P. Cast - Destined

It could be he is thinking for himself rather than not at all.

“So, he’s lazy? I gave him a task and he’s doing nothing!” Neferet paused, controlled her temper, and then sighed dramatically. “It isn’t that I mind so much for myself, but it seems disrespectful to you.”

Ah, my heartless one, it touches me that your concern is on my behalf. Perhaps the vessel does need prompting.

“If you prompt him, you would have my thanks.” Neferet curtseyed deeply to the apparition.

For you, my threads will force his actions. Still, they require an appropriate sacrifice.

Trying not to sound as annoyed as she felt, Neferet said, “Very well. What sacrifice do they require?”

The vessel is a beast, thus a beast must be sacrificed to control it.

“A beast? A Raven Mocker?”

No, the sacrifice must be a creature allied with you.

Neferet felt ill. “Skylar? I must sacrifice my cat?”

If it troubles you so, choose another. There are many felines about this place, are there not …

With those words, the specter of the white bull wavered and then dissipated. With a look of cold determination, Neferet took the razor-edged athame from her dresser, opened the door to her chamber, and began summoning the perfect sacrifice. It would not be Skylar—he was not a Warrior’s cat. His death wouldn’t be imbued with the appropriate violence. No, there was only one feline whose death would suit this need. Cloaked in mist and shadow, Neferet glided into the night …

“Come air, sweet, soft touch of Nyx breath divine.”

From the very first sentence of Thanatos’s spell, I knew that this wasn’t going to be like any circle I’d ever before experienced. First of all, the High Priestess’s voice had changed. It wasn’t that she shouted or anything like that, but there was something about the singsong cadence of the spell that lent power to her voice so that her words seemed to be alive and surrounding us. As she continued to speak that power bled out into the space around us. It sizzled across my skin and down my body. I could see Damien’s gooseflesh raised on his arms, and I knew the others were being affected by it, too.

“Blow from this place concealing shadows past

It is death’s shade to view we do incline

Death revealed through this circle spell we cast.”

With a flourish of her hands Thanatos gestured for Damien to lift his candle. The Priestess nodded at me and I struck the match, lit the wick, and said, “Air, please join our circle.”

There was a mighty whoosh! and whipping wind swirled around us, lifting my hair and making Thanatos’s cloak billow.

“To fire,” she told me, and I walked doceil or clockwise to Shaunee. Her brown eyes were big and round, and she was staring behind us. Remembering Grandma’s warning, I glanced back and gasped in astonishment. A glowing length of scarlet light snaked from Damien, outlining the circle and tracing our path from him to Shaunee.

I was used to the silver thread that often appeared when I cast a circle, but this was different. Yeah, it was powerful, but it also felt ominous. I didn’t know if Thanatos saw it or not; I didn’t know if it was a good or bad sign that it was there, but I didn’t want to interrupt the High Priestess’s spell as she was already beginning the fire invocation.

“Come fire, your blaze must be strong, sure, and true

Strike, burn, destroy what would prevent our sight

Force violent death revealed to us anew

Your illumating flame expose with truth’s light.”

At her gesture, Shaunee lifted the red candle and I lit it saying, “Fire, please join our circle.”

It was as if we were suddenly standing inside an inferno. Flames shot from Shaunee’s body, filling the already charred circle, but this fire didn’t add to the destruction. Instead I heard a massive hissing and from everywhere that had been dead and blighted mist lifted, as if fire had met ice and not earth.

Then air joined fire and the flames and mist flew up into the sky to streak and flash.

“Lightning.” Shaunee’s voice sounded hushed and awed. “Air mixed with fire is making lightning.”

“To water,” Thanatos said.

The thick rope of glowing scarlet followed us.

When we stopped in front of Erin I thought she looked scared, but she nodded and said, “Bring it on. I’m ready.”

Thanatos spoke:

“Come water, flow throughout this circle space

With tide of truth wash clear sight-stealing time

Allowing us to see death’s tear-streaked face

Violence cleansed sets us free of evil’s grime.”

Erin lifted the candle to meet my match as I said, “Water, please join our circle.”

There was a roar as if we’d suddenly been transported into the middle of a waterfall. The night turned brilliant shades of blue and turquoise and sapphire—all the colors of water. The element gushed into the blackened circle. Water swirled around like an angry whirlpool and then, just like air and fire, it gushed straight up into the lightning-streaked sky. Clouds billowed and roiled—thunder clapped, growling with such fierceness that I cringed.

“No,” Erin said quickly. “Water’s not mad at us.”

“Neither is fire,” Shaunee said.

“Nor wind,” Damien added.

“The elements are outraged at the act that was committed here,” Thanatos said. “Prepare yourself, circle. We move to earth.”

With thunderclouds multiplying above us and lightning illuminating the gathering storm, I moved to stand in front of Stevie Rae.

“Time to cowboy up,” she said.

Thanatos nodded and spoke the earth invocation:

“Come earth, rich, verdant truly Goddess blessed

Your bosom nurtures and keeps this spell’s key

Open here and dark death will be confessed

For the wound in your heart, justice we’ll see.”

Stevie Rae lifted the green candle to my flame. “Earth, please join our circle.”

The ground beneath our feet began shaking as if we were standing in the middle of an earthquake. I couldn’t help the little shriek that slipped from my mouth.

“Zoey!” Stark yelled. I could see him staggering, trying to reach the circle, which was now completely ringed with a thick rope of red.

“Wait, it’s okay!” Stevie Rae shouted above the cacophony of angry elements. “Like the other element, earth isn’t mad at us. It’s not gonna hurt us. Look, it’s making the ground new.”

I looked down and saw that she was right. The ground that had been washed clean by water had shifted, rolled, until instead of ashes and the remnants of blighted plants, the rich red Oklahoma earth lay newly exposed.

“See, it’s being made right,” Stevie Rae said. As she spoke, the tremors gentled and then stopped completely.

“We must finish the circle and the spell,” Thanatos said. “Call spirit, Zoey. Now.”

From his hidden place within the orchard Aurox watched the glowing scarlet circle form. Its power was awe-inspiring; the might of the elements was incredible to behold. He could feel the emotions air, fire, water, and earth evoked in the fledglings and vampyre who embodied them. Joy and courage and righteous indignation filled the circle and boiled over to wash through him.

Aurox could use the energy to change—to morph into the creature that would emerge from him, attack Rephaim as had been his command from Neferet, and most certainly disrupt the spell the High Priestess had almost fully cast.

He stared at Zoey. Radiant, she turned to the old woman who sat in the middle of the circle. Aurox knew once Thanatos evoked the final element, spirit, and Zoey lit the purple candle, the circle would be complete and the reveal spell would be set fully into motion.