Page 30 of Air Of Mystery
I bit down hard on my lip as not to laugh. That totally tracked. I could see Camilla being more relaxed about teaching her kids the Craft.
“Aunt Camilla gave me a crystal point necklace for my last birthday. Told me it was protective.”
“How old are you now, Danielle?” I asked. “Seven...eight?”
“I turned eight this year,” she announced proudly. “I’ll start third grade in the fall.”
“My Grandma Althea, she was pretty strict with teaching my cousins, my sisters, and me magick,” I told her. “We had to wait until our thirteenth birthday before we could begin any serious training too.”
Danielle sighed again. “It’s not fair.”
I glanced back at her using the rear-view mirror. How many times had my sisters, cousins and I said the same to our grandmother? “I’ll bet you already know more about the Craft than you think.”
“Maybe,” she grumbled.
“How many sabbats are in the Witch’s year?” I asked.
“Duh.” Danielle folded her arms. “Eight.”
“Name them,” I said as I drove up Notch Cliff Road.
“Imbolc, Spring Equinox, Beltane, Midsummer, Lughnasadh, Autumn Equinox, Samhain and Yule.”
“Which are the greater sabbats?” I asked her.
Danielle blinked. “Greater?”
“Meaning their dates are fixed—or set. They don’t move.”
I checked my rearview and saw her frowning over the question.
“I don’t know,” she admitted.
“The answer is: Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh and Samhain. Each of those holidays are cross quarter days; meaning the halfway point between the seasons.”
Danielle leaned forward in the seat. “And the other four sabbatsmove?”
“The other sabbats are celebrated on the day the sun enters a specific astrological sign that coincides with the first day of the season. For example, Ostara, the sabbat of the spring equinox, can fall anywhere from March nineteenth through the twenty-third. It all depends on when the sun enters the sign of Aries. Which…can be a different date from year to year.”
“Oh.” Danielle thought about that. “My birthday is in March. Right around the equinox.”
“Nice,” I said, and figured the girl was likely born on the cusp of Pisces and Aries.I bet the girl has more Aries qualities as she used to hate the water,I thought. Cordelia had in fact taught her to swim for her own safety after the incident that occurred the night I’d met Charlie...
Danielle was still talking, and I yanked my mind back to our conversation.
“Aunt Dru taught me about the flowers and herbs in the garden,” she said. “What they mean…andMamantalked to me about the rule of three and how you don’t use magick to get your way, or to be mean, or to mess with somebody else’s free will.”
“Sounds to me like your mom and your aunts have already begun to train you; they’ve simply been discreet about it.”
Danielle’s brow puckered up. “Discreet?”
“Subtle,” I explained. “Sneaky.” I tried that word and got a big smile in response.
When we arrived at the mansion, Danielle pointed out how to take the gravel drive around to the family’s side of the mansion.Pulling my car around back, I parked next to a charming carriage house apartment that was over a three-car garage.
Cordelia had lived in this apartment for a time last year, and I could see why she’d loved it. In the summer with the flowers exploding all around it and the formal gardens so nearby, it was like something straight out of a faery-tale.
“Thanks, Skye, for talking to me about magick,” Danielle said as she hopped out of the car.
