Spellbound (16 page)

They were so passionate about the art of spell casting, as they called it; they made it easy to get caught up in their excitement.

They opened up their Grimoire to me, which was what they called their personal book of spells, and taught me how to start my own. Echo explained that using maleficium, or causing harm with witchcraft, would never be our lot on this earth. I learned that as good witches, we did not mean to influence the mind, body or soul in a negative manner. We were never to cause sickness in animals, bad luck, or sudden death. Raven introduced me to the properties of belladonna and wolfsbane and to be certain to never mix the two. She showed me potions for falling in love, creating fortunes, and even for revenge, although she admitted she had personally never used one.

In the early evening, I met with the coven-‐-sisters of flight, Libby and Rochelle. They were the most fun. Rochelle flew without props but Libby preferred the old-‐-fashioned version with her trusty broomstick. It would have been almost comical if she had not been so graceful sitting astride it, her legs peeking out from under the skirts of her long gown. We went out into the night air of our back yard which afforded us a lot of privacy. She would hold the stick at an angle just beside her legs and in an instant she would be off! She would wind and dip and streak through our back yard so smoothly. It proved harder than it seemed! The first few times I tried it, I fell right off into the dirt, face first. So frustrating! It made me more determined not to let that darn broom get the better of me. I kept at it until I learned the right ratio of balance, and which way to lean, slightly forward and a little to the same side I dangled my legs. The first time I got it I clapped my hands together in triumph and nearly fell off again! The pair of witches training me laughed, but I showed them. I kept my balance and swooped up into the night sky, screaming with delight.

“Not too high, Serena. You don’t want to be seen, darling,”

cautioned Rochelle.

“Yes, Serena. Not too high,” trilled Libby. Short and fat, she had the most angelic voice and everything she said sounded like a song. Also, she rhymed all the time. “Not too high, Serena can fly,”

she sang and danced around our yard.

The screen door opened behind us.

“Serena? Sisters? Come inside now to eat.” Eden gathered us for dinner. We had been outside for so long, we hadn’t even noticed the time. And here came the funny part: the training I had been dreading started to be fun. I began to enjoy it. Smiling in spite of myself, we all went inside for dinner.

****

Logan called after dinner to check on my training. I told him it turned out to be more fun than I thought. He sounded like he wasn’t as surprised by that as I had been.

“Check it, Serena, I told you. You are so smart there would be no way you weren’t going to do well in your training. I
told
you.” He sounded so smug; I could almost picture his face.

“I’m glad you were so sure.”

“Yep. I know you like a book now.”

I laughed at that one.

“Oh, you do, do you?”

“Well, the non-‐-witchy part is pretty predictable anyway.”

He laughed now too. “How about that news with Dave and Tamera today. Pretty crazy, huh?”

“I don’t think it’s that crazy. I know she loves him and he adores her. Do you think it’s crazy?”

“No, I don’t. Of course I’m not the best judge of ‘crazy’

anymore, am I?”

“I guess not. That’s my fault.”

“Not. Don’t forget, I recently learned my mom and sister also share in the blame.”

“Okay, I don’t have any sympathy left for you today. Did you forget I had to annihilate a former friend today? I think I win in the sympathy category.”

“Yeah, you definitely win. That goes in the so surreal category.”

“And that’s just for starters. You wouldn’t believe the amazing things I’m learning. All I can say is, it’s a good thing I’m not evil. I could cause some serious damage around here.”

“I’ll bet.”

“Hey, I almost forgot. Eden still wants your mom and Jade to come over for dinner. And you better prepare yourself for this one, Logan. There are a
ton
of people over here now. I mean, counting me and Elizabeth and Tabitha, and then you already know about Eden and Prudence, there’s Cordelia and Finola, who were here before. Then there’s Aisling and Echo, they’re
identical
twins, can you believe that. And I
cannot
tell them apart at all. Then there’s, um, Libby, and Rochelle and, oh, um, what’s her name? Oh, Raven. Is that everyone? Wait, let me think.” I mentally counted all the witches in my head. “Oh, I forgot. Eve. That covers everyone I think.”

“Jeez, you weren’t kidding about being prepared. Where are all those people sleeping anyway? They do sleep, right?”

“Yes they sleep. They’re witches, not vampires. Come on, Logan,” I snapped.

“Sorry. It
is
getting weird around here. So, where are you putting them all?”

“Oh, I didn’t tell you that part yet. Our house sort of morphed.”

“Morphed? What the heck does the mean?”

I wished I could take a photograph of his face.

“It means that now we have nine bedrooms instead of five.”

“Serious?”

“Yes.”

“That’s insane. Eden should consider a career in real estate.

She could make a fortune.”

“I’ll mention it to her.” I said dryly. I could hear him chuckling. Suddenly, I picked up Elizabeth calling me in my head.

Time to get back to my lessons. Reluctantly, I had to say goodnight to Logan.

“Hey, Logan, I have to go now.”

“Okay. I’m glad you called. And I’m glad things are going well over there. I’ll talk to my mom about coming over for dinner. I know she wants to, too.”

I brightened at the idea of another evening with Logan. “I want to, too Logan.”

“Goodnight, sweet Serena.”

“Goodnight, Logan. Dream of me.”

“I always do.” He rang off then and I missed him immediately.

****

The next day at school passed uneventfully. I found myself grateful for the normalness of the day. The morning drifted into the afternoon without so much as a hiccup or a speed bump and soon the last bell of the day sounded and everyone headed out to the parking lot, either to the buses or their cars. Logan, Jade, Tabitha and I hurried to Logan’s car and sped out of the parking lot before anyone could delay us. Jade happened to be especially excited because today she began her first day of real training. Lately, happy constituted her norm. And I had reason to be both excited and nervous because tonight Logan’s mother, Lily, would come for dinner. We had waved to each other and spoken over the phone, but tonight would be my first official introduction to her. I knew she had witch abilities like my mother and because she was Logan’s mom, she would be prominent in my life, and I in hers.

Tonight would be an important meeting. I wanted it to be perfect.

We got home and parted ways, knowing we would be with each other soon. Tabitha and I went inside and immediately were put to work getting ready for the dinner. Elizabeth had stayed home again. I began to wonder if she would ever return to the school. She could, though, if she wanted. She had only ‘charmed’

the principal, telling him that a family emergency had kept her away from her student teaching duties. Her small spell worked, and he didn’t question anything she told him. Good thing, too. It seemed that she always had something to do at the house. Today she had to ready our large dining room to hold seventeen people for dinner. It equaled a monumental task and Tabitha had been commissioned to help. I had been excused once again to work on my witch training. Today, I had astral projection. Eve would be my teacher.

“Close your eyes and envision the place you want to be,”

Eve instructed. She had a beautiful French accent and I loved to listen to her speak. With her flawless chocolate-‐-colored skin and long, thick dreadlocks she kept partially covered in colorful scarves, I thought she might be from West Africa. “It’s a matter of harnessing your positive energy and focusing it to project yourself.” Eve closed her own eyes and breathed deep. I watched with fascination as her body seemed to dissolve into specks of color and light, fading until nothing remained where she had been standing a second before.

“Over here, young ward.” Her voice called to me far to my right and I whipped around. I didn’t see anything…at first. Then I spotted it, a small dusting in the air, like particles you can pick at in a strip of sunlight coming through a window. The tiny dust specks swirled and danced and then became more solid. I watched as the outline of Eve began to form and fill in, first the bones of her skeleton, then her vital organs, her veins and corpuscles, the blood that flowed. I sat fascinated as her skin folded over her muscles and tendons. Then her clothing reappeared stitch by stitch. By the time her projection finished, I am sure my mouth fell wide open.

“I went slow for you, Serena, to show you how it happens.

Now, watch me when it is done right.” She snapped her fingers and just like that she was across the room. It happened so fast, that had I blinked, I would have missed it. She smiled warmly and strode over to me.

“Now, we work on you.”

We worked together for the next couple of hours. By the end of our time together, Eve had taught me the basics of astral projection and I had tested it a couple of times and had success. I projected myself into the dining room and almost gave Elizabeth a heart attack, which gave Tabitha great joy. I practiced it a few more times by myself but I gave myself a nosebleed, so Eve said that we had done enough for tonight. I had to get ready for our dinner anyway.

****

Lily, Jade and Logan arrived right on time. I ran downstairs to answer the door, but Tabitha beat me to it. She hugged Logan’s mom by the time I got there. Since she had spent the night there the evening of the dance, she got to know her so well. I felt jealous. It seemed like she had a head start on me. Logan stepped forward to make the introductions.

“Mom, this is Serena. Serena, this is my Mom, Lily.”

Logan’s mom reached her hand out and I took it. She immediately covered my hand with her other one and drew me in for an embrace. She smelled like vanilla and gardenias. From her touch a rush of memories came to me; cookies baking in the oven, snowboarding with Jade and Logan when they were little, a tidal wave of love for her husband, searing pain over losing him, and a welling up of pride for Jade and Logan. We glanced at each other and I realized she had been receiving the same kind of memories about my life. In that instant, I understood one thing clearly: we both loved Logan and would do anything to protect him from harm. She nodded at me in our mutual, unspoken agreement and I understood why Logan loved his mom so much. I could envision how easily I would as well.

“Hello, Mrs. Daniels. It’s so nice to finally meet you.”

“Please, Serena. Call me Lily.”

Elizabeth and Eden came up behind us then and Logan and I made introductions all around. Tabitha and Jade ran off to her room, whispering secretively. We took Lily into the back den to introduce her to the rest of Eden’s coven-‐-sisters. As I suspected, it took awhile. I still couldn’t get over how many of them were in our house.

Dinner became a fun, noisy affair. Everyone talked at once, plates, glasses and platters clanged and banged and no one seemed to mind. The wine flowed a little too freely, and the food was delicious. Eden, Elizabeth, Prudence and Finola had done most of the cooking, with Cordelia pitching in with a fantastic dessert. We all ate too much and everyone declared it better than any restaurant could ever serve up. With so many hands helping, clean up was a snap. Actually, with so many
witches
helping, clean up was a dream. Dirtied plates and glasses disappeared, casserole dishes marched in the air single file from the dining room into the kitchen, utensils rolled themselves up in the cloth napkins, congregated in the center of the tablecloth, then the tablecloth itself arose by the four corners and folded in on itself, then it, too, floated out of the dining room and into the kitchen.

Following clean up, everyone except for Jade and Tabitha drifted into the den with tea or cups of coffee. Time for the serious talking to begin. Eden took the lead.

“Lily, thank you for joining us and bringing your lovely family to Elizabeth and Serena’s home. I know I speak for everyone here when I say we have so enjoyed meeting you, finally.”

“Thank you so much for inviting us. Jade talks nonstop about Tabitha and I suppose we all know how Logan feels about Serena.” Murmurs of agreement rose from the group. Yes, yes, they did know. “And now, having met her myself, I can appreciate why he feels so strong about her.” She patted Logan’s knee and I watched, surprised, as Logan blushed.

“We feel the same way, Lily. That’s what makes what we are going to share with you tonight so much more critical. I’m going to guess that you are aware of the recent changes in the Council?”

“Yes, I am. I made a conscious decision to live my life without witchcraft because of the current Council. I’m aware that they have become far too powerful for my taste and far too involved in the personal lives of witches. I know they tried to involve themselves in mine and I turned my back on them, forced to renounce my witchhood because I wanted to marry Logan and Jade’s father. I loved him more than I loved my powers, so I did it without a moment’s hesitation.” Lily gazed at Logan again and said, “And I would do it again, in a heartbeat, if I knew I would have you and your sister. Having my life with you two and your father is the definition of the best decision I ever made.” She squeezed Logan’s knee again and spoke to Eden. “I haven’t kept up with the more recent changes. I don’t even know who is claiming leadership of the Council now.”

“I do.” Logan spoke up. “I think his name is Christophe.” He met Eden’s eyes. “He’s the one from the warehouse.” An audible gasp from the group filled the dining room.

“We are aware of Christophe, Logan. I was not aware he was the one you battled.”