Alexandra Sokoloff - Book of Shadows

Finally, she stood, looked toward Garrett, and gestured to the wall of plastic sheeting. Garrett followed her through the slit into the wide dark expanse of the unfinished building. Tanith kept moving and Garrett trailed her, marveling at her perfect posture; she did not walk, it was more of a glide, like a dancer, like a nun.

She stopped and stood in the middle of the floor; her hands steepled under her chin, brooding. “You think he saw the killer.”

“I’m pretty sure he saw the girl. Amber. It’s hard to tell what else he saw,” Garrett answered. “His sense of reality is not… great.”

“No,” she answered abstractedly. “Very disordered. Extreme mental chaos.” Garrett was not sure how she would know that, as she had not spoken with the man at all, though Garrett supposed the state of the man’s clothing was somewhat of a tip-off.

Then he remembered uneasily that mental chaos was one of the qualities associated with Choronzon.

“And what would you like me to do?” Tanith asked him bluntly. Her eyes gleamed, and Garrett had the distinct feeling that she knew exactly what he wanted her to do, but was making him say it aloud as some kind of power game. He felt a flare of anger, and also of desire.

“I thought you might be able to talk to him,” he said, keeping his voice even.

She studied him without smiling and then said, “That’s interesting of you, Detective. Is it a spell you want, then?”

He fought down the anger. “I told you, I don’t care how it gets done.” Only that hadn’t exactly been true, had it? “If there’s something you can do, then do it.”

He stared into her black eyes and she stared back, a long and dangerous moment. Then she lifted her head slightly. “There may be.”

She went through the wall of plastic again, and returned carrying the carpetbag. She stood in the midst of the columns, surveying the area, then pointed at a large bare expanse of floor. “I think there. And I think I should be alone with him, but don’t worry, I’ll cast the circle large enough to protect you,” she said with a perfectly straight face. Garret understood he was being teased, but tried to ignore it. He was pretty sure he’d gone off the deep end already, or he wouldn’t be here at all.

She knelt on the cement floor beside her carpetbag and opened it. From the angle she had chosen—deliberately, Garrett was sure—he could not see into the case, but he watched as she withdrew a folded purple silk cloth, several purple candles (the ever-present candles), a dagger, a silver chalice, and a smaller, square leather case.

She rose, stepped to the empty floor space, and shook out the cloth, stirring up swirls of concrete dust like smoke. The cloth was round, Garrett saw, and when she floated it down to the floor, it made a perfect circle. She placed the purple candles at the four quadrants of the circle and lit them.

She returned to her carpetbag, and withdrew a large purple crystal, amethyst, Garrett thought, his mother’s favorite gem; and an electric light that looked naggingly familiar.

“Black light?” he asked, frowning.

“Ultraviolet, yes. Different colors have different healing properties. Violet is for mental clarity; it soothes mental disorders. The idea is to surround him in violet, like a color bath.”

She switched on the black light. The purple light glowed in the vast empty space, and her white blouse instantly turned luminous.

She opened the smaller leather case; it was full of labeled glass bottles with liquids of different colors. She removed several and poured a few drops from each bottle into the silver cup, and placed it at the edge of the silk circle with the knife and crystal.

Finally she looked over at Garrett. “I’ll get him, then.”

“Do you want me to—”

“I don’t think so,” she said with unnerving calm, and disappeared through the plastic wall. Garrett waited uncomfortably, debating whether or not he should go after her.

Then she emerged through the plastic, leading the big man by the hand. He was blinking drowsily, looking only half-awake. He shuffled on the floor like a child, and his bare feet kicked up little clouds of white dust.

Tanith led him to the circle of purple silk, and guided him carefully through the lit candles to the center of the circle.

“Just sit down here with me,” she said gently, and tugged at his hand as she sunk to the floor. Obediently he folded himself into a crossed-knee position and sat across from her, a hulking shadow in the purple light.

Tanith picked up the large amethyst crystal from beside her and held it up in front of her so that it caught the candlelight. The Dragon Man’s eyes widened.

“Pretty, isn’t it?” she said in a low, coaxing voice. “Do you like it?” He did not answer, but seemed mesmerized by the sparkling chips of light. She held the stone for him to gaze at… and then spoke even more softly. “Here. You hold it.” She extended the stone and he took it hesitantly, staring into it. “Close your eyes. You can still see the stone.” He shut his eyes, and Garrett could see his breathing slow.

She stood noiselessly and unhurriedly, and moved around to stand behind the Dragon Man. He did not seem to notice her. “Lie down now,” she said, and touching her hands lightly to his shoulders, she eased him back to lie on the silk, in the circle of candlelight. He held the crystal clutched to his chest. She smoothed his brow with her fingertips, and then moved around him, gently placing his arms by his sides and leaving the crystal centered on top of his chest, then straightening his legs so they rested together. “You’re inside the crystal now, inside the purple. You’re inside that shining purple light…” Garrett saw the big man’s body loosen, growing more limp. “That’s good. Relax,” Tanith encouraged softly. “And now I want you to breathe in with me—breathe in that purple light. Breathe in…” The Dragon Man did not open his eyes, but sucked in air. Tanith breathed in with him. “Now breathe out…” She repeated the breathing with him three times.

She stood still and looked down on the big man in the candlelight, then reached into her shirt and drew out the dagger on its chain. Again she extended her arms with the knife pointed straight ahead; again she made a slow, steady revolution in a circle.

Her face was pale in the glowing violet light, her onyx eyes fixed in space.

She completed the circle, slipped the chain back around her neck, and knelt at the Dragon Man’s left side. She reached forward with both arms extended, holding her palms inward at the top of his head, about an inch away from actually touching him. She brought her hands smoothly down the entire length of his body, one hand on either side, not quite touching his skin the whole way down.

She repeated the entire gesture six more times, then reached for the silver bowl and dipped her fingertips into the liquid she’d mixed there. She moved to the Dragon Man’s head, where she lay her hands gently, one on each side of his head, with her thumbs resting on his temples. She closed her eyes and was still, holding that position. Garrett found himself roiling with envy, imagining her hands on him. He shook his head, forced himself back into focus.

Tanith shifted her position so she was kneeling at the Dragon Man’s head and this time held his whole head in her hands as she spoke aloud into the darkness. “I banish chaos, pain, and fear. Mercury, I call on thee: aid his thoughts and words and tongue, that he may tell us all he’s done. This watcher now knows clarity. As I say, so mote it be.”

She sat again on the floor beside the man’s bulk and spoke tenderly to him. “You are within a circle of protection, a circle of healing crystal light. You are safe. You are loved. You can say anything, here, and you will be protected. Do you hear me?”