Page 116 of Crown of Tides and Fury

We sat in silence for a minute or two, until the white moths packed up and flew away, and the breeze stopped stirring up sparks. The fact that both happened at the same time proved it was someone's magic after all. I followed the glances and nods at Persi and realized it had been more of her work. And here I thought her only trick was to make herself invisible.

Was she playing with her powers one last time? Did she plan to hand hers over to Wickham too?

She was jittery and tense, but that could be explained by her involvement in the preparations. Kitch kept his fingers entwined with hers, but was he offering general support, affection, or was he there to pick up the pieces if she fell apart?

Like everyone else, I could only sit there and watch and wait to see what would be left of my friends when the night was over.

Hank was connected to me, sure. But my pet rock was a mere party trick, not a chunk of my soul like a Naming Power must be. I'd been wrong to make a comparison. And maybe Wickham was wrong to expect Felicity and Rinky to give up such an integral part of themselves.

It was a pity they didn’t want to be trained, like I was, and join our band of merry men. That would keep their powers on our team without requiring that sacrifice. But it seemed the time for debating was over.

Wickham gave Ivy a kiss and got to his feet. He moved to stand on the left side of the fire and gestured to his sisters. They joined him at the front, then moved apart. Loretta stopped about ten yards away from Wickham, and Lorraine moved to the right, an equal distance from the fire opposite her sister. Beside her, two glazed, earthen bottles stood on a small table, hinged lids open.

In unison, the three siblings lifted their arms out to their sides, palms to the sky, and murmured something unintelligible. A few heartbeats later, a green mist appeared, snaking around our gathering in a wide circle that hovered and undulated a foot or two off the ground. The murmuring grew louder, and the green band expanded, thinned, and became a dome of glass that covered our heads. The base of it moved steadily out until it reached stretches of fence and stone wall, where it held. Its zenith might have been a hundred feet high.

Their lips kept moving. The barely discernible dome hummed on its own, as if it were the embodiment of whispering voices. The bottom edge grew thick again, then started in toward the fire, spreading as it came, covering the ground like a team of ball-boys covering a tennis court with a tarp, because the rain had started.

The wave rushed toward us, spreading thinner and thinner until it was no more substantial than a bubble. When it was done, we were encapsulated by it. A snow globe of barely discernible green.

The whispers grew, then died suddenly. Our protection was complete.

Protection. Good thinking. I couldn't imagine anything worse than Orion finding us at that moment, playing coven in the back yard. The empty chairs to my right were a reminder that this protection also kept out the guy I once thought was my other half.

Wickham held out his hand toward Rinky, who sat on the front row beside Alwyn.

She hesitated.

We held our breath...

I had to give Wickham credit. He didn't panic. Instead, he turned to the other end of the first row and reached out to Felicity, inviting her to join him beside the fire. Judging by half a dozen gasps, I wasn't the only one surprised when she jumped to her feet and hurried to join him.

"Just one thing, though," she said quietly, though all of us heard her. "Are you sure no one can see us?"

"Aye, I'm certain of it."

"Then, would you mind..." She held up her hands, as if that were explanation enough. Wickham seemed to understand, though. He nodded, took a step back, and then left her standing alone. He gestured to his sisters, and the three of them returned to their original seats.

Felicity grinned at us, her audience, and took a deep breath. "One last time, huh? Hold on."

She turned and looked at the dark expanse of lawn between the fire and the orchard. I had no idea what she saw, but nowadays, when someone warned me to hold on, I held on. I put my right hand on the side of my chair and wrapped my left hand around Brian's upper arm. He gripped his chair too. This wasn’t his first rodeo either.

It was probably a good five minutes before Felicity raised her arms. I expected sparks to fly from her fingertips, or some mist to rise out of her to mingle with the green dome. A magic trick of some kind. Something impressive, like Persi had pulled off, by hanging lights in the trees and making moths dance.

I didn't expect the “earth-shattering” to be literal.

There was a low rumble in the ground beneath my feet, as if someone were scraping something heavy against the floor in another room.

Persi stood and rubbed her hands together. The lights in the trees glowed brighter. The flames of the fire turned whiter, less orange, and lit up the grass along with two piles of soil moving and expanding, as if a scoop the size of a house were digging holes in the yard.

Felicity was creating.

In minutes, a large oval hole was complete, three feet deep and sixty feet wide. The two piles of earth stood inside it like small mountains, an equal distance apart. The rumbling stopped, like someone had thrown the lion his lunch.

Felicity's arms relaxed. For a minute, she hung her head. I wondered if she was worn out and this hole was her idea of showing off her power. But then that head lifted, her hands moved, began to wave, like someone guiding in an airplane.

Things appeared out of nowhere. Large stones with precise edges. Metal rods, rocks, a swirling mist that looked like sand. They mixed and mingled, flew out to the edges of the hole, began attacking the two piles of earth.

Attacking, shaping.

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