𝐌𝐎𝐎𝐍 𝐒𝐇𝐀𝐃𝐎𝐖 · 𝐩𝐚𝐮𝐥 𝐥𝐚𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐞¹

MARA

All I could feel was the coolness of the grass beneath my bare feet as the echo of the music faded into the air. The dark forest was enveloped in an almost suffocating silence. The night was perfectly clear, and the full moon was shining high in the sky, bathing us in its silvery light.

I walked deeper into the woods, sensing the energies around me, hearing the whispers of the elements. My footsteps automatically guided me toward a small clearing, hidden beneath a vault of century-old oaks. Behind me were my four coven’s sisters, my friends since childhood, perhaps even since the sandbox.

None of us broke the silence that had enveloped us since we’d left the high school dance hall. Our lips remained sealed, while the words died in our throats.

Our steps were as one, perfectly in sync and guided by a slow rhythm that followed the Earth’s pulse, a cadence no human being was capable of sensing. The wind blew its coolness over us, sending a slight shiver down my spine.

And as each of my sisters took their places around that intimate clearing, I took my place in the center. My eyes fell on the ground, that green, damp grass, illuminated by the glow of the full moon. But amid that perfect greenery, so typical of Forks, a few blades were damaged, withered, tinged with brown… and shades of black. It wasn’t really visible, but a witch’s eye was more observant of nature.

A human would have seen only dying grass, an insignificant detail, but a witch saw beyond that, into the ancient magic that clung to this place. These withered blades of grass were no mere coincidence; they were evidence of a mark etched into the sacred earth. It was an imprint left by the witches of ancient times, by the spells they had whispered in this forgotten place in the mortal world.

A pentagram: a symbol of protection, balance, harmony, and the unchanging cycle of life and death.

Nearly three hundred years old.

I took a deep breath, tilting my head back to get a better view of the moon, to better feel its energy seeping into me. My hair followed the movement, rippling in the breeze that blew over us.

Meanwhile, my ears were alert to the forest’s subtle whispers. Every rustle, every tremor seemed charged with an ancient and wild energy. I especially loved feeling the magic vibrate within me, hearing the elements speak to me, and, more than anything, sensing the moon’s power.

After all, the moon was my gift… or my bond. Depending on the generation within the Coven, the term was never the same.

But the quiet of the quarry was abruptly shattered by a soft voice, tinged with concern. A voice I could recognize anywhere: Bianca.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?”

Her hesitation didn’t even raise a sigh from me. After all, I knew her inside and out, like an open book. She had her fears and anxieties, just like the rest of us right now, but Bianca found it easier to show them… at least in her own way.

I lifted my head to look at her. Her long, bright red hair was tied back in a long braid, almost contrasting with the dark elegance of her black dress. Her piercing blue eyes met mine before dropping to the floor. Her back was slightly hunched, betraying her discomfort.

My lips parted slightly; the words were on the tip of my tongue, but another voice rang out. Firmer and sharper, it was Jill’s.

“We don’t really have a choice!” she blurted out, her tone ringing with conviction.

My gaze fell on her, on the confidence that radiated from her.

Unlike Bianca, Jill found it easier to speak her mind, to open up about her fears and doubts, even if they could be counted on the fingers of one hand. She stood perfectly straight, her arms crossed over her chest. Her green eyes were fixed on Bianca.

“That doesn’t mean it’s a good idea,” Bianca retorted in a tense voice, lacking any real confidence. “We’re talking about closing a circle, Jill… that’s not exactly meaningless. This practice has been banned for centuries, and for good reason.”

“You think I don’t know that?”

Jill raised an eyebrow, a nervous laugh escaping her.

“I’m not stupid, B’!” Jill said, running her hand through her brown, curly hair. “I’ve heard my grandma’s stories and my mom’s made-up rules. But do you really think we can ignore what our grandmothers told us?”

“What’s going to happen once we close this circle?” Bianca asked, looking at all of us. “We don’t know what we’re going to set in motion.”

Bianca was searching our eyes for an answer, a sign that we were truly in control of the situation, but the truth was, we weren’t in control of anything at all.

There was one thing we did know, though: the ritual to follow to close this circle, to seal our magic and our bond. Or so I thought. To tell the truth, my grandmother had been very vague on the subject, giving me few details and not answering my questions.

All you have to do is follow this ritual! she’d told me last night as she handed me that old parchment.

A parchment that I’d misplaced in my room this morning, but I’d memorized it… well, I hoped I hadn’t forgotten anything. A few gestures to perform in a specific order, a few words to recite. Nothing too complicated, really… Right?

“We’re jumping into something without really knowing what it’s going to set off,” Bianca finally said.

“We’re not setting anything off!”

Jill hadn’t said a single word, and neither had I.

No, it was Orianne, her voice perfectly calm, yet sharp. She had remained silent ever since we left the high school prom.

My gaze turned to her automatically.

She stood upright, her hands behind her back. Her long golden hair was perfectly smooth, pulled back, without a single stray strand. Usually, Orianne was that smiling, cheerful girl, but tonight she was the opposite. She wore a simple, form-fitting, dark dress and exuded a cold confidence. In that moment, Orianne Shelby had vanished. My second-in-command, so radiant, had faded away, giving way to a priestess of the night.

Her gaze locked with Bianca’s before she continued.

“We’re only unleashing what’s already sleeping, it’s different!”

“Besides, we won’t be doing much more than this Swan.”

Jill had followed up in a sharp but perfectly controlled tone.

“You heard our grandmothers,” Jill continued. “The arrival of this… Isabella Swan has completely disrupted the balance of Forks, a balance that nature has already been struggling to maintain for nearly seventy years, and now it’s collapsing.”

I still didn’t say a word; I just watched silently. My gaze fell on Bianca, who was looking down and nervously biting her lower lip. I knew what she was thinking, after all, we were all thinking the same thing. Balance, that word that had escaped us for weeks, ever since Bella Swan’s return to Forks. We could feel the heaviness in the air; it felt more charged, more electric.

Silence settled over our group, a silence that was almost oppressive.

A breeze brushed against me, subtle and cold. It felt as if a hand were sliding under my chin, forcing me to look up, which I did. My eyes were lost in the bright glow of the moon, more intense than when we’d first entered this clearing.

When the moon is high in the sky, the time will have come to close the circle.

My grandmother’s words echoed in the back of my mind. So I didn’t waste another second. The words flowed from my mouth with ease, even though deep down, a fear was trembling. I was far from being afraid, but what we were about to do was new to me, to all of us. We couldn’t afford to make a mistake in the ritual.

“It’s time!” I said.

As I spoke, I felt an energy course through me as if the sacred earth were answering me.

“It’s time to close this circle.”

I had spoken again calmly, but my voice had cut through the air like a guillotine, clear and sharp. My steps led me slowly and automatically to one of the five points of the pentagram, and my sisters of magic followed suit, in a precise order.

We each stood at a point, silent, letting the wind caress us. I was still trying to remember what we were supposed to do, the words to say, and above all, the order. My greatest fear was making a mistake in a step or a word.

We were the first witches in three hundred years to close a circle, to perform this ritual.

“So, how do we proceed?” Stacia asked.

I didn’t look at her for even a second. My gaze remained fixed on the grass. My mind kept replaying my memories of what I’d read on that parchment: the ritual, the spell.

Finally, I pulled a knife from the pocket of my long black robe. My right hand gripped the knife’s handle firmly while my left hand reached out over the pentagram. I looked up and hesitated for a brief moment, but I knew I must not.

After taking a deep breath, I cut the palm of my left hand and held it out toward the ground. The blood dripped slowly before splattering onto the grass, where it was immediately absorbed by the earth, leaving no trace.

“I, Amara Rowan Nyx Lockwood, daughter of the moon, offer my blood to the sacred earth!”

As my blood was still flowing, I looked away and turned my gaze to Orianne, standing to my right. I held out the knife to her without saying a word, and yet she seemed to understand what needed to be done.

With a gentle gesture, Orianne took the knife between her fingertips before following my example. She held out her right hand above the circle and cut the palm of her hand. Her voice rose into the air, a whisper.

“I, Orianne Blue Shelby, daughter of the sun, offer my blood to the sacred earth!”

Then she turned her palm toward the ground. Her blood flowed slowly, soaking into the sacred earth. Finally, she handed the knife to Stacia.

One by one, my coven’s sisters repeated the same gestures and recited the same invocation almost word for word. In a specific order, that of our births, all of which occurred during one of the four major phases of the moon.

I was born first, under a new moon in January.

Orianne was born second, under a full moon in March.

Stacia, born third under a first-quarter moon in May.

Jill, born fourth under a last-quarter moon in July.

And Bianca, born last under a full moon in September.

And as our blood seeped into the earth, we began to chant the spell, almost humming it. Yet we had never spoken these words before. It was a first, and yet they flowed from our lips with unsettling ease, as if we’d known them all our lives.

Our wounded hands remained facing the ground. Our eyes closed slowly as the wind picked up, dancing between each of us.

“The moon watches over the shadows!” I began in a confident voice, feeling the coolness on my shoulders.

“The sun lights up lost souls!” Orianne continued.

“Fire warms broken hearts!” Stacia murmured with a certain warmth.

“The earth provides refuge for pure beings!” Jill said in a perfectly neutral voice.

“Water purifies tormented spirits!” Bianca concluded in a trembling voice.

We paused briefly, sensing the wind stir. It had picked up as our words flowed one after another. It swirled around us, a powerful gust imbued with an ancient energy.

But we tried to ignore it. We resumed in perfect synchronization. Our voices rose in unison, steady and calm, yet carrying a power we were unaware of. They vibrated through the air as we uttered the final sacred phrase:

“By blood and soul, we seal this bond. Nothing shall enter, and nothing shall leave, until the final call rings out.”

Suddenly, warmth crept into every cell of my body, slowly rising along my skin before taking hold of my veins. But this warmth didn’t burn me, it chilled me, and a shiver ran through my body. And then, I felt a vibration, muffled and imperceptible, but it was there all around me, as if a new, wild power were awakening within me.

There was a change in the air… in this place in general.

And then, as sudden as a bolt of lightning, a pain shot through the back of my neck. Quick and brief, but intense enough to make me flinch, causing me to step back and leave the pentagram.

Instinctively, I brought a hand to the back of my neck. All I felt was warmth behind my ear, but nothing else.

My gaze drifted toward my sisters in magic. Like me, they had placed their hands on the backs of their necks and stepped out of the circle.

I opened my mouth, ready to speak to them, when a sound cut me off abruptly. A faint creak, right behind me.

Without a moment’s hesitation, I turned around. I couldn’t see much in the darkness. I squinted, hoping to see better, but it was no use. There didn’t seem to be any presence, not even a shadow or a breath, just that heavy silence and this strange feeling inside me: a strange warmth I’d never felt before, but also a certain electricity, like a vibration of the elements. I could feel a kind of pull toward the darkness in front of me, like a call.

The more I watched, the more I felt that something was watching me back, as if two eyes were staring at me from the darkness of the forest. I crossed my arms over my chest before taking a step, but my movement was stopped by Orianne’s voice.

“Mara! Maybe we should go, don’t you think?”

I glanced quickly over my shoulder at her as I replied in a whisper.

“Yeah… yeah, that’s a good idea!”

One by one, the girls left the clearing, but I didn’t follow suit. I stayed where I was, my arms still crossed over my chest. My gaze fell once more on the forest, and this time, I no longer felt that strange sensation. It had, as it were… suddenly vanished, carried away by the wind that was no longer blowing across the clearing.

Finally, I left the clearing as well, unable to shake the feeling that we had just awakened forces we didn’t yet understand.