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“He’d just make up a story. He misses his friend. No, we have to go through with this and then you and your cousin will be safe, and so will my Peyton. It will work out best for everybody.”
“What are you doing to me?” I whispered, my voice falling mute even as she drew. “Peyton—does Peyton know what you’re planning?”
“No, she doesn’t, and I’m doing what I was told. This is the only way I can ever ensure that Rex won’t get his hands on Peyton. You have to trust me, Cicely—please trust me. I won’t hurt you, I promise. I would never hurt you.”
But even as she continued to emblazon the symbols across my body, I knew that what she was doing would hurt me far worse than any beating I would ever endure.
Ulean, Ulean, help me. Can’t you please help me?
But no answer came. Ulean couldn’t hear me—or I couldn’t hear her.
“Just a little more, and then I can begin the ritual.” Anadey stood, and, eyeing me, gave a little nod. “Done.”
As she stepped out of the circle, I felt a rush of energy surround me, and for the first time in a long while, I felt totally isolated. There was no one here to help me. I focused on my wolf, calling to Grieve, but he was nowhere to be sensed. Truly alone. I am truly alone.
Anadey waved her hands as she began to circle the ring of salt. A faint bluish mist seeped out from her fingers and drifted lazily into the circle with me, filling my lungs with the scent of ocean waves and salt brine.
Water to water, wave to wave,
Love built through time, I seek to stave.
A flush of energy rushed over me and I was breathing water, choking on the liquid as it rushed through my body, cleansing me fully, seeking all corners of my heart and soul, looking for inroads to fill me full with its briny depths. I began to cry as it dislodged feelings and thoughts and began to buoy them up on its ever-encroaching currents.
“Anadey—stop—you’re stealing my memories!” I tried to scream, but my words were so many bubbles floating up to the surface of the flood that flowed through me.
Anadey returned to the beginning of the circle and began a second sweep.
Earth to earth, stone to stone,
Sever connections that have been sown.
The mist turned to green, and as it flowed into the circle, it felt like a landslide, rumbling. And then I was looking up as a billowing cloud of mud and rock towered over me. I gasped but there was no air to breathe, only the deep gases of the earth, only the dust and soot-laden clouds that swept around me. As the energy began to seep through me, it uprooted connections and bonds, and I felt numb. Empty, and so truly alone.
Anadey returned to the beginning of the circle, to commence a third sweep.
Fire to fire, flame to flame,
This questing love, the sparks shall tame.
Crimson . . . the mist was a crimson cloud and smelled of bonfires and graves, and hearth fires. It burned as it neared, chafing my skin, and brought with it the crackle of embers. And it ate—gobbling up the will of my heart, the love I felt inside, my desire to be with Grieve. As I felt my need for him seeping out of me, I opened my mouth to cry out but there were no words. My lips were silent.
Anadey paused, staring down at me. I looked at her, pleading. After a moment, tears in her eyes, she began her final sweep.
Air to air, gale to gale,
Travel now, beyond the pale.
As the mist faded into white, I felt myself melting, as a rush of air buoyed me up, and then—a sudden jolt and I was gloriously free, rising up in owl form to hover near the top of the ceiling. Anadey gasped, and the mist began to retreat.
“Cicely—get down here! You can’t break the spell, not this way—it will backfire in hideous ways if you don’t allow me to finish it.”
But I didn’t give a fuck what she was saying. As far as I knew, Anadey was my enemy, as surely as Myst. Even more so than Lannan.
At that moment, Peyton broke through the door.
“Cicely! What’s going on! Mother, what the fuck are you doing?” She gasped. “What’s all this?”
She’d no sooner spoken than I took a chance and dove for the door, winging my way out and up into the sky, and then headed for home, free and wondering just what the hell Anadey had done to me.
