Blood Witch (9 page)

“I don’t know,” said Cal, shifting and stretching his legs out two steps below. “A lot of what’s important in Wicca is continuity. It’s about getting in touch with the day-in, day-out stuff, the cycle of the year, the turn of the wheel. Meeting every Saturday, being committed to that, is part of it. It’s not something you should skip whenever you want to.”

Matt stared at the floor. But Robbie looked back at Cal calmly.

“I hear what you’re saying,” Robbie said. “And I agree with it. But I’m not doing this just for me, and it isn’t just because I feel lazy or I want to watch the game. I need to know what’s going on with Bree and her coven, and this is how I can find out.”

I was impressed with the air of quiet confidence Robbie projected. His acne and glasses had been gone ever since I’d put a healing spell on him. But something seemed to have healed inside him as well, something that didn’t have anything to do with my magick. After years of being a somewhat awkward geek, he was growing into himself and finding new sources of strength. It was great to see.

Cal was silent for a while, and he and Robbie regarded each other. A month ago I would never have thought that Robbie would be a match for someone as strong as Cal, but now they didn’t seem that different in a way.

Finally Cal nodded and let out a breath. “Yeah, okay. It won’t kill us to take a break. Since there’s only seven of us, if two of us can’t make it, the circle will be kind of unbalanced. So let’s all just take Saturday night off, and we’ll meet again the week after.”

“And
that’s
when we’ll have Morgan’s birthday cake,” said Robbie, smiling at me.

Sharon cleared her throat. “Um . . . I guess this isn’t a good time to mention that next Saturday I’ll be in Philadelphia for Thanksgiving.”

Cal laughed. “Well, we’ll just do the best we can. It’s always tough around the holidays, with everyone having family stuff. How about you, Matt? Can you make it the following week?”

Matt nodded automatically, and I wondered if he’d even heard what Cal had said. The bell rang, and we all stood. Jenna put her hand in Matt’s, staring into his face. He looked drawn, tense. I wished I knew what was going on.

As I headed to homeroom, the halls rapidly filled with streams of students, and Cal tugged on my coat sleeve.

“This Saturday we can have a birthday circle, just us two,” he whispered into my ear. “This could be a good thing.”

I shivered with delight and looked up at him. “That would be great.”

He nodded. “Good. I’ll plan something special.”

 

In homeroom I noticed that Tamara was absent. Janice told me she had a cold. Everyone seemed to have colds lately.

Bree was absent, too, or so I thought before I saw her stop outside the class door. She was dressed all in black and was wearing vivid dark makeup, like Raven. It obscured her naturally beautiful face and made her seem anonymous somehow, as if she were wearing a mask. It filled me with an uneasy feeling. She stood outside, talking in a low voice to Chip Newton, and then they both came in and sat down.

I swallowed. Chip was cute and seemed like a pretty nice guy. He was brilliant in math, too—way better than me, and I’m pretty good. But Chip was also our school’s biggest dealer. Last year Anita Fleming had gone to the hospital after overdosing on Seconal that she had gotten from him. Which made me wonder just how nice he really was.

What are you doing with him, Bree? I asked silently. And what’s your coven up to?

Later that morning, while I was in the first-floor girls’ bathroom, I heard Bree’s voice, then Raven’s, outside my stall. Quickly I pulled up my feet and braced them against my door so nobody could tell that the stall was occupied. I just didn’t feel up to facing the two of them, having them sneer at me, right now.

“Where are we meeting?” Raven asked. I heard Bree rustling in her purse, and in my mind’s eye I could picture her fishing out lipstick.

“At Sky’s place,” answered Bree. My interest perked up. They must be talking about their new coven.

“It’s so cool that they have their own place,” said Raven. “I mean, they’re barely older than we are.”

I breathed silently, intent on their voices.

“Yeah,” said Bree. “What do you think of him?”

“He’s hot,” said Raven, and they laughed. “But it’s Sky who knocks me out. She knows everything, she’s so cool, and she’s got awesome powers. I want to be just like that.” I heard more rustling, then one of them turned on the water for a moment.

“Yeah,” said Bree. “Did you think it was weird, what she was talking about on Saturday?”

“Not really,” Raven said. “I mean, everything has a light side and a dark side, right? We have to be aware of it.”

“Yeah.” Bree sounded thoughtful, and I wondered what the hell Sky had been talking about. Was Sky pulling them toward dark magick? Or was she just showing them part of Wicca’s big circle, like Cal had said? It didn’t seem—

“You got the hair, didn’t you?” Raven asked.

“Yeah,” Bree answered. Now she sounded almost . . . depressed. I couldn’t follow the conversation at all. What hair?

“What’s wrong?” Raven demanded. “Sky promised no one would get hurt.”

“I know,” Bree mumbled. “It’s just, you know, I found the hair in this old comb—”

“Morgan will be
fine,
” Raven interrupted.

“That’s not what I was talking about,” Bree snapped. “I’m not worried about her.”

My eyes flew open wide. I bit my lip to keep from gasping as everything fell into place. Bree was talking about
my
hair. I couldn’t believe it. She was turning over a strand of my hair to a strange girl—a witch—behind my back.

There could be only one reason: Sky wanted my hair to put a spell on me. So why had Bree gone through with it? Did she really believe that Sky didn’t intend to harm me? Why
else
would she want the hair?

Or did Bree want me to be harmed? I wondered miserably.

“We need more people,” Raven stated in the silence.

“Yeah. Well, Robbie’s going to come. And we might get Matt, too.”

Raven laughed. “Yeah. Matt. Oh God, I can’t wait to see Thalia’s face when Robbie walks in. She’ll probably jump him right there.”

I frowned. Who was Thalia?

“Really?” Bree asked.

“She just broke up with her boyfriend, and she’s trolling,” Raven said. “And Robbie’s really hot now. I wouldn’t mind hooking up with him myself.”

“Oh, Jesus, Raven,” said Bree.

Raven laughed again, and I heard a purse being zipped shut. “Just kidding. Maybe.”

Silence. I held my breath.

“What?” said Raven as the door opened.

“Thalia’s not his type,” Bree said as sounds from the outside hall filtered into the room.

“If she wants him, she’s his type.”

The bathroom door closed again, and air exploded from my lungs. I got to my feet, shaking with reaction. So Sky was manipulating Bree. They were definitely trying to get Matt and Robbie to leave our coven and join theirs. And Sky had her own place, where they were meeting. Did she live with Hunter? Was that who Raven thought was hot? Maybe. Then again, Raven thought most breathing males were hot. And they knew somebody named Thalia who was going to jump Robbie. For some reason, Bree had sounded less than thrilled by that idea—as she had about turning over my hair to Sky. But her reluctant tone was small consolation.

I hated everything that I had just overheard. But more than that, now I was afraid.

After school I wanted to talk to Cal about what I had overheard, but he was already gone. He’d left a note on my locker, saying he’d had to go home and meet with one of his mother’s friends. So for now I was on my own with my questions about Bree and Raven and their coven. Even Mary K. wasn’t coming home with me. As I was getting into Das Boot, she ran up to tell me she was going to Jaycee’s house.

I nodded and waved, but I couldn’t bring myself to smile. I didn’t want to be alone. Too much was troubling me.

Luckily Robbie sauntered over to the car. “What’s up?” he asked.

I shielded my eyes from the pale November sunlight and looked at him. I wasn’t sure whether or not I should tell him what was on my mind. I decided not to. It was too complicated. Instead I merely said, “I was thinking about going to Butler’s Ferry park and gathering some pinecones and stuff for Thanksgiving.”

Robbie thought for a moment. “Sounds cool,” he said. “Do you want some company?”

“Absolutely,” I said, unlocking the passenger’s-side door.

“So, do you have family coming in for Thanksgiving?” he asked.

I nodded as I pulled out of the driveway, picking up speed on the open road. “My mom’s parents, my dad’s brother and his family. And then everyone who lives in town. We’re having dinner at our house this year.”

“Yeah. We’re going to my aunt and uncle’s,” Robbie said without enthusiasm. “They’ll be yelling at the football game on TV, the food will suck, and then my dad and Uncle Stan will both get plastered and end up taking a swing at each other.”

“Well, they do that every year,” I said, trying to inject some humor in a not-so-humorous situation. I’d heard about his from Robbie before, and it always made me sad. “So it’s almost, like, traditional.”

He laughed as I turned onto Miltown Pike. “I guess you’re right. Tradition is a good thing. That’s something I’ve learned from Wicca.”

Soon I was pulling into the empty Butler’s Ferry parking lot and cutting the engine. I retrieved a basket with a handle from the trunk. Despite the cold the sun was trying hard to shine, and it glittered off the leaves crumpling under our feet. The trees were bare and sculptural, the sky wide and a pale, bleached blue. The peace of the place began to steal over me, calm me down. I felt suddenly happy to be here with Robbie, whom I’d known for so long.

“So are there any herbs or anything around this time of year?” Robbie asked.

“Not a lot.” I shook my head. “I checked my field guide, and we might see some stuff, but I’m not counting on it. I’ll have to wait till spring. I’ll be able to collect plants in the wild then and also start my own garden.”

“It’s weird that you’re so powerful in Wicca, isn’t it?” Robbie asked suddenly. But it wasn’t a mean or probing question.

For a moment my breath stopped, and I thought about telling him everything that I had learned about myself in the past month. Robbie didn’t even know I was adopted. But I just couldn’t tell him. He’d been my friend for so long; he’d listened to me complain about my family, and he’d always pictured me as one of them: a Rowlands. I wasn’t up to dealing with the emotional backlash of spilling the whole story
again.
I knew I would tell him sometime. We were too close for me to have this huge a secret. But not today.

“Yeah, I guess,” I said finally, keeping my voice light. “I mean, it’s amazing. But who would’ve thunk it?”

We grinned at each other, and I found a pretty pine branch on the ground that had three perfect little cones on it. I also stopped to pick up a few oak twigs that had clumps of dried leaves on them. I love the shape of oak leaves.

“It’s really changed everything,” Robbie murmured, picking up a likely branch and handing it to me. I accepted it, and it joined the others in my basket. “Magick, I mean. It’s completely changed your life. And you completely changed my life.” He gestured to his face, his skin. I felt a brief stab of guilt. All I’d meant to do was try a tiny healing spell to clear up the acne that had scarred his face since seventh grade. But the spell had continued to perfect him. He didn’t even need glasses anymore. Every once in a while the whole thing spooked me all over again.

“I guess it has,” I agreed quietly. I leaned down to study a small, fuzzy vine climbing a tree. It had a few withering, bright red leaves on it.

“Don’t touch that,” said Robbie. “It’s poison ivy.”