Dark Witch (The Cousins O'Dwyer Trilogy #1)(92)

“It’ll be a pleasure to me.”

“Tell your mother, and hers, when you see them, I look forward to a good gossip in person.”

“Come to the Dark Witch,” Branna told Nan. “There’ll be a fire burning for you, and the kettle on the boil.”

“I will, and thanks. My love goes with all of you, and every hope with it.”

“Bye, Nan. I love you.”

And again, she lifted, floated. Flew.





18





SHE FELT AMAZING, AND STILL BRANNA PUSHED A POTION ON HER.

“Your first time. It’s best if you level it out a bit now.”

“Can I do it again?”

Branna quirked her eyebrows while Connor grabbed two more cookies. “Now?”

“No, not this minute. I mean can I do it? Am I capable? On my own?”

“Connor and I were just along for the ride, you could say.” She stepped over to check her candles. “Helping you prepare, then going along to see you through.”

“Like being on a learner’s permit?”

“Sorry?”

“Learning to drive a car—I really have to deal with getting a car. It always gets pushed back, but . . . I am a little buzzed,” she admitted, and drank the potion.

“Learning to drive.” Connor considered, nodded. “Like that in a sense, yes. Where you need supervision until you can handle it on your own.”

“At least one of us should go with you when you try again.”

“You sort of hypnotized me.”

“I helped you find the right meditative state, is all. You’ve a very active mind, and need practice quieting it.”

“It meant a lot to me to see her. Really see her.” Reaching in her pocket, Iona pulled out the lemon she’d taken from the blue and green bowl, brought it to her face to inhale the scent.

“Family’s the root, and the heart. Now, see what you can do with this.” She opened a drawer, took out a printed list.

“A wand tipped with a rose quartz crystal,” Iona read. “An athame, decorated with a Celtic trinity knot, a silver cup of the Fire Goddess, Belisma, a copper pentagram amulet.”

Frowning, Iona looked up. “The four elemental tools?”

“Very good, the wand for air, the knife for fire, and so on. Read on.”

“Okay, a sword with a bloodstone in the hilt, and its sheath; a spear with a sharpened tip of hematite; a shield decorated with a pentagram and hematite, amethyst, sunstone, and red jasper; and a cauldron with the symbol of fire. The four corresponding weapons.”

“You’ve studied. Now you’ll do a seeking spell, and find them.”

“Like a scavenger hunt?”

“In a way, yes, like that.”

“Well, I like a good game.”

“’Tisn’t one,” Connor told her. “But practice, and important. We’ll need to seek him out when we’re ready to take him on for once and done.”

“We’ll have an advantage if we know when and how he comes,” Branna added.

“Why don’t we seek him now? He’s got to have a lair of some kind. We could—”

“We’re not ready, and if we seek, he may know. He has power, and if we can’t block him, he’ll see. But when we’re ready, we’ll want him to see—what we want him to see. When the time comes,” Branna continued, “the three of us will seek and find, combining our power, as the three.”

“And Fin?”

“I . . .”

“It’s Fin who should seek, and find.” Connor turned to his sister, held her gaze with a quiet look. “He’s of the blood, and that would be for him.”

“You trust so much.”

“And you too little. It’s for him, Branna. You know it as I do.”

“All right, we’ll come to that when we do. But now let’s deal with this. This is for you to do, Iona. Do the spell, each one in turn, find what you seek, and bring each one in turn, here.”

“Okay.” She glanced at the list again, folded it into her pocket. Then closed her eyes and tried to visualize the wand. “What I see within my mind, I will seek and I will find. Bring it now before my eyes and I will go to where it lies. Slim and strong it calls to me. As I will, so mote it be.”

She saw it clearly, catching the late light of the sun on the little table by the window in the music room. “Be right back.”

Connor leaned on the counter where Branna began to meticulously label her cooled candle jars.

“It pains you, I know.” His voice stayed as quiet as his eyes. “But if you don’t accept what Fin is, what he truly is, and believe in him, in his loyalty, it limits us all.”

“I’m trying. I can get past the hurt, or can most days. Trust is a harder thing.”

“He’d die for you.”

“Don’t say it,” she snapped. “Do you think I’d want that? I only want to do what must be done, and I will. I will. You’re right that he should be the one to seek, to find. You’re right. Leave it at that for now.”

“All right, we’ll leave it there.” Then he smiled a little, to soothe her. “Want to time her?”