Cate Tiernan - Strife

A quick glance in the mirror showed me that the problem was more serious than I’d thought. My hair looked like a fright wig. I raked my fingers through it. It didn’t help. I was just concluding that the situation was hopeless when the door swung open and Bree walked in.

“Morgan,” she said quickly. “I’m glad you’re here. I’ve been looking everywhere.” She leaned gracefully against the sink and swung her backpack from her shoulder, balancing it on the shelf in front of us.

“I was way late.” I wet my fingers under the faucet and attempted to comb my hair with them again.

“Do you want a brush?” Bree asked, rummaging around in her leather backpack. She finally pulled out a wide-toothed comb.

“Fantastic,” I said, taking it from her. I pulled it through my hair, which began to settle down. Thank goodness.

“Listen, Morgan, I need to talk to you.”

Our eyes met in the mirror. “What’s going on?” I asked.

“Well, Robbie and I finally talked. He told me that he’d spoken to you and that he thought there had been a big misunderstanding. ”

“That’s great!” I said. “So are you guys back together?”

“Well, yes,” Bree admitted. She twirled the ends of her hair. The worried gesture.

I frowned. “So what’s wrong?” I asked.

Bree looked at herself in the mirror, then looked back at me. “It’s just that—when I thought that Robbie and I were breaking up, I sort of. .”

My stomach dropped. “What?” I demanded. “What did you do?”

“I sort of. . fooled around with Matt.”

“Oh my God.” I wheeled to face her. “Did you—”

“No.” Bree folded her arms across her chest. “Absolutely not. Just, you know, kissing.”

I couldn’t believe this. Matt Adler! My mind flashed back to the day I saw him cheating on Jenna with Raven. I felt ill. “And you didn’t tell Robbie?”

“I didn’t know how to.” Bree’s voice was pleading. “I mean, it isn’t exactly cheating because I thought we were broken up. It was really just a mistake. One that will not happen again. But I got scared that Robbie might not take it that way. So I kept my mouth shut.”

I looked at her closely, trying to remain calm. I knew from personal experience with Mary K. that keeping the truth quiet was usually a mistake. “Keeping your mouth shut about this is like lying, Bree,” I told her. “It’s the same thing.”

Bree bit her lip. I knew that wasn’t what she’d wanted to hear.

“So you’re going to talk to him?” I prompted.

Bree hesitated. “I guess so.”

I folded my arms across my chest. “You might want to do it soon—like before Matt tells anyone that he made out with you.”

Bree’s face went white. “He wouldn’t.”

I shrugged. “He didn’t think you were cheating, either, right? So he has no reason to keep quiet about it. And I’m guessing he’ll boast.”

That seemed to do it. Bree thought for a moment, then nodded. “Okay,” she said finally. “Okay.” I handed her the brush, and she stuck it in her bag. “Did you hear about Sky?” she asked.

“Just now.”

“I can’t believe it,” Bree said. “What’s Kithic going to be like? I just can’t imagine circles without her.” She shook her head and sighed.

“Me either.”

“I don’t know, Morgan,” Bree murmured. “Sometimes I feel like everything’s falling apart.”

I thought of Hunter, my father, my reined power, my family. . I considered telling Bree about my parents’ wanting to send me to Saint Anne’s but decided that could wait. She had enough to worry about. “Yeah,” I answered instead. “I know what you mean.”

October 14, 1971

I can feel the darkness closing in.

Today, the day after my argument with Mother, I went back to the library and pulled out the Book. I don’t know what made me do it—I suppose I thought that it might have some advice on how to stop the same dark magick it unleashed. Which it did. Page after page on binding witches, both in secret and in the open. It even had a section on how to bind one’s own magick. But I wasn’t sure—I mean, I didn’t know for sure that Sam was behind the latest piece of dark magick.

I decided to look for another option.

I flipped through the book, skimming it, and finally came across a chapter called “On the Movements of Objects through the Aire.” Just like the plates and the drawer in the kitchen, I thought, and the lamp in the corner. So I read it. And guess what it said? It said that some witches, when they’re in an agitated state of mind, can mentally move onjects without realizing it.

So Sam could be behind these events, I realized. He wouldn’t have to be into dark magick to be behind them. As long as he is nearby and is familiar with the objects in question, he could move them with his mind. Obviously he’s eaten off the plates in the kitchen often enough to be able to picture them. And he was in the house both times.

I went to leave the library. But as I stood there redrawing the sigils of protection and obscurity around the door, I suddenly realized something.

Sam doesn’t know about the library.

He won’t be shown the library until his initiation. He doesn’t even know it exists. So how could he have made the lamp fall over inside it?

In fact, there’s only one witch in the house who knows about the library and is in an agitated state of mind. The same person who was present at both events. The one person I would never suspect.

Me.

— Sarah Curtis

“With this salt, I purify my circle.” I couldn’t wait to be unbound. I sprinkled salt around the large circle I had drawn lightly on the floor of my room. It was midnight, and my family was asleep. Still, I had shoved a chair up against the door leading from my room into the bathroom and a few books up against the main door to my room. I didn’t want any more people accidentally barging into my room while I was in the middle of making magick.

I picked up the lapis lazuli from where I had placed it at the center of the circle. The stone felt cool in my hand. The gentle silk of my birth mother’s green robe felt smooth against my skin, and even though my power was still reined, these two things made me feel like I was surrounded by good magick.

Lying down in the center of the circle, I placed the smooth stone on my forehead. I wasn’t exactly sure what to do, so I decided to try casting out my senses.

I could feel Hunter’s presence almost like he was in the room with me. My eyes were filled with fog that slowly began to lift slightly. As I looked around me, I saw that I was no longer in my room. I was in Hunter’s living room. Sitting across from me was Alyce. To her right was Sky; to her left was Erin. Sky’s lips were moving, but I couldn’t hear what she was saying. Soon the others closed their eyes, and I saw their lips moving as well. They were chanting, I guessed. I watched all of this through a thin film of haze, like static from a channel that wasn’t coming in clearly. What was this spell they were casting? It looked totally unfamiliar to me.

After a few moments Erin lit a black pillar candle. Then Alyce drew out a long string of thread and burned it over the candle so that it was broken in two. Silver flame licked up the thread, which dissolved into a fine, shimmery powder. Alyce blew on the powder so that it floated through the room, growing into a large cloud of sparkling dust. Soon everyone was covered in it. The powder gave everything it landed on a magickal glow, as if the room were bathed in the rosy light of a sunrise. All the while their lips were moving in the chant. It was eerie, like watching a suspense movie with the sound turned off, but somehow beautiful.