Witch's Awakening

by Neely Powell

  “The only reason I allowed Fiona to embark on her Internet enterprise is because it focuses on her work as a medium,” Sarah added. “There’s no mention of the coven or Connelly secrets. That would not be safe.”

  “Yet our parents traveled the globe, lecturing about magic and becoming well-known as experts in the history and mythology of witchcraft,” Brenna pointed out. “Wasn’t that a breach of the coven’s secrets?”

  Color flooded Delia’s cheeks. “I never betrayed this coven. Neither has your father. My interest in the roots of magic and mysticism came from who I am. Your father was already interested when we met. Our family’s stories and history inspired him more. Our goal was simple: protect the craft. What Frances says about the Inquisition is all too true and could be repeated today. Too many humans want to destroy what they don’t understand.”

  “Think of Fred Williams and his wife,” Frances said, shuddering. “They both grew up here, and they know just enough to be dangerous. We can’t let them know everything. They would wipe out all supers if they could. They’re our enemies, and we treat them as such.”

  Brenna felt her anger drain. She also knew her history. In college, the subject of many of her required papers was witchcraft history. In Scotland, almost five thousand witches were executed during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. She supposed she understood why the coven might have chosen the Remember-Not spell to cope with what they faced.

  However, it didn’t solve her family’s problems. She looked down at the pages in front of her again. “What I found today indicates the coven went even further than wiping out memories. During the Civil War, they decided they had to do something to appease the Woman in White, to end the discord in a town already wracked by war. One of the young witches chose death to save the town. She sacrificed herself.”

  Delia gasped. On either side of her, Aunt Diane and Aunt Estelle turned pale and took her hands.

  Maggie’s tears began again. “My husband and daughter need me. It can’t be me.”

  “I’m not sacrificing anything,” Lauren said with a pout. “I’ve got too much to live for.”

  “It should be me,” Eva Grace said quietly. “It’s no secret that I’m the choice.”

  Fiona said, “As the youngest, maybe it’s supposed to me. Maybe that’s why I’ve always been connected to the dead.”

  “No,” Delia said, reaching toward her daughter. “Not you, dear.”

  Fiona turned back to Brenna. “How did they choose the sacrifice? Was it a lottery?”

  “She chose herself,” Brenna explained. “Her young husband died in the war, her baby daughter passed as an infant. She was a very strong witch according to the family member who wrote the history, but they said she felt she had less to live for than the coven members her age. She offered herself and the Woman took her over the falls. The work of the demon stopped. The town and the rest of the family went on with their lives.”

  A hush fell around the table. There was no sound, even from Maggie.

  “I think Rose did the same,” Frances murmured, looking troubled. “She was in love with that young criminal who ran moonshine and died on Bear Mountain.”

  “But you and Doris said you weren’t sure of her feelings for him,” Sarah protested.

  Looking regretful, Frances said, “That’s what we chose to say and we started to believe it, probably because of the Remember-Not spell. She blamed our curse and his association with her for his death. In the end, she may have decided to join him.”

  Every head in the room swiveled back to Eva Grace. Brenna could sense them all wondering if Eva Grace would meet the same fate.

  Eva Grace looked at Delia. “What about my mother? Did she want to die?”

  Delia looked uncommonly fragile as she rubbed her forehead. “Your mother was depressed,” she admitted to the niece, who resembled her more than her own daughters. “She wouldn’t tell anyone, even me, who your father was. None of us knew she was expecting a child. Her letters from Arizona were filled with school and work for six months, but she was pregnant before she left for school.”

  “But she may have chosen to die?” Eva Grace pressed. “You think it could be possible?”

  Delia looked miserable. “I’m not sure. That day is so fuzzy in my mind.”

  “Because of the Remember-Not spell maybe?” Brenna suggested, unable to keep the sharpness out of her tone.

  Sarah and Frances glared at her.

  “We won’t let anyone sacrifice herself,” Frances said.

  “So we continue to wait?” Brenna asked.

  “The trouble in town has ebbed since our encounter with the demon Tuesday night,” Sarah pointed out.

  “But he was back the next day, trying to get to Inez,” Brenna reminded her.

  “You prevented that,” Sarah retorted. “Your power was strong enough to hold him.”

  Brenna was aghast. Her grandmother was choosing to ignore the obvious. “That was just a pause in the action. The demon is out there right now gathering strength. He and the Woman are sucking the very life out of the ground with this heat wave.”

  “It’s been hot here before,” Frances snapped.

  “I can’t believe all of you can’t feel what’s coming.” Brenna saw fear and doubt in the faces around the table. “The Woman and the demon are hoping we’ll give up, that one of us will decide to give in and make the ultimate sacrifice. The Woman doesn’t take. She makes us give in.”

  “I have to get home to my family,” Maggie said, standing abruptly. “I have to be with my daughter, to protect her.” She darted out the door without a backward glance.

  Diane stood as well, saying she should get to the hospital and make sure Doris was okay. Her mouth set in grim lines, Lauren went with her.

  Brenna was distressed to see them go. The coven was crumbling.

  Maggie’s chair rocked forward, and then fell back with a crash to the floor. The papers on the table stirred.

  “Stop it.” Fiona addressed an unseen presence. “We don’t need you playing your tricks.”

  The spirit ignored her command and knocked over the salt-and-pepper shakers on the table. A puff of dust blew out of the fireplace and a foul odor tinged the air.

  “It’s one of the ghosts I see all the time,” Fiona said. “She’s very upset.”

  “Even our ghosts are frightened,” Brenna told the remaining coven members. “We need a plan of action.”

  Knowing the elders had no new possibilities to offer, Brenna reluctantly turned to her mother. “Any suggestions?”

  “Your father and I have been studying the magic book,” Delia said. “We’re thinking we should try another spell at the falls in an attempt to draw out the Woman.”

  Brenna was uncertain. “By confronting her, wouldn’t we be giving her what she wants?”

  “Not necessarily.” Eva Grace sat forward, clearly intrigued as she turned to Delia. “Are you thinking of making a show of force?”

  “Go on the offensive?” Fiona also seemed interested.

  “The demon was weak with Inez the other day,” Delia pointed out. “Perhaps the Woman is weak, too. As Brenna said, it feels as if evil is gathering on the horizon like a storm. If we confront them now, we’ll be prepared and armed. Our magic might be enough.”

  Doubt flooded Brenna. If they summoned this evil, would it infect all of them? Might someone impulsively sacrifice herself? She wished she could believe Eva Grace would not make that decision. Lauren and Maggie weren’t likely to give up anything, much less their lives, but they weren’t as strong in character. Fiona, on the other hand, was young and impulsive. The instinct to protect them all filled Brenna.

  “We need to think this through,” she offered to the group. “Didn’t we go down this path the other night at the store?”

  “Do you have another idea?” Delia asked. “We’re open to suggestions if you do.”

  The only other idea Brenna could think of was that since she had found the missing pages of histo
ry, she should be the one to sacrifice herself, but she couldn’t bring herself to make that suggestion.

  Instead, she focused on her mother’s idea. It could work. “We’d need everyone in the coven there. Even Doris.”

  “She’s coming home tomorrow,” Sarah said. “She’ll stay here with us for a while.”

  “But is she up to magic?” Frances looked concerned.

  “I’ll help her,” Eva Grace said. “And Diane will be there with her.”

  Fiona nodded to the two other empty chairs at the table. “What about Maggie and Lauren?”

  “Leave them to me.” Sarah said firmly. “They’ll be there.”

  “We’ll do it Monday night,” Delia suggested. “That gives Doris more time to grow stronger.”

  And gives the demon and the Woman more time to do the same.

  Brenna swallowed the impulse to point that out to her relatives who were now so enthusiastic. Negativity would throw a pall over them all and she had no viable alternative.

  The back door slammed open and Marcus’s shout rang out. “Help me. The workshop is on fire.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  The fire spewed from the ground.

  Jake ran down the driveway of the Connelly home place as geysers of flame rose from the earth and sprayed down on Marcus and Sarah’s workshop. He heard the radio call as he was headed home, so he was first on scene. He had imagined the worst.

  Brenna injured. Brenna needing his help.

  But she was with the other Connelly witches, their hands linked, their voices rising in magical cadence over the roar of the blaze. No doubt they were trying to quell the fiery tentacles attacking their property.

  He spied Marcus working a hose along with Dr. Burns as they tried to keep the fire from leaping to the nearby barn. The stream of water was inadequate. Jake heard sirens in the distance and knew the fire department was on the way, but what could their county volunteers do against this supernatural blast of heat?

  “What the hell is this?” he shouted to the two men.

  “Fire came up through the floor,” Marcus shouted back. “Aiden and I barely got out before the whole place was engulfed.”

  “We need more water on it.” Jake looked around for more hoses. Maybe they could run some from the kitchen somehow?

  “It’s demon fire,” Dr. Burns yelled and jerked his head toward the witches. “They have to fight it.”

  A ball of light rose from the magic circle and into the smoke. The fire pulsed.

  Like a living thing, Jake thought, the flames reared and bucked against the magical force that sought to smother it.

  He looked to the witches and saw Eva Grace’s pale features, Fiona’s fear and Brenna’s determination. Only her mother’s fierce concentration matched hers. Sarah, Frances and Estelle swayed with them and looked unsteady.

  Again and again, they chanted, “Demon fire loosed from hell. Return to your maker, go back to your well. From this hell fire, set us free. As we will, so mote it be.”

  Like a giant damper, the ball of magic dropped over the fire. A brief plume of sparks rose from the ground and then disappeared.

  The witches continued to chant. The ground belched one last blast of smoke. The smell of sulfur saturated the air.

  The fire truck arrived and Jake was busy helping them maneuver down the drive to the workshop. The firemen quickly shot the contents of their tank into the building, and if anyone thought it odd that the Connellys had managed to almost put out the fire with one garden hose, they said nothing.

  The coven broke the circle and Jake urged everyone back away from the smoke of the smoldering workshop.

  After a few steps, Sarah fell to her knees, sobbing. “Our work, Marcus!” she cried. “All of our work, gone.”

  Marcus knelt beside his wife and gathered her in his arms. Tears streamed down his face. “That doesn’t matter, Sarah darling. It doesn’t matter. We’re okay, that’s what matters.”

  “But for how long?” she sobbed into his shoulder. “What will happen next?”

  Fiona, Estelle and Eva Grace clutched each other while Dr. Burns drew Delia into his embrace.

  Brenna backed away from them, one hand pressed to her mouth, looking horrified.

  In two strides, Jake had her in his arms.

  A tremor went through her body. Her voice was choked with tears. “It took their art, what they pour themselves into. How could this happen right here? How could we allow it?”

  Jake drew his hand through her hair. What could he say to soothe her?

  “This has to end,” she whispered. “I have to end it.”

  Alarmed, Jake drew back. “What do you mean?”

  She looked glassy-eyed from shock, as if she didn’t really see him.

  “You can’t do it alone,” he told her, thinking of the information she had discovered that morning. “Brenna, you’re not thinking—”

  “Of course not,” she said, her gaze sharpening. “But the coven has a plan.”

  “What—”

  “I’ll tell you later.” Leaving Jake, she strode to Sarah and Marcus and dropped to her knees beside them. Silently, she wrapped her arms around them. Sarah turned into her granddaughter’s arms and they wept together.

  In another hour, the firemen were gone. Marcus had packed Sarah off to their room. Estelle and Frances left. Fiona and Eva Grace were staying the night, and Jake convinced Brenna she should come back to his house.

  She said little on the drive home, but Jake sensed the wheels spinning in her head. Good, she was moving past this latest calamity and thinking about a solution.

  Tasmin greeted her witch with a cry that sounded like relief to Jake. The cat padded off to supervise Brenna’s shower. Jake pulled homemade soup from the freezer, nuked it to thaw and then put it in a pot on the stove. Brenna needed sustenance after the heartbreak and loss of this evening.

  “Sit down and eat while I clean up,” he told her when she emerged from her bath, hollow-eyed and pale.

  The hearty soup restored Brenna’s energy and she sat with Jake as he ate a couple of bowls, as well. As they cleaned up, he asked about the coven meeting.

  Brenna shrugged. “It was the usual. Tears from Maggie, frustration from all of us, more discussion.”

  “Did you do something?”

  She looked confused.

  “Did the fire start after a spell?”

  Her laugh was mirthless. “Not at all. The fire came from the demon and the Woman. They’re trying to destroy us, wear us all down.” Brenna looked very worn. She told him about the Remember-Not spell and Delia’s plan for Monday night.

  He was silent, wondering if any of it was wise. He was surprised Brenna was going along with the plan, especially since it came from her mother.

  “I don’t know what to do.” She laid her head wearily on one hand. “It seems hopeless.”

  “You need some rest,” Jake said. “You’ll think better in the morning.”

  He got up, and made his usual check of doors and windows. Brenna remained at the kitchen table. She studied him with an expression he didn’t quite understand.

  “What is it?”

  “Look at you. Locking us in against demons and the like.”

  “Nothing is getting to you while you’re with me.”

  “After tonight, I have to wonder if anywhere is safe.”

  “Come to bed.” He put out his hand and drew her through the house to the bedroom, shutting off lights behind them.

  He expected her to fall asleep immediately. Instead, she spooned against his naked body and kissed his neck. He turned to face her. “You have to sleep. You’re exhausted.”

  “But I need you.” The word was almost a plea. One he couldn’t resist. “Especially tonight.” She pressed her body to his, warm and fragrant, inviting.

  There was only so much a male could resist, Jake thought as he framed her face with his hands. “Okay. I’m all yours.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Brenna ki
ssed his forehead, cheeks, lips and his chin. Her lips moved to both nipples and lingered there awhile. When he was breathless and fully aroused, she moved down to take him in her mouth.

  Her magic was strong inside tonight. She felt it whirl through her body and infuse her lovemaking with an intensity she’d never felt before. According to the control Jake was exerting to hold his own release in check, he was experiencing the enhanced feelings, too.

  Brenna knew the enhancement to her magic was her love for Jake. It moved through her into him like the slow spill of hot caramel.

  That knowledge added heat to her climax, a thunder in her blood that was new for Brenna. Wave after wave of emotion collided inside her as Jake joined her in sweet release.

  They lay entwined for a moment as pulses returned to normal. Then Brenna sent Jake to sleep with a wisp of magic. “I love you,” she whispered before slipping out of bed.

  There was work to be done, and she must do it.

  He was deep into sleep by the time she dressed. She headed for the front door hoping her magic would keep him asleep till morning.

  But she still had to get past her familiar. Tasmin barred the front door, spitting and arching her back. Brenna stooped to stroke her. “You’ll stay here with Jake and help him for me,” she told the cat. “You know what I’m doing is the only way.”

  Tasmin’s meow was disagreement in the most direct way possible. She even swiped out with her paws, raising a scratch on the back of Brenna’s hand.

  “Well, that’s mean.” With a flick of her wrist, Brenna moved the cat to the other side of the room and slipped out the door. Tasmin might well find another way to follow her, so she added a stay spell. She only hoped the cat’s yowling didn’t wake Jake.

  As she stepped onto the front porch, the owl swooped down at her with a horrific screech that almost sent her back inside.

  “Stop it,” she ordered, but the owl followed her to her car, hissing like an ill-tempered snake.

  Her journey to Mulligan Falls was accompanied by the disgruntled owl’s swoops and bloodcurdling screams. Brenna counted it a minor miracle that she made it to the start of the back-end trail. As she parked the car and studied the angry bird sitting on the hood of the SUV, it dawned on her that the owl might have a reason to stop her. It was possible he wanted to protect her from what she was going to do.