Herringbones and Hexes by Nancy Warren

Author:Nancy Warren [Warren, Nancy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ambleside Publishing
Published: 2021-02-24T06:00:00+00:00

I felt a sudden compulsion come over me. There was such power in my arm and hand. My grandmother’s ring was hot and glowing, and my athame looked like it was on fire. I’d never seen it like that before.

As I pointed my glowing dagger at the skull, there was a crack and a tiny explosion, and then the skull seemed to implode upon itself, crumbling to dust.

Margaret wasn’t one to give out compliments like they were candy. When she said in a quiet, dry tone, “You did well,” I felt like I got an A+ in class.

But had our attempt to reverse the hex worked?

I looked at Violet. We all looked at Violet. Was she standing straighter? I thought she was. She didn’t say anything though. In fact, she was starting to sway.

“Violet? Are you o—”

She crumpled. She’d have hit the floor if I hadn’t gotten there in time. She keeled over on me, and not knowing what else to do with her, I sank down, taking her with me until I could lay her on the floor. I was quite alarmed. So was Great-Aunt Lavinia. She looked at Margaret.

“Is my granddaughter all right?”

“She will be.”

Still, Aunt Lavinia got to her knees and placed her hand on her granddaughter’s forehead.

“She’s hot. Like she has a fever.”

“That’s good. She’s got to get the poison out of her.”

The clouds must have moved or the moon shifted its position, but suddenly Violet’s face was bathed in moonlight. There were a few scabs on her face, but the awful boils were gone. Even though both eyes were closed, the swelling was going down on her bad eye.

We stayed with her until she woke, looking a little like Snow White minus the handsome prince. She put a shaky hand to her head. “What happened?” She glanced around at us. “I feel so strange.”

Then she seemed to remember everything that had occurred. She put her hands to her face. “A mirror. I must have a mirror.”

I went to take one of the broken pieces, and Margaret smacked my hand. “Not that one.”

Instead, she went to a table and opened a drawer. She brought over an ornate-looking hand mirror that no doubt did double duty as a scrying mirror and handed it to Violet. For some reason, none of us turned on an electric light. We simply moved candles closer. But even in candlelight, it was pretty clear that she was almost back to normal. Her hair was once more thick and lustrous. Even the dyed streak was exactly where it had been before. In the couple of minutes it took for her to gaze at herself in wonder, the last scabs disappeared. Last of all, she smiled. To my great relief, there was no gap of a missing tooth. She was as good as new.

Since I had opened the circle, it was my job to close it and extinguish the lights. I’d never been so happy to do that.

I looked at the pile of goat

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