I pulled into the lot at the north end of the park, still uncomfortable, and reached over to lock Faye’s door before getting out of the car. “Lead on, Macduff.”
Faye gave me a look of complete incomprehension. I rolled my eyes. “Never mind. Let’s just go.”
A stream large enough to be considered a river in some parts of the country ran through Ravenna Park. People were strewn along the banks, kids shrieking happily as they played in the water. I had no idea how a coven meeting was going to proceed undisturbed. I envisioned small children dashing through the sacred circle, then wondered if they’d be able to, or if there’d be some sort of mystical force field that they’d bounce off. The thought cheered me and I stuffed my hands in my pockets, whistling jauntily as I strode along behind Faye.
“Please don’t,” she said.
“Mmm?”
“Whistle. Please don’t whistle. Whistling brings down the walls between this world and the next.”
I stopped midwhistle, my mouth pursed. “You’re kidding.”
She glanced over her shoulder at me. “No. The tonal qualities and pitch are a bridge between worlds.”
“Fascinating. Isn’t that what we’re trying to do?”
Faye sighed, developing the very patient tone that isn’t. “Yes, of course. But we want it to be controlled, Joanne. Bridging worlds isn’t something that should be done lightly, and you’ve felt the kind of power we’re dealing with.”
That much, at least, was true. I stopped arguing and whistling both, and slunk along like a properly chastised new coven member.
Well, I would’ve if I could’ve kept my mouth shut for more than three steps. “What d’you mean, we’re starting to change the world tonight?”
Faye looked over her shoulder again, dimpled, and fell into stride with me. “The world has to be prepared for Virissong’s arrival,” she explained. “Tonight we’ll begin to thin the walls, and over the next few days humanity will become accustomed to the otherworld mixing with this one again.”
“It will?” My eyebrows climbed. “Humanity takes longer than a few days to get used to most things, Faye.”
“There’s a core of belief in all of us,” she said airily. “All we’re going to do is let the world start looking like that core expects it to.”
Several things, the nicest of which was, “Isn’t that a little naive?” went through my mind. I didn’t know I’d said it out loud until Faye gave me a dirty look.
“Maybe, but haven’t you always wanted to live in a world where magic was real?”
I was so startled I laughed out loud, a sharp derisive bark. Faye’s expression skidded into insulted anger and she tossed her hair, flouncing ahead of me. “Crap. Faye, wait up.” I jogged a few steps to catch up with her, then had to lengthen my stride to stay in step. Given the height advantage I had, that was a little embarrassing, but I did it anyway.
“Look, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude. The truth is, no, I’ve never wanted to live in a world with magic. I like my world to make sense. I hate this mucking with magic thing.”
Faye whirled on me, eyes bright with emotion. “But you’re really powerful, Joanne! How can you say that? We all felt it, the power you command. You could change the world.”
“I know.” I looked down at her, searching for words. “Look, you ever notice how in movies or TV the one guy who gets the phenomenal cosmic power is the one guy who doesn’t want it? Maybe the universe sets itself up that way as a fail-safe. Maybe that’s why I ended up with all this power, instead of somebody who’d been pursuing it her whole life.”
Faye’s mouth tightened into a thin line. Great, I’d done it again. “Faye, I wasn’t trying to be insulting—”
“It doesn’t matter,” she said flatly. “You’re a part of the coven now. We’ll help guide you into your powers, and when Virissong has returned to this world you’ll see that it’s better the way that we’re trying to make it. Come on. We’re going to be late.” She turned and stalked off again, leaving me with nothing to do but walk away or follow.
I followed, feeling oddly abandoned. Tromping around parks preparing for coven meetings wasn’t my usual evening routine, and after the past few days I felt distanced from what I considered my real life. I wanted to hang out with Gary and maybe go see a movie, or go drink beer with some of the guys from the shop. Normal things, which I didn’t seem to have time for. Failing that, it would be nice to fit in with the coven in some fashion, but here I was, studying the angry swing of Faye’s hair as she marched ahead of me. I couldn’t imagine asking for a shaman’s gifts, or wanting the responsibility of trying to save the world, whereas the coven seemed very into that idea. Cars. I was happy being responsible for the state of someone’s vehicle. Their spirits or souls—that was a calling I wasn’t at all happy with.
Then again, my power animals hadn’t charged me with being comfortable with what I was and what I could do, only to accept, honor, and study. Curiously, that made me feel better.
“Joanne, Faye. There you are.” Marcia’s voice interrupted my train of thought and I blinked. We stood in a copse of trees, blocks of sunlight sliding through the trunks in golden, dust-littered chunks. The coven, looking mobbish and happy, surrounded me, and I hadn’t even noticed approaching them. Garth and Sam were building an entirely illegal fire.
“Nice trick,” I said. “How do you do that, the hiding in plain sight thing?”
“It’s a matter of expectation. I’m surprised you didn’t see us.” Marcia sounded ever so slightly accusing. I shrugged.
“I was thinking about something else. Aren’t we going to get in trouble for that fire?”
“No one will notice,” she promised me.
Another matter of expectation, I presumed. My own personal expectation was that somebody out of her sphere of influence would see smoke rising from the park grounds and call the cops, but I didn’t say that out loud. I sat down a few feet away, watching the fire build. “So I thought this was all going down on Tuesday.”
“Tuesday’s the grand finale.” Garth straightened out of his crouch, dusting his palms against his jean shorts.
“Okay. Tonight’s spirit, Tuesday’s the grand finale. What’s tomorrow?” At least I could be better prepared once.
“Tomorrow we give the spirits body.”
I must’ve looked as bewildered as I felt, because another coven member—a girl whose name I thought was Roxie—said, “So they can walk the earth as they did when the world was young.”
“We can do that without a full coven?” I asked cautiously. Around me, guarded looks were exchanged.
“We think so,” Marcia finally said. “It would be better with the thirteenth, but with you—”
What was I, the Energizer Bunny? “I’ll try,” I said. I felt like I had to. I wanted to do what I could to end the heat wave. Smiles met my words, and I ducked my head to hide a grimace. I hadn’t meant to sign on for changing the face of the earth, spiritually or otherwise. “Did it,” I started, then cut myself off as curious faces turned to me. “Never mind.”
“Did it what?” Roxie, if that was her name, had a headful of tight curls and a cant to her stance that invited openness.
“Did it ever occur to any of you that there might be a reason the spirits don’t walk the earth anymore?” I sighed. “Maybe a good reason?”
Blank expressions met my words. I nodded. “That’s what I thought. Just thought I’d bring it up. Never mind. Carry on.”
“We turned our back on the spirits a long time ago,” Marcia said. “They moved away, to wait for us to recognize our need for them. Now that we have, we’ll share that knowledge with the rest of the world, and balance will be restored.” She sounded utterly confident.
“And you don’t think eleven people making a decision for six billion others might be a little…arrogant?” Man. My mouth just wouldn’t shut up.
“Of course it is.” Marcia smiled, and Faye’s eyebrows drew down into a scowl. “If we’re truly arrogant and this is truly not the correct path, I believe that the Goddess will not allow us to succeed.”