Page 10 of First Ritual

I’d start a new piece for this new chapter of my life. For that, I’d need to form a thick braid—the spine. How long would the backbone need to be? I never knew. My body or mind or magic just understood when to stop.

I braided as the bath drew toxins from my body and began the healing work that the moon would finish tonight. As I braided, I considered the council meeting and the thirteen members. I thought of all the tunnels and chambers I’d walked past. There must be several hundred magus in the coven. None of them had come to see me today, but then again, they’d all be preparing for esbat like me.

I let my mind touch on the four affinities a magus could possess—divination, battle, apothecary, and grimoire. The three different skill levels rose to my mind next. Novice. Proven. Esteemed. Finally, with the last of the braid’s spine, I thought of the four fundamental pillars of the magus belief system, one to cradle each affinity.

Create, keep, feel, protect.

I blinked down at the backbone of my piece and whistled low. “You’re a long beauty, aren’t you?”

The longest I’d ever made.

Safe to say that this would be one hell of a ride.

Released from my stupor, I peered around. The shadows cast by the candles were larger in the dark bathroom. It was nearly time.

I washed my hair and skin and hands with my lavender-scented soaps and shampoo. As I slipped from the bath and dried myself, my mind, body, and spirit were at peace. The worry of convincing the coven and mother of my worthiness to join them had faded. There was only me and the moon tonight, and the others of my kind who would share in its healing light.

I stepped into my white gown. The long billowing sleeves were a delicate lace pattern of flowers and stems. The same lace formed the majority of the full-length skirt that would sweep across the tops of my bare feet and the ground behind me. Solid white covered me from collarbones to upper thighs, draping low between my breasts.

My dress slithered into place like a sigh on silk sheets, and I knelt once more on my cushion, reveling in the calm state I’d induced with the help of my collected objects and the precious knowledge passed down to me from my mother and grandmother.

When a low, calling thrum echoed through the caves, as if someone had plucked a thick spider’s web, I felt it ripple through the tethers of my magic.

Through the magic gifted to me at birth, and through the considerable amount of more magic that I’d gained upon the death of everyone in my family line.

I felt where the low thrum didn’t ripple through also. The withered tether that used to connect me to my twin didn’t so much as twitch at the calling.

Yet I felt the low thrum ripple elsewhere within me. Somewhere secret. Somewhere unfathomable. Somewhere impossible.

I steeled myself for the path ahead as a low thrum rippled down the unexplained tether that popped into existence inside me exactly one month ago.

My impossible reason for returning to the Buried Knolls.

5

Tap. Tap.

A magical knock. I rose in a fluid movement, then paused, noticing the energy on the other side of the iron and wood door was masculine. This was esbat. Female and male energies couldn’t mix until after the healing rituals.

I hesitated.

When the male didn’t move, I swung the door wide. “Is it normal practice for—” I sucked in a breath and stared.

Then stared some more.

And was stared at. Then stared at some more.

Warm-brown hair and dark, drowning eyes. The dusty bar was the first and last time I’d expected to see this guy. There was no mistake about it. Normal people, whether human or supernatural, just didn’t look like him. There couldn’t be two of this man in existence.

I’d kissed this guy last night. By the looks of things, he was about as shocked to see me. Why the hell did he hide his magic last night? I only hid mine to stay under the radar. He’d surely had no reason to.

My heart hammered as I peered up into his dark gaze.

Drowning. Precipice. I yanked my focus away, peering instead on the gaping neck of his black tunic. He wore a thick layer of pendants and chains common for male magus, though I’d never seen any in person until meeting the council last night.

This guy had so many.

All I could think, though?

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