Sean Davis didn’t know why the words caught his eye. Was he looking for something without quite realizing it? He certainly hadn’t known there was a coven in the area. After a traffic accident took his parents and younger sister from him several years ago, he hadn’t felt like observing the rituals he had grown up with. If the deities could be that cruel and capricious, why should he honor them?
His parents had always been very faithful in their observances, and he’d grown up immersed in the pagan practices they followed. He knew their spiritual path set him apart from many of his schoolmates and later the young adults he knew but he didn’t mind. He’d never considered moving away from those beliefs. Until the accident. Since then he had drifted, growing more cynical, more solitary and recently letting his new job become his life because he really had no other.
Not long after the final services for his family, he had joined the military, trained as a medic and gone to war. The horrors he saw tempered the pain of his personal loss once he recognized in a most graphic way no one was exempt from pain, loss and death. Still, he was left adrift without the faith he had known as a youth and no desire to seek a new one, especially not among the members of other religious paths.
Leaving the military, he had become a nurse and now gained some satisfaction from assisting in healing work but there was still a huge vacuum in his life. He dated a few times but found no one who seemed to be anything but shallow, self-seeking and out for temporary pleasure instead of a long-term partnership. Was he destined to be alone for the rest of his life? The bleak prospect loomed, casting a growing shadow over him.
The notice in the local paper, tucked in an obscure corner in the second section, should not have even caught his eye. Somehow, though, it did.
Local Wiccan coven opens its circle to new members. Are you seeking a closer bond with nature? A way to honor your ancestors or an alternative to restrictive, bigoted dogma that too often passes for faith and worship? Come join us at the Universal Unitarian social hall every Saturday from six to ten P.M. We will make you welcome while you decide if our fellowship meets your needs.
This was Friday evening. On the spur of the moment, he decided he’d go. He was off the next day and even as he went about his small personal chores, he felt a building excitement. Maybe it would be good to be among people who shared at least some of his background, who spoke and acted in ways familiar and once well-loved.
Maybe he would even find some real friends among the group. Hope seemed an alien emotion but it felt good, all the same.
The next evening, Sean made sure he arrived early. Only a few people were there when he entered the room. One couple came over to greet him and then two guys who seemed to be alone as he was approached to introduce themselves. Good start so far.
Right after he met Mike and Sam, everyone turned toward the doorway. A tall man with iron gray hair down to his shoulders swept in, trailing a heavy purple cape.
Clearly used to attention and perhaps even servility, he nodded to everyone but didn’t smile.
“Hey, Daniel, good to see you.” That was Mike.
The man frowned slightly at the casual address. “Hello Michael. I see you decided to join us again.”
The female half of the couple smiled as she said, “Well met, Arch Mage. I’m glad to see you’re feeling better after missing our last gathering.”
At that point, Sean’s attention wandered as another man appeared, almost as if he had stepped out of Daniel’s shadow. Slender and fair, he held himself with a kind of diffidence as he carried in his arms a bundle of furnishings for the ceremonial part of their gathering. With exaggerated care, he approached the table that clearly served as the altar and juggled the armload as he tried to extract the cloth from around the bundle and spread it out.
Sean hurried over. “Here, let me help you. You’d need five hands to do this all by yourself. I’ve set up altars before, maybe a little differently than you do it here, but I can at least help hold things so nothing falls on the floor.”
The fair man looked up, a flare of gratitude in his pale blue eyes. “Oh, thank you.
That’s so very kind. It would be terrible to drop something.” His gaze cut quickly to the caped man but the Arch Mage seemed to be occupied, greeting other arrivals. “I—I’m sure it will be all right even if you are a visitor. Just so we do everything to Daniel’s exacting specifications…”
The blond man seemed almost fearful, which struck Sean as odd, but up close, Sean could see he was very nice looking. He had a quality Sean could only describe as sweetness about him, something almost childlike and clearly eager to please. Sean’s fingertips brushed the other man’s hand as he took the athame and two candles from him to hold for a moment. A quick tingle of energy zipped up his arm. From the other man’s sudden tension, Sean felt sure he had sensed the same thing.
Together they soon had the altar arranged and ready. “I guess I should introduce myself,” the fair man said. “I’m Rob Cantwell. I—I’m kind of an understudy or assistant to Daniel Costeau, the Arch Mage. He has such a huge responsibility that he needs someone to do the grunt work. I try to do the best job I can because it’s all so very critical, so essential. I just wish I was more capable.”
Sean smiled. “I’m Sean Cassidy. It’s been awhile but I grew up in a coven with my folks. They weren’t the leaders but senior members and had a share in the sabbats and ceremonies. It looks to me like you have the set-up all down to the gnat’s eyelash.”
Rob sighed. “I try. I often mess up but I do try. I want so much to learn and become reliable, error-free. I think I’m just a natural klutz and fuck-up though.”
“Hey, don’t put yourself down like that. If you didn’t grow up in a coven or circle, how could you expect to know everything right off? I take it you’re not a lifelong Wiccan?”
Rob showed a rueful grin as he shook his head. “Oh no, my stepfather was a fire-eating Baptist preacher. I’ve just been—well, Daniel took me under his wing a few months ago.”
Sean wanted to reach out and give the other man a hug. Something told him Rob had endured a lot of tough times and brought a heavy load of bad baggage into his adult life. Although he was no expert, Sean saw abused children and teens in his medical work and Rob displayed many similar cues.
Maybe that was why he seemed younger than his apparent age. Sean guessed Rob was about twenty-five, no more than a couple of years younger than he was, even though the fair man acted about sixteen. Despite that, he found Rob very attractive and a strange desire to protect him had emerged almost at once.
“Did you just come to visit and check us out? I wrote the notice Daniel put in the local paper. We’re hoping to get some new folks to join us. With the factory shutting down, a lot of people have had to move and we’ve lost some members.”
“I saw that ad,” Sean admitted. “It spoke to me, somehow. I’ve been away from my Wiccan roots quite a while and it just called to me, said it was time to think about returning. You wrote a very good invitation.”
This time Rob actually blushed. “Thank you, thank you again. I thought it was kind of juvenile or maybe too folksy, but Daniel said it would do.”
Sean socked him on the shoulder, but with a gentle bump. “No way. It got me here so it had to be right.”
At that moment, Daniel strode to his place at the altar and the rest moved into their apparent accustomed places around the circle. Sean wound up standing between Rob and Mike. Although some of the invocations they spoke in unison were slightly different from those he recalled, it all felt very comfortable and welcoming. His mother always said everything happened for a reason. While he had a hard time applying that to his parents’ and sister’s deaths, it did seem applicable to his reading and responding to that small notice.
Except for Daniel, who he felt was too full of himself with overweening arrogance, everyone seemed to be good hearted and pleasant. After the ceremony they had a social hour and enjoyed cookies and punch that some of the long term members had furnished. Sean met and spoke to everyone, many when they made a point of greeting him. There were four couples, five other single guys and three single women.
Already he could visualize himself becoming a part of the group. He might even grow close to some of them in time, especially Rob.
* * * *
Rob peddled his bike along the edge of the street, enjoying the crisp fall day.
Scattered leaves crinkled beneath his wheels. It felt good to be outside. One thing about Wicca he really treasured was his new awareness of nature, its changing seasons and the world around him. Even more, the feeling of kinship with that world. When he was growing up he’d just taken it for granted and considered weather and the seasons either an aid or a detriment to whatever he needed or wanted to do. He knew better now.
Here at the foot of the Rockies, there were distinct seasons, something he hadn’t observed in Phoenix, in his younger days.
Parking his bike and locking it to the rack in front of Melly and Steve’s Lemuria Risen book store, he took a final look around before he went in to begin his afternoon shift. He’d been working for the couple, who were members of the coven, for about six months now, starting shortly after he had met and moved in with Daniel. Although the occult section was the heart of the store, it had many other offerings as well. Located just a short block off the campus of Dellview’s branch of the state university, it reached out to students and staff members as well as the surrounding community.
The hours he spent at the shop had become his favorites. He’d always loved books and sharing this enthusiasm with the patrons brought him out of his shell as few other activities could. He loved seeing old customers and welcoming new people who wandered in to explore.
Rob had just finished guiding a couple of students to the literature section when the tinkle of the bells hung on the door alerted him to someone’s arrival. He hurried back out front to see who it might be. When he saw Sean heading toward him, his heart skipped a couple of beats and then raced ahead. He’d been looking forward to seeing the other man at the coven’s next gathering, but that was still three days away.
Sean beamed. “I heard you worked here. What luck, to find you the very first time I tried.”
“Can I help you find something, or did you just want to explore?”
“Oh, I’m a reader all right, and I’ll be a customer soon, but this evening I came to see you. We didn’t get chance to talk much the other evening. It almost seemed like Daniel teleported between us every time we started a conversation. Is he—well, does he have some claim on you?”
“I—er—well, he’s my teacher and mentor. Mostly. I’ve been living with him for several months now. It—it’s kind of complicated.”
Sean tipped his head and studied him with a pair of keen hazel eyes, bright and touched with elfin mischief. Rob felt the auburn-haired stranger could probably see right through him. After a moment, Sean nodded.
“Okay, I think I get it, but that doesn’t prevent you from having other friends, does it? I really liked you and hoped we can get better acquainted. I’m new here too, just starting my first real job after the military and some added schooling. I’m a nurse at Dellview General. Right now I’m working in the ER. Maybe in these smaller cities male nurses are still kind of a novelty. At least I seem to be.”
Rob had to smile back. Sean seemed so earnest and yet so charming and outgoing. “Getting acquainted—I’d like that. I’d like that a lot.”
“I noticed the store closes at eight except for Fridays and Saturdays. Does that mean you’re free shortly afterwards?”
“Unless Steve or Melly comes in to lock up, I have to do that but it isn’t a very complex procedure. I’m usually ready to go by eight thirty.”
“Super. Would you like to go out for a drink, just hang out for a bit, then? Being Wednesday, it’ll be a quiet evening, which suits me perfectly. I’m not big on partying.”
“Oh neither am I.” Rob assured him. “There’s a great coffee house and beer garden just around the corner. It’s a student hang out, but other people go there too.
Would that suit you?”
“Perfect,” Sean declared. “Can I help you with any of the closing chores? I suppose you have it all down pat, though, so I’d only get in your way.”
“Not really but I might forget something if I don’t follow the routine. Daniel says I’m too scatterbrained and I have the attention span of a kindergarten age gnat. Why don’t you just look around and check out our offerings? I’ll come get you when I’m ready to go.”