The crowds trickled away, and we closed a little after nine. It took another forty-five minutes to clean up for the next day, including mopping the floor. Lucy had left Honeybee at home since she didn’t know how her familiar would react to all the children, but Mungo had loved all the attention heaped upon him during the party.
I packed him up in my tote bag, and we locked the door behind us. Ben and Lucy had driven separately, and he headed home for the night while Lucy followed me to the carriage house. By the time the rest of the spellbook club came trickling in after eleven, we had the fire laid in the firepit and snacks and drinks ready. We’d each changed into loose, comfortable clothing that would keep us warm outside in the cool autumn night.
Jaida arrived first, and I pulled her aside. “How’s Teddy doing?” I asked.
She frowned. “She has her own apartment, but she’s staying with us for now. I think it makes her feel better to have people around when you-know-who won’t leave her alone.”
“I’m glad she can count on you guys,” I said. “I take it Leigh’s spirit is still bothering her.”
“Yeah, though they seem to be on, shall I say, friendlier terms today.” She paused. “She told me you asked her to help get Connell back.”
I made a face. “That didn’t go so well.”
“So I gathered. I told her that’s what we’re doing tonight. She seemed . . . upset. I’m not sure why.”
That didn’t bode well. I tried to quiet the nervous flutter under my heart as the door opened and the others came in, each carrying their contribution to the evening’s festivities.
“What are these?” Bianca asked, putting her purse on the kitchen chair and leaning against the counter. She was examining the plate of food Lucy had brought.
“Soul cakes,” my aunt answered.
“Oh, my stars!” Mimsey exclaimed from the doorway to the living room. She bustled over to take a look. “What a perfect idea, Lucille!”
“I’ve never heard of them,” Jaida said.
“Well!” Mimsey said, and I knew she was about to give us a lesson. “Soul cakes are traditional in England, you see. On All Souls’ Day, which is actually two days after Samhain, they would hand out soul cakes to children and the poor who came to the door asking for them. It was called souling, and those who received cakes would pray for the dead of the family in exchange. Each cake represented a soul in purgatory, and eating the cake and praying would release that soul.”
I stared at her, then turned to Lucy. “Connell is in a kind of purgatory.”
She smiled. “I agree. Plus, they’re yummy. I used lots of allspice, and maple syrup to sweeten them.”
Allspice was very healing, as well as augmenting energy and determination—both of which we’d need. It was also a masculine spice, associated with fire, and we were dealing with masculine energies this evening.
“Thank you, Lucy.” I gave her a hug and indicated the plate next to hers. “And I made these, based on a Samhain ritual cake, only this is more of a scone and studded with ginger and orange peel like barmbrack. I was thinking we could each have a little, and I wanted to include one in our spell as an offering to the spirit world.”
“That sounds good.” Mimsey gave an approving nod.
We trooped out to the firepit with the plates of ceremonial goodies and a tall pitcher of ginger sweet tea to give our spell work a little more oomph. I retrieved the candles, the jug of water, the long-handled lighter, the photograph, and the herbs and spices I’d brought out so early that morning. Jaida and Cookie took the small table from the gazebo and set it next to the copper fire bowl. I gave Mimsey the candles and put everything else on the ground next to the small table—everything except the photo in its envelope. That I kept.
Mimsey pulled an ancient-looking brass compass from the pocket of her cardigan and identified due east. Then she ceremoniously placed the candles at the compass points, starting with east and then moving to south and west and ending at north, moving deosil, or clockwise. She placed one black and one white candle at each point, the black outside the circle and the white inside. The first would serve as protection, and the second would aid in astral projection.
Because astral projection, essentially, was what I was about to try. And without the natural ability that Teddy possessed, I was going to have to wing it.
“Where is Declan?” I muttered, looking at my watch. It was already eleven thirty.
“He’ll be here,” Lucy assured me.
“Well, if he’s not, all of this won’t do much good, will it?” I knew I sounded cranky.
She smiled at me serenely. Most of the time, that calmed me. Tonight, it only made me crankier. Then I heard the sound of a truck door closing and relaxed.
That has to be him.
It was.
He came around the corner of the house still wearing his Savannah Fire Department T-shirt, but he’d changed into a pair of well-worn jeans and boots. His eyes lit up when they met mine, and my heart gave a pang.
I have to make this work. I just have to.
After everyone said hello, I directed him to a chair I’d set outside the circle. It was located where we would begin and close the circle in the east, so if we needed to open it in order to let Connell out, we could. However, I had the feeling that once Connell hit this plane again, nothing would keep him from getting to Declan. My main concern was keeping Declan safe. I called Mungo over to hang out with him—the other familiars were all absent, as sometimes they provided more distraction than help when it came to spell work.
Taking a deep breath, I sank to my knees beside him. “I need to ask you something.”
“What?” He looked alarmed.
“I took something of yours this morning, and I want to use it in the spell. I believe it will help.”
“Something of mine?”
Biting my lip, I reached into my pocket and pulled out the envelope. Slipping out the contents, I handed him a small square of paper. It was the black-and-white photograph of his great-great-great-aunt and the small, sprightly man she’d married in Ireland. The one who never seemed to get older in family pictures, though everyone else did.
Connell.
Declan took it. “Well, sure, Katie. You can borrow this for whatever you’re planning tonight.”
“Not borrow. Burn.”
“You want to burn it?”
“I do. Is that all right with you? I made a copy, but the original would be better for tonight’s work.”
He hesitated, gazing down at the face of his guardian spirit, but then seemed to shake himself. He handed it back. “I trust you completely. Do whatever you need to do.”
I stood and put the photograph back into the envelope and sealed it. “Thanks, hon.” I bent and kissed him. “I love you.”
Moving inside the circle, I lit the fire with reverence. I’d added a small branch from the rowan tree after thanking it for its help and had done the same with a few sprigs of witch hazel and a length of fresh rosemary. The green wood smoldered atop the drier kindling, giving the air a pungent, resinous scent as the flames grew inside the metal container.
As the fire took hold, we each had a nibble of Samhain scone and a whole soul cake. Lucy had wisely made small ones, as it wasn’t good to work on a full stomach. Afterward we might be ravenous, but we’d deal with that then. After washing down the food with a bit of ginger sweet tea, we each muttered a small prayer for the release of Connell’s spirit from purgatory.
Couldn’t hurt.
I gave Declan a whole scone and a couple of soul cakes, along with a glass of tea. As he took them, I saw he was growing uncomfortable, and I realized he’d never seen me cast a spell. He’d seen other things, and there was that time I’d nearly killed him with the power of my Voice—that had been dicey—and he’d seen the altar I kept in the loft, hidden in an old secretary’s desk Lucy had given me. However, I timed my solitary spell work in the gazebo for when he was gone. Even though he knew I practiced kitchen magic, that didn’t really look like spell casting from the outside. He’d certainly never seen me work magic with the ladies of the spellbook club.
This should be interesting.
I put my reservations out of mind and turned my attention back to the task. If Declan thought what we were about to do was weird, I didn’t care. Not as long as it got the job done.
We stepped inside the circle and began to put our supplies on the table next to the firepit. Lucy placed whole allspice and nutmeg in a small silver bowl. Bianca added nuggets of frankincense and myrrh she’d brought, along with a chunk of moonstone and another of lapis lazuli. She glanced upward as she did, gesturing to the nearly round moon.
“I cleared these in the light of Luna last night. It’s not quite as powerful as when the moon is completely full, but they should have a little extra potency.”
“Thank you,” I said.
Jaida put the Eight of Wands card from the Rider-Waite tarot deck next to the bowl. “This is a powerful travel card. Seemed a good choice.”
I nodded. “Perfect.”
She held up another card. “This is the High Priestess. See the veil behind her?”
Squinting in the low light, I nodded. The veil was covered with images of pomegranates.
“The veil is symbolic of the seen and the unseen. It can be interpreted as the veil between planes. And the pomegranates are sacred to Persephone.”
“Who traveled between this world and the underworld.”
“Right-o.” She added the card to the Eight of Wands.
Cookie stepped forward. “I brought the graveyard dirt.”
From the corner of my eye, I saw Declan sit up straighter.
“Mimsey was going to,” she continued. “But I already had some lying around.”
Jaida snorted, and Cookie grinned.
Declan rubbed his palm over his face and looked at me with a combination of bewilderment and alarm.
Mimsey was next. She gently placed a single passionflower and three lotus blossoms on the table. “I’ve primed these to aid in astral projection. I hope they help.”
“Thanks, Mims,” I said. My heart felt full of appreciation, and I felt so blessed to have these amazing, generous, wise women helping me.
Lucy reached for the canister of salt to begin the circle. Mimsey grabbed the lighter. Together they’d create the magical space of safety and power.
I heard another vehicle door slam closed on the street, and my heart started thumping inside my chest. “Hang on,” I said. “I think someone may be here.”
Dang it! We don’t need this now! Did Margie change her mind about staying with Evelyn?
I looked at my watch. My heart sank. It was a quarter to midnight. I’d planned to be well along in the spell by the time the veil between this world and the next became thinnest.
The gate creaked open, and seconds later, Teddy LaRue came around the corner of the carriage house. She stopped dead when she saw all of us, her eyes wide. We all stared at her for a long moment, and I wondered if she’d turn and run.
She didn’t. She took a step toward us, then another, almost faltering, but then jogging over. “I’m here.”
“So you are,” Jaida said, smiling at her gently.
We stepped out of the circle of rocks and surrounded Teddy. She looked around at us, her expression wary.
“Are you . . .” I took a deep breath. “Are you here to help?”
Slowly, she nodded.
My hope soared. “Really?”
“Yes.” She didn’t sound very sure. Her chin lifted, and she said it again, louder. “Yes.”
I threw my arms around her. “Oh, thank you.”
When I stepped back, she was smiling. “I didn’t really have a choice. Your grandmother is very insistent.”
“My grandmother?” I looked around wildly. “Nonna’s here?”
“Oh, yeah.” Teddy sounded rueful but also a little amused. “She sure is. Showed up at Jaida’s this morning and hasn’t left my side since.”
An image rose in my mind, of my dead grandmother’s spirit riding in the car with Teddy as she drove over to the carriage house, and I suppressed a grin.
“And unlike the other spirits I told you about, she’s not shy about letting her wishes be known. Nothing vague about your nonna. She said you tried to reach her this morning, very early, but that she couldn’t break through to you. That you said you were going to try to act as the tether, but you can’t, because you have to go get the leprechaun. That I had to help you.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Sorry. I did ask for her help.”
“It’s okay,” she said. “I think she’s right. You can’t do this without me.”
“The idea frightened you before,” I said.
Jaida put her hand on Teddy’s arm.
“It still does,” the young woman said. “But not as much. I understand better now what you are doing. Your grandmother gave me a lot of information. She told me what I need to do.”
“Where is she?” Lucy asked. Nonna had come to me a few times, mostly as a voice, and showed up to lecture my mother once, but she’d never come to Lucy.
Teddy nodded to the fire. “She’s waiting over there. Seems a bit tetchy, really.”
“Are absolutely sure you want to do this?” Jaida asked.
Teddy bit her lip. “Absolutely? No. But sure enough.” She looked around at all of us, her gaze stopping on Mimsey and Cookie. “Hi,” she said shyly. “I’m Teddy.”
Mimsey marched up and gave her a hug, which was awkward since Mimsey was almost a foot shorter than the young woman. “Oh, honey. We know who you are. Welcome!”
Cookie came up them and offered her own hug, also enthusiastic but a little less demanding. “Yes. Welcome. And thank you for helping our friend.”
“Declan,” I said quietly. He’d come to his feet and hovered behind Lucy. “This is my husband, Declan McCarthy. The spirit we’re going to retrieve is the one I told you about.”
“Hi.” She tipped her head. “He attached to you?”
My husband said, “Apparently when I was born. I wasn’t the first one in the family, either. He chose one male of each generation, ever since he married one of my ancestors in Ireland.”
“He’s a leprechaun?” Her puzzlement was obvious.
“We think so. He looks like one, and he’s not mortal,” I said.
“But he married a human?”
Declan and I shook our heads.
“Love is a funny thing,” he said with an affectionate glance at me. “Though it’s not like I’ve come out and asked him. See, Connell was more like a feeling in the back of my mind, not all the time, but when I needed to know something. Like an instinct. I didn’t even know he was there until the séance brought him into my consciousness.”
It had been a bit more than just his consciousness, but I didn’t say anything.
Teddy glanced toward the firepit, then back at me. “I think we’d better start.”
I looked at my watch. “Oh, no! It’s almost twelve!”
Teddy reached for my hand. “It’s okay. We have plenty of time on either side of midnight. But still. Your grandmother is getting impatient.”
“Yes,” Mimsey said in a take-charge tone. “Let’s get started, girls.”