First Moon (The Ternion Order Book 1) Read online

  “No thanks. I’ve done this a few times before.”

  Her answer was more of a disappointment than a relief. In two days, he was going to be at the center of a magical ceremony, so it would probably be a good idea to get a feel for what he could expect. He tried again. “May I come with you and observe? It might make things easier on Saturday.”

  Amanda pursed her lips in consideration. “Only if you promise not to interrupt or make fun of me. If you have questions about anything you see me do, save them for while we are walking the property line. I’ve got eight ward points to set and only a few hours of moonlight left, so I can’t have you slowing me down.”

  Kyle agreed to her terms and offered to carry the heavy water container.

  “We’ll start with the one that was most recently compromised,” she said, leading him around the house toward the goats.

  Kyle hesitated when he reached the corner of the goat pen, remembering the amber eyes that had glared at him from the other side of the fence. He shook off the trepidation and caught up to Amanda, not wanting to look like a coward.

  Amanda unrolled the fabric bundle and set it on the ground. A strong grassy smell rose from it, mixed with the distinct aroma of licorice. About a dozen pockets were sewn into the roll, with bundles of herbs poking out of eight of them. A coil of string or twine was stuffed into one pocket, and another held a hunting knife in a leather sheath. Kyle hoped she wouldn’t be using that knife to draw blood from anything, including herself.

  Amanda took the carafe from Kyle and set it next to the other items. She checked the position of the moon, which was about a quarter of the way between mid-sky and the western horizon. She then turned to Kyle.

  “Any questions before I begin?”

  Kyle had been hoping she’d ask. “What are the plant bundles?”

  “Each bundle has a small sage smudge with a sliver of licorice root. The sage purges negative energies from the grounds and reinforces the protective nature of the ward. Licorice reinforces the psychological aspect of the ward, helping make the farm uninteresting to passersby.”

  Kyle remembered his arrival and how unappealing the farm had looked then. Could that have been the ward at work?

  “That it?” she asked and Kyle nodded. “Okay, then.” Amanda pointed to a spot where Kyle could observe but where he’d be out of her way. “Stand right here and don’t move around or say anything until I’m done.”

  Kyle positioned himself where she indicated and nodded enthusiastically.

  Amanda chuckled and shook her head. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She placed her hands together in front of her face, as if in prayer. After a moment, she bent down and drew the hunting knife.

  “I release this ward and the protection it grants.” She cut the old twine from the fence post and let it fall to the ground.

  Kyle half expected something to happen when the old ward was released, and he was a little disappointed when it didn’t. Maybe this was all hocus-pocus after all.

  Amanda poured a small amount of water onto the knife blade and said, “Spirits of water, purify this instrument and purge it of negative energies.” Using the sharp blade, she cut a length of new twine and then set the knife aside. Amanda tied the twine around the fence post. Wrapping her hand around the post, she faced north and bowed her head. “Spirits of the north, anchor and support these protections.”

  Amanda picked up the carafe of water, wet the twine with it, and poured a trickle that flowed down the post. “Spirits of water, purify this space,” she intoned. When the water reached the bottom of the post, she stopped pouring.

  The moment the water touched the ground at the base of the post, something shoved Kyle hard enough that he stumbled forward and had to cling to the fence to keep from falling. Amanda sent an annoyed glance his way, but then her eyes widened. She motioned him to flatten himself against the fence. Pressure like a strong wind helped him do as she indicated. He spread his arms out at his sides for stability as something he couldn’t see buffeted him. The hair on the back of his neck rose when he noticed that the grass was bending away from him. The evening breeze was blowing in the opposite direction from the unseen force that pressed him against the fence.

  Amanda watched Kyle for a moment and then closed her eyes briefly. She shrugged and continued with the ritual. Or spell. Whatever it was.

  She squeezed the bottom of a pocket in her kit and pushed out an old flip-top lighter. Facing south, she lit one of the sage bundles. “Spirits of fire, lend strength to these protections.” She then turned east, blew out the burning sage leaves, and waved the smoking herbs in a circle. “Spirits of air, protect this space from prying eyes and all who would do us harm.”

  Amanda carefully tucked the herb bundle under the twine that encircled the post. She reached down to the kit and extracted two metal rods.

  The metal rods turned out to be a striker and a chime. She suspended the chime by putting her finger through a metal ring that was attached by a thin chain. After checking the herb bundle to make sure it was secure, she said, “With these tokens, I invoke the illusion of wretched despair. May all who gaze upon these protections turn their attention elsewhere.” She then rang the chime once.

  When Amanda struck the chime, a faint, shimmering wave of greenish light floated from her toward the post. As the light approached the post, the ward charm sucked it in like smoke being drawn into an exhaust vent. The breeze suddenly shifted and blew in the same direction as the force that was pushing on Kyle, but after a few seconds, it returned to normal.

  Amanda reached toward Kyle with her hand open. He pulled one hand away from the fence, and the moment his hand touched hers, the odd pressure that had been pushing on him stopped. He tipped forward and she grabbed his shoulder with her free hand to steady him.

  Once he got his feet back under him, he released her hand and looked at her questioningly.

  She nodded. “Yes, we can talk now.”

  “That was weird. What was pushing me?”

  “Given the timing, I’d say the water spirits. It happened when I called upon them to purify the grounds.”

  “So I’m … an impurity?”

  “Not you. The demon.”

  “But it stopped when you touched me,” he mused.

  “I invited you to be here.”

  Kyle didn’t care much for that answer. It made him sound like some kind of vampire. “Is that going to happen every time?”

  “It might. You should stand next to the fence from the start. It would probably be best if you followed along outside the fence, but I’d like to avoid that.”

  With Reggie lurking about, Kyle preferred to stay inside the ward as well. His doubts about whether or not the protections were real had evaporated when something tried to shove him out. He was also certain that the wards had inspired his initial impressions of the farm when he’d arrived that morning.

  Amanda packed up her kit and let Kyle carry the water again. Before tucking the knife back into its sheath, she wiped the blade carefully with a wet cloth she had brought with her. The cloth had been stuffed into a plastic sandwich bag so it wouldn’t get her pocket wet. When she noticed his curious expression, she anticipated his question about what she was doing.

  “The holy water has a trace amount of salt in it, which doesn’t do the knife any good in the long run. I wipe it down with plain water so salt won’t rust the blade or build up in the sheath. I’ll rinse it more thoroughly when we get back inside.”

  The next fence post was the property’s northwest corner post, located behind the barn. While Amanda was setting up for the new ward, Kyle looked toward the first post and realized they had quite a bit of walking to do.

  “How big is this place?” he asked.

  “The original homestead was a full section, but most of it has been sold off. All that’s left now is this quarter-section piece.”

  “How big is a section?”

  Amanda gave him a teasing smile over her shoulder
. “Come on, Kyle. How long have you lived in Idaho now? You gotta get with the lingo.”

  Kyle snorted as he handed her the carafe. “Hey, I’m a city dweller, not a farmer.”

  Amanda set the carafe down and rolled out her kit. “A section is a square mile, or six-hundred and forty acres. The farm is one-hundred and sixty acres—a square half-mile. So the perimeter we have to walk will be two miles total.”

  Amanda appeared to be nearly ready, so Kyle stood next to the fence. “It’s cool that you know this stuff.”

  She shrugged one shoulder and stood. “To tell the truth, I asked the same question the first time I set the wards. I wondered how far I had walked, and Lucille was kind enough to enlighten me.”

  “Aha,” Kyle responded, and they shared a laugh.

  Amanda went through the same ritual that she had with the previous ward. The pressure to push Kyle off the property never arrived. Amanda surmised that her first invitation was necessary to allow Kyle inside the new ward, but since the subsequent points were extensions of the same ward, the invitation covered them as well.

  By the time they reached the fourth post, full dark had fallen and their only light came from Amanda’s lantern and the half moon above. Kyle cast a few nervous glances at the waxing moon, thinking about how the remaining dark segment was a measure of the time he had left. In exactly one week, the full moon would rise and he would become a werewolf.

  That is, unless Amanda could cure him. For the first time, Kyle truly believed in that possibility. He no longer doubted her abilities, and he didn’t care if she had personal motivations for helping him. If she succeeded, she’d save his life.

  On their way to the last post, Kyle was overwhelmed with gratitude for what she was doing for him. “Amanda, thank you. I haven’t been very cooperative, and I’ll try to do better. I want you to know that I trust you, and I have faith in you.”

  Amanda gave him a sidelong glance. “Where did that come from? Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad to hear it, but that was quite a change of heart.”

  Kyle waved his hand to encompass the property. “All this … ward stuff. It’s real. I may not understand what you do, but I can’t deny that it works. Everything I’ve heard about magic has always been so unreliable and unverifiable. I’ve just watched you repeat a process and get consistent results. That, I can believe in.”

  Amanda patted him on the back. “I’m glad I made a believer out of you. That will be a big help to me on Saturday. But I have to warn you. Not all magic is reliable.”

  Kyle mentally kicked himself for daring to have a moment of hope. “I thought, since the wards work so well, I had reason to be optimistic.”

  “Optimism is good, but this ward has been tested and refined over several decades … maybe centuries. What I’ll attempt on Saturday doesn’t have that history.”

  Kyle sighed. “I understand.”

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to bum you out. We have a real chance of making it work, but I can’t promise anything.”

  Amanda checked the position of the moon, as she had been doing all evening. It was not far above the horizon and would probably set within the hour. Her interest piqued Kyle’s curiosity.

  “Why do you keep checking the moon? Does it affect the wards somehow?”

  She shook her head. “Not directly. I’m strongest when I work in moonlight. In my coven, I’m known as a moon witch because of the affinity.”

  “Why the moon?”

  “No one knows. Some of us work best in daylight, others at night. Some when the moon is high in the sky and others when it is on the opposite side of the world. When I first started practicing, I tried every condition I could think of. My best work has always been in the moonlight between first quarter and last quarter.”

  Amanda being a moon witch trying to exorcise a werewolf demon had a certain symmetry to it that appealed to Kyle. “Somehow, that seems like a good omen. The moon has special meaning for me too now.”

  Amanda laughed, “I’ll say. But I suppose you’re right about it being a good omen.” She went quiet for a moment, then added thoughtfully, “I’ll be at my strongest on the full moon, but unfortunately, we can’t wait until then.”

  No, they couldn’t. It would be too late.

  Their heads turned in unison toward an odd noise to their left. Tiny sparks were crackling along the perimeter fence, keeping pace with them. Amanda raised the lantern to get a better look and stopped with a gasp. A pair of eyes reflected back at them out of the darkness.

  Amanda dropped her ward kit and took a step back. With the lantern farther into the periphery of his vision, Kyle was able to make out the long lean shape of a huge gray wolf. “Reggie,” he blurted. The wolf nodded its head once and then sat down.

  Amanda’s eyes were wide, and the lantern shook in her hand. Her other hand was closed tightly into a fist while tears pooled in her eyes. She was repeating something. At first Kyle thought she might be casting a spell, but then he made out the words: “Please, don’t,” she was saying, over and over.

  Don’t what? Kyle wondered. But then he looked back to Reggie and understood. The wolf was going to transform.

  The part of Kyle that wasn’t about to soil his pants looked forward to witnessing a genuine werewolf transformation. At the same time, he understood how awful it must be for Amanda to see her brother this way. But there was nothing he could do to stop it.

  Kyle expected Amanda to turn the lantern away or avert her eyes, but she continued to stare in horrified fascination as the tears streamed down her cheeks.

  The transformation was not what Kyle expected. It didn’t involve any of the bone-stretching, facial morphing, fur-sprouting, or screaming in pain they showed in the movies. Instead, a roiling black cloud that crackled with violet arcs of energy enveloped the wolf. Kyle gagged on the stench of death that permeated the air as the opaque cloud twisted and shifted with the buzz of a million flies drawn to a rotting corpse. After an eternity of several seconds, the cloud swiftly expanded and dissipated with a whoosh, and Reggie stood on the other side of the fence where the wolf had been. He was, of course, completely naked.

  “Hello, Kyle,” he said.

  If Reggie wasn’t concerned about his nudity, Kyle wasn’t going to make an issue of it. It was nothing he didn’t see in the mirror every day. Well, Reggie might have a few superior attributes, but nothing to be jealous of. Much.

  “What do you want?” Amanda asked.

  “You know what I want. I want Kyle to come with me to the Foundation.”

  He addressed Kyle. “You’re running out of time, and you’re putting every living thing on the farm at risk by staying here. Come with me now, and we’ll make your last days pleasant. You can have anything you want. Deputy Arpin has been disappointed by your absence and looks forward to getting reacquainted with you.”

  Kyle shook his head. Talk about making a deal with the devil. “As tempting as that sounds, I think I’ll hang with Amanda for a while longer.”

  Reggie turned his attention back to Amanda. She swallowed visibly and blinked the last remaining tears from her eyes, but she stood straight and faced him.

  “You know that your plans for Kyle will never work, little witch. You don’t have the knowledge or the power. You will fail, and it might be the end of you.”

  Amanda narrowed her eyes at him. “So you admit it can be done.”

  “In the entire history of our kind, it happened once, long ago, by a powerful and determined man who got lucky. You may be determined, but your power is a fraction of what his was, and luck is ever a fickle companion.”

  Kyle’s despair returned full force as his hope waned. He should go with Reggie and be done with this. But then he looked at Amanda. He saw the determination in her eyes and had felt her power first-hand. Reggie was trying to erode her confidence in herself, but he wasn’t succeeding. Her defiance reminded him of something Fenris had said. This was a demon talking. Everything he said could be a lie.

  Amanda
seemed to realize what he was doing too. She squared her shoulders. “Be gone, demon. You aren’t welcome here.”

  Other than rolling his eyes, Reggie ignored her. Addressing Kyle again, he said, “This is your last warning, Kyle. If you insist on endangering your friends, it is out of our hands. But if you decide to do the right thing, you know where to find us.”

  With those words, the black cloud returned with all its noise and stench. The wolf had already disappeared into the brush by the time the cloud cleared.

  Amanda swiped the last remaining tears from her face and snatched her kit from the ground. “Let’s go. We have one more ward to set.” She marched off without waiting for a reply.

  Kyle followed her, distracted by his own thoughts. So the Pack knew what she was up to after all, and they didn’t believe she would succeed. Her own Order didn’t believe she’d succeed. That left only him and her. For her part, Amanda seemed to believe in herself enough to try.

  What did he believe? If everyone else was right and Amanda was wrong, he was a dead man. He would put his faith in Amanda to the bitter end. He hoped that end would not include him turning into a wolf and tearing her to pieces.

  Chapter 13

  Moon Shrine

  Friday morning dawned gray and overcast. The clouds had trapped the heat of the previous day, and the fitful rainfall dried almost as soon as it hit the ground, adding a heavy mugginess to the air. The weather in mid-August was a time of transition between summer and fall, with everything from hot days and swift violent thunderstorms to cold days and long soaking rains.

  It was strange not going to work, but Kyle decided that making money was the least of his worries right now. Unfortunately, being at loose ends gave him too much time to think. He spent most of the day trying to distract his mind by reading on the porch while Amanda worked on one of her writing projects. He was only partly successful.

  No matter how hard he tried to suppress it, Kyle kept picturing the noisome scene of the previous night. If he ever had any doubt about the dark nature of the werewolves, watching Reggie’s unholy transformation had eliminated it. The black cloud had reeked of evil, and he wanted nothing to do with it.