The Curse Of Dark Root: Part One Part 28

"You're a regular Pied Piper," Ruth Anne said.

"I can send Michael to China if I want. And with a little more practice, to the moon."

"Banishment is dark magick," I reminded her. "Mother forbade it."

"Well, Mom's not here. And if she was, she would have sent him away herself."

"Ah, come on, Evie," I said, my eyes resting on a painting of five dogs praying around a poker table. "He's the father of my baby. We can't exile him."

"Watch me!"

"At least he hasn't gotten to you," I said.

"What?"

"Nothing."

As Eve continued to add to her recipenutmeg, dried rose petals, and saltMichael and Merry appeared in the front window. Merry smiled and waved to us while Michael nodded. They continued strolling down the street, pa.s.sing a Styrofoam coffee cup between them.

"Where do you think they're going?" I asked, making my way to the window.

Eve wiped her hands with a paper towel and joined me. "I don't know, but I'm not happy about it. Merry said she was too busy to help with the store today. Now I know why. Another reason to send him packing...it will cut down on employee absences."

"It is a nice day for shopping," Ruth Anne remarked. "The book store is still open, and the pie shop."

"Great." I folded my arms and leaned against the window, trying to catch a glimpse of the two as they faded from view.

Eve removed her ap.r.o.n and threw it into the bin beneath the counter. "Honestly, I don't know how you can deal with Merry hanging on to Michael like that. It's disgraceful."

"They're just friends," I said.

"So were Paul and I. So were you and Shane."

Ruth Anne plunged a finger into Eve's spell bowl, then licked it clean. She made a face and added more salt. "Maybe Merry is right and we're wrong," she said. "She can read people's intentions. If she thought Michael was bad, she'd steer clear of him."

Eve gave her a long, hard stare. "I'm not sure Merry's skill applies to men. It sure didn't help with Frank."

"Or maybe she knows his intentions and doesn't care," Ruth Anne suggested. "When you have a crush, you tend to ignore all of the flags, no matter how red they are."

A crush.

Those two words almost knocked the wind out of me. But Merry was a grown woman and it wasn't my place to intervene. Plus, I wasn't even sure if my concern was for Merry or myself.

Besides, I had Shane...

"I'm scared," I admitted.

"Don't be," Eve said. "I hear the food in China is really good and the cost of living is low. Michael can probably get a job on some a.s.sembly line making more of those statues."

"That's not what I'm afraid of."

"The curse?" Ruth Anne asked. "Aunt Dora and Jillian are working hard to find a cure, you know that."

I shook my head. "Not that either. It's Shane. I haven't seen or heard from him since he left. I hope he's okay."

Ruth Anne's eyes narrowed. "Since he left? It's been nearly two weeks. Shane wouldn't just disappear."

"That's what I thought, too."

"Maybe your phone isn't working?" Ruth Anne dialed my number on her smartphone and my tote bag started ringing. She put her phone away and apologized. "Guess it is working. But maybe his isn't? I dropped mine in the toilet once and it took nearly three days to dry out. It still makes this buzzing sound when it rings."

"It's been two weeks, Ruth Anne. Even if his phone fell in Lake Superior, he should have found a way to call." I held back the tears but couldn't stop my lips from trembling.

In an instant, both sisters huddled around me, Eve smoothing my hair while Ruth Anne patted me on the back.

"I'm okay," I said, sniffing as I sought out a Kleenex. "I'm sure it's just hormones."

"If he disappeared because you have another man's bun in your oven, I'll...I'll..." Eve's energy flickered menacingly. "I'll summon him here then banish him away again."

"Thank you," I said as the image of Shane and his ex-lover found its way back into my head. Shane was touching her ear, kissing her cheek, wooing her the same way he wooed me in our dreams. I squeezed my eyes shut so that my neurotic creation would disappear. "I have to keep my head up."

"You have no idea where he went?" Eve asked.

I stammered, wondering how much to reveal. If Eve knew Shane had left to attend to his ex-girlfriend, even if she was dying, she would follow through on her threat. I blew into a tissue and decided to spill it. "An old friend of his is very ill. He had to be with her."

"Her? That's it," Eve said. "I'm making two batches of this stuff."

"Too bad you're not a tracker, like he is," Ruth Anne said.

No, I wasn't a tracker. But I was a witch.

I pressed my lips together as an idea formed, brought about by Eve's words. "Anyone up for a good old-fashioned summoning?"

Ruth Anne studied me. "That's forbidden too, Maggie. You know that."

"No," I corrected her. "Summoning demons is forbidden. But there's nothing against summoning a person's spirit. Isn't that basically what Jillian does?"

"Technically, I think the spirits come to her," Ruth Anne said. "And, those spirits are dead."

"Potato, potato."

Eve's eyes brightened. "That's the spirit, Maggie. What good is being a witch if you can't use your powers? I'm in!"

Eve closed the store while I cast a quick negation spell over her potion, something I had learned from Mother's Spell Book after the last catastrophe.

Ruth Anne made notes in her pad. "Be careful," she whispered when Eve left the room.

"With what?"

"With the summoning. It's really easy to cross the line once you start down that path. I heard that's what happened to your father."

It was settled.

We would wrangle Merry away from Michael and conduct the summoning ritual the following evening. Eve insisted the moon would be in a waning phase then, the perfect time to summon a demonor Shane.

It would be a chalk circle ritual, requiring three items from the person we wanted to call forth. Unless you counted a plate I had borrowed and never returned, or my dream ring, I currently had none. Luckily, we were right across the street from Dip Stix, which served as Shane's place of business, and his home.

"I prefer we use a different term for this rite," Ruth Anne said. "Maybe the Calling Ceremony? It has a better ring to it, and since words have power, it may not rouse the attention of any darklings wandering about."

Eve smirked. "You've come a long way from the disbelieving adolescent you used to be."

Ruth Anne rubbed the side of her neck, as if to work out a kink. "Yeah well, things change. I just don't want to accidentally summon s.h.i.t we shouldn't be summoning."

"Try saying that three times fast," I said as I gathered white candles and matches, citron incense to increase our powers, and cedar incense for protection. I also threw in some sage, a book on archaic symbols, and several large pieces of chalk. To be on the safe side, I grabbed a few mason jars, too. We already had one demon trapped inside a jar, and in this town, there was always a chance of more.

It was after seven when we left the shop and the sun had already dipped below the tree line. Main Street was nearly empty by this hour and it brought on a tinge of sadness. We had worked hard to revive Dark Root, but without Dip Stix serving dinner, none of the other stores remained open. Miss Sasha's Magick Shoppe might be the heart of Main Street, but the quaint cafe was its anchor.

I closed my eyes, remembering the smell of fresh baked bread wafting from the restaurant, the sound of Paul's musicsometimes live and sometimes on a CDbroadcasting from the outside speaker, and the glow of white twinkle lights shining through the window. That all seemed like a lifetime ago. What was left was a darkened window with a large, hand-written sign taped to the inside that read: Closed until further notice.

I frowned as I stared at the sign, wondering if it would ever again read OPEN. It's a strange feeling when people leave you. At first you feel them everywhere, then, only in places where they used to be. At some point, their energy must fade away completely, remembered only when you catch the scent of a familiar smell, or in your dreams.

I wasn't about to let that happen. Shane was not going to fade away from me. Tonight we'd gather three items from his cafe, and tomorrow, when the moon was right, we'd summon him forward.

"It's going to be okay," Ruth Anne said to me on the sidewalk outside of Mother's shop. "I guarantee it. And you know me. I'm not one for promises."

I looked down at my belly, cupping it between my hands. "How do people do it?"

"Do what?" Eve asked, catching up to us in her three-inch heels.

"How does anyone love? It's such a hard thing to do. People come into your life...and then leave. You give your heart to them not knowing if they will destroy it in the process. Life would be easier without love, I think."

Ruth Anne gazed down the long road, her eyes taking in the dozen or so shops that made up Main Street as the wind stirred her brown curls. Eve looked the opposite direction, towards the square where she and Paul had played music during The Haunted Dark Root Festival. Not a hair on her head moved, as if even the wind was afraid to arouse her ire.

After a long silence Ruth Anne turned to me, her eyes gentler than normal. "We do it because we don't have a choice."

"We're all screwed then," I said.

"It would seem that way."

Ruth Anne placed her hands on top of mine, which were still secured to my belly. Eve did the same. It felt ridiculous at first, like players huddling over a basketball before the whistle sounded, but then it felt naturalthree women celebrating the beauty and the majesty of life. And that, I realized, is essentially what witchcraft boiled down tosisterhood and a reverence for the eternal circle.

We breathed together, feeling our collective energy rush through us and into my womb. It was a wondrous moment. Ruth Anne was correct; I had no choice. I loved my family and I loved my baby.

...and I loved Shane.

After several moments, we were rewarded with a soft kick and the heel of my son's foot as it traversed across my abdomen. My eyes misted. I wasn't sure what the future held for any of us, but a lifetime of uncertainty was worth one moment on earth where there was love.

Even a little bit of it.

"If the curse takes me before my son is born..." I began. "Don't let Michael take him out of Dark Root. He belongs here."

"Don't you talk like that," Eve hissed, removing her hands from ours. "Of course you are going to make it."

"No one can fight like you, Maggie," Ruth Anne said. "There's not a doubt in my mind that you are going to come out of this A-Okay."

"And heaven help the person who did this to you." Eve's dark eyes flashed. "I have a special potion in mind, just for them."

I laughed, wondering if she were kidding. Knowing Eve, she probably wasn't. And I was okay with that.

"Now let's go prepare for our seance, "Eve said.

"Our Summoning Circle," I countered.

"Our Calling Ceremony," Ruth Anne corrected us both. She took one of my arms and Eve took the other. I felt like Dorothy, flanked by Scarecrow and The Tin Woman.

"Faith," Ruth Anne said when we reached Dip Stix.

"Huh?" I asked.

"You never know when you will see someone for the last time. You just have to have faith that when you wake up, they'll still be around. That's what gives us the courage to love." The corners of Ruth Anne's mouth dipped like the setting sun. Before I could comment, she tugged on her Nirvana T-shirt and busied herself with wiping at a mustard stain on the sleeve.

Eve tapped me on the shoulder. "Maggie, I don't mean to alarm you, but your ugly tote bag is vibrating."

"And glowing!" Ruth Anne added.

I reached into the tote and removed my wand. Sure enough, the onyx stone pulsed with gray light.

"Why are you carrying that thing around?" Eve wrinkled her nose.

"I just am." I didn't mention my decision to keep it with me after my encounters with Juliana's spirit, for fear of being teased. Eve wouldn't fight a ghost with a wand; she'd use her bare hands.

Ruth Anne rummaged through her pockets and produced the small metallic device I called her "Spirit Box." She pushed a few b.u.t.tons, directing the EMF reader up and down the outline of the window. The gadget whirred and beeped in her hands. She brought it close to the door and it grew louder. "Ladies, we have activity here, and judging by the way this thing is going off, there's quite a lot of it. Maybe multiple spirits."

I ran the wand along the perimeter of the cafe window, as well as the door. The pulsing quickened.

Ruth Anne returned her EMF reader to one pocket and rummaged through another until she produced her camera. Stepping back into the street, she took a series of pictures. "Maybe we should conduct the seance tonight?" she asked excitedly.

"Calling Ceremony," Eve corrected.

Without warning, a flash of bright light erupted from the crystal band around my wrist, shooting amber sparks into the air. They rose to the heights of our heads, dying like shooting stars before hitting the ground.

"That's it," Eve said, yanking on the door handle. "I'm going in." She tried for several seconds before kicking it instead.

"Don't you have a key?" I asked.

"I don't carry his key on me, Maggie. What do I look like, a doorman?"

"Ah, h.e.l.l. Ruth Anne?"