“Bit shorter, I think,” Michael said. “Sadie, here, hold up your hand.”
I moved closer and Patrick shortened it by an inch. When I nodded, Michael moved forward and held up his hand to his mouth. Cupping his fingers in a circle, he blew through it and fire leapt free. I stumbled back, watching as Patrick’s hair began to move as he held the sand in place with the air and Michael’s fire caused it to become glass.
“Oh,” I said, watching as a beautiful glass object formed, melded to the Rowan branch. It sparkled like a crystal held up to sunlight, throwing rainbows and swirls of light across the room.
“The first part of your wand, milady,” Patrick said with a wink.
When Michael stepped back, Patrick kept it going awhile longer and Mick ran over, summoning a ball of water out of thin air. Steam erupted as the wand was plunged in.
Mick stepped forward and held out his hand, where the wand fell into it. Bowing, he handed it to me and my fingers moved along the wavy glass, realizing it was harder than a diamond. The power of the Rowan branch hummed underneath it, called to protect and serve.
“Thank you,” I said, marveling at it.
“We’re not done yet,” Mick said.
From there, Seamus worked with the ingredients Fawn, Quill and others had given us, slipping them inside of the wand. There was a handy notch at the bottom, which could open and close.
“While a wand is powerful on its own, there’s nothing like potions, especially leaf of Oak and various items from Salem to give your magic an extra kick,” he explained, pouring it in.
After that, the men added a few more things here and there, then glanced at each other, before all their eyes landed on me. The wand was laying on the table in the center of us.
“One more thing before the final ingredient. What should be your charm?” Michael asked.
“My charm?” I asked nervously, fingering the heart.
“Atop a witch’s wand, there’s usually an ornament. Most have a crystal of some kind, usually an orb, or a star,” Seamus explained. “Whatever you choose, choose for you, Sadie. Not anyone else.”
“Not even us,” Michael said.
“Oh,” I murmured, casting my mind about for something. A heart was my first thought, but I wanted something that would show Rowland Skinner exactly who he was dealing with trying to bring about the Purging and endless night. Something that hearkened good magic.
Light.
The sun? No, not enough. The stars? The moon?
An image appeared in my mind and I smiled. “Yes, that’s it.”
Patrick held out his hands, a sketchbook appearing in one and a pencil in the other.
I took them, and sat down to sketch. The image burned behind my eyelids, demanding to be drawn. I’d never been much of an artist, but it was like the pencil was being pulled by something greater than I. When I finished, I held it up and they nodded.
It was an ornate crescent moon, grinning into a serious-faced sun with fiery rays. The moon was silver, while the sun was gold. I went to hand it to Patrick and he shook his head.
“You know enough about shaping to pull it from the page, Sadie. You can do it.”
Placing it down on the table, I hovered my hand over it and the lines crackled with power before white light burst out of them and I pulled. There was a flash and when I’d blinked it away, the charm was laying on top of the page, even more beautiful than I’d imagined, with violet jewels set into it. Picking it up, in one hand, I held the wand in the other.
“Come into the star,” Mick said, leading me over.
I stepped in and they took their places at the four corners. Each of them pulled out a knife and I winced as they pierced their palms, letting their blood drip onto the lines. My hair rose up in a swirl around me as energy and wind crackled through the room. A piece of red hair fluttered in front of me, then a strand pulled free and wrapped around the wand like copper wire. At the same time, the blood magic ran down the lines of the stars and light leaped up.
“Call for Deloise’s chain and bind the wand,” Michael cried, sounding far away.
Holding out the handle horizontal, I placed my charm at the top and summoned the chain to bind it. It snaked through the air, wrapping around the wand and charm, which leapt from my fingers to hover in front of me.
As the chain whispered around it, I saw water weave around it, then air, earth and finally, a flash of fire. There was a roar and the lines of the star went white-hot, light leaping up from them, and then it stopped.
Slowly, my hair settled on my shoulders and I watched as the wand spun in the air in front of me, fully formed and beautiful, but with an edge of power that almost intimidated me.
“Will it work?” I wondered out loud.
“Try it,” Patrick urged at once and the others joined in.
Reaching out, my fingers touched the wand and the next second, I was in the air, flying.
Chapter 16
Once I managed to get down off the ceiling, which took longer than it should and had them smothering laughter, the guys brought me to the training room. It was now fully decked out as a dueling ground, with actual shifting landscapes. Rocks floated through the air and cliffs rumbled into place around the edges.
“Ha,” I said, trying to keep breathing and not pass out. “Guess we’re at the fun stuff now.” The wand trembled in my hand, eager for action, and I accidentally sent off a spiral of magic that reduced one of the boulders to nothing but dust.
“Remember spellbinding?” Michael said. “Wands tap into your deepest reserves of magic, so you need to be careful not to expel too much. But remember, they are built for offensive magic, so, uh, give yourself time to fully comprehend this lesson.”
For the next hour, they had me use the wand to control the four elements. Water and air was more or less okay, I was an Aquarius in Gemini rising, but earth and fire were difficult.
Earth, I kept cracking the ground and knocking us all on our asses, forcing Seamus to repair the floor again and again. Fire, I had the guys ducking out of the way and yelping as meteors streaked around the room.
Sometimes it felt like the wand was controlling me, not the other way around.
Seamus caught on to that first. “You are starting to sense your true power, Sadie, and part of you is struggling with it. But it is not outside of you, you control it.”
Even knowing that, as we moved onto balancing spellbinding against wandwork, I kept cracking the walls, floor, and sending off spurts of flame. Once, I set Mick on fire and he had to throw up a wall of water to douse himself. But he merely laughed as I abjectly apologized.
“Don’t worry, you know about the sword of the gods. Not the first time I’ve been on fire.”
If I thought spellbinding on my own was hard, with a wand, it was almost impossible to control. It wanted to fight, to throw off power and to hell with anything else, especially spellbinding. It threw off my defensive skills and only after the fortieth backlash, where I was picking myself up from the other side of the room, Patrick rushing over, that I realized why.
I was terrified and my power was exploding out of me in response to that.
Though it was past midnight and we had much to do, I asked them for a short break. Sitting down on the floor, cupping the wand in my upturned palms, I closed my eyes and settled in.
Seamus had been teaching me breath control and meditation to help me focus. After several minutes, I was calmer and the fear was starting to dissipate. When I opened my eyes, I saw that the guys had sat in a circle around me. Seamus grinned, his eyes opening, and he nodded at me.
I stood up. “I’m ready for the next lesson.”
“Ha,” Mick said, then he let out a roar. “Let’s dig in to real battle magic.” He made a slicing motion and a giant sword appeared in his hand. “Let’s get to it, then, princess!”
“Woah! Am I getting a giant sword?” I asked.
Patrick shook his head. “Nah, Mick just watches too much anime.”
After Mick had calmed down, he stood by my side while the other three faced off against us. I’d thought they’d just attack, but Mick took time to explain how to wield the wand, how I needed to be conscious of spellbinding, yes, and not wasting energy, but also of not holding back. Here, I would be releasing my unique powers – shaping, enchanting and fighting.
“This is when your eye and hand should be one,” Mick concluded. “It’s why we spent so much time fooling around on the mat and working on your fighting skills. You’ll be reacting and firing back. Trust yourself and do what you need to do. I’ll offer suggestions, but they’re just that.”
He corrected my grip again, then glanced over at his cousins. Patrick stepped forward and grinned, his eyes on me. I thought about everything I’d learned and squared my shoulders.
Dust devils suddenly flew across the floor and I dissipated them with one sweep. Suddenly, there was a sound behind me and I turned to see a ten-foot one bearing down on me. With a squeak, I jabbed the wand at it and fire flew out. Now the tornado was on fire and bearing towards me.
Mick doused it. “Fire is not a bad option, but sometimes it can work against you.”
Again, I faced off against Patrick, but now Seamus stepped forward. Dust devils came at me, faster and spinning off shards of glass. I conjured a shield, but then the floor tilted sideways and I went flying. As I went to get up, vines latched around my wand hand and I gasped.
“No,” I said, but I did something to make the vines grow faster. They were creeping around my other arm and now I was pinned to the ground. They were covering me. “Ugh, can’t get free.”
“Mick, help her,” Seamus yelled.
“No, let her figure it out,” Mick barked at him, but I heard worry in his voice.
The vines were almost at my throat and I could barely move. If only I could cut through them – that’s it! Heat blazed through the wand and my hand was freed as I yanked it upwards, the wand now a curved sword. Easily, I sliced the other ones and turned to face the guys, panting.
“Yes!” Patrick shouted. “Now that was shaping.”
“Way to think under pressure,” Mick said. “Sometimes simple is best.”
Emboldened by that small victory, I faced off against Patrick and Seamus again. Fire and water exploded out of my wand, now back to its original shape, as I beat them back. I leaped into the air and hovered there to avoid Seamus’s power over the earth. Then I countered Patrick’s tornados with counter-clockwise ones of my own. In the midst of it, a paper butterfly flashed by me and I lashed out, seeking to destroy it.
The resulting backlash sent me flying into a wall, where I slid down into a heap on the floor. I tasted blood and then the world went black.’’
“Sadie?”
Michael’s voice was frantic as he called for me. A cool touch enveloped my skin and I recognized Patrick’s healing hands. My eyes blurred as they opened, focusing on four worried faces.
“Maybe we should stop,” Seamus said.
“No,” I said, gritting my teeth and pushing Patrick away. “I know what I did wrong.”
“It wasn’t fair of me, lass,” Michael said. “I should have known you were caught up in the fighting…”
“It was a good lesson,” I said, getting to my feet and waving away their hands. “I need to be prepared to use offensive and defensive magic.”
“It’s your call,” Michael said slowly, but his eyes were troubled and his mouth curved down.
“We keep going,” I said, marching out into the center.
Mick kept coaching me as I faced off against Patrick, Seamus and Michael. Whirling around, I was spellbinding and fighting back, sending out lashes of fire, streams of ice and even once, a screaming dragon with three heads. With that, it took the guys five minutes to fend off and spellbind.
Night turned into day. By dawn, I was adept enough with the wand to fight all four of them at once. But when Michael called for us to stop, I didn’t argue. I was exhausted. Part of me wanted to keep fighting, but I knew I needed rest.
We gathered in a circle in the center of the room, the early light filtering through the smoke wafting through the room and illuminating the broken pieces of rubble around us.
“What now?” Mick asked.
“Sleep,” Michael said. “At least a few hours of it for you and me, Mick. Then, we need to go find out more information.” His jaw clenched. “Why Skinner woke early, where he is and what this means for the prophecy…”
“Why just you two?” Patrick demanded.
“Mick can fight his way out of anything and next to Seamus, I know the most about the prophecy,” Michael said. “I’m also the oldest, so I should be the one to go. Plus, you two have a far more important job. Protecting Sadie.”
“Think she can take care of herself,” Seamus said with a grin.
“Either way, she doesn’t leave your sight, got it?” Michael ordered. “Now, bed.”
“Hey,” I said and they all stopped. “The sun rose… The storms have stopped.”
“You’re right, I didn’t even notice,” Seamus said, staring out the window.
“That’s odd,” Michael said. “I would have thought… Never mind. Bed.”
As we left the training room, the sunlight filtering in was blood-red and I shuddered. Michael and Mick went off to shower, nap and go off into the day.
Both of them embraced me quickly, kissing my forehead and squeezing my hands. Then they clapped their cousins on the shoulders. I watched the two go, trying not to wonder if this was the last time I would ever see them.
Seamus offered to stay in my room while I showered, so Patrick could clean up as well. Filled with a nervous restlessness, I spent a good hour under the water, trying not to think about the days ahead. Or the pages dripping black ink in the Libris Ides.
I took so long that when I’d gotten back, both of them had showered and were dozing off in comfortable armchairs they’d summoned on either end of my bed.
I was wearing an old, long-sleeved flannel shirt, boy shorts and nothing else. It was oversized and comfortable, something I wore when I was sick or feeling down. Getting into bed, I shivered between the sheets, my eyes falling shut instantly, but my sleep was restless.
Trials and Hunts will commence, the likes of which have never been seen.
Screams, smoke, cracking earth… Demons in the sky…
Folk of magic will suffer endless persecutions.
Swinging nooses, burning trees, more screaming and blood running like rivers.
And none but Skinner’s own shall walk free. As they glut their appetite for power, they will destroy the balance between good and evil. Darkness will reign evermore as good magic dies…
Two gloved hands capturing a sparkle of light and crushing it into nothingness.
Lest the Darkest of Warlocks is undone by the Brightest of Hearts, the Daughter of Wicca and Light, hear me now, the Purging will come to pass.
Words spun behind my eyes, burning in flamescript. Then the Libris Ides was hovering between my hands, the pages streaming away into the night.
Until I was left with nothing but the cover, which crumpled to ash.
“No!” I cried out and sat up, a hand on my heart.
My eyes shot to the windows, expecting to see black skies, but all I saw were dull, gray thunderheads. The sun was gone and dread rose, thick and coppery into my throat.
“Huh? What time is it?” Patrick’s sleepy voice asked.
“Sadie, are you alright?” Seamus’s voice was closer and I sensed him climb onto the bed. I shook my head, rocking back and forth, with my head on my knees. I was gripping my hair and trying to shake the terrible certainty that the Purging would come to pass.
“And it will be my fault,” I whispered.
I’m going to fail.
“What will be your fault?” Patrick asked, climbing in on the other side.
Chest rising and falling, I shook my head, not wanting to tell them how scared I was. They were O’Sulli
vans, sure of their gifts, hell, sure of everything. And foolishly sure of me. I couldn’t tell them I was starting to have a mental breakdown at the critical moment.
“You’ll feel better once it’s off your chest,” Patrick wheedled.
“Come on, Sadie, you can tell us anything. Especially us two,” Seamus said, nudging my arm.
“I’m scared,” I gasped and hot tears rushed free. “Everyone is counting on me and I’m me… They know, somehow, they know Salem is in danger and they think I can protect them. But, what… How can I do it?” I shook my head. “I thought I would have so much more time to get better. Two and a half weeks of training?” I let out a bitter laugh. “This guy’s been asleep for millions of weeks.”
“Actually, it’s just over sixteen thousand,” Seamus said.
“Not helping,” Patrick hissed. “Sadie, you’re thinking too much about the four aspects and elements, which you’ve got almost spot on at this point. Right, Seamus?”
“Yes, I was telling Michael earlier that I wondered how much left we had to teach you.”
“But remember, too, lass, the last lines. The Good Witch of Salem. An unlikely choice mayhap, but one of pure heart and spirit. Only the brightest heart can burn out the endless night.”
“Those are the most important,” Seamus whispered. “I know it.”
“But what does that even mean? How am I pure? I’m…” I couldn’t face them.
“Sadie, stop, do not go into that dark place of your heart,” Seamus said, pulling one of my hands away from my head and gripping it. “Think of what you’ve done. How much you’ve learned. No wonder why Skinner awoke now. It’s legendary in and of itself.”
“Lass, more than your magic, it was how you started believing in yourself that took me breath away, honest as a bob’s uncle,” Patrick said, taking my other hand. “It’s not so much you’re different, but you’re more, you. Like Lady Belaba said. You’ve blossomed.”
I raised my head and looked between them. “You think I can do this?”
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