Dead silence.
“Seri?” Robin prompted. “Sammy?”
It was Sammy who answered, his voice far too bland. “I haven’t been in contact with any Powers, Native or otherwise, since the equinox.”
“No? And have you been in touch with any energies that I would consider a Native Power, even if you don’t?”
Sammy gave himself away with a quick glance at his twin.
Robin looked around. “Did anyone tell these two what happened while they were gathering holly?”
Sammy sent Benedict a dark look. “Benedict claims he was forced to turn into a wolf and that Coyote showed up and scared Muffin.”
“And you don’t believe him. Why?”
Another glance between the twins. Seri sighed and answered. “Because it wasn’t Coyote we invited. Not that it was really an invitation—you’d call it that, but we altered the ritual so we’d be drawing on the underlying reality of the kind of protective energy we wanted, not a named persona representing that energy.”
“Who,” Robin said, “or what did you invite?”
“It wasn’t an invitation. It was—”
“Seri.”
“Raven.”
Benedict sighed and rubbed his forehead.
“Benedict,” Robin said, “you have something to say, I think.”
“Yeah. You two got the wrong trickster. Protective energy? Raven?” He shook his head. “Raven’s a lot of things, sometimes helpful, sometimes not, but at heart, he’s a trickster, not a guardian.”
Sammy managed to look both wary and vaguely superior at the same time. “Raven is a symbol, not an entity.”
“He’s both. And symbol or entity, he’s not a protective figure. And you didn’t get him. You got Coyote. I see three questions here. First, what were you really trying to do? Second, why involve a Native Power instead of the ones you call on in Wicca? Third, why did Coyote decide to show up?”
Arjenie spoke suddenly. “I bet I can answer the first one. Look at what happened. Something forced you to Change. I bet the twins cast some sort of ‘reveal’ spell—a variation on a truth spell that was supposed to force you to reveal what you really are. Only because they involved Coyote—”
“Raven,” Seri insisted hotly.
“You may have been thinking Raven, but when you tinkered with the invitation, trying to make it not an invitation but something that fit your skewed notion of reality—”
“Skewed? Skewed? Let me tell you, we have been practicing this sort of thing with smaller spells for some time, and results clearly demonstrate—”
“You have, have you?” Robin said softly. “And where have you done this practicing?”
The glance the twins exchanged was easily read by nontwins this time—something along the lines of Oh, shit.
Robin waited. When neither of them spoke, she said, “This is now a coven matter. The family meeting is adjourned.”
“But Mom—”
“Clay?” Robin stood.
He shook his head, but it wasn’t a disagreeing shake. More like resigned and unhappy. Benedict wondered what coven rules the twins had broken and what the penalty might be. “She’s right and you know that. We’ll have to talk with you two privately.”
Robin’s face had gone still, as if she were listening to something. “But not right away,” she said slowly. “We have a visitor, or will very shortly. I believe it’s the sheriff.”
Chapter Six