“Yes, actually,” Ena replied. “We’ll need a ceremonial chalice and an athame. Both of those were in my vision too.”
“Can’t we just use a regular cup and knife? Why do they have to be ceremonial?” Turner asked.
“No, I don’t think we can,” Ena explained. “Ceremonial objects like that are anointed with water from the Sacred Pool and blessed by a witch. It marks them as special objects of Gaia, suited for enacting her will, and it’s that intention that makes them more powerful when used in spells. If we were doing anordinary, less-complicated spell, we might be able to get away with non-blessed objects, but with something like this…we can’t risk not using them. Every piece adds to the power of the spell, and we’ll need it all to do something this big.”
“Well, where can we get those things then?” Turner asked, as if it were no big deal to do so.
“Any of the Covens would have one,” she answered, her mind running through options. “But, of course, getting them without being noticed is the hard part.”
Silently, she chastised herself for not having the forethought to ask Cris to bring them with him when he left Aquilo, but honestly, she’d been so focused on recruiting a witch from each Coven, she had to remind herself that it was a blessing from Gaia that they’d even made it this far.
“I think it goes without saying that we shouldn’t go to Occidens to get one,” Ty said. “That’d be far too dangerous given how recognizable Ena and I are, and it’s in the opposite direction,” Ty said, speaking her own thoughts aloud. “That leaves Aquilo and Auster, and since we have to go towards Auster anyway…” He looked at her meaningfully, and she knew what he was going to ask before he said it. “What do you think, Ena? Could you use your Gift to sneak in and get the objects we need?”
Ena’s heart sank. Could she do that? Use her Gift on members of her own Coven—potentially on Heran or Greya if she had to? She’d considered using it on Cris, and blessedly it hadn’t come to that, but even that had been borderline, so…she knew her answer almost immediately.
“No. I’m sorry, but no,” she said. “I can’t use my Gift on my own family like that. I know breaking the bond is important, but I don’t want to do it that way.”
Ty sighed, almost as if he’d been expecting that answer, but nodded in understanding.
“But that doesn’t mean I still can’t get them,” Ena explained.
“What do you mean?” Turner asked. “How else can you get them without giving us away?”
Ena took a deep breath. She wasn’t sure how the others, especially Ty and Turner would react to this, but it felt right to her.
“I want to reach out to my sister. I want to tell her what we’re planning and see if she can get the chalice and athame for us.”
“What?” Turner asked, shock in his voice. “You just want to walk up to your house and ask her? Is that wise? I thought she was skeptical last time you tried to explain this all to her.”
“She was,” Ena replied, feeling defensive of her sister all the sudden. “But I want to try again. I know so much more now, and we have Cris and Mel to back me up in case she thinks it’s just Ty clouding my judgment.” Not to mention, maybe it would help her cause to explain that she and Ty weren’t even together anymore anyway, and she was still choosing to do this.
“And I want to tell her, but I’m not delusional,” she continued. “I don’t want to announce what we’re doing to the entire Coven, or even Heran, and put it up for debate. I just want to tell Greya alone, and walking up to the house would not be the best way to do that. So I’m going to send her a message.”
“Send her a message like…?” Cris asked, his blond brows raising in question.
“Yes, I want to go to the Sacred Pool and use the blood-to-blood spell,” Ena declared.
“The blood-to-blood spell?” Ty asked. “You mean, the spell you were trying to do when I caught you there?”
“Yes, exactly,” Ena confirmed.
“Caught you there?” Cris asked in horror. She had yet to fill him in on allthosedetails.
“Not now, man,” Turner said, clapping him on the shoulder.
Mel had been silent through all this, seeming distracted. Ena wasn’t quite sure if they had entirely followed the conversation, but their blessing was important.
“Does that plan sound alright with you, Mel?” she asked them cautiously. If the witch had seen something that might make this plan implausible, Ena wanted to know now.
“Plan?” Mel said, seeming surprised at having been addressed.
“Yes, our plan to send a message to my sister before going to the Sacred Grove,” Ena explained.
“Your sister, yes…” Mel’s brow furrowed in thought. “What—what does she look like?”
Ena looked around cautiously at the others before answering. Why did Mel want to know that? “She’s blonde, with brown eyes. About my height and body type.”
“Oh,” Mel said, seeming relieved. “Okay, good, yes.”
