Three
Witch Spread
by
Nuala
Madigan
Copyright
2012
Nuala
Madigan
Smashwords
Edition
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This is a work of fiction. Names, places, businesses, characters, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination. Any resemblances to persons living or dead, actual events, or locales is coincidence
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Three Witch Spread
by Nuala Madigan
There was nothing better than to be eighteen and a witch. The world was theirs for the taking, three powerful woman dressed in black and wearing red lipstick smeared like blood on their seductive grins. Moon was their de facto leader, confident and brave, the one who always encouraged them to go farther in their spells. She would dazzle a crowd, uncaring of getting caught, levitating her friends and making whatever she wanted disappear – just as long as it appeared later in her bedroom, ready for her use. This was how she acquired the slinky black dress she wore, and the ankle boots with the kitten heels that made her look like a witch from a story book. She was the type of woman who looked in the mirror and grinned, thinking, A wicked witch, how perfect.
Silver and Crow were not wicked witches. In fact, they were mostly good-manned and Silver was painfully shy, her pale blonde hair always falling like a shield across her face, hiding her from the world outside. Crow was thoughtful, intelligent and careful. She was never the type to try spells in public or steal, although she did wear the similarly slinky black dress Moon had lifted for her, however begrudgingly. Moon was all about theater of magic, and she insisted they dress in similar little black numbers for the spell that night.
“After all, when we're done a night of the town is in order. That way we can get you two a man, any man you want.”
There was no question as to whose idea it was to evoke Aphrodite. Moon's life was what many would consider perfect – she had beauty, power, intelligence – but she disliked her inability to keep a man, and openly teased Silver for her awkward shyness, a virgin if she ever saw one. As for Crow – certainly even she would not pass up the opportunity to have a body warm her during the long cold nights.
The pentagram was drawn carefully on the floor with chalk – the five points in a perfect circle, made with expert hands. Crow always drew the circle, and afterwards she walked carefully around the chalk outline, reciting a barrier spell and sprinkling salt, locking them into the space, making the land in which they gathered sacred, if only for the night. Silver lit the candles, moving from wick to wick, pressing the tip of the long tapered white candle against them, watching each ignite into flame. Silver did not speak as she did this, only closed her eyes at each point of the pentagram, as though in prayer.
Moon did not partake in these parts of the ritual. Instead, she sat in silence in the middle of the circle, legs cross, eyes watching her two coven-sisters as they worked. She shined her athame with careful hands, not wanting to cut herself on the ceremonial knife just as much as she wanted to make it gleam. Jewels glinted in it's hilt, and she held it tightly in one hand, standing as Crow finished her incantation. Silver moved to her side, extinguishing the white candle.
With only a slight nod of her head to motion that they were starting, Moon and her coven took their places. Moon stood north, at the top tip of the pentagram, while Silver and Crow spaced themselves out accordingly. The witches' leader lifted her athame, holding it to the ceiling and calling forth the elements. The room seemed to dim as she spoke, the candles burning with an unnatural intensity, lighting the circle with a mystical glow. No longer did it look like they were three college girls playing with magic games – they looked fierce, threatening, and Moon, more so than any of the other girls, looked like an otherworldly creature as she called forth Aphrodite, inviting her to their sacred space, calling her force to overtake her body, and the bodies of Crow and Silver.