Ring of Light (5 page)

Frustrated, she'd decided to give up on Wicca. If getting involved with rituals and the people who participated in them could land her in that kind of trouble, she didn't want any further part of it. She'd been really upset by what had happened to her, and it bothered her that no one could give her an explanation for the events or help her find the people who had done those things to her.

What she hadn't told anyone—not even Kate and Annie—was that she wasn't entirely sure what had really happened that night. It had all seemed so real at the time, and she could still recall the faces of Bird, Spider, and the other kids she'd been chased by. She remembered sitting in the Cave of Visions and being surrounded by weird purple smoke, and she recalled jumping from a high place into a pool of cold water. She even remembered snatches of the beautiful music Bird had been playing on her flute, the music that had lured Cooper into the woods in the first place.

But somewhere, somehow, things had changed. She'd lost control of what was happening to her, and that was the part that really frightened her. At some point she had been swept up in whatever magic was running wild in the woods that night. She had felt hunted by the very thing she'd been seeking out through her own magical work. The kids pretending to be faeries had laughed at her, chased her, and made her feel like a fool. In the end she'd escaped them, but in the process everything she'd ever thought she knew about Wicca and magic had been turned upside down. That's why she needed to get away from it.

Her parents, if they noticed that she'd taken down her altar, hadn't said anything. And she certainly wasn't going to bring it up, especially after all of the trouble her involvement in Wicca had caused in the first place. It had taken enormous amounts of effort to convince her mother that going to the weekly study class was a good idea, particularly after her brush with Elizabeth Sanger's ghost had resulted first in her name's appearing in the local paper and then in Annie's being kidnapped by the girl's murderer. Mrs. Rivers had her own doubts about witchcraft stemming from a long-ago argument with her mother over teaching Cooper spells when she was a child, and seeing her daughter involved in the same thing had been a lot for her to deal with. Cooper didn't want to admit that perhaps her mother had been right about the dangers of practicing magic, even if she herself had similar doubts.

Instead, she had poured herself into her music. Now that she was spending less time reading about the Craft and experimenting with the different aspects of it, she had more time for her songs. She'd been writing a lot, and had come up with a bunch of new lyrics and music that she was anxious to experiment with. There were a couple of open-mike events coming up at local coffeehouses, and she was thinking about maybe trying out some of her stuff there in the next couple of months.

She picked up her guitar and started fooling around with a melody line she'd come up with the night before. It felt good to just play, to let herself get lost in the music. The notes seemed to fall into place easily, and soon she had turned the short phrase into a longer one. She played it again and again, trying it out and changing a note here and there until she had something she really liked. She played it again.

Something about that sounds really familiar,
she thought suddenly. But what was it? She played the music again, listening carefully. Was it something she'd heard on the radio? She didn't think so, as she usually always remembered other people's songs. But there was definitely something about the music that she had heard before.

Then it hit her—she was playing part of the faerie music. It was a snippet of the song that Spider and the others had played as part of her “test” to see if she was good enough to join them. She had re-created it almost exactly as she'd heard it. Although she'd done her best to push that night from her mind, here it was coming back to her, and through the one thing she thought was hers and hers alone—her music.

Angrily, she put down the guitar and stared at her hands. Why couldn't she get away from the memories of that night? Why did she have to keep thinking about it? The song had seemed so beautiful to her before she remembered its true source. It hadn't come from her own imagination; it had come from Spider's, and from the instruments of the awful kids who had put her through such a terrifying ordeal.

Great,
she thought,
now you're in my music, too.

She sighed. This wasn't like her. Normally nothing could get to her. She'd always prided herself on being tough, invincible. She liked it that the other kids at school were sort of afraid of her. She'd even liked it in the beginning when Kate had been afraid of her, and the reason she'd taken to Annie so quickly was because she'd been strong enough to stand up to her. Very few people could do that. Just as very few people could make her doubt herself. But that's what Spider and the others had done. Even Bird, who had helped her out in the end, had left her with more questions than answers. Nothing about that night made sense, and now she was being reminded of it all over again.

Just then the phone rang, interrupting her thoughts. She was glad to have a distraction, though, and she picked it up with a relieved “Hello?”

“Hey,” said a guy's voice. “It's me.”

Cooper relaxed. It was T.J. He was probably the one person she really didn't mind hearing from right then. In fact, lately she'd started looking forward to hearing from him.

“What's up?” she asked, trying to sound casual.

“Not much,” he said. “I just happened to score two tickets for the Blink-182 show Thursday night at the Forum, and I thought I'd see if you wanted to go.”

Do I want to go?
Cooper thought.
Of course I want to go!

“I guess,” she said.

“Cool,” said T.J. “I'll come by around seven, unless you want to get together earlier and get something to eat. Or whatever. We don't have to if you'd rather not.”

“Hey, a girl has to eat,” Cooper replied. “How about we meet at the pizza place by the club at six?”

“Sure,” T.J. answered. “See you then.”

Cooper hung up. She was surprised at how much she was looking forward to the evening. But was it because she was seeing Blink-182 or because she was seeing them with T.J.? She'd been to a lot of shows. In fact, she'd seen Blink-182 about six months before at a concert in Seattle. But the idea of seeing them now—with T.J.—made her smile.

Oh, come on,
she told herself.
Don't tell me you're turning into one of those dopey spritz-heads who gets all weird whenever a boy calls. It's just T.J.

She got up and looked in the mirror. “Maybe those faeries did more to you than just chase you through the woods,” she said out loud. “Because you are definitely
not
acting like yourself.”

It was true; she wasn't acting like the old Cooper. Something about her was different. It was like everything had been turned upside down and she was suddenly seeing the world in a different way. But she would have to wait until later to sort it all out. Right now she had to decide what she was going to wear when she met T.J.

CHAPTER  4

Kate looked at her aunt through the viewfinder of the camera, trying to center her exactly. Aunt Netty was standing on the end of the pier, leaning against one of the posts. She was wearing a bright red shirt, and Kate liked how the color contrasted with the clear blue sky and the darker green of the ocean.

“I think you could paint me faster than you're taking that picture,” Aunt Netty joked.

“Just a second,” Kate said. “I want it to be perfect.” She focused the lens and pressed her finger down on the button. The camera whirred to life, and Kate lowered it. “Okay,” she said. “I think that shot will definitely make the cover of the
Sports Illustrated
swimsuit issue.”

“I'm glad I went for the thong bikini then,” said her aunt.

Kate was having another great day. She and her aunt had spent the morning shopping, trying on clothes and behaving like a couple of best friends. That was one of the things Kate liked best about Aunt Netty—she didn't treat Kate like a kid, the way her parents sometimes did. She treated her like an equal, asking her opinions about things and seeking her advice on what she should wear or what colors of makeup would look best on her. They'd had a wonderful time, and each of them had emerged from the stores with several new items.

Now they were taking pictures. As always, Aunt Netty had brought her camera with her. For as long as Kate could remember, she'd been asking her aunt to teach her how to take good photographs. But Aunt Netty had always been too busy, or there were other things to do instead. Now, though, she was showing her niece how to use the camera she herself used on many of her assignments.

“You want to look for interesting juxtapositions,” her aunt said as she came over and stood behind Kate. “Look over there, for instance. See how that cloud swoops down and looks like it's touching the ocean?”

Kate looked in the direction in which her aunt was pointing. Sure enough, she saw the cloud Aunt Netty was talking about. It really did look like a hand reaching out of the sky to stroke the surface of the sea. She raised the camera and was going to snap a photo when she felt her aunt tapping her on the shoulder. She turned and saw her pointing silently at something behind them.

Kate's eyes followed her aunt's gaze, and she saw what had caught her attention. A little girl was standing at the side of the wharf, holding an ice-cream cone. But she wasn't paying attention, and the cone was tilting toward the nose of an interested black Labrador retriever who was sitting beside her. The dog was sniffing the air, and his tongue was perilously close to the girl's treat.

Kate quickly lifted the camera. She focused in on the little girl and the dog just as the Lab, unable to wait any longer, reached over and took a big lick of the cone. The little girl turned and shrieked happily just as Kate clicked the shutter. She took several more shots as the dog quickly consumed the ice cream, and the girl's mother and the dog's father both watched, startled, before breaking into loud laughter.

“Those are the kinds of moments you can't plan,” Aunt Netty said as Kate handed her back the camera. “But now you've caught it forever, and every time you look at those pictures you'll remember how that little girl looked and how happy the dog was.”

Kate looked at her aunt's face as she spoke. There was a look in her eyes that Kate couldn't really read. It was as if she was thinking about the thing she loved most in the world, but instead of being totally happy about it she was kind of sad, too. Kate almost asked her what she was thinking, but something told her it was a moment her aunt wanted to keep for herself.

“Why don't we go get some lunch?” Aunt Netty said, breaking the silence. “I don't know about you, but I'm starving.”

They walked to the end of the pier to a restaurant that had a big deck with tables that overlooked the water. The waiter led them to one that was partially shaded by a big umbrella, and they sat down. As Kate perused the menu, she felt the sun on her skin and smelled the sea breeze and decided that it was going to be the best summer ever.

“Any idea what you want?” asked her aunt.

“The clam strips sound great,” Kate answered. “But I think that's an awful lot of fat. Maybe I should just have the grilled chicken salad.”

“Go for the clam strips,” replied her aunt. “Life's too short to worry about a little bit of fat. In fact, I insist that you have the clam strips
and
the cheesecake afterward.”

“Well, if you
insist
,” Kate said, closing her menu.

The waiter appeared, and Kate gave him her order. When it was Aunt Netty's turn she ordered grilled red snapper.

“Oh, so I'm supposed to order the fattening stuff while you eat healthy, is that it?” Kate said when the waiter had taken their menus.

Her aunt put her arms on the table and leaned forward. “When you're thirty-four years old and can't fit into your favorite jeans anymore,
then
you can worry about what you eat,” she said. “Until then, enjoy yourself.”

Kate giggled. “But you look great,” she said. “I don't think I've ever seen you so thin before.”

For a moment it looked as if Aunt Netty's smile faltered. But then she perked up again. “So tell me about your life,” she said. “And I don't mean what you want to do this summer or anything like that. Tell me all the stuff you don't tell your mother.”

Kate leaned back in her chair and took a sip of iced tea. What should she tell her aunt? It was true that they were more like best friends than relatives. She had always told Aunt Netty everything, even the things she was afraid to share with her parents. She never worried that her aunt would tell anyone else, and she'd always believed that she could tell her anything.