The Wiccan's Curse

by Gemma Jace

  “What’s happening?” Luna asked.

  “Evil has taken root. We have to go to the cathedral.”

  The urgency in the gnome’s voice caused the three to scramble to their feet. Luna grabbed her backpack that she had set on the floor and put it on. The three headed toward the door.

  “Hold on to something,” Salina grabbed a wooden staff from the same corner as the watering can once sat. She thrust the staff in the air and called out, “Cathedral.”

  The cottage shook as if there was an earthquake right under their feet. Luna grabbed hold of the chair she had been sitting in, as did River and Rusty. The staff glowed a bright yellow that filled the house. Luna clutched on to the chair and closed her eyes against the radiant light.

  After a few moments, the shaking subsided, and the staff dimmed until it was just a dull brown stick again.

  “We’re here.” Salina scuttered to the door and flung it open and scurried out.

  The others hurried behind her but stopped short at the sight of the cobblestone streets beneath them and the beautiful white cathedral in front of them.

  Luna turned and looked at the cottage, which was sitting right between two white buildings as if it had always been there.

  Salina stopped and turned to them after noticing they were not following. “It’s called magic. Now stop gawking and come on!”

  CHAPTER 15

  THE SETTING SUN’S LIGHT shone off the golden cathedral’s door, casting a beautiful glow across the cobblestone street. It had only been an hour since the sun hung at high noon. Now it was like late afternoon. Salina ran to the door and tapped on it with her staff. The door opened wide, and she ran in with Luna, River, and Rusty close behind.

  Inside of the cathedral was much bigger than it appeared from the street. The floor was like molten gold had been poured there just moments ago and the walls twinkled as if light was shining through a spectrum, causing rainbows to refract all throughout the room.

  Many wiccans wearing white hooded robes bound by thick golden chains frantically talked among themselves. When they saw Salina, they hurried toward her, bombarding her with questions.

  “Marla has come back. She is regaining her power quickly and snuffing out the sun,” Salina told them.

  “How did she come back? You stripped her of her magic,” One wiccan said.

  “She can’t breach the barrier without magic,” another wiccan said.

  “She tricked her daughter and followed her through the barrier,” Salina said, looking at Luna.

  Luna’s jaw dropped. Her face burned with the stare of all the wiccans in the room. She knew her mother was a bad person, but this was too much for even her, the person her mother treated the worst, to digest.

  “Are you saying that my mother is the evil that’s causing the sun to set?”

  “Yes. I fought her a century ago after she bewitched a Crescent wiccan and stole his power to snuff out the sun here, along with most of our power, and became our wicked empress,” Salina said.

  “A century ago? You must be mistaken. My mother is only in her thirties.”

  “Your mother is over two hundred years old. She only started aging when I used a gnome binding curse to suppress her powers and expel her from this place.”

  “Did your mother put you up to letting her back in here?!” A voice yelled from the back of the crowd.

  “Are you an evil wiccan like your mother or are you a good wiccan, like your father?” another wiccan standing in front of her said before she could answer the first question.

  “I didn’t know my mother was following us. And my father was not a wiccan.”

  “Does this girl know nothing of her heritage?!” another wiccan barked at Salina.

  “I don’t believe Marla has told her very much, and I’m sure what she told the girl was not the total story,” Salina said.

  Luna shook her head, not wanting to believe what she just heard.

  “There is no way my father was a wiccan. He would have told me,” she said, looking down at Salina.

  “He didn’t know. Your mother took his memory when she stole his Crescent wiccan powers. That’s how she can make the sun set in this place. She was never supposed to set foot back here, for if she did, all of her powers... the Enchanter and the Crescent powers in her would be reawakened.”

  “She told me that she and my father were happy living in Hawthorn Hill and that the only reason they left was to hide me so the coven wouldn’t take me away to punish her for having a child with a mortal man. Those were all lies?”

  “Not all. Your mother and father lived in Hawthorne for a while. Soon we got word that she had gotten pregnant hoping her wiccan gene would pass to her child so one day she could figure out how to use you to get her own powers back. We went to her and told her that if the child she bore showed any signs of having powers, we would take the child away. You were born a mortal child, so we thought. Now we know why she left town with you.”

  “She didn’t hate me because I’m cursed. She hated me because I didn’t turn into an Enchanter.”

  THE CRESCENT MOON SHOWED in the darkening blue sky. The sun had fallen behind the hills in the distance, bringing a panic in the cathedral and in the streets.

  The wiccans in the room shouted questions and accusations at Luna. It was all too much. Luna turned and ran out the door. The sun had completely set. The wiccans had lost all of their powers, and with that, hysteria set in.

  Luna could hear wiccans screaming, yelling, and arguing with one another as they spilled out into the streets from pitch black buildings, seeking the light of the moon just to see through the dark. Babies wailed, and little kids clung to their mothers. Men shouted as they attempted to start fires inside of wooden barrels, up and down the street.

  In the distance, shining through the wiccans running back and forth, was a woman sashaying through the crowd. No one else saw her, yet no one ran into her in their confused haste. Who was she? Her hair was as pale as ash, and her skin was as white as the diamond gown she wore. Closer she came. Her icy gray eyes came into view, twinkling with an eerie amusement.

  The woman stopped in front of the cathedral. She stood there and stared at Luna. Several wiccans ran in front of the woman, but she did not see them. All she saw was Luna. Her piercing gray eyes bore through Luna like cold steel.

  “I suppose I should thank you for doing something right, for once,” the woman said.

  That condescending voice...how could it be?

  “Mother?”

  “Bravo,” she clapped. “Perhaps some of your slowness has faded with the rise of your powers.”

  “This is how you really look?”

  “You like?”

  “Not really.”

  “No matter,” she shrugged. “You have something that belongs to me.”

  “I have nothing that belongs to you!” Luna shouted. “You tricked me. You pretended you loved me just so you could follow me here.”

  Her mother snickered. “I love you...in a way. But I don’t have time to discuss that right now. It’s time for me to take my rightful place on the throne, and to do that, I will need that book.”

  So that’s what she meant. Luna had never guessed that the book she found in the orange tree could be her mother’s.

  “That book doesn’t belong to you,” Salina said, moving to stand beside Luna. “It was your husband’s book, and now it belongs to Luna. His powers will be hers now.”

  Mother’s eyes narrowed, and her body stiffened. “You mind your own business, you slimy little frog!” she yelled.

  Mother threw out her hand toward Salina and started chanting a spell.

  Salina grabbed Luna’s arm and dashed her staff against the ground. Instantly, the staff transported them back inside. She waved her staff over her head and the door slammed shut. A yellow hue shimmered across the threshold.

  A loud sound slammed the door from the outside. Then another slam... then another.

  “My spell won’t keep
her out for long.”

  The assault on the door kept going without a break. Mother was determined to get the book. Luna kneeled and took the bag off of her back and took out the book. She caressed the leather and whispered her father’s name. The book was his. Hugging the book to her chest, she prayed to her father’s spirit to lead her to know what to do.

  Tears streamed down as she opened the book. Drops of emotion hit the pages laid out before her, smudging the black ink written within. He didn’t have to die. If her mother hadn’t stolen his magic, he could have healed himself. If she had told Luna that she was a wiccan, she could have saved her father with the magic she never knew she had. Instead, mother just sat by and watched her husband die, all the while blaming Luna and hating her for it.

  One last bang on the door and the yellow barrier dissipated. The door flew open. Mother stomped into the room. Her gray eyes were wild with anger and the stands of her hair were standing up as if she had been electrocuted.

  The wiccans in the room gasped to see their former empress. Luna jumped to her feet to face her mother.

  “Luna, I’m losing my patience. Give me the book or I’ll kill everyone in this room.”

  “Like you killed my father?”

  “You killed your father! You had to go out and flaunt yourself in front of those boys, even when I told you not to. Don’t blame me.”

  “You are to blame! You knew I was a wiccan and could have saved his life.”

  “You were just a powerless little freak, as you are now.”

  “You will not hurt anyone else I care about.” Luna squared her shoulders.

  “Oh, but I will, if you don’t hand over that book.”

  Luna gripped the book tighter.

  “Why do you need the book? You’ve already taken their powers away,” River said.

  Mother glared at River. “That’s none of your business. And if you want to keep breathing, say nothing more to me.”

  Luna stepped forward. “Don’t you threaten him!”

  “I know why she needs the book,” Rusty pushed up his glasses. “I believe she needs it to keep the realm dark under the Crescent’s magic of the moon. Your father’s magic she stole is tied to his grimoire. Now that it belongs to you, the power your father possessed will be yours soon, and she knows it.” He stared at Luna’s mother the whole time he talked.

  Mother threw her hand and sent Rusty flying. He smashed into the wall and crumpled to the floor. Luna and River yelled in unison.

  “Rusty!” They ran to him.

  There was no movement. He laid there, lifeless, in a crumpled heap.

  “Rusty, please wake up,” Luna pleaded, kneeling beside him.

  River put two fingers on Rusty’s neck. “There’s no pulse!” he screamed. “He’s dead. She killed him!” Tears flowed down his face.

  “I warned you, Luna!” Mother yelled, pointing at her.

  “You evil wretch!” Luna scrambled to her feet and darted toward her mother.

  Mother threw her hand to send Luna flying like she did Rusty, but nothing happened. Luna kept her pace, undeterred. Mother threw her hand again... still nothing. Luna took two more running steps and was close enough to reach out and touch her mother’s face. She extended the book and swung it as hard as she could. The book connected with mother’s left cheek, cracking like thunder. Mother flew back onto her back and slid across the golden floor, hitting the corner of the opened door. Blood gushed from her mouth and nose.

  Mother stood to her feet and wiped the blood from her mouth, then flung her bloody hand toward Luna. The red droplet sprinkled onto the floor in front of her and on Luna’s clothing. Everything the blood touched began to smolder. The heat on her skin through her clothing grew more intense. Soon, the smoldering blood became flames. Luna screamed and tore at her burning clothes, tearing them off until only her white bra and underpants remained. Her skin was red and inflamed.

  Mother chanted a word that Luna didn’t understand, and the flame in front of her grew larger and burned hotter. Luna stumbled backward as the wall of red and orange roared toward her. Mother was trying to burn them alive.

  Luna backed into the corner where River was still kneeling next to Rusty’s body. She opened the book, somehow being able to keep hold of it through the whole ordeal. There had to be something in the book that could stop her mother. The book fell open to the page that was still wet with her tears. It was a spell to cure a broken heart.

  Where did this spell come from? She didn’t remember seeing that spell in the book before. Was that what was wrong with her mother? A broken heart? But how could she perform a spell without having the ingredients needed? But there were no ingredients in the spell, only words to recite. It was unlike any other spell in the book.

  The fire grew closer. The wiccans in the room backed against the wall, screaming and pleading for the fire to stop.

  Black smoke filled the space. Luna’s lungs burned. Her stinging eyes wept as she gazed down at River; his head hung, tears dripping down onto the lenses of Rusty’s wire-framed glasses. She looked back to the book and coughed out the words written on the page.

  “Heal thine heart, let it be, let love and courage return to thee.”

  Nothing happened. The fire raged on, moving closer and closer. Luna shouted out the words once again, trying to call over the roar of the fire, to her mother’s ears.

  “Heal thine heart, let it be, let love and courage return to thee!”

  Still nothing.

  She turned once again to River, who was looking up at her, tears still streaming down his face.

  “He’s breathing again! He’s not dead!” River said.

  Luna dropped to her knees beside Rusty. His chest moved up and down with shallow respirations.

  “When you shouted those words, he started breathing again.” River grabbed Luna and held her tight.

  “I’m so happy. But if I can’t heal my mother’s broken heart, he’ll die again, and so will we.”

  He took his arms from around her and looked her in the face. “At least we’ll be together.”

  Their eyes locked, both filled with water. The fire blazed, casting its orange glow, as if the very sun in heaven was descending on them and their tears were tiny waterfalls reflecting its majestic light. Beads of sweat trickled from their foreheads, dropping to the floor and sizzling away. Luna sniffed and wiped a tear away. River cupped her cheeks, wiping away more tears with his thumbs. He leaned in and kissed away a tear that peeked in the corner of her eye. He traced tender kisses across her face until he reached her lips. He kissed her. She closed her eyes and everything around her faded away. All that remained were her lips, and his, pressed together. A flush of tingling heat traveled throughout her body, gushing and throbbing as it migrated to one central point... her heart. The world could have been on fire, and neither would have cared.

  “I love you.” His voice was deep and complete, as if he were saying his final words.

  “I love you too.” The words flowed as natural as a river flowing through a canyon.

  In that wonderful, intoxicating moment, Luna realized what the spell really meant. She whispered, “Heal my heart, let it be, let love and courage return to me”

  She threw her head back, chest heaving. A blue cyclone in the shape of a snake burst forth from Luna’s chest, swirling and twirling as it floated through the room. It opened its jaw, as if unhinging it to swallow its prey whole. Blue fire spewed from its mouth and extinguished the blood fire like water.

  Mother chanted something, then clapped. White lightning bolts came out of her hand, striking the blue serpent, causing it to recoil. Mother clapped her hands again and more lightning shot out, this time turning into a white translucent wolf standing in midair, snarling at the serpent.

  The wolf pounced, sinking its teeth into the snake’s head, shaking it back and forth violently. The snake writhed and fought against the wolf’s grip but was inevitably gobbled up.

  Luna watched in horror. She sc
rambled to her feet to face her mother. She couldn’t allow her to win. She had no right to rule over these wiccans.

  Luna clasped her chest. She held it there, looking up at the wolf that had grown bigger after its feast. She flung her arm forward, releasing another blue energy from herself. It instantly took the shape of a massive bear, just like the one she met on her journey.

  The bear reared up on its hind legs and roared. The windows in the building shook at its sheer might. He swiped his massive paw down onto the wolf’s head, sending it tumbling through the air. The wolf rebounded, landing right-side-up. It tilted its head back and howled, calling forth two more wolves which split from either side of its body.

  The bear roared again and went down on all fours and charged the wolves. The wolves ran forward, side by side, meeting the bear with gnashing teeth. They surrounded the bear, then attacked.

  The blue bear fought with courage and veracity, but the three white wolves were overtaking it. They ripped at his body, spilling out blue liquid which dissipated in the air. They were killing him.

  “Don’t give up, Blue!” Luna said to the bear. She rubbed her hands together, turning her pale hands into a royal blue. She balled them into a fist and jutted them out toward the fighting animals.

  As the blue color faded from her fists, the blue became brighter in the bear. He grew taller and wider. He became massive, making the three wolves appear to be no more than pups. He ate two of the wolves, which caused him to grow even bigger.

  The remaining wolf retreated. Mother clapped her hand again, turning the wolf into a great longhorn bull who was just as big as the bear. It stomped its front foot on the invisible floor and lowered its head. It charged forward, gorging the bear as it reared up to strike. Blue fluid gushed from the impaled site. The bear cried out. The bull pulled the horn out of the bear’s body and backed away, readying itself for another charge; but before it could get the chance, the bear fell on all fours and charged the bull instead. He sunk his teeth into the neck of the bull, ripped out a chunk and swallowed it. The bull became smaller.