Robbie nodded, but his smile faded. He bit his lip.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Do you miss Bree?" Robbie asked out of the blue. I stared at him, unable to answer. I didn't know what to say. But I knew what he was feeling: here we were, having fun as we'd done so many times in the pastonly Bree wasn't here to share the fun with us.
"I'm in love with her, you know," he said. My jaw dropped open. Wow. I'd had some suspicions about his feelings for her, but I'd never imagined they were so strong. Nor did I ever expect him just to put them out there like that.
"Uh, I guess I sort of figured you liked her," I admitted awkwardly.
"No, it's more than that," Robbie said. He looked away and tossed an acorn off into the bushes. "I'm in love with her. Crazy about her. I always have been, for years." He smiled and shook his head, i stole a quick glance at him, and any regrets I had about healing his face vanished. I'd done a good thing. He was handsome, secure; his jaw was smooth and strong. He looked like a model.
"Years?" I asked. "I didn't know that."
He shrugged. "I didn't want you to. I didn't want anyone to know, especially Bree. She's always gone for the dumb, good-looking types. I've been watching her be with one jerk after another, knowing I never had a chance." His smile faltered. "You know she told me about when she lost her virginity?" He turned to me, his blue-gray eyes glinting in fading sunlight. He shook his head again, remembered pain on his face. "She was all happy and excited. The best thing since mocha latte, she said. And with that loser, Akers Rowley."
I frowned. "I know. Akers was an ass. I'm sorry, Robbie."
"Anyway," Robbie went on, his smile returning, "have you looked at me lately?"
"You're gorgeous," I said instantly. "You're one of the best-looking guys in school."
Robbie laughed, sounding for a moment like his old awkward and self-conscious self. "Thanks. But, um, do you think maybe I have a shot now?"
I bit my lip. Now, there was a loaded question. I mean, totally apart from the fact that Bree might be getting involved in dark magick, it was so odd to think of her and Robbie as a couple. They'd been friends for so long. "I don't know," I said after a minute. "I don't know how Bree sees you. Yeah, you're good-looking, but she might think of you more as a brother. You sort of know her too well to put a spell on her. Or vice versa." I grinned. "Nonmagickally speaking."
Robbie nodded, kicking his boots through the leaves. His forehead was creased.
We walked deeper into the woods. We had only about twenty minutes before it would be dark; soon we'd have to turn around.
I threaded my arm through his. "There's something else," I said. I felt I needed to warn him, to put him on his guard. "Today I heard Bree and Raven talking about their new coven."
I told him the gist of what I had overheard in the bathroom, leaving out the part about my hair. That was something I had to deal with myself, with Cal's help. Besides, I wasn't even sure what the strand of hair meant. I didn't want Robbie to feel any more torn between me and Bree than he already did. But at the same time I didn't want her to use him.
"Yeah, I know they want to recruit new members," he acknowledged. "Don't worry, I'm not interested. But I am going to go and see what's going on."
Here with Robbie, in the woods, my thoughts about Bree and Raven and their coven began to seem a little paranoid. So what if they wanted to have their own coven? That wasn't necessarily bad or evil. It was just different, another spoke on the wheel. And the hair well, who knew what that was about? Sky had told them no one would get hurt, and they seemed to trust her. But most of all, I just couldn't see Bree as evil. She'd been my best friend for so long. I'd know if there was something really warped about her. Wouldn't I?
I shook my head. It was too hard to think about. Then I remembered something else that I'd overheard. "Do you know someone named Thalia?" I asked Robbie. "She's in Bree and Raven's coven."
He thought and shook his head. "Maybe she's a friend of Raven's."
"Well, my informants tell me she may make a move on you," I said. I'd meant it as a joke, but the words came out sounding dark for some reason.
Robbie brightened. "Excellent," he said.
I laughed and poked him in the side as we walked along the park path.
"Just watch out, okay?" I said after a while. "I mean, with Bree. She tends to like guys she can control, you know? Guys she can intimidate, who'll do whatever she wants. They don't last long."
Robbie was silent. I didn't have to tell him all this; he knew it already.
"If Bree could care about you in the way you deserve," I went on, "it would be great. But I don't want you to get hurt."
"I know," he said.
I squeezed his arm a little tighter. "Good luck," I whispered.
He smiled. "Thanks."
For just a minute I wondered about love spells, love potions, and whether they ever worked. But Robbie broke into my thoughts, as if reading my mind.
"Don't you dare interfere with this magickwise," he warned me.
I feigned a hurt expression. "Of course not! I think I've done enough already." Robbie laughed.
Suddenly I stopped short and pulled on his arm. He glanced at me quizzically. I raised a finger to my lips. My eyes scanned the woods. I saw nothing. But my senses there was someone here. Two someones. I could feel them. But where were they?
After another moment I heard muffled voices.
Without thinking, we both dropped down behind a large boulder by the side of the path.
"You're wrongI don't want to," someone was saying.
My eyes met Robbie's and widened. It was Matt's voice.
"Don't be silly, Matt. Of course you want to. I've seen how you look at me."
Of course. It was Ravenand she was trying to seduce Matt. It made perfect sense. I remembered how she'd said his name in the bathroom, how she'd laughed.
Without speaking, Robbie and I peeked over the top of the boulder. About twenty feet from us Matt and Raven were standing face-to-face. The sun was dropping rapidly now, the air turning colder. Raven moved closer to him, a smile playing on her lips. He frowned and stepped back but bumped into a tree. She moved in and pressed herself against him from chest to knee.
"Stop," he said weakly.
Raven wrapped her hands around his neck and stood on tiptoes to kiss him.
"Stop," he repeated, but the word had about as much force as Dagda's meowing. He resisted for a grand total of five seconds, then his arms went around her, his head slanted, and he pulled her to him tightly. Next to me Robbie dropped his head into his hands. I gaped at them for a little while longerbut when Matt unzipped Raven's coat and unbuttoned his own, I couldn't stand it anymore. Robbie and I leaned with our backs against the boulder. I heard a small moan and cringed. This was too embarrassing.
Robbie leaned closer and breathed into my ear. "Do you think they're gonna do it?"
I grimaced. "I don't know. I mean, it's freezing out here." Robbie let out a muffled snort. Then I started giggling. For several seconds we crouched low and chewed on our coat sleeves, choking with laughter. Finally Robbie had to look. He eased his head around the boulder into the woods. "I can't see much," he complained in a whisper. "It's too dark in the trees."
I didn't want to look myself, though I knew I could have seen everything clearly. My night vision had improved dramatically; I could see easily in the darkness now, as if everything was illuminated slightly from within. I'd even found a reference to that power in a witchcraft book: it was called magesight.
"I don't think they're doing it," Robbie whispered, squinting. "It looks more like heavy making out. They're still standing."
"Thank the God and Goddess," I muttered.
I heard Matt's voice: "We have to stop. Jenna"
"Forget Jenna," Raven murmured beguilingly. "I want you. You want me. You want to be with me, in our coven."
"No, I"
"Matt, please. Quit fighting it. Just give in and you can have me. Don't you want me?"
He gave a strangled moan. Now it was my turn to cover my face with my hands. I wished I could stop Matt somehow. Of course, I was also thinking he was a total jerk.
"You do want me," Raven coaxed. "And I can give you what you want. What Jenna can't do for you. We can be together, and we can make magick, strong magick, in my coven. You don't want to be with Cal anymore. He's a control freak."
I stiffened and frowned. What the hell did she know about Cal?
"In our circle you can do what you want," Raven continued. "No one will hold you back. And you can be with me. Come on."
Raven's voice had never sounded so sweet and pleading. A shiver went down my spine that had nothing to do with the cold.
"I can't," Matt answered. His voice was tortured. We could hear their footsteps in the fallen leaves. Luckily they were moving away from us.
"My ass is frozen," Robbie whispered. "Let's get out of here."
I nodded and stood. As quietly and swiftly as we could, we hurried back down the path to Das Boot. Without a word I dumped my basket of decorations in the trunk, and we hopped into the car.
"That was weird," Robbie finally muttered, blowing on his hands.
I nodded and jammed my key into the ignition. "Now we know why he's being strange," I said as I cranked the heater. I grinned. "Raven's totally hot for him."
Robbie didn't smile, and my own smile faded quickly. This wasn't funny. Not in the least. People could get hurt. I pulled Das Boot out of the parking lot and onto the road.
"Do we do anything about it?" I asked. "I feel sorry for Jenna. I even sort of feel sorry for Matt. He's just lost."
"Do you think Raven's working a spell on him?" Robbie asked.
I shook my head. "I don't know. I mean, she isn't a blood witch. It would be different if she had been doing Wicca for years and was more in touch with her natural power. I don't really see it. Unless Sky did something to her that made her able to do something to Matt"
"I guess it's enough to use the spell of sex," said Robbie dryly.
I thought back to how Cal had made me feel, to the few times we had been close and making outhow swept away I had been, how almost everything faded away except him.
"Yeah," I muttered. "So what do we do?"
Robbie thought "I don't know. I can't see confronting either of them about it. In a way, it isn't our business. What if you told Cal? I mean, it's his coven they're trying to split up. Tell him the stuff you overheard at school."
I sighed, then nodded. "Good idea." I bit my lip. "Robbiethanks for telling me about how you feel about Bree. I'm glad you trusted me. And I won't tell anyone else. But just be careful, okay?"
Robbie nodded. "I will."
CHAPTER 11The Council
Samhain, 1995
My cousins are having a costume party on Samhain, after we do the service. I'm going as the Dagda, the Lord of the Heavens, and high king of the Tuatha De Danaan. I'm going to carry my panpipes for music, my wand for magick, and a book for knowledge. It'll be fun. I've been helping Linden and Alwyn with their costumes, and we've laughed a lot.
I saw my cousin Ather kissing Dare MacGregor behind a tree in the garden. I teased her and she put a binding spell on me and I can't even tattle. I've been looking for the antispell for two days.
Next year I'll be making my initiation, and then I'll be a witch. The waiting will be over. I've been studying long enough. Seems like all I've done is study, since I came here. Aunt Shelagh is not so bad, but Uncle Beck is a slave driver. And it's even harder because Linden and Alwyn are always hanging onto me, running after me, asking questions that I have a hard time answering, My mind is always spinning, spinning-like a wheel.
But what I think of most, still, is Mum and Dad. Where are they, and why did they leave us? I have lost so much-my family, my trust. The anger never dies. In a year, I'll learn the truth. Another reason I can't wait for my initiation.
Giomanach
"I tried to call you last night," I told Cal, pressing my face against his warm coat. The chill air swept across the parking lot, rustling my hair. I shivered. His hand stroked my back.
The morning bell was about to ring, but I didn't feel like sharing Cal with the others right now. I didn't want to see Matt and Jenna, either. My nerves felt jangledboth from the bizarre events of yesterday and from the awful dreams I'd had last night Dreams of a dark cloud, like a swarm of black insects, that was chasing me, suffocating me. I'd woken up sweating and shaking, and I hadn't fallen back asleep until dawn. And then Mary K. had woken me up barely an hour later.
"I know," Cal whispered, kissing my temple. "I got your message. But I got back too late to call you. Was it important? I figured if you really needed me, you'd send a witch message."
I wrapped my arms tightly around his waist. "It was just a bunch of weird stuff I wanted to talk to you about."
"Like what?"
For an instant I hesitated. We were leaning against his car, across the street from school, and it felt almost private. Not private enough, though. I glanced around to make sure we were alone. "Well, first I overheard Raven and Bree talking in the girls' bathroom. They were talking about trying to get Matt and Robbie to join their coven. I think they want to split us up. Sky is their leader. They meet at her place, wherever that is. Then Bree said something about how she found some of my hair to give to Sky. I was kind of freaked out," I confessed. "I mean, what does Sky want with my hair?"
Cal's golden eyes narrowed. "I don't knowbut I plan to find out." He took a deep breath. "Don't worry. No one is going to interfere with you, Morgan. Not while I'm around."
I was amazed at how comforting I found his words. I felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders.
"There's more," I told him. "Later, Robbie and I were in the park, and we saw Raven and Matt actually making out"
Cal's eyebrows rose. "Oh," he said.
"Yeah. It was totally by accident. Robbie and I were walking around, gathering pinecones and stuff, and we saw Raven practically roping and tying Matt, trying to get him to break up with Jenna and join their coven."
"Man," Cal said, frowning. "So you were rightMatt is acting squirrelly, and now we know why."
"Yep."
A thoughtful expression crossed Cal's face. "And Sky's definitely the leader of their coven? That makes sense since you saw her meeting with Bree and Raven."
I nodded. But I couldn't help wondering if Sky was their leader, then what had she been doing at Cal's house with Selene, participating in one of Selene's circles the night I'd found Maeve's Book of Shadows? Was she some kind of Wiccan spy? Did Selene know Sky had her own coven? Did it even matter? My head was spinning. There was so much I f didn't understand, so much I had to find out.
At that moment we heard the distant ringing of the homeroom bell, and we both groaned. Going to classes was not my number-one priority today.
With our arms around each other, we started slogging across the dead brown grass toward school. "Let me think about this," said Cal. "I need to talk to Sky, obviously. But I also need to figure out if I should talk to Raven, or Matt, or both."
I nodded. Part of me felt like a tattler. But mostly I was just relieved that Cal knew. I was thinking about talking to Matt myself, but I felt certain that Cal would take care of anything bigger, like with Sky. As we climbed the stone steps of the back entrance, l squeezed his hand good-bye. Yes, I would have to talk to Matt. He was a friend and still part of our circle. I owed it to him.
"Matt?" I called down the hall. "Do you have a minute?"
It was after lunch and almost time to head to class. My lack of sleep was starting to catch up with me. My feet were definitely starting to drag. I would have given anything to just go curl up somewhere and take a nap. But this was the first chance I'd had to talk to Matt, and I wasn't going to let it slip.
"What's up, Morgan?" Matt asked. He stood in front of me, his face shuttered and remote, his hands in his pockets.
I took a deep breath, then decided just to get right into it. "I saw you and Raven yesterday," I stated baldly. "In Butler's Ferry park."
Matt's black eyes went wide, and he stared at me. "Uh what are you talking about?"
"Come on," I said patiently. I pulled him over to one side of the hallway so we could talk without being overheard by the occasional wandering student. I lowered my voice. "I mean, I saw you yesterday, with Raven, in the park. I know she's trying to get you to join her coven. I know you're fooling around with her."
"I'm not fooling around with her!" Matt insisted.
I didn't even answer. I just raised my eyebrows.
His gaze fell to the floor. "I mean, it hasn't gotten that far," he mumbled, finally giving in. "Jesus, I don't know what to do."
I shrugged. "Break up with Jenna if you want to go out with Raven," I said.
"But I don't want to go out with Raven," Matt said. "I don't want to join her coven. The thing is I've always thought she was kind of hot, you know?" He shook his head as if to clear it. "Why am I even telling you this?"
A couple of freshman girls passed us. Though they were only two years younger, they seemed a world apart from me. They were a world apart. They belonged to the world of school and homework and boys. Mary K.'s world. Not mine.
"Why does she want you to join their coven?" I asked.
"I guess they need more people," Matt answered. He sounded miserable. "A bunch of people started coming, but they all dropped out or were kicked out. A lot of them didn't take it seriously."
"But why you?" I pressed.
He sniffed. "I don't think it's really me. I mean, I'm nobody. I'm just a warm body."
"You're also part of our coven," I muttered. Part of me wanted to console him, but the other part wanted to wring his neck. "So what are you going to do?" I asked. I crossed my arms and tried not to look too judgmental.
"I don't know."
I sighed. "Maybe you should talk to Cal about this," I suggested. "Maybe he could help you clarify your thoughts."
Matt didn't look so sure. "Maybe," he said doubtfully. "I'll think about it." He glanced up at me. "Are you going to tell Jenna?"
"No." I shook my head. "But she's not stupid. She knows something's wrong."
He laughed distantly. "Yeah. We've been going out for four years. We know each other so well. But we're not even eighteen yet." With that he pushed himself off the wall and headed off to his classwithout so much as even a backward glance.
I watched him leave, thinking about what he'd said. Did he mean he had gotten tied up with Jenna too early and wanted to date other people? As I pondered it a short rhyme popped into my mind. I repeated the words quietly.
"Help him see the way to go
Help him know the truth to show
He is not the hunter here
Nor yet should he be the deer."
I shook my head and headed to my own class. What did it mean? I wondered. Who knew? These things didn't come with instructions and commentary.
That afternoon when Mary K. and I got home from school, there was a gray car parked in front of our house. I didn't think anything of itpeople parked in front of our house all the time. It was probably one of my mother's clients. So I just followed my sister up the walkway.
"Morgan!"
I wheeled at that voice. Hunter Niall was getting out of the car.
"Who's the dish?" Mary K. asked, arching an eyebrow.
I glared at her. "Go inside," I commanded, my heart kicking up a beat. "I'll deal with it."
Mary K. grinned at me. "Ooh. I can't wait to hear all about this." She pounded up the porch steps, stomped the ice off her Doc Martens, and went inside.
"Hello, Morgan," Hunter said, approaching me. How did he manage to make a simple greeting sound menacing? I wondered. His cold seemed to have gotten worse, too. His nose was red, and his voice was very nasal.
"What do you want?" I asked, swallowing. I remembered my bad dream of last night, my overwhelming feelings of being smothered, the dark cloud that had been chasing me.
He coughed. "I want to talk to you."
"About what?" I slung my backpack up onto the porch, not taking my eyes off him. I watched his hands, his mouth, his eyes, anything that he could use to do magick. My pulse was racing; my throat felt tight. I wished hard that Cal would suddenly drive up out of the blue. I considered sending him a message with my thoughts, a witch messagebut then I realized I should just turn around and go in. I could handle myself. I didn't even need to talk to Hunter.
But for some reason I just stood there as he strode toward me, cutting across our lawn, leaving black footprints in the half-melted ice. He was close enough now that I could see that his fair skin was completely unblemished and there were a few freckles across the bridge of his strong nose. His eyes were cold and green.
"Let's talk about you, Morgan," he said, and he pushed his leather cap farther back on his head. A few tufts of blond hair poked out beneath it. "You don't know what you're doing with Cal." He made this announcement firmly but casually, as if he were simply telling me it was four o'clock and time for tea.
I shook my head, feeling the anger rise. "You don't even know"
"It's not your fault," he interrupted. "This is all new to you."
The anger welled in the pit of my stomach, turning to rage. What right did he have to be so condescending to me?
Hunter fastened his eyes on mine. "You can't be expected to know about Cal, and his mother, and who they are," he said.
"No one blames you," he added.
"No one blames me for what?" I demanded. "What are you talking about? I don't even know you. Where do you get off telling me anything about people I know, people I care about?"
He shrugged. His manner was as cold as the air around us. "You're stumbling into something bigger and darker than you could possibly imagine."
Rage turned to sarcasm. Hunter definitely brought out the worst in me. "Oh," I said, trying to sound bored. "Stop, stop, you're scaring me."
His face tightened, and he stepped toward me. My stomach clenched, and adrenaline pumped through my veins. I resisted the urge to turn and bolt into the house.
"Cal's lied to you," Hunter snarled. "He isn't what or who you think he is. Neither he nor his mother. I'm here to warn you. Don't be stupid. Look at me!" He gestured at his puffy eyes and red nose. "Do you think this is normal? Because it isn't. They're working magick on me"
"Oh, are you kidding me?" I interrupted. "Are you actually telling me they're plotting against you? Give me a break!"
Who was this guy? Did he really think I would believe that Cal and Selene gave him a cold with dark magick? Or was he simply some paranoid nut? Maybe I should feel sorry for himbut I couldn't. All I felt was fury. I wanted to shove him as hard as I could, knock him down and kick him. I had never been so angry, not at my parents, or Bree, not even at Bakker. I spun to go inside.
Hunter darted forward and caught my arm in a painful grip reeling trapped, furious, I drew my fingers together and smacked his hand. A jolt of crackly blue light jumped from my hand and shocked him. He released me at once, looking startled.
"So that's it," he whispered, rubbing his hand. He nodded in astonishment. "That's why he wants you."
"Get the hell away from me!" I shouted. "Or do you want me to really hurt you?"
Hunter sneered. "Trying to show me just what a powerful Woodbane you are?"
Time seemed to freeze.
"That's right," he whispered. "I know your secret. I know you're Woodbane."
"You don't know anything," I managed. The words came out in a misty whisper.
"Maeve Riordan," he said, shrugging. "Belwicket. They were all Woodbane. Don't act like you don't know."
"You're lying," I spat, but I felt an awful sensation bubbling inside me, like a boiling cauldron. I wondered if I was going to throw up.
A flash of surprise crossed his face, instantly replaced with suspicion. "You can't hide it," he said. Now he sounded more irritated than arrogant. "You can't pretend it away. You're Woodbane, Cal is Woodbane, and the two of you are dancing with fire. But it's going to stop. You have a choice, and he does, too. I'm here to make sure you make the right one."
Move, I told my body, my feet. Get inside. Move, dammit! But I couldn't.
"Who are you?" I asked. "Why are you doing this to me?"
"I'm Hunter," he said with a sudden, wolfish grin that made me draw in my breath. He looked feral and dangerous. "The youngest member of the International Council of Witches."
My breath was now coming in shallow gasps, as if I were facing death itself.
"And I'm Cal's brother," he said.
CHAPTER 12The Future
I thank the God and Goddess for her. What a revelation she is, continually. When I was assigned to her, I had no idea she would be anything but an exercise in power. She has become so much more than that. She is a wild bird: delicate but possessing fierce strength. To move too soon would be to watch her take flight in fear.
For the first time in my life there is a chink in my armor, and it is my love.
Sgath
I ran up the ice-crusted steps of our house and threw myself through the door. Somehow I knew Hunter wouldn't follow me. The house was wonderfully warm and cozy, and I almost sobbed with relief as I pounded up the stairs and crashed into my bedroom. I had enough presence of mind to lock my door, and when Mary K. knocked a minute later, I called, "I'll be down in a few minutes."
"Okay," she replied. A moment later her feet padded downstairs.
My head was spinning. The first thing I did was run into the bathroom and examine my face in the mirror. It was me, still the same old me, despite the haunted look in my brown eyes and my shock-whitened face.
Was Hunter right? Was I Woodbane?
I threw myself onto my bed and pulled Maeve's Book of Shadows out from under my mattress, then started flipping pages. I'd thumbed through the entries before, reading bits here and there, but mostly I'd been plodding through slowly, savoring every word, letting each spell sink in, deepening my knowledge and my only link to the woman who had given birth to me.
Strangely enough, though, it didn't take me long to find what I was looking for. It was from when Maeve was still writing as Bradhadair. She wrote matter-of-factly: "Despite the Woodbane blood in our veins, the Belwicket dan has resolved to do no evil."
With the force of a wave crashing on a beach, Selene's words came back to me: "I know what it contains, and I wasn't sure you were ready to read it."
Selene knew Maeve had been Woodbane. Suddenly my eyes were drawn to a small volume on my deskthe book about Woodbanes that Alyce at Practical Magick had wanted me to read. So Alyce knew, too? Hunter knew? How did everyone know except me? Did Cal know? It didn't seem possible.
Hunter was a liar, though. I could feel the fury gathering within me all over again, like storm clouds. Hunter had also said he was Cal's brother. I thought back I knew that Cal's father had remarried and that Cal had half siblings in England. But Hunter couldn't be one of them-he and Cal seemed practically the same age.
Lies. All Lies.
But why was Hunter here? Had he just decided to come to America and mess with my mind? Maybe he was Cal's half brother and he was out to get Cal for some reason. And he was attacking me in order to hurt Cal. He was doing a damn good job of it if that was the case.
The whole thing was giving ma a horrible headache. I shut the book and pulled Dagda into my arms, listening to his small, sleepy purr. I stayed there until Mary K. called me to tell me dinner was ready.
The meal was practically inedible: a vegetarian casserole that Mary K. had concocted. I wasn't even hungry, anyway. I needed some answers.
Sidestepping a whispered question from Mary K. about Hunter, I told her I'd help her with the dishes later, then asked my parents if I could go to Cal's. Luckily they said yes.
It started to snow again as I pulled away from the house in Das Boot. Of course I was still upset about everything Hunter had said, but I tried not to let it affect my driving. The wipers pushed snow off the windshield in big arcs, and my brights illuminated thousands of flakes swirling down out of the sky. It was beautiful and silent and lonely.