“No.”
“Absolutely not.”
“You’re out of your mind.”
We’re all speaking at once, absolutely opposed to Ruth going inside.
“Girls.” Ruth holds up her hand. “I need something from in there. Something that was my grandmother’s. I know precisely where it is.”
“If it’s upstairs, you can’t get to it,” Millie says. “That staircase isn’t sound.”
“It’s under the stairs by the back door,” Ruth replies. “I know you girls hid under there sometimes. I don’t know how I know, I just do. I hid a box of things under there for safekeeping. I need that box.”
“It’s right inside the back door,” Brielle murmurs. “Maybe we can get around the house, sneak in the back way, and grab it really quickly.”
“There’s no sneaking.” I gesture to the hundreds of shadows currently staring at us. “They’re watching every move we make. And I’ll wager a guess that Horace is in there watching, too.”
“I need that box,” Ruth says again. “I’ll go in and get it myself.”
“No.” Lucien lays his hand on Ruth’s shoulder. “We can’t let you go in there, Ruth.”
He turns to the rest of us with a sigh.
“We’ll get it,” he continues. “The six of us together. From here on out, we stand as one. We’re stronger together.”
“We’re going to walk right through the back door,” Cash agrees. “No apologies. No fear. What’s in there belongs to Ruth, and she’ll have it.”
“Now isn’t exactly the moment I’d choose to get all in your face about this,” Daphne says with a sigh, “but fine. We go. In and out. We don’t have much time before the eclipse begins.”
“Come with me,” Miss Sophia says to Ruth, taking her hand and pulling her back with the others.
Hand-in-hand, the six of us take off around the house.
Ignore them, Lucien says in our heads. The spirits will try to scare us off. Ignore them.
It’s a little hard to do when they’re pushing and grabbing, doing everything they can to terrorize us.
I see Daddy, Daphne says. Even telepathically, her voice shakes. In the garden.
I just saw him looking out of a window, Millie adds.
More games, Lucien says.
We push through the back door, taking it clear off the rusted hinges, and Brielle opens the small door that leads to the space under the stairs.
“I see it,” she cries. Seconds later, she and Cash hurry out, each carrying a handle on the side of an old trunk.
“Let me,” I say and take Brielle’s end. “It’s damn heavy.”
“Let’s go!” Daphne yells, and we hurry back around the house. Ruth’s face lights up when she sees that we found her trunk.
“Oh, thank you. Thank you so much.” She falls to her knees and opens the lid, shuffling through the treasures inside. As she and Sophia put their heads together, the six of us huddle up.
It’s game time.
The moon is waning, Lucien says. It’s time to put this plan into motion.
He waves his arm and lights all the torches that have been set up around the front of the house. I’m surprised as I look around at how much has been done in just a few minutes.
Witches work damn fast when they have to.
The crowd of witches standing behind us is an army I’m proud to fight with and for. Some are literally dressed for battle with protective gear and helmets. Others are dressed casually, holding wands or crystals.
More still look like the witches you’d see in the movies, wearing cloaks, standing before cauldrons with large crystal balls in the palms of their hands.
No matter the skill they’re using, no matter what they look like, each one uses their affinity to help us to the best of their ability.
Lucy steps forward wearing a red shroud, a grimoire in her hands.
“I’m going to lead the others in the spells you taught us this morning,” she says to us, her eyes never leaving the house behind us. “We will need the help of the goddess and all the deities to fight this. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“And you never will again,” Lucien says. “Thank you.”
He turns back to us, into us, and raises his athame high, turning to each of the four cardinal directions and calling upon the watchtowers while whispering words of invocation before walking the perimeter behind us, starting in the north.
“Element of earth, we call on you. Lend us your strength and keep us grounded in our task.” He walks to the east. “Element of air, we call upon you. Let us be flexible in our ways but powerful in our might.” He rounds to the south. “Element of fire, we beseech thee. Lend us your power and passion to overcome our foes.” Facing the west, he says, “Element of water, we ask your assistance. Show us your might and buoy us in our fight.”
When he returns to his place in the circle, he reaches out to grab the hands of those on either side of him, and all of us follow suit with our neighbors, creating a spiral of energy around the circle. “We enter this space in perfect love and perfect trust. The circle is cast. No negative energies may enter this space, and any already within are subject to our will. Raising the infinite power of three times three, so it is, so mote it be.”
The wind picks up around us as the moon continues to fade with the shadow of the Earth. Suddenly, lightning illuminates the top of the house, and there stands Horace.
Waiting
Watching.
“He looks like he did before,” Brielle yells out above the sound of the wind. “When he was alive!”
“He’s manifested himself back into being,” Millie says.
It means he’s strong. Stronger than ever.
But then, so are we.
“We are the six, the six are we…” We begin the spell for the waning moon, pulling in protection and strength from the deities and using it to create powerful banishing magic.
It pisses off everything in and around that house—even more than creating the circle did.
Horace’s voice booms down from above.
“You will not defeat me! How dare you? HOW DARE YOU!”
More lightning, thunder, and wind. The shadows run and fly about in agitation, but because of the spells being cast behind us, they can’t reach us.
They’re like dogs, feral, nasty canines in a cage, snarling and spitting.
The new moon phase is seconds away, Brielle says in our heads.
The second stage of our plan is being set in motion. I plant my feet, grit my teeth, and get ready for the battle of my life.
As the moon plunges us into complete darkness, we begin the next spell.
“By the dark of the moon, in the shadow of Earth, we manifest our desires and give intention new birth. Lord and Lady, lend us your might; stop this evil and make everything right. Our power is yours, as well it should be. Let yours be ours, so mote it be.”
The wind before was nothing compared to this. It swirls and circles around us, and I can feel the good fighting the bad energy, the spiritual warfare taking place all around us.
Ruth sits just in front of us, a black mirror clutched in her hands as she begins to scry. I’ve never seen anyone do it before, but I know exactly what this is.