It felt downright sacrilegious at this point, bringing not one but two visitors to the side of Gwen’s pond. At what point would they declare enough was enough and ban me for good?
As we broke the tree line, I gave Dom a nudge. He dug a box of wheat crackers and a can of green beans out of his backpack. I blinked at the offering.
“I told you to bring greens and bread.”
“Crackers are like bread and these are green beans.” He gave the can a little jiggle.
I could have smacked my forehead.
“This isn’t some little BS phone-call ritual, Dom. This is an actual—” I broke off at Jasika’s gasp as Gwen rose from the water. Pond water sparkled like stars in her wet hair as she stepped onto the land, surveying us silently. After a long moment, she folded her hands in front of her.
“My sisters won’t come out for so many people, Bryn,” she warned me. “But you know that I always will.”
I couldn’t help smiling at that. “Yeah. Thanks, Gwen.”
Gwen’s eyes sparkled as she clapped her hands. “So, what have you brought me?”
“Only the best for the pretty lady.” With a flourish, Dom handed her his pantry rejects.
Gwen blinked and took a deep breath. “I see. How very … generous.” She turned, nodding at Jasika. “We have not met.”
“Jasika Witters.” Jasika stuck out her hand, just like I had when I’d first met the water wives. Gwen stifled a giggle, awkwardly resting her hand on Jasika’s.
“I am Gwen,” she murmured, looking Jasika up and down. “You have a power about you. You’ve been educated.”
Somehow, the way Gwen said “educated,” it didn’t sound like she was talking about algebra. It almost sounded like it was spelled with a capital E. For all that Jasika insisted she knew things, I was looking at her in a new light. I knew I’d underestimated her before, but now there was no telling how much.
Jasika caught her breath and nodded. “Self-taught, mostly. I’ve always sort of … known. Then Bryn and Father Gooding got my family out of a scrape. After that, I figured I ought to learn more. There are a few things I think I can do with it.”
“Impressive.” Gwen glanced at me. “Such interesting friends you’ve brought, Bryn.”
“Yeah, well, I try.” I knelt down in the muddy grass and opened my backpack. “Sorry to drop by unannounced again, but Dom and Jasika are going to be working with me. I figured it would be a good idea to lay everything out and let them know where all my cuts and bruises keep going.”
Gwen giggled, managing to sound like a gurgling stream as she knelt in front of me. Very close in front of me. Right in front of the others. Apparently, boundaries and personal space weren’t really water-wife things. I glanced at Jasika, but she’d plopped down on the grass next to Dom, hands folded politely in her lap. And Dom? He was laser-focused on the backpack. He might as well have waved a neon sign screaming SOMETHING COOL INSIDE! Gwen could have snogged me right there and I doubt he would have noticed anything if there wasn’t active magic involved.
Well, it was time for just that. This wasn’t just a social visit after all. “Gwen, the Unseelie didn’t just send a drone. The changelings were being delivered by a bendith right in these woods. In person.”
Gwen’s eyes widened. “Oh, Bryn. That was you, wasn’t it?” She took a deep breath and began to play with her long, pale hair. “You killed the bendith. Of course it was you. Did you at least learn her name?”
“I…”
“There wasn’t time,” Jasika cut in. I glanced over. Jasika had smoothed her expression into a stony mask. For his part, Dom wasn’t looking at any of us, and there was a faintly greenish tinge to his cheeks.
Gwen narrowed her eyes. “Did she curse the town?”
My stomach sank. “I guess there was time enough for that.”
Gwen hissed something that definitely wasn’t English under her breath and rose, storming back and forth in front of the pond.
Dom hurried up to her, holding up his hands. “We’re sorry. But we talked about it. There absolutely won’t be any more killing.”
Gwen slowed and crossed her arms. “That death should not have occurred. You’ve placed the whole of this town in danger.”
I sighed and pulled the book out. In an instant, the friendly atmosphere dissolved. Jasika leaned forward, brushing her fingers against the leather cover. Gwen recoiled, eyes wide.
“Bryn, why have you brought that here?” she demanded.
I glanced helplessly to Dom and Jasika, but they didn’t offer anything to help. “Gwen, I know it’s risky, but—”
“A grimoire of this sort is not to be used lightly.”
“My mum used it!” I insisted, and my heart skipped a beat. “This was her book. Maybe it’s risky, but if she could use it, then so can I.”
“If the town is in danger, then help us save it.” Jasika leapt to her feet and grabbed the book. For one knee-jerk moment, I almost lunged for it before I caught myself. We were working together now after all. All the same, my hands itched to take the book back.
Gwen turned to face us. A long, quiet moment passed. I don’t think any of us dared to breathe until, at last, Gwen gave a little nod. Jasika tried to hand her the book until Dom stopped her.
“Oh, no, um … apparently Fae can’t touch it? It’s enchanted or something.”
“Just rest it on the ground,” Gwen murmured.
Jasika did, and we all huddled around as Gwen pursed her lips, watching carefully as Jasika turned page after page.
“This book is very old,” she said, and I wasn’t sure if she said it to herself or to all of us. “It’s far older than any human ought to be. Perhaps your mother was not its first owner.”
I rested my hand on hers. “Could you tell us which spells might have been written by my mum, then?”
Gwen bit her lip and threw a glance over her shoulder at the pond. “The Welsh and the modern English spells are most trustworthy. But I don’t think any of you should try anything but the English. At least, that way, you’ll know what you’re saying.”
Well, it was a start. I squeezed her hand. “Okay. Do any of these look good to undo a bendith’s curse?”
Gwen watched Jasika flipping the pages before she held up her hand. “This one. It’s just an incantation. Everyone here should be able.”
By “everyone” she plainly meant Dom, who looked like he was about to explode with excitement.
“Wait. Right now? Are we actually going to do this right here, right now?”
Gwen stared at him a moment before her lip twitched. Yeah. Dom seemed to have that effect on people, didn’t he?
“Don’t we need ingredients? Elements, salt, anything?” Jasika demanded. “I mean, we haven’t even secured the circle.”
“Secured the circle?” Dom cut in.
“Usually before you do this, you’re supposed to make a circle around yourself with a knife,” Jasika explained. “It sort of keeps everything unwanted from getting in or out.”
“Don’t worry, I’m here. Fae magic is a little easier. And a little harder.” Gwen crossed her arms in front of her, wrist over wrist. “I can secure the circle, but you shouldn’t try without human methods. If you haven’t the strength, human magic simply won’t work. Fae magic will often work and just keep taking and taking until you’ve paid for it.”
“So better to read the fine print and follow the rules,” Dom muttered, flipping his wrists a few times before he was satisfied.
“Better not to try Fae magic without a Fae,” Gwen clarified. “Misguided humans have been known to turn to stone.”
Jasika and I shared a glance before we folded our hands in the center.
“You need to focus your power into the center of us all. Over the book,” Gwen explained.
“What?”
“Just imagine your hands getting warm, Dom,” Jasika explained, closing her eyes.
Gwen’s lip twitched.
“How long have you been doing this, Jasika?”
Jasika gave an awkward half shrug. “Actively? Maybe a year or so. But I think I’ve sort of been playing with it since I can remember. This’ll be the first time I do it with a group, though.”
Gwen nodded in approval. “You’ll find it a bit easier.”
After a few seconds, something thrummed behind our hands, like the tingling, tightening of skin near a fire without any of the heat. I focused on pushing my own out, but none of us could have matched Gwen’s strength. If we were campfires, she was a power plant.
“I will lead in the human fashion. You will follow,” she instructed, and her voice dropped lower than I’d ever heard it. “Hail to the water of the west. Guide our sorrow and our joy and purify this place we call home. Be with us and feed our intuition.”
The pond began to ripple, little waves slapping against the muddy bank. Dom jumped, glancing behind him. For a moment, I almost snapped at him to keep still, but with the kind of energy Gwen was putting out, I don’t think we were about to throw anything off.
“This isn’t the full ritual,” Jasika whispered.
“Ssh!” Dom hissed. “I’m listening!”
“Bryn?” Gwen pressed.
I licked my lips and tried to remember how this was supposed to go. That was the thing about human magic. It was so based on willpower and belief that the most certain way to get it done was by following the same rituals over and over until you trusted in them like you trusted the sun to feel warm. If I didn’t trust I’d remembered it right, there was a chance it might not work. Okay. Gwen had summoned the west. So I needed to go counterclockwise. Probably.
“Hail to the fire of the south. Feel our love and our rage. Help us to break the curse I sort of might have unleashed on the town. Be with us now to strengthen our wills.”
The burn of spice tickled my nose. I could swear a bead of sweat ran down my neck. Hard to tell magic from psychology sometimes.
“Dom?” Gwen pressed. “Air is the element of knowledge and clarity.”
Dom positively quivered with excitement. “Okay. Um. Hail to the air of the east. Show us knowledge and clarity. And be with us while we … do that.”
A tinkling of bells danced on the wind as an unexpected breeze tickled my cheek. I cracked my eyes open, then shut them before someone could catch me.
“Jasika?”
And of course, Jasika tackled it like a pro. “Hail to the earth of the north. Guide us through the darkness that has fallen on this place. Grant us the strength to resist it. Be with us as we seek stillness and wisdom.”
The soil itself seemed to thrum under us as we followed, building up to a steady rumble in my chest stronger than anything else. Jasika gasped. Her hands trembled against mine. The whole of nature seemed to be awake and intent on her. And we hadn’t actually started the spell yet.
I might have to rethink the balance here. Dom and I were campfires. Gwen was a power plant. Jasika was somewhere in between. How could she stand to walk around with all of that humming inside of her?
Gwen took a deep breath. “Repeat after me, now, but do not repeat after me unless you understand what I’m saying. Is that clear?”
We shared wary glances. Dom was the first to nod.
Gwen took a deep breath and began to mutter something, probably to make sure we didn’t try to clumsily mimic whatever she was saying. But, here and there, her voice rose in an English phrase for us to parrot.
“Watch over this town and expel ill will against it.”
“Guide us in strength, push us in love.”
And something I didn’t entirely catch, but it was either “Peace to all life” or “Bees for all time,” so … I was pretty sure which one I was supposed to say.
The trees creaked behind us and the water churned in the pond. Gwen’s power washed over us like a tidal wave until all we could do was hold on. Sweat beaded on my forehead. I tightened my grip, waiting for it to end as Gwen’s muttering carried on. Then, with a squeeze of her hands, it stopped. The power receded and I caught a breath I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding.
Gwen sighed.
“Water of the west. We thank you.”
My turn. “Fire of the south. We thank you.”
Then Dom and Jasika, like we’d done this a thousand times already.
“Air of the east, we thank you.”
“Earth of the north, we thank you.”
Gwen gave a satisfied little nod and let go of our hands. Dom looked like he’d been punched, but judging by that dazed little grin, I didn’t think he minded it. Gwen stood, primly brushing the bits of grass from her shift dress.
“Please attempt nothing from this book without me,” she instructed.
“Of course,” Jasika said, smiling a little too widely. I tried to catch her eye, but Jasika didn’t quite meet it. It seemed I wasn’t the only one willing to ignore Gwen’s advice.
I wobbled to my feet and returned Mum’s book to the safety of my backpack. “Thank you, Gwen. I promise we’ll keep you in the loop for anything else we do. We’d really appreciate your help if we hit a wall.”
Gwen pulled a face.
“Please understand me,” she said gravely. “I wish to help you. But if my sisters are threatened, we must retreat from this place. We cannot risk provoking the Unseelie court.”
“We don’t want to provoke anyone,” Jasika said. “We’re just going to look after our town.”
Gwen nodded and dipped into a little curtsy. “Until I see you all again.”
It was awfully formal. Dom and Jasika bobbed in little bows before they turned to head back into the trees. I started to follow, but Gwen caught my wrist. Of course there would be something we couldn’t discuss with the others around.
“I’ll see you at school tomorrow,” I called.
When Dom and Jasika disappeared into the trees, Gwen took my face in both her hands, pressing a cool little kiss to my forehead. My heart fluttered. I had to make myself take a step away.
“What was that for?”
“Something else is troubling you,” Gwen stated.
“Something’s always troubling me.”
“Tell me.”
I sighed and glanced over my shoulder. Dom and Jasika were long gone.
“I’ve been having dreams about my mum.” I swallowed. “But there’s someone else there. Dark hair. Gray dress.” I paused, grasping at ragged edges of the dream. It had felt so vivid when I’d dreamt it, but now it already felt vague and far away. “There was a banner. It was red and it had a gold dragon on it.”
Gwen pursed her lips. “Have you dreamt of this person many times?”
“Just a few. I only saw her once. Along with other people. Memories.” I pushed back against the image of the bleeding prince before he could fully form in my mind. “But I never saw her or the gold dragon. Do you know what it is?”
“It belongs to a family line that ended over a millennium ago.” Gwen shook her head. “They had a powerful witch among them, and she was known for deals with the darkness.”
Something in my gut wriggled. It almost felt like hope.
“But if she was a really old and powerful witch then maybe she’s the one who made the deal with the Unseelie. Not my mum.” I wanted to believe that, anyway.
Gwen gave me a sad look. “Pray it isn’t so. She was powerful as she was cunning. If her reaching out to you is tied to the Unseelie, I would recommend not trusting her. Do not speak to her. She was only ever loyal to herself and her ends. We have greater matters with which to concern ourselves.”
For the time being, I didn’t think I’d have any problem following her advice.