He was here. My witchy senses were tingling, so Fletch was definitely here.
He couldn’t have come that quickly in answer to my wish for him, yet I felt sure he had known I was in trouble even before it happened. Perhaps not through any psychic link between us, but good old-fashioned intuition, which my experience tonight had taught me not to doubt again!
I stood up and turned a full circle with my eyes shut, trying to deduce which direction he was coming from. Then I pressed my face between the bars and looked out where my senses directed. I couldn’t see anything, but I just knew…
I heard him before I saw him. He was being fairly loud.
“Let me through, Deri, I know she’s here, I’m picking up her scent close by. Where the hell is Brian? Why didn’t you call me? How could you? How could you let him do it?”
His rant went on, and soon I could see him and another boy around his age moving towards me. The other boy was trying to hold him back, and saying something in low tones that I couldn’t quite catch.
Whatever he said it didn’t reassure Fletch. “Do you think I care about him?” he shouted. “He’s not my Alpha. I don’t understand you sometimes. I thought we were friends?”
Then he saw me. He looked horrified, and I supposed I must be quite a sight, locked in a cage and all.
He shoved his so-called friend Deri out of the way and ran down to me. With my hands tied behind my back I couldn’t do more than lean against the bars, but he grasped my upper arms and I felt the warm electricity between us bring some energy back into me. I was just so glad to see him. I could tell he wanted to kiss me, but instead he touched his forehead to mine and let it rest there for a moment.
“What are you doing here?” I asked. “I thought you were supposed to be in London this full moon?”
“I was. But suddenly I knew I had to be here. So I came. At first I thought Brian must be in danger, it didn’t occur to me that it would be you. What are you doing here? Where is he? Has Hywel hurt him?”
I shook my head. “Sorry, Fletch, but I’m afraid that Brian helped orchestrate this. He invited me here and he was in on the plan to kidnap me. I’m supposed to be bonded to the Alpha in some Solstice ceremony tonight.”
“Over my dead body!” Fletch looked furious.
“That can easily be arranged.”
Fletch spun round as Hywel’s voice rang out behind him.
Hywel strode down to the clearing with Trefor on his heels.
“You are not welcome here tonight, Fletcher. If you value your life and that of your witch then you will leave immediately. If you are unwilling to leave, then we can easily find another cage to accommodate you too. After all, we keep plenty of them at my farm for crazed wolves like you.”
Fletch’s hands curled into fists. “I’m not a crazed wolf and you know it. Emily is mine and I won’t let you near her.”
Hywel laughed. “Do you really think you can stop me, Fletch? You’re a new wolf. I’m older than you, much older, and an Alpha. You are simply no match for me. Now move away or I will be forced to contain you and kill you when you change.”
“You can’t just kill him!” I said. “Don’t you think his family will object slightly?”
“You know nothing of our ways, witch. I am quite within my rights to kill him. Werewolves have their own code and it is held higher than human law. All those here will ensure it. As long as he is in wolf form and on my territory then I can and will kill him if I deem it necessary.”
Fletch stared Hywel in the eye. “I know something of our laws, I’ve done my research. Therefore, I formally challenge you to single combat for the position of Alpha of the Black Mountain Pack.” There was a collective gasp from all around us and it became obvious that there were quite a few people listening in, though I couldn’t see them all.
“You can’t say no, it is the right of any wolf to challenge you to fight them on the full moon.”
There was muttering around the circle.
“Silence!” Hywel shouted. “You are quite right, Fletcher, you have issued your challenge before at least three pack members as our laws require, and I must answer your challenge tonight as soon as the moon is full. Until then, you are my prisoner. Trefor, get a cage for our unwelcome guest; not too close to the witch. Then find the Wolf Whisperer. I do not trust him not to try to help the boy. Tell him it is time for him to find his own inner wolf.”
“Look out, Fletch.” My voice wobbled as I tried to warn him about the men closing in from all sides. But he just stood there and let them tie his hands.
“Deri?” he looked around for his friend.
“I’m here. What can I do? You know I can’t go against Hywel.”
“Just keep an eye on Emily for me? Make sure no harm comes to her before the fight.”
“I will.” Deri nodded and took up a stance by my cage, crossing his arms over his chest, as if he were my bodyguard.
Fletch looked over at me. “I love you,” he said.
I burst into tears. Was he saying it just because he knew he was going to die? I wanted to rant at him for being an idiot but I just managed to croak “I love you too,” before they started dragging him away.
As I said the words I felt a warmth in my hands, and small bolts of electricity seemed to start crackling in my palms. Within seconds the ropes around my wrists fell to the floor looking black and burned.
“Nice one,” I said, looking at my hands with appreciation.
Deri hurried over and for a moment I thought he was going to make a fuss. But instead he smiled.
“Fletch told me you have some rare gifts, but you aren’t a fire witch, right? I couldn’t untie you without going against Hywel, but I don’t seem to be obligated to tell anyone that you untied yourself.”
“Good.” I wondered how far to trust him, especially as trust clearly wasn’t running high on anyone’s agenda tonight. “So you have to do what Hywel tells you even if you don’t want to?”
He nodded. “Werewolf magic is complicated. Authority is based on dominance; we cannot help but submit to the most dominant wolf, and an Alpha is more than just the most dominant wolf, he draws strength from the whole pack. There are only rare occasions where you can overcome the power of an Alpha. Usually only if you are extremely dominant yourself, or perhaps to protect your mate. I think Fletch is resisting on both counts, which is why Hywel can’t control him at all.”
Deri stood for a moment looking worried. “Is there nothing you can do with your own magic? Hywel won’t allow it to be a fair fight, and there’s no one to stop him from twisting the rules to suit himself.”
“I’m working on it,” I said, “but I don’t really know what to try. Surely you wont allow him to cheat?”
“No, he can’t cheat exactly, otherwise his pack can turn against him. But he’s clever enough to find ways around some of our laws. What we need is another Alpha to be present. But another Alpha can also change the balance of the pack, weaken it if members chose to switch their loyalties to a rival Alpha. So Hywel has never allowed another Alpha onto his territory.”
“Then maybe that’s what I should work on?” I furrowed my brow. “Can I call another Alpha?” I tried to remember the words I had used to get Fletch’s body from the hospital and made it magically appear at the Seven Sisters back home. Could I do the same spell on a conscious and powerful werewolf? I could certainly try.
Deri shrugged. “I have no idea, you’re the first Natural Witch I’ve ever met.”
“Yeah, it’s a real gift alright,” I snapped. I knew I sounded sarcastic, but the truth was that finding control of this Natural Witch thing was proving much harder than the Elemental Witches seemed to encounter when connecting with their powers.
Deri suddenly raised his head, looking towards the stone circle. His whole body tensed.
“What is it?” I asked, knowing his senses were much better than mine.
“Screaming. And the Alpha has gone wolf already.”
“What does that mean?” I asked, terrified he was already trying to kill Fletch.
“An Alpha can change when he wants, he doesn’t have to wait for full moon. The whole pack can sense his change when he does it nearby.”
“But who’s screaming?” I interrupted.
“I don’t know. It sounds like he’s attacking a human. It is often one of his duties to aid humans who wish to attempt the turn.”
I slumped against the bars, relieved that it wasn’t Fletch.
“It will be Brian, the wizard,” I said sadly. I was mad as hellebore at him, but he’d already told me he probably wouldn’t survive the turn, and I didn’t want him to die. At least I couldn’t hear him myself. That would have been hard to take.
I sat down and took a few deep breaths. I had to concentrate on a spell that would help Fletch. Getting another Alpha to appear seemed the most practical, but it didn’t seem like it would massively tip the balance in our favour. Still I didn’t have any other ideas, and so I thought I should at least try. After all, it wasn’t as though most of my spells worked anyway. But if it did then the danger was that I wouldn’t be left with enough magical energy to do more magic if required. Big spells really seemed to take it out of me. That was something else I never saw in film or TV, the mind-numbing exhaustion that came after performing magic.
Oh well. I had best get on with it. But how on earth was I going to cast a circle? I had nothing. So I closed my eyes and tried to focus on the wording instead.
That was when my fabulous Familiar reappeared. He was leading the way followed by two large owls, who were carrying my entire bag of supplies between them. It was the bag I had packed to take to the Coven meeting, and it contained my wand, my Grimoire, and everything I needed to cast a circle.
I made a huge fuss over Bob, telling him how clever he was, before thanking the two owls profusely. Bob had bullied them into going down the chimney and dragging my entire bag of tricks all the way back here, which was more than I had possibly hoped for.
The first thing I did was fish out my phone and send Iris a text. I didn’t want to risk ringing her because of the super hearing of the wolves, even though I didn’t think there were any nearby apart from Deri, who I had decided was an ally for the most part. But it still seemed safer to keep quiet and not risk alerting anyone to the fact that I now had it. After typing out the basics of the situation to Iris, I asked her to come as quickly as she could, then double-checked that the phone was on silent before returning it to my bag.
I quickly scanned my Grimoire for the spell I had used last time, and taking out a pencil and some paper I jotted down a new spell. It was fairly awful but instant poetry was hardly an easy task. Then I got out the rest of my supplies. As I cast the circle, I sent a special thank you up to the Goddess for giving me the foresight to pack it all; I’d even remembered matches, which I nearly always forgot.
“Bob? I need you.” Bob flew down to my shoulder, and gave me the direction of the East.
I lit some incense and walked a small circle, while waving it around to cleanse the space, then pushed it into the earth when I reached the easternmost point of the circle.
“I call upon the Guardian of the Watchtower of the East, I offer you Air to guard and bless this circle,” I intoned. I turned and walked a few paces, then set down a candle and lit it.
“I call upon the Guardian of the Watchtower of the South and offer you Fire to guard and bless this circle.” I repeated the same at the west point, tipping some water on the ground from a small bottle, and spoke again at the northernmost point, where I dug in the ground with my fingers to offer Earth.
With my circle now cast, I got out my wand and raised my arms to the moon. Reading from the paper I whispered:
“Guardians of the North, East, South and West
Please heed with speed my request
Bring an Alpha wolf to me
Make him as dominant as can be
Bring him here to help tonight
And save Fletcher from an unfair fight
In perfect trust that it harm none
So mote it be, my will be done.”
I pointed my wand to the sky and watched as the tip began to glow.
“Again, Mistress, say it three times,” Bob instructed.
I read it two more times, and by the end of the third time my wand had a bright white orb surrounding it. I sort of flung the orb up and away, and then watched as it rose high in the air and then zoomed off, presumably to locate me a decent Alpha.
It took an awful lot of my energy with it, and I collapsed back down in the middle of my circle. I felt exhausted, but at least I thought it had worked. Maybe just for once, I had managed some magic that wouldn’t all go completely wrong. Maybe…