Mathilda, SuperWitch (Mathilda's Book of Shadows #1)(85)

The door to The Dungeon opened; Ash came out and stood behind me.

Close behind me.

Althea blanched.

I can’t imagine why. I looked at him over my shoulder and he looked better than ever in a white t-shirt and faded jeans.

And he smelled divine.

“Girl, you are the most boy-crazy female I’ve ever met,” Althea announced and turned to Ash. “You should bed her so she’ll quit running around like a –”

“Don’t finish that sentence,” Ash warned in a chilly voice.

Althea snapped her mouth shut.

“How is Agatha loonier?” Mavis persevered.

Althea looked at Mavis then she looked at me then at Ash.

Then she sighed.

The she spoke. “That witch chose the wrong path years ago. I tried to warn her but she wouldn’t listen.” She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, muttering almost as if to herself. “I can’t abide a dark witch.”

“And the rest of the coven?” Mavis prodded.

“Some chose her path; some didn’t but were afraid to go against the High Priestess of a coven as fierce as Edwards. Her power is fearful, even when she isn’t using manmade implements. And her wrath is worse.”

“And you? What did you chose?” I asked.

Althea shook her head, clearly struggling with something.

And then, right in front of our eyes, she deflated.

All of her irritating bravado, gone in an instant.

It was a dreadful thing to witness.

“I tried to warn her. She wouldn’t listen,” Althea admitted softly and leaned against the wall. “And she didn’t like it, what I had to say. We rowed, often. I tried to take over the coven. It didn’t work. They held the ceremony. I was too old, too weak, too sick. I couldn’t fight them.”

“What ceremony?” I asked.

Mavis put her hand on Althea’s arm.

“They’ve stripped you of your magic, haven’t they?” Mavis whispered.

To my disbelief, tears came to Althea’s eyes and she nodded.

What?

Oh Great Goddess.

Stripped of magic, I’ve never heard of such a thing!

How cruel!

How scary!

How just plain, old mean!

“I thought as much,” Mavis muttered.

“And the sight. They took that too,” Althea went on.

Holy crap.

“But, the other day, you spoke in my head… you –” I started.

“That wasn’t magic, Mathilda. That was mind games. Anyone can do that with enough practice and I have over a hundred and fifty years of it,” Althea answered.

I looked at Ash who looked at me. He raised his brow.

I reckoned I shouldn’t believe her but I did.

And I felt sorry for her.

“We’ll keep you safe, dear. Don’t you worry,” Mavis promised and led the old witch away while Ash and I watched.

“Do you believe her?” I asked Ash.

“Yes,” he replied, took one last look at the pair of witches as they disappeared and then he went back to The Dungeons.

I headed to my Tower Room. I needed to research this ceremony business.

I also needed to find out if there was a way to get her power back.

I figured we were going to need it.

* * * * *

The Gathering:

Unfortunately, I had to fly to The Gathering. It was tradition and not negotiable (and I’d already bucked tradition in so many other ways that I felt I should pick my battles).

The few broomstick lessons I’d had up to that point had not gone so well. But, I must say that Gran was a somewhat impatient teacher.

Viv took over after Gran and she wasn’t much better.

It wasn’t until lessons with Su that I really caught on.

But I was still a little unsteady doing sidesaddle (would prefer to go with a straddle but that wasn’t an option, especially when going to a Gathering).

We flew, all of us, with Althea on the back of Viv’s broom, to the standing stones at Avebury.

All the tourists went to Stonehenge.

Spinal Tap even wrote a song about Stonehenge.

But Avebury was much better.

Much bigger.

And far more magical.

And you could walk amongst the stones, touch them and they just hummed with history and power.

I loved Avebury.

Anyhoo.

Some bright spark had built a village smack in the middle of the stone circle centuries ago so The Gatherings had to move out of the circles and down to the end of the Avenue.

By the time we’d landed, everyone was there forming an occult circle and watching us approach.

I must say I was surprised at how unsurprising everyone looked. It was all very… Hollywood.

On my first look at the troll and goblin, I had to wonder if Peter Jackson was magical, they were very Lord of the Rings (except the troll was shorter and less stupid-looking and the orc-y goblin had little flightless wings).

There was one goatee’ed magus, floating about three feet from the ground on a magic carpet.

The banshee had radiant white hair and lots of it with robes so close to the same color you didn’t know where the hair stopped and the robes started. The robes and hair flowed so much, even standing still, there had to be magical, invisible fans blowing at her. She also had bright blue eyes just like the freaky school kids in Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” video.