Chapter 1

• Prologue
• The sun was long past setting as the six gathered deep in the darkness and began moving through the trees. Their only light was that of the luminescent moon at its fullest. The youngest of the six led the way, she may have been the least in years, yet the others knew she was the one that held all the strength.
• In her wake, each would turn and check their trail to be certain no one followed. If their parents were ever to know, it would be the end of them all. The power and gifts they held secret had been discovered quite by accident a few years before, since that time they had honed their great skills of true magic.
• Eden quickly caught up to her sister at the front, a sister of choice and not from blood. Ducking her head, she whispered as close to Alana’s ear as she possibly could. “Do you know of the reason for the summoning?”
• Alana shook her pitch-black hair back from her face. “I do not.” She turned towards the lake and increased the pace of her step. Peering back over her shoulder, she gauged the others closeness and then spoke as soft as a breeze. “A dark feeling has filled me for many days past, I fear it is not for good reasons we gather on this autumnal night.” She patted the bundle she carried from a cord at her side. “We must be wary and prepared.”
• Eden inhaled sharply and dropped back a pace. “I shall caution Bridget.”
• Alana only lifted her face to the moon’s rays and continued on. Turning to look quickly at the three that walked a ways behind, heads close together, she turned and gave Bridget a stare to bring her to hasten her movement forward. As soon as she was within hearing, she whispered to the ground. “Alana has dark feelings-yet again.”
• Bridget sighed quite loudly. “I have been a feared of such since two days’ past, she walks about with that crease on her brow and my guts supposed it was to be brusquely that our scheme was at hand.”
• Eden nodded, but daren’t say more for fear of the others overhearing.
• Once reaching the lake, the six spread out the distance between their bodies, in habit, a circle was formed. Alana set her bundle upon the ground at her feet and turned to the eldest among them. “Having done as you stated, not one of us has uttered a query for this assembly you have called, Ella.” She looked around at her sisters of her choosing to see their rapt attention on the one she spoke to. “Do end our curiosity, sister, and share the meaning, if you please.” She kept her focus on the crimson-haired sister, watching for a sign she prayed would not be revealed. Ella flipped her long locks back as she let her eyes move over each girl present. The last she looked upon was Alana, as she knew to be common with her.
• “It is my right to call each of you–as only sisters of our circle apt to do.” Lenora and Jane were the only of the five that agreed readily. “The year is now one thousand, six hundred eighty-five. It has been five years past, since the night we found our way to one another, as we are. I have a wish to ensure the threats to our very lives are secure and to behold a power that we six are deserving of.”
• Alana shook her head when Eden inhaled raggedly. “Sister, Ella, have we not spoke of this to the point of tiring? The hunts have ceased, no more shall be accused nor sought. We are here, each one of us safe.” She glanced at the others and found the group was as she knew it to be, split into two groups of three. “Not once during the trials and fearsome times did even one come to think of us as a sort of betrayer to the word...”
• “Alana, child, you are what now? Ten and three years?” Ella smiled in that maddening way she had. “I, having five further years on yours can feel it in my bones, these outrageous happenings are not at a cease and we are very much in need of ensuring it does not come to pass again.”
• Alana dropped her head down and let her black hair cover her face whilst she sought out the vibrations of the others dear to her heart. Lifting her face, she beheld the moon hanging over the lake. “We are but children, Ella. As god-fearing as any that step in the arch of our church, we have nothing to fear.”
• “We have everything to fear!” Ella’s voice rose through the silence of the night. “I shall be a betrothed woman in a short time and then what will become of me when my husband discovers what I am?”
• Eden replied before Alana had the chance. “I am certain William will be ignorant of your habits, sister. How would he ever find a clue unless you told him you are a witch of magicks.”
• Lenora stepped forward and shook her head. “In less than the years we have been together, each of us shall be wives–then what shall we ever do?”
• “I agree,” Jane said quietly. “In one year’s time, I too will be set to marry.”
• Bridget lifted her head and glared at Jane. “Whoever shall marry you shall get what he has coming to him.”
• Tiring from the words they had all said to her many times before, Alana raised her hands in the air and sent a gust of wind through the circle. “I cannot bear to hear this again, sisters.” She turned and watched as Ella and Jane nodded to one another. “I am not taking part in your scheme of evil darkness.”
• Ella snorted in an unpleasant manner. “You would break your word to each present here?”
• Alana took a step back, bringing her close to the water’s edge. “I would not.” Her eyes quickly met that of Eden and Bridget before she finished. “I would choose to revoke all that I have been given than do unjust things to others that cannot defend themselves from your dark ways.”
• Lenora gasped. “You would not...”
• Alana raised her hands. “I would exactly.”
• Jane stepped in front of Ella. “For you to revoke your gifts, would you not be obliged to take all of ours?”
• Alana shrugged. “Mayhap it will take all, no one can be certain.”
• Ella shoved Jane out of her way. “You would not dare to try, young sister...”
• Eden bent down at Alana’s feet and opened the bundle. Alana opened her hands in front of her and bit her lip to stop from hissing as her sister placed a small score on each of her palms. Keeping her focus on the three opposed, she prayed they could not see. When Eden straightened and walked past Bridget, she knew the task was complete.
• Alana clasped a hand each of Eden and Bridget and raised their arms; the blood from the shallow scores upon their hands mixed and brought to her a heat of power that only she could have born.
• “Sister, Eden, stop them!” Lenora cried.
• Alana closed her eyes and felt the winds circle her with recognition. Beneath her feet the ground quivered, waiting for her to speak to it. As she opened her eyes and focused on the three sisters she did not now touch, she felt the spray from the water at her back cover her in small droplets. “I cannot be part of something that goes against all that I feel to be right, sisters.” Tilting her head, she looked at Jane. “Join us in protecting what is just.”
• Jane’s eyes widened and for the briefness of a heartbeat, Alana thought there was a small chance she might agree, but she shook her head and stepped beside Ella. Woefulness filled her insides, and even though she knew the outcome days before, her heart begged her to attempt. “Lenora?” Once more she waited even though she knew another sister was lost to her. Lenora backed further away and looked at the sand under her feet. “So shall it be,” Alana whispered.
• Inhaling slowly, she raised her eyes to the moon whose rays bound her to the sky above. “I call ...”
• “Wait!” Ella’s voice was filled with panic. “We can speak more of this and draw an end that pleases each one of us together.”
• The fear jolted into her from the hands she held. Without looking at Ella, she sought to feel what was in her soul. Pain enveloped her heart as the truth coursed into her. “Why speak of falseness, eldest sister? I know what lurks in your heart and I must protect the innocent you wish to cause sufferance to.”
• Raising her hands higher she spoke to the night. “I call upon the night and all of her energy, come to me and abet me with this, my last task.” The winds swirled colored leaves around her, she smiled and let the magic wash over, feeling the warm welcome of it just once more. Lightning streaked through the clear sky above, she inhaled the power. “I seek to bind this three and three from doing any harm.” A circle of flames burst around them, flicking as long tongues of three feet high, blocking the outside from entering and the six from leaving. “I send for safe keeping all that we have, the gifts that you gave, to our furthest ancestors to keep within until there is a dire need of them.”
• A stinging traveled along her flesh as the energies gathered, waiting for her leave go of. “When a time comes that this three and three be together once more, awaken and come again...” So much power was collecting inside her that she had no choice but to cry a single tear, knowing that this was the last time she would feel it in this body. “Collect inside the generations and carry us forward to a time long from now.” She could hear crying but was not to take a chance to see which sister or sisters it came from. “Select the one that bears goodwill, hold an honest heart, and make her remember. Remember the times of this six and behold the gifts we pass to her.” A clap of thunder sounded across the sky, its cry echoing over the lake until it faded back into the night. “I thank you from deep within and now set you free...”
• A strong tunnel of wind gusted through the circle, stealing any more she had to speak. Opening her eyes wider she watched as each sister dropped to the ground, leaving her the last one standing. A burning washed over her, pulling at her until she thought she could bear it no longer, and then it was gone. Emptiness filled her as the flames swallowed into the ground. Behind her, the water was now lying calmly as it had been when they had arrived. The earth was now silent, as it had been. The rays of the moon seemed no more than a light in the darkness, without power and purpose.
• A draining feeling passed through her, causing her legs to weaken under her until she dropped onto the sand and panted to seek to breathe once again. Looking around, the others didn’t move, they just lay where they had fallen without a word. When she glanced upon Ella, the hatred was clearly on her face.
• “I will have vengeance.” Ella hissed at her.
• Alana rolled onto her back and looked at the sky, feeling like nothing more than a child again. “You may seek to strive for such.” She answered softly. “My will shall fall to my kin far from now and we shall see if you find triumph.” To feel nothing but commonness once more—it was wondrous to feel.