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Istepped onto the sundial at the top of the tower, a sense of awe washing over me as I took it in for the first time. It was an enormous disk that occupied the entire rooftop, its face exposed to the night sky. The sunsteel surface shimmered beneath my feet, reflecting a warm, amber glow that contrasted beautifully against the cool silver of the moonbeams streaming down from above.
The edges of the sundial were intricately inlaid with twelve aetheric crystals that marked the hours, each glowing softly with an inner light. Their colors shifted with the passing seconds, dancing between breathtaking shades of azure, emerald, and amethyst. A long, ornate railing, wrought from the same metal as the sundial, ran along the outer circumference, and in between the posts were twelve statues that corresponded to the runes, each one meticulously sculpted. Their heads had all been removed, but judging by the scepters they carried and the robes of state they wore, I gathered these were previous rulers of Aetherion. The one at the twelve o’clock mark had been replaced with an imposing statue of Emperor Vladimir glaring down his nose at us, and I had to resist the urge to glare back.
Eliza and Nyra waited at the base of the gnomon in the center, while Lucius and Sparrow leaned nonchalantly against one of the balustrades. I drew up short at the sight of them, and Lucius raised an eyebrow at my reaction.
“We can go if you want us to,” he asked, his eyes shifting to Maximillian standing by my side.
“No, it’s all right,” I said. “I just… I didn’t think you’d want to come.”
Sparrow snorted. “Are you kidding? We’ve been waiting for this moment forever.” He pushed off the railing and eyed the altar Nyra and Eliza had set up for me a few feet away from the gnomon. “Max had the crystals and everything ordered months ago.”
I turned to face Maximillian, my eyebrows flying up to meet my hairline. “Months ago?”
He scratched the back of his neck, looking uncharacteristically self-conscious. “I knew sourcing the materials you would need would require time, especially given that witchcraft is banned in the vampire kingdom,” he said. “I did some research, then sent Sparrow to get what you needed.”
Unexpected tears burned at the corners of my eyes, and I was struck by a nearly overwhelming urge to throw my arms around him. Instead, I shoved my hands into my pockets and cleared my throat. “Umm. Well, thank you.”
An expectant silence descended upon the sundial, and I realized everyone was waiting for me. Crossing to the altar, I knelt before it and picked up the items sitting atop it to inspect them. Candles, incense sticks and burners, matchsticks, a sage bundle,and six crystal chunks—five of which represented the elements, and one large, pure white moonstone to represent the goddess.
I gathered five of the candles, then handed them to Eliza, who dutifully placed them in a circle around the altar, lighting each one as she went. While she did that, I lit the sage bundle and used it to purify both the circle and the crystals, murmuring a cleansing incantation under my breath. The wind shifted around me, catching the smoke and fettering it away into the night, and I took in a clear, crisp breath that filled me with energy.
Finished, I put out the smudge stick, lit the incense sticks, then picked up the crystals. I rolled each one between my fingers—Maximillian hadn’t charged them, but the stones didn’t need to be charged since I had so many helpers tonight. “Since you two are here,” I said, turning to Lucius and Sparrow, “you might as well participate.”
Lucius started, while Sparrow bounced on the balls of his feet like a giddy toddler. “Are you sure?” Lucius asked, his gravely voice deepening with concern. “You don’t need to include us just because we’re standing here.”
“Speak for yourself.” Sparrow elbowed Lucius in the ribs, earning him a death glare. “I want to help.”
“Then come here,” I said, a smile twitching at my lips. Normally, I wouldn’t have needed any of them here—the Twilight Communion could be performed alone with the right modifications. My mother did it all the time when we’d lived in the human lands. But my connection to Hecate had withered away to nothing after my confinement, and I was so depleted, I needed another presence to ground me.
Besides, these types of ceremonies worked better when performed with others who could lend you their energy. And I needed all the energy I could get right now.
The four vampires and their aetherion inventor all stepped forward, each one coming to stand next to one of the five candles. I moved around the circle, handing each one of them the crystal I felt best responded to their energies. To Lucius, I gave moss agate, representing the earth. For Sparrow, aquamarine, which represented water. Nyra got clear quartz for air, Eliza carnelian for fire, and to Maximillian, I handed a deep, purple crystal with veins of white running through it.
“Amethyst?” he inquired, rolling the stone between his long fingers.
“Yes.” I smiled. Amethyst was a very spiritual stone, known for enhancing intuition and connecting to higher planes of consciousness. As a telekinetic, he was the perfect fit for it. “I can’t think of anyone better to represent the element of spirit.”
A flicker of emotion passed across his face as he closed his hand around the crystal and brought it to his chest. Tearing my gaze from his glittering eyes, I turned to the others, then explained what their stones represented. “I want you to close your eyes and visualize your individual element as I perform the ritual,” I told them. “This will help form an energy field which will hopefully allow me to access the higher realm, where the gods live.” And with any luck, the goddess would hear me.
The five of them nodded, then closed their eyes as I sat down in the middle of the circle. Taking the moonstone in my palms, I closed my own eyes, then simply sat for a few minutes, focusing on my breath. I waited until my nerves were calm, until my pulse had smoothed out, until the chaotic thoughts cleared from myhead and the sounds of the world faded away, leaving only me and the darkness.
And then I began to chant.
The ancient prayer came slowly at first, the words rusty on my lips from decades of disuse. I’d tried whispering the prayer from inside my coffin a few times, but the sarcophagus greedily drained any energy the goddess sent my way, so I’d eventually stopped trying. But with each passing second, my voice strengthened, and I could feel my head lifting, tilting my face up to receive the kiss of moonlight from above.
“Mother, maiden, and crone,” I chanted as the moonstone in my palms began to warm. “I offer you my life, my loyalty, my faith, and my heart. I offer you my body as a vessel for your light, so that I may fulfill my sacred purpose. To create. To nurture. To protect. To serve. I ask that you hear my prayer, and give me the guidance and strength I need, so that I may execute your divine will.”
The wind, which had been oddly still, picked up around me as I spoke, lifting the hair from my shoulders and raising goosebumps along my flesh. The insides of my eyelids lit up as light exploded from the moonstone, and a shocked cry tore from my lips as a field of white spread across my vision, searing my retinas even though my eyes were closed.
“There you are, child,” a feminine voice that was somehow light and dark all at once whispered in my ear. “I’ve been waiting for you.”
I blinked my eyes open to see Hecate walking toward me, a gentle smile on her face. She moved with an ethereal grace, her form a mesmerizing blend of shadow and radiance, as ifshe'd been woven from the very fabric of the night sky. Her hair, long and flowing, shimmered like the surface of a moonlit lake, cascading in waves of silver and ebony. It framed a face of timeless beauty, where eyes as deep and fathomless as the night sky regarded me with an intensity that was both comforting and awe-inspiring. Her tall, curvaceous figure was cloaked in a gown that seemed to shift in color and texture—appearing in one moment to be made of the darkest velvet of the night sky, and in the next, sparkling with the brilliance of starlight. Around her neck hung a pendant that pulsed with a soft, otherworldly glow, its light ebbing and flowing like the phases of the moon. Trailing ribbons of mist and shadows swirled around her bare feet, and the air around her hummed with the power of ancient magic.
“Great Mother,” I breathed, rising to my feet without thought. Pure awe rolled through me as I watched her approach, and as she came to stand before me, I felt incredibly humbled.
The goddess occasionally whispered in our ears during rituals, or even sent us dream visions when we prayed for guidance. But for her to appear to me in all her divine glory, even if it was only in my mind’s eye, was an honor few witches ever received.
Her dark eyes twinkled as she came to a stop in front of me, and I dipped my head, unsure if it was proper to look directly into the eyes of a deity. Swallowing hard, I fixed my gaze on the black beauty mark nestled in the divot between her upper lip and her nose. This close, I could see it was shaped like a four-pointed star, and my fingers unconsciously flew to the mark on my left cheekbone, which was nearly identical.
