Sybil sighed. “These spells don’t work for us. They can only work for other people. You’re going to be learning a lot about our particular coven, but one of the things that you should know is that our first order of business is altruism, not enriching ourselves personally. I did do that hex on Tiff, and I got in trouble for it, but I was helping you when I did that. The fact that Bill happened to fall for Maddy when he broke up with Tiff was simply an accident, and, as you know, Bill and Maddy broke up after only dating for a few months, so she wasn’t at all enriched by what happened there.”
I nodded my head. That actually made some sense. “I guess that kinda sucks, huh? Like if you get cancer or something like that, you can’t just heal…” Just then, a memory came slamming back to me. It almost took away my breath when it did so. “I healed myself. Peter said that I did. I had this gaping hole where that bullet pierced my heart, and I would imagine that there was a great deal of blood. Yet, my body was intact when I got out of that body bag, and Peter said that I healed myself. Now, how did I do that?”
“I don’t know. I guess that you were able to do that because you’re special. Mother has always told Maddy and me that you were special. Why you were able to do that before you saw her and received your necklace is another matter that I don’t really know about.”
I fingered my necklace, wondering how it was that I was able to do all of that, while I looked through the list of spells. “How do you find anything in here?” I asked Sybil. “Isn’t there some kind of index or something of the sort?”
“No,” she said, “Just lay your hand on the cover like this,” she said, spreading her fingertips and laying them on the cover of the book. “Close your eyes and concentrate on the spell that you want. You’ll then be able to open the book to just the right page.”
I looked at her, feeling skeptical, yet did what she asked me to. It couldn’t hurt. I spread my fingertips on the cover of the book and concentrated on the spell that I needed. To my surprise, Sybil was right. I popped open the book on exactly the right page.
Sybil clapped her hands and seemed like she was delighted that I was finally casting my first spell. “Maddy, come in here,” she called, and Maddy appeared at the door. “I’m sure that I don’t need to tell you, because you always seem to know, but Lyra is getting ready to cast her very first spell.”
I looked up at Maddy, who, like Sybil, was looking like a proud parent whose child made her first poop in the toilet. “Don’t get too excited,” I said to Maddy. “I’m still not on board with those whole demon-hunting thing, but casting a little spell seems like it would be fun.”
Maddy came and sat down on the bed too. “I’ll go and get the stuff,” she said, clapping her hands excitedly, and left the room and came back with three white candles and three red ones, and a little box that had all kinds of things in it. Potions, candles, locks of hair, little tiny ropes, crystals, talismans, and other various things peeked out from inside that velvet-lined box.
I sighed and lit the six candles and chanted what the book told me to chant. It was something in Latin, and, to my surprise, I actually understood it completely. When did I learn Latin? I touched my necklace, knowing, intuitively, that this necklace somehow, someway, was responsible for my learning this ancient language, yet knowing, on some level, that I had always known this language. I just somehow forgot that I knew it.
The Latin words, translated into English, was that the memories of my death would be banished from the minds of Olive and Jordan. I chanted this spell three times, just like the book said, and then looked at the two girls. “I guess I have to let these candles burn down,” I said. “So, I’ll be able to see in the morning if it worked.” I felt skeptical, yet, at the same time, hopeful. I was, at heart, a total cynic, so I didn’t really think that this little spell would actually work, but if it did…I was excited about what I was going to be able to do in the future.
Sybil and Maddy both looked excited, and Sybil touched my arm. “It’ll work. I can feel it.”
Maddy nodded her head. “I can confirm that it will work,” she said. “They’re going to wake up tomorrow morning, see you, and not know that anything bad had happened to you at all. I knew that you’d be able to do it.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Listen, I have a beef with both of you girls. Don’t think that I don’t. You’ve known all along about all these things, and you, Maddy – you made me believe that you were my sister. I don’t really understand what either of you was thinking about when you decided to hide all of that from me, and I’m not happy with either of you. But, what’s done is done. Let’s just move on, shall we, and try to get along with each other as if nothing ever happened. Okay?”
“Of course,” Maddy said, and then gave me a hug. “We love you, Lyra, and that will never change. But you have to know, you have to accept your assignment from our mother. I can’t tell you what is going to happen, but I can tell you that it won’t be pretty and you’re not going to be happy.”
I shrugged. “So be it,” I said, feeling suddenly very, very sleepy. “I’m really tired, guys, so I don’t want to be rude, but…”
I heard the two girls leave my room, and I was soon into dreamland.
That night, Peter woke me up. “Lyra,” he said to me. “Wake up.”
I awoke with a start. “Damn, mom, I told you no,” I said. Then my eyes focused and my brain gradually started to absorb reality, and I realized that I was in my bed and Peter was in my bedroom with me. “Oh, sorry, I was dreaming about my mother and her wishes for me. It was a nightmare, really.”
Peter just nodded. “Lyra, your spell will work. I can guarantee that.”
“I guess.” I was skeptical. I lit some candles, said some words, and somehow that was going to alter reality? No way did that make sense to me. “Anyhow, why are you here?”
“You need to do something. If you don’t, the past will be altered, and you will literally disappear.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Oh, yeah, I see. It’s like that movie, Back to the Future. Marty saw himself being erased on that picture because he was altering the past.” I nodded my head, proud for having made yet another cool movie reference. “But tell me what I need to do.”
“You have your powers now. Your mother informed me that this next step has to happen tonight. Tonight, Lyra, or you will disappear. It’ll be as if you actually died at the hands of that gunman.” Peter looked worried. “I am so sorry, Lyra, your mother neglected to tell me that this has to happen tonight. Before the sun comes up.”
I reached out my hands. “It’s okay. I’m awake now. I mean, I’m going to be dragging tomorrow, or later on today as it were, but lay it on me. What has to happen before the sun comes up?”
“You must go back in time and heal yourself in that body bag.”
I nodded my head. “Ah, yes. Now it all comes clear. I never quite knew how I was healed, and now I know. Very clever. Well, since I was healed, then you know that I’m going to do this now, don’t you? Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been healed at all. That’s how time-travel works. By the way, how cool is that that I can travel through time?” Time travel was always something that fascinated me to no end.
“It’s a good thing. It’s a great thing, but you must use this power sparingly. Like everything else. You have to use it only when you need it, because, otherwise, your powers will be depleted. This is one of those things that takes a lot out of you.”
“I guess. So, what has to happen? What do we need to do?”
“Just take my hand,” he said. “And close your eyes.”
I took his hand, feeling my heart pounding. Was my heart pounding out of fear, or because of the fact that I was holding Peter’s hand, and I was increasingly finding myself attracted to him? I didn't quite know.
Peter said some Latin words – again, I understood them – and, all at once, we were in the morgue. I went over to the body bag, and unzipped it.
Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw in there.
How can one ever be prepared for seeing your own body dead? Not just dead, but with an enormous hole in your chest? I almost vomited when I looked at myself in there. My eyes were open and glassy. My mouth was also gaping open. I was completely white, even whiter than usual (which is pretty white), and, right in the middle of my chest, was an enormous hole. Not a lot of blood, though. I knew why – my heart stopped beating immediately after that gunman shot me, so there wasn’t cause for there to be a lot of blood.
I touched my skin, feeling how cold it was, and quickly withdrew my hand. I turned to Peter. “Uh,”lI said, feeling so freaked out at seeing my own dead body that I was at a loss for words. “What do I do now?”
“Say some words in Latin,” he said. “You know what they are. Close your eyes, and they will come to you.”
“Words about what?”
“Words about healing your body. You won’t yet come to life, of course. That won’t happen until your soul is unified with your body, which hasn’t happened yet. But you need to heal that wound,” he said, pointing to the gaping hole in the chest.
I nodded my head and closed my eyes. To my surprise, Peter was right. I did know just the right Latin words to say. “Tacitus salutifer corpus bracchium,” I said, putting my hands on the hole in my chest. “Tactical salutifer corpus bracchium,” I repeated twice more.
I smiled as I saw the hole in my chest close up, and the blood disappear. Even my garment healed itself, because there was a hole in my dress, but that, too, closed up.
“Awesome,” I said. “That worked.” I smiled, knowing for a fact that I cast my first spell. That other spell, the one where Jordan and Olive were supposed to forget about my dying, hadn’t yet been proved to have worked. But this one did – I saw it with my own eyes – and lit was a magical moment indeed.
I turned to Peter, pointing at my healed body. “Did you see that? I did that! Me! With my own hands and my own words.” I spread my hands in front of me, looking at them with awe. I literally had healing hands now. Literally.
Peter smiled. “Yes, Lyra, you are magical. Hopefully, you will finally believe that.”
“I do.” I nodded my head. “What do we do now?”
Peter gave me his hand. “We need to get back. After all, you do need to have a few hours of sleep.”
“True that.” I took his hand, looking back at my healed body one more time. Yeah, it was scary seeing myself like that, but I had to admit, I was thrilled that I was able to heal myself. “Let’s go.”
In no time, we were back in my bedroom, my bed awaiting me. “Okay, then, Peter, thanks for that. Now, please, I don’t mean to be rude, but…” I never finished my sentence, because I was out like a light.
13
The next day, I woke up and felt apprehensive as I walked to the kitchen. I looked around, not really knowing what happened to Peter, but I knew that there was the chance that he was around, but wouldn’t show his face to Jordan and Olive. I had never seen the guy before, yet Maddy and Sybil seemed to know him quite well. Which was weird, to say the very least.
But, more importantly, I was concerned that maybe my spell wouldn’t take. It all seemed like hokum to me, even though I had proof, sorta, that it really wasn’t hokum at all. After all, in the past few days, I had died, went to Hell, met some kind of other-worldly creature, traveled to Rome in a few minutes, met my mother who was some kind of a goddess, came back to this apartment and cast a spell, then went back in time and healed myself. Unless I had dreamed this whole entire few days, chances were good that I was, indeed, a witch.
I might have been a witch, but I still wasn’t going to do what my mother asked me to. It seemed dangerous, to say the very least, and I wasn’t into it. Besides, all that demon-hunting would interfere with my studies and my social life. This was the time of my life when I was supposed to be enjoying myself, not endangering my life on a daily basis by hunting demons and vampires and werewolves. Yeah, my mother never said that I was going to be werewolf-hunting, but that was next. I could almost guarantee it. It was a slippery slope – first you agree to hunt demons, and then, suddenly, you’re hunting down vampires and werewolves and monsters galore. None of which I even believed in prior to these past few days, but, I had to admit, I was starting to become a believer in all of these creatures.
I held my breath as I went in to make my morning coffee. My backpack was on the counter, and I had finally changed out of my little black dress and into my usual attire of jeans, a t-shirt, a jean jacket and boots. I had pulled my curly hair into a tight bun and decided to go without makeup for that day. I just didn’t feel like getting dolled up after what I had gone through.
“Hey,” Jordan said, sitting on the other side of the kitchen bar. Our kitchen was divided from the dining room with a little bar that had four bar stools on the other side. Jordan was sitting on one of the bar stools and met me with a smile. “Birthday girl. Sure was fun the other night.” He took down a coffee cup from the little rack that was hanging by the bar. “Pour me a cup of that stuff, okay?”
I nodded my head and poured him a cup of coffee. “Where’s Olive?”
“She’s right over there,” he said, pointing to the couch, where there was a sleeping Olive who was snoring loudly. “Don’t ask me why she’s on that couch, and why I was also on that couch, because I don’t remember. All I know is that we were watching movies, and we both just kinda zonked.” He stretched. “What you got going today?”
I shrugged my shoulders, feeling relieved that the spell seemed to work perfectly. The fact that the spell worked made me optimistic that maybe, just maybe, I could make this witch gig work out for me. “Classes, you know, the usual. I’m working on a documentary short on this small group of homeless people who live near the Port Authority, so I have to get down there and talk to some of those people today. I haven’t yet picked the person that I’d like to focus on, but I’m trying to get a feel for all of them before I do.”
“Well, don’t let me keep you,” he said. “I need to get out of here anyhow,” he said. “I have an audition for back-up dancer in a Broadway musical,” he said, kicking his leg up in the air. “Darling, I’m going to be a star.”
I giggled. “You will be. Hey, if you could wake up sleeping beauty over there,” I said, motioning to Olive, who was still laying on the couch, snoring away, “I’d appreciate it.”
“I will,” he said, going over to the couch and gently nudging Olive. “Hey girl,” he said, as she woke up and looked up at him. It was clear from the look in her eyes that she had just arisen from a deep sleep, for she had a dazed look on her face. I held my breath, not knowing what to expect. What if the spell took for Jordan but not for Olive? That was possible, wasn’t it? I shook my head, realizing how little I really knew about this business of witching, or whatever it was called, and feeling like I was being left high and dry. I didn’t like that feeling at all, to say the very least.
“Hey,” Olive said, stretching and looking right at me. She narrowed her eyes and gave me a quizzical look, and I found that I was holding my breath. What was that look about? Was she about to ask Jordan about why I was there in the kitchen instead of being dead? She was looking at me like she was seeing a dead person. I think. Or maybe I was just imagining it. Maybe I was being paranoid.
“Hey,” I said back to her, and then studied my coffee cup. I had no idea what I was going to do if she somehow woke up completely and freaked out.
“Why are you here?” she asked me, and I froze.
“What do you mean?” I asked, hoping that my voice wasn’t giving my panic away.
“Aren’t you supposed to be in class?” she asked me, and I let out my breath.
“No, not until 10.”
“Oh,” she said with a shrug. “I keep forgetting you don’t have early classes on Monday.” She stretched her legs and her arms and made a little noise. “I don’t work today,” she said, referring to the fact that her Mondays were generally not busy, because the restaurant where she
worked as a sous chef was closed on every Monday. “So I’ll probably see you when you get back to the apartment after your classes and stuff. Maybe we can do dinner or something. After all, I did forget to get you a present for your birthday.”
“Your being with me out at the bars is present enough,” I said. “Besides, you bought me shots.”
“Even so, I feel bad. I’ve been so busy lately, I just didn’t really have time to do anything special for you. And you’re 21 now. A momentous birthday, and I just blew it right off.” She shook her head. “Please let me take you out.”
I sighed. “Okay, sure,” I said. “But don’t forget, I need to do my interviews for my documentary short after class today. I might not be around until 7 or so.”
She shrugged. “Then we’ll just do dinner after 7.” She furrowed her brows at me. “You seem different today.”
Again, I felt my breath stop for a brief moment. “Different how?”
“You seem…older.” And then she smiled at her little joke. “Just kidding. My dad used to always say that to me on every birthday. ‘You seem different, Olive. You seem just a little bit older.’” She chuckled to herself, and I laughed along with her. I didn't find her little joke all that funny, but I wanted to be kind and not make her feel like a goof for telling a bad joke.
“Well, I guess I am,” I said. “Older, I mean.”
“Guess you are.”
At that, I picked up my backpack and drank the last of my coffee. “Well, I’ll be seeing you later on. Jordan, you want to join us for dinner tonight?”
Lyra's Magic: Witches of Manhattan Book One Page 9