Page 107 of The Howl
“Ashlyn,” I said. “Her name is Ashlyn.”
“Great. This is Meg—,” she pointed to thick hair, “—Anne—,” she indicated glitter makeup, “and I’m Lauv. We’ll do the spell, and when I point to you, you’ll need to speak your mother’s name. That’s it. Nothing to it.”
“How many times have you successfully performed this spell?” Ashlyn asked.
“More than a dozen times inside the barrier. Finding volunteers with a mark to travel outside the barrier is a little harder.”
“So never?” Ashlyn pressed.
“The spell is the same,” Lauv said. “It’s just the location that changes. Are you changing your mind?”
Ashlyn and Lauv both looked at me.
“No. I’m not changing my mind.”
“Good. Ashlyn, you’re heavier than Eliana. Go stand against the door so no one interrupts.”
Ashlyn moved past me, but not before giving me a warning look. That she was against what we were about to do was clear. That she was still here for me despite that fact said a lot.
I took her spot by the paper towel dispenser and waited.
The trio of druids positioned themselves so they were cross-legged, knee to knee within the circle. Lauv took a larger, empty metal bowl and set it in the center. Anne grabbed a handful of small twigs from outside the circle and placed it inside the empty bowl, starting a fire with a single word.
They began chanting and speaking syllables that didn’t make sense to me. As they spoke, they added objects to the flames so that the color changed from orange to red to purple then blue.
Then the chanting stopped, and Lauv nodded at me.
“Wait, put the ash in,” Meg said.
“The hell? Shut up,” Anne hissed.
Meg grabbed the ash and tossed it into the flames. There was a burst of light, and Lauv gestured at me again.
“Nicolette Lynn Barchim,” I said quickly.
All three stared at the flames for several seconds.
“It should have flared again, shouldn’t it?” Meg asked.
“Who knows,” Anne said. “You opened your noisemaker when you weren’t supposed to. You know how exact these things are.”
“So it didn’t work?” I asked.
Lauv shrugged.
“We won’t know until we know, you know?”
I wanted to roll my eyes at her. Instead, I looked at Ashlyn to see what she thought. However, the space by the door was empty.
“Where did Ashlyn go?” I asked, looking around the bathroom.
“She probably bailed when the flames started turning colors,” Lauv said. “Most humans don’t like magic. Weirds them out.”
“She was born and raised here. I doubt she was weirded out,” I said, already sending her a text asking where she was. “How do we know if the spell worked?”
“Call your mom,” Anne said.
“Don’t be stupid,” Meg said. “If she calls her mom just after her mom is transported, her mom is going to know it was her.”
