30

“Scotland…. well, maybe. She travels a lot. But she’s Scottish.”

“Scotland! Are you kidding? That’s almost the other side of the world. How the hell are we supposed to get in touch? I balk. “Do you think she has Facebook? Do witches social network? A cell number….an email?” I sigh in defeat and rub my fingers on my temples to try and combat the brewing stress migraine and exhale heavily. My body heavy, and tired, and everything in me is starting to ache. What I wouldn’t give for Colton to stroll in and take command like he always does, and I bite down the urge to cry with the need for his presence.

“No. But we do have other means to find out where someone is, providing they aren’t hiding from sight. Witches have ways and means.” Sierra closes the book as though she now realizes we never needed that damn page and fixes her gaze on my slump posture, reaching out a loving hand to comfort me.

“Explain?” Meadow cuts in sharply. Getting inpatient.

“Locator spell. Normally we need a person’s belonging to enchant but we have a room full of books where she added her own spells. We have items she gifted my ancestors, and we have this.” Sierra moves off to a wall of bottles and pulls out one small vial with a glowing white liquid that sparkles like liquid glitter. It looks like a fake bottle for a children’s fairy costume and I can’t even imagine what it’s meant to be for.

“What is that?” I blink at it, lifting myself up to sit upright once more and push off my fatigue and despair, as the soft glow illuminates the space around it, and she lays it on the table. Acting like it’s made of precious and fragile crystal.

“It’s an elixir, which contains Leyanne’s own tears. She made it for my grandmother when she needed ailment. I’m not sure what it does, but I used to play with this because it’s so pretty and was scolded so many times. A witch’s tears are a powerful thing and they only gift them to people they trust.” Sierra touches it once more, lovingly, and then retracts her hands and stares at it as though somehow it will magically transform into something amazing. I just see a bottle of liquid glitter and sigh again.

“So what do we do with it, how do we ‘locate’ her.” I ask tentatively, air emphasizing the word with my fingers. Sierra sighs and presses her palms to her chest, over her heart.

“We find the book which tells us how to perform a locator spell. It’s been nine years since I used it and it’s rusty. I used it to find out where you were being cared for, Alora.” She smiles softly at me and I blanche as I click on what she means exactly. The night Sierra crept into my room to bind us for eternity and protect me from Juan. She used a spell to know exactly where I was that night and now that’s the same spell we need to find this witch. A vague feeling of full circle claws at the back of my mind and the fates flicker through my head in weird kinds of ways. I can’t help but wonder if this is relevant.

“So tell us what the book looks like and we look.” Meadow interrupts my moment of reverie, on her feet and ready to do something more than sitting here and I nod in agreement. Sliding up from my own chair to get busy.

“It’s green, large like this one, with a dark vine wrapped around to keep it shut. Leyanne is a witch of nature so it suits. It’s where I learned the spell and I know it’s here. No one ever removes the books, not that they can. The stairwell won’t let a book pass upwards so it will be here wherever I left it.”

“Hmm, okay…. Let’s look.” Meadow jumps to it and starts trawling the lined cases all around us and I follow suit. Moving to the ones behind me and I start passing my fingers along the shelves gently, making sure not to actually touch them, something tugging me to my left, and I let it guide me. Like an inner instinct, deep in my belly or my gut and I look that way in response of whatever is urging me onwards.

Sticking out slightly more than the others on a low shelf, almost concealed by shadow because of where it sits, I spot a green book and go to it immediately.

“This?” I call out to Sierra, pointing down and she looks around and gasps in glee.

“If I didn’t know better I would think you’re part witch. The books are calling to you as though you are.” She beams at me joyfully and I frown it away and go back to the table as she slides it free. Remembering we can’t touch without her say so and eager to get this done. Sierra brings it to the table and flicks through quickly, finding a dog-eared page and Meadow eye rolls dramatically. Slumping onto her own seat and making a show of her extreme disapproval.

“You bent the corner? Who does that, especially not hundred-year-old magical books? What is wrong with you?” her obvious distaste and disgust is heavy in her tone and that glare is not very respectful towards her Rema. I giggle at Meds, an argument we have had in the house library many times and it warms me out of my cold sadness for a few seconds. She believes in the sanctity of books and keeping them pristine, while I’m a page folder to keep my place and it drives her crazy.

“I did not. It’s how I found it.” Sierra retorts sharply, eyeing her up as though she’s just been incredibly rude, accusing her of a heinous crime and scans the words quickly, nodding to herself as it refreshes her memory. A little flick of recognition going off in the depths of her eyes as a small smile relaxes her pretty face.

“Okay, we need a map of the world, seeing as we are looking much further than I ever had to. There’s one on that wall, bring it.” She nods to Meadow who obediently goes and takes down a large, aged print of the world, in one clear space of wall by the stair way door. Sierra pulls off the long necklace she wears daily, a chain that almost reaches her waist and a pointed quartz crystal that hangs from it, pulling the chain together and holding it halfway down so the crystal swings freely. Meadow lays the map out on the table and I move our books to accommodate its large size.

Sierra carefully opens the little vial and dips the very tip of her stone into it before closing it back up and laying it aside gently. She is careful not to touch her stone again and lets it hang over the map and still by itself as she concentrates and regulates her breathing to keep her hand steady.

“Bring those candles all four from there. One on each corner of the map.” She points at a bookcase behind me with a nod and I quickly move to collect four tapered candles in silver holders from the shelf and put them on the table. Moving them to the corners and I can reach and handing Meadow the other two to lay out for me. Sierra clicks her fingers and all four light immediately, with blue flame much like the passageway and lighting in here. She holds her pendulum still over the center of the map, closes her eyes as her hands begin to glow blue and travel up as far as her elbows. She stays motionless and still as a statue as she softly utters the words with a faint breath that we almost don’t hear.

“Oportet te invenire me, quod mea proposito.

Super terram, mare caeli spatium non habet terminum.

Dirige manus, trahere lux mea, et in offuscatione.

Unus enim fas est inveniet te debere ostendere.”

Her words are haunting, foreign, and as she utters the very last one, the blue light travels down the chain of her stone and lights it up like a bright beacon that scalds my eyes and I squint to adjust to its brightness. The tip that was dipped in the potion turns a brazen green and the pendulum starts swinging freely of its own accord as though it’s caught by a sudden gust and seems to tug Sierra across the map.