Spellbound (27 page)

“Logan, it’s incredible that Jade contacted you!” she said when I called.

“I know. The best thing is I know she’s okay. Sully too. And now we know what happened that day. That part killed me, the not knowing.”

“Me too. I’ve been trying to mindjump her this whole time.

They must be blocking her.”

“It’s so hard for my mom.”

“I can’t even imagine.”

So, I thought…maybe we better not go to the party tonight.”

“If you think that’s best, I agree.”

“I think it might be.”

“NO!” My mom said it loud and firm. She appeared from the hallway and crossed the living room toward me with more resolve and purpose in her stride than I had seen in her in the last few weeks. “You absolutely will NOT miss tonight’s party to take care of me. I will NOT listen to that at all. I am perfectly fine, young man. I do NOT need taking care of, thank you so much!” She used her
And That’s Final
voice.

Looking at my mom, I realized I was encountering a totally different person now than I had been lately. Clearly, there would be no discussion on this topic.

“I’ll call you back, Serena.” I said and hung up on someone for the second time that day. “Mom, I just thought that in case you, well, weren’t feeling like being alone tonight. You know, after the Jade thing earlier.”

Oops. That got my mom’s hackles up. “The ‘Jade thing’ you referred to is the first time I have seen my daughter in nearly three weeks since sinister forces took her from me. And she seemed good, Logan. And when I slept I had another vision. One child may be gone, but another will save her. You, baby. And it will happen at the party. So, you have to go.” I stared hard at my mom. She didn’t look crazy. With everything that had happened lately she could have gone off the deep end, but how would I know? Would there be an obvious sign?

My mom sighed. “No, honey, I’m not crazy. Some might call me that for having faith in a son who thinks I am, but I assure you I am not. I just know you have to go to the party tonight. I bet you Prudence has had the same kind of vision as me.”

“Okay. Okay. We can always check it out with them. Do you think the Council knows that we know something is going to go down there?”

“No. And that gives you the all-‐-important element of surprise. But we need to inform everyone because now we are all going to be at that party, in one form or another.”

“Great. Can’t wait.”

“Logan, we don’t even know how many strong the Council is. You and Serena will need the full strength of our coven, and that even includes the dogs and cats. There are only a few of us who know how formidable an opponent Christophe truly is. Don’t underestimate him, son.”

We grabbed our coats and headed out into the afternoon, bound for what certainly would be my destiny. Just outside our front door, my mom stopped and grabbed me by the shoulders.

She didn’t say anything, just stood and stared at me for a long time.

Then she hugged me to her chest, hard, the intensity of the embrace saying the words she dared not speak. It didn’t need words. I loved her too. We broke apart and made our way across the street to tell the others what had happened in my sister’s bedroom and of my mother’s dream.

Chapter Thirty

SERENA

We drove to Tamera’s family’s barn on the outskirts of town in silence. We had three of the dogs with us, Charlie, Zena, and Sage, but even they were oddly quiet. I silently went over the events of earlier in the afternoon. Logan and Lily had come over much earlier than Logan and I had previously arranged. They gathered us all together and told us the amazing story of the ceiling in Jade’s bedroom, and then of Lily’s subsequent dream. After that, everyone began talking at once. Prudence immediately contributed that she had, as Lily predicted, had an almost similar vision come to her, where Logan played a prominent role as Jade and Sully’s rescuer. She also reminded everyone that tonight it would be the nineteenth of March. This didn’t mean anything to me, but everyone else stood around nodding their head as if illuminated by an astonishing fact. I turned to Elizabeth and she mouthed the words “Spring Equinox” to me. Suddenly, I understood. Dave and Tamera’s St. Patrick’s Day party wasn’t actually being held on the actual St. Patrick’s Day. It would be held on the Saturday after, the
nineteenth
of March. Logan understood it immediately after I did.

“Which means that at midnight, it will be March Twentieth, the official start of Spring Equinox,” he said. “What’s so special about Spring Equinox, anyway?”

Raven stepped forward. “I think I know. I believe Christophe believes that if he were to succeed in impregnating Serena during Spring Equinox, then medically speaking, she would give birth during the Winter Solstice, to him, the most perfect of all the earthly seasons. Cold, deadly, without regard for human life.

The most like him. It is, for him, the perfect aesthetic.”

I had felt myself quiver with revulsion and become unsteady on my feet. Both Elizabeth and Logan came to my aide quickly, or I would have fallen over. Eden had taken over the gathering with a business-‐-like hand.

“Sisters, since we know his intentions now, we know his target, and we know his attack time and place, I find us to be clearly in the advantage, would you agree?”

Nods of agreement followed and witch chatter rose steadily until Eden had to take the meeting back over again.

“Sisters, please. I know we have been training and waiting for this moment for a long time. For most of us, this is about much more than the protection of our young twitch, although that is hardly to make light of it. But, for most of us, our reasoning extends far beyond the task at hand. We have a long-‐-standing and deep-‐-

rooted mistrust of the current Council and have voiced our misgivings often enough that we have been found to be out of favor with those currently in power.” Again, I observed more heads move up and down in assent. “We know we have the power to overthrow and oust those currently seated. We know that the skills and talents of the witches assembled in this room are among some of the finest in witch history. And with good reason. For tonight, every last skill, talent, and trick we know, will be put to the test. Tonight, Sisters, will be our finest hour. Let us gather.”

The thirteen of us stood and joined hands to form a circle inside the pit of sofas and tables in the large living room. I found myself looking over the witches who had come to stay in my home, who made up our coven, who had become like family to me in such a short time; my mother’s best friend Eden; shape-‐-shifter Cordelia and the queen of cloaking, Finola; the lovely spell-‐-casting twins Aisling and Echo; the witches of flight, Rochelle and Libby; potion master and animal lover, Raven; our clairvoyant Prudence; exotic Eve, who taught me astral projection; lovely Lily, Logan’s mother; and my sweet aunt, Elizabeth, who pretended to be my sister all these years to protect me. These wonderful, witchy women were all like sisters to me now. And just beyond them stood Logan, strong, sure, solid. My handsome warlock, trained by the finest witches ever known.

As I stood there looking at him, I realized he truly qualified as one of us now, and he belonged with us. I let go of Eden’s hand and reached out for his.

Thirteen is an old school number
, I told my coven sisters in mindspeak.
Fourteen is much more modern
. Logan took my hand and stepped forward. To my delight, I watched Eden take up his free hand into her own.

Serena is right
, she mindspoke back to us all.
Fourteen is much
more ‘with it’.
Logan squeezed my hand. Together we lifted our clasped hands and felt the conjoined force of our combined power.

We gazed around at each other as we felt it and we knew. We were ready.

****

I didn’t mean to be, but I felt so preoccupied by what might play out tonight, I fell silent for most of the drive. When we pulled into the dirt road that led to the barn, I lived so deep in my thoughts I didn’t even realize we’d arrived.

“Oh. We’re here already?”

“Already? You’ve been lost in your own head for miles.”

“I’m sorry, Logan. I didn’t mean to shut you out.”

“It’s okay. I knew we both had a lot to think about.” So much, in fact, that I nearly forgot to play the part. At the last minute Logan reminded me to wear something green and I had to run back inside and change into something appropriate for St.

Patrick’s Day. Logan did too. I think we pulled it off. He said to remember the party was being held in a barn, after all, so we just had on jeans and t-‐-shirts and boots. Green t-‐-shirts. And I colored bits of our hair green for effect. Tabitha said we were pretty cool.

Zena and Charlie kept growling at me until I knelt before them and let them smell me again. Logan kept saying maybe they thought we were one of the trolls. I told him ha-‐-ha very funny. Not! He conceded later maybe it wasn’t his best joke.

We parked, let out the dogs and walked up to the door. A ton of kids were already there based on the cars and trucks parked everywhere. Music blared out the open barn doors and you could tell everyone must be having a great time inside. I wished with all my heart they still would be later. We peeked inside and I did a double take. The place was beyond amazing.

****

Tamera had
seriously
outdone herself. I know I hadn’t been privy to a Before and After of the barn, but this had to be the best

‘After’ it had ever been. One glance at Logan’s face confirmed it.

His eyes were goggling around the place with a look of child-‐-like wonder and amusement.

About a million green streamers hanging down from the rafters. Tied to the bottom of each were about a million balloons, in varying shades of green again, the clear shade of the party. True to his word, Tamera’s uncle had set up a table at the far end of the barn and a lively line of takers had already cued up for a drink of what looked like a nasty, green-‐-tinted brew. They probably spiked the punch with food coloring. Like everyone wasn’t going to get sick enough without up-‐-chucking in seven shades of emerald.

Lovely. On the other end, smart choice, a DJ set up had been positioned, and he had begun spinning loud and pumping jams, deftly going back and forth between two turntables with a professional headset pressed against his ear.

Just to the right of the punch bowl set-‐-up, another table lined with snack bowls overflowed with every kind of potato chip, pretzel, cheesy puff, and snack cracker ever created. Accompanying them were ten to twenty more small bowls of various sizes and shapes featuring all different kinds of dips. At the end of that table, in case one or two souls existed who didn’t want to drink an unknown green liquid, were several different kinds of sodas, six to eight coolers on the floor loaded with ice, and towers of plastic cups. No doubt about it; Tamera, Dave and her uncle had thought of everything. I had to admit it; they sure did know how to throw a party.

Dave nearly knocked Logan down as we walked through the door.

“Oh, man! You’re finally here! I thought you were never gonna make it!” He swung his arms around expansively at the barn. “How about my girl? She totally took the cake this time right?” He seemed so proud he appeared about to burst.

“Talking about me again, huh?” Tamera came up and slid her arms around Dave. She beamed. They both were outfitted perfectly. They were decked out, head to toe, in green clothing.

“Yes, I am, Baby. Talking about how awesome you are.” He reached around with his arms and in one fluid motion, pulled her around to the front of him.

“Tamera,” I said, “This place looks great. I can’t even believe this is a barn.” So what if sawdust still remained on the floor and they had farm machinery parked against the back wall? They had accomplished an astonishing transformation. Logan agreed.

“Okay, this place is unbelievable you guys. Seriously, out of hand.” Logan continued looking around appreciably.

“And, just because you’re my bro, man, no charge for you and your lady.”

“Oh, that’s big of you, Dave, thanks for that.”

“Dave!” Tamera scolded mildy. “There is no way you are charging our friends a dime!” She stood there with her hands on both hips, trying for cute and winning Dave over. In such a great mood, he had no chance.

“Tam! I’m just trying to recoup some loss, Baby. Come on.”

He pleaded with her, but she wasn’t budging. Logan grabbed my hand and we took the opportunity to slide in the door behind them.

“Hey, Dave? We’ll catch up with you in a bit. We’re gonna get something to eat and drink and we’ll check you later.”

“Absolutely. Catch you later.”

We wandered into the center of the party, now in full swing.

Kids danced and walked around, stood in groups and talked and laughed and most of them knew Logan. They said Hi or clapped him on the back as we passed by. I recognized some of them from school and they said Hi to me too, but not nearly as many as Logan.

Could it be possible I had missed Logan’s popularity because we had been so tight in our little group? Because clearly, he had
mad
popularity. Kids from every group said something to him.
Every
group
. The jocks, the preppies, the brainy kids, it didn’t matter, everyone liked Logan. He was Everyman. Suddenly flooded with a rush of emotion and love for him, I reached down and laced my fingers with his. Don’t worry, people, I silently told everyone, no matter what happened, I would protect him with everything I had.

Chapter Thirty-‐-One

LOGAN

I knew this could be the scariest and hardest night of my life, but so far, it had started out to be the greatest. Groovin’ at my favorite party of the year, which vied to be the best one ever, with the best girl in the world. Beautiful and talented, and for some crazy reason she liked me. Maybe, I hoped, she even loved me.

Right now, life couldn’t get any better.

The decked out barn had been decorated better than I had ever seen it, and it had been packed to the rafters with kids. We had been here for more than a couple hours now and the steady stream of kids at the barn door didn’t show any sign of stopping or even slowing down. At Five bucks a head, Dave had to have collected well over five thousand dollars by now, more than clearing his outlay for the party with the cover charge.