Witching Time (The Wild Hunt #14) - Yasmine Galenorn Page 0,86
me.
“We’ll leave all the crystals on their land. If we ever need to come out here again, we can fire them up again to see if there are any more wights. I called my father and he’s sending an Elven priestess of Cerridwen here tomorrow morning to bless and cleanse the farm. Your friends can come home after that.” He turned to Kipa. “Thanks be to your guards. We couldn’t have done it without them.”
Kipa nodded, then motioned to the contingent of warriors and barked an order. They knelt as one, then rose and began running down the drive, disappearing into a thick bank of mist that rose from the ground. When they were gone, the farm fell silent.
I listened to the energy flowing around us. The crystals were now flowing with pure, clear energy, charging the land and creating their own form of warding. The priestess’s blessing would be icing on the cake. Inhaling deeply, I relaxed. Aida was free. Jericho was free. The statue of Reyas had been destroyed. All was calm. Overhead, the clouds began to sock in again and the rain began to fall, soaking the ground in a cleansing shower of tears.
Chapter Eighteen
The next day—Thursday…
Once again, Kipa and I were out at Rain and Marigold’s, but today we were relaxed, wandering around the clearing where the harvest fair had taken place. Kipa was carrying an urn containing Aida’s ashes and another containing Jericho’s ashes.
“Here they come,” he said, pointing toward the driveway. Llew and Jordan had taken the day off and now they joined us as Marigold slowly eased out of Rain’s car. Evie and Dray had brought back the cats and dog. Evie ran the cats up to the house—they were indoor only—and then rejoined us as we all gathered around the scorched remains of the circle.
Marigold had a sheepish grin on her face, though she looked a little shell-shocked.
“How are you feeling?” Llew asked, hurrying to her side.
“Like I’ve been through hell. I guess I have. But that thing’s gone. I don’t remember much from the past year, to be honest. I have flashes, but the wight soaked up most of my memories.” She turned to Rain, shaking her head. “I wish…”
“No, we’ve already talked about this. It wasn’t your fault, and there was nothing you could have done to prevent it. Everything’s okay.” Rain gave her a kiss on the cheek. “You’re back with us now, and the land is clear.”
And clear it was. In the morning light, it felt like the farm had been washed clean. The Elven priestess had cast a powerful spell and left a statue of Cerridwen to watch over the farm.
“About that,” Llew said. “I’m going to help you set up wards all the way around, and we’ll cleanse that temple and clear out all the debris from the statue—”
“My men already did. They returned this morning with Cerridwen’s priestess,” Kipa said. “They removed all the debris. There should be very little residue there.”
“All the crystals—” Rain started to say.
“Herne said to leave them be. They’ll amplify and strengthen the energy of your land, so if you keep your wards up, your crops should do very well over the next few years. And if we ever need to use them again, they’re still attuned to the mother crystal, which Herne has.” I flashed Marigold a broad smile. “We’re just grateful you’re okay.”
Evie wandered over to me and rested her head on my shoulder. “Thanks, Raven. I hope we can find a way to repay you. Our mother’s…well, she’s our mother again. There’s no amount of money that can ever repay you.”
I kissed her forehead. “It’s okay. Don’t worry about it. If you have extra milk or eggs, send a few dozen our way and we’ll be good. Kipa bought all the corn and pumpkins for his men, so you at least have something from the harvest. But I do think you should have a Samhain festival—or at least, a Halloween festival. That will make up for some of your lost revenue. You can have a pumpkin pie contest, and maybe candied apples, and sell apple cider—you have enough apple trees. I don’t know if you want to set up a haunted house, given what happened, but there are a lot of ideas you can try.”
“I think, before we decide on what to do next, we’ll just take a couple weeks to regroup. We need some downtime.” Marigold looked around. “The farm feels so quiet and settled.”