "You had no right!" My mouth dropped open. "I didn't do it on purpose!" Hunter's nostrils flared as he breathed in and out rapidly, trying to calm down. I couldn't tell if the two bright spots on his cheeks were anger or embarrassment.
I thought about how much I hated it when I felt he'd read my thoughts. He must feel awful, I realized. "I'm sorry. I truly, really, and totally have no idea how that happened."
He stared down at the tile floor. His breathing was returning to normal. "All right," he said shakily. "All right I believe you." "How could that have happened?" I asked. "I had a stray thought about you, and then I just . . . received all these images." He nodded a few times, still not lifting his head. "We...we had a connection. That's all."
"That was your father, wasn't it?" I asked. He looked at me, his green eyes glinting. "It was incredible," he half whispered. "I suddenly knew, clear as daylight, that I could call to my father, and he would hear me."
"You mean, you think he's alive?" Hunter's parents had disappeared when he was eight—more victims of the dark wave, the evil force that had destroyed Belwicket and other covens. Hunter, his brother, Linden, and their sister, Alwyn, had been taken in by their Uncle Beck and Aunt Shelagh. It had been hard, not knowing what had happened to his mother and father. No wonder it was what he focused on when thinking of something lost. When Hunter looked at me, his eyes were full of pain. "Yes." "Will you call to him?"
"I do
n't know. It's been so long since I've seen him—I don't even know who I'd be calling. And I'm not sure he'd want to see what I've become." "A Seeker?" I felt confused.
Hunter nodded. "We're not exactly popular among witches." "You're the youngest member of the council. Wouldn't any Wiccan father be proud of that?"
"He's Woodbane," Hunter reminded me. "For all I know, he calls on the dark side, too."
"Don't you ever get tired of looking at the world that way?" I asked, feeling suddenly almost sorry for him. "This is your father! You haven't seen him in more than ten years. My God, if I could see my birth mother just once—" "Ethan, quit it!" The sounds of Sharon's giddy laughter came through the kitchen door. Hunter gazed at it, as if he'd forgotten where we were. "We'd better go back out there," he said. I was reluctant to end this conversation. We were really talking to each other, not fighting, not having a lesson. But the others were waiting. We went back into the living room, where the others instantly gathered around Hunter.
"I've been reading that book you told me about," Matt began. "And I don't get the part about the Four Watchtowers." I watched for a few minutes as Hunter patiently answered their questions, in spite of all I knew he was feeling. His breadth of knowledge was impressive, and I knew he had much to teach me, including his ability to reach out to others and help them learn, even when he must be feeling so distressed. Then it was time to leave. I got into Das Boot and sat for a few moments, letting the engine warm up. Christmas lights were already twinkling from most of the houses on Jenna's street. The house directly across from hers had a giant illuminated sleigh and reindeer spanning the width of the roof. I have got to start getting ready for Christmas, I reminded myself, resolving to talk to Mary K. tomorrow about possible gift ideas. Das Boot was ready to roll, so I shifted into gear. Then I shifted back into park. I couldn't just drive off, I realized, not after Hunter had revealed himself to me that way. He'd been seriously shaken, and I didn't want to just leave him.