Never Been Witched (29 page)

Morgan cleared his throat. “We could celebrate Halloween here, or Samhain, I suppose I mean. If that would be all right with you?”

Storm did a double take. “A witchy Samhain ritual, Morgan? Here? We don’t want to chase you out of your own home.”

He shoved his hands in his pockets, embarrassed by the way he’d acted at Harmony’s Midsummer ritual. “I won’t leave this time. I’d like to take part, if you don’t mind?” He looked down to catch Destiny’s pleased expression. God, he loved her. Then he saw Meggie, Horace, and Buffy standing behind her, and he grinned. “Tonight’s the night that the veil between the living and the dead is the thinnest, isn’t it?”

Destiny followed his gaze, but apparently her sisters didn’t see what they did. Morgan rather liked having a psychic gift her sisters lacked. He cleared his throat again. “There’s something you should all know about me.”

Aiden waved away his explanation. “We told the girls that you’d been a priest.”

“There’s more, something I was hiding even from myself. I’m psychic. Clairvoyant. So was my twin sister, Meggie. She died when we were twelve.”

“Meggie’s here right now,” Destiny said. “Morgan was on the water when the lightning storm began, and she saved him and led him to me after the tower collapsed.”

“No way.” Storm looked around. “Can you see her, Des? Morgan?”

“We do. But that’s not the point,” Morgan said. “Samhain ritual here tonight, right, so Destiny doesn’t have to walk all the way to the castle, though I
could
make her a soft bed in the wheelbarrow and roll her there.”

Destiny winced. “Over my bruised body.”

Morgan sipped his cider and winked. “That’s what I thought. What do we have to do to get ready for Samhain? I’ll do whatever I can, but Destiny’s not up to anything except a preparatory nap.”

King stood. “Do we need to get the Oak King altar over here, or will the gateleg table in the kitchen do?”

“We’ll make do,” Harmony said. “Storm and I will bring the ritual supplies, and you and Aiden are going to bring one of the fainting couches from the castle, so Destiny can rest in the ritual circle. Great job of decorating for Samhain, though, Destiny.”

King looked around and nodded. “The place looks like a home for the first time in years.”

Morgan realized it was true. “It feels that way. Des and I plan to dress as Horace the lighthouse keeper and his wife Ida tonight. What kind of costumes are you all wearing?”

King raised a brow. “I guess we’ll have to find something. You’re a new man, Morgan. Sounds like something went down here while we were gone.”

“You set us up.” Morgan raised his chin. “But what went down here isn’t a story
you’ll
ever hear.”

Harmony herded a protesting King out the door.

“Don’t forget your ritual baths,” Des called after them. “Morgan and I have already taken ours.”

Chapter Forty-seven

SHORTLY before midnight, with Morgan by her side, Destiny welcomed her sister, Harmony, dressed as Lisette, the gentle ghost who’d helped Harmony rid Paxton Castle of the spirit haunting it. Harmony’s husband, King, dressed as his many-greats grand-uncle Nicodemus, who bought and settled this private island, Paxton Island, where the castle, the windmill, and the lighthouse stood.

Aiden and Storm had also found their costumes in the Paxton Castle closets, outfits belonging to second-generation relatives, once removed, descended from Nicodemus’s brother, King’s many-greats grandfather, who inherited the castle and passed it through the generations to King.

None of the Samhain ritual participants wore anything belonging to Gussie, wife of Nicodemus, the castle’s dark spirit, who Harmony had tamed and banished. Why take the chance?

At midnight, with the veil between the realms gossamer thin, Destiny played the sound track from
The X-Files
. Perfect background music for a Samhain ritual.

Harmony, their high priestess, announced that they should begin, then she consecrated the ritual space and its participants, blessed the elemental tools they would use, and cast the circle with her athame.

Harmony and King, Storm and Aiden, lit the four tapers for earth, air, water, and fire, while Harmony called the quarters: “North, south, east, and west.”

Morgan lit the fifth taper, the one in the center of the gateleg altar. “For spirit,” he said. “The spirits of our friends and relatives—but especially my sister, Meggie—who have passed from this earthly plane.”

Destiny and Morgan lit the two sweet-scented pillar candles, one for love and one for peace, respectively. Destiny suspected that Morgan chose the candle engraved with love as a message to her, and she appreciated it. She wanted it, except that she didn’t see how a life together could possibly work between them.

She’d always been attracted to him and wanted him for a boy toy, a playmate, because forever never seemed possible, given their different beliefs, which had changed but not.

He may no longer debunk witches and ghosts, but he’d always retain his basic faith. Yes, he was participating in their ritual, but how did he really feel about it?

She was so confused right now. She’d ask the Goddess for guidance as the ritual continued.

Harmony blessed the altar while she and her sisters walked the circle three times clockwise, Caramello and Samantha following them and amusing Morgan.

Harmony circled and cleansed with salt; Storm circled and cleansed with water, each invoking the Goddess of death and rebirth on this special night.

Destiny circled and cleansed with incense:

 

That’s when Destiny realized
why
she hadn’t been able to say yes to marrying the man she loved. Yes, they could be together in this realm, but there would be no single place for a couple of their diverse faith and belief systems in other realms for eternity.

Not being able to move on with Morgan didn’t bear thinking about.

When the circle walk ended, Destiny retired to the fainting couch, where Morgan waited for her. Would he always be forced to wait?

In her heart, Destiny prayed for a miracle.

 

The ritual circle had been outlined with colorful crystals, alternating with vases of orange and gold bittersweet, to honor the harvest; red and green holly to honor the Holly King; and red, yellow, and orange oak sprigs, to honor the Oak King. Marsh grass had also been added to honor their ritual location.

Morgan sat on the edge of her fainting couch and took her hand.

“Are you okay in the middle of a witch circle?” she whispered.

“Nearly content,” he whispered leaning close, “except that I’m on pins and needles waiting for my fair witch to say yes.”

“Pray for the right answer during the ritual.”

“Oh, I am,” he said, kissing her brow.

She cupped his cheek. “So am I.”

On the altar, candle colors and scents honored the season as did the orange altar cloth, the wooden bowl of apples, pomegranates, pumpkins, and gourds—gifts of the harvest—and a pentacle made of bittersweet branches. The ritual cauldron held a smoking smudge braid of sweetgrass, which gave off a soothing scent. Also on the altar, Harmony’s ritual knife, her athame, their three wands, one tipped with amethyst, one with aquamarine, one with citrine, and a blue ceramic chalice. On this particular day of the dead, a cornucopia of candy also sat on the Samhain altar for Meggie, their child ghost.

In the dark parlor, candles shed the only light from every corner, creating a spiritual and ghostly ambience. Floating tea lights stood on each dark, invisible stair, tapers on mantels, and pillar candles in harvest wreaths on tables and chairs.

Caramello purred in Morgan’s arms, and Samantha snored in Destiny’s lap. Family filled her heart and mind.

Meggie, with Buffy and Horace, stood quietly to the side, watching.

Destiny sent a nod their way, and Meggie waved as Destiny began her chant:

 

Harmony waved her wand over the feast of the dead to bless the harvest vegetables, fruit, pumpkin bread, and pomegranate wine, which they would share with each other, the deities, and the spirits, in celebration on this Samhain night.

 

Storm lit a black tea light.

 

Destiny lit a black tea light.

 

Harmony lit a black tea light.

 

Morgan stepped up and placed Meggie’s doll on the altar. “On this night, I remember my twin, Meggie. Meghan, my sweet; my heart that was broken and hollowed at your loss is now mended and full. I loved you then. I love you now. I always will. I will love you until we meet again—”

He turned to Destiny. “Where?”

“In the Summerland,” Destiny replied.

“Megs, until we meet again in the Summerland. God-speed.”

Destiny brought Horace’s uniform cap and a baby bonnet that Ida had embroidered. “I remember my friend Horace, who led Morgan through the tunnel maze beneath the lighthouse to find me. Blessed be, Horace, Ida, and baby makes three. Peace dear family for eternity.”

Harmony placed one of their nana’s mirrors on the altar, the one in which she had seen Lisette wearing the gown that brought her to Paxton Castle, to the love of her life—had brought each of the triplet triad to the loves of their lives, Destiny realized. “Nana, we missed you in life and mourn you in death,” Harmony said. “We’ve lived in your home, worked in your shop, known you better, and loved you more. Thank you for preparing Vickie to receive us. You carry all our hearts in the Summerland.”

Storm placed their many great-grandmother Lili’s diary and book of shadows on the altar. “Lili of Clan Lockhart, grandmother, matriarch, Pictish witch, your message we heed, and your heritage we keep. With the laird of Mackenzie, may your love bloom sweet in the Summerland.”

Destiny looked to see if, by any chance, Nana or Lili had joined them this night, but they had not, yet she knew that all their ancestors were smiling down on them in spirit.

Storm and Aiden, together, brought to the altar a copper seahorse necklace fashioned by the mother of Aiden’s baby daughter,
their
baby now. “Claudette,” Storm said. “We’re raising Becky so she knows that you gave her life. Bright blessings.”

Aiden cleared his throat. “We’re raising her with love, Claude, and with a big sister named Pepper. Your mother is with us, too. Rest in peace.”

Destiny swallowed hard. Most of their loved ones were still with them, praise the Goddess, though their babies and some of their siblings, whether by birth or adopted, were either asleep nearby, or elsewhere, by necessity.

Harmony blessed and included each in the celebration by name:

“We thank the Goddess and ask for blessings for our half sister, Vickie, her husband Rory, and their little Rory in Scotland.

“For our half sister, Pepper, for Aiden and Storm’s baby Becky, and Becky’s grandmother Ginny, all here on the island at the windmill.

“Bless Regina and Jake, King’s daughter and grandson, our dear friends, Melody and Logan, Kira and Jason, and their children. And bless our own babes soon to come.”

Destiny and her sisters regarded each other with inquiry, their triplet telepathy running rampant. “Not me” became the mantra, with a wink and a “yet” after each, except for Destiny who abstained from adding “yet,” the omission nearly breaking her.

Harmony changed the music to the golden moldy “Monster Mash” for an upbeat ritual celebration of life and after-life, to which they could dance in the circle with the spirits.

Harmony and King, Aiden and Storm, swung their booties with enthusiasm, but Morgan took her tenderly in his arms, so tenderly that Destiny fell deeper in love, if that were possible, and he waltzed her in place so as not to hurt her, his love for her shining in his eyes.

How could she resist? And yet they were so different.

She wanted to weep for what they could never have.

To end the ritual, they a shared a feast to thank God and Goddess, with pumpkin bread, honey, apples, and pomegranate wine, leaving a piece and sip of each on the altar for the deities.

Before her sisters and brothers-in-law left, they placed the bowl of harvest fruits and vegetables on the porch for the wandering spirits of their loved ones to refresh themselves during their earth-side journey this night.