Spells

by Kristen Proby

  But he’s not alone.

  I feel the evil creeping closer, and I’m not any closer than he is to finding a solution. But we’re stronger together, and I trust that we’ll meet the evil head-on and win.

  There’s no other choice.

  “I can feel your giddiness from over here,” he mumbles, not opening his eyes.

  “It’s my favorite day,” I whisper to him and press a kiss to his bare shoulder. “And I’m excited to get started with preparations for the ritual and the feast. There’s so much to do.”

  “It can wait,” he says as he rolls to me and cups my face in his large hand. His eyes are heavy with sleep as they drop to my lips. “First thing’s first.”

  I’m expecting the frenzy that usually comes with our lovemaking. The swirl of air and flames.

  But this morning, the room is calm and cool, and Lucien is slow and methodical as his hands journey over my body, waking it up to a slow burn.

  He rolls me onto my back and stares down at me lovingly. Lucien is an intense man, and having that intensity directed at me, especially in the bedroom, is at once thrilling and overwhelming.

  He links his fingers with mine, and I feel a light breeze blow over us. He locks his lips with mine, and the wind picks up.

  A shiver of pure Power runs down my spine.

  But it’s when his body joins with mine that the flames of the candles ignite around us. The room has gone from calm to powerful chaos at just the joining of our bodies and souls.

  I sigh, and the wind swirls.

  He moans, and the flames reach higher.

  And with the crescendo of our bodies, the Power around us builds and then calms, until it’s just the two of us, spent and in love.

  And feeling more connected than ever.

  “Is this your family’s property?” I ask Lucien as he pulls into the small parking area of the farm where our coven celebrates our sabbats and holds our rituals and rites. “I mean, the Lucien from before? Is this where Sabrina grew up?”

  “I do believe Miss Sophia mentioned that this property has been in her family for generations, so I think so,” he says. “All this time, we were walking where she once walked.”

  “It’s mind-blowing,” I admit. “I think it’s going to take me a while to process it all.”

  “You can take all the time you need,” he assures me. “I feel the same way. I understand it, but accepting it isn’t as easy.”

  “Well, if you understand it, you’re light years ahead of me.” I get out of the car and open the rear door to fetch the food I’ve prepared for the feast. We’re not the first to arrive, and I smile when I see Cash pull in next to us with Brielle and Daphne. “Hi, guys! I’m so happy you’re here.”

  “I brought pie,” Daphne announces. “I didn’t know what else to bring. But everyone loves pie, right?”

  “I love pie.” Cash grins.

  “And we brought some cornbread,” Brielle says.

  “My mom’s recipe,” Cash adds.

  “You guys didn’t have to bring anything at all. I’m just happy you’re here.” Lucien takes the gumbo I prepared this morning from my hands. “This cornbread will go great with the gumbo.”

  “You made gumbo?” Brielle asks. “You know that’s my favorite.”

  “I know. I did it on purpose. I’m grateful you guys came.”

  “Honestly, I’ve wanted to come before,” Daphne adds, “I just didn’t know if it was appropriate because I’m not a practicing witch.”

  “You’re always welcome here, child,” Miss Sophia says as she joins us. “We welcome everyone who wants to be here, so long as they come with an open heart and a clear mind.”

  She turns to me.

  “Did you tell your sisters?”

  “About Mama? Yes, I told them last night.”

  “Is she here?” Brielle asks.

  “She is, and I just can’t wait for you all to see her.” Miss Sophia takes our hands and leads us past an old farmhouse, where a cousin of hers still lives, to a back yard covered with tents, tables and chairs.

  This isn’t where we perform the ritual. That’s out farther in the field, and we’ll head that way to set up after we finish preparing and chatting.

  “My girls,” Mama says with joy as she sees us walk around the house. She’s dressed in a long, green dress that flows around her legs with sleeves that ruffle away from her elbows.

  Her long, blond hair is down, and she’s wearing amber around her neck for protection.

  “It’s so good to see you, Mama,” I say and fold her into a hug. “You look wonderful.”

  “I feel wonderful.” She smiles, accepting hugs from my sisters, and Cash and Lucien, as well. “I’m so happy you’re all here. Look at this beautiful family that I have.”

  I have to blink away the tears. This woman is the person my sisters and I longed for all of our lives. I’m just so relieved that she’s herself again, and we can work toward healing as a family.

  “I’ve been studying with Sophia.” She takes my hand and leads us to the tents, where the guys set down the food. “We must have cast a hundred protection spells over the past couple of weeks.”

  “That’s good,” I say. “You need them.”

  “I do, but I’m also feeling much stronger. I won’t allow anything like that to happen again. I have the tools to protect myself.”

  She fiddles with the amber around her neck, then grins as if she just got an idea.

  “In fact, I want to show you something.”

  Mama walks to a nearby table where a candle isn’t lit yet. She leans over and blows on the wick, and it lights.

  “Look at you,” Brielle cheers. “That’s so damn cool, Mama.”

  “I think so,” Mama agrees.

  “There you guys are,” Esme says as she hurries over. “I snagged a ride with Gwyneth and Aiden after we closed up the café for the day. You were right, Millie, customers couldn’t get enough of the special Blue Moon Mocha today.”

  “That’s so fun.” I laugh. “I’m glad they liked it.”

  “I told them there was a little added blood magic in them,” she says with a wink, and I take a step back.

  Blood magic?

  Blood.

  Esme’s turned away from me and is talking with Mama, but now my hackles are raised.

  Why would she say that?

  Stop it, Lucien says.

  Something is off with Esme. I’m not crazy. Why would she mention blood magic?

  Because it’s mystical and people eat that shit up with a spoon.

  I don’t reply, just nod and decide that I’ll be keeping a closer eye on Esme this evening.

  “Lucien and Millie, can I speak with you?” Miss Sophia asks. She leads us to a private space on the other side of the house and has two pouches in her hands. “I wanted to give these to you yesterday, but decided to charge them under the full moon last night first.”

  She passes us each one of the pouches.

  When I open mine, I find a necklace with a Mother of Pearl pendant the size of a baby’s fist.

  “Sabrina gave me these, and I think you should have them. They were originally yours to begin with. The Mother of Pearl is for harmony. It stimulates intuition, imagination, and sensitivity. And it’s a beautiful piece of jewelry.”

  I brush my thumb over the stone, then loop it around my neck to join my amethyst.

  “Thank you so much.”

  Lucien opens his pouch and finds a dagger with different-colored stones in the hilt. Emerald, sapphire, amethyst, among others.

  “Sabrina didn’t know where this dagger came from, just that it was yours, Lucien.”

  “It’s ancient,” he says with a sigh and turns it over in his hands. “I need to do some research to be sure. Thank you, it’s beautiful.”

  “You’re welcome.” She smiles at us both. “Blessed be.”

  When we return to the others, I see that more members of the coven have arrived. It’s always so fun to see familiar
faces, to chat with those I only see a couple of times a year.

  All of these people came to help us last year when we defeated Horace in the bayou. They’re our family.

  “Hey, guys,” Dahlia greets as she approaches. “I thought I’d never get out of the shop today.”

  “Well, you’re just in time,” I assure her. Dahlia’s eyes fall on my new necklace.

  “That’s gorgeous,” she says. “And new.”

  “It’s actually old. Miss Sophia gave it to me.”

  “I love it.” She smiles. “I need to get myself a talisman. I just haven’t decided what I want.”

  “You can always try out different ones and then go with the one that feels the best.”

  “Good idea.”

  We’ve walk over to where Mama’s sitting with my sisters and Cash.

  “Can we sit here?” I ask.

  “You can,” Mama says and then turns cold eyes to Dahlia. “But she’s not welcome here.”

  I frown and glance at Dahlia, who seems completely unfazed.

  “Mama—”

  “No, it’s okay,” Dahlia insists. “I need to go say hello to someone over there anyway.”

  She walks away, and I sit next to Lucien. “Mama, that was rude. Dahlia’s my friend.”

  “You should not be friends with that woman,” Mama replies. “Her soul is dark.”

  “She did work in dark magic for a long time, but she left that coven and is now working with Lucien,” I reply. “She’s one of us.”

  Mama just shakes her head, and I decide to leave it alone for now.

  I look over and see that Dahlia is sitting with Esme and Lucien’s parents at a table nearby. I’ll have to apologize to her later.

  Esme looks my way and offers me a smile. I wave at her and then turn my attention to the conversation going on around me.

  I have a feeling Esme is the one we need to be worried about.

  With night descending quickly, we gather our tools and sacred items and walk as a group out to the field.

  The moon is high, big and yellow. I feel the strength of it soaking into my skin, and I’m grateful.

  When all of the candles are set out in a wide ring, and the black salt is poured, we form a circle inside and join hands.

  Suddenly, Cash reaches for the buttons on his shirt.

  I share a look with my sisters and have to press my lips together so I don’t laugh out loud.

  “What are you doing, child?” Miss Sophia asks.

  “Isn’t this where we dance naked under the moon?” Cash asks.

  I can’t contain the bubble of laughter that escapes. Daphne snorts.

  Brielle cackles.

  “I guess not,” Cash mutters. “I hate all of you. And just remember, payback’s a bitch.”

  “Language, child. This is a sacred space,” Miss Sophia says, but her lips twitch with mirth.

  Lucien’s laughing next to me, and as the others catch on to our little joke and join in.

  “Come on, Cash, you know it’s funny,” Miss Sophia’s granddaughter, Lena, says. “At least you didn’t get naked.”

  He narrows his eyes at me in response, then shakes his head and laughs, as well.

  We join hands again, each take a deep breath, and Miss Sophia begins speaking the words that will cast our circle, beginning our ritual.

  To start the rite, each of us must enter into the circle with perfect love and perfect trust and affirm as much when asked. We must all have a clear heart and mind and be open to the deities.

  Miss Sophia stops mid-sentence before she even asks the first person to confirm their intent and looks around the circle.

  “What’s wrong?” Lucien asks.

  “Someone here doesn’t have pure intentions,” she says. “I can’t cast the circle.”

  My eyes fly to Esme, who’s directly across from me. “Do you have something you want to tell us?”

  Miss Sophia shakes her head. “It’s not Esme.”

  “Then who—?”

  My eyes follow hers. She’s staring at Dahlia.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Millie

  Dahlia’s lips turn up into a smug grin. “I didn’t say anything.”

  Mama, who’s standing between Brielle and me, clenches our hands and starts to chant a protection spell. Brielle listens to Mama’s words and then joins in, following Mama’s lead.

  Daphne joins them, then Cash, and then the entire circle, one by one, begins to chant the spell.

  Dahlia snarls and lunges to her left for Lucien’s dagger, but the hilt burns the palm of her hand and she drops it.

  “I’ll kill you,” she snarls at him. “I’ll kill all of you.”

  Her body jerks, her eyes go wide, and energy pours out of her mouth. When she’s empty, Dahlia falls to the earth, unconscious.

  An older member of the coven hurries to tend to Dahlia as the rest of us join hands once more, and Miss Sophia succeeds in closing the circle. The wind and light around us is strong, the flames of the candles soar.

  And suddenly, right in the middle of the circle, Horace manifests himself.

  I blink, certain I’m not seeing what my brain says I’m seeing.

  Is that him? I ask.

  This is the moment we were born for, a stór mo chroí. My eyes fly up to Lucien’s.

  His are not afraid.

  They’re angry.

  “You think you’re the only ones with parlor tricks?” Horace snarls and, with the flick of his wrist, sends debris flying at us. Stones and twigs, grass and dirt fly at everyone, but no one waivers in their steadfast chanting of the protection spells.

  I drop my shields. I have to see everything that he might throw at us.

  And just as I do, shadows pour in from all around us, coming from the swirling wind above. They surround Horace with their arms linking around him in some sort of horrific protection.

  “Do you see—?” Brielle starts to ask, but I just nod emphatically.

  “The shadows.”

  Put your damn shields back up, Millicent.

  No, I have to be able to see what he’s doing. I can’t stop him if I’m blind.

  Horace turns to me and smiles gleefully. “Did you miss me, darling? Have you enjoyed the wonderful gifts I’ve left for you?”

  Do not answer him. Do not engage with him.

  Horace turns to Lucien as if he can hear our private conversation and snarls. “You think you can control her? You think I’d let you have her? You stupid mortal, she doesn’t belong to you.”

  Lucien reaches into his pocket and pulls out our handfasting cord, then takes my hand, the cord locked between us.

  “I am hers, and she is mine, our souls forever linked. Be gone from here, any who would see us harmed, back to the shadows you must slink.”

  The chanting around us is heightened, and they’ve changed to the spell they used last year at Horace’s cabin. It cast him out once, surely it will do so again.

  He’s stronger, Lucien tells me. We need another spell to layer with this one.

  I wrack my brain, trying to think of something stronger than this one, but I can’t think with him staring at me. The shadows are screaming. The wind is chaos.

  Close your eyes.

  I follow Lucien’s instructions.

  You control the wind, Millicent.

  He’s right. I take a deep breath, then open my eyes and bring the wind high above all of us and watch as Horace’s smile falls, and he stares at me in confusion. Then I blow out my breath, and the wind whips through the center of the circle, sending the shadows scrambling. Horace is knocked on his ass from the force of it.

  He climbs to his feet.

  “This is all in vain,” he begins, but Lucien snaps his fingers and encircles Horace in a wall of flames. I add the wind, and the flames grow higher, burn hotter until Horace is completely engulfed.

  He’s not done, I warn Lucien.

  “The sacred banishment spell,” Miss Sophia yells. Immediately, the coven s
witches from one spell to the next, their chanting becoming louder and louder.

  Horace screams in pain.

  With our hands still linked over our rope, Lucien and I begin our handfasting ceremony.

  I don’t know how we know to do this, the words just begin pouring from us.

  As this knot is tied, so are our lives now bound.

  Woven into this cord, imbued into its very fibers, are all our hopes, our Power, and the promise of our present life together.

  Over and over again we chant, our voices growing louder each time as the others recite the banishment spell.

  Horace howls in pain.

  Suddenly, he evaporates and is carried into the night, along with the smoke from Lucien’s fire.

  The shadows disappear.

  The flames calm, and the wind stops.

  We look back and forth between the members of the coven, and Miss Sophia’s shoulders relax in relief.

  “He’s gone,” she says with a deep sigh. “For now. Until the six are assembled, he won’t be gone for good.”

  She looks at Daphne, who nods solemnly.

  “You know what to do, child.”

  Dahlia moans from her spot on the ground just behind us. Lucien kneels next to her.

  “I’m so sorry,” she whispers. “I’m so, so sorry.”

  “Hey, take it easy,” Lucien says gently. Gwyneth appears with some water, and we take a moment to let Dahlia get her wits about her. She presses her hand to her forehead.

  “He made me kill you.” The tears start now. “He made me kill you over and over again. In horrible, disgusting ways. I couldn’t stop him. I tried so hard, I even tried to leave notes, but he would erase them. He smashed my phone when I tried to make a note there.”

  “He was much stronger than you,” Lucien assures her. “And I’m right here.”

  “All those men,” she says. “Tortured and slaughtered. He’s the devil.”

  “Yes,” Lucien agrees. “He is.”

  “Oh my God,” Dahlia says. “More men are being held. We have to save them.”

  “On it,” Cash insists, pulling his phone out of his pocket. “Where is his hiding place?”