Earth (30 page)

I was almost afraid to drive myself out of
the park and onto the freeway, taking a few moments to decide
whether or not to call Steven and Jodi to come get me. I was
holding my cell phone in my hand, turning it over and over with my
fingers while I debated with myself. I finally just steeled myself,
tossed the cell phone into the passenger’s seat, and turned the key
in the ignition. The inside of the car was just as cold as the
outside so I sat, my hands tucked under my arms and my right foot
pumping the gas pedal until the engine warmed up and the first few
wisps of warmer air started to come out of the vents. Just before I
backed out of my parking space, I picked up my phone and sent text
messages to both Steven and Jodi to meet me at the diner for
dinner.

Traffic on the way back home was just as bad
as it had been on the way up. I had lost track of time so much so
that it was evening and people were trying to rush home, locking up
the freeways to a depressing crawl. We were moving so sluggishly I
was able to check the response messages Steven and Jodi sent,
agreeing to meet me and was able to send back messages telling them
about the traffic. What should have been a thirty-minute drive was
closer to an hour, but I had so little energy left in me that I
couldn’t even get annoyed about it. My upper arms tingled in a way
that I had never felt before. I turned into the parking lot of the
restaurant and my vision was just a little fuzzy. I needed to
eat.

Steven waved to me from the far corner of the
diner; he and Jodi already had drinks in front of them and weren’t
bothering with the menus. I slid into the empty side of the booth,
pushing the cup of coffee they had ordered for me away. I waved the
waitress over and ordered a large three-egg breakfast with
potatoes, bacon, and biscuits and gravy with a large glass of milk.
Steven, Jodi, and the waitress stared at me wide-eyed. It was more
food than I normally ordered, but I flashed my most polite smile
that I could muster at the waitress and waited for Steven and Jodi
to order. The waitress walked away after the other two had placed
their orders and I sighed into the booth.

“Dude, what is up with you?” Steven asked,
leaning over the table so he could whisper to me.

“Sorry, I’m… really… drained,” I said
carefully, realizing I was losing more and more energy and was even
having a hard time talking. I looked up and caught our waitress’
eye and waved her back over to me.

“Something else?” She asked.

“Yeah, can I go ahead and get that milk
before the meal and an order of white toast as quickly as
possible?” I had lost my breath in the long sentence, openly
panting trying to catch it again.

“Um… sure. Are you ok?” the waitress
asked.

“Fine, just tired.”

“Ok, anything for you two?” I tried to keep
the impatience out of my face as she stalled, but I reminded myself
she was only doing her job. Steven and Jodi shook their heads at
her to send her off.

“Shay, what –” Jodi started to ask me what
was wrong, but I held up a weak hand to stop her, not wanting to be
forced to explain before I had some food in me. Although it was
probably only a few minutes, it felt like hours before the waitress
came back with my toast and milk. I dove on them like a starving
person, devouring my toast in as few large bites as possible, only
slowing to drink my milk at a normal pace so I wouldn’t throw it
back up.

I sat back, letting my body have a few
minutes to digest the bread and butter, feeling my stomach settle
slowly and my fingers stop trembling. Carbohydrates are a wonderful
thing. I opened my eyes just enough to see Jodi and Steven staring
at me intensely, which surprised me; I expected them to have their
heads together and be whispering about me. I cleared my throat and
pushed myself up with my shoulders against the back of the booth
seat. They both waited patiently, but I could feel their tension
and building impatience like ragged claws tearing at the skin on my
forearms. I took a deeper breath and pushed them away by
reinforcing my shields. They both made faces.

“Sorry, but you guys are hurting me, I need
some breathing room,” I tried to explain. “I’m going to tell you
everything ok, just try to calm down.”

“So you have been doing something without
us?” Jodi asked, a little more than angry. I sighed, knowing that
they were going to be as stubborn as they wanted to be and weren’t
going to wait to hear me out before they let their tempers run
amok.

“Yes, but only because I had to, ok?” I
rushed through the sentence before they could interrupt me. I
explained the spell I had written, supposedly in my sleep, and
explained where I had been all day and what I had been doing.
Through the entire explanation both of their expressions changed to
pure and simple anger. “Look, the spell called for one point of
focus in order to break his hold on the sacrifice. If you two had
been there casting the circle with me, then the power would have
been divided and we wouldn’t be strong enough to take him.”

“So you’re saying that you didn’t find this
spell in any book and it didn’t come to you while your were
conscious?” Steven asked in a strangely calm voice.

“That’s right…” I said carefully.

“And it never occurred to you that maybe,
just maybe, Jensen or Ian were manipulating you while you were
asleep and you’ve just casted an untested spell?” Steven looked and
sounded years older and wiser than he normally displayed. I was
saved a little embarrassment when the waitress arrived just then
with our orders. We politely waved her off saying we didn’t need
anything else. “Well?” Steven asked a little more impatiently this
time.

“No, I didn’t consider it,” I said in a
resigned voice. “I looked at it and it looked like the kind of
spell I would have written if I had known exactly what I was
dealing with.” I shrugged and stabbed moodily at my biscuits and
gravy, taking a larger than ladylike bite. “If I had gotten to the
clearing and the trees hadn’t lined up with what I had drawn or the
carvings of the runes weren’t there, I wouldn’t have proceeded,
ok?” I said defensively around a large mouthful.

“You know, if either one of us,” Jodi said,
motioning between her and Steven, “had done what you just did
without the other two, you would have our asses in a sling.”

I took a few more bites of food to buy myself
a little time. The fact was, she was right; I would never let
either of them do what I had just done alone.

“You’re right,” I said finally.

“That’s it? ‘You’re right.’ That’s all you
have to say?” Steven asked, his voice rising angrily.

“What do you want me to say, Steven?” I
asked, my own anger rising to meet his. “I’m sorry? I’m not. Look
it had to be done. If we had gone in there without any preparations
and all that magic just waiting for him to empower him, we’d die
right along with the sacrifice and I had a way to stop that, so I
did it, ok?”

“No, it’s not ok! What if it had been a
trap?” Jodi interjected. I had nothing to say to that so I just
finished my eggs.

“You could have brought us with you,” Steven
said, lowering his voice finally.

“I already told you, the spell wouldn’t have
worked with three points of interest.” I had to use a lot of
self-control not to slam my fist on the table when I spoke and hold
in my anger and not let it wash all over them in a searing
bath.

“But we could’ve been there, damnit!”
Steven’s face was growing more and more red while Jodi’s was
becoming paler. Shimmering waves of heat singed the peach fuzz on
my face. “We could’ve just been there in case it was a trap or if
you’d’ve gotten hurt. It was stupid and prideful for you to go out
there alone, Terra!” Steven finished in an angry whisper, leaning
towards me over his side of the table. The sweet smell of burning
wood battled with the salty scent of bacon.

I didn’t meet his eyes. He’d used my
elemental name and it had sounded like a curse when he’d said it. I
stared at my fork, twirling it between my fingers. He was right. I
didn’t want them to divide the power of the spell, but it was just
stupid for me to have gone out on my own.

“You’re right…” I sighed and shook my head,
looking up at the ceiling for a moment before looking back at the
two of them. There was more than anger in their faces; there was
hurt and I had caused that hurt. I lowered my shields against them
and took the punishment of their emotions as it rushed over me,
raising the hair on my arms and scraping at my skin. I shuddered
against it and felt my throat tighten and my eyes burn with unshed
tears and knew that they were both on the verge of breaking down.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, almost too quietly, but I knew they heard
me. Their pain eased slowly away from me and I knew they realized I
was punishing myself by letting them hurt me with their
emotions.

“Just promise us, the next time you decide to
go into the woods and test out unfamiliar magic that you’ll not be
so damn stubborn and will take us with you,” Steven said. I let out
a laugh that was shaky with relief, one tear escaping and rolling
down my cheek. Jodi was already crying. Of the two of them, it
seemed like they had reversed roles tonight. I finished eating in a
rush, still ravenous from the day’s work. I explained to them how
many times I had to go over the original circle of power to erase
it before I could start my own circle and that I had to actually
heal the trees he had used as points of his pentagram.

“So he was poisoning the trees?” Jodi asked
around a mouthful of food.

“That’s what it felt like to me,” I said,
draining the last few drops of coffee I had finally ordered when my
hands had stopped shaking. I caught the eye of our waitress and she
came over to refill my coffee cup and I ordered a piece of apple
pie to the astonishment of Jodi and Steven. “I’m really hungry. I
totally forgot to eat today and I was out there a lot longer than I
thought I was,” I explained with a shrug.

“Ok, so explain why only you could be a point
of interest? I mean, what does the spell do?” Steven asked.

“Basically, with all the work he did there,
he left behind a lot of residual energy and power. So basically he
built a power base for himself, which I don’t think he realized,” I
started to explain.

“Why do you think he wouldn’t realize it?”
Jodi asked.

“Well, if we had spent that many nights and
risked that much exposure to purposely build a power base, would we
have left it there without any wards or shields out in the woods to
keep people away?” I asked.

“Good point,” Jodi agreed with a nod. “Ok, go
on.”

“I think the demon needs the powerbase but
has kept that part a secret from the caster. Hopefully I’ve
weakened its defenses that way. Then I laid a binding and
protecting pentagram in the clearing and cast our own circle of
protection. So what I think the spell will do is hold the demon and
whoever is casting the spells like a prison in the clearing, rather
than empower them.” I stopped short as the waitress came back to
our table and set my piece of pie down and refills for Jodi and
Steven. We all smiled politely, staying silent until she went
away.

“All right, but that doesn’t explain you
being a point of interest,” Steven said with a hint of impatience
creeping into his voice. I put up a hand to forestall any other
comments so that I could take a bite of pie before I continued.

“I know, but I wanted you guys to understand
all of it.” I took a sip of coffee and made a sour face and added
two more creams and sugars and took another sip, happy with its
flavor now. “Like I said, he was poisoning the trees with the blood
magic, so after I erased his circle I was able to heal the trees.
The carvings are still in the trees unfortunately, like scars when
you get cut, but that’s good because he may not notice a change if
they’re still there. Because he was poisoning them, he angered them
and the earth underneath. Now the trees and the clearing see me as
the one that healed them.” I paused to catch my breath and take
another large bite of pie. “I think, because I healed them and
banished the blood magic, that the forest will lend its power to me
and if you two are there I think you can work as my anchors.”

“Ok, so what are we doing tomorrow?” Jodi
asked.

“Well, we don’t need to worry about casting a
circle so we don’t need sage or consecrated water. I have all of
our athames and I think it’s a good idea that we have them to help
defend ourselves and just in case the sacrifice is tied down, then
we can cut her ties.”

“Whoa, defend ourselves? You mean fight with
them?” Steven asked, eyes wide with shock.

“Well yeah… I mean, you don’t think we can
just go in there and not expect a fight, can you? Besides what if
the demon just physically attacks us? What better way to defend
ourselves than with magically charged blades?” I said, a little
exasperation creeping into my voice.

“She’s right, Steven,” Jodi said and I was
more than grateful to hear her coming to my aid.

“But we don’t know how to fight with knives,”
Steven said.

“Speak for yourself,” Jodi and I said in
unison.

“What?”

“Dude, remember when we took that
self-defense class that you didn’t want to go to?” I asked and
Steven nodded. “They taught us to disarm a guy if he comes at us
with a knife and how to use it against him if we couldn’t just run
away. I mean, we’re not experts, but we feel comfortable enough to
know we can do some serious damage.”

“That’s against a person, Shay! You’re
talking about a demon!” Steven’s voice had risen a little louder
than I was comfortable with.

“Right,” I said, lowering my voice to a
whisper. “But we’re also talking about a demon set to possess a
man, so we’d still be fighting a man. Look,” I said putting up a
hand to stop him from interrupting me, “if this thing attacks us in
its own form or after it possesses the guy, do you expect us to
just lay there and let him kill us?”