Chapter 33 Prayer time

“Praying to it?” Joana asked.

“Yes, that’s what the soothsayer told us.” Edmund said. “You pray unto the spirit and hope she hears you, if she does, she calls you into her presence and searches your heart, if it is for good, then she grants your hearts desires, if you have bad intentions then she drowns you.”

“Ok, let’s just hope that doesn’t happen,” Joana said.

The four of them continued talking about the river for some time before Derick entered the room and went to join them to sit down.

“Hey Derick,” Dana said to him with a smile. “Did you take care of Joana while we were gone?”

Derick didn’t answer at first, and Joana began to wonder if Dana knew by any chance what had happened between them. It then occurred to her what was really going on; they had left her alone in the castle with Derick on purpose!

“Joana is fine, she’s a strong vampire now, she can take care of herself,” Derick finally said.

Wow, Joana said in her mind, exactly what he told her in the forest.

“We’re sorry we didn’t tell you where we went,” Dana continued. “We didn’t want to leave Joana alone in the castle so we decided not to wake you up too. We were just talking about the evergreen river, the first ingredient that Joana needs for the sacrifice.”

“Sorry guys, but it’s already morning,” Hillary interrupted them, yawning. “It’s been a long night. Let’s go to bed, we can talk about this in the night.”

“I agree with her,” Derick said, standing up. “The three of you have been out all night and need to rest now. We’ll come back here tonight to discuss this.”

“Ok,” Dana said to them. “I do feel a bit tired and we have been flying around since yesterday evening.”

“Good night everyone, we’ll gather back here in the evening,” Edmund said as he and Hillary stood up and left the study, leaving Dana, Joana and Derick.

Derick then walked over to Joana and held her hand.

“You need to rest too; you know you still have a lot of studying to do,” he told her, much to Dana’s surprise.

Derick seems to be in a good mood today, did the two of you settle?

Oh, they settled all right, Joana thought in her mind, trying to push away the happenings of last night so Dana wouldn’t see them.

“Yes,” Derick said. “We are aware of our feelings but we can’t let that ruin our good friendship, besides Joana will soon leave and it doesn’t make much sense to keep fighting.”

“Ok then,” Dana acknowledged. “I’m glad you two are ok now, honestly it felt good to see the coven gathered together again, just like old times. I guess it was a good idea to leave you both behind then.”

Dana winked at the both of them before taking her leave, they both knew what she had done and somehow, they were glad that she did it. The time they had together alone was enough to bring them closer. If only she knew that they had gotten too close.

***

Joana knelt down alone in the middle of her room, about to begin her prayer unto the spirit of the evergreen river. She felt a bit nervous but she did everything as Dana had told her. She then closed her eyes and took a deep breath before she started.

“Dear spirit of the evergreen river, I come before your presence today. My name is Joana Davidson, a descendant and a reincarnation of Marylin Lou. Centuries ago, my ancestor came before your presence and collected some of your water as one of the ingredients she needed to give up her immortality and become human.

“I returned into this world as the 200th descendant of my ancestor and became a vampire on my 18th birthday, according to the agreement Lou made with the supreme council. Now, I wish to do the same thing that my ancestor did in the past. I wish to give up my immortality to become human, just like my ancestor did.

“I hope that you will call me into your presence, search my heart and see that there is nothing there but good, I hope that you will give me some of your blessed water, and I hope that you will grant my heart’s desire.

“In your name I pray.

“Amin”