No Thanks, Mate [Completed]

Chapter Twenty-nine

Chapter 29

At exactly midnight, everyone was in a circle, lighting candles in front of them.  Josh had come back after half an hour of being gone, and seemed a lot calmer.  However, he still wasn’t looking anyone in the eyes.

I was in the middle of the circle with my blouse in hand.  As I stood there, one of the girls I hadn’t met yet started chanting some unintelligible words, which I assumed were Latin or something.

The others repeated what she said, and Carly nodded my way, signaling me to drop the blouse.  I did so and it burst into flames before reaching the floor, disappearing quickly into thin air, leaving nothing but a pile of ashes.

I remembered Luke for a moment, and how he was ashes now, too.  But after a moment, I forced the thought out of my mind before I fell to the floor crying.

Carly had explained to me before we started what would happen.  The ashes capture Kyle’s essence, and so then I had to pick them up and say something in Latin Carly had taught me.

“Tueri me,” which was supposed to mean protect me in Latin.

Then, everyone else started chanting more things, and I had to keep an image of Kyle in my mind for as long as possible, or until Carly told me they were done.  I thought of that first day I had met Kyle, at the store, before the kidnapping, before he got in my car.  Just when he was buying that computer.  That wasn’t my best memory of him, but it was my favorite.  It was the one before he went insane, or I found out about the whole werewolf thing, or he killed my brother.  It was just Kyle.  I almost liked that memory, at least more than the others I had of him.

Suddenly, I felt power running through my body, starting at my hands, where the ashes were being held.  At first, I felt renewed and energized, but then, the surges of energy became painful, and I did everything I could to keep from screaming, but wasn’t very succesful.  I wanted more than anything to drop the ashes.  But when I looked at Carly, she gave me an encouraging smile, as if to say “Keep going, we’re almost done.”

I held onto the ashes as they started hurting more and more every second.  After a minute, I was sure I would die from the pain burning through my veins.  But then, all of a sudden, they stopped hurting.  I looked at Carly and saw that no one was speaking anymore.  She nodded at my expression, and I gratefully dropped the ashes.

“Well, that was… an experience I don’t plan on repeating any time soon.”

“What did it feel like,” Penny asked, strangely curious.

“Um, really painful.  Like this power was trying to fill my body, and push out my own life energy, to make room.”

“Good.”  I stared at her thinking she must be crazy, so she elaborated.  “That means it worked.” 

I looked at my watch.  “It’s one in the morning?  But that only felt like a few minutes!”

Gavin answered my confused statement.  “That’s because it wasn’t in real time.  When we cast spells, we step out of mortal time, and feel magic time.  Well, that’s what we call it, anyway.”

“Okay, so am I good to go?  Not that I want to leave you guys to do all the research, but classes start tomorrow, and my friends think I’m on a date, and…”

“Yeah, it’s okay.  Just come back soon to help us.”  I saw Amy walking over to me, “Bye.  Safe driving.”

She gave me an awkward hug, and after a minute it was a group hug.  Wow.  These guys are so… loving.  I looked through the crowd, and saw Josh was standing against the wall, arms crossed, looking like he could bite someone’s head off.