Ring of Light (13 page)

“So where's this boat?” Cooper asked.

T.J. pointed to the end of the dock. “Right there,” he said.

Cooper looked. “But that's the whale watch tour boat,” she said.

“I didn't say it was
my
boat,” said T.J. “I just said it was a boat.”

Cooper punched him playfully in the arm. “You are such a freak,” she said.

“What? You don't like whales?” said T.J.

“I've actually never seen one,” Cooper said.

“Then let's go look for some,” suggested T.J. “The next tour starts in twenty minutes.”

They went and purchased tickets, then boarded the boat. They found seats on the top deck, in a secluded corner where they could look out over the railing. As the boat pulled away from the dock and headed out into the open water, Cooper felt herself relaxing.

“I do this about once a month,” T.J. told her.

“Really?” said Cooper. “Do you like whales that much?”

T.J. laughed. “It's a couple of hours that I can be alone,” he said. “And it's so beautiful out here. Sometimes I forget how pretty Beecher Falls is.”

Cooper gazed out over the gently rolling water. To one side she could see the shoreline with its beaches and the mountains in the distance. It really
was
gorgeous.

“This feels kind of weird,” T.J. said.

“What does?” asked Cooper.

“Being here with you,” he explained.

“Thanks a lot,” she exclaimed.

“I didn't mean it that way,” T.J. said. “I mean, up until now we've just been friends, you know? I'm not exactly sure what we're supposed to do now.”

“I know what you mean,” agreed Cooper. “It's a little awkward.”

“Maybe we need to do something to get over it,” suggested T.J.

“Like what?” asked Cooper. “Sign a contract or carve our initials into this bench or something?”

“I was thinking more along the lines of this,” said T.J. as he leaned over and kissed her.

This time Cooper didn't pull away. Instead, she slid her arm around T.J.'s waist and held on to him, kissing him back. She felt the warmth of his skin against hers, and the pressure of his mouth where it touched her lips. She could tell that he was nervous, too, and that made her like him even more.

When they finally pulled apart, she said, “I know that helped
me
a lot. How about you?”

“I think I'm over it, too,” he said. “This transition from friend to boyfriend might not be as hard as I thought.”

They sat, holding hands and watching the surface of the ocean as the boat moved gently through the water. The July afternoon was hot, and Cooper soaked up the sun's warmth eagerly. It felt good to be away from solid ground, surrounded by the ocean. Even though there were other people onboard, she felt as if she and T.J. were on their own floating island.

“Look,” said T.J., suddenly leaping up and going to the railing.

Cooper followed him, looking where he was pointing. As she did she saw the surface of the water break and a huge dark shape rise from it. It was a whale. Its black skin was covered with large patches of barnacles, and the surface of it shimmered wetly in the sun. Then another, smaller whale appeared next to the first. They arced gently up, their noses reaching toward the sky, and dove back down. As they disappeared below the surface, their tails rose up behind them, dripping water, before sinking slowly beneath the waves.

“They were beautiful,” Cooper said. “I've never seen anything like it.”

“Every time I see one I feel that way,” T.J. said, putting his arm around her.

They stood there, watching as the ripples caused by the whales' diving spread out, mingling with the wake of the boat. Having T.J.'s arm around her felt good, and as Cooper leaned into him she thought,
Maybe there's a point to this dating business after all.

CHAPTER  10

Annie's bedroom was filled with the smell of the flowers in the garden below her window. There was a gentle breeze stirring the curtains, and they fluttered lazily as the wind carried the scent of lavender and roses into the room. The moon, only a few days past new, was a sliver in the sky outside. In the yard below them Kate saw fireflies flickering softly as they flew among the trees.

“I just love this room,” Kate said. “It's the perfect place for working magic.”

Annie, who was busily arranging white votive candles into a circle in the middle of the floor, laughed. “Don't forget that the first spells I did here were utter failures,” she said.

“That was a long time ago,” Kate replied.

“Not all that long,” objected Annie. “We've just gotten better at it.”

She stood back and admired her handiwork. She was getting a lot better at making the circle look right. In the beginning her circles had always been a little lopsided. But this one was a nice full moon shape, and she nodded approvingly.

“Are you ready to start?” she asked Kate.

Kate nodded. She walked over and picked up the backpack she'd brought with her. “I've got everything in here,” she said, placing the bag in the center of the circle of lit candles.

“I almost forgot the cauldron,” Annie said, going to her desk and fetching the large iron pot that sat beside it. She'd bought the cauldron as a special present to herself, and she was really pleased with how witchy it looked sitting in the sacred circle. “Are you going to tell me what we're doing with it?”

“Not until we've cast,” said Kate.

Annie sighed. Kate had been very mysterious about what kind of ritual she'd come up with for them to do. Annie had asked her numerous questions but she hadn't offered up any information. All she would tell her was that they needed the cauldron.

“Shall we get started, then?” Annie asked.

Kate nodded. The two of them stood side by side at the edge of the circle. They were both wearing white robes, and their feet were bare. Annie raised her hands and began the familiar rite of casting the circle.

“East,” she said. “Creature of air. We ask you into our circle to bless us with your gift of creativity.”

They turned as Kate spoke the next invocation. “South, creature of fire, we ask you into our circle to bless us with your gift of determination,” she said.

There was another turn and then Annie continued with, “West, creature of water, we ask you into our circle to bless us with your gift of change.”

Kate finished summoning the directions by facing the north, lifting her hands with the palms out and intoning, “North, creature of earth, we ask you into our circle to bless us with your gift of protection.”

“By the powers of earth, water, fire, and air, the circle is cast,” the two girls said, stepping into the circle.

“I'd like to invoke one of the goddesses,” Kate told Annie, who nodded in assent.

Kate lifted her hands up once more. “Athena,” she called out. “Goddess of wisdom and healing. I ask that you join us in this sacred circle and lend to us your gifts of healing.”
We need all the help we can get,
she added to herself, hoping that some of the skills Athena was known for would add themselves to the ritual they were about to do.

When she finished she knelt, as did Annie. The cauldron was between them on the floor, and they were surrounded by the flickering light of the candles. Annie watched as Kate opened her backpack and began to remove a series of objects.

“I really wish Cooper was here,” Kate said. “It feels weird without her.”

It was the first ritual they'd done without their friend. Annie had also been disappointed that Cooper had refused to participate. But she knew that they couldn't let that distract them.

“You can't think about that,” she told Kate. “This isn't about her. It's about us and the magic we're going to do. If you think about her you won't be able to focus your intention properly.”

“I know,” Kate said. “But I still wish she was here.”

Annie looked at the things Kate had brought with her. There was a glass jar filled with water, several bags of what looked like herbs, and what looked like a ball of soap.

“What is all of this stuff?” she asked.

Kate held up the jar. “This is water from the ocean,” Kate said. “Seawater is supposed to be really good for doing magic. And these are different herbs,” she continued, indicating the little bags. “Sage, lavender, milk thistle, vervain, and lemon balm.”

“And we're doing what with it?” queried Annie.

Kate unscrewed the top from the jar of seawater and poured it into the cauldron, where it splashed merrily as it filled the vessel about halfway. Then she opened the packet of milk thistle and sprinkled it in. “We're making a bath,” she told Annie as she added the lemon balm to the concoction.

Annie helped her put the remaining herbs into the water. Then Kate pushed back her sleeves. “Now help me mix it up,” she said.

The two of them put their hands into the water and started stirring. Their fingers touched as they swirled the water around.

“As we mix it up, think about pulling white light up from the earth and letting it run out through your fingers,” Kate instructed.

Annie had used the white light meditation many times, and had no problem imagining the light filling her body and moving out through the ends of her fingers and into the water. She pictured the cauldron filling with the light, and watched as it swirled around in bright circles.

“The idea is to turn the cauldron into a healing bath,” Kate said. “All of these herbs are supposed to promote healing in the body. I looked them up in one of the books I've been reading.”

After a few minutes of stirring, Kate took her hands from the water and picked up the ball of soap.

“Now what?” asked Annie. “We wash our hands with that?”

Kate shook her head. “This represents Aunt Netty's cancer,” she said. “We're going to bathe it in the water. As we do, we imagine the cancer getting smaller and smaller, just like the soap will.”

“I get it,” Annie said. “Sympathetic magic. Sort of like the time you put a spell on that doll that looked like Scott.”

“I thought we weren't going to dwell on anything negative,” Kate said, giving Annie a withering look.

“Sorry,” Annie said sheepishly as Kate put the ball into the water.

Kate took a deep breath and began rubbing the soap with her fingers. “Try to picture the cancer shrinking,” she said as she passed the soap into Annie's hands.

Annie ran her fingers over the slippery surface of the ball, working the seawater and the herbs into it. She imagined the healing light inside the cauldron surrounding it and eating away at it. As the lather foamed around her hands she imagined the cancer becoming smaller and smaller.

“This feels really powerful,” she said to Kate. “It's like we're working the magic right into Netty's bones.”

Kate took the soap from her and moved it around in the cauldron. Like Annie, she pictured her aunt's cancer floating in a cauldron of warm water and herbs. She tried not to be sickened by the thought. Instead, she lovingly caressed the soap as she worked it down to a smaller and smaller ball.

She had no idea if what she was doing would work. She'd gotten the idea out of a book, but that spell had suggested imagining the soap ball as a problem that was bothering you. It had been Kate's idea to make the soap represent the cancer. It had seemed like a good idea. She hoped it was.

As she moved her hands over the soap she tried to imagine Athena there with them, adding her hands to the cauldron. She frequently had trouble picturing the different goddesses in her mind, but this time she saw almost immediately a pair of hands joining with hers and Annie's. She felt the healing touch of them, the warmth that flowed from the fingers as they helped her wear the soap cancer down.

In her mind she looked up to see Athena's face, and she was startled to see that the image that came to mind was that of Cooper. She looked at Kate with a mixture of sadness and strength. Then the face changed and it was no longer Cooper's. It was a face Kate had never seen before, a strong, noble face framed by black curls.

Kate passed the soap ball back to Annie and let her work on it for a while. She tried to picture her aunt in the hospital, getting better. She imagined the doctor coming to tell them that the cancer was gone and that Aunt Netty could go home whenever she felt like it. She saw her mother's face break into a smile of relief and joy, and she pictured them all hugging one another. It all felt incredibly real, and she was sure that the spell was working.

The two of them worked on the soap ball for almost an hour, passing it back and forth and bathing it in the herbal water. Gradually it wore down, first to the size of a golf ball, then to the size of a gumball, and finally to the size of a pea. Then, while Kate was working with it, the last few bits fell apart and dissolved into the now-foamy water.