The Coven

1

Bella

"Upon the Goddess, I pray to thee,

Hear my words, hear my plea.

Protect this girl as she roams,

Ensure she will make it home.

Allow her passage

Allow her light

Keep her from the darkest night."

Belladonna blew out the candle to finish the ritual. The words seemed to flow from her in an unearthly fashion and she felt power flood through her veins.  On the floor around her was the circle of candles and runes she had drawn in chalk in order to give the charm its full effect. It had been almost a week since Jessie had gone missing. Bella had attempted a location spell to find her, but it hadn't worked. So a protection spell would have to do.

A knock at her bedroom door broke her focus.

"Bella?" The door opened and Robbi, one of her roommates, stood in the doorway, a black cloak around her shoulders. She looked tired; Bella could see the bags under her eyes. "You ready to go?" she asked, then noticed the ritual on the floor. "You're trying to find her again, aren't you?"

Bella nodded. "Didn't work. I just put a protection spell on her, so wherever she is, she'll be out of harm's way," she replied. 

Robbi smiled and rubbed her eyes. "Good, hopefully that'll do something," she answered, and helped Bella to her feet. "Don't forget your cloak." She left the room, petting the top of Juno's head, who let out a small purr, as she slipped through the door. Bella grabbed her long, black cloak from the back of the door and followed her out, snapping her fingers to turn off the lights and blow out the candles as she left. Her other roommates, Candy and Lyssa, were already gathered by the fireplace when she got there, and Robbi was just joining them. 

"You blew out all the candles, right? We don't need another fire scare," Lyssa said as she approached. Candy stared at her intently for an answer.

"Yeah, yeah, they're out," Bella replied, taking Candy's hand.

The sisterhood formed a line in front of the massive fireplace in their loft, the stonework carved with the portal runes from the Book of Shadows. Robbi said a few words in Gaelic, the language of the old religion, and the fire lit up with a holy blue light. Hand in hand, they stepped through the fireplace until they emerged from the other side, in the heart of the council chambers. 

From every corner of the room, witches and warlocks appeared from the massive stone fireplaces that lined the walls of the chambers, acting as doorways and portals from their homes to the heart of the coven. All of them dressed in the dark robes of the coven, the sigil of our organization on the back. We took our seats near the front of the northwestern wing of the meeting hall. 

The hall was massive; a dome structure with eight sections of seats, each representing a direction on a compass rose. The building is entirely constructed of tourmaline and quartz, two of the most powerful stones in the realm of witchcraft. After all the members of the coven had made it into the chamber, and taken their seats, the lights dimmed slightly. In the center of the room, the two semicircular tables were filled with the elders of our coven, all witches and warlocks with hundreds of years of experience under their belts. Our Consul, Madame Catarina Bracknell stood as the spotlight focused on her. Her robes, unbelievably wellkept, seemed to flow from her like a dark, encompassing halo. Her dark brown hair, woven into an elegant braid down her back, showing her power and prestige.

"Brothers and Sisters, welcome," her voice carried with a great power and elegance as it projected itself across the large open space. "Thank you all for gathering this evening. And I believe you can guess why," she nodded to the rest of the elders. The doors on the western end flung open and two guards charged in, dragging a struggling prisoner with them. The prisoner was a man, gagged, bound, and bleeding from his temple. There were gasps from the crowd as he came into view. 

"This man has been found guilty, by this court, of the murder of a witch!" A few gasps of shock and horror around the room. Candy grabbed my hand, and I could tell she was shaking. "As you have heard, our sister, Winter Creighton, was found dead two weeks ago, the third of 6 witches to go missing in the last month. The others include Cassia Sangrey, Nimue Periculum, Lucia Ripper, and Jessamine Bothwell," I felt my blood run cold when she said Jessie's name. Lyssa and Robbi looked at me, horrified. Since she had gone missing, our lives had been upturned with the efforts to locate her. The Consul continued, "All of them remain missing. We do not yet know if this man is guilty of the other murders, but only time will tell. Therefore," she turned to the elders. "I have made the motion that this man is to be sentenced to the Curse of Sgrios for his crimes against our coven and our craft." She then flicked her wrist and he was pulled away by the guards kicking and screaming as he went. 

Lyssa looked at me, shocked. No one ever uses that curse. Her voice was abrupt and fearful as it was cast into my mind. I shook my head in agreement and turned back to watch as the doors slammed behind the guards and all attention returned to Madame Bracknell. Then, in a strange change of events, she and the council continued with the usual points of a meeting; proper lunar markers, recent events of politics, and announcing the election for a new member of the council. It was frightfully mundane.

The meeting ended with the Sacred Rites of the Coven, a ceremony where each elder blesses the coven as a whole before we break for the evening. It's an annoyingly long process that I don't pay much attention to. If I need blessings, I'll do them myself. 

When the meeting finally did end, the girls and I met up with the Madalvo Brothers, Tomas and Daniel, along with their roommates, Kadir and Finn.

"Ladies, always a pleasure," Tomas said as we approached. He's always been a bit of a ladies man. His brother stood a ways behind him, looking at the floor.

"Evening Tomas," I replied in my most seductive tone. "Still chasing the birds?" I asked, nodding to the ladies across the room, giggling and looking at him. He shot them a look and then turned back to me.

"Only chasing the raven at the moment," he said, taking my hand and kissing my knuckles. "Have I ever told you black is certainly  your color?"

"Several times, darling, several times," I replied, then turned to his brother. "How are you, Daniel?"

Daniel looked up from the floor to make a brief eye contact with me, then shifted his gaze to Candy. She was busy talking to Lyssa about some crystals she had collected, but I could see the longing in his eyes. 

"Good, thank you," he replied, staring back down at the floor. I knew Candy was oblivious to his affection for her, but it was nice to see if he would ever gain the courage to tell her.

"Have you heard anything about Jessie?" Tomas asked.

I looked at my feet, uncomfortable. "Nothing yet," I replied.

"But we will do everything in our power to find her," a voice said from behind us. I spun around to see Madame Bracknell approaching our group. Tomas and Daniel bowed to her, as did the girls. I simply nodded by head.

"Madame Bracknell," I greeted. 

"Miss Latimer. I see that our Raven has returned," I hated when anyone used by title. According to the laws of the coven, each witch or warlock is given a title, or code name, when they reach a certain capability of magick. Warlocks are given the titles of mammals while Witches are given the names of birds. Lyssa is the White Heron, Robbie is the Lark, and I am the Raven. Candy hasn't reached that level yet, so she hasn't received a title. Lucky her.

"How was your time in Ireland?" she asked. 

"It was pleasant, thank you. It was nice to get away from business for a while," I replied, staring her down.

"Forgive the formalities," she said. "But I was wondering if I could have a word with Miss Le Fey," she said. Lyssa looked up, a surprised expression on her face.

I turned to Lyssa. "We'll wait for you outside," I said, and watched as the Consul hooked her arm through Lyssa's and the two walked towards the offices of the building.  

"What do you think that's about?" Candy asked.

"Probably some office job she's offering," Robbie said with a smile. "We know the council does absolutely nothing as far as real work goes."

"I don't know," I replied. "But I don't trust her in the slightest."