by Isobel Bird
“But this is your trip,” Kate said to Annie.
Annie nodded. “Uh-huh,” she said. “But Juliet says she has lots of room.”
They all looked at one another for a long moment before Cooper said, “Girls, I think I feel a road trip coming on.”
Follow the
with Book 14:
The Challenge Box
Kate stood up and walked to the box. At first she wasn’t sure how she was supposed to get anything out of it, as there was no discernible lid and there didn’t seem to be any way of opening it. For a moment she panicked, thinking that maybe this was the test and she was failing it. Then she noticed that the center of the box’s top panel was actually a circle of black velvet, and not wood. She poked at it with her finger and discovered that there was a slit in the velvet. She pushed her hand through and into the box.
Just as Sophia had promised, the box was filled with slips of paper. Touching them with her fingers, Kate was reminded once more of the dedication ceremony and how she’d hesitated before selecting the slip of paper with her word on it. That time she’d been terrified about what accepting the challenge meant for her life. Now she was afraid again, but for a different reason. This time she knew what accepting the challenge meant, but part of her was terrified that she might not be able to meet it. Then what would happen? If she wasn’t accepted for initiation, she would have gone through a lot of trouble for nothing.
She pushed her fears away, knowing that thinking about them wasn’t going to help. One thing she’d learned about magic was that you had to meet it head-on. Before she could second-guess herself any more, she grabbed a slip of paper and pulled it out. She looked at it, then looked at Sophia.
“Do I tell everyone what it is?” she asked.
“No,” answered Sophia. “You should show me and Archer, because we need to know so that we can see how well you accomplish your challenge. Other than that, I recommend keeping your challenges to yourselves.”
Kate looked at her paper again, then showed it to Sophia and Archer. Archer, who was holding a notebook, wrote down Kate’s challenge. When she was done she nodded at Kate. “Good luck,” she said.
Kate returned to her seat, the slip of paper clutched in her hand. She thought about what was written on her paper. Would she be able to do it? She hoped so. But she wasn’t sure. She looked at Cooper and Annie, who were seated beside her, watching the proceedings. She very much wanted to discuss her challenge with her friends, to see what they made of the task she’d been assigned. But Sophia had told them not to. It was going to be up to her, and her alone, to figure out exactly what the words on her slip of paper meant. For the moment all she could do was watch as the others went forward to reach into the Challenge Box.
Annie was the second of the threesome to go forward. She reached in and felt around. She stirred the slips of paper with her hand, hoping that some feeling—some sign—would come to her when she touched the right one. But there were no flashes of light, no trumpet blasts or voices telling her to pick a particular slip.
You’re overanalyzing this, she told herself. That scientific brain of yours is working overtime. Just go with what you feel.
She closed her eyes, stirred some more, grabbed a handful of slips, and then let all of them but one fall from her fingers. The one that remained behind she pulled out. She showed it to Archer and Sophia before she even looked at it herself. After she’d read it, she folded it carefully and tucked it into her pocket as she returned to her seat.
Cooper waited an unusually long time before standing up and walking to the Challenge Box. But unlike Kate and Annie, once she was standing in front of it she didn’t hesitate at all. She plunged her hand in, snatched up the first slip she touched, and pulled it out. She read it, an indecipherable expression passing over her face as she did so, and then presented it to Sophia and Archer to be recorded in the book. Then she walked back to her friends and sat down.
The three friends sat and waited for the other class participants to finish choosing their challenges. None of them said anything to the others, but it was clear that they were all thinking about their own challenges. When the last person had drawn a slip from the box, Archer closed her notebook and Sophia put the black cover over the Challenge Box once more.
“Now you have your challenges,” Sophia said. “You have two weeks to complete them. We won’t have class next week, and will meet again on the fourteenth of March. At that time you will each be expected to give a short description of your challenge and how you did—or did not—complete it.”
“That’s it?” asked Cooper, sounding surprised.
“You expected more?” asked Sophia, laughing.
“Well, yeah,” Cooper said. “This is the last class, right?”
About the Author
Isobel Bird has been involved in the world of paganism and witchcraft for many years. She lives and dances beneath the moon somewhere in New England.
Credits
Cover art © 2002 by Cliff Nielsen
Cover © 2002 by HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
Other Books
Follow the Circle:
Book 1: So Mote It Be
Book 2: Merry Meet
Book 3: Second Sight
Book 4: What the Cards Said
Book 5: In the Dreaming
Book 6: Ring of Light
Book 7: Blue Moon
Book 8: The Five Paths
Book 9: Through the Veil
Book 10: Making the Saint
Book 11: The House of Winter
Book 12: Written in the Stars
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of either the author or the publisher.
AND IT HARM NONE. Copyright © 2002 by Isobel Bird. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
ePub edition. December 2001 ISBN 9780061756412
First Avon edition, 2002
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