The Enchantress

Chapter 18

Authors Note: Hey guys, just a quick authors note. I am so sorry for the wait but I promise to start dedicating more time to this story and these characters. Huge thank you to everyone for the encouragement to keep going with my story and for sticking with me and supporting me. 

-Rein xo

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The last time I was here I was a different person. A more innocent person, a happier person, carefree with not one pessimistic thought in my mind. Now two hundred years later I was stronger but I was also less bubbly, I different kind of happy-content may be the better word. I was a different person. But the place was still the same.

A wide outcropping surrounded by tall, green trees of every kind, a large stone archway in the middle with four large standing stones, one in the direction or North, South, East and West. Symbols and swirls engraved in the stone of a language long forgotten. Only a few selected could properly decipher and understand completely. The same smell. Burning wood, fresh rain and wild flowers tinted the air. Home, it smelled like home. But the air was slightly different. There was a drift of sadness, pain and despair carried along on the wind. I brushed up against me, causing me inhale sharply. Oh Mother Earth the pain those poor witches felt.

I grew up just north of here. A small village on the outskirts of Salem. This forest was once my sanctuary now it is in my worst nightmare. Surrounded by so many good, fond and happy memories but outweighed by the bad. The ones that plague my nightmares. I lost so many people here. And two weeks ago thirteen witches were killed here. I felt their pain. Their warnings. But I brushed them off. Not anymore. I was going to help. I was going to get through this. Push through my nightmares, my worst memories because people needed me too.

Walking through the flush green grass, my bare feet gliding through it with familiarity, my feet carried me around the outside off the standing stones before entering into the middle where the arch lay. I could feel the magic this sacred place held. But something was different. I couldn't quiet put my finger on it but I could feel it, something had changed.

The others quietly followed behind me. Watching and waiting.

It was midday, the sun was warm on m skin as if to say welcome home. A slight breeze ruffled the leaves in the trees and the grass, gently wrapping around my body in welcome.

I made sure to block the memories from the last time I was here.

Blowing out a long breath I summoned a black pouch with a slip of black ribbon holding it closed to my hand. Moving my other hand in a circular motion in front of me, as if I was stirring a bowl, a line of salt went the whole way around the outer stone, forming a circle.

"Don't leave the circle."

My voice was carried softly on the wind to my companions.

Eyes closed and muttering softly I started my incantation. 

"Silva vitae,

protector factus solidum.

Quid venit mihi

quod factum est ad tuum.

Factum est in tenebris,

ad immolandum."

The wind starts to stir, whipping my hair around my face. Blowing and pushing harder and faster with the more words pouring out of my mouth. Rain clouds covering the sun, as thunder clacks in the distance.