by Isobel Bird
Annie, who did a lot of cooking, laughed. Kitchen witches. She liked the sound of that. It reminded her of working on a recipe, deciding what to put in and what to leave out, stirring everything and then tasting it. She also liked the name of Sophia’s coven—the Daughters of the Cauldron.
“The Daughters of the Cauldron was formed about twenty years ago,” Sophia continued. “It was started by me and my friend Tove. We also started this bookstore together, to give people interested in Wicca a place to study. It started out as more of a community center with a few books, and over the years it’s gone through a lot of changes. But it has always been run by our coven. Tove died several years ago, but I think she still stops in to visit from time to time,” Sophia added, smiling wistfully.
“What do you mean when you say your coven isn’t as formal as others?” asked Laura, who sat beside Annie.
“I mean we don’t have a formal structure, as some covens do,” Sophia explained. “We don’t have one single person who leads. We take turns. Members are encouraged to come up with ideas for rituals, and we let people use their imaginations when casting our circles and that sort of thing. We also don’t draw from any one single tradition. We feel comfortable mixing aspects of Greek mythology with Celtic, for example, or using the name of a Japanese goddess and a Norse god in ritual. Like I said, when we get together it’s like a bunch of cooks standing around the same stove.”
“Well, with three kids and a husband to cook for every day, I can relate,” Laura said, laughing.
“That’s something else I should mention,” said Sophia. “While we don’t exclude men from our coven, we generally have been mostly women. I don’t know why, exactly, but that’s the way it’s worked out. So if any of you guys want to join, keep in mind that you’ll be really outnumbered.”
“How many are there in your coven?” asked Roger, a college student who was the last of the three men being initiated.
“Right now there are a dozen or so,” said Sophia. “Sometimes I lose count. Again, not to discourage anyone, but we don’t want to add too many more, so hopefully you won’t all decide that you simply have to be Daughters of the Cauldron.”
“Or sons,” Ben remarked.
“Or sons,” agreed Sophia. “But we aren’t changing the name, so keep that in mind.”
“What’s the group’s primary focus?” asked Emma.
“When we formed the coven, Tove and I believed that magic should be about working for change,” Sophia answered. “We wanted the Daughters of the Cauldron to focus on using magic to create change in ourselves and in the world. That’s why this store is a cooperative. Our members are also encouraged to do volunteer work and to find unique ways of expressing their interest in witchcraft in other aspects of their lives. Apart from that, we’re a very unfocused bunch.”
Sophia looked around. “Okay,” she said. “If there aren’t any questions, that’s going to be it for tonight. Next time we’ll hear from two other covens, one of which you all know pretty well and the other of which will be mostly new to you. If any of you want to stay and ask me more questions about my coven, I’ll be happy to answer them. Otherwise, we’ll see you next week. Try to use the time between now and then to really think about what you want from your coven. That will make it easier to start narrowing your choices down.”
The class members stood up and began rearranging the room. Annie saw Ben and Laura go up to talk to Sophia, while she helped Kate pile cushions against one of the walls.
“The Daughters of the Cauldron sounds interesting,” Annie said as they straightened the pile.
“Yeah,” said Kate. “I don’t know if it’s for me, though. Having my mother run a catering business puts me in contact with enough cooking. I think I’d like my coven to be something different.”
Annie felt slightly disappointed hearing Kate say that. She’d sort of been thinking that the Daughters of the Cauldron might be perfect for her. But if Kate didn’t want to be in it, she wasn’t sure she did either.
“I’m not sure what kind of coven I want, actually,” Kate said. “I guess I hadn’t thought too much about it. I’ll have to wait to hear what the other people have to say.”
“Sure,” Annie remarked.
She snuck a glance at Kate. Her friend hadn’t asked her what she was looking for in a coven. Did Kate care whether or not they were in the same one? Was it important to her to continue working with Annie? Annie realized that she was basing her decision, at least in part, on what Kate wanted to do. But was that the right thing? Annie had assumed that with Cooper gone she and Kate would want to stick together. But maybe she’d been wrong. Suddenly the little circle of three that she, Kate, and Cooper had made seemed to be falling apart, and that scared her more than she wanted to admit.
CHAPTER 3
When Kate came home from school on Wednesday afternoon, she found her mother sitting in the kitchen with Annie’s Aunt Sarah. The two women were drinking coffee, and Sarah Crandall was looking at the menu Mrs. Morgan had proposed for her wedding to Grayson Dunning.
“I had no idea there were so many different kinds of cheese,” Annie’s aunt said.
“It can be a little overwhelming,” Kate’s mother replied. “But basically what it comes down to is whether you want soft cheese or hard cheese. Since you’re having strawberries, I suggest you go with a soft cheese like Brie.”
“Fine,” said Aunt Sarah. “Whatever you say.”
Mrs. Morgan made a note on the yellow pad in front of her. “I wish all my clients were as easy to please as you are,” she commented.
“They probably would be if they were even half as lost and behind schedule as I am,” replied Aunt Sarah. “I can’t believe we’re going to pull this off. We have less than three weeks, and I still haven’t ordered the flowers. I haven’t even looked at dresses,” she added, sounding slightly hysterical.
“It will be fine,” Mrs. Morgan told her. “You’ve almost got the food done, and that’s one of the biggest parts.”
“I’m just glad it’s a small wedding,” Aunt Sarah told her. “Anything bigger than this and they’d have to institutionalize me afterward.”
“Trust me,” said Kate’s mother. “I’ve seen some brides who almost were.”
Kate went to the refrigerator and took out a can of soda. “I hear Meg and Annie are going to be bridesmaids,” she said.
“Along with Becka,” Aunt Sarah said, sighing. “Believe me, getting the three of them to agree on dresses has been one of my biggest headaches. Meg says she doesn’t want to look like a little girl. Becka doesn’t want to look too frilly. And Annie wants us to go with a Victorian garden look. Now you tell me, how are we supposed to make everyone happy?”
“You can’t,” Mrs. Morgan said. “So stop worrying about it. What does Grayson say about it all?”
Aunt Sarah sighed. “He’s so busy trying to get his next book out and plan for the move that he can’t think about anything else,” she said. “I think he’d be happy if we just ran off to Vegas instead.”
Kate sat down at the table and took a drink of her soda. “What about a theme wedding?” she asked.
Annie’s aunt looked at her curiously. “What kind of theme?” she asked.
Kate thought. “How about Alice in Wonderland?” she suggested. “You could be Alice. Mr. Dunning could be the White Rabbit.”
“Better make him the Mad Hatter,” Aunt Sarah said, playing along.
“Okay,” Kate said. “Then Meg could be the White Rabbit, or maybe the Dormouse. Annie could be the Queen of Hearts. Oh, and Becka could be the Cheshire Cat. That would suit her.”
Aunt Sarah looked at Mrs. Morgan. “Think you could pull off treacle tarts and a big tea party?” she asked.
“It can’t be any harder than the seven hundred crab cakes and eighty gallons of chowder I had to make for the Bean family wedding last year,” Kate’s mother said.
“I don’t know about Annie as the Queen of Hearts, though,” said Aunt Sarah. �
�That seems a little too harsh for her. What other characters were there?”
“Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum,” Kate said, trying to recall the story.
“The March Hare,” added Mrs. Morgan.
“The Caterpillar,” said Aunt Sarah, grinning. “That’s perfect for her.”
“A bug?” Kate said doubtfully. “I don’t know.”
“No,” Aunt Sarah said. “The Caterpillar was very wise and very mysterious. Annie will love it.”
“It would be interesting,” Kate said, still unsure of the choice of the Caterpillar for her friend.
“I’m sure she’ll do it,” said Aunt Sarah. “Besides, it would be perfect if Becka is the Cheshire Cat and Meg is the White Rabbit. All three of them helped Alice find what she was looking for.”
“What about the guests?” asked Kate.
Aunt Sarah shrugged. “There are only thirty of them,” she said. “They can wear whatever they want to. But how fun would it be if the servers were dressed as playing cards?” she asked, looking hopefully at Mrs. Morgan.
“I can try,” Kate’s mother said. “But I’m not promising.”
“Oh, and the minister,” said Aunt Sarah. “She should be the Queen of Hearts. I know she’d get a big kick out of that.” She turned to Kate. “This is the best idea,” she said. “Suddenly this feels like a party and not a chore.”
“Yes, but now you have to worry about costumes,” Mrs. Morgan reminded her.
“Juliet,” said Kate suddenly. “Juliet can do it. She’s a costume designer, remember?”
Aunt Sarah beamed. “Brilliant!” she said. “I’ve been looking for a way to include her in the wedding. This is absolutely perfect. I’ll call her tonight and see if she can do it.”
For the next hour the three of them elaborated on the new wedding theme. Now that they had something to work with, it was easy to keep building on the idea. Mrs. Morgan suggested food that would be perfect for a tea party atmosphere, and Kate made recommendations for decorations.
“It will be too early in the year for roses,” she said. “But we can make fake ones out of crepe paper and attach them to the bushes. It will look just like the rose garden where Alice plays croquet.”
“I can’t wait to tell Grayson about this,” Aunt Sarah said, getting ready to leave. “Alice in Wonderland was the book that made him want to write when he was a little boy. He’ll definitely go for this.”
“I hope so,” Mrs. Morgan commented as she stood up to show Aunt Sarah to the door. “I’m kind of excited about making these tarts.”
Kate waved good-bye to Annie’s aunt as she left. When Mrs. Morgan returned she patted Kate on the back. “Good work,” she said. “I thought she was going to have a breakdown if I asked her to choose between asparagus puffs and chilled shrimp. You made things a lot easier with that Wonderland idea.”
“Thanks,” Kate said. “Does that mean I get a commission?”
“No,” her mother answered. “But it means you don’t have to carry around trays of shrimp.”
“I’ll settle for that,” replied Kate. “Oh, but if you do need people, I know Tara and Jess would be happy to do it.”
“That would be great,” her mother said as she tidied up the table. “And I almost forgot. Tyler called for you.”
“Tyler?” Kate repeated.
Her mother nodded. Then she gave Kate a questioning look. “Anything I should know?”
Kate shook her head. “If there is, it’s something I should know, too,” she replied. “I have no idea why he called me.”
“Well, he wanted you to call him back,” Mrs. Morgan said.
Kate stood up. “Thanks,” she said, leaving the kitchen and heading up to her room. When she got there she picked up the phone and looked at it for a moment. It had been so long since she’d called Tyler that she wasn’t sure she remembered the number. But after a moment she did, and dialed it as if she’d never forgotten it.
As the phone rang she wondered what Tyler might want. They hadn’t spoken since a few months before, when he had asked her to go out with him again and she’d said no. She hadn’t even seen him around Crones’ Circle very much, and whenever she ran into his mother, Rowan, she was careful not to bring up Tyler’s name. It felt a little strange to her, basically pretending that her ex-boyfriend didn’t exist, but it had been the easiest way to deal with things. But now Tyler apparently had something to say to her.
“Hello?”
Kate jumped when she heard Tyler’s voice. It sounded strange over the phone, and for a moment she thought she might have dialed the wrong number. But then she realized it was just Tyler with a cold.
“Are you sick?” she asked.
“Hello to you, too,” replied Tyler. He sneezed. “Yes, I’m sick,” he said. “I caught a cold during our Ostara ritual.”
Ostara, the Spring Equinox, had been on Tuesday. Because they’d had class that night, Kate and the others had celebrated the sabbat the previous Saturday. It had been a time of mixed emotions for Kate. She’d been looking forward to it because it marked the anniversary of the first official sabbat that she, Annie, and Cooper had celebrated with other Wiccans. At the Ostara ritual the year before they had met Sophia and the others who had become their teachers. They had also met their friend Sasha. Those were all good memories, and it should have been a happy time.
But several dark clouds had hung over the occasion. The three friends had been asked months before to help organize and run the ritual. They’d spent a lot of time coming up with chants and activities, and they’d been looking forward to seeing all of their hard work pay off. But then Cooper had failed to be chosen for initiation. She had still attended the Ostara ritual, but she had clearly not enjoyed it, and she’d left almost immediately after the circle was opened. In addition, Kate had been reminded of Tyler. The previous Equinox celebration had also been the first time they’d met, and she couldn’t help but think about that, even though Tyler hadn’t attended the ritual this time, as members of his coven had been celebrating it on their own.
“How was your ritual?” Kate asked Tyler, searching for something to talk about. “Apart from the getting-the-cold part, I mean.”
“Not as good as yours was, from what I hear,” Tyler told her. “Word on the street is that you, Cooper, and Annie put together a cool Equinox. What’s this I hear about you making everyone pretend to be baby geese?”
Kate laughed. “That was Annie’s idea,” she said. “Everyone was supposed to have just hatched. You know, spring and all that.”
“It sounds like fun,” said Tyler.
There was a pause in the conversation as Kate, not knowing what to say, waited for Tyler to tell her why he had called.
“I didn’t really call to talk about Ostara,” he said finally. “There’s something else. Initiations are coming up, and I wanted to say that I hope what happened between us won’t make you feel weird about maybe joining the Coven of the Green Wood.”
So that’s it, Kate thought. Tyler had been worried about her maybe joining the coven that he, his mother, and his sister belonged to. She had to smile to herself. She had been worried about the same thing. Ever since the idea of initiation had become a real possibility, she’d wondered if she could possibly work in the same coven as her ex.
“I know you guys are hearing about all the different covens right now,” Tyler continued when Kate didn’t say anything. “I think my mother and Thatcher are presenting next week, or maybe the week after. So if you think maybe we’re the group for you, I just want you to know that I’m okay with that.”
“Thanks,” said Kate simply.
“So, have you thought about which coven you might want to join?” Tyler inquired.
Kate couldn’t help but notice a hint of hopefulness in Tyler’s voice. Did he want her to join the Coven of the Green Wood? Or was he hoping she would say that she’d decided not to? She wasn’t sure exactly.
“I haven’t really decided,” she said finally. “The Daug
hters of the Cauldron sound really cool, but that’s the only coven we’ve talked about so far. I probably won’t decide until the presentations are all over.”
“Oh,” Tyler said, and again Kate couldn’t decide if he was happy or disappointed by her response.
Again there was a silence as neither of them spoke. Finally, Kate said, “I should go. I have some homework to do.”
“Okay,” Tyler said, and this time he did sound relieved. “Well, just remember what I said.”
“I will,” Kate told him. “Bye.”
She hung up. Then she sat on her bed, staring at the phone and thinking about the conversation she’d just had. It was like Tyler to worry that she might be worried about joining the Coven of the Green Wood. It made sense that he would call and tell her it was okay with him. But something else had been going on. It was almost as if he’d been asking her to join. Something in the tone of his voice had suggested to Kate that he would have liked to hear that she had selected the Coven of the Green Wood.
Or maybe not, she thought. It was sometimes hard to tell what Tyler was really thinking. He always wanted things to work out, always wanted everyone to be happy. Kate was pretty certain that’s why he had asked her out again. She knew the idea of their relationship falling apart really upset him, and not just because it meant that they were no longer together. To Tyler it meant that something that should have been perfect wasn’t, and Kate knew he couldn’t stand that. She suspected that his desire to have everything work out had a lot to do with the fact that his parents had gone through such a nasty divorce. It had been one of the traits that had appealed to her at first and then, later, had irritated her. Sometimes Tyler just tried too hard to make things work out.