House of Night 09 - Destined

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. Nyx, please help me be strong enough to handle what I see tonight. I went to Grandma. She smiled and said, “What is it you have to reveal to me, u-we-tsi-a-ge-ya ?”
    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, “ U-we-tsi-a-ge-ya , beware. I feel eyes watching from the shadows.”
    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, “ Let us begin as we intend to end—we seek the truth so that this land, these people, can mend.”
    Together Thanatos and I walked to Damien who was clutching his yellow candle with both hands and looking as nervous as I felt.
    All right, here we go, I thought. Please help me, Nyx. I can’t do this without you.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
    Neferet
    The shadows were agitated. Something was very wrong.
    “Read the next chapter in your sociology book. I have business to which I must attend.” Neferet snapped the command to her very surprised-looking fifth hour students before hurrying from the classroom. She cloaked herself in mist and darkness so that prying eyes and all too curious professors would not witness her passage as she hurried to her private chamber. There she quickly slashed her hand. Cupping her palm she held it out in offering. “Drink! Tell me what is amiss!”
    The tendrils of Darkness swarmed her blood, latching onto her leach-like. As they fed, whispered words from many different voices filled her mind.
    The vessel does nothing to hinder earth
    Joined with spirit the death vision will be given rebirth
    “What?” Anger filled Neferet. “Is Aurox not there? Was he too stupid to find the farm?”
    The vessel is there
    He watches without care
    “Force him to act! Make him stop the damn ritual!” The tendril voices all babbled at once, forming a stew of confusion in her mind. She closed her palm and slapped them away. “Do as I command! You’ve had your blood.”
    The myriad of whispering voices were abruptly cut off as the specter of the white bull materialized in the middle of her chamber. The image was transparent and not fully formed, but his voice, powerful and obviously irritated, blasted through her mind. I have told you before your sacrifice must be equal to the command!
    With an effort, Neferet stifled her own anger and, with soft, placating words she spoke to the ghostly apparation, “But the vessel was a gift from you.