Looking up at me from the ground, Lizzie let her leg fall to the side, revealing the sight of her bright white panties beneath her skirt as she continued to grin up at me, a cat who’d gotten the cream.
“Promise?”
I rolled my eyes, stepping forward to offer her a hand up.“Yes.As a matter of fact, I do.But we have work to do.”
The mood sobered at the mention of the soul weaving.We still weren’t sure how this was going to go.We agreed that we needed to take the spell slowly, remain focused, and end it if things looked like they were turning south.We even had the dean’s cell on standby, consequences be damned.
Temperance and Lizzie stood in front of me for a moment, both of them gripping my forearms.They held my stare, a silent promise, and then we split up so that we could set up the ritual circle.
It took several minutes, but quietly and intently, the three of us had found the oldest grave in the cemetery, belonging to Bethany herself, and circled the site in protective salt and herbs.Temperance got copal and palo santo burning in a squat cauldron, circling from north to south three times to solidify the sacred space.Lizzie channeled the elements, bringing offerings of incense, seashells, stag bones, and a burning candle to each cardinal point.
“Excellent.Now, we start.It’s best if you stay beyond the inner ring of quartz and amaranth.That will focus the spirit onto me.”Reaching for the buttons of my shirt, I began to undo them, stripping it off to mark myself with the ague root solution.It should minimize the chance of an unwelcome spirit taking advantage of the soul weaving.“Begin the chant.”
It was impossible to be oblivious to the nervous energy both Temeprance and Lizzie exuded.I knew they were both terrified that something would go wrong.I didn’t want to admit it, but I was, too.Sure, we’d studied the text in the library while we could, but there was only so much we could prepare for.At some point, we were just going to have to try this and hope for the best.
A leap of faith.Ugh, fucking cliche.
Lizzie ensured the borders of the circle were stable, walking the salt line, and then handed the book to me as she and Temperance chanted the ancient words into the night air.We’d been in the library for some time, the moon now rising over the trees.It cast the graveyard in an eerie glow, a stark contrast of grays and whites from each of the centuries-old gravestones.
Magic picked up behind the words, making Temperance and Lizzie’s voices ring with purpose, melodic and haunting.They spoke in a long-forgotten language of the first witches, a relative of Gaelic.As the rising energy began to reach its peak, the two of them stood to my left and right, holding their hands up to the starlight sky.
I looked up, calling on whatever benevolent deity had seen fit to bring these incredible women into my life, finding the name I needed to call out.
“Hear me!”I threw my arms up, giving myself over to the resonant vibrations.“World of Below, I summon to me your fated partner to my soul.We beseech you!Your last earthly bond is required.”
Something took hold of me, power surging in my veins as I felt something from deep within the core of the earth rise up to meet me.It had been there all this time, whispering at the edges, pulling me toward this moment, this soul weaving that would change our three interwoven fates.
“I feel you,” my voice traveled through the wind, dusting over Bethany’s grave marker and around Temperance and Lizzie.“World of Below!You have claimed your Winter Witch.You have found your Queen of the Shadowed Summer Sun!You have brought home your Queen of the Cauldron & Endless Forest!It is time now for Harbinger, Black Wolf of Three Faces.His mates stand before the edge of the realms, ready to claim and be claimed, to embrace the stands of fate, held safe by the Horned Queen.A great evil, one that has long touched this world, grows stronger.The time has come to seal it away for good!”
I could hardly understand the words sprouting from my mouth, but I knew they were true.I could sense both Lizzie and Temperance eyeing me with anxious confusion, but this was it.This was what everything had been leading toward all this time.
The earth shook, rumbling with enough force to send us all to our knees.Before me, it cracked open, a fissure that glowed orange and red, liquid fire bubbling beneath it.
“Ah!”I heard Lizzie yelp somewhere distant, my stare trapped on the gateway in front of me.
A massive black paw shot up from the depths, enormous claws sinking into the earth at my knees.
“Oh my g—”
Rooooaaaaarrr!
The noise was everywhere, even in my head, and I gripped my skull.The world I knew was gone, a curtain of black surrounding my consciousness.Then I heard it.No, not it.Him.
I have waited so long for you, little sage.You have called, and I have come, as it is ordained in the writing of the earth itself.I accept your call, mate.We will face this malice that has plagued our realms for these long eons.I need only to hear your affirmation.Let me in.
Overwhelming anxiety welled inside me.This could be a trap.This could be some setup from the very thing we were fighting.But as I searched the presence in my mind, all I could feel was a profound sense of something I’d lacked for so long.
Home.
Sucking in a breath of pungent air, the smell of molten rock and ancient dirt, hallowed by the protections of witches long-since gone, I closed my eyes, turning inward.
Yes.
Reality snapped.I felt myself hoisted up from the ground as a torrent of wind swirled around me.He came inside, entering the very fabric of my soul and weaving through the gaps and leaving me more complete than I’d ever been.Some part of me recognized him, but as I landed, I was no longer in control of my body, this entity taking over.
“Caleb!”
From within, I felt him move my head, staring at Temperance through my eyes.“Not quite.But he is listening.And he will be returned to you when I’ve at last claimed you both,my mates.”
