Spells Trouble (Sisters of Salem #1) - P. C. Cast Page 0,44
over the basin. “At this time and at this place we meet before Mother Moon and Father Tyr to call for the cleansing of grief from our friend and sister, Mercy Anne Goode.”
She lifted the moon water toward the sky and closed her eyes as the Apache Tear clanked in the bottom of the jar. “We humbly thank the Apache Women who shed enough tears for their lifetimes and ours.” Hunter opened her eyes and poured the water into the cauldron. Emily, Jax, and Kirk gasped as the moon etchings flickered to life, then went out.
Hunter repeated the same gestures and uncapped the second jar and hefted it skyward. “We thank the sweet vibrations of mangano calcite as they free us to love and let go.” Again, the etchings sputtered with magical light as the water splashed into the cauldron.
Hunter looked up and was met with a wide-eyed excitement that fed her hammering pulse. “When I say, we’ll all drop in our moonstones at the same time.”
She pressed her fingertips against her pendant and continued, “At this time and at this place we come together, strengthened by friendship and love, to ask for the purification of heart and mind and soul and the return of peace and hope and light.”
The others joined Hunter as she reached out and held her moonstone over the brimming cauldron. “Now.” She nodded, and the five stones released as one.
They fell through the water with the slow, magical syrupiness of honey through a sieve. Jagged lines of power cut through the water in electric white currents. Their intention had been granted by the moon and by Tyr and by the power that had stitched Hunter back together time and time again. The frosty white charges connected the glowing moonstones in a sacred symbol, a powerful symbol.
“Is that a star?” The reflection blazed brilliant white in Kirk’s eyes.
Mercy unfurled and leaned forward. “It’s a pentagram.” She took Kirk’s hand in hers and sat up straight and tall. “Join hands,” she instructed and clasped her fingers around Hunter’s. “It’ll make the incantation stronger.” No, there was no spell that would keep Mercy Anne Goode away.
A geyser erupted from the center of the cauldron when the five joined hands. Enchanted moon water rained into their circle like glitter.
Hunter unclasped her hand from Mercy’s and placed her palm against the back of her sister’s head. As Mercy closed her eyes, a single tear washed down her cheek. Hunter squeezed Jax’s hand as she began the final part of the spell. “Be rid of this despair, Mercy, and come back to me.” She’d intended the last words to be a beacon of strength, a clarion call through the magical haze that filled their quaint living room. Instead, they’d been a whisper, a prayer. The words had rushed from her heart and flew out of her mouth with the ease of an exhale. Hunter released Jax’s hand and rolled Tyr’s pendant between her fingers. She needed her sister back. Her world was unbalanced without her.
Again, Hunter took Jax’s hand in hers as she guided Mercy’s head down to the cauldron. The water didn’t ripple as her sister’s face broke the surface. It was like glass, like ice, like Goode Lake in the dead of winter—still and peaceful. Mercy’s hair fell into the cauldron, raven wings beneath the calm surface. Hunter’s fingers numbed as she felt her sister take one breath and then another and another.
Kirk reached out to grab Mercy but was deflected by a magical shield of glowing white light. “Get her out of there!”
Hunter had been waiting for this. She knew Kirk wasn’t the type of guy to sit back if something went wrong. Not because he was a protector but because he believed he knew what was best. Plus, she had seen Sabrina. If that’s what he thought of her, of them, he’d pull out his pitchfork in no time. “Maintain your focus! Breaking it will—”
Mercy sat up. Her hair arched through the air with the perfected drama and grace of a TV starlet. Hunter couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, couldn’t force her eyes away from the glowing cauldron and the image of her sister still caught in the skin of the water.
Jax’s hand went clammy. “Hunter?” He squeezed her fingers once, twice, three times before Hunter brought herself back to the present.
Mercy’s face and hair dried before any water dripped onto her shirt. “Is that me?” she asked, blinking down at the cauldron.