Page 72 of The Witching Hours

And by Gandalf, it made me feel powerful in a way I’d never imagined.

“Gods of Arts. Gods of Earth. power be mine by right of my birth!”

The whirring had grown slightly louder. I wasn’t sure if it was my imagination, but I thought I felt a slight vibration coursing through my body as well.

A new sound first joined and then overrode the whirring noise. Cheshire Cat had returned, ears laid back and growling. Gods, he was an ugly thing who definitely did not appreciate what I was doing. But rather than feeling threatened by his exhibition, I took it as encouragement. He wouldn’t be that mad if I wasn’t poking the right places. In my mind, our estimation of success blew way past the 50/50 we’d come with.

“HUMANS HERE SHARE NO BLAME. SEND THEM BACK FROM WHENCE THEY CAME!” The whirring grew louder, as did the alternating screeching and growling. Twice monster cat jumped at me again, but both times my assistant/hero stepped in front of me, grabbed him by the pajama collar, and threw him into the far wall. The second time, the cat slunk into the corner and licked his paw like it was hurt.

I wanted to take a minute to savor that, but had to refuse distraction. Under Ceija’s tutelage, I’d worked hard on focus. And I would be focused, by hell and its bells! Cheshire Cat be damned.

The vibration in my body had steadily grown in proportion to the noise. As it increased, so did my confidence.With every second that passed I was more certain the blasted characters were going home.

Glory Be!The hole that I’d hoped to never see again opened in the floor. It looked like murky gray mist rotating in a clockwise circle.

I shifted the staff from my right hand to left and, as Nick was handing me a huge bag of red rose petals, I struck the floor with my staff.

SPIRITS BLESS AND MAKE THE CHARM HARDEN. EXILE THE QUEEN OF HEARTS TO HER GARDEN!

Turning the bag on its end, I watched as the rose petals fell into the haze and disappeared.

Nick removed the glass stopper from a midnight-blue bottle and put it in my hand. I poured a third, or so, of the liquid into the swirl. At that, the portal spewed a geyser of hot steam upward. When it resettled, the portal in the floor began spinning faster. At the same time the whirring became as loud as a leaf blower. I wanted to cover my ears with my hands, but I’m glad I didn’t. If I’d allowed myself that distraction, I might’ve missed the surprised expression on Cheshire Cat’s face and the comical, “Yeowwwww!” he shrieked when he was sucked into the gray mist eddy. It might have been my imagination, but it sounded like a gulp came from where the floor used to be.

On the one hand that was the most satisfying thing that had happened to me in a decade. On the other hand, the sight made my fear of suffering the same fate spike to levels that threatened to freeze thoughts in my brain and speech in my throat. I heard Nick yelling, “CATHERINE! SNAP OUT OF IT!”

I felt my head swivel in Nick’s direction. He pointed to the next item on theSorcery for Dummiesnotes I held in my hand. I blinked twice, shook my head a little, and tried to focus.

The next item required me to begin moving my hand in a circular motion that matched the direction and speed ofthe portal’s rotation. I handed the bottle to Nick and began matching the portal’s motion with my hand like a symphony conductor. I felt as much in charge as a symphony conductor, but the thrill was short-lived. Intense vibration surged through my body. It pricked and tingled in unpleasant ways, but it was also encouraging because it was a physical sign that I’d performed the ritual correctly up to that point.

Ceija had cautioned that sometimes there is a physical price tag to magic. She wanted me to be prepared to ignore a little pain and let it not retard the progress of my mission. In a perverse way, the discomfort was welcome because, again, it was an indication that I was on track.

Nick took the bottle and placed the cards in my hand.

Feeling more every minute like a wizard newly birthed, I pounded the staff against the floor and said, “GODS OF BALANCE. GODS OF ARTS. BANISH THE CARDS. BANISH THE HEARTS!”

One by one I dropped the symbols of the characters who’d given me so much grief for so much of my life.

Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. Jack. Ace. Queen.

When the last card left my hand, Nick put the bottle in my palm and I poured another third in the hole. This time the responding geyser spewed even higher and hotter.

One last command was to be performed demonstrating the reason behind the saying, “Third times the charm.”The third pronouncement was most important because it was the one that initiates action. It basically seals the deal.

Ceija repeatedly stressed the importance of this, and I understood it as well as a rookie in magical arts might be expected to do. I took a deep breath and summoned to culmination every wish I’d ever made that these pests be gone from my life. Forever.

Rapping my staff on the floor three times, I called on all the practice I’d done with Ceija to master the ‘voice’ and said, “GODS OF HARMONY. RIGHT THIS WRONG. SEND THE CREATURES WHENCE THEY BELONG!”

The sound that came from my mouth was like nothing I’d ever heard. My own voice was infused with bass and reverberation, and the vibration that had owned my body intensified.

“GODS OF FURY. LEND STRENGTH TO THIS VOW. MAY THEY NEVER RETURN! MAY THEY BE GONENOW!”

Having said the final word, which gave the command the urgency necessary to spark the spell, I poured the remaining contents of the bottle into the mouth of Wonderland. The house shook with a boom that felt and sounded like a B52 breaking the sound barrier. It caused me to take a step back from the swirling mass that had darkened to a deep charcoal gray.

One by one the characters were sucked in with angry screams and words in a strange language that might’ve been curses. I wasn’t worried about that because I had faith in the wards Ceija had cast to protect us. Things happened too fast to count, but my sense was that the queen and her Ace were the last to arrive. She grabbed onto one leg of the desk, but it barely slowed her progress toward the hole in the floor. Still, she did not let go.

Fortunately, the laptop and lamp that were plugged into the wall fell to the floor and remained behind. Unfortunately, the desk, along with files and papers, disappeared into the hole. There was no time to spare a glance at Nick.

Ace was the last character to arrive. His staff flew past and was swallowed by the hole when he let go of it. That was so he could grab onto the hem of my hoodie with both hands on his way past. I shrieked, knowing I was about to plunge into themurky tunnel that would take me to the last place in the cosmos I wanted to go.

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