They wouldn’t sleep, of course, but instead settled themselves down on the sofa and easy chair in the living room. One would think that the ritual I’d just performed would be enough to ensure some protection for this night at least. Obviously not, though; they weren’t about to take any chances. So I bade them goodnight, and went to the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth while I was still dressed. Even after a few weeks of this, I hadn’t gotten to the point where I was willing to let them see me wandering around in my bathrobe.
After all that, though, I slipped back into my bedroom and closed the door behind me. I’d left a white candle burning on my own little altar there, one of those saints’ candles you can buy at the supermarket, although this one had a guardian angel on it, not a saint. That kind of candle was safe to leave unattended, and I wanted that white light to fill my room so no evil could enter there.
And all the gods and goddesses knew that I could use a guardian angel about now.
I pulled off my robe and hung it from the hook on the back of my door, then kicked off my shoes and took off my long skirt and T-shirt as well. After shaking my hair loose from the rubber band I’d used to hold it out of the way while I washed my face and brushed my teeth, I went to the window and pushed the curtain aside slightly so I could look out on the sleeping town.
There was no sign that a large group had gathered earlier out on the promontory where the old dormitory was located. Neither could you tell just by looking that we’d invoked the spirits of the dead and cast yet another spell of protection around Cleopatra Hill and the town built on it. But I knew. I could still feel the power thrumming through my bones. No one who wished us any ill could come near here. I felt it.
The moon shone down on me, naked of clouds now. I gazed up at it, drinking in the white light. I had survived my first ritual, and hadn’t botched anything or opened up the clan to dark influences.
Maybe this prima thing wouldn’t be so difficult after all.
* * *
To my surprise, Aunt Rachel did open the store the next day. “Can’t stay closed forever…and it’s the weekend,” she told me.
Or maybe she was just trying to take her mind off the reality of my moving out in a few days. When I’d gotten up that morning, I started packing some of my less essential items — summer clothes and flip-flops, books I knew I wouldn’t be reading any time soon — but I hated doing even that much. It felt so…final.
She’d declined going to the Day of the Dead festivities but didn’t forbid my going. That is, she really didn’t have the option of telling me what to do anymore, and instead said, “Well, you’ll need to discuss that with the elders.”
None of them had been exactly thrilled at the prospect. Margot Emory had frowned and shared what sounded like a heated convo with the other two elders, and then Allegra Moss shrugged and said, “If you take five of our strongest with you, then I think it should be all right.” Since she had some of the strongest precognition in the clan, generally when she said something like that, you were good to go.
Apparently Bryce had thought the same thing, because he didn’t offer any other argument. “I’ll choose them,” he remarked, but that was about it.
Not that I really wanted five witches and warlocks trailing me the whole time. Still, it was better than being under house arrest, and it had been months since I’d gone into Sedona. It was neutral territory, an agreement having been made more than a hundred years earlier that the resort town had too much power on its own, what with the energy vortexes that surged up through the rocks there. Any clan living within its boundaries would have an unfair advantage. I was sort of surprised that the agreement was still honored to this day, considering you couldn’t trust a Wilcox any farther than you could throw him (or her…although they skewed heavily toward warlocks and not witches). I’d asked Rachel about it once, and although her expression turned dark, the way it always did when the subject of the Wilcoxes came up, she said that the other clans, especially the de la Pazes, would have come up here and assisted us if the Wilcox clan had ever attempted such a thing. They were powerful, but even they weren’t strong enough to face down all the other Arizona clans at the same time.
Anyway, we were all allowed to go into Sedona to eat and shop and go to the movies, as long as we didn’t stay overnight and didn’t attempt to cast any spells or perform any rituals there. The McAllisters probably went far more often than the Wilcoxes, simply because we were closer, only about fifteen miles away, and up in Flagstaff there was at least a movie theater and a mall, whereas we had to drive all the way to Prescott for those amenities.