Jared was sitting down and already eating as Nate spoke, mainly to Jared, but also to Jack, who was sitting just outside the room. Cassie’s protection spells kept her cousin and Jared’s brother, Ryder, out of the room, but they didn’t seem to affect Nate or Whitney now.
Jared shrugged as Jack huffed.
Whitney was sitting outside the room beside Jack as she ate her breakfast, too. Jared nicely brought her pancakes, not raw meat.
“Ryder isn’t going to agree, even if I understand,” Jack said. Obviously, he didn’t agree, but he wasn’t fighting on his behalf.
“Then he can stay here. I’m not bringing anyone from here that isn’t blindfolded. I don’t care if you currently are helping us. It won’t stay that way, and we know that.” Nate wasn’t eating, but held up a plate to Cassie, who stood in the doorway while everyone argued.
After taking the plate from Nate, Cassie sat down beside him. She could feel the tension in the air and decided it was best to just eat. It was like they were waiting for a spark to go off. Nate was set on everything happening his way, and Jack didn’t want to do it. Jack seemed like he’d prefer to be in charge, but that wasn’t the way it worked. Nate was alpha of his clan and Jared of his. Jack was just a consultant to the alpha.
“What’d I miss?” Ryder asked as he came out of his room, which was across the hallway from Jared’s.
“That Nate plans to blindfold us before taking us with them,” Jack replied.
“What?” Ryder looked into the room to Jared. “You can’t let him do that, bro. How the heck can we protect you if we can’t see? We’ll all be like sitting ducks. You won’t be able to protect yourself.”
Jared shrugged. He didn’t seem concerned about it.
“I’ll be fine. He won’t be blindfolding me.” Jared took another bite of his pancakes and chewed slowly. Ryder paced outside the room. “You can always stay here.”
“Dad ordered us to keep you safe, and that’s what I’m doing … if you’d let me.”
“Either you agree or don’t come,” Nate told them with finality.
Once Ryder and Jack figured out that nothing was going to change Nate’s mind, they let it go. The meal was finished, and they headed off. Cassie actually enjoyed the hike in the woods to the ceremony ring. Not only did they blindfold the wendigos, but they put headphones on them. The guys, having to take turns getting Jack and Ryder there in one piece, didn’t have quite as peaceful of a hike, but Cassie walked with Whitney and enjoyed it. It had been a while since she had been out in the woods, and it was always refreshing. Well, at least if she wasn’t running for her life, or terrified of monsters in the woods.
Whitney hiked silently with Cassie. While Cassie wanted to ask her questions, her friend was too lost in thought to hold a conversation. The loss of her family weighed heavily on her, yet she trekked with them into the woods to help Cassie out. Whitney was truly a great friend.
The ceremony circle was in a large clearing in the middle of the evergreen trees. Winter or summer, it would be hidden and was in the perfect spot. Four large stones, larger than three full-grown men standing side-by-side, were at each of the ordinal points. Cassie approached cautiously and stayed back several feet from the well-worn stepping stones marking the edge of the circle. Jack, free of his blindfold and headphones, approached her. He looked around the circle and began to walk counterclockwise.
“I see at least two distinct layers.” Jack made it all around and came back beside Cassie. “If you look just inside the first, about two inches, you can make out the second layer. I think there might be more, but I can’t tell until we get rid of the first two. I’ve seen this type of circle before. They plan to strip your powers, and then bind you to the coven before you know what they’ve done.”
Cassie looked where her cousin was pointing. It was faint, but he was correct. There were at least two layers inside the circle. And he was probably right in that there would be more.
“If you want to start with the first one, I’ll start with the second.” Jack already had his bag open and was pulling out ingredients.
Cassie didn’t trust him very much at all, but he was completely into breaking the spells set by the coven. Whether it was his form of revenge or whatever drove him to help, Cassie wasn’t going to argue with him. She was glad to have the assistance. Alone it would have taken her all day and then possibly longer, but with his help, they stood a chance to get rid of the spells.
Glancing at her cousin hard at work, Cassie began to do the same, focusing on the first ring around the ceremony circle. She walked the circumference of the circle a second time, this time focusing on the outside ring of magic. If anyone had accidentally stepped on any of the stones making the circle, they would have been caught in it. It seemed foolish to make the circle wide and in a place someone could get caught, but then again, maybe that was the point. People wouldn’t expect it to be there. Maybe this was the circle Nate stepped into in her vision.
The anchor for the spell sat just off the very northern top of the circle; a small, almost unnoticeable stone. She moved closer and peered down at it. She didn’t want to touch it, but she was pretty sure it held the whole first layer together, which was probably why Whitney’s memories didn’t show the layer being set up. Jack was working on one of the levels from Whitney’s vision almost like he already expected it and knew how to counter it.
The skinwalkers kept their distance from the circle and continued to watch around the forest, letting Cassie and Jack work in silence. Jared and Ryder were walking patrols around in the woods.
Stopping by the stone, Cassie looked closer at it. There was a faint glow to it that would make it easier in the dark to recognize what it was spelled with, but she didn’t have the luxury to wait until then. It would be too late if she did. The best course of action would be to pick it up, but then again, Cassie doubted it would be that easy. There were probably additional layers of magic on it. They needed to counter any effects it would have if she touched it. But with her new spells she didn’t exactly need to touch it to move it. It was tempting, but she didn’t want everyone to see yet. She wanted to keep her new spells a secret for as long as she could.
The wendigo and skinwalkers were all wandering around the woods near the clearing. She needed the perfect moment for no one to see. Jack was busy mixing his ingredients. Cassie would have a chance to get it without anyone noticing, as long as she had something to put it in. She opened up a vial in her bag. The pebble would easily fit. She just had to be sure that the vial would keep the spell contained.
Pulling out what she would need, Cassie put together a potion that would harden around the pebble once inside the vial. It could be contained as long as she had something to separate out the herbs inside the vial. If one part was taken out, the spell would inactivate, and solidifying it would keep it safe. She dug once more in the bag and found what she needed. Quickly she poured everything into the vial. She put the extra in the cap of the vial. She’d have to work fast, but she had a feeling all of it had to go quickly. They weren’t going to have much time if there were more layers to get through.
Cassie looked around at everyone with them. The people in the woods didn’t seem to be watching her, and for the most part wouldn’t be able to see anything if she crouched down by the stone. What she needed to be careful of was Jack seeing. She didn’t want him to know about her new spells, and she wasn’t about to share her newfound magic with him. No matter if he was helping or not, she didn’t trust him.
Jack turned his back to Cassie, and she didn’t wait longer to decide. She had practiced enough to gently move the stone into the vial without touching it. As soon as it was in place and the spell separating, Cassie pushed the lid on the vial without touching it. Her new powers were really handy, and she was glad her T-shirt was long enough to cover her arm as the spell burned on her skin. She discovered the night before that activating the spells made them show up on her skin temporarily.
Nate came up
from the woods and stared at Cassie without saying a word before moving back down to the trees to keep watch. She hadn’t thought before doing it. Cassie was sure he felt the burn. Both he and Jared had to have felt it, but neither one asked, just like they didn’t ask about not having full access to her thoughts.
Cassie made her way back around to Jack and watched as he added a few more herbs to his mixture.
“This works easier if you can heat it just a little bit,” he told her as she watched. “They mash much easier.”
She agreed with that. Watching him, she had no clue how he knew exactly how to counter the second ring. Because it was covered in a slight purple haze, she knew it had some witch bane in it, but other than that she wasn’t sure what else was added. Cassie needed more time to analyze things, but it seemed Jack didn’t.
“This is the layer to keep us out,” Jack explained as he worked. “Once we get past this one, I can just jump inside and deactivate the rest of them.”
“Won’t they notice when they show up tonight?” That had crossed her mind more than once on their hour-long hike.
Jack stopped mixing and grinned up at her from his place on the ground.
“That’s the best part. I have a dummy spell ready to put in place once we stop everything they set up. The coven thinks they’re all great, but they actually know very little about magic. When you focus on only one kind, it’s easy to miss other great spells.”
Jack went back to his mixing, and Cassie turned to make another round around the circle. She had a feeling she didn’t want to know more of the magic he was talking about. Yes, the coven was trying to strip her powers, but she never saw the coven as a dark one. She had read about those and had a feeling the witches in the coven with the wendigo were practicing more magic than Cassie wanted to know about. It wasn’t that dark magic was completely bad. The problem was that when you began mixing them, as Jack suggested, they required a bit more than Cassie wanted to give away. Her coven focused on light magic and took from the moon, Mother Earth, and all of the plants and life around them. Jack’s coven took from the non-life around them, from the rocks and water. But you couldn’t take from both without a sacrifice, and most of the time the sacrifice was part of you.
They continued to work all afternoon, disabling ring after ring. Jack was right that once they took out the second ring, he was able to move inside and start to take each one apart from the inside. It wasn’t half as dangerous, and he only had to come back out twice for Cassie’s help in disabling over a dozen different spells.
When they were finally finished, Jack set up his dummy spell.
“To make this one look like theirs and hide everything we took away, it does have to work a bit,” Jack explained as he sat down beside Cassie on the grass. At least it was dry now.
“Which means?” Nate asked from behind them.
“It won’t work on people with night human blood, but others such as day human witches it will work on,” Jack explained.
“So if I get this straight, you’re a putting up a spell to catch Cassie but not me?” Nate asked. He didn’t seem too pleased with the option, but he liked it better than a spell that would catch him and not Cassie.
“Their outside spells were set to catch witches. If we don’t reset them to look the same, then they’ll know something’s up,” Jack explained. “Cassie can disable the spell from the inside; she just won’t be able to leave it until she does.”
Jack made it sound like no big deal, but both Nate and Jared seemed to have reservations about it. Cassie looked at what Jack had laid down. It would be easy to disable, especially now.
“It’s three marks,” Cassie explained to the not-so-convinced guys. “One swipe there with your foot as you enter, and two more for me to get rid of once inside. Not a problem.”
Nate stared at where Jack had set the spell. He had made it look like the original spell, but Nate memorized every detail of the small stone.
“Fine,” he agreed after feeling Cassie’s confidence in it. “We head back now so I can move everyone into place for tonight.”
“In place?” Cassie questioned.
“In case they don’t go down without a fight. I’m ready to bring the fight to them.”
Never once in the history of the coven and skinwalkers had they fought. They had always been a team. Cassie had been taught that the witches bonded to the skinwalkers as a way to keep them in their families. There was nothing but love between the two, but the gleam in Nate’s eyes told her he didn’t feel that love for the coven. She didn’t exactly blame him, but he was going to ask skinwalkers to fight against their families.
Nate nodded to Cassie as she processed what he was suggesting. And then he looked over her to Jared. Jared nodded to Nate.
‘It won’t be family fighting family. Anyone not related to the witches involved will be here with me, and the rest of our backup will be the wendigo. Jared will move each of them into place all afternoon.’
Surprised, Cassie glanced at Nate. She never expected him to voluntarily work with the wendigo.
‘They have as much invested in you staying safe as I do.’
‘And I’m only bringing the ones I can trust,’ Jared added to the silent conversation.
‘We will keep you safe. No one is going to hurt you tonight.’ Nate told her.
‘Or ever,’ Jared added.
Cassie sat in her bedroom, happy to be home for once, but strangely alone. Maria had been sent away, which was no surprise. The coven wouldn’t be able to get away with what they planned if Maria was still around. Uncle John was gone too, and she had no clue how they got him to leave. Cassie waited for the minutes to pass. It was a little nerve-wracking to just sit and wait. If the coven had their way, she would have no witch powers left after their ceremony. She had to hope her friends had planned for everything, but she still wished for her seer ability to magically happen.
Thinking back to every moment she had ever seen the future, she realized there was nothing she could find in common. She hadn’t been in the same place, some location, taking same potion, or thinking the same thing. It was like it happened when it felt like happening, and she had no control. The old seer made it sound like she could control and learn how to use it, but Cassie was unsure if that was true for her. She wasn’t just a seer; she was part night human. Maybe the night human blood in her messed up the seer blood.
Cassie stood up and began to pace the room. She needed to see that they had changed the future. What she had seen the night before was hopefully not going to happen. Her nerves were setting, and she wanted to be assured they were doing the right thing.
‘We won’t let anything happen to you,’ Jared said from wherever he was now. She had checked on him a couple times, and he was still shuttling people to the coven’s circle.
‘Sometimes we can’t control fate,’ Cassie replied. She really needed visions of the future to set in.
‘This isn’t fate controlling this. It is two very power-hungry witches. And they’re not going to win. Trust Nate and me to get this done. I promise you that we will stop everything tonight, and you’ll be safe.’
Cassie walked back to her bed and sat down. Pacing didn’t help her think, and obviously, her worry was projecting out to the guys. She needed to stop distracting them.
The door to the house opened downstairs, and Cassie jumped up to go down and greet her uncle. It was about time he had got back. She’d be a lot less worried if he were with the group at the circle. No one wanted to tell him no, especially as fall was almost done and he was easy to upset.
Whitney stood inside the doorway as Cassie came down the stairs. Whitney nodded to Cassie, almost as disappointed as Cassie felt.
“Still no sign of them?” Cassie asked. Whitney had gone home hours ago to check for her family. Something the seer had said to her made her want to recheck everything.
“Nope,” Whitney replied, looking a bit more defeated than the last Cassie had seen her. “And John?” r />
“His message says he’ll be back later, but I guess this isn’t later,” Cassie replied. It was already dark outside. She considered it later, but obviously John didn’t, nor did whoever sent him on the errand to keep him away for the night.
Reaching over, Whitney took Cassie’s hand to give it a big squeeze. Even in the middle of her own problems, she was able to give Cassie a smile.
“You know they’d never do anything to John. They just need him away from everything tonight. With Maria gone, I’m sure he wouldn’t have let you go alone. He doesn’t trust the coven, and everyone knows that. Without Mikel around, I’m sure the coven is concerned about John,” Whitney explained. “I think that’s why they’re desperate to control Nate. They believe Nate can control John, and I’m not sure if he can. If the coven did anything to you, they’d have a very angry, powerful skinwalker on their hands to deal with. You know John was supposed to be alpha, but the coven took that away from him when Maria didn’t take a mate. I doubt that was the real reason though, and I bet it had more to do with power.”
Whitney sat down on the couch with Cassie.
“Still not going to tell me what the seer told you?” Cassie asked, trying to change the subject from her missing uncle. The worry was beginning to form from him not being there, and she was looking for a way to comfort her friend. It was weighed on her to not know where her family was.
“Nope, but I’d love to hear more about what I was seeing last night.” Whitney wiggled her eyebrows.
Cassie was able to smile a little bit. Whitney had that effect on people. She knew exactly how to make a situation better. She only wished she could do that for her, too.
“I don’t think we have enough time to explain that now.”
Nate was already on his way over to get Cassie.
“Fine, but promise that when this is all done, you’ll tell me everything.” Pouting, Whitney stood up. She must have felt Nate arriving at the back door, too.
“Promise.” Cassie held out a pinkie for Whitney, who took it with her own pinkie and shook their hands.