My mother’s intoxication gave me great concern. I knew that the heated “almost-pain” was dulling into a nice buzz. She looked like a junkie who’d just taken a hit.
I checked Johnny for a sign that this was causing him any discomfort, but he lay still, calm and unaffected.
Eris clapped her hands over her head, fingers lacing together. She was breathing fast, but slowing with each inhalation. When she had control, she quit the pose and retrieved a long narrow tray and a yellow candle from under the table. She lit the candle, positioned the tray on the floor at the head of the table, and placed the candle.
“I invoke the will of the dazzling sun, with golden rays of warmth and light.” She took up a Baggie and sprinkled the cinnamon and rosemary mixture on Johnny’s arms. With a piece of amber dipped in Dragon’s Blood oil, she traced the markings on his right arm, murmuring of Belenus, a Welsh sun god, and invoking the element of fire. When she switched to trace the marking on his right arm, her chant invoked Lugh, the god of the sun in Irish traditions.
Dragon’s Blood, incidentally, was not a good thing to put directly on the skin, but I was confident that Johnny’s wære healing ability would adjust for it.
I was feeling pretty good about this so far, at least until she climbed atop the table and straddled my boyfriend. Beside me Nana crossed her arms in a huff, drawing my attention to the belligerence she was expressing.
Eris grasped Johnny’s wrists and lifted them until his arms were vertical.
“Guardians and loyal hounds
Healers drawn and duty bound
Rest now, you steadfast beasts
Your vigilant watch now may cease.”
The flames of each candle sputtered and threw up smoke that swirled without dissipating. Taking the form of the lean hounds from the art, these smoke hounds loped happily around the circle three times before lying down and fading.
Eris climbed down from the table.
Johnny lifted his head to meet my gaze. I wasn’t sure what he was trying to convey. If I’d been able to touch him, perhaps I could have heard him tell me in my mind.
Eris lit a blue candle, placed it beside the yellow one and moved the tray back enough to allow her to stand at the head of that table without jeopardizing the candles. She took up another Baggie. “Shut your eyes and keep them shut until I say you can open them,” she said to Johnny. “I invoke the emotion of the shimmering moon, ruler of the tides, whose silver beams brighten the night.”
She sprinkled ground eucalyptus and myrrh across his eyes, then lifted a piece of moonstone. Instead of dipping the stone in the oil this time—Dragon’s Blood would be bad stuff to get in the eyes—she tapped the gemstone’s edge against the oil-filled bottle three times. Murmuring invocations to the element of water, and calling on Thoth, the Egyptian god of the moon and knowledge and wisdom, and also on Amun, the king of the gods who was associated with hidden power, she traced the Wedjats.
Placing the moonstone between his brows she put her palms over him, chanting,
“This man’s desire is revealed.
Let him see it.
This man’s truth is revealed.
Let him be it.
This man’s power is revealed.
Let him free it.
This man’s destiny is revealed.
Let him believe it.”
As she spoke, Johnny’s exhaled breath became steam that flew like ibis and falcons, up and up, fading as they reached the ceiling.
She repeated the lines twice, lifted her hands, and shouted the chant a third time with upraised arms.
When she lowered her arms, however, she teetered to the left.
“Eris!” Nana called.
At the last, she caught herself with a grip on the table. “I’m okay,” she said.
That may have been true, but simply being in a circle and saying the words wasn’t enough to conduct magic, let alone sorcery. This was taxing her heavily and there were five tattoos remaining. She sat on the floor beside the table, dug a cloth from the box, and pushed it to Johnny’s fingers. “Wipe the herbs from your face with this, then you can open your pretty blues.”
He sat up to comply. When done, he blinked and peered around him, noticing where she was sitting. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah. Just need to ground and center again.” She straightened her spine and imitated a yoga pose.
Johnny looked at me. I nodded. Silently questioning back, I tipped my head toward him and lifted my brows. He shook his head minutely and lay back down.
He doesn’t feel any different. Since the ley power was crawling over my skin and I’d seen the hounds and birds in the circle, I knew it was working. Perhaps Johnny’s immunity to magic was hampering his ability to detect the effects of it.
Eris broke her pose and stood with a dreamy sigh. She’d called the energy, it had answered again to refuel her. “The star on your navel is next.” She glanced at me. “A fairy star, to be broken without fey magic.”
She lit a silver candle, placed it with the rest. She gathered her supplies and, with her thumbs and forefingers, created a circle around the seven-pointed star on Johnny’s abdomen. “I summon the speed of the planet Mercury, with quicksilver and light.” She sprinkled lavender and mint on his stomach, then followed the lines of the star with a piece of aventurine, mumbling of Mercury, the Roman messenger of the gods and god of travelers, and invoking the element of earth.
“Fate’s path was once reborn
With magic, ink, and art entwined,
Sealed with seven points, seven thorns.
But I command you now to unbind!”
Hands hovering inches above the star on his skin she chanted,
“The way is clear.
Barriers frayed.
The way is clear.
Obstructions fade.
The way is clear.
The path is remade.
The way is clear.
The way is clear.
The way is clear.”
My eyes detected a dark cloud. Analyzing what I was seeing, I realized that granules of the ground-up lavender and mint were sliding across his skin, floating into the air between his flesh and her palms, and forming the same lines as the fairy star.
The symbol floated there, first wobbling as each point dipped down in succession, tilting the whole.
“Clear the way,” she said, and repeated it twice more.
On the third time, the spinning herbs massed together into a thick cloud, then exploded in a poof! that left a dusting of lavender and mint across Johnny’s skin.
Eris leaned on the table, shoulders sagging.
“Stir,” she murmured, twirling her finger clockwise in the air.
The air around them swirled hard enough to lift her hair and wipe the lavender and mint dust from Johnny. The sparks crackled around her again, but this time the sparks were red.
“You’re going to need to remove your jeans for the next part.”
Johnny rose from the table, on the far side, and removed his boots and socks, then dropped his jeans. With Nana sitting beside me I tried not to admire him too much and just be grateful that he’d worn underwear. Bet he is, too.
Eris grabbed his discarded things and shoved them into an empty space under the table. “And by the way,” she told him, “this part is going to hurt.”