Page 73 of To Hunt a Demon King

“I don’t see why I should stand on ceremony in my own kitchen,” she said, raising a brow at Carnon and giving him a pointed look as she held out a fork. “The middle is the best part. Go on.” Carnon took a bite, much more delicately than Cerridwen and I had.

“Pretty good,” he said over a mouthful of pie. “Even if you are barbarians.” I laughed, and Cerridwen joined me. It was nice having another woman to talk to after so long alone with Carnon. I missed Vera, but Cerridwen was a soothing presence, and I liked her.

“Let’s see this witch magic then,” Cerridwen said, clearing the pie from the table. “Elara promised me that I could watch too.”

“I doubt it will be all that exciting,” I said, fishing the chalk out of the pouch of supplies that Carnon had given me at Beltane.

“Tell me what you’re doing,” Cerridwen said excitedly, sitting to watch me from the other side of the table.

“First, you draw a pentagram to focus the elements,” I said, carefully drawing a pentagram on the wooden table with the chalk. I decided to seal it in a circle, just in case the magic tried to run amok.

“Why the circle?” Carnon asked, looking equally as interested as Cerridwen as I drew a circle clockwise around the star.

“The circle keeps the magic contained,” I said, retracing the circle counterclockwise to seal it, and placing an unlit candle at each point of the pentagram within. “And the candles call on the five elements. Normally these would be different colors, but Cerridwen only had white, so I’m hoping for the best.”

“Five elements?” Cerridwen asked. I nodded.

“Earth, fire, water, air, and spirit,” I said, pointing to each candle in turn.

Cerridwen had loaned me a small hand mirror, and I placed it in the center of the circled pentagram, surrounding it with a few bay leafs, cloves, and a sprig of eyebright.

“These herbs are in most divination spells,” I said. “Since I’m improvising a little, I thought it best to hedge my bets.”

“I’m not sure improvising with magic is a great idea, Red,” Carnon said, warily.

I gave him an impatient look. “I promise I know what I’m doing,” I said, returning to the uncast spell. “Mostly.”

“That is not comforting,” Carnon said as I added the crystal he had given me and the athamé I had found to the circle. I needed all the help I could get from the Goddess if I was going to pull this off.

“Okay,” I said. “I’m going to cast the invocation, and, if this works, I should be able to see my mother in the mirror.”

Cerridwen and Carnon both took a step back, and I gave them a withering look as I returned to the spell. I decided a quick prayer couldn’t hurt, so I bowed my head and repeated the words I had been taught all through childhood to bring the Goddess to me.

“In the name of the Lady of the Moon,

Blessed be this place, and this time,

and they who are now with us.”

“You missed a bit,” Cerridwen said loudly. I looked up, startled.

“What do you mean?” I asked. “This is the prayer to the Goddess.”

“But it’s not complete,” Cerridwen said. Carnon tried to shush her, without success. “You missed the part about the Horned God, Lord of Resurrection and Death.”

“I never learned that part,” I said, frowning. “But this should work anyway.”

“Witches don’t worship the Horned God?” Cerridwen asked in surprise.

“Later,” Carnon said, shooting her an annoyed glare. “Watch.”

I lit the candles with a wave of my hand, making Cerridwen’s eyes widen in wonder. With a smirk, I spoke the invocation, focusing on Mama’s face in my mind’s eye, and waiting with baited breath for her to appear in the mirror.

Nothing happened. I blew out the breath I had been holding, disappointed and frustrated.

“Is that it?” Cerridwen asked.

“No,” I said, gritting my teeth. “It didn’t work.”

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