The Witch: Book Two of The Sorceress Saga

by Taliesin Govannon

  The ribbon is from my love I thought. My dark Angel, my salvation!

  She had already given me so much… a release from the hell that an abusive husband could make a woman’s life, a cure for the disease that had taken three of my five children, and protection from the Lord’s men who always lusted after unprotected women. She had even obtained this shack, a place we could meet far away from prying ears.

  She’s also given me a reason, aside from my children, to go on.

  I heard her steps leading up to the door, and my heart skipped a beat as it swung open.

  A part that was still modern-day Annabelle gasped. It was Angelique! Angelique, in her long, tight gown and slim, graceful figure! I wasn’t sure if it was because I was so tuned in to past-me’s feelings or not, but when her heart skipped a beat and her body grew warm with arousal, mine followed suit.

  “Hilde.” Angelique smiled, and my heart skipped a beat again. “My love.”

  “Angelique.” I answered in Hilde’s voice. “You’re here!”

  “How could I stay away?” she said, gliding into the cabin and closing the door. “Now that you remember.”

  Just then I saw a blinding series of images fly by… Angelique and I in a dozen different bodies, all wrapped around each other. After a few, my face started to change while Angelique’s stayed the same.”

  So many! Now-me thought. Far more than I've seen with Vincent and me!

  Angelique wrapped Hilde-me in her arms. “Now you know how long I’ve loved you.”

  “And I’ve loved you!” I said, staring into those so-familiar eyes.

  And I knew it was true.

  Chapter Nine

  From the Diaries of Angelique Dupre

  04/07/1589

  Roanoke Colony

  Sarah came into her power last night.

  It was just past midnight when she awoke, sweating, head pounding. It’s always like that at first, their bodies not ready for the change.

  I inserted myself into her home for the evening. I had to… none of them could have cleared the way for her. A sleeping spell for the local medical woman and a simple enchantment later, and nobody was the wiser that I wasn’t her.

  I can’t do this too often, lest people notice the odd, dreamy feelings that such spells engender. However, I guided her through the final change, and she came through quite well.

  She’s sleeping now. At times like this, I wish that I still could.

  * * *

  I had never seen such a sunset. The reds, yellows, and oranges burned like fire as they touched the horizon, the ocean stretching seemingly into infinity.

  My eyes registered the sight, but my mind was elsewhere.

  I can feel it. Deep inside, crying to get out.

  My love for Angelique.

  The strangest thing was that I felt no deficit of emotion for Vincent. I still loved him as fiercely as before, and my desire for him hadn’t changed either.

  I always assumed that having feelings for another would dilute the feelings I had for everybody I thought. And yet, it just feels like tapping an endless well of feelings.

  I knew that love didn’t have to be romantic love. I loved Raina and Jack dearly and would be devastated if anything happened to them. I could love Angelique like that with no complication or stress.

  But what I felt in the last past life regression, in the Twilight Fae realm… it was powerful. In a ‘sweep me up in the experience and who knows what will happen’ powerful.

  I didn't want to hurt Vincent and thus had kept everything to myself. I knew I was acting like an idiot in a sit-com, but that was just one more element of stress on my plate.

  Everything’s bloody new I thought. My powers and allies to be sure, but also having a real-life relationship with real-life emotions… something I do NOT want to screw up!

  At least I didn’t need to worry about any undue awkwardness at the Samhain ritual. Vincent and Angelique were looking into the border incursion on the Twilight Fae realm, and Trevor and Evelyn were still poking around South Africa. The Botan Doro had headed back to the mansion early, both to check on the house’s security as well as for Katsu to start doing more intensive data sweeps on Vincent’s setup.

  That left Raina, Jack, and I to observe the ancient holiday of Samhain together.

  “Annabelle? Are you OK?”

  Make that Raina, Jack, Gaia, and I.

  When I had finally decided that I wanted to head back into my own realm, preferably somewhere warm, Raina and Jack voted to head out to Vincent and Angelique’s hide-a-way in Hawaii. Gaia, still holding on to her pledge to watch over my safety, would only stop arguing against it if we let her come along. I didn't mind… it had been a while since I had gone anywhere without a non-human bodyguard, and even I wasn't sure about starting now, with so much still unknown.

  Raina’s becoming a great magick user, I thought, but she can't materialize a sword seemingly out of mid-air yet. Gaia can.

  I turned around and put on my best simulated smile. “Yeah, sure.”

  “Ready to go to ritual?” she asked, the green of her skin almost blending into the green of the vegetation surrounding her.

  I looked back as the sun disappeared beneath the horizon. “Yeah, let’s go.”

  We walked back along the small path through the tropical forest that occupied seventy-five percent of the compound. It was surrounded by a fifteen-foot tall privacy fence, a new addition, on three sides, with the high cliff that I had just left providing a fourth side barrier.

  The path wound slowly downward, back to the house. Gaia gave me a hand when my dress made the rocky parts challenging.

  I really need some out-door clothes!

  Gaia didn’t release my hand, and I didn’t push it. I didn’t know why, it just felt… right.

  The tropical forest was almost pitch black by the time we made it back to the house. We walked out of the treeline into the small clearing that would serve as tonight's temple. Behind another line of trees, I could see the house sitting in all of its three-story glory. The pool and hot tub that were also new additions lay on that side of the property as well, along with the dance-floor and everything else needed to throw a bitchin' party.

  Definitely Vincent’s work!

  In the center of the clearing burned a small fire, dutifully tended to by Jack. He had wanted to head back with Katsu at first, but she had convinced him to give himself a break with his friends. The fact that he wasn’t glued to a joint twenty-four-seven showed that it was working.

  I walked over to the altar, which had been set up by the fire. Raina was just finishing the altar arrangement as I arrived.

  “Nice altar.” I said admiringly.

  “Thank you!” she said with a grin. “You haven’t seen my Wiccan work for quite a while… it’s improved.”

  We had decided to go old-school... for us, anyway… for this ritual. Last year, we had gone with a Druidic framework because we were trying to make contact with my ancestors, and ancestor work was very common in Druidry. Raina, however, was Wiccan at her core and had enlisted both Jack and me on multiple occasions over the years to help her in her spiritual quest.

  With all of the strangeness in my life these days, a little modern Neo-Pagan Witchcraft seems like a haven of normalcy! I thought. I feel like a retreat into the normal is just what the Demigoddess ordered!

  I looked at the elemental representations on her altar… the censer for air, candle for fire, salt for earth, and the crystal goblet of water for that element… and noticed that they all glowed with elemental colors.

  “Fae elemental magick?” I asked.

  “Woah yeah!” Raina quietly exclaimed.

  “Nice!” I nodded.

  “So, are we going traditional Gardnerian, Alexandrian reconstructionist, or more of a political, Reclaiming style?” Gaia asked, displaying her recent studies of human Wiccan history.

  “Uh, none of the above.” Raina said.

  “This is more of a ‘Raina constr
ucted’ method of working.” Jack added, walking up.

  “We witnessed its evolution." I said as well.

  “This is just a way of working that I know works for everyone.” Raina explained. “It’s a home-spun Wicca that we kind of built together.”

  “But I thought you guys weren't Wiccan." Gaia said, glancing at Jack and me.

  “Not personally, no.” Jack said. “But Raina’s our friend, and if she needed help, we helped her.”

  “The fact that Raina’s Wicca is a no-judgment zone, unlike most religions, really helped a lot.” I added.

  Gaia smiled and nodded. “Well then, are we ready?”

  “I am.” Raina said.

  “Good to go.” Jack chimed in.

  “Let’s do this.” I said, smiling at my friends.

  We took positions around the altar, one person in each direction. That’s another thing about having a guest here… Wicca’s into arranging things by elemental power, and Gaia being here means that, for once, nobody has to double up.

  Raina approached the altar from her place in the west, facing east as was her custom. She picked up her athame, a double-edged ritual knife, and pointed it at the charcoal block, glowing in its censer.

  “Blessed be, oh element of fire." she said commandingly. "We feel you in the heat of our bodies. Be here with us as we erect the ancient temple. So Mote It Be."

  “So mote it be.” we all said in unison.

  She then sprinkled incense on the charcoal and pointed at the rising smoke with her blade. "Blessed be, element of air. You are the breath of our bodies. Be here as we erect the ancient temple. So mote it be."

  We answered her again, and I could feel the heat coursing through my body. Each breath evened the warmth out and balanced what I felt.

  “Blessed be, element of water.” she said, her athame in the water glass. “You are the blood of our bodies. Be here with us as we erect the ancient temple. So mote it be.”

  “So mote it be.” I could feel the blood moving through my veins, and every heartbeat made it flow with more purpose.

  “Blessed be, element of earth.” Raina said, blessing a bowl of salt with the blade. “You are our bones and flesh. Be here as we erect the ancient temple. So mote it be.”

  “So mote it be.” I could feel my bones vibrating with the earth beneath my feet.

  She finished by scooping three measures of salt into the water and stirring with her athame. “So mote it be.” she said softly.

  “So mote it be.”

  Raina then traced the outer edge of the circle with her athame. I knew that she was drawing the sacred circle with her own energy, so even though this part was silent, it was never quiet. Her energy left an audible hum behind.

  Well, audible to ME!

  After she was done, Raina handed Gaia and jack the water glass and censer respectively. They then purified the circle with the elements, and it indeed felt brighter in the circle when they were done.

  “Let us now call the elements to be fully present in the circle." Raina said, looking at Jack.

  Unlike the Druid ritual last year, where Jack had needed notes to feel confident, he was an old hand at Raina’s Wiccan rituals. “Element of air, spirits of the east,” he began easily, facing east, ”be here with us as we erect the ancient temple. Give us your gifts of inspiration, communication, and wit. So mote it be.”

  “So mote it be.” we answered. I thought I could just make out voices on the wind, speaking and giggling just out of earshot.

  It was Gaia's turn next, and she turned to face south. She had just learned the basic elemental call format before the ritual and was probably more confident about it than anyone outside of Raina.

  “Spirits of the south, elementals of fire,” she began, “be here with us as we erect the ancient temple. Give to us your powers of energy, passion, and will. So mote it be.

  “So mote it be.” Any slight chill in the air (which was, surprisingly, possible even in Hawaii) disappeared, and I felt like I was encased in warm cotton.

  Raina turned to the west next. “Spirits of the west, elementals of water, be with us as we erect the ancient temple.” she said, hands raised. “Give to us your powers of intuition, transformation, and love. So mote it be.”

  “So mote it be.”

  It was my turn now, and all of my old plans escaped from my head right at that moment. I felt incredibly safe and secure, so I decided to just wing it.

  “Element of earth… spirit of the midnight land, of the north… I can feel you beneath my feet. I can feel your heartbeat as it beats in time with the Mother. Welcome.”

  I felt a slight vibration beneath my feet as I continued.

  “Help us, old friends,” I said, “as we erect the ancient temple. Be our foundation, our bones, our fertility. So mote it be!”

  “So mote it be!” everyone responded, smiles on their faces.

  Raina picked up her athame and stood at the eastern point, her blade aimed at the edge of the circle. “I do conjure thee, o circle of art,” she said as she started walking, once again, clockwise around the circle. “And here do we all erect the ancient temple. Be a circle of protection and power, to preserve and contain that which is raised within thee until we decide to release it into the world. As I do so will, so mote it be!

  “So mote it be!" I looked around and could see the edge of the circle. It rose like a dome of mist, only with everything outside obscured and slightly blurry.

  “Let us call to the ancestors.”

  This was also up to me. I knew that Jack would follow up with a God invocation, and Raina with a Goddess one. Calling the ancestors was my job.

  Facing the fire, I closed my eyes and reached out. This had never been a part of Raina's system before, but she had added it after we had felt it necessary to go outside of Wicca to honor our predecessors. I was very relaxed about it, though.

  It’s new, so nobody will know if I screw it up! I thought coolly. Besides, after last year, I’m probably the most experienced among us at talking to dead people.

  My ancestor call was very Wiccan, I knew, so it fit in well there. "Ancestors of our blood," I began, "friends from past lives, predecessors on our paths, I stand here in this circle between the worlds and call to you with an invitation. Come, join us before our fire as we work the old ways. Be our honored guests as we embrace life at every level, including what lies beyond."

  I paused, thinking that I heard a footstep in the forest. Hearing nothing more, I continued.

  “Death is not a door that closes, it opens and we walk through it. Here within the ancient temple, that door disappears and the living and the dead can commune as the eternal spirits that they are. Friends, ancestors, predecessors… you are welcome. Blessed be.”

  “Blessed be.” said Raina.

  “Blessed be.” Jack said as well.

  “Blessed be.” Gaia grinned.

  “Blessed be.” said my Great-Grandmother Eloise.

  I froze. Did anybody else hear that?

  I opened my eyes and saw Raina, Jack, and Gaia all looking at a dark-haired woman standing in the northwest, between myself and Raina.

  Yep, they heard.

  She looked much like she had the first time I’d seen her… long dark hair, a nondescript blue dress, and a face that didn’t look a day over thirty. She’d explained to me before that she could look any way she wanted, and she liked her thirty-year-old self more than the ninety-three-year-old one that she had died in.

  “Grandma?” I said hesitantly.

  “Yes dear?” she said.

  “Are you really here?”

  “Well of course I am.”

  “Ok. Any reason why?”

  “Well, you invited me...” she said, her eyebrows raised.

  “Uh, right.” I looked at the others in the circle “This is Eloise, my great-great Grandmother.”

  “Cool.” Jack said with a shrug. “Hi.” he waved.

  “You’ll have to forgive us,” Raina said, regain
ing her footing, “but we don’t usually have anyone who takes us up on the invitation in such a… corporeal way.”

  “Well, dearie, this year you have a fully formed Sorceress in your crew.” she said kindly. “To say nothing of the oodles of Fae magick you have flying around in here. You should probably get used to a few more… what does your century call it?... ‘bells and whistles’ from now on.”

  “So what do we do now?” Jack asked.

  “Well, if my pre-ritual preternatural spying was correct, you’re supposed to be calling a Horned God next, right Jack?” Eloise said patiently.

  “Oh, right!” he replied. He looked at Raina, and she nodded.

  Jack approached the altar and sprinkled more incense on the censer. “Great Horned One,” he said, “Accept this gift of incense as we reach out to you. We, your children, do call to you.”

  Jack raised his arms and slipped into the invocation easily.

  “Great Horned one, consort to the Goddess and leader of the dance, come and join your children as we walk the old ways. Live in our hearts, our voices, and in our joy. Come dance the circle round with us on this ancient night of Samhain. You are welcome. Blessed be.”

  “Blessed be.” we said back to him.

  “Blessed be.” came a deep male voice.

  I looked, and standing between Jack and Gaia was a towering figure, a naked human male shape with cloven hooves and towering stag antlers on his head. His bearded face had a wide smile as he met the gaze of all there.

  “Herne?” Raina said, recalling the name she had used so often for the Horned God of modern Witches.

  “You called, I came.” he said simply.

  “Nice to see you again, Herne.” Eloise said with a wicked smile.

  “My lady...” he said with a bow.

  I’m not gonna ask I thought. “Raina?” I said, looking at her.

  “Yeah?” she said, bewildered.

  “Be careful with the next part.” I said.

  “Oh, right!” she replied, pulling herself together. She closed her eyes, raised her hands, and began her Goddess invocation.

  “Blessed Lady,” she said, “Great Mother, protector of families and children, passage into and out of life, we do call to you on this sacred night. Come and join us as we mark the turning of the year and the turning of the wheel of life. Join your children as we walk the old ways and raise the ancient magicks. Goddess of the gates and what lies beyond, we do invite you in. Blessed be.