So Mote it Be (16 page)

“This ritual,” Annie said. “The one to return energy to the place it came from. Does it work better with more than one person?”

“It can,” Sophia answered. “A group of people working magic together can raise very powerful amounts of energy. That's the principle behind a coven.”

“I read about covens,” Kate said, thinking about her history paper research. “They're groups of thirteen witches, right?”

“That's the number most people think of,” Sophia said. “But a coven doesn't have to have a set number of members. Some have thirteen, but others have as few as two or as many as twenty or more. My own coven has nine members at the moment, but we started with three and have had as many as eleven.”

“You're in a coven?” said Cooper, who had remained silent while everyone else talked.

“Yes,” Sophia said. “In fact, several members of the coven own this store together.”

“Then you're a witch,” said Kate.

“For twenty years,” said Sophia. “In fact, I started practicing Wicca when I was about your age—although, back then there weren't as many books about the Craft and it was harder to get solid information.”

Sophia was using so many different names: Wicca, witchcraft, the Craft. Kate wanted to ask her whether they were all the same thing or different things. But just then the bell over the door to the shop rang, and Sophia excused herself to go help the new customer, leaving the girls to look at the books by themselves.

“I like her,” Kate said. “She's the first real witch I've ever met.”

“She's okay,” Cooper allowed.

Annie winked at Kate. “Cooper's just mad because Sophia knows more than she does about Wicca.”

Cooper snorted, and the other girls laughed. “I guess we should get these books,” Annie said, looking at the books Sophia had suggested. “Then we can go back to my place and look through them.”

Kate glanced at her watch. It was already noon. “I have to get going,” she said. “I promised my friends I'd meet up with them, and I'm late.”

Cooper and Annie looked confused.

“I mean Sherrie and my other friends,” Kate said, feeling terrible about her slipup. “I told them I'd go costume shopping with them. You know, for the Valentine's Day dance.”

“I can't believe you'd go to something that lame,” Cooper said. “It's just a bunch of sad and lonely losers looking to hook up with other sad and lonely losers of the opposite sex.”

“Just because you're antisocial doesn't mean everyone is,” Kate replied, a little hurt by Cooper's remark. “I'll catch you later. And, Annie, I'll come by and pick up my stuff later if that's okay.”

She left Annie and Cooper looking around the store and headed back onto the street. She was supposed to be meeting Sherrie, Jessica, and Tara in front of the Starbucks a few blocks away, so it didn't take her long to get there. When she arrived, her friends were already waiting.

“There you are,” Jessica said. “We were starting to think you weren't going to show.”

“I got a late start,” Kate said.

“Okay,” Sherrie said. “Here's the plan. We're going to hit the fabric store first to look at the costume patterns. If we don't find anything there, then we'll move on to some of the other stores and hope for the best.”

“What has everyone decided on?” Tara asked.

“I talked Sean out of the Fred and Wilma Flintstone idea he had, and we're going as Rhett and Scarlett from
Gone with the Wind
,” Sherrie said.

“Blair suggested that we go as Peter Pan and Wendy,” said Jessica. “It's an easy costume, so I'm all for it. All I need is a nightgown.”

“And Al and I are going to be Xena and Ares,” said Tara. “Although I don't know where I'm going to find a breastplate around here.”

“What are you and Scott going as, Kate?” Jessica asked.

“It's kind of a secret,” Kate said, thinking about her Sleeping Beauty idea. “I'd rather surprise you guys the night of the dance.”

“More secrets,” Sherrie said, eyeing her. “You're just an enigma these days, Kate.”

“At least your shadow isn't hanging around,” said Tara, referring to Annie. “She gives me the creeps.”

Kate ignored her and headed for the fabric shop. She went straight to the pattern books, hoping she'd find what she needed. Her mother had promised to help her put together a costume as long as she bought the pattern and material.

She was silent as she looked at the pictures in the pattern book, trying to find just the right one. Then she found it, a beautiful dress that looked just like what Princess Aurora wore in the movie. She noted the pattern number and the amount of material she would need and then shut the book.

“Time to find some satin,” she said to Tara, who continued to look through the books.

Kate found the section of the store she needed and began looking at the different colors of satin. She was debating between pink and blue when Sherrie and Jessica came up holding a bolt of bright red material.

“It's
very
Scarlett, don't you think?” Sherrie asked.

“Oh, very,” Kate said.

Jessica unrolled some of the cloth and Sherrie wrapped it around her shoulders. Kate laughed as Sherrie batted her eyes and did an impression of a Southern belle. Then Kate held up the two colors she was trying to choose between and listened as her friends gave their opinions of each one.

Eventually she decided on the blue material. Taking the bolt and the pattern up to the counter, she asked one of the clerks to cut it for her while she tried to hide the pattern from her friends' prying eyes.

“Not until the dance!” she said, even when they begged her to show them what she had decided on.

Afterward, the four of them stopped at a restaurant to eat. They laughed and joked as they shared an order of onion rings, pointed out guys they thought were cute at nearby tables, and picked food off each other's plates when they came. Kate was happy. It felt good to be with her old friends. There was something safe and familiar about them. She wondered what Annie and Cooper were up to, though. They'd probably stayed and looked through the books from the store and found out more about Wicca. She wished she hadn't had to leave. She sighed, realizing that she wanted to be in two places at once, and she knew she couldn't be. She hoped she would never have to choose between them.

CHAPTER 12

The next afternoon, after returning from church with her parents, Kate went over to Annie's. Cooper hadn't arrived yet, so she had a few minutes to talk to Annie alone in her room.

“Do you go to church?” she asked.

“No,” said Annie. “My parents weren't really into religion, and neither is my aunt. She practices Buddhist meditation, but she doesn't call herself a Buddhist. She also does yoga and all kinds of other things. She says she likes to explore different spiritualities.”

“What about you?” Kate said. “What do you consider yourself?”

“Nothing, I guess,” Annie answered. “I've never really gone to any one church or been part of any group. Why do you ask?”

“I was just thinking about what Sophia said yesterday about Wicca being a religion. The Goddess religion, is what she called it. I'd never thought of it as a religion before.”

Annie picked up one of the books that Sophia had suggested to them. “I read some of this last night,” Annie said. “It's really interesting. The woman who wrote it got into witchcraft after studying it for a class she took in college. She was raised Jewish, but after learning about Wicca she became a witch.”

“But who is the Goddess?” Kate asked.

“That's kind of hard to explain,” Annie said. “I think basically she's the force that created nature and everything in it.”

“And what does all of this have to do with magic and spells?” Kate asked.

“Remember what Sophia said about magic being energy?” Annie said.

Kate nodded. “You said something about that when we cast a circle,” she said.

“Right,” said Annie. “Well, witches believe that energy comes from the natural world, and from within themselves, and that magic is learning how to use that energy to change things.”

“Why do you have to worship this Goddess to be able to do that?” said Kate.

“I don't think you do,” said Annie. “I mean, you and I both cast spells, and neither of us worships the Goddess.”

“But our spells didn't work right,” Kate said. “Maybe it's because we aren't Wiccans.”

“What are you two talking about?” asked Cooper, entering the room. As she took off her coat she added, “Your aunt let me in, Annie, in case you thought I snuck in a window or something.”

“We were talking about whether or not you have to be Wiccan to really do magic,” said Annie.

“Lots of religions have magic,” said Cooper. “Not just witchcraft.”

“Like what?” asked Kate. “I've never heard of any.”

“What do you call prayer?” said Cooper.

“Prayer is talking to God,” Kate answered. “It's not magic.”

“I know you don't call it that,” said Cooper. “But think about it. What do you do when you pray? You ask God to make things happen, right?”

“Sometimes,” said Kate.

“Or what about when people say prayers to the saints?” Cooper went on. “You know, like when you lose something and you pray to Saint Anthony to help you find it.”

“That's not the same thing,” said Kate.

“Maybe not exactly the same,” said Cooper. “But it's the same principle. Isn't praying the same thing as sending your intentions out into the universe?”

“I guess doing a spell to get a better grade on a test is sort of like asking God to help out a little,” said Kate doubtfully.

“And people do that every day in schools across the world,” Cooper said. “But they would freak out if you told them they might be trying to do magic.”

“But it's not exactly the same,” said Annie. “I mean, when you do magic, you aren't asking anyone else to help you out. It's just you. And the universe.”

“And God isn't the universe?” Cooper asked.

“I guess it depends on how you look at things,” Annie said.

Cooper sighed. “Whatever,” she said. “So, what are we going to do this afternoon?”

Kate looked at Annie. She was still trying to work out the different arguments about God and magic. What Cooper had said made sense, but Kate knew that it wasn't quite as simple as Cooper made it out to be.

“Well,” Annie said. “I don't think we're quite ready to do any kind of spell to stop what Kate's and my spells have done. But I thought maybe we could try raising some energy. I read about it in one of the books I got yesterday, and it occurred to me that maybe what we need is a little practice before we move on to the big stuff.”

“Fine with me,” Cooper said.

“Okay,” said Kate, wishing that she could be as confident about everything as Cooper seemed to be. Instead, she was feeling more and more uneasy about everything. Cooper seemed to be able to accept everything easily, and Annie was willing to consider everything and test it out, but she herself had a lot of questions. Still, they were all in this because of her, so she thought it best to go along.

“The exercise is actually pretty simple,” Annie said. “We're supposed to sit holding hands and visualize ourselves filling with white light. Then we imagine passing the light to each other through our hands until we've formed a circle of light around us. Once we've done that, we picture the light moving up and forming a cone over our heads. It's called a cone of power, and it's a way of concentrating your energy and then releasing it into the universe.”

“Sounds like a blast,” said Cooper, seating herself in the center of the room and patting the floor with both hands.

Annie and Kate sat on either side of Cooper. Kate looked from one to the other. “How do we picture this light?” she asked.

“Just close your eyes,” said Annie, taking Kate's hand.

Kate closed her fingers around Annie's. She reached out her other hand and took Cooper's hand in hers. Cooper squeezed tightly, unlike Annie's gentle pressure, but when Kate shook her hand a little Cooper eased up. They all closed their eyes.

Kate sat silently, trying to picture herself filling with light. But for some reason she was having a hard time concentrating with Cooper and Annie beside her. Her mind kept wandering, and suddenly she would realize that instead of thinking about white light she was thinking about when Scott was going to kiss her or her dress for the dance or about what she might have for dinner. Finally, after several minutes of trying to focus, she gave up.

“I can't do this,” she said, opening her eyes.

“I was having a hard time, too,” Annie admitted.

“Ditto,” said Cooper. “It's like all of our different thoughts were interfering with each other or something.”