Goliath moved to his master’s side.

Three deep breaths to ground and center. It’s like taking a minute to check a map of the universe and find out exactly where your soul lives, and then feeling yourself connected to every molecule of matter and antimatter filling up that enormous universe.

With everyone in place, I lit two white taper candles in gargoyle candleholders placed on either side of the book. Then, with my old ritual broom in hand—the newer one now hung above my front door—I chanted and swept a tight deosil circle just around Theo’s bed, containing all of us in the room except the wærewolves and Vivian. My sweeping became faster when I moved between the vampires and Vivian. When I returned to my starting position, I said, “As above, so below, this circle is sealed, so mote it be.”

Nana repeated the last part: “So mote it be!” Menessos repeated it after her.

After I drew an equal-armed cross in the air to further seal the circle, my eyes closed. I called up the sub-alpha state.

This was the point in the ritual where things became truly magical.

Chapter 23

I took the first of four saucers from the tray. The saucers were prepared for the element invocations, each complete with an appropriately colored candle ringed in small stones. Each element had its own reaction, an undeniable physical presence that confirmed it was with me. This first saucer represented the element of earth and had a green candle and hematite stones. I lit the candle and held the saucer carefully aloft.

“Hail and welcome, element of earth!

Bring your stable strength and witness this rite.

Protect us and aid us as much as you might.”

Immediately I felt a tingle, as if glitter were raining onto my skin. The elements never seemed affected by my clothing; they could pass right through. Flexing my aura with a mental command, I embraced the energy to me, keeping it from drifting over Theo; it had a gritty, rooted feeling to it, and I knew earth was present. I placed the saucer opposite me, in the northernmost position of my circle.

The second saucer bore a yellow candle and green aventurine stones.

“Hail and welcome, element of air!

Bring your experience and witness this rite.

Protect us and aid us as much as you might.”

This time, a warm breath swirled around me, exploring. A breeze lifted my hair, but no one else’s. With air present, I placed the saucer to the east.

The red candle ringed in bloodstones was next.

“Hail and welcome, element of fire!

Bring your transformability and witness this rite.

Protect us and aid us as much as you might.”

Fire touched me in nips and little gnawing bites. It could be painful, but it wasn’t angry with me. It understood my respect, and I understood its volatile, consuming nature. I placed this saucer to the south, behind me.

Last was a blue candle ringed in coral.

“Hail and welcome, element of water!

Bring your life-giving womb and witness this rite.

Protect us and aid us as much as you might.”

Feeling pressure and current flowing against me, I stood firm until water’s greeting was done, then placed the saucer to the west. I remained there and combined my statement of purpose and deity invocation, saying:

“Persephone and Isis, goddesses whose names I bear,

Artemis, Inanna, and Ishtar, your lunar purpose I share.

Hathor and Hera, come to me, be present here tonight,

Hecate! Come to me now, give credence to my rite.

Encourage the elements to participate

And return Theo’s life from the Summerland’s gate.”

The wolves watched with interest and a healthy amount of wariness, but they didn’t really know what I was doing, so I didn’t feel judged. Neither Nana’s nor Beverley’s observance bothered me. Their approval surrounded me like a bath of warm light. But Menessos stared coldly, evaluating the ceremony and the reverence I gave to the ritual. He studied every gesture, considered every inflection, surely creating a mental critique. I had the distinct impression that he was gauging my performance of the ritual against that of someone else he’d seen perform it. I regretted letting my sweeping speed up when I had been near him. Maybe he didn’t like my statement of purpose or the fact that I called on eight goddesses, but to my thinking, it fit perfectly: eight is the number of transformation.

Lifting my hands above my head, I put my index fingers together and my thumbs underneath, forming an open triangle. Keeping my arms straight, I lowered them before me. I imagined the light of the moon shining through that triangle and onto the third-eye area of my forehead. I wanted Theo to live. I wanted to undo the damage done because of me. I focused on those goals, seeing my will like a blue spiral and my emotion like a red spiral; they slithered, entwining and undulating, joining and forming, until I had one purple spiral.

Straightening the spiral into a glowing violet rod, with the force of my mind I shot it like an arrow at the lunar surface, visualizing it landing in the presence of the goddesses I called on, being passed hand-to-hand as each aspect of the Goddess examined it and considered my plea.

As I held on to perfect trust in divine will, the violet arrow shot back to me, through my triangulated fingers and into my third eye.

Suddenly my body vibrated from within. My throat opened. My mouth opened. I began to sing.

The words weren’t mine, weren’t even my language, but they came in my voice and the melody rose and fell in crescendos along musical scales that were foreign to my ears, yet beautiful.

In some religions, people speak in tongues—glossolalia, mystical unintelligible utterances that sound like fluent speech—and this singing must have been something akin to that. But how was I going to conduct the ritual if I couldn’t stop singing?

After struggling with this, I decided to trust in the goddesses I’d invoked. The song felt good and right. Maybe the odd words were Akkadian—a gift, conducting the spell in its original language.

Turning to face the group and letting my voice fill the room, I continued with the ritual as if this were how it was supposed to be. Though I stepped closer to Theo in preparation to release the moon-energy, I channeled it upward to flow deosil at the ceiling. Drawing a hexagram in the air above Theo, I invoked all the elements at once. The gritty earth energy scrubbed abrasively over my body like a sand bath to join with the moon energy. The heated breath of air rose next, followed by the churning, nibbling fire energy and, finally, the buoyant current of water.

Menessos suddenly commanded, “Imagine what energy you will offer to this rite, imagine it forming like an orb between your hands!” He glanced at Goliath, who readily took a deep breath. He focused next on Beverley and the doctor. Both looked to Nana. She signaled her approval of this with a single nod.

“Rub your hands together to warm them,” Menessos demonstrated. “Feel the tingle and imagine it growing with the energy you’re releasing.”

In sub-alpha, I could see golden sparkles emanating from between Nana’s hands and smaller sputters of light as the doctor and Beverley summoned energy. Goliath formed a nice round sphere as if he did this every day. The vampire’s orbs were a brassier color. Beverley’s orb—pure white—grew suddenly.

Menessos instructed, “Now, everyone, lift your hands up.”

It was awe-inspiring, seeing the alpha-enkindled glow of these energies.

I pushed my offered energy out like fireworks trailing from my fingers, while still holding the triangle shape. Then the flow began to pull on me. It was as if my energy was a kite caught in a wind current, tearing more and more string from the spindle. Fighting against it, the flow from me slowed.