Beltane by Thea Hartsong

Author:Thea Hartsong
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance, new age, fantasy, magic, witches, teen, fairy, mythology

Chapter 9. All hallows eve

The horrific encounter with Jem in the stables and the confusing conversation I’d had with Circe unnerved me for the next couple of days.

Now that she’d put the idea in my head that Shanty hadn't been straight with me I couldn't shake it off. Why did she really ask me to work in the shop with her when there was obviously so little to do? Could it be related to my birthmark in some way, and could she even be involved with the Sisterhood? The other thing I couldn't shake off was the image of Jem striking that poor horse across the face, and then raising the whip to hit me. It kept flashing into my mind and distracting me from my college work. How could he be like that? I’d thought, when we’d talked together that night in the garden of Rose cottage, that I’d seen the real Jem Masterson. Obviously I was sorely mistaken.

The first thing I'd done when I'd gotten back to class was to offer a groveling apology to Millie, and spill almost everything I'd been through. I left out the part about potentially being a Tu'athain – I figured that was way too silly to bother her with - I just said that Circe was concerned Shanty hadn't mentioned that there was a dark side to Wiccan beliefs.

I told her all about the incident with Jem and said I had half a mind to call the police, there must be laws against hurting an animal that way. Although Millie agreed, she warned me that they might not be particularly keen to follow it up. Circe was the biggest donor to the local police benevolent fund; she'd practically paid for the new police social and sports club in Ringburg single-handedly. Besides they could easily have moved the horse somewhere else by now. It would be my word against theirs.

She was right of course, but the thought of the way that poor creature had been treated still upset me to the core. We both agreed that Jem must have serious issues, probably some sort of split personality for him to change so drastically from one minute to the next. He probably needed headzappers even more than I did.

I decided to see if I could pump Rebekah for a spot of professional insight - provided I could manage to do it without giving her all the gory details of my non-relationship with Jem.

I also found myself unable to resist trawling through the internet for any references to 'Wicca', 'Cybele,' 'Tu'athain' and the 'Witches Fork'.

From what I could see Wiccans worshipped a divine couple, two parts of a complete whole who, together in balance, make up the Cosmos; so far so Shanty. It was only when I started looking for links to the Goddess Cybele that I found more disturbing descriptions of a 'Great Mother, riding a lion-drawn chariot who would drive her followers into a wild ecstatic frenzy'.

On one site I found a passage which described how Cybele’s male priests would emasculate themselves in her honour.

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