Blood Moon (17 page)

“So you are saying that Allys is Sally Keaton? Oh no.”

“What? You know her?”

“I met her today. She was in both my classes this morning at school. She said she was from Idaho, but I could tell she was lying or at least I was pretty sure.
 
She was very nice, but there was just something about her that I wasn’t totally sure I believed.”

“They must be ramping up to something because they seem to be making their appearance known.”
 

“So you think they are looking for the spell, right? But we don’t even know where it is.”

“That’s another thing I’ve been trying to get some time to tell you.
 
I found it.”

“Really, where is it?”

“It’s in the book hidden with some kind of invisible ink that only shows when heat is applied.”

“How did you figure that out?”

“I accidentally set my coffee cup on one of the pages and lo and behold, a circle of red writing showed underneath it when I picked it up.
 
But the interesting thing is that there was a hint for us all along in the book.”

“No way, what are you talking about?”

“The doodle page.”

“That creased page in the back?”

“Yeah.
 
I’ve been looking at it a lot and I noticed on the back there is a pictogram that was the key to finding the spell.” She pulled it out of her notebook and showed her. “See here, this I think is our Book of Shadows and here the sun or a candle.”

“A heat source.”

“Right and here, the result.”

“The evil spell. You mean this has been under our noses all this time and we never even knew it.”
 

“Well, if we hadn’t found the diary, none of this would have made any sense.
 
Now look here, I have written all these grouped words in a list. There is this list where the first letter of both words are circled and then this list with a word and a color with no letters circled.” She picked up the blow dryer and plugged it in. Then she opened the book to the page with the remedy for a headache and turned on the blow dryer to hot and pointed it on the page.
 
As the dryer blew hot air onto the page, the spell appeared in red letters:

On this the most precious of Eves

I call upon the Powers of Samhain

In praise of our goddess of the moon

I offer thirteen gifts named after the thirteen moons.

As I will it, so mote it be.

I call on the power of the full Wolf Moon as a symbol of courage I light a pink candle and offer W.
 
J.
 
As I will it, so mote it be.

I call on the power of the full Snow Moon as a symbol of barriers removed I light a white candle and offer S.
 
F.
 
As I will it, so mote it be.

I call on the power of the full Worm Moon as a symbol of inspiration I light a lt. green candle and offer W.
 
M.
 
As I will it, so mote it be.

I call on the power of the full Egg Moon as a symbol of renewed energy I light a peach candle and offer E.
 
A.
 
As I will it, so mote it be.

I call on the power of the full Flower Moon as a symbol of stamina I light a silver candle and offer F.
 
M.
 
As I will it, so mote it be.

I call on the power of the full Honey Moon as a symbol of transformation I light an orange candle and offer H.
 
J.
 
As I will it, so mote it be.

I call on the power of the full Buck Moon as a symbol of spiritual psychism I light a dark green candle and offer B.
 
Jo.
 
As I will it, so mote it be.

I call on the power of the full Sturgeon Moon as a symbol of thanks I light a gold candle and offer S.
 
A.
 
As I will it, so mote it be.

I call on the power of the full Corn Moon as a symbol of guidance I light a purple candle and offer C.
 
S.
 
As I will it, so mote it be.

I call on the power of the full Blood Moon as a symbol of death and rebirth I light a red candle and offer B.
 
O.
 
As I will it, so mote it be.

I call on the power of the full Beaver Moon as a symbol of contemplation I light a black candle and offer B.
 
N.
 
As I will it, so mote it be.

I call on the power of the full Cold Moon as a symbol of strength I light a yellow candle and offer C.
 
D.
 
As I will it, so mote it be.

I call on the power of the full Long Night Moon as a symbol of power I light a blue candle and offer L.
 
D. As I will it, so mote it be.

Seeds of Life, now magic’s tool

Container of the cycle’s rule

That sprout as plants, and bear the fruit

That goes to seed, then leaf and root

That lives and dies and lives again

A reminder that life has no end.

That I have strung in a circle round

To complete the cycle’s that were bound

About you since you first were born

Come as one now within this form

Increase my magic bring it power

Let it blossom full and flower

And in return I’ll give you back

Unto the Earth, So rich and black

“I didn’t copy this or even read the whole thing yet because I saw that it was relating to the Lunar months and full moons, and well, let’s face it, you know more about them than I do,” Darby said.

“Wow.
 
This is a complicated spell, but there are no instructions, just the incantation.
 
And what are these letters L.D., C.D., B.N., B.O. . .”

She was interrupted by Darby. “Say that again?” she said as she ran her finger to the circled letters of the paired word list.

“What?”

“The letters.”

“Oh, L.D., C.D., B.N., B.O.”

“Oh my God.
 
Look, the letters coincide with the circled letters.”
 

“L. D. – Long Night December, C. D. – Cold December, B. N. – Beaver November, B. O. – Blood October, See?”

“Yeah, I do, Rowan, but why are there two Decembers?”

“The first column is the lunar moon for that month, the second column is the Month.
 
This year, in December, there are two full moons, one being a Blue Moon.”
 

“Oh, see I knew you’d see the connection.”

“Look too, at your other list, it is a list of the lunar full moons and a color relating to them. Note too that Blue for Long Night happens to be the Blue Moon, see?”

“Huh.
 
Look at the spell…the color corresponds with the candle color in the spell.”

“Right, so, somehow this page we thought was a doodle page is actually a page of hints about the spell.”

“But why write these down when they are already in the spell? And why do these all have a number inside either a tiny triangle, square, or star next to the lunar moon name?”

“I don’t know yet, but I think if we keep at it, we might figure it out,” Rowan answered, studying the spell.
 
That’s when Devon walked in.
 

“Hi ,Sweetie,” Darby said.
 

“Hey.” He kissed her on the head from behind the couch.
 
“What are you two girls up to?”

“We’re trying to figure out how the evil spell works so we have a better understanding of what the Keatons are up to.”

“What’s that?” He pointed to the doodle page Darby was now looking at.

“We never paid much attention to it before.
 
We thought it was just a creased up doodle page, but it seems to be linked to the evil spell.
 
It has all kinds of hints about the spell that we never knew.
 
The spell in the book is just an incantation, but a spell this powerful must have some instructions to it, and I’m wondering if this page isn’t the key to it.”

“Can I see it?” Devon asked.

“Sure, maybe you can find something we haven’t seen.” She handed it to him as she looked at her notebook. When he took it from her hand the paper bent at one corner on one of the creases.
 
He looked at it and the lines on the corner of the page that was now folded over to the other side of the page, lined up with another line.

“Have you guys ever folded the paper up on its creases?”

“No,” they both said, “never thought to do that.”

“Well when you do, look, the lines match up from the other side.”

“Wow, look at that!” They continued to watch him meticulously folding this and unfolding that and refolding the other until he finally had an amazing looking square. On one side was a pentagram inside a circle.
 
All around the circle were numbered triangles.
 
Each tip of the pentagram had a numbered square and in the center was a numbered star.

“That’s it!” Darby said, “You figured it out.
 
It is the instructions for the set up of the ceremony.
 
The numbers in the squares, triangles, and star coincide with where the specific colored candle goes along with whatever is being offered to that lunar moon. It’s always been here and we just never put all the pieces together.”
 

Darby then flipped the folded square to the opposite side of the pentagram and another hidden secret was revealed. There was a Celtic symbol drawn on it – a triquetra – an endless triangle. And in the center of it, plain as day, was a house with a cross over it and what must be tombstones around it.
 

“The chapel,” Darby said.
 
“The chapel. There must be a clue in the chapel or the ceremony is to be performed there. Didn’t the spell say it was to be performed on the Full Blood Moon?
 
All the instructions are right here. You are amazing, Devon. I’ve been messing with that dumb piece of paper for weeks and you pick it up, make a couple of folds and voila!” She jumped into his lap wrapped her arms around him and gave him a giant kiss.

“Well, if I get rewards like that, I’ll try to help out more often,” he said smiling.
 
Rowan laughed. But then her face went blank and almost white, as a realization came over her that made her sick to her stomach.
 

“What is it?” Darby said, as she leaned her cheek against Devon’s face.

“What are they offering? The spell says ‘I offer thirteen gifts named after the thirteen moons’.”
 

“It’s probably some kind or herbs or stones that relate to that particular full moon.”

“No, Darby, think. The diary talked about thirteen girls that went missing that October. Maybe these initials are for girls.”

“That’s sick.
 
No one in their right mind would do that.”

“Think about it, Darby. Suzanne Keaton was evil and this was her way to honor Samhain, who is known in folklore to be a pretty scary guy. If she was calling his powers, this was no pleasant little offering of herbs or stones.
 
Somehow, I think this is more sinister.”

Devon set Darby on the couch next to him and said, “What if these abductions we’ve been hearing about are really girls being stashed away for this ceremony, which is now only a month away? Do you know how many girls have been abducted? I’ll bet it’s coming up on thirteen.”

“Oh boy…this is big.
 
Rowan, we don’t have the kind of power these witches do.
 
How are we going to go up against them?”

“Well, I guess we start practicing.
 
But we do have some advantages they don’t.”

“Yeah? What’s that?”

“Two handsome vampires, a witch that can put up a force field that’ll stop a freight train, a very strong werewolf, and a werewolf witch. They may have the magical experience we don’t, but we have a pretty awesome amount of strength behind us,” Rowan said.

“Hmmm. Devon, could you do me a favor and find out how many girls have gone missing and what their names are?
 
I’m guessing their names must coincide with these initials on the spell.
 
That would ‘name them after the thirteen moons’, don’t you think, Rowan?”

“Definitely.”

“And Devon.
 
Could you go put this in the safe for me?” She handed him the Book of Shadows.

“Sure.”

“Thanks, Sweetie.”