by Isobel Bird
“You’ve now heard from five different covens,” Sophia told them. She counted them off one by one. “The Daughters of the Cauldron, the Coven of the Green Wood, Freya’s Circle, Starhaven Coven, and the Children of the Goddess. Five different covens with five different approaches to working magic. Think about what you’ve heard and about which of these covens might be right for you. The representatives are all here tonight, ready to answer any questions you might have. Feel free to come speak with us. And when you know which coven you feel drawn to, tell that coven’s representative and the two of you can talk more about initiation.”
The eight initiates looked around at one another. Annie knew they were all wondering what the other seven were going to do. Would they all be interested in the same few covens, or would they each pick something different? With eight of them and only five covens, there was going to have to be some overlapping. But in all likelihood they wouldn’t all pick the same one.
Annie watched as her classmates stood up and began moving around. She kept a particularly careful eye on Cooper and Kate. Where would her friends go? Would she be with them or not? She already knew that Kate was likely to join the Coven of the Green Wood, and in fact after putting her cushion away that’s exactly where Kate headed. Thatcher greeted her warmly, and the two of them began talking.
“How are you going to pick?” Annie asked Cooper. “You didn’t get to hear all of the presentations.”
As if hearing Annie’s question, Sophia appeared at their side. “Cooper,” she said. “Since you missed the earlier presentations, why don’t you use this class to talk to the different coven reps? Then you can make your decision in the next few days.”
Cooper nodded. “Sounds good to me,” she said.
Sophia looked at Annie. “And what about you?” she asked.
Annie smiled nervously. “Oh, I’m giving it all a lot of thought,” she said.
Sophia nodded and returned to the other reps. Shortly after, Ben went over to speak with her, and she turned her attention to him.
“I’m going to go talk to that woman from the Norse coven,” Cooper told Annie. “Have fun.”
“Sure,” Annie said.
She wished Cooper hadn’t left her alone. That made her feel conspicuous. Everyone else was speaking with coven representatives. Ben was still conversing with Sophia. Cooper was talking to Polly. Thatcher was standing with Kate, and they had been joined by Emma. Ben was talking to Hunter from the Children of the Goddess, while Roger and Laura were having an animated discussion with Owen from Starhaven Coven. Ezra was walking from one group to the next, listening for a moment before moving on.
What are they all thinking? wondered Annie. Do they all know for certain where they belong? It bothered her that no one coven seemed to call to her. She knew which ones she wouldn’t be happy in, and that was a start. But choosing the Daughters of the Cauldron simply because it was okay didn’t make her happy. She wanted to be absolutely certain of her choice.
She felt stupid just standing there, so eventually she wandered over to listen to what people were saying. Mostly the representatives were just holding casual conversations with the people gathered around them. It seemed that, indeed, most of her classmates had made up their minds. Even Ezra seemed to have settled on one coven, chatting happily with Polly. Cooper had finished her conversation and came to stand by Annie.
“Made up your mind?” she asked Annie.
“I think so,” Annie answered, trying to sound sure of herself. “You?”
“Almost,” Cooper told her. “I’m going to think about it for a couple of days.”
“Okay,” Sophia called out. “It looks as if you’ve mostly made up your minds. Why don’t you all go to your final choices now.”
Annie’s classmates all remained where they were standing. They looked around at one another, seeing who had selected which group. They all seemed very happy. Even Hunter, who didn’t have a single person in his group, looked around with a pleased expression. Only Annie wasn’t standing anywhere in particular.
For a moment she almost went to stand with Hunter because she felt sorry for him. But she knew that would be a really dumb way to pick a coven. Still, she had to choose, and fast. People were beginning to notice that she hadn’t gone to any representative. She could only pretend that she was standing with Cooper for so long.
Finally she made her move and went to stand by Sophia. Her teacher smiled at her and gave her a hug. Annie smiled back. Maybe this is where I’m meant to be after all, she told herself. Maybe I was just afraid to make that commitment. Now that she had chosen, and was standing next to Sophia and Ben, she really did feel better. She looked at Kate, standing beside Thatcher, and gave her a smile. She was going to miss working magic with her friend, but perhaps going their separate ways was all part of maturing and becoming the witches they were meant to be.
“It seems everyone has chosen,” said Sophia. She looked at Cooper. “All except one. But she’ll choose in the next day or two. Representatives, if you’re happy with your initiates, then our work here is done.”
The five representatives looked at the students gathered around them. Everyone appeared delighted with the way things had worked out. Sophia nodded. “The representatives will now discuss the details of their initiations with their students,” she said. “As I told you at the start of this initiatory period, each group will perform its own initiations. We’ve decided, however, that all of us will meet together after those initiations to welcome the new witches into their larger community. So while tonight is the last time you’ll see most of your fellow students as dedicants, you’ll all have your graduation of sorts on the thirteenth.”
They broke into four groups, with Cooper and Hunter as the leftovers. The two of them sat on the couch talking while the others met with their new coven leaders. Annie and Ben sat with Sophia in one corner of the room, where she filled them in on what would happen at their initiations.
“I’m really pleased that the two of you have chosen the Daughters of the Cauldron,” she said, sounding genuinely excited. “Ben because we could use some male energy in the group and Annie because you remind me so much of myself when I was your age.”
Really? Annie thought, pleased by the compliment. More and more she was deciding that she really had chosen correctly in picking Sophia’s coven. Although the knot in her stomach was still there, she was sure now that it was just the remnants of her nervousness over the night’s proceedings.
“I’m not going to tell you very much about your initiations,” Sophia said. “All I’ll say is that you need to be here at six o’clock and you should have chosen ritual names that reflect who you feel you are as witches. Those are the names you’ll use in our circles.”
“We can pick any names?” Ben asked.
Sophia nodded. “You can be Mighty Mouse if you want to,” she said, smiling. “Anything that captures your personality.”
“And that’s it?” Annie said. It sounded almost too easy.
“That’s all I’ll tell you,” said Sophia mysteriously.
She sat and talked with Ben and Annie while the other groups finished up. When they were done, everyone said their good-byes and Annie headed out with Cooper and Kate. Cooper had driven, so they were spared taking the bus home.
“So, what weird stuff do you guys have to do for your initiations?” Cooper asked her friends as they drove out of the downtown area.
“Just pick a ritual name,” Annie said. “What about you, Kate?”
“I’m supposed to bring an object to put on the coven altar,” Kate said.
Apart from that discussion, they said very little on the ride home, with each of them lost in her own thoughts. For Annie there was also an element of sadness to the ride. This feels like the last night we’ll all be together, she thought. Pretty soon we’ll all be in different covens.
“What are you guys doing tomorrow night?” she asked suddenly.
“No plans,” said Cooper.
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br /> “None here either,” added Kate.
“Can we do a full moon ritual?” asked Annie. “Just the three of us.”
Cooper looked at her and gave her a smile, knowing what her friend was getting at. So did Kate. They both nodded.
“Let’s do it at the beach,” suggested Kate, naming the place where they’d done their first real ritual together.
“Becka and Grayson are coming tomorrow, but I can get away,” Annie said.
Again silence fell, but this time it was a more comfortable, if somewhat sad, quiet. Annie felt better, though. They would have one last ritual together before their initiations. It would be a good way to close their year together.
Cooper arrived at Annie’s house, where Annie got out. “See you guys at school tomorrow,” she said, waving and closing the door.
When she got inside she found Aunt Sarah standing in the living room wearing her Alice outfit. Juliet was pinning the hem.
“It looks fantastic,” said Annie, going in for a closer look.
“Juliet is a wonder,” said Aunt Sarah.
“A wonder who needs more pins,” Juliet said, standing up. “I’ll be right back. They’re in my room.”
She disappeared up the stairs while Annie gazed at her aunt. She couldn’t believe that in a few days Aunt Sarah would be married.
“How did you know Grayson was the one?” she asked, surprising herself.
Aunt Sarah smiled. “I knew because for the first time in my life I didn’t feel like I was settling for something,” she told her niece. “I didn’t have to say ‘He’s really nice, but he has bad breath’ or ‘He’s smart, but he’s rude at restaurants.’ I didn’t have to make excuses for him.”
Annie nodded. Settling. The word stuck in her mind. It’s what she’d been worrying about all night. Was she doing that in choosing Sophia’s coven? She wanted to believe that it was the right coven for her. She’d been trying to convince herself of it all night. But every time she felt she was absolutely sure of her decision, she found herself with a nagging doubt.
“Sometimes you just know,” her aunt said, looking at her with a smile of pure happiness. “You just know.”
CHAPTER 15
The following night was cold and clear. It was as if winter were trying to pull back the year from spring for just one more day. The temperature had dropped, and the stars sparkled in the black sky. When Kate arrived at the cove to meet her friends, she was glad she’d put on a heavy sweater.
“Why don’t we ever seem to be doing this when it’s warm?” Cooper complained as the three of them got to work.
Kate made a circle of rocks in which to build a fire, while Annie went and collected some seawater in the cauldron she’d brought with her from home. Cooper picked up driftwood for the fire and brought it to the circle of stones.
“At least we’ve gotten more efficient at this,” remarked Kate as she built up a fire using some pieces of newspaper and the smallest of the sticks. The first time she’d attempted to make a fire there, it had taken forever to get it going. This time, though, she had one crackling in a matter of minutes.
The three of them stood and faced east. As Kate gazed in the direction of the city, with its bright lights and the sounds of cars and people, she thought about how casting a circle had become so familiar to the three of them. Again she thought about their first fumbling attempts at doing it. They had all felt self-conscious, afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing. Now they did it with ease, falling comfortably into the pattern.
“East,” Annie called out in her clear, confident voice. “Power of air, be with us in our circle tonight.”
“South,” Cooper called next as they turned to look in that direction. “Power of fire, be with us in our circle.”
Kate’s turn was next, and she called the west and the power of water into their circle as the three of them looked over the ocean. And then Annie finished invoking the elements by turning to look at the line of rocks through which they’d entered the cove and saying, “North, power of earth, be with us in our circle.”
Having summoned the four elements of the directions, it was time to complete the circle. This fell to Cooper, who picked up a stick and pressed the end into the sand.
“In the sand I draw the circle,” she said as she walked around the fire, inscribing a circle with the stick. “In the circle magic dwells. All who enter are protected, here to weave our magic spells.”
She completed the circle, broke the stick in two, and added it to the fire. The three of them were standing together within the shape she had drawn. Above them, the full moon shone down with ghostly light.
“Here we are,” Annie said. “Our last circle as baby witches.”
Kate and Cooper laughed. To Kate it almost felt as if they were playing a game of pretend. She found it difficult to really believe that in just over a week they would all be initiated. Had it really been a year? She thought back to the first time she, Cooper, and Annie had gathered on that same beach. In some ways the time had gone more quickly than she ever could have imagined, while in others it seemed like a lifetime ago.
“I decided which coven I want to join,” Cooper said. She paused as the others looked at her, waiting for an answer. “I’m going with the Children of the Goddess,” she said.
“Really?” Kate said, surprised. She had been expecting Cooper, like Annie, to join Sophia’s coven.
“I know,” Cooper said. “I was a little surprised myself. But while you guys were all talking, I had a really good time talking to Hunter. It sounds like the people in his coven are into a lot of the same things I am. I thought about it last night and all day today, and I called him just before I came here. I think it will be a good place for me.”
“Wow,” Annie said. “We each picked a different coven.”
“Well, we always were really different people,” remarked Kate. She knew Annie was a little upset that they wouldn’t all be together, and she wanted to try to make her feel better. “Maybe it makes sense that we’re all in different covens.”
Annie nodded. “I guess it couldn’t last forever,” she said.
“What shall we do on our last big blow-out?” asked Cooper.
Annie indicated the cauldron of seawater that she’d placed inside the circle. It was sitting directly in a spot of moonlight and the water within it glistened with the reflection of the pearly orb hanging over their heads.
“Seawater touched by the moon is supposed to have all kinds of magical properties,” she said. She reached into the pocket of the coat she was wearing and brought out three small glass bottles. “I thought we could charge the water with our intentions and put it in these bottles. Then we can each have one on our altars. That way we’ll always have a piece of the magic we created together.”
The three of them knelt in the sand with the cauldron between them. They joined hands, encircling the pot of seawater.
“How do you want to charge it?” Cooper asked Annie.
“Using one of the ways we first used to raise energy,” said Annie. “I want to do a word chain.”
The others nodded. Making a word chain was, like casting a circle, old hat for them by now. They’d done it often, and they knew it was a good way to focus their energy and create power for their magical work.
“Ending,” Annie said, starting the chain.
“Beginning,” said Cooper.
“Change,” Kate said, letting the first word that came to her mind be the one she spoke.
Annie followed her with, “Transform,” with Cooper adding, “Grow.”
“Blossom,” said Kate, imagining a seed bursting open and the plant inside reaching out.
Around they went, forming the chain word by word, link by link. As each girl’s word caused the next one to think of something else, they moved faster and faster, their voices blending smoothly into a river of sound. Kate listened, the words bringing images to life in her mind.
“Leaf.” “Tree.” “Forest.” “Path.” “
Walk.” “Journey,” they said as Kate imagined herself traveling down a narrow path that wound between tall pine trees.
“Travel.” “Adventure.” “Search.” The words reminded Kate of the year they’d just spent exploring the ways of Wicca, taking a journey into themselves and seeing what they found there.
“Home.” “Friends.” “Love.” The last word was Kate’s. She pictured herself arriving home after a long trip, being welcomed by the people who loved her. And when she looked at the faces of the people who held their arms out to her in her vision, they were the faces of Annie and Cooper.
The chain was complete. They didn’t add to it. Instead they sat around the cauldron, still holding hands, not speaking. Kate imagined the cauldron swirling with golden light, the power of their intentions turning it into a whirlpool of energy. She knew that the others had done the same thing, and that what had moments ago been ordinary seawater was now something else.
Reluctantly, Kate let her friends’ hands slip from hers as Annie reached for the bottles she’d brought. She handed one each to Kate and Cooper. Then the three of them dipped their hands into the cauldron, letting the water fill the bottles. When they lifted them out again, they held them up to the moon. The water inside sparkled brightly.
“We all come from the Goddess,” Annie sang.
“And to her we shall return,” Cooper and Kate sang, joining her. “Like a drop of rain flowing to the ocean.”
It was the first song they had learned, and it seemed particularly appropriate to Kate for their final full moon ritual together. Like the drops of rain, they too returned again and again to the ocean to celebrate their connection to the Goddess and to one another. Now they each had some of that magic bottled up, ready to be placed on their altars, where it would always remind them of how it had all begun.
The three of them clicked their bottles together as if they were toasting the moon, the Goddess, and each other. Then they lowered their hands and sat with the bottles cradled in their laps.