Ritual Magic (16 page)

I sighed as I continued to watch her mouth
the words "So forgive me but I won't be frustrated by destruction
in your eyes as you're staring at the sun, Wo 'oh 'oh 'oh. As
you're staring at the sun. Wo 'oh 'oh 'oh."

I couldn't help myself as I began to bang my
head to the beat as well. "Ha! When I ran I didn't feel like a
runaway. When I 'scaped I didn't feel like I got away..." I
continued to sing to the song as Cora's body glided into incredible
acts of motion and speed, basically giving Cirque du Soleil a run
for their money, but with weaponry. She was definitely entertaining
the masses with this crazy exhibition.

My heart pounded to the closing bars of the
music and, when the song finally ended in one deep, pounding row of
drumbeats, Cora was standing with a deadly look on her face,
pointing the tip of her staff directly at Jack's chest as she
stared him down. Not a soul dared breathe in that instant, and I
worried for Jack because I knew...I just knew that he was going to
mess everything up. He was going to
talk!

"Huh," Jack's voice came out without a
quiver. "I was thinking we were having a moment," he shrugged at
her as he pushed the tip of the staff down with the palm of his
hand. "Don't point that damned thing at me, Princess. Not unless
you plan to do some sparring." He drew out the word "sparring" like
it was a sexual act. My hackles went up just as Solomon cleared his
throat to draw everyone's attention.

We all flicked our eyes over to Solomon to
see his disapproving gaze. "Jack...I doubt that Cora's
fathers
would appreciate you putting the moves on Cora in
front of us, much less in front of this entire gathering."

My eyes scanned the circle for the reactions
of everyone that mattered. Leo was staring menacingly
through
Jack it seemed, Gabriel was frowning at Jack like he
didn't approve of his choice of clothes, Solomon was snarling at
him slightly under his breath, and finally there was Von,
uncomfortable and disapproving of the entire situation anyway. It
didn't seem like he was reacting to the Jack-Cora situation at all.
He just didn't seem to care.

Cora straightened as if she had been struck,
tossing her head back and accentuating the fact that her eyes had
just grown to the size of saucers. "Put the
moves
on me?!
Dad! You are just so disgusting!" Her eyes turned to bore into Jack
as he raised his hands in the air in mock surrender.

"
I
didn't say I was putting the moves
on you, Princess." He took a step back to ensure that she didn't
read his actions as aggressive, and Cora's eyes followed his
movements with hawk-like vision.

Cora finally eyed him from head to toe and
then set the tip of her staff on the ground, casting her eyes
towards Solomon. She squinted and stared at him as if she was
trying desperately to read his mind. Huffing, she finally tossed
the bar to the demon that was in charge of the weaponry standing
just to her right. There was a loud ring of metal as the demon
caught the bo staff directly against his chest, precisely where
Cora had intended.

"Guess that's enough with the workout." She
brushed her long brown hair over her shoulder and held her hand out
as a towel was tossed to her. She then began to wipe the sweat from
her arms and shoulders while eyeing Jack suspiciously. "I need my
MP3 player back." She snapped at a nearby demon who ran to the
stereo system and came back to hand her a slim black Walkman MP3
player. I knew the exact model because I had it in black, purple
and
red. Personally, I never liked to mix my music, so there
were always multiple players prepared so I could just grab them and
go, depending on my mood.

We all watched in stunned silence as Cora
stormed towards the castle and blinked out of view the moment she
stepped into the first shadow and disappeared. My breath caught as
it dawned on me that she truly had command of a wealth of powers
that I wasn't even aware of. I
did
know that she could pop
in and out of shadows, but I never had the feeling that she did it
casually like this. Or maybe she was just trying to escape the
scrutiny that she was under at the moment.

Sighing deeply, I turned to Solomon and
noticed that his eyes were set on Von, basically zeroing in on his
clueless expression as Solomon contemplated going for the jugular.
Von was deep in thought, his forehead furrowed, as Solomon stormed
up to him and stood within arm's length when he accosted him.

"So, what now?" He spat at Von. "Are you
going to deny her
now?
"

Von laughed at him in annoyed disgust. "Do
you
really
think that I would be impressed with that little
show
that she just put on? She's definitely
your
daughter but
not
mine." He shook his head as he looked past
Solomon's shoulder and straight into my eyes. He looked hurt,
devastated, and I blinked instinctively as it registered with me.
He was trying to strike out at me, but he wasn't absolutely sure
how to do it.

I could feel myself reactively biting the
inside of my mouth as I considered what Von was possibly feeling at
the moment.
Crap, he must be so incredibly confused right
now...
I thought about it for a second and instantly grew
angrier than before.
Well, who the hell ISN'T confused?! Get in
line, Von!

I stared him down as the words flew from my
mouth before I could filter them. "She's yours as well, Von. As
soon as you come to grips with that we will all be able to do what
we have to do to ensure that the future is safe." My heart beat at
the thought that everything could fall apart because of Von's blind
ignorance.

"What do you mean by
that
?" Von
growled at me and Solomon immediately stepped back into Von's view,
cutting off his direct line to me.

"It
means
..." Solomon's icy voice
drew Von's attention away from his search for me behind his back,
"that Celeste will
die
and the kingdom will
fall
if
Cora is not born."

"What?!" Von took a step backwards to look
at me around Solomon again. "Who told you that? Cora? And you
believed
her?!" His voice shook with fierce determination
and my hope began to wane again as I watched him with deep
frustration. Everything about what he said practically
screamed
that he believed the wool had been pulled over our
eyes. That Cora was a plant, intending to sucker us in and bring
the ultimate end of everything that we held dear.

No, it's not true
. I shook my head to
clear the frustration.

"We trust her, Von." My voice sounded
soothing, like I was trying to talk him down from a ledge.
Or
was I the one on the ledge?

"Well, then, you're idiots." He spun around
on the spot, turning his dark blue cotton t-shirt away from me so
that I could see his back muscles flinch. "I need to be alone." Von
stormed away from us in the direction opposite the castle, his
broad shoulders raised with stress, and his narrow waist twitching
as he moved.

My heart fell to my feet as I watched him
become smaller in the distance.

"He'll come around." Solomon walked over to
me and placed his long arm over my shoulder, pulling me into him as
I continued to watch Von walk away from me.

"Yeah." It was all I could say.

"Boys." I said the word and giggled.
Basically I didn't feel much older than Cora was right at that
moment, but I still had the strong need to give her 'the talk'
before anything else happened.

"Mother!" She shrieked at me from her seat
on the loveseat of my bedroom, her feet curled up underneath
her.

The fire in the background crackled and
popped in the cavernous fireplace, and the lights in the room were
dimmed as we were sitting in quiet companionship until I had
brought up the topic that threw her over the edge.

The door to the hallway was open because we
were expecting to hear something from Leo. He had been intending to
send a demon to serve us with information about the shadow demon
situation. We weren't sure who it was going to be, and Cora
admitted that demons were actually extremely shy creatures—afraid
to approach the opposite sex unless they held high ranks in the
demon community. That was when they became oversexed little
horndogs it seemed.
Well, that explained Manuel, the demon from
the past...future...whatever.

Shaking my head, I smiled up at Cora.
"Really, Cora. We need to talk about men."

"
Mother
," Cora gave me a stern look,
warning me to tread carefully through the minefield, "we have
already had
'the talk
'." She made the air quotes on either
side of her face as she rolled her eyes towards the heavens.

"Really?" I instantly felt relieved that I
didn't have to worry about sharing my opinions about safe sex.

"Yes, Mom." Her voice was exasperated. "Can
we talk about something else,
please!
" She pulled her
shoulders back and flicked her eyes towards the window, possibly
hoping for a distraction—like a horde of shadow demons descending
on us to take the miserably uncomfortable topic away.

"Okay." I stood up and walked to my purse
sitting in the middle of the bed. "I can do that." Nodding more to
myself than to her, I sifted through the contents of the bag as if
I was on a treasure hunt—reaching deep and tossing stray items on
the bed to get them out of my way. Finally finding what I wanted, I
walked over to Cora's loveseat and waited for her to sweep her legs
down and make room for me. She caught up to my intentions and sat
up straight on one half of the rich maroon, camel backed seat,
waiting for me to begin.

Holding my fist out, fingers up, I finally
opened my fingers to reveal the purple amethyst and moonstone
bracelet I had found at the beach house. "I'm guessing this is
yours." I smiled at her.

Cora slowly picked the delicate bracelet out
of my hand and nodded without taking her hands off of the sweet
rose carved beads.

"Yes, Daddy gave it to me." Her voice
drifted in the air as she turned her head to the side and lifted
the child's bracelet in front of her eyes as if she wanted to see
it closer. "He gave it to me when I was four." She smiled sweetly
but sadly. "It was Grandmama's bracelet, you know, from when she
was a child. Daddy told me so."

She sighed as she held the bracelet in the
palm of her hand as if it was going to fall apart. She was
protecting it and treating it with reverence. "I loved this
bracelet." She smiled down at it. "You know, Mom, I'm okay that
Daddy hasn't really accepted me yet. He'll come around—he always
does." She released a deep cleansing breath as she looked down at
the bracelet.

I wished I could share her faith in Von.

"I'm afraid that when he finally comes
around it may be too late, Cora. He's the linchpin. We need him."
My voice shook with worry but there was no way to hide it...at
least not from Cora.

"It's okay, Mom. Daddy was meant to be there
and he will be." She smiled at me as she held the bracelet out
towards me. "Do you know what each of these beads signifies?"

I shook my head as she squared her shoulders
like she was going to tell me an exciting story.

"There are five amethyst stones and then one
moonstone—the pattern continues all the way around the bracelet in
a continuous circle." She smiled down at the bracelet. "Each
amethyst rose is a happy memory." We skip from happy memory to
happy memory until we come upon the moonstone. The moonstone
represents a stumbling block or a possible problem that needs a
solution. Daddy taught me to treat each one as a challenge—to solve
the problem head-on and to come out on the other side with fond
memories of the past as well as hope for the future. We could
always deal with what was happening today because we would work
together. Even on our own, we are a capable force because we
still
have each other. We are a family. No matter what."

She smiled up at me and I nodded at her in
turn, feeling taken aback because my daughter was teaching me a
valuable lesson. We were a family—
all
of us.

We sat there in silence until the sound of
someone clearing their throat caught our attention. We both turned
our heads towards the doorway, expecting to see a demon standing
there. Instead it was Von and he was fidgeting uncomfortably.

"May I come in, please?" He sounded humble,
actually asking for permission to come into the room.

I looked at Cora for approval and she nodded
at me, smiling her sparkling smile as she turned back to him,
clearly giving him credit for coming to us at all.

"Yes, come on in, Von." I said as we watched
him slowly enter as if he was trying to decide if he should turn
back around and run the other way.

He walked over to the wing-backed chair near
the fireplace and eyed it, "May I sit down please?"

"Please, sit down." I pointed my hand in the
direction of the chair, palm up.

When he finally had been seated, he fidgeted
with his pants, ran his hands through his hair, and cleared his
throat about four times before sitting up in his seat and making
solid eye contact with me.

"I believe you." He flicked a glance at me
nervously. "I believe that Cora is my daughter."

Silence hung in the air as the clock on the
mantle ticked quietly. Tick. Tick. Tick.

"Okay...so what does that mean, Von? What
changed your mind?" My voice rang with distrust and I instantly
wanted to slap myself.
Why are you always looking the gift horse
in the mouth, woman? Because the damned gift horse is an
Indian-giver!

Well, that wasn't really very PC was it? I
always pictured an Indian-giver to be like the white man giving the
poor unsuspecting natives beads and hides for Manhattan. Who would
be happy with a rip-off deal like that?!