Even so, I realized tiredly that my great-aunt’s bequest had made me a very wealthy young woman. Too bad I really didn’t care about that.
“I don’t think it’s safe,” I argued. “Down here I’m surrounded by people. Aunt Ruby’s house only has neighbors on one side.” I didn’t bother to mention that those neighbors were Adam’s parents, which would only make things that much more awkward. True, he’d moved out, but I got the feeling he’d find excuses to go visit if I were right there, too. “That is, I think we can all agree that I’m in sort of a precarious position right now.”
An expression of dismay crossed Allegra’s normally placid features. “Of course we would maintain the guard on you. That is not going to change.”
Of course not. So I’d be stuck in that house with a bunch of bodyguards, and not even my aunt’s leavening influence to make things a little more tolerable. I turned to her. “I don’t really have to move out, do I?”
Her fingers knotted together on the brightly printed tablecloth from India. “I know it’s hard, Angela, but that is the prima’s residence. You knew you wouldn’t be staying here forever.”
Yes, but I’d thought that when I left this comfortable apartment, I’d be moving to my new home with my consort at my side. I hadn’t thought I’d be camped out there with a bunch of babysitters making sure that dark specters or roving Wilcoxes or whatever peril might be lurking nearby didn’t have a chance of getting close to me.
It hurt to think that Aunt Rachel was siding with the elders against me. “So you — you want me to leave?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.
Her face crumpled, and I could tell she was close to tears. “No, of course not. But what I want isn’t a factor in all this. There are…traditions. I can’t let my own feelings get in the way.”
I wanted to say, Fuck traditions! That wouldn’t be productive, though, and I knew I had to grow up and face reality…even though I really, really didn’t want to. “All right,” I said wearily. “But it doesn’t have to happen right this minute, does it?”
“No, that was never our intention,” Bryce said. “There’s the funeral the day after tomorrow, and then Lionel and Joseph will have to take out the things Ruby left them. Next week, I think.”
His reply calmed me a little. All right, so I was apparently stuck with that Victorian white elephant, but I would have a week to come to terms with everything, to say goodbye to my lively room and the view that had greeted me every morning since I was too young to remember. Would I be able to change anything in the house I’d inherited, or would I be expected to keep it in its current museum-like state, with all the furniture that dated back to the same time the house was built?
That was a question I knew I’d better leave for another day. In the meantime, there was still a great deal to do.
It was only when we were gathered together like this that I realized how many of us McAllisters there really were, even if we didn’t all share the same last name. We clustered in a corner of the cemetery, more than two hundred of us. A casual passerby might have thought us a strange-looking crew to be attending a grave-side service, for very few of us wore black. It wasn’t our custom to mourn in such a way. Of course we would all miss Ruby, miss her strength and her wisdom and her fierce loyalty to the clan, but we knew she had merely crossed over, not ceased to be. She was still living, only elsewhere. And I had seen for myself the expression of joy cross her face when it was time to walk over that threshold to the next world. I had no doubt that her husband Pat was there to welcome her. How could I be sad, when she had clearly been so happy to go?
As I stood by the grave, and watched the burnished mahogany casket with its beautiful crown of yellow roses — Ruby’s favorite — and spider mums be lowered slowly into the ground, I wondered if I would ever love someone like that.
There were too many of us to fit into anyone’s house, so we’d rented out Spook Hall for the reception afterward. More yellow roses greeted us there, and I thought of how I’d been here only a few days earlier, and danced with Zorro and worried — hoped? — that he might try to kiss me. That opportunity was long gone, and so was he, I supposed, back to Tempe and his master’s program and the real world.
Sydney had called me, eschewing texts in her worry, and I’d explained what happened. Too many things going on for me to be able to talk with her for very long, but she did tell me that Adam had said it was a family emergency, and so she and Anthony had slipped away not too long after that.
“I could tell it was something important,” she’d said, “since so many people began to leave, even though they hadn’t gotten to the costume contest yet. And your Zorro came up and asked about you.”
“He did?” I asked, cheered a little despite everything.
“He sounded worried, and I said it was a family thing, and then he told me you were just about to give him your number but had to leave, so….”
“So?”
“So I gave it to him. I figured it would be okay, since you were about to do it anyway.” She hesitated. “Was it not okay?”
“No,” I said wearily. “It’s fine. I doubt he’ll call. He lives in Tempe, and besides….”
“He’s a civilian?”
“Yes.”
A long pause. Then she said, sounding a little too cheerful, “Well, hey, you never know. I am sorry about your great-aunt.”
I’d thanked her for that and hung up. I could tell that she wanted to talk more, to ask about me being prima now and all that, but I just didn’t have the time…or the heart. Maybe after things had settled down somewhat I could have her come up and visit, but it would have to wait for a few days.
Now I stood off to the side and watched the clan members moving through the hall, or standing and talking in small groups. Toward the front was a table decked with flowers, and a large reproduction of a photo of Ruby when she was close to my age, her mouth painted with red lipstick, hair in perfect Rita Hayworth waves to her shoulders. She was smiling, but not directly at the camera. Maybe Pat had been standing behind the photographer, and she’d been smiling for him.
She really had been strikingly beautiful. I could see why there would’ve been plenty of young men vying for her attentions, and not just because she was the next McAllister prima. I wondered if her looks had factored into the Wilcoxes’ desperate attempt to steal her for themselves, or whether her beauty was just a nice bonus.
A shiver went over me then. I didn’t want to think about the Wilcoxes, or what they might be plotting…if anything. Ever since that long-ago kidnap attempt, they’d stayed on their turf, just as we’d stayed on ours, and they’d been quiescent enough for the most part. Even so, they weren’t to be trusted.
“Are you okay?” came Adam’s voice from over my shoulder.
I turned toward him. “Sure. Why?”
“You were frowning.”
“Oh, just thinking.”
“About nothing pleasant, I guess.”
“The Wilcoxes.”
“Definitely not pleasant, then.”
Despite everything, I grinned. “Not really, no. I’m just borrowing trouble, I think. By the way, I never got a chance to thank you for letting Sydney know what was going on so she wouldn’t think I’d totally bailed on her.”
“No problem.” He shifted from one foot to the other, looking vaguely uncomfortable.
Maybe it was the button-up shirt and loafers he was wearing, instead of his usual T-shirts and Converse high-tops. No, we weren’t required to wear black dresses and black suits and all that, but it was a sign of respect to dress nicely at the funeral of a clan member. I had on a vaguely retro full-skirted dress I’d bought at one of the shops here in town, and had borrowed Aunt Rachel’s pumps again. We all looked pretty respectable — probably more respectable than an outsider would’ve expected a gathering of witches to be. Just more of that whole staying inconspicuous thing. You tend to attract more attention when everyone in your group looks like a refugee from a Stevie N
icks concert.
“So,” he went on, drawing out the syllable as if pondering what exactly to say next. “I guess you really are moving into Aunt Ruby’s house.”
“Yes,” I said shortly. “Next Monday, I guess.” A day I was really not looking forward to.
“Oh.” Then he brightened a little. “You know, Saturday is that Day of the Dead thing over in Sedona. I was thinking it might be, I don’t know, good to go to that. Say another goodbye to Great-Aunt Ruby.”
I’d completely forgotten about the festival. Halloween was two days before that, although I knew this year there wouldn’t be too much revelry amongst the McAllister clan. Of course there would be our usual Samhain observances on Halloween itself, another way of connecting with the dead, when the veil between the worlds was at its thinnest.
Now that I thought about it, though, going to the Day of the Dead celebration seemed like a good way to make my final farewells and honor my aunt before my life went through its own change. “We’ll have to take the bodyguards,” I warned Adam. “No way are they going to let me go to Sedona with just you.”
“Oh, I figured that. Maybe your aunt and Tobias, too, if they’re interested.”
The offer touched me. Clearly he was doing this because he thought it would help me, and not to seize some opportunity, however artificial, to get me alone. I didn’t know if Aunt Rachel would really be up to it, as the double shock of losing Ruby and me at roughly the same time had shaken her a good deal. There was still a sign on the front door of the shop that said “closed due to a death in the family.” I hadn’t yet gathered the courage to ask her if she intended to open up on Halloween, which tended to be a busy day even when it fell in the middle of the week.
“I’ll ask,” I said. “But Rachel’s taking the whole thing pretty hard. I’ll let you know.”
“Okay.” He reached out then and gave my hand a quick squeeze before heading off toward the refreshment table.
I wouldn’t let myself sigh. I had to look as if I were in control, no matter what. But it was hard not to wish, just a little, that things had been different, that Adam was my one. No, he didn’t set my heart on fire or anything, but he’d been supportive and friendly the past few days, and I knew I could trust him. It would have been a lot easier if he’d turned out to be the consort.
But of course nothing can ever be that easy.
9
Día de los Muertos
A full moon drifted overhead, surrounded by clouds that reflected its light, only more diffuse, cloudy and yellow. The wind was from the northeast, cold and biting. I tried not to think about where it was coming from, blowing down the passes from Flagstaff.
An ill wind….
I shook my head and made myself concentrate on the group around me. We always held our Samhain observance late, almost at midnight, long after all the shops and restaurants had closed. Yes, there were still some late-night partiers at the Spirit Room, but they would be otherwise occupied, and hopefully not noticing what we all were up to.
Well, not all. The McAllister contingent in Jerome numbered a little more than two hundred these days, and two hundred people gathering anywhere in a town that small was bound to get noticed. So a little more than half of us met in small groups in people’s homes, sharing their own versions of the rituals, celebrating the Goddess as Crone and the Horned Hunter.
But because November was the dead time, a month and more of darkness before Yule arrived and the world began to tilt once again toward the light, we always had the strongest witches and warlocks come together in one place to invoke the spirits of our ancestors, to ask for their guidance and their strength in helping to protect us against the forces of the dark. We met on the grounds of the building that had been the miner’s dormitory, once upon a time, mainly because it was enough out of the way that any tourists lingering at the Spirit Room wouldn’t be able to stumble upon us. They might see the lights of our candles and torches as they made their way back to their cars, but they wouldn’t be able to get to us. No visible barrier blocked the road that led to the dormitory, but anyone going that way would find their car’s engine suddenly sputtering and dying, or would suddenly be overwhelmed by the feeling that they needed to get out of there right now.
That north wind cut bitterly through the thin cotton of my robes, even though I wore a long-sleeved T-shirt and long skirt underneath. In the spring and summer, some of the more abandoned among us went naked under their robes, but I’d never done that even in warm weather and certainly wasn’t going to start now. Difficult enough to know that I was the one who would have to lead the coven in the ritual. The prima always presided at the great celebrations.
My throat was dry. I coughed, a dry little scratch that didn’t do much to help relieve the tickle I felt, and stepped forward. “Let it be known that the Circle is about to be cast. All who enter the Circle may do so in perfect love and perfect trust.”
The watching crowd nodded, and waited as I made my way around the huge circle, invoking the deities of the four quarters and lighting the ritual candles in their prescribed shades of green and yellow and red and blue. I had been to enough of these ceremonies over the years that the words came as naturally to me as if I’d written them myself. Each coven had its own liturgy, if you wanted to call it that, something codified through many, many years of use, and ours was no different.
There were far too many of us to have every individual come to me and affirm his or her ritual entry to the circle, and so I asked the question of all of them as a group: “How do you enter the circle?”
“In perfect love and perfect trust,” they all responded, a low murmur, powerful as the mountain upon which we stood.
They all took up the circle, and the ceremony of Samhain began. Great-Aunt Ruby had varied it from year to year, sometimes focusing on the harvest, sometimes concentrating on invoking the spirits of our ancestors. Because we had so recently lost her, I’d thought that was what I had better do here tonight as well.
Rosemary is for remembrance,
and tonight we remember those who have
lived and died before us…
It was a longish ritual, or at least it had always seemed that way to me as a semi-bored teenager repeating the words, shivering and wishing I could be off at the Halloween dance at the high school (even though in general I wasn’t much for socializing), or over at Sydney’s house, eating popcorn and watching scary movies. Anything that a normal teenager was supposed to do on Halloween. But I guess I’d never really been normal, even when I pretended to be.
Now, though, the words seemed to spin out of me with strength and sureness, as if it really were Great-Aunt Ruby reaching from beyond the veil to lend me some of her wisdom. I didn’t falter, and the flames of the candles burned bright and true, even with the wind blowing all around us.
After facing the four quarters and once again invoking the deities of each direction, I went to the altar Tobias and a few others had erected in the center of the circle. I picked up the black candle and called forth the flame with my mind, saying, “The Wheel of the Year turns once more, and we cycle into darkness.”
As I did so, I halfway expected that black specter to appear once more, hand outstretched, cold whisper echoing in my mind. But nothing happened, and I hitched in a little breath and went on to light the white candle, signifying the light that would return after the solstice. From there I invoked the spirits of our ancestors, all the McAllisters who had gone before us, asking them to bless us with their strength and their love.
Although the night was cold, somehow it seemed to turn warm then, as if we were all surrounded by the good wishes of the loved ones we had lost. I almost thought I felt Great-Aunt Ruby’s quick caress of my cheek, and a quick, “Well done, child.”
Most people would say it was their imagination…but I knew better.
After that I closed the circle by dismissing the deities who had watched over us, and thanking them for their service. Once that was done, everyo
ne broke off in little groups, heading back to their cars or, for the hardier ones, to the paths that would lead them up to their homes.
There hadn’t been any question of my walking; I’d ridden down in Tobias’s truck with him and Rachel. In the moonlight, I thought I saw the glitter of tears on my aunt’s cheeks, but she smiled and hugged me when I approached her.
“That was beautiful, Angela,” she told me. “Ruby would be so proud of you.”
“Thank you,” I said awkwardly. I knew Ruby was proud, or at least I had a good notion that she was. I didn’t mention what I had heard, though, as everyone had a different experience in the circle, and I didn’t want to say anything that might change hers.
We were silent then as Tobias went and got the altar, and he and Lionel brought it over and wrapped it in the blankets that had been waiting in the bed of Tobias’s pickup. After that we drove back up to the shop, where he led us inside, wished Aunt Rachel and me goodnight, and kissed her quickly on the cheek. Just in time, too, as that night’s “bodyguards” showed up then, and we all trooped upstairs to the apartment.
They wouldn’t sleep, of course, but instead settled themselves down on the sofa and easy chair in the living room. One would think that the ritual I’d just performed would be enough to ensure some protection for this night at least. Obviously not, though; they weren’t about to take any chances. So I bade them goodnight, and went to the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth while I was still dressed. Even after a few weeks of this, I hadn’t gotten to the point where I was willing to let them see me wandering around in my bathrobe.
After all that, though, I slipped back into my bedroom and closed the door behind me. I’d left a white candle burning on my own little altar there, one of those saints’ candles you can buy at the supermarket, although this one had a guardian angel on it, not a saint. That kind of candle was safe to leave unattended, and I wanted that white light to fill my room so no evil could enter there.
Magic in the Desert: Three Paranormal Romance Series Starters Set in the American Southwest Page 13