"As soon as we get home, we'll go to Katrina's," said Morgan, her face set. "Most likely the coven will be there. Maybe they'll have come up with something."
It would be hard seeing Gran again, Moira thought, for both her and Mum. But again, it was a small consideration compared to the dark wave. Right now they all had to focus on that.
By the time they landed at the small commuter airport in Cork, the weather had turned nasty. To Moira, it felt as if she hadn't seen sunshine for years. The minute she stepped off the plane, she frowned. When she touched the ground, she felt a jolt of nausea that made her swallow quickly.
Morgan narrowed her eyes. "Do you feel bad?"
"I'm going to throw up," said Moira, looking for a trash can.
"It's the dark wave," her mother explained. "It makes blood witches feel awful, hours before it arrives."
They were all tired and hungry and ill. Moira's face was killing her. Now her mum stopped, looked at the sky.
"How much time?" she asked Sky.
"Three hours? Four?" Sky said, and Hunter nodded. "At best."
Home! Moira thought with relief when they reached the cottage. She would never take it for granted again-there had been more than one time in the last twenty-four hours when she'd believed she'd never see it again. Now she was going to do her utmost to protect it.
"This is where we live," Moira heard her mum explain to Hunter. He still seemed dazed, half there. He kept touching things, running the tips of his long, thin fingers over objects, textures, as if he had to reidentify everything.
Inside, Bixby was hiding under the couch, his pupils wide and his tail fluffed. Finnegan barely greeted them, sniffing Hunter before he slouched under the dining room table, an occasional low growl coming from his throat. Hartwell Moss had been taking care of them, but she wasn't here now.
"They know," said Moira's mum, referring to the animals. She sounded ill.
Ten minutes later Morgan and Sky were poring over Morgan's old Books of Shadows. "See, it took the combination of the four of us," Mum was explaining in a low voice. "Daniel, me, Hunter, and most importantly-Alisa. And it took hours. I don't see how we can possibly…" She shook her head.
"What if we each take a part?" Moira suggested, resting her head in her hands. Her skin felt clammy and cold, her head felt as if it would soon explode, and she never wanted to see food again.
"With this version of the spell, we'd all be in great danger," Morgan said in distress.
"And I won't be of any use," Hunter said, sounding at the end of his rope. Morgan had immediately fixed them all an herbal concoction to help give them energy and take away the nausea, but so far it hadn't been doing very much. Hunter took a sip of his and grimaced.
"I feel like death," Morgan said. "Hunter has no power. Let's just get to the coven and see if they know anything."
The short walk to Katrina's seemed to test their limits. Moira was dizzy and bone tired, and everything seemed to smell awful. Hunter especially looked bad, dragging his feet, swaying sometimes. His face was an unhealthy white beneath the sunburn, and his eyes kept closing as if he could barely go on. Morgan put her arm around his waist, supporting him. As soon as they were within sight of the old store, its door opened and Katrina hurried out.
"Morgan!" she cried. "Thank the Goddess you're here. You know about the dark wave?"
"Yes," Morgan said, letting Katrina usher her into the coven's meeting room. By unspoken agreement, they would deal first with the dark wave-later with their personal matters, if they had the chance. Inside, Moira saw most of the initiated members of the coven. They were obviously suffering the dark wave's effects. Pale and hollow eyed, they came forward to greet Morgan, hugging her, and Tess and Vita ran forward to greet Moira.
"Where were you?" Tess asked, looking frightened.
"I'll have to tell you later," Moira said. "But it's good to see you." She pushed her way through the crowd of people surrounding her mother and saw that the coven was looking at Hunter with undisguised interest.
"This is Hunter Niall," Morgan said shortly. "He created the New Charter." That seemed to be all the explanation she was going to offer for his presence, his extraordinary appearance.
"I haven't asked this yet because it seems too easy," Moira said. "But why can't we all just leave here now? Let the dark wave have the buildings but save the people?"
Morgan shook her head wearily. "That doesn't do any good. It's too close. The wave would follow us."
A sudden pounding on the door startled them-no one had felt anyone approach. Katrina answered it, and Ian stood there, breathing hard. Moira's heart slammed against her chest as all the horrible events of two nights ago-three? — came back to her, and she looked away.
"I'm not sure," he began, trying to catch his breath. Through the doorway Moira could see his mud-spattered bicycle dropped on the ground behind him. "But I think we're all in danger."
Morgan put her hand on his shoulder. Moira saw her look at Sky, as if to ask, Is he being honest?
Sky looked over his head and nodded at Morgan, and she nodded back. Moira guessed they weren't picking up on any hidden agenda or falseness from him. She wasn't either. The night they had visited Lilith, she'd thought he'd betrayed her-he'd participated in Lilith's work. But was he here now, going against his mother? Moira was so afraid to let herself believe in him again.
"My mother's coven left this morning before dawn," Ian said, nervously looking around. "In her workroom I found- stuff to work dark magick with. Really dark magick. I hadn't really known it before." His voice was sad. Moira closed her eyes briefly and cast her senses, reaching for Ian’s emotions. She blinked her eyes back open, her heartbeat quickening. It was genuine, Ian’s pain-genuine and overwhelming. She was almost sure he was telling the truth, and doing so was ripping him up inside. "I didn't want to know what they were doing. But now there's something awful in the air."
"We're pretty sure Ealltuinn has created a dark wave," Morgan said, and Ian flinched in shock. "It will destroy everything around, all of us. Everything."
Ian looked nauseous. "A dark wave? I didn't think anyone could do those anymore."
"Ealltuinn has found a way," Morgan said. "Now we have to stop it." She turned to Hunter. "Do you remember any of your dad's simplified spell?"
Hunter looked at the ceiling, concentrating hard. Silent words came to his lips.
Outside, the wind kicked up, blowing a small branch against a window. The light coming in had a sickly greenish tinge to it, like the light before a tornado.
"No!" he said finally, his fists clenched in frustration.
Morgan's face fell.
Oh, Goddess, Moira thought. What now? We need a plan. There must be some way to fight this!
"It's still in there," Sky said to him, gripping the back of a chair. "She didn't wipe your mind, just bound your magick."
The other coven members stood around, listening. Some smaller groups were discussing ways to act, but no one seemed to be coming up with much.
"I don't know what she did," Hunter said, his cracked lips tight with tension. "I just know I can't remember… a lot. I don't have any power."
Moira could hear his frustration and could hardly imagine what he must be feeling. Would she ever get to know him, even close to as well as she'd known Colm? Would she ever see him healed and happy? Or would this, today, be her only memory of him? Her heart ached at the thought.
"Dammit!" Morgan said suddenly, smacking her hand on the table. "She can't win, not now! We have to stop this."
Katrina and some others nodded, but they all looked uncertain and afraid.
"Can we all just join together and use the strongest protection spells we know?" Christa Ryan asked, rubbing her temples.