Moonlight Kiss

12. The Circle.

[Jade]

"You're not going to do it, are you?" Liya asked me for the umpteenth time.

"I have to do this, they won't harm me and I can protect myself if they try." I told her.

"Yeah, I know you can but you have to understand that you're not an ordinary person anymore, you're the Luna of the wolf pack, if something happens to you, it would affect the entire pack and Mason would never forgive me." She said.

Mason.

I missed him, he had been gone for a week now and I hadn't heard anything from him, I could barely sit still anymore, I knew that he was okay because I could feel it, but I didn't know if he was any closer to uncovering the mystery.

"I have to do this for the pack, I haven't been a model Luna." I confessed sadly.

I had been having a hard time adjusting to my Luna roles because somewhere in the back of my mind I still wanted to be an ordinary human who could pursue ordinary interests.

"You're trying your best, I know it's not being easy adapting to the changes, not only are you newly joining a wolf pack but you're joining at the top of the ladder and you're also dealing with your newly discovered powers too." Liya was very supportive and I loved her for that.

"Thank you, Liya." I pulled her in for a hug.

"You're still going to go, aren't you?" She asked me when we separated from the hug.

"Oh, yes." I smiled at her.

"I'm coming with you then and please don't say no because Mason will kill me if anything happens to you."

"No, we can't abandon the pack like that, you have to stay to oversee security and Jay has to stay also to monitor the boundary spell, please don't let him know that I'm leaving." I pleaded with her.

"I understand." She sighed sadly. "You go do what you have to do but promise me you'll be safe and you'll come back home before Mason does and you'll bid your brother goodbye even if it is in the subtlest of ways."

"I promise, I promise." I told her and hugged her again.

"I have to get back to work." She told me and I let her go. "Jay is in the office, alone if you want to see him."

I picked up my spell book and my great grandmother's journal, I put them into a sling bag and strapped it across my body.

I was wearing a black summer dress but I intended to change into a black cloak when I was away from prying eyes.

When I came out of the room, my bodyguards weren't there. Liya had helped me even though I didn't ask her too, I couldn't believe how close we had gotten in the past year.

I made my way to the office where my brother worked. He worked in the financial department of the pack and he was in charge of the pack's finances.

He wasn't too keen on magic but he used it from time to time when it was urgently needed.

I knocked twice on the open door before he was aware of my presence, his nose was buried into the pages of a book and he was working on something on the laptop.

"Busy?" I asked him when he looked up at me.

"No." He shook his head and smiled at me. "I could use a break."

I knew he was lying but I was grateful that he was willing to take a break to talk to me.

"Want to go for a walk?" I asked him and he nodded, he shutdown the laptop and stretched his body as he stood up, he must've been working for hours.

He knew me so well because, well technically we were twins so he would know me so well but I feel like we were even more closer than that, one look at me and he could tell that something was wrong and it was vice versa too.

"You've been working so hard." I scolded him when we left the building.

"No, nothing much, I was just filling our taxes and writing an account statement, we're auditing our accounts." He told me and I nodded.

I didn't really know much about that so I didn't dwell on the topic for too long.

"Have you see mom lately?" I asked him, changing the topic.

"Yeah, I see her everyday and you?" He asked me.

"I try to see her when I can." I blew out a breath. "She's really getting stronger, I heard she's now working at the pack hospital."

"Yes, I'm grateful that she's back on her feet, she misses Sirius and I'm sure you miss Mason too." He said.

Like I say, one look at me and he would know that something was wrong, only this time I wasn't just missing Mason alone.

"Yes, I miss him alot." I told him truthfully.

"He'll be back soon." Jay chuckled and ruffled my hair.

"You're going to the circle, aren't you?" I stopped dead in my tracks when he said that.

I looked ahead and saw Liya staring at us.

Traitor

I mouthed to her and she just shook her head like she didn't understand what I was saying.

"H-how do you know that?" I drew out my words slowly.

"I know you." He said and I realized that Liya hadn't told him anything.

"You can't stop me and you can't come with me." I told him immediately and clutched my bag tighter to me defensively.

"I know, we can't afford to lose more people now." He told me and sighed. "I trust you and I know that you're strong enough to take care of yourself, come back safe."

His last words were a command and I nodded at him.

"Thicker than thieves." I stretched my pinky towards him.

"I'm not even going to be mad about the fact that you weren't planning on telling me that you were going to the circle." He glared at me angrily. "Thicker than thieves." His eyes softened as his pinky touched mine.

This act had become our tradition and it was something that we had done for years now.

It was to symbolize how close we were to each other and the fact that we wouldn't keep secrets from each other.

"I'm leaving immediately." I told him and I gave him a hug.

***

I had never journeyed to the land of darkness before, it wasn't something that was very difficult to do, Jee had taught me the spell and told me everything about it but I still felt nervous because I hadn't done it before.

I journeyed into the woods till I came to a cliff top, I snapped my fingers and my dress changed into a black cloak, then I began to cast the spell that would open a portal from the world to the next.

"Zaldierme Plato Effrateme Assanino."

The wind picked up around me and I watched in wonder as a black hole appeared beneath the ground in front of me, I walked slowly and cautiously to it and then I jumped in.

I screamed as I fell into the hole, I kept screaming and falling for quite some time before I landed on solid ground.

My eyes instantly started glowing when I touched the ground and I was able to see clearly, everywhere was very dark meaning I had arrived in the land of darkness.

The star was up meaning it was still day in the land of darkness, I had to find the circle before nightfall.

The Circle was a hidden location and could only be assessed by the spell I had just casted, I looked around and I saw a huge building a few meters away from me.

That had to be the circle.

I raced there and when I got to the gate, it had a very powerful barrier protecting the fortress, I tried to break through but it was so hard, I concluded that it must have been done by Jee, she was a very powerful witch.

Instead of fighting to break through the barrier, I just allowed the barrier to suck me in and after a while I found myself on the inside of the building, the barrier was some sort of magical scanner, it scans the intentions of the person trying to get in and then it just sucks you in or repels you.

"Child." One of the circle witches called to me from the stairs of the great building and I raised up to her.

"Oh, you look so much like our Jee." She told me and took me by the hand, leading me inside.

"It's good that you came by this time, it's almost midnight." She said and dragged me inside the building.

"What are you doing here?" Another witch asked me coldly when I got inside the building.

"She has a death wish." Another hissed and came closer to me.

"Leave her alone." The witch who brought me in said.

"You can call us mother, that's what Jee used to call us, she told us many things about you." The witch said and I smiled at her.

I noticed when she mentioned Jee that the rest of the witches softened towards me, Jee might not have noticed it but they had truly loved and cared for her, they might not have been able to show it but it was there.

By this time, there were already six witches in the room and since they told me to call them mother I would have to arrange them from the nicest and most welcoming of them to the least.

So the first witch I met at the stairs was the nicest of them all, I'll call her mother yellow, because she had yellow eyes, the second one I met was the one who asked what I was doing here, very coldly I might add, I'll call her mother black because she had black eyes, the third one who hissed at me had green eyes like the rest of the witches but I'll call her mother blue because strangely she had bright blue hair.

The remaining three witches were silent and I doubted that they would talk to me, Jee was not kidding when she said they were all unique, the first witch I will call mother green because she had green hair, the fifth mother tallest because she was really tall and the last mother, she was so beautiful so I'll call her mother beauty.

"Jee came to me." I told them when they offered me a seat.

"She shouldn't do that, it's too risky." Mother beauty spoke for the first time, frowning at me.

"We'll help you with whatever we need, but make no mistake, we're doing this because Jee isn't around, I know that if she were here she would help you with anything and she's not here because of us." Mother black said.

"Jee doesn't blame you in any way, in fact she feels like she was indebted to do what she did, she loved you all." I realized that they were feeling guilty about Jee.

"That's not how it works here, dear." Mother yellow who was the nicest to me said.

"When someone does something for you, you repay them back, it's our way and it's why she isn't with us anymore, the demons did something for her and they took their payment." Mother tallest explained.

"Let's let her rest, we can continue this tomorrow." Mother green the only Witch who hadn't spoken said.

I noticed that there were only six witches here and I wondered where the seventh was but I didn't say anything else.

"Yes, let's give her Jee's old bedroom." Mother blue said and they all agreed.

"I don't suppose she's had anything to eat." Mother beauty asked.

"She can't be hungry, she teleported here." Mother black argued rolling her eyes.

She was right though, even if I was hungry, I didn't think I could eat, all six of these women were very overwhelming.