Page 93 of Lost

22

Zoey

It was cool having my friends join me inside the circle, and I realized how long it’d been since I’d led a major ritual.I’ll have to fix that when I get back,I promised myself, because Iwouldget back—and so would Stevie Rae and Rephaim.

Damien, Shaunee, Shaylin, and Stevie Rae took their places at each of the four quadrants of the circle, picking up their ritual candles. Their Warriors and lovers spread out with them, filling in the circle. I went to the center, where Jack had placed my purple spirit candle and a box of long, wooden matches. I paused long enough to draw several deep, cleansing breaths. Then I opened my backpack and easily found the bell I’d put in the front flap. Holding it carefully so that it didn’t start ringing, I picked up the matches and moved to the eastern edge of the circle where Damien stood expectantly with his yellow air candle in one hand and his smudge stick in the other.

“Air gives us breath and so much more. Without it we wouldn’t be able to shout or laugh, cry or scream. It is the first element we know when we are born, and so we always begin the circle by calling it. Air, please come and help blow away the Darkness that has tainted this tree. I welcome you to our circle!” I lit Damien’s candle and a rush of warm breeze lifted my hair. As soon as I felt the air, I held the bell high and rang it loud and clear, three times.

Then I moved deosil, or clockwise, to stand before Shaunee in the south.

“Fire warms us. It nurtures us by cooking our food, and it cleanses by burning away that which is no longer useful. Fire, please come and help this sage burn away the Darkness that has tainted this tree!” I didn’t need to touch my match to Shaunee’s red candle. It burst into cheery flame instantly.

“Burn, baby, burn,” Shaunee whispered.

I smiled and lifted my bell, ringing it sharply three more times, then I moved deosil to the west and Shaylin, who waited there expectantly holding up her blue candle.

“Water is us, just as we are water. Without it would we turn to dust and dirt and die. With it, we are quenched and cleansed. Water, please come and help us wash away the Darkness that has tainted this tree!” I lit Shaylin’s candle and the scent of the ocean filled the air around us as I lifted the bell again and rang it three times before continuing my trek around the circle to Stevie Rae in the north.

“Hey there Z!” she dimpled at me.

“Hello, earth,” I smiled back at her. “Earth is our home. It sustains us. It feeds us and holds us close, and it is to earth our bodies eventually return to rest within her. Earth, please come and strengthen us so that Darkness no longer taints this tree!” Stevie Rae’s green candle burst into flame and we were surrounded by the delicious scent of night-blooming jasmine. I inhaled deeply as I lifted my bell and rang it three more times.

Then I moved to the center of the circle and picked up my purple candle. “Spirit, you are who we are at our purest. You are what lives on when our bodies can live no longer. You fill us each uniquely and set our personalities—our loves, our hates, and our desires. Spirit, please come and fill this place that has been abused by Darkness so that Light may shine here once more!” I rang my bell three final times, and as its clear echo faded, I placed it on the ground and picked up the thick smudge stick of fragrant white sage.

I faced my circle, loving the silver thread of light that bound us. It was so bright that it illuminated the tree, making it appear as if Darkness had already begun to be cleansed from it.

“Okay, elementals, light your smudge sticks. The rest of you light your sticks from each of theirs. Jack, are you ready with a few of your favorite things?”

“I am! Just tell me when to press play!”

I waited for a few breaths until everyone’s sage was lit and gray-white smoke began to billow lazily around the circle.

“Okay, when the song begins everyone join in. Dance and draw shapes in the air with your smudge stick—be joyful—think nothing but good thoughts. Just be careful not to step outside the circle,” I said.

“And don’t worry, we all love Julie Andrews. It doesn’t matter who you are—sing, sing, sing!” Jack said gleefully.

“That’s right!” I smiled at him. “Press play, Jack!”

As “raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens” played, my circle and my friends joined in. At first we were all a little tentative, but by the time we got to “when the dog bites,” we were all singing and laughing and dancing around the circle.

“Ohmygoodness, look!” Stevie Rae pointed up at the smoke lifting in swirls and eddies above us, and we all gasped together.

Moving in and out of the smoke, firefly-looking sprites darted like sentient diamonds, glittering and glowing—and changing the smoke to form the shapes we were singing about. I saw kittens with big whiskers, sleigh bells, and what I was pretty sure were wild geese flying with the moon on their wings.

It was one of the most magickal moments of my life, and I wished with everything inside me that Stark was there, laughing and singing and dancing at my side.

“Z! Look at the tree!” Jack shouted.

I did—and had to tell my mouth not to flop open. More firefly sprites swarmed it. Starting from its splinted, broken base they flew in time with our music, around and around, up and up, and as they moved, the tar-like blackness that had tainted it washed away, until all that was left was a kinda strange-looking, splintered, lopsided tree that began sprouting tiny buds along its once-ruined limbs.

“It’s going to have leaves on it again!” Stevie Rae shouted joyously over the music.

Twirling and laughing, we sang the last lines with Maria and the Von Trapp family, “ ‘I simply remember my favorite things, and then I don’t feel soooooo bad!’ ”

Breathing hard and grinning, I said, “Jack, would you gather all the smudge sticks and put them here in the center of the circle by the tree?”

“Me?”