Hallowed Circle

Chapter 33

Johnny's guitar was broken and a yellowish green fluid was all that remained of Cerebrosus. The brocade surcoat, breeches, all of it was gone, replaced by gooey fluid leaking from under the guitar. I released the instrument and hurried to where Xerxadrea lay on her side.

"Eldrenne? Xerxadrea, are you okay?"

"Persephone? Is that you, dear?"

"Yes, Xerxadrea. You took a fall—anything broken?"

Her raven cawed and jumped up on her arm. "I feel fine. Help me sit up."

"I think you should wait. Let us—"

"Help me up!" Her hand reached out and I took it, helped her sit up. She sucked in a breath.

My heart leapt, thinking her quick breath was due to some pain.

"Did the fairy get away with my hanky?" she asked.

"No. I have it." I started to retrieve it from my bodice but I saw Johnny past the end of the stage. Beverley was beside him, holding Aquula's hand. Menessos and Goliath were just entering, each restraining one of the other two fairies. To the side, I detected people drifting close, chattering like people do after something has stunned them. A glance let me know Hunter and Lydia were hurrying over.

Then the fairies realized what had happened to their comrade and they went into fits of rage and grief. The red one burst into flames and tore herself away from Menessos and turned on Goliath, who threw the other male into the air. "This night, we have been summoned into a circle on Covenstead grounds," the red fairy shouted as the flames around her hardened and became her wings. "And a witch has murdered one of us! The Concordat has been broken and the consequences shall be wrought upon you!" She and the other darted behind the stage backdrop and the south doors were thrown back on their hinges and bounced closed.

A mist around my feet made me glance down, and slowly Xerxadrea rose to standing. The mist disappeared up under her dress as it had when she entered for the Eximium. "Where's my staff?"

"Lydia's bringing it," I said.

Johnny stepped up onstage. "You two all right?" he asked.

"Yes," Xerxadrea answered.

"Yeah," I said. With a sheepish attempt at a smile I added, "Sorry about your guitar."

"Hell, I'll make another one," he said. Before taking me into his arms, he gestured at the news crew on the catwalk opposite the stage. "I just hope they got that footage. Pete Townshend's got nothing on you."

News crew? Oh, crap—

Then I heard the splattering sounds of palms against palms, growing into the unmistakable rain of heartfelt applause. They—at least the mundanes in the crowded Hall, including the media—had taken it all for one hell of a great Hallowe'en treat complete with spectacular special effects.

They'd gotten the expected show. And I had been the star.

We witches assembled in Hunter's office, with Xerxadrea being guided to the big chair behind the desk. Johnny remained with Beverley and Aquula, while the vampires were asked to quietly secure the stage area and let no one near.

"What the hell happened out there?" Hunter demanded.

"They kidnapped Beverley and brought her here. They tried to kill her."

"Who's Beverley?" Hunter asked.

I sank into the chair that, a few days before, I'd sat in when I'd come to decline the nomination. I pulled the mask off and held it in my lap as I rolled the fabric up and squeezed my fingers into the silk. The stress of everything that had happened and could have happened felt like lead weights holding me down. "The daughter of a friend of mine."

Lydia put her hand on my shoulder. "Her friend was murdered a few weeks ago and Persephone has become the child's guardian."

Hunter was taken aback. "And on top of that you entered the Eximium?"

Shaking my head I said, "No. On top of that Lydia nominated me."

"Did the fairies have something to do with her mother's death?" Hunter asked.

"No, they weren't involved."

"Then why would they try to kill her?"

"Were they trying to sacrifice her?" Xerxadrea asked before I could answer. "On Covenstead grounds?"

"It wasn't ritualistic, so 'sacrifice' might be the wrong word, but they drew a dagger and…" I let it trail off, unsure whether telling them about Menessos was necessary.

Xerxadrea's fingers tapped on her staff. "That makes no sense. To sacrifice a virgin child on coven grounds is an act of war."

"And instead, one of them was killed inside the Covenstead." Hunter crossed her arms and gave me a petulant look. "My Covenstead."

"I haven't announced that yet," Xerxadrea said pointedly. "If you'd like to decline—"

"No!" Hunter's arms dropped to her sides. "I'm not giving it up."

Xerxadrea seemed to study Hunter, as if her filmy eyes weren't blind at all. "You would accept the position even with the instigation of a war lying at your feet, having occurred on your watch?"

I realized Hunter's moment of real adversity had just slapped her in the face and I had helped it happen. I held my breath.

The new high priestess met our eyes in turn. "My name is Hunter," she said sharply. "Let any who bring hostility to my coven's door or to my witches discover it the hard way."

Lydia gripped my shoulder. "You were right," she whispered to me.

She was with me. Not against me. My held breath escaped slowly. "Eldrenne. He called them to him, as if for a circle, to displace them so they could not kill Beverley."

"And this, too, was done on Covenstead grounds?" Xerxadrea asked. She knew who I meant.

"Yes. It was the only way to stop them."

"The Concordat accounted only for witches," Xerxadrea's cheeks rounded slightly and her tone conveyed an air of secretiveness. "I knew this day would come. I knew that, aberration that he is, he would be held accountable by them."

"Let me make sure I've got this straight," Hunter said. "The fairies were going to kill a kid on Covenstead grounds, which we would take as a violation of the Concordat and an act of war against us. But that vampire from the Eximium intervened, and he just happened to be able to call fairies to him. That's supposed to be impossible, right?"

"Supposed to be," I answered.

"By calling those particular fairies to him he saved the kid's life."

"Right."

"But his calling them as if to guard a magic circle is an act in direct violation of the Concordat and can therefore be taken as an act of war against the fairies. And in the end, you" — she pointed at me—"killed a fairy inside the Covenstead, which is also a direct violation and an act of war. Right?"

"He was trying to kill me—that was self-defense," I said.

"The two fairies who saw the aftermath did not see him after you. They will not tell the other fey you had just cause," Lydia said.

"The Concordat was violated twice against them," Hunter said.

"In order to stop them from violating it and killing a child!" I argued. Rubbing my brow I added, "I bet the news crews have already broadcast the footage with a 'Breaking News' banner under it. Shows it was self-defense."

Lydia put a hand over her mouth.

Hunter said, "I saw people with their cell phones out. I'm sure it's on YouTube already. They'll know it was self-defense."

Xerxadrea pulled her staff in front of her and gripped it with both hands as she stood and started working her way around the desk. She stopped in front of me. "Most are not aware that you have come or that your trials have begun. Some of us already know. Though many will see the events of this night, Persephone, only a few will understand what they are viewing. Your enemies will recognize you first." The lines on either side of her mouth deepened. "It is always that way. You've already been forced to share your secret with the few who have earned your trust. But you're going to have to expand your consortium. You might as well begin in this room."

I hesitated. My stomach felt like fire and ice were warring inside it.

"What are you talking about, Eldrenne?" Hunter asked.

"Tell them, Persephone. Say the words here, among your friends, for practice, child. For my lucusi will be next. Only by revealing yourself to them all will you keep your enemies at bay, and draw your allies near."

I stood. I paced away from them. Hands on hips, my brain searched for a way out of this. But there was none. I knew what had to be done. "Xerxadrea."

"Yes, child?"

"Are you with me?"

"My lucusi amd I are all with you."

I faced her. "As for those against me, how do I protect the ones I love from becoming targets?"

Her hand passed before her, palm toward me. "You already have."

"What do you mean?"

"Anonymity," she said. "With your mask, your face is hidden, like the face of Lady Justice—and yet you see." She tapped the staff on the floor. "Come."

The orb glowed softly when I stopped before her, and she whispered words that I could not understand to the light.

Then the Eldrenne reached out slowly. I moved my hand to accept hers, but she paused with her palm hovering over mine, whispering. The scent of anise and nutmeg changed to raisin and currant cakes.

Suddenly she grabbed my arm, and I hit my meditative alpha like it was a swimming pool I'd just belly flopped into. Not only was the wind knocked from me, but I felt different… cold and wet as if my clothes were soaked and clinging, yet I was dry. The ground beneath my feet wavered as if quaking. Power like I'd never felt before, Her power, arced over me, dragging me into her bright meditation, into her illuminant sacred space.

It was as if we had not moved, but the entire room had become a place of harsh light, yet…

Could we be inside the glowing orb atop her staff?

"My face," her voice croaked. "Look upon my face, child. Do you see Me? Or do you see your own soul?"

It was no longer the Eldrenne who held my arm. A figure of darkness stood before me. Not dark-clothed. She was darkness alive. Everything else around us was like overexposed film, as if all color and tone had seeped into creating Her as a living statue of ebony.

A breeze that could not touch me blew around Her, lifting Her dark hair and obscuring Her ever-changing face. Eyes closed, She seemed at rest. Or was She waiting for something? Surely the changing of her beautiful face—as if aging a lifetime in a second and reversing it equally—meant something.

"I am waiting for you…"

"Your face," I whispered. I didn't want to see my soul. Not yet.

Then the eyes of the figure of darkness opened. When I have finished meditating after gazing at a candle's flame, a color unlike any other has haunted my eyes for a time afterward, a reddish-yellow-green afterglow that wasn't pretty. Her irises were that color, with no pupils at all. And where that color ended was not white, but a crackling of jagged blue and green flames retreating into blackness so dark and void it seemed there was no orb to Her eye, just the flat, tricolored iris hanging in the space of Her eye socket. These were eyes that had stared, unafraid, into the sun for eons. These were the eyes of the moon. It had to be Her face. It couldn't be my soul.

"I am Hecate. I am Queen of the Underworld, the Goddess of Witches, and you, Persephone," She said my name slowly as if savoring the sound of it, "aptly named Persephone… you are mine. I came to you, I began all that is, but you have not yet come to Me. Not in My place. But you will. You will call upon Me and you will seek Me out at My crossroads. And you… clever you… will find Me." She laughed. Her grip on my arm tightened like a vice. "You will find Me in the darkness. In your darkness. I am there. When you are ready to see your own soul… I'll be waiting."

I blinked.

"Persephone," Xerxadrea's whispery voice came to my ears.

Everything seemed normal again, and the Eldrenne was just herself. Harvest spices—anise and nutmeg—were all I could smell. "Yes?" I said, trying to shake off that eerie feeling.

"Say the words."

An alarm went off then, beeping from Lydia's watch under her gown's flannel sleeve. She clicked it off. "It's time for me to remind you," she said to Hunter, "to check on the band and get ready to be announced as the new HPS." To Xerxadrea, she added, "And to get you on the stage to make the announcement."

"Can we reconvene this after the band's set starts at eleven?" Hunter asked. "I have to mingle after the announcement is made. There are some people out there who contributed a lot to this party and they expect me to show how grateful I am and make assurances about the future of this coven."

"Tend to them, Hunter. Let them believe they saw performers acting out a show—"

"Some out there know better than that," Lydia said.

"And they will wisely keep their mouths shut," Xerxadrea said confidently. "We'll reconvene after the Ball," Xerxadrea said. "And those of my lucusi who are here will convene with us."

Hunter left. I held the door as Lydia guided Xerxadrea from the room.