"Anyone else bless you last night?" Helena murmured, stirring her coffee and eyeing Oliver mischievously.
He cocked an eyebrow and then looked at each of their faces.
Abby grinned and tilted her head.
A tiny something tugged at her heart, but she ignored it. She loved Sebastian. Any feelings she had toward Oliver were strictly platonic. Why on earth would she care if he had a fling with one of the Sky Mothers? Though she had to wonder how he managed to get one of them into bed after only a few hours.
"My lips are sealed," he told them, pouring an enormous ration of sugar into his coffee.
"Oh, come on," Helena teased. "Just give us a name. How can I concoct a story in my head without a face to go with it?"
"No way, no how," Oliver said. "Plus, I don't even know what you're talking about. I had a perfectly amiable conversation with one of the ladies last night and there's nothing more to tell."
"Who on earth was doing all the moaning last night? Good grief, I thought a monkey was in labor in the forest," Julian complained, walking into the kitchen and heading for the last of the coffee.
Oliver turned red and Sebastian guffawed.
"An amiable conversation, huh?"
"Thanks, Julian," Oliver grumbled.
"What?" he asked. "It wasn't a monkey?"
Abby saw the gleam in Julian's eye.
"Matilda said breakfast in the big house at nine."
"Thank the Goddess, I'm starving," Oliver quipped.
"I bet you are," Helena teased.
****
They ate breakfast in the wind tunnel. The long hallway that opened on the garden at one end and the ocean on the other. A constant soft, salty breeze rushed through the space.
Once settled on the chairs and couches, the wind seemed to rush above them, but they were shielded from the sensation.
"Wheatgrass, goat's milk smoothies, and poached eggs," Matilda announced.
Two other Sky Mothers brought trays of food, setting them on the glass tables and departing without introductions.
"Is anyone else joining us?" Oliver asked, looking around expectantly.
"No." Matilda smiled warmly. "It is Sunday. Our Coven's day of prayer, meditation, and fasting. I am merely here to bid you good morning and then I too must excuse myself. We'll see you tonight for a bonfire."
****
In the healing room, Adora slept fitfully. Bridget had given her a sleep aid and treated her wounds. A shimmering sheet, enchanted with healing light, lay draped over Adora's emaciated form. Elda and Lydie helped Bridget crush herbs and seeds and prepare poultices.
Faustine stood close to Adora, trying to intercept some of her passing dreams.
He touched his temple gingerly and shook his head.
"Her mind is very jumbled. It hurts my head trying to sort through her thoughts."
He stood and looked down at her for another moment before breaking away.
"Bridget, let me know when she wakes up. I'm going to the tower to send a message to Julian." He left abruptly.
Lydie watched him leave and wondered if he was angry that she had not sought help before going to Adora.
"Such a shame," Bridget murmured, walking to the bed and slightly parting Adora's lips. Using a dropper, she placed a tiny amount of a dark liquid inside her mouth.
"What are you giving her?" Lydie asked.
"Bit of birthroot to help with bleeding on the inside," Bridget told her.
"Thank the Goddess you found her," Elda said, handing Bridget an amber glass spray bottle.
"I heard her crying," Lydie admitted. "It woke me up."
"Apparently we need to modify our spells. When a person or witch triggers the protective spells around Ula, Faustine should receive an energetic message, but he felt nothing until you reached out to him, Lydie."
"Will she die?" Lydie asked, not sure if she wanted to hear the answer.
"Not if I have anything to say about it," Bridget assured her.
"How on earth did she escape?" Elda asked, thinking out loud.
****
That evening, Matilda built a great bonfire on the beach. Five Sky Mothers joined them in total. Matilda, Binda, Kit, Grace, and Jesse.
Abby sat on a cloud of air wrapped in a silk liner. The chair bobbed and undulated beneath her, seeming in rhythm with the movement of the ocean.
Sebastian kissed her head as she watched the dancing flames. The fire shifted and twirled with the conversation. When one of the witches' voices rose, the flames leaped higher and brighter. When the conversation lulled, the flames turned to embers.
Oliver walked to the water's edge.
"It's glowing," he called out.
"Plankton, luminescence," the witch, Kit responded.
She had black dreadlocked hair tied back with a piece of twine. Her mocha skin was freckled and glowed pale in the light of the moon. She wore piercings in her nose, eyebrow, and lip. Unlike the other Sky Mothers, she did not wear a simple white robe. She dressed in dark linen pants and a snug black tank top that showed strange markings, like henna tattoos up and down her arms.
"Kit, those symbols on your arms are beautiful, what are they?" Helena asked, leaning forward for a better look.
"They are part of my aboriginal ancestry. My grandfather was a medicine man. My initiation into the medicine lineage included a branding of sorts."
Helena grimaced.
"That sounds painful," Sebastian said.
"It was," Kit admitted. "Especially at fourteen, but I'd spent my whole life preparing. The pain was a gift, in a sense. Until that point, there was so much value placed on the initiation, without the pain and the markings, I'd wake up the following morning no different than the day before. With these," Kit held up her arms. "I was changed. There is fire in my blood, there is a memory of great pain and an even sweeter memory of surviving. I felt like a warrior when I woke up."
Julian smiled and nodded as if agreeing.
"I believe that's important and perhaps missing for many people."
Kit looked at him.
"Not everyone is meant to be a warrior," she said simply. "Though I see that you are, despite the marks that you do not have. I think your scars are on the inside. And yours as well," she tilted her head toward Sebastian.
He stared back at her.
"Yeah, but I didn't feel like a warrior when I got them."
"Well, that is an experience of a fourteen-year-old girl. It was vanity. I hadn't become a warrior yet, I just looked a bit more the part. My true scars came later as well. Most of them are visible only to me."
Abby felt a rolling sensation in her womb. She pressed a hand on her stomach and smiled.
"Is she talking to you?" Grace asked, tilting her head toward Abby's belly.
"Dancing, I think," Abby told her.
"Pregnancy is so beautiful," Grace murmured dreamily. "It is one of our greatest acts of service - to usher a child into the world. Helena says that she is your midwife?"
"Yes," Abby smiled at Helena. "We're lucky to have her."
"And she, you," Grace agreed. "I delivered twin brothers only last week. Such a miracle with their shining blue eyes and tufts of blond fuzzy hair. It was hard not to take them home."
"Perhaps too much energy has already been spent reminiscing about that birth," Binda told her sharply.
Grace looked as if she intended to say more, but closed her lips and looked sadly toward the lapping waves.
Matilda rested a hand on Grace's arm, comforting her.
Abby got the sense that Grace had more than a service-driven love for babies.
Kit stood and gathered several more logs. She arranged them carefully on the fire. Abby saw the flames lick her hands, but she seemed unaware.
Oliver watched her from the shore and Abby realized that Kit must have been the witch in his yurt the night before.
Kit gave him little notice. She glanced his way and then settled back into her chair, watching the flames intently.
/> Abby thought about Ezra back in Chicago, another fierce witch that Oliver seemed drawn to. She wondered what part of him had been attracted to her. She could not have been more different than Ezra and Kit.
"Want to go for a swim?" Sebastian asked, his face glowing in the firelight.
Abby looked toward the water. She could see the shimmering green luminescence as it washed over the beach.
"Race ya," she told him and catapulted out of her chair.
She stripped off her dress as she ran, still wearing her swimsuit from earlier in the day.
"Cheater," Sebastian yelled, but he quickly caught up with her. In her witch body, she should have been able to outrun any human, but more and more Sebastian seemed to be gaining similar abilities.
They dashed into the ocean. A million flecks of glowing green and blue water splashed around them. Sebastian dove first and Abby watched his beautiful body, naked except for boxer shorts, slice through the glowing water. She dove behind him. They swam hard and fast into the ocean. They both came up for air and treaded water far off the shore.
"Look at that sky," Sebastian said, tilting his head back.
Abby looked up.
She had never seen so many stars. Even at Ula, perched on an isolated cliff in the vastness of Lake Superior, the stars could not compare to the scene above them. Abby felt like a drop in an ocean of sky. She and Sebastian were just tiny stars embedded in a vacuum of sparkling space.
She felt Sebastian's leg brush against hers and a shiver ran along her spine. He is mine, she thought and felt giddy at the notion. A year ago, Abby would not have fathomed the trajectory of her life. She would have admired a man like Sebastian from afar with his shaggy curls and his intense blue eyes. She would have wondered what it would be like to kiss his full lips, to look into those mysterious eyes, to stay up late talking about their dreams.
"And now I know," she told him, wrapping her arms and legs around him in the water.
"You know what?" Sebastian asked, kicking his legs and running his hand along her slick back.
"You," she said, kissing him and pushing back with a rush into the water. She dove deep and swam into the glittering luminescence.
She had gone swimming in the ocean twice in her life and both times she had been overwhelmed by the sense of infinite mystery that surrounded her. She remembered each experience with the kind of clarity that punctuates major catastrophes or intense moments of joy. She remembered wading into the water with Sydney. She was seven. The waves swept onto the shore in a constant barrage of frothy power. Sydney held her hand the whole time. She promised not to let go as the waves pushed them back and the undertow tugged at their feet.
The second time she had gone with Nick, a decidedly different experience. Nick hated salt on his lips and the stiffness in his hair after an ocean swim. He went in the water one time, up to his waist, for two minutes. Afterward, he rinsed in the public shower, slathered with sunscreen, and read from an enormous law text. Abby swam alone. For hours she ran in and out of the surf. Thinking back, she wondered if that had been the day the seed of doubt about her and Nick took root. How did he see the ocean with such small eyes?
Abby burst through the surface. She saw Sebastian in the distance floating on his back, staring at the sky. She wondered if he thought about his own memories of the ocean. Had he gone swimming in the sea with his parents and Claire? Were his memories buried in grief?
She dove beneath the water and swam to him slowly. The abyss spread out beneath her, and beyond the moonlight and effervescent plankton, an infinite darkness awaited.
Chapter 4
No sooner had Oliver closed his eyes than the dream assailed him. He stood again at the edge of the snowy forest behind Abby's house. Paralyzed, he watched as Dafne lifted the dragon blade and thrust it into her body. The dark red of her blood saturated the snow quickly. She reached for him, but his feet denied his demands to run to her.
He woke in the cliff-top yurt. His breath struggled to get out as if someone had clamped a hand around his throat. He fought the pressure away.
"Hey," a groggy voice murmured beside him. "You're thrashing like a stuck fish over there."
Kit.
He reached out his hand and brushed her arm, felt the curve of her naked hip. Settling back against the pillows, he took a long, deep breath and let it out in a rush. The vision of Dafne dying came to him night after night. He hadn't told anyone. Each night, after the dream ended, he wanted it gone from his thoughts. By the light of day, he usually succeeded.
Kit shifted beside him and he felt her hand in the darkness slide over his stomach and between his legs. He moaned and rolled toward her, pulling her against him.
It had been more than a year since Oliver had taken a lover. The appearance of Abby and Sebastian had changed the routines at Ula and the desires of his body had fallen to the back of his thoughts. In the past, Oliver left Ula every few months to seek out a physical connection. Sometimes he went to a bar on the mainland. That was easy. Other times, he wanted more challenge so he opted for chance encounters at a library or grocery store. He could be anyone during those excursions and so could they.
Lately, though, he wanted a witch. The random women were never meant to be more. Observing Abby and Sebastian had caused a longing in Oliver that he had not expected. If he was flat-out honest, he wanted Abby, but she loved Sebastian-end of story. Beyond wanting Abby, he wanted a union that traveled beyond a motel room and a night of sex. He wanted a companion. Perhaps Dafne's death had more to do with that than he cared to admit. Though he and Dafne had never been intimate, there had been a bond between them. She was his teacher, his friend, and often his confidante. Not that she ever confided anything to him. She rarely spoke of anything personal, but she listened as he rambled about the family he missed, his brother in particular.
When he met Kit the first day at Sky Mothers, he felt an immediate chemistry. Kit also made it clear that she preferred casual and discreet, two aspects that Oliver generally preferred as well. But the dreams of Dafne left him feeling empty and alone. He wanted someone to fill the void. Perhaps then the nightmares would stop.
Kit climbed on top of him. She kissed him hungrily. Her mouth moved from his lips to his neck, and he pulled and pushed against her slick, naked body. She was not delicate and soft. Her muscles were taut and close to the surface. She did not make love so much as ravage and use him. He liked it. It allowed him to do the same. Lost in the sensations of her body, Oliver forgot about his dream.
After Kit returned to sleep, Oliver left the yurt and walked the edge of the cliff. The water churned below and he climbed down, savoring the energy boost of the huge rock wall in front of him.
****
Sebastian stepped into the forest, following the sound of rushing water. He had noticed it the night before when he crept out of the yurt to relieve himself. Abby had joined Matilda and Grace to talk about secret women things. He didn't mind. Sebastian thrived on alone time. He and Abby both needed their quiet spaces to reflect on the ever-changing world around them.
The forest smelled fragrant and damp. He examined eucalyptus trees and watched for exotic birds. Underfoot, a floor of ferns and tiny brightly colored flowers spread beneath his feet.
As he walked, the water sound grew louder until it filled his head. The trees opened to reveal a dark lagoon. The water shimmered and reflected the morning sun, and gray rocks filled the pool and lined the edges. A powerful surge of water crashed from the cliff overhead. It dropped in a crystalline sheath and sent a frothy spray into the hot, dry air.
Without a thought, Sebastian stripped off his shirt and shorts and waded into the pool. He sucked in a breath at the icy water. Gooseflesh tightened his skin, and he sighed, long and deep. It was an ecstasy of sorts, immersing the body in frigid water as the hot air buzzed around him. He went under and surveyed the depths of the shadowy blue lagoon. Points of light streaked into the pool and cast the rocks beneath the surface in glittering silver.
Breaking the surface, he felt the cold drain from his face and shoulders. He went under again. In and out of the water he dove, and then flung himself back into the dazzling sunlight and warmth. His mind emptied as he moved. The only thing that existed was the sensation in his body, flooding every cell. When he finally ended his game, he climbed onto one of the hot gray rocks and lay back, feeling the rivulets of water snake down his cool skin.
"Fierce, isn't it?"
The voice startled him and Sebastian sat up, instantly aware of his nakedness.
A woman sat on the rock just beside him. She had not been there when he emerged, but had he really been paying attention?
Wavy sandy blonde hair fell from the loose bun piled on her head and framed her face. She smiled at him, big and open, and her gray-blue eyes smiled too. She wore a simple white robe, Sky Mothers attire, but it was short with a braided hemp rope wrapped around her waist.
"I'm Hannah," she told him.
Sebastian discreetly placed a hand over his groin. She watched him, amused.
"Umm, do you mind?" he asked, gesturing for her to turn around.
She smiled wider.
"Of course not." She turned, and Sebastian scrambled off the rock and shuffled into his shorts, feeling the blood rising into his face. He wanted to splash cold water on his skin and hide his blush, but she'd already turned back to him.
"It's just a body, a nice one too."
"Thanks," he said, awkwardly. "You're a Sky Mother then?"
"I am that," she nodded. "And so much more, and nothing at all."
He cocked an eyebrow and she winked at him.
She stood and allowed her robe to drop to the rock. He stared at her naked body. Curves and small perky breasts and golden thighs filled his vision before she turned and expertly dove into the lagoon. As she broke through the surface, the reverie vanished and Sebastian looked toward the woods, nervously. He expected to see Abby standing behind him, a mask of fury and hurt etched into her face, but no. Only the forest returned his gaze. He glanced back at the pond, at the ripples still fanning across the surface where Hannah dove in. Before she emerged, he walked into the woods, heading back to the Sky Mothers compound, trying to shake off his guilty feelings.
Sky Mothers (Born of Shadows Book 4) Page 3