“I’m glad I ran into you, well, I don’t mean it literally,” Lilly laughed.
Madeline put the groceries on the coffee table, “Yea, why?”
“I need to make an appointment to get my hair cut and colored. Do you have any time this week?”
Madeline ran her hand through Lilly’s unruly curls which were growing out quickly, “So you like it short and red, huh?”
“I do.”
Madeline dug around in her desk, pulling out a calendar. “Hey, I’m not doing anything tonight. Do you want to do it this evening, we could have some dinner, drink some wine and do your hair. You know have a girl’s night?”
Lilly nodded and gave Madeline a hug, “I’m so grateful you are my friend, thanks so much. If you had not cut and colored my hair, and suggested the glasses, who knows what would have happened? My disguise has given me time to make a new life for myself and get strong enough to rebuff Alex’s threats and abductions.”
Later that evening, with her hair cut short and dyed even redder, Lilly leaned back on Madeline’s couch with a glass of wine in her hand. The room was aglow with candlelight. Lilly studied Madeline’s altar from her seat on the couch, “Will you tell me about your altar, it is different from mine.”
“Grab a pillow and let’s sit in front of it,” Madeline said putting to pillows on the floor in front of the low altar. The two young women sat in silence for a few minutes staring into the candle flames on the altar. Madeline spoke, “You see the four quarters are represented here with candles and symbols of the elements.”
“In the center, I have a statue of the Goddess Venus with a bright red candle in front of her. I keep the red candle lit continuously when I’m at home. I’ve created this altar for a love ritual I am working on my lover, Chas. This wax figure next to the red candle symbolizes Chas. The doll is dressed in clothes I made from a tie he left on my bed. I have a spell I speak and I circle a bright red thread around him and tie it to this wax figure next to him, symbolizing me. It is simple and effective, so far.”
Lilly took it all in. She sat quietly looking at the candles and the energy surrounding the altar. She bit her bottom lit for a moment, then spoke in a gentle voice, “This is powerful, I can see the energy flowing. There is something I don’t understand. Jolene, James and Sabine have told me it is against the laws of magick to put manipulative spells on people. Love spells are particularly dangerous. Your man may be enchanted by the spell and when it is broken, you are left out in the cold as he realizes he has been manipulated!”
Madeline got up and stood shaking her head, “The high priest and priestesses can say what they like. I don’t see the point of knowing how to use magick, if you can’t use it to get what you want. I need Chas to spend enough time with me to realize he is in love with me.”
“I can understand wanting to use what you know, using the resources you have to get the results you want,” Lilly said, diplomatically.
Madeline put her arms around Lilly and gave her a hug. “I knew you would understand.”
Leaning back supported by her arms, Lilly breathed in the scent of candle wax and incense. “How did you learn about this kind of spell?”
Madeline laughed, “Lyla there are many more books on magic than are stocked on the shelves of Panthea’s. Also, there is another magic shop in the Quarter.”
Lilly’s head jerked up. “There is another magic shop? Where? I haven’t seen it.”
“It opened a few weeks ago. You walked right past it only a few days ago. I was inside the shop and saw you walk by. You were with Roland and only had eyes for him. I swear Lyla, you are under his spell.”
“I am? Is that a bad thing?”
Madeline shook her head, her long blond hair glowing in the candlelight, “I can’t say what is good or bad. I can see you are so entranced by him you are not seeing the world around you. If you want to work powerful magic, you must be grounded.”
A light danced across Lilly’s face as she said, “Ever since I met Roland, my heart has run away with my body and my mind has exploded. Knowing I am free, having incredible sex with a gorgeous loving man has changed everything for me. The river sparkles, the trees breathe life into me. I’m in love with the world. Roland and I have melded together, a symbiosis of souls. It scares me and it thrills me.”
Madeline nodded absentmindedly at Lilly’s poetic rambling. As she watched Madeline adjust the clothes on the wax figurine, she said “Speaking of Roland, I have a question for you. What exactly is a Druid?”
Madeline dropped the wax figure she was holding and stared at Lilly. “Roland is a Druid? How do you know?”
“He told me.”
Madeline smirked as her eyes narrowed, “Hmm, a Druid as in he read a book about Druids and has a robe with a hood?”
Lilly shrugged her shoulders, “I don’t know. I don’t think that’s what he meant. He has this unique blue birthmark shaped like a Celtic knot. He says his dad and his brother have them too. They are remnants of a past life.”
“Whoa, and holy shit, Lilly!”
“What? Is it a bad thing?”
Madeline’s eyebrows flew up as she exclaimed, “It is not a bad thing. Druids have powerful magic. Some of them can shape-shift. I know they can
