The Solstice

Chapter 1

The wind is cold in the streets of Beckingdale as I search them for my brother. I still don't know why he's my responsibility, they decided that one kid wasn't enough for them. Besides, ever since he made friends with those lowly basement witches, he's been getting more out of control every day. I bet he's there right now trying out their homebrew spells or tormenting the townspeople.

I cross the street, heading into their cul-de-sac, summoning my wand to my hand. I swear I'm going to hang him up by his ears if he makes me miss the ceremony. I approach his friends house and hesitate for a moment. I know I should probably do the right thing and knock, but I'm really not in the mood for dealing with his parents right now, so I head straight for the backyard instead. I mutter the familiar incantation that I've used a million times before and tiny specks of light float out of the tip of my wand and into the lock of the basement door. Within seconds the door flies open and I march inside.

"Forget your manners again," Gideon asks when he sees me, "Mother would be so disappointed."

"I'll knock when you stop wasting my time and answer your phone for once," I say, "You know we have important plans tonight and I'm not going to miss it because of you."

"Can Craig come," he says, knowing full well we don't allow outsiders, nevertheless ordinary humans, in our rituals.

"Not this time," I say, "Sorry, Craig, but I'm going to have to take your friend with me, in a body bag if I have to."

"There's no need for that," he laughs, finally getting up, "I'm coming. The ritual can wait five more minutes."

My heart stops for a second. It's strongly prohibited to discuss magic with non-supernaturals. If anyone finds out he can be cast out of the community.

"Relax," he laughs, seeing the expression on my face, "Craig won't tell anyone. His family is witches too, going back many generations." Craig just smiles and nods.

"We'll discuss this later," I say impatiently, "Let's just get there before they start without us."

"Bye Craig," he says as I pull him out of the door.

"That's really irresponsible," I say when we're out of earshot of the house, "You know how much trouble you can get in for talking about magic to a non. I really don't understand why you want to hang out with a family of wannabes."

"It's funny," he laughs, "They love talking about their rituals and goddess and spells and it's funny when they think it actually works when I'm the one doing magic behind the scenes."

"You better hope Randall doesn't find out about this," I say sternly, "He'll kick you out of the coven without a second thought. Just like what happened to Uncle Kyle."

"This is totally different; he'll never find out."

"You better hope so," I take a deep breath of cold air, "You never know what his visions could show him."

"He only sees things that threaten the coven. Trust me, Craig's family is harmless."

"Just don't expect me to bail you out when the whole coven turns against you."

"You shouldn't be worrying about me," he glances at me quickly, "You're almost 18 and still as single as ever. If you don't find someone that will be willing to marry you, father will probably arrange for you to marry Kira."

"I hate this tradition," I sigh, "I'm not ready to take over our family's responsibilities in the coven, not do I want to marry anyone. Especially not Kira, the twins still give me the creeps."

"You know she's the only girl in town that our parent's will deem good enough," he laughs, "At least you'll have a year before she turns 18 to plan your great escape."