The Second Covenant

I was rested when I woke up, Druex was still beside me in his other form, and he was awake, just looking at me with his head on his paws. I looked around and saw that it was nine, and that we were alone. I yawned and rolled over to my side, burying my hand in his fur and giving his neck a good scratch. “What?” I said and his lips pulled in a wolf grin. “What?” He shook his head and I sighed. “Fine, don’t tell me. Time to get up?” He ruffed in answer and I got up. Stretching up, my fingers reaching for the ceiling, rising up on my toes to stretch every one of my muscles. I did my thing in the bathroom and came out.

Druex had just shifted when I came out and I went to him, rising up on my toes for our ritual good morning make out session and once the earth stopped rocking, we went down to see what was for breakfast. There was pie, and a feast of get it yourself left overs. The boys were all having steak and turkey sandwiches and chocolate pie, the mothers were chatting and laughing at the kitchen counter and I walked over to give mine a hug. “Morning.” I greeted and snitched a grape from the fruit tray on the table. “Hi honey.” I went over and kissed my dad on the cheek, moving him away from the fridge so I could get the stash of Red Bull I’d brought. “Morning daddy.”

I opened the fridge and had to dig for my energy drinks, and found only one out of the ten that I’d brought. “Who drank my Red Bull?”
“Those were yours?” Riley said with a loud slurp. “Sorry.” He sounded sooo contrite. “At least you left me one.” I grumbled and shuffled for the orange juice. I could mix it, make it better. “You drink that crap for breakfast?” Dax said from his perch beside Druex. I grunted in answer and Tristan spoke around a half full mouth of food. “She hates coffee, unless it’s got a gallon of chocolate in it, and she’s a very grumpy girl in the morning, so just let her have the Red Bull and back away.”

I threw a bread roll at his head and he caught it expertly. “Thanks, I was just going to ask for one of those.” I rolled my eyes and slid onto the stool beside his mother. “We are so unfairly outnumbered.” I told her and she laughed, giving a tug to one of my pigtails. “I know. So we hear you might have stumbled onto a clue?” She said and I poured myself some granola and cut up some strawberries and went back to the fridge for the milk, and for a cup of strawberry yogurt. “Maybe. I was reading one of my new books last night and found a word in Greek that means Father.”
“Adelphos.” Uncle Tyler said and I looked at him. “You speak Greek?” He shrugged. “It was an elective in school. What does that mean to you honey?” I lifted a shoulder and repeated what I’d told my guys last night. “Maybe Addy was a short form of Adelphos. Elizabeth Proctor said Addy was a magistrate, so it stands to reason that maybe it was his stripper name.”

My dad choked on his coffee. “His what?” I grinned at him and licked yogurt from my spoon. “He had a name he introduced himself to other people with, and a name he used when he was moonlighting it with the pre-pubescent girls in Salem.” Aunt Paige made a disgusted sound. “Pedophile would fit our profile. Disgusting.” I agreed with a nod and sipped my spiked oj. “I was thinking Dad, that maybe we could call up the Danvers again and get some insight into who might be our jerk.” He nodded and I saw, and smelled the flicker of emotion that took him when he thought about seeing his father.

Grandpa William had given my dad his power, to defeat Chase Collins. It still moved him, it would make me cry if my dad did that for me and I hadn’t been there to say thank you. “What do I need to do then?” He said, his voice a little deeper than normal. I smiled at him and shook my head. “Nothing, I’ll get it all ready in the back drawing room in a while. I think we should see if being wordy with the magic makes you use less power.”
“Sweet, hey, let’s try Carmen next.” Riley said and I nearly gagged on my breakfast. “On your own time boy.” His mother said dryly and I heartily thanked her.

We finished breakfast and I went upstairs to the attic to gather my things for the summoning. I’d set my furry friends to the task of moving the couches and stuff to the walls so we could have room to work, and the witches to making a circle on the floor. I set up and the mothers all watched avidly from their perch on one of the couches. “Okay, dad, you just say this,” She handed him a slip of paper, “And we’ll see what we get.” My dad looked skeptical but read the paper. “Power of the witches rise, course unseen across the skies, come to us to call you near, come to us and settle here.” He read and then looked at me with a lifted brow. “Really Cherish?” He drawled but I felt the brush of a phantom wind and smiled. “Really.”
“You called?”

It was the first Danvers who had settled in Ipswich, Lucas, who answered my father’s call. “Wow.” Dad said, completely flabbergasted. “How come the rest of them didn’t show?” Druex asked from behind me, but Grandfather Lucas answered. “They weren’t summoned. So then, grandson, why have you called?” My dad was walking around the circle, looking at the transparent, but wholly visible form of our ancestor. “We need to ask you a question, or ten, about the magistrates during the trial.” I read off the names of them all and Grandfather Lucas pursed his ghostly lips in thought. “I don’t recall any one of them being more foul and sinister than another.” I felt totally deflated and more tired than before. Dreux wrapped his arms around me and drew me back against him. “What about one that liked the young girls more than the others?” Dad asked and Lucas’s expression turned dark. “No.”

That perked me up a bit. “Do you remember an Elizabeth Proctor?” I asked and his face completely shut down. “Yes. She was burned at the stake.” I remembered that feeling of choking on the smoke and hot air and shuddered. Druex held me tighter. “Before that, did you ever see her in the company of one of the magistrates?” Lucas thought about it and then seemed to brighten. “Yes, Mason Shaw.” I looked at my list and sure enough, he was at the bottom of my clergyman list. “Was he there when she was burned?” Dad asked and Lucas nodded. “Yes, on the edge of the crowd, I remember he was smiling, quietly watching, and smiling.”

His head lifted and he frowned. “You didn’t ward the circle boy.” Lucas said to my dad and I looked at him with round eyes. “You didn’t?” I breathed and he looked at me with a confused frown. “The whole house is warded, why make another for this?” Oh god. Lucas looked at me piercingly. “Time is relative Cherish.” He said and thought I didn‘t get it, I nodded. “Moms, get out now, pack too, thank you very much Grandfather, blessed be.” I said in a rush and he gave a tight nod, vanishing in a froth of light. “What’s going on?” Pogue asked as he ushered the mothers out. “When you open a circle for the dead to speak through, if you don’t put a shield of some kind around it, anyone can pop in.” I said, rushing around to gather up the crystals I’d purposely brought down, and the salt, for such an occasion.

My father looked a little pink. “I didn’t know that.” I gave him a hurried kiss on the cheek as I passed him. “You didn’t know because I forgot to tell you. It’s cool, just have to hurry and put these up before someone joins us without permission.” I dropped the crystals around the edges of the chalk drawn circle and fired them with magic so that they glowed white for a moment. “There, okay. So that should…”

‘You think such paltry stones will hold me now, little witch?’

My blood chilled at that voice, the pack hadn’t left the room and all of them gave a low, rumble of a growl. Druex’s hand came around my arm and pulled me back away from the edge of the circle, where a thick black cloud was starting to form. “Oh shit.” Riley said and his eyes flashed black.