“Then so be it. You will enter the tainted ground at my side and show me exactly where you found your child. That will be the site of our altar and the center, the heart and spirit of our circle.” She glanced at the rest of us. “No one else come within. Nyx’s circle is not yet cast, but our intention is clearly set on this space. You will only cross its boundaries as each element is called.” She looked from Stark to Darius and Rephaim. “Warriors, form a triangle outside and surround the circle.” Thanatos pointed straight ahead of her. “Rephaim, that direction is north. Your place is there. Stark, take the position in the east. Darius, your place is west.”
“Where do you want me?” Aphrodite asked.
“Outside the circle protecting the only position that remains—to the south.”
“She is not a Warrior,” Darius said.
“No, she is something more powerful, a Prophetess of our Goddess. Do you doubt her strength?”
Aphrodite put her fists on her hips and raised a blond brow at him.
“No. I would never doubt her strength,” Darius said. And with a bow to Thanatos, he, Aphrodite, and the other Warriors moved to their places outside the circle.
Thanatos took Grandma’s hand and, carrying her spellwork basket, she said, “Are you ready, Sylvia?”
Grandma nodded and said yes in Cherokee. “
Together they stepped into the circle of destruction. Grandma led Thanatos to a spot just a little south of the center. She pointed. “Here was my daughter.”
“Sit where your child once lay. Face north, the direction of the element earth, and represent the spirit of Nyx in this, a circle we would reclaim from destruction and through revealed truth make it our own.”
Grandma nodded solemnly. She sat with a grace that had her buckskin dress fluttering softly. She was facing north, with her back to us, but I could see her chin was lifted and her shoulders were square and proud.
At that moment I was so proud of her I thought my heart would burst.
Thanatos placed her basket beside Grandma. She opened it and took out a beautiful piece of velvet fabric made of the same material as her cloak. She shook out the square and placed it on the ground in front of Grandma. Then she pulled out the angelica wreaths we’d braided. I was surprised by how beautiful they looked all stacked together, with the white flowers almost glowing against the sapphire velvet. Next she lifted a black velvet bag that I was sure I’d seen Anastasia using in class. If I was right, it would be filled with salt. She placed it and the five candles that represented each of the elements on the cloth, too. All were within reach of Grandma.
Thanatos faced us. Her voice carried easily in the night as if even the bugs and birds around us had paused to listen.
“The casting of this circle will be unusual, as our ritual is really a spell within a ritual within a circle, though we will begin with air and end with spirit. When I call each of you, approach our altar. Give Sylvia the item that symbolizes the truth about yourself you wish to reveal. Speak your truth to her. In turn she will give you the proper candle. Then move to your spot around the circle.”
“Are you going to call the elements then?” I asked, not sure if I was leading the casting of the circle or not.
“You and I will both cast this circle, young Priestess,” she said. “I will incant the spell and bind it with salt. You will light the candles. My intent is that when spirit is called and the circle set, the next words I speak will, with the help of all the elements—especially earth—cast our spell and invoke Death.”
“Okay,” I said. I looked at my friends and they nodded. “We’re ready.”
“Damien, come to the altar and represent your element, air.”
I heard Damien take a deep breath before he stepped inside the circle of ruined lavender and approached Grandma.
“What is it you wish to reveal to spirit?” Thanatos asked.
Damien reached into the man purse he always had slung over his shoulder and pulled out a MAC pressed powder compact. He opened it and the moonlight caught it, showing a fragmented surface and a shattered reflection. As he gave it to Grandma he said, “I brought a broken mirror because even though I might look and act like I’m okay, I secretly wonder if Jack’s death has forever broken something inside me.”
Grandma placed the compact on the altar cloth and then gave Damien the yellow air candle. She touched his hand as she did and said, “I hear you, child.” Damien moved to Grandma’s right and took the eastern place at the edge of the circle.
“My turn,” Shaunee said softly, and then she went to Grandma. When she reached her she gave her a long white feather she’d been cupping in her hand. “This feather symbolizes that even though I’ve been afraid to be alone for a really long time, I want to be free of that fear.”
Grandma placed the feather beside Damien’s broken mirror and gave Shaunee her red candle. “I hear you, child,” she said, touching her hand gently, kindly, just as she had Damien.
Erin didn’t say anything. She walked quickly to Grandma and handed her the little insulated bag she’d brought on the bus. Grandma opened it, reached in, and pulled out an ice cube.
“This is me inside. I’m frozen, like I don’t really have any feelings.”
Grandma took the ice and added it to the other items on the altar cloth. She gave Erin her blue candle, touching her gently and saying, “I hear you, child.” Blank-faced, Erin moved to the western edge of the circle.
“Wish me luck,” Stevie Rae whispered.
“Luck,” I said softly.
She went to Grandma and smiled down at her. “Hi, Grandma.”
“Hello, child of the earth.” Grandma returned her smile. “What do you wish to reveal to me?”
Stevie Rae took a piece of paper out of her jeans pocket. It was black, like the construction paper we used to get in grade school to cut stuff out of during art class. She gave it to Grandma saying, “This paper is like my fear of losing Rephaim to something dark and scary that I don’t really understand.”
Grandma unfolded the black paper and smoothed it onto the altar cloth. She gave Stevie Rae the green candle, a soft touch, and said, “I hear you, child.”
Before Stevie Rae took her place in the north, Thanatos picked up the braided circles of angelica and placed them on Stevie Rae’s head. “The truth reveal from earth through thee. So we shall ask, and so mote it be.”
“Thank you. I’ll do my best,” Stevie Rae said solemnly, and then she took her place in the circle.
It was my turn.
I’d left my purse on the bus, but first I’d taken my symbol thing out of it. From my jeans pocket I brought out a hair tie. It was one of those wrapped rubber bands that weren’t supposed to pull out your hair when you used them, but they never really worked. I handed it to Grandma. “Almost all the time now I feel like I’m being pulled in a bunch of different directions by a bunch of different people. I think sometimes I’m going to snap like a rubber band and shatter all over again. This time forever.”
Grandma slowly placed my hair tie on the altar cloth. When she gave me my purple candle she cupped my hands with both of hers. Her voice shook only a little when she said, “I hear you, child.”
I stepped behind Grandma then, staying in the center of the circle, and looked to Thanatos for my next move.
From the spellwork basket the High Priestess took a long box of wooden matches. She lifted the bag of salt and told me, “You may leave your candle on the altar. Your grandmother serves as keeper of the spirit until you evoke your element.”
I put the candle in the middle of the little circle Grandma had made of the things we’d each given her. I bent and kissed her soft cheek. “No matter what we see tonight, remember that I love you and that we still have each other,” I said.
Grandma hugged me and I thought she was going to kiss my cheek. Instead she whispered, “
Before I could say anything, Thanatos was giving me the matches as well as my final instructions. “I will stay to your left so that you lead the physical casting of the circle, but as we approach each element I will call it. The reveal spell is woven within the elemental call. As we move around the circle I will bind the spell with salt and, if she listens, invoke Death.” Thanatos raised her voice, directing her words to my waiting friends. “With a circle this strong I would expect quite a tangible response to my invocation. Prepare yourselves, and remember, this ritual is not something done to you, but rather done with you.” Then she lifted her hands and intoned, “
