Healing Hands (The Queen of the Night series Book 2) (5 page)

To Corey’s great relief, the movers needed to get in the door with the couch. Everyone had to get out of the foyer.

Rose escorted Kyle back onto the sidewalk. Corey and I took the pizza and soda into the kitchen. Then I laughed until my sides split.

“You’d better hope he’s as dim as he looks. If he recognizes you without the wig, you might just have a date for the prom. I think I’ll just post this on the Internet.”

“If you do I’ll put a whole family of frogs in your bed.”

“You’d do that?”

“I bet I can find a lot of frogs around here.” 

I’d spent a good bit of time last summer walking around streams and brooks. There were a lot of frogs here. I knew they were in hibernation now, but there’d be even more in the Spring. Corey would not forget. I relented.

“Still,” I said, “that was a heart-warming scene.”

“Shut up.”

Chapter Seven

A Quiet Christmas

I woke up to complete silence. I’d never experienced such quiet. Fiona’s cabin had no street noises. Because of winter snow, it had no animal or bird noises, either. After a moment, I realized it was Christmas morning.

On a typical Christmas, Corey would be up before me. I would hear the sounds of wrapping paper being torn asunder and gleeful noises as he’d discovered what he received from Santa.

No sounds came from Fiona’s office. He must still be asleep.
Maybe he needs the extra downtime
. Yesterday we’d set up all the major pieces of furniture, but didn’t have time to unpack any boxes. Rose worried about being outside after dark, because Arianrhod’s spies worked mostly at night, so we quit working at 4 PM. At dinner, everyone seemed burned out by the emotional highs and lows we’d experienced. We barely talked at the table and afterward we tried to entertain ourselves. Corey played videogames. Fiona worked on her quilt. Rose caught up on paperwork in the home office. I tried to read a book but I couldn’t concentrate and ended up going to bed early. Apparently I was the first person in the house to wake.

Fiona came out to the kitchen soon after I’d finished making a cup of hot tea. She set up the coffeemaker, and said, “Good morning, Maggie, how do you feel?”

“Okay, I guess.”

“Did you sleep well?”

“Not really…I’m worried about Corey’s safety. I keep thinking about how much I miss Mom.”

“I understand how you feel. Since we’re not opening presents today, what do you say we look through my old journals for some protection potions?”

“Yeah, I’d like that.”  I wanted to do something proactive.

“Unfortunately, we have to attend church service first.”

“What? Why?”

“Because it’s important the clan members see us out in public. We want them to think we have nothing to hide.”

“I don’t understand. I thought we were Wiccan or something. Why would we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ?”

“Well, it’s complicated, but I think Corey had the right idea during the Night of the Mothers recitation. We refer to the Creator as the Grand Designer of the Universe. Many religions call him God. We tend to be careful about assigning gender to the Creator. But the belief in one all-powerful force that created the universe is the same. Corey called the minor deities angels or archangels. The terminology doesn’t really matter.”  She poured herself a mug of freshly brewed coffee and walked to the dining room table.

I grabbed my tea and joined her.

She continued, “I like to think of it this way. Most monotheistic religions address how humans should interact with other humans. Our coven focuses on how we interact with nature and the other creatures in the Universe. These religions don’t contradict each other. It’s possible to believe in both at the same time. A long time ago, our people realized this was true. When our forebears immigrated to America, laws forced people to attend church. They didn’t want to be accused of Satanism or witchcraft so they did. They practiced the Anglican faith in town and the coven traditions in the forest. We still do that today. Only the church changed the name of their faith from Anglican to Episcopalian.” She looked pensive for a moment.

The she mused, “The whole clan will be at Holy Trinity in Berkeley Springs this morning. I’m not sure what to do about your brother.”

“Can’t he dress as Hailey again?”

“No, it won’t work this time. Anyone with Seer gifts will be able to see the magic in his aura and know Hailey isn’t a friend from California.”

“Okay, so Corey stays home and the rest of us go to church.”

“What do we say when people ask questions about your friend?  I’m sure Kyle told many clan members about his encounter with
her
. Gossip spreads like wildfire around here.”

“We’ll tell them Hailey’s a Jehovah’s Witness,” I offered.

She gave me a stern look. “Do you always lie this easily?”

“I do when my brother’s safety is at risk.”

“Good point…Jehovah’s Witness it is, then.”

***

An hour later we arrived at the little Tudor-style church. I wore my favorite periwinkle dress with Rose’s winter coat and Fiona’s boots. The pretty little courtyard outside looked sad without its colorful array of summer flowers, but once inside the nave it was crowded. Undaunted by all of the people, Fiona headed straight for the front pew. I followed her and Rose trailed behind me. Evan sat halfway down the aisle with his family. I gave him a small wave. He smiled and nodded in return. When I reached the front, I took my seat next to Fiona. It had been a long time since I’d been in a real church service as I didn’t count the wedding.

I took a look around the inside of the beautiful church. The stained glass windows on both sides depicted scenes of the apostles. Jesus was articulated in the round window behind the altar. The tall pulpit stood to one side with a disturbingly realistic wood carving of Jesus on the cross hovering over it. The ceiling was painted with a mural of the sky. Clouds dotted the landscape. At each edge of the mural, the sky darkened to a deep navy and stars twinkled. I thought it interesting that even this Christian church in Berkeley Springs balanced the images of Day and Night against each other.

Rose leaned over to me. “Do you see the sign over there?”  She pointed to a wooden sign built into the right wall opposite the pulpit. Four rows of tiny shelves were built into it, and individual letter and number tiles rested on the shelves. The shelves were labeled: Hymns, Lessons, Psalms and Rite. Today’s Christmas service would contain Psalm 111, lessons from Luke and Matthew and would follow Rite One. Rose grabbed two books from a slot built into the back of the pew in front of us. One book was titled
The Book of Common Prayer
. The second book was simply called
Hymn Book
. She opened the hymn book to the number listed on the wall.

I recognized the song, Handel’s “Joy to the World.”  I sang in the choir at Santa Monica High School so I even knew the harmony for that song. Rose started using comment cards and donation envelopes to mark the pages of the hymns. She opened the
Book of Common Prayer
and found the beginning of the “Holy Eucharist: Rite One.”  I was pleasantly surprised that the book gave specific instructions on what to do during the service. It said things like “the people stand” and “the people say.” I felt less self-conscious about not being familiar with the rituals.

The choir entered the church through a narrow little door at the front on the right side and took their places in special pews set up on a rise between us and the altar. The heavy wooden doors closed behind me. The reverend emerged from a door on the left side. Everyone became quiet. I noticed special chairs were placed next to the choir’s pews. A couple of people dressed in robes like those of the minister, but not as fancy, sat in those seats. One seat remained empty and I assumed it belonged to the reverend himself. He was about Fiona’s age. I took a quick scan of him with my Healer vision. He had no magic but his aura contained a lot of pink. Evan’s mother, Jenny, had explained that pink represented qualities like nurturing and compassion. It was unusual to see this much pink in a man’s aura, but I liked the fact that this holy man was also a good man.

“Let us rise and sing a hymn of welcome.” From somewhere I heard an organ begin to play the opening strain of “Joy to the World.”

At one point after the minister’s Christmas sermon I was surprised to hear my mother’s name. He intoned, “For all who have died in the hope of the resurrection, and for all the departed, especially our daughter of the Church, Shannon MacDougall Stewart, let us pray to the Lord.” 

Silent tears slipped down my cheeks as I responded with the rest of the congregation, “Lord, have mercy.”

Afterward Fiona asked if I had been christened. I had, so she took me with her and Rose to the altar for communion.

The service ended with a rousing, if out of tune, chorus of “O Come, All Ye Faithful.”  Before we could exit the pew, the reverend greeted us. He told me he was sorry for my loss and had a few words with Fiona about the funeral scheduled to be held in three days. We made our solemn way down the aisle. Once we entered the vestibule I became confused. It was very crowded with happy, excited people. Little kids ran around their parents legs and bumped into each other, laughing. I didn’t feel happy or excited. It didn’t help me that strangers kept walking up to me saying how sorry they were. Somehow, I became separated from Fiona and Rose. I tried to find my way out into the sunshine, but there were so many people. Just before panic set in, a familiar and warm hand slipped into mine. He squeezed, led me through the crowd and back into the courtyard. I exhaled in relief. “Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it. I have to join my family but I’ll drop by tomorrow, okay?”

“Sure…of course.”

“Hang in there.”  He squeezed my hand again and left.

I spotted Rose waiting for me and made a beeline to her.

She put her arm around my shoulders. “Are you okay?”

“I will be.”

Chapter Eight

AURA CAMOUFLAGE

“That’s it!”

I jumped out of bed and ran to the dining room, where I knew I’d find either Rose or Fiona.

They both sat at the table, mugs in hand, looking surprised at my exuberance.

“We’ve been looking in the wrong place,” I explained, taking a seat. “We don’t need to protect Corey from harmful intentions. It’s impossible to anticipate all of the different ways a person or creature could hurt him if they wanted to do so. What we need to do is make it so no one wants to hurt him in the first place.”

Rose followed along with my train of thought. “How do we do that?”

Fiona was more concerned with my appearance. “Honey, where are your slippers?  You’re not wearing your robe. Aren’t you cold?”

I ignored her. I’d warm up later; they needed to start working on this idea first. “The legend says all children born of both Healers and Seers are non-magical, except for the Destroyer, right?” 

They nodded their heads slowly.

“So if Corey was non-magical, he’d be what everyone expected him to be. He wouldn’t be a threat. He couldn’t become a threat.”

“But Corey is magical,” Rose countered.

“How do we know?  How does anyone know he’s gifted?” I challenged her.

“Seers can sense it in his aura.”

“Exactly,” I concluded, “we don’t need to protect him from harm, we don’t need to take away his magic, we need to take magic away from his aura. Auras have layers. The layer closest to a person shows their personality traits. The next layer shows their mood. The third layer shows their magical gifts. We need to camouflage his magic layer!”  I was very proud of myself for figuring this out but Rose was skeptical.

Fiona, on the other hand, looked thoughtful. She wondered out loud, “we don’t need to really change the aura he emanates, either. We just need to change what Seers perceive of it using their gift.”

“Yup, that’s it.”

“I wonder if there are any amulets or charmed objects which might do such a thing?”

Suddenly, I heard someone tug on the screen door at the front of the cabin. Half a second later, the front door pushed open. “Hey, is anyone home?” 

I poked my thumb in the direction of the foyer. “Why don’t you ask him, I bet he knows?  I have to go put clothes on now.”

“Didn’t I just suggest clothes?” grumbled Fiona.

“Yeah, but I don’t care if two old ladies and my baby brother see me braless in my spaghetti-strap tank top and undies.”

Rose frowned, “What do you mean ‘old ladies’?”

Fiona shrugged, “Well, I am an old lady.”

I chuckled and skirted back to the bedroom through the living room, while Evan approached the dining room from the kitchen.

Once I’d brushed both my hair and teeth and had put on real clothes, I returned. “Did you ask him yet?”

“Ask me what?”

“No, we needed to discuss something else. Please sit. You whippersnappers are giving me a crick in my neck.” 

I smiled at her. I might be paying for the ‘old ladies’ crack for a while.

Rose returned from the kitchen with two mugs of steaming peppermint tea.

I took mine gratefully.

Fiona started. “Evan, do you know of a way to subdue the gold from a person’s aura?”

“Huh?  No, why would you want to take someone’s magic away from them?”

I jumped in, “No, we wouldn’t want to take away a person’s magic. We’d like to hide it from their aura. Have you ever seen the magical layer of someone’s aura change all of a sudden?”

“No, that just doesn’t make sense. You can’t lose your magic.”  Then after thinking for several long heartbeats, he snapped his fingers. “Wait a minute. I remember something. I have seen that happen before. It was the weirdest thing. We freaked.”

“What happened?” Fiona prompted.

“On a field trip in ninth grade, we went to the Museum of Geology and Natural History in Morgantown.”

“Okay,” I urged.

“This guy in my class stood next to a huge boulder of coral and his magical aura disappeared!”

“So we started walking around the museum, taking turns standing next to different rocks. The rocks affected the colors in a person’s magical aura, in the third layer.”

“Rose, find out what hours this museum is open and get directions. I think a trip is in order for these young people.”

***

Two hours later Evan, Corey, and I sat in his Jeep driving along the interstate heading toward Morgantown. Fiona and Rose had funeral details to attend to, so we were on our own.

Corey still looked sleepy. I don’t think he slept well at all. This field trip was a good idea even if the only thing it did was keep him from focusing on his grief for a while.

It was good for me too. The drive to the little museum on the edge of the Cheat Lake Valley took two and a half hours, but the scenery was breathtaking. From the highway you could see rolling vistas of farmland in the valleys and densely forested mountains. I kept Evan busy with a barrage of questions about the high school I’d be attending in a week.

***

After the long drive, it felt really good to get out of the car and stretch my legs. Corey insisted on food first, so we stopped at a pancake house.

The boys teased me about eating pancakes for lunch, but I didn’t care. There is no bad time of the day for blueberry syrup.

***

The trip to the museum didn’t go as well. Even though we had fun, none of the rock and mineral specimens on display in the museum had any effect on the gold in Corey’s aura. The pyrite made his entire aura look bigger and the sphalerite (or maybe the quartz) increased the amount of gold. We gave up and headed back home.

***

As we got close, I gave Fiona a call. She and Rose were catching up on work at the store she owned in the heart of Berkeley Springs, the Queen of the Night Boutique. We headed there instead of the cabin. We hid out in the Jeep until the store closed so no one saw Corey. After Fiona locked the front door, we smuggled him in the back.

Corey’s had never visited the store, so I showed him around. We looked at all of the herbs and herbal remedies in the herb shop. I showed him the books, DVDs, CDs and associated items in the bookshop. We skipped past Fiona’s secret room which contained supplies for magical rituals and her treatment-slash-exam facility for treating people with energy touch therapy. I promised to get Fiona to show it to him later, when she wasn’t so busy. Lastly, we went down to the jewelry and clothes section of the store, since I thought he’d enjoy them best. Corey browsed and I looked at t-shirts. Evan joined us.

“Whoa,” he said.

“What?” Corey and I looked up in unison.

“Corey, take two steps back.” 

Corey did as Evan ordered.

“Now, take two steps forward.”

“I’m not going to dance with you.”

“Just do it. Honestly, you Stewart kids are impossible to work with.”

“Hey!” I said, offended.

Corey complied.

Evan looked at me. “Did you see that?”

“Did I see what?”

“Maggie,” he was getting exasperated. “Look at him.”  I opened my healer vision and focused on my brother. His aura had only a faint glimmer of gold.

“Cool!” I exclaimed, “Corey, step back.”

He sighed heavily but stepped back. The gold haze flared to life.

“What’s going on?” Fiona walked into the room.

“It’s the geodes and spheres. They’re affecting his aura. What’s in them, Fi?”

“It could be a combination of all kinds of minerals,” she shrugged. She pulled a large blue ball-shaped rock down from the shelf. She held it next to Corey.

“Yeah, that’s it.”  Evan and I said at the same time.

“Hmmm,” Fiona looked over the object, “This one is mostly lapis lazuli, I think.”

“What we need is a collection of all different minerals and rocks in one place. We need each sample to be pure. Where can we find that?” I asked.

“Doesn’t the Smithsonian have like the largest collection in the world of different rocks, gems and minerals?” Fiona asked.

“Yes, but they’re all behind glass cases with heavy security,” Evan noted.

“Oh, right.”

“Why don’t you just go to that bead store in Hagerstown?” Rose had entered the room and had heard the tail end of our conversation.

“What a wonderful idea,” agreed Fiona, “You can go first thing tomorrow,” she added.

***

The five of us went to the yellow house next. Fi and Rose called it the ‘town house’. I was pleasantly surprised when Ginger and Rock greeted us at the door.

Fiona explained, “I thought you guys could use a bit of help around here. Rock and Ginger have wanted privacy for a while, so I asked them if they would like to live here.”

Everyone looked at me expectantly, as if I had any say in the matter. It occurred to me Ginger and Rock must be an item.
How sweet
. “What a wonderful idea.” 

Everyone smiled.

Corey wasted no time making himself at home. He went straight to the kitchen.

I followed to chastise him with sharp words about how there’d been no time to do grocery shopping. I never got the chance. The kitchen table was set with leftovers from Fiona’s Christmas dinner. The Brownies had even lit a couple of candles. Once I’d picked my jaw up off the floor, I happily joined Corey and served myself.

Ginger and Rock had done a fabulous job of making the house inviting. After dinner we said good night to Evan and Fiona. Rose told us the satellite connection wouldn’t be installed until after New Year’s Day, but Corey and I amused ourselves by setting up the entertainment center in the den anyway. I grabbed a pillow off of the couch which still had my mom’s scent and took it upstairs with me. Then I unpacked a bunch of boxes in my new bedroom. For the first time in what seemed like forever, I slept in my own bed with my own bedding.