Dance of the Moons

Chapter 32

Chapter 32

            The car rumbled and jerked over the gravel, sending its four passengers bouncing in its seats.  Nerves ate away at my insides, but David’s warmth in the seat beside me and his hand entwined in my fingers worked to settle me.  I wanted to look at him but every time I did I couldn’t help but think what if this all goes wrong.  This was the last step.  The Cleanse.  It was all in my hands now and if I messed up…

            No, I couldn’t think like that.  I couldn’t look at David.  I had to be content with his presence and the view of the forest as a blur outside the car window.  The gravel road we were on would lead us to a parking lot about a mile’s hike from the riverbank where I would perform The Cleanse.  We would have to walk inland to the river.  Kaelyn would lead us.

            Aaron and Dylan could not come.  Once we finished The Cleanse we would have to avoid contact with Shifters we were once affiliated with.  Aaron was of David’s pack—a direct link.  But we had been with the Horse Shifter now long enough that he could provide a link through which we could be found, and I was unwilling to risk that.  Dylan gave us the contact of one of his friends in Las Vegas, whom we would be staying with for a few nights until we figured out a better plan.  A plan.

            Aaron had given one last attempt to convince us to stay.

            “I can offer you the pack’s protection.  Even if you’re a witch, being with David and having my support would guarantee the pack’s support.  You wouldn’t have to leave,” he had nearly begged. 

            But I knew he was being foolish.  Not even for a second could I believe it would work. “Aaron, that would start a war between my coven and your pack.  And neither of us could take that, small as we are.  Also, we don’t know how that would affect witch-Shifter interactions all over the world.  I won’t be the cause of that.  This is better.”

            “But if we could just show everyone—”

            “No, Aaron.  The best way is for us to vanish.”

            Aaron had nodded with a frown.  His argument didn’t have much strength in it, for he knew as well as I that a war would be catastrophic around the world.  If I left I had to say goodbye to everyone, living apart for the rest of our lives; but if I stayed, I would have to say goodbye to everyone in a more definitive way, seeing them only as a stone slab in a cemetery.  I would not be the death of everyone I loved.

            As it was, I was trying my hardest not to say goodbye to everyone.  I was lucky to have been able to see my father one last time, and that Kaelyn, my best friend, was here.  But my sister, my mother, my aunt, Shay and my other cousins, the loved ones of my coven…it all hurt too much to think about never seeing them again.  Never being able to tell them I love them.

            I had allowed myself one phone call.  I couldn’t tell anyone I was leaving and I couldn’t contact anyone of magic.  But I did know one person, one completely and beautifully normal person, that I could count on.  So before we left Dylan’s, I dialed.

            The phone had rang four times when I heard the click of someone picking up.  Groggily, the voice greeted me.

            “Hello?” she had asked, obviously not sparing to look at the identification of the caller who woke her at five in the morning.

            “Hannah?  It’s Leila.”

            “Leila?  Why the hell are you calling at five in the morning?  We don’t even have class today.”