Lenora's Grimoire

Chapter Nine

Cherish had made two pots of coffee since she and Raven had returned to her house. She thought the coffee would help to keep her focused—and she hadn't been wrong—but she hadn't thought about the side effects it would cause.

She'd physically jumped when she heard the trash can knock over at around midnight, and despite Raven checking out the window and informing her that it was only her neighborhood raccoons, she could feel her heart pounding for minutes afterwards.

She was sure the brief flashes of shadow she kept catching in the corner of her eyes were merely hallucinations. After all, it had been a long, draining day, and drinking coffee to stay awake long past her normal bed time likely wasn't helping her keep her remaining sanity.

Raven spent most of the night flipping through the books Cherish had brought out into the living room, looking for corresponding dates and times that would fit the instructions of the spell. "A lot of these books are saying Monday is the day to cast healing spells—is that what this spell would fall under?"

"Yes," Cherish said, taking a long drink from her coffee. "Technically. I mean, if we're bringing something back to life, that would count as healing, right?"

"Right," Raven said slowly, flipping the page in the book he was reading. He glanced up at the plant sitting at the center of the table and frowned. "It's turning red," he said. He sounded disappointed.

"It is dying," Cherish reminded him. She glanced down at the paper of correspondences they'd collected so far. "So it looks like Monday night is going to work best for this," she said, typing in the date followed by "moon phase," into her search engine. She sighed. "The only issue we might have with performing the spell on Monday is that the moon will be dark."

"Dark?" Raven asked. "Like a new moon?"

Cherish hesitated, then nodded. "Yes," she replied after a second. "Which could be good and bad. I was taught to not practice magic during that time of the moon cycle, just because it won't be as powerful."

Raven frowned. "Could we wait until next Monday?"

Cherish made another quick search on her internet browser. "The moon will have moved out of Taurus by that time," she said. "Monday is a perfect day for it aside from the moon phase. Both Monday and having the moon in Taurus will help to amplify the healing intention of the spell."

"But the new moon won't?"

"No," Cherish replied. "New moons are meant for beginnings, not for resurrecting the dead."

Raven leaned back in his chair and sighed. "Alright. So Monday works. Is there a specific time we should be doing this? Or a specific spot?"

"The library is secluded enough after dark," Cherish said, after a moment of hesitation. "As long as I can cast a circle strong enough to keep anything from getting out of that spot, we should be fine."

"What would we be trying to keep in the circle?" Raven asked.

Cherish shrugged. "Mostly just the magic," she said. "I promise, I won't be summoning demons or legions of the undead."

At least, not on purpose, she added to herself.

She glanced over at the spell again to be sure that it wasn't something that would intentionally raise legions of the undead. With a sigh of relief, she turned back to Raven.

"As far as time goes, we should be looking for a window of about an hour that we can perform the spell in, preferably between the hours of when everyone is asleep and when everyone wakes up. I don't want to lose my job because someone saw me performing witchcraft in the local library."

Raven laughed. "It sounds so ridiculous," he said.

"Yes," Cherish agreed. "Which is why I'd like to keep it as much of a secret as possible. For all I know, they might try to burn me at the stake here."

"Probably a bit archaic," Raven said, thumbing through the book in front of him again. "Maybe they could fire you? But even then you could claim discrimination against religious practices?"

Cherish scoffed. "I don't want to think about it too hard," she said. "Besides, thoughts like that have powerful intentions behind them, whether you mean it or not. Let's focus on finding the rest of the correspondences we need for the spell so I can get some rest. I've got to be awake and at the library in . . ." she glanced over at the clock on the wall, "four hours." She took another drink from her coffee. "No use in sleeping now," she added, mostly to herself. She grabbed another book and flipped it open.

She scanned the table of contents, found nothing of interest, and shut the book before sliding it to the middle of the table. She glanced up again at the wall clock, and froze. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see it, standing at the end of the hallway, in the doorway of her room. Slowly, she turned to face it completely, thinking perhaps it was another sleep-deprived hallucination.

The shadow did not move.

"Raven," she said, trying not to be too loud. Her voice shook a little as she spoke. She could feel her heart racing. It was that night all over again, in the room, with the candles, the dancing shadows . . . and the creature rising up out of the circle, breaking free of the wards and charging towards her . . .

Now it simply stared at her from the doorway of her room.

"Huh?" Raven asked, looking up from his book.

Cherish slowly raised her arm and pointed towards the creature. "There's something there," she said. "Down the hall."

Raven got up, walked towards the hall, and flicked on the light.

"Nothing there," he said, waving his arms back and forth in the hallway. "See?"

He walked back to his chair. Cherish let out a deep breath, trying to focus on the books in front of her again—but she couldn't help feeling like she was being watched. 

(A/N) Final Chapter Word Count: 1017