Page 9 of The Witch's Fate
I look up at the ceiling while the rain comes down on me and pray to the moon for a sign.
Protection Spell
For the goodof all and to the harm of none…
Burn sage, and with the ashes, mix into salt until black in color. Add to a mortar along with rosemary to focus yourspell and chili flakes for a defensive measure. As you grind the ingredients state:I am divinely protected, divinely guided, and am untouchable.
Coat the black candle with olive oil and then sprinkle the black salt concoction to layer on the candle.
Light the candle with an obsidian stone near so the light may shine on it. As many stones as you wish to enchant. Allow the candle to burn to completion and then keep your obsidian stone by a draft in your home or by a window close to the front or back door. You may also keep the stone on your person for protective measures.
So mote it be.
RYKER
What in the fuck just happened? This is not a pitter patter, this is a battering. Confused and frustrated, rain falls around me as I try again and again. The heavy water drops pound in a punishing way. I need to get the hell out of here…but it’s not working. It’s as if the portal is broken; the magic no longer allows the portal to open.
I grit my teeth and summon more power.
The portal isaboutto give—I can feel that it’s seconds away from snapping open—when the sky opens up with thunder and lightning. My heart pounds and every hair stands on edge. Something’s not right. A chill runs down my spine.
Thunder crashes and lightning sparks through the sky not far away. Buckets come down on the top of my head. Wind gusts into my back and into my hands, swirling all around me and whipping my hair into my forehead, and darkness rolls overhead. I glance up without letting go of the portal and see nothing but black thunderclouds.
Fuck. The change is sudden and a different kind of anxiousness wraps itself around me.
Magic hits me along with the wind. That magic, whoever it belongs to, has to be causing the storm—it’s too sudden andstrong to be anything natural. Goosebumps race down my arms at the thought of the witch.
The portal thrashes in my hands, starting to snap shut, squeezing the hell out of my fingers in the process. I throw myself against it, bracing my feet hard on the ground and shoving with all my strength.
“Open,” I order through clenched teeth. “Open, damn you!”
But the portal doesn’t open. My only way of getting home closes before my very eyes as the rain crashes down around me. The crush around my fingers is stronger than a pair of boulders. It’s not the worst pain I’ve ever experienced in the army. I’ll bear it if it gets the damn portal to stop closing and let me through, but it doesn’t stop.
Instincts take over to save my fingers and I yank my hands away as the portal chomps shut and dies, leaving nothing but a shimmer in the air.
My breath leaves me as I stare ahead as what just happened is not possible.
The curses I let out are drowned out by the rain. Thunder and lightning race across the sky in deafening bursts. Everything about this is wrong. I should have had enough power to get back. I don’t know what magic could’ve shut it down like that.
I find the anchor on the ground and stand over it, every sense I have screaming a warning. Storms like this don’t just come out of nowhere. This has to be related to the magic of this place. I haven’t done anything to upset it. Not that I know of. I was warned to go unnoticed, and I thought I had.
I attempt to open the portal again, then again, until most of my crystals are entirely drained. Nothing happens in return for this effort except some minor crackles and fizzles in the air. I don’t get the portal to reappear. Any hope of the portal working is drained as well.
I try one more time, rain drizzling down my back, then scoop up the anchor and shove it into my pack, fixing a glare on the space where the portal was only a minute or two ago.
The very portal that accepted all those florals, then shut me out.
A prickling in the back of my mind says that this is happening because of those thoughts. The ones of the witch.
With a final curse, I move into the forest. Dead set on finding her. Confronting her. And if this was not her doing, pleading for her aid in getting home.
It dawns on me as I walk: I am alone, surrounded by potential enemies north and south of here, with no shelter, no means of escape.Fuck! I cannot see more than a few feet in front of me. It is completely transformed from how it was only a short time ago. The darkness is thick under the trees, and I make my way under the cover of the branches using the flashes of lightning that manage to get through.
No matter how the storm began, I don’t like it. I don’t trust it. I want nothing to fucking do with whatever the hell just happened.
A short distance into the forest, I find a small clearing that is mostly sheltered by branches and stop at the bank of a gnarled tree trunk. I swing my pack—now sodden and twice as heavy as it was—down to the roots and dig out a few smaller crystals, these still pulsing with power. It is concentrated power, as these crystals are meant for communication over long distances, and they are among the more precious items in my pack.
These crystals are only to be used when there are no other options.
