P. Cast - Destined

“Okay,” I said. I looked at my friends and they nodded. “We’re ready.”

“Damien, come to the altar and represent your element, air.”

I heard Damien take a deep breath before he stepped inside the circle of ruined lavender and approached Grandma.

“What is it you wish to reveal to spirit?” Thanatos asked.

Damien reached into the man purse he always had slung over his shoulder and pulled out a MAC pressed powder compact. He opened it and the moonlight caught it, showing a fragmented surface and a shattered reflection. As he gave it to Grandma he said, “I brought a broken mirror because even though I might look and act like I’m okay, I secretly wonder if Jack’s death has forever broken something inside me.”

Grandma placed the compact on the altar cloth and then gave Damien the yellow air candle. She touched his hand as she did and said, “I hear you, child.” Damien moved to Grandma’s right and took the eastern place at the edge of the circle.

“My turn,” Shaunee said softly, and then she went to Grandma. When she reached her she gave her a long white feather she’d been cupping in her hand. “This feather symbolizes that even though I’ve been afraid to be alone for a really long time, I want to be free of that fear.”

Grandma placed the feather beside Damien’s broken mirror and gave Shaunee her red candle. “I hear you, child,” she said, touching her hand gently, kindly, just as she had Damien.

Erin didn’t say anything. She walked quickly to Grandma and handed her the little insulated bag she’d brought on the bus. Grandma opened it, reached in, and pulled out an ice cube.

“This is me inside. I’m frozen, like I don’t really have any feelings.”

Grandma took the ice and added it to the other items on the altar cloth. She gave Erin her blue candle, touching her gently and saying, “I hear you, child.” Blank-faced, Erin moved to the western edge of the circle.

“Wish me luck,” Stevie Rae whispered.

“Luck,” I said softly.

She went to Grandma and smiled down at her. “Hi, Grandma.”

“Hello, child of the earth.” Grandma returned her smile. “What do you wish to reveal to me?”

Stevie Rae took a piece of paper out of her jeans pocket. It was black, like the construction paper we used to get in grade school to cut stuff out of during art class. She gave it to Grandma saying, “This paper is like my fear of losing Rephaim to something dark and scary that I don’t really understand.”

Grandma unfolded the black paper and smoothed it onto the altar cloth. She gave Stevie Rae the green candle, a soft touch, and said, “I hear you, child.”

Before Stevie Rae took her place in the north, Thanatos picked up the braided circles of angelica and placed them on Stevie Rae’s head. “The truth reveal from earth through thee. So we shall ask, and so mote it be.”

“Thank you. I’ll do my best,” Stevie Rae said solemnly, and then she took her place in the circle.

It was my turn. Nyx, please help me be strong enough to handle what I see tonight. I went to Grandma. She smiled and said, “What is it you have to reveal to me, u-we-tsi-a-ge-ya ?”

I’d left my purse on the bus, but first I’d taken my symbol thing out of it. From my jeans pocket I brought out a hair tie. It was one of those wrapped rubber bands that weren’t supposed to pull out your hair when you used them, but they never really worked. I handed it to Grandma. “Almost all the time now I feel like I’m being pulled in a bunch of different directions by a bunch of different people. I think sometimes I’m going to snap like a rubber band and shatter all over again. This time forever.”

Grandma slowly placed my hair tie on the altar cloth. When she gave me my purple candle she cupped my hands with both of hers. Her voice shook only a little when she said, “I hear you, child.”

I stepped behind Grandma then, staying in the center of the circle, and looked to Thanatos for my next move.

From the spellwork basket the High Priestess took a long box of wooden matches. She lifted the bag of salt and told me, “You may leave your candle on the altar. Your grandmother serves as keeper of the spirit until you evoke your element.”

I put the candle in the middle of the little circle Grandma had made of the things we’d each given her. I bent and kissed her soft cheek. “No matter what we see tonight, remember that I love you and that we still have each other,” I said.

Grandma hugged me and I thought she was going to kiss my cheek. Instead she whispered, “ U-we-tsi-a-ge-ya , beware. I feel eyes watching from the shadows.”

Before I could say anything, Thanatos was giving me the matches as well as my final instructions. “I will stay to your left so that you lead the physical casting of the circle, but as we approach each element I will call it. The reveal spell is woven within the elemental call. As we move around the circle I will bind the spell with salt and, if she listens, invoke Death.” Thanatos raised her voice, directing her words to my waiting friends. “With a circle this strong I would expect quite a tangible response to my invocation. Prepare yourselves, and remember, this ritual is not something done to you, but rather done with you.” Then she lifted her hands and intoned, “ Let us begin as we intend to end—we seek the truth so that this land, these people, can mend.”

Together Thanatos and I walked to Damien who was clutching his yellow candle with both hands and looking as nervous as I felt.

All right, here we go, I thought. Please help me, Nyx. I can’t do this without you.

The shadows were agitated. Something was very wrong.

“Read the next chapter in your sociology book. I have business to which I must attend.” Neferet snapped the command to her very surprised-looking fifth hour students before hurrying from the classroom. She cloaked herself in mist and darkness so that prying eyes and all too curious professors would not witness her passage as she hurried to her private chamber. There she quickly slashed her hand. Cupping her palm she held it out in offering. “Drink! Tell me what is amiss!”

The tendrils of Darkness swarmed her blood, latching onto her leach-like. As they fed, whispered words from many different voices filled her mind.

The vessel does nothing to hinder earth

Joined with spirit the death vision will be given rebirth

“What?” Anger filled Neferet. “Is Aurox not there? Was he too stupid to find the farm?”

The vessel is there

He watches without care

“Force him to act! Make him stop the damn ritual!” The tendril voices all babbled at once, forming a stew of confusion in her mind. She closed her palm and slapped them away. “Do as I command! You’ve had your blood.”

The myriad of whispering voices were abruptly cut off as the specter of the white bull materialized in the middle of her chamber. The image was transparent and not fully formed, but his voice, powerful and obviously irritated, blasted through her mind. I have told you before your sacrifice must be equal to the command!

With an effort, Neferet stifled her own anger and, with soft, placating words she spoke to the ghostly apparation, “But the vessel was a gift from you. Why would it take a great sacrifice to control a creature created from Darkness? I don’t even understand why he is deviating from my command.”

I warned you at his creation that the sacrifice used to form him was not perfect and so the vessel would be flawed.

“Well, I can tell you that recently I’ve begun to doubt his intelligence.”