Confined (A Tethered Novel, Book 3) (14 page)

Cheers and claps from those that had been standing and
watching the rite erupted from behind us. Della rushed forward with a tray of
drinks I hadn’t seen in her hands before the rite.

“Take one. Let's celebrate!” she insisted.

I reached out and grabbed one of the little paper cups with
moons and stars printed on them. Putting it to my lips, I took a small sip,
expecting it to be coffee, and was surprised to find it was a rum and Coke
instead. Its spicy aroma tickled my nose as its warmth slid down my throat.
Almost as though the drink itself had melted away whatever had been in Admer’s
tea, my mind cleared completely, and I realized with a certainty what had just
transpired.

I’d completed the initiation and now I needed to find out if
the tether had been broken. When I would get a chance to, though—that was a
whole other question.

It was close to three in the morning before everyone’s
parents and Admer finally decided to leave. If there was one thing about these
people that I had learned in the span of a few hours, it was that age did not
determine how hard you could party.

After everyone had left, Kace sunk down on the couch beside
me, and tossed his heavy arm over my shoulders. We were all still dressed in
our initiation attire, and none of us cared to change. It turns out going
“commando,” as Adam had called it once before, was actually comfortable and
liberating in a sense. I wasn’t sure how much alcohol each of us had consumed,
but I was positive I’d passed incredibly tipsy nearly an hour ago, even though
I had continued to drink.

I was celebrating a lot of things tonight.

I was celebrating having the courage to go through with the
initiation, but also the tether being broken. Of course, I didn’t know if that
last part was true just yet, but I did know when Kace and I touched now, there
was a much stronger sense of magick flowing underneath my skin, waiting to be
released by the spoken words of a spell.

“Let’s head up to that attic of yours and try a spell out,”
Adam said. His words slurred a little, but I was inebriated enough to
understand exactly what he meant. It was like a second language, but I got it.

I laughed. “You can’t be serious.”

“No, I am,” he insisted with a little more conviction than
necessary.

“I don’t know if I could walk up those narrow stairs without
killing myself right now,” Callie muttered from where she sat curled up in the
recliner.

“Seriously,” Kace agreed. “But, doing a little something
could be fun.”

“Just one, Avery,” Adam said. “We’ve all been waiting so
long for this.”

I stumbled as I moved to stand, but caught myself quickly.
“Sure, fine. Why not?”

Adam and Kace cheered as we exited the room and started
toward the first set of stairs.

I wasn’t sure how long it took the four of us to reach the
red attic door, but I did know that Callie nearly fell to her death twice and
almost peed herself in a fit of hysterical laughter more than once because of
it. When I finally managed to grip the metal doorknob and swing the door open,
Binks darted between my legs and into the room from out of nowhere. Each of us
laughed as we entered the room after him.

“That cat of yours can be creepy sometimes,” Kace said.

“Awe, but he’s so sweet,” Callie insisted. “Kace, don’t talk
bad about him.”

“I’m not. I’m just saying,” Kace insisted.

I stumbled over to the large leather-bound book in the
center of the room that rested on the podium. Flipping through its aged pages,
I paused and directed my attention to Adam.

“Well, what type of spell do you think we should try first?”
I asked.

Excitement twisted my gut. I never thought I’d ever say
those words aloud and it not be in regards to something Halloween-ish or as
part of a joke.

Adam sauntered over to where I stood and leaned his hip
against the podium for support as he took over flipping through the book
carefully.

“How about something simple,” he suggested.

“Like?” I pressed.

“Like a simple tester spell using all four elements,” Adam
said.

I sobered a little while processing what he’d just said.
Adam was smarter than he wanted others to give him credit for. I watched the
pages of the book flip as he searched for a spell he thought would suffice.

“How about one that involves drawing money to us? That way
we don’t have to rely on Twila Van Rooyen’s spells any more for that either,”
Kace suggested from where he sat, slouched over on the puke-colored love seat.

“I like the sound of that,” Adam agreed. He continued to
flip through the book, only now he turned the pages a little faster since he
knew what he was looking for. “Here we go,” Adam said after a little while. “To
draw wealth from the elements.”

I would have been lying if I said the idea of the spell
didn’t excite me. Was this really what I could do for myself now that I’d
become initiated? Life would be so much easier. I glanced over the list of
ingredients, scrolling across the cream-colored page in the same beautiful
handwritten script as the others I’d read before.

— a copper casting pot

— a pinch of salt

— one tablespoon of purified water

— one small green candle

— one stick of sage incense

— one incense holder

Adam repeated the list of ingredients under his breath as he
moved about the room, gathering each item. I remained where I stood—at the
podium, my body a few degrees warmer due to the alcohol flowing through my
veins. Kace lifted himself off the love seat and crossed the room to stand
beside me. His hand lightly stroked against my lower back as he glanced over
the spell Adam had chosen. Callie peeled herself off the door
frame
and stumbled to where we all stood. She leaned against the podium for support
as well, and I wondered if Adam was going to be holding her hair back for her
tonight.

I hoped not.

Adam came back carrying everything the spell called for in
his arms and laid it all out on the little table beside the podium. For
whatever reason, the way he did so reminded me of Theo. Each of the times I’d
stood in this room and watched him organize his ingredients flashed through my
mind in rapid secession.

I scolded myself mentally for even thinking of him. Did
thinking of him and remembering all of the spells we’d done in an attempt to
break the tether mean that we were still tethered? Or was I allowed to think of
him still, even without the tether being in place, because they were still my
memories?

“Okay, Kace, you take the incense. It stands for Air,” Adam
said. His eyebrows drew together as he returned his gaze to the page of the
book, reading what came next. “The candle is for Fire, the salt Earth, and the
water is for…well, Water.”

Callie chuckled. “Well, duh.”

Each of us grabbed our representations for our elements. I
held the green candle in the palm of my hand, while I waited for Adam to
continue telling us what exactly we were supposed to be doing next.

“Kace, light the incense, and say, ‘May the watchtowers of
Air blow riches toward us,’” Adam said. His eyes shifted to Kace when he spoke.
“Then you lay it in this little stand.”

“All right,” Kace agreed. He pulled a silver lighter out of
his front pocket and held the flame to the end of the incense. Then, he
repeated everything Adam had said.

“Now it’s your turn,” Adam said. His attention shifted to me
and then dropped back to the book, so he could read what I was supposed to say.
“Light the candle and say, ‘May the watchtowers of Fire light the riches’ way.’
And then place the lit candle in the center of this bowl.”

Kace held out his lighter to me. I took it, letting my
fingers graze his in the process, because even though I was focused on the
spell we were doing, I was still under the influence of alcohol, and let’s face
it—Kace was hot!

I lit the small green candle carefully, and then said, “May
the watchtowers of Fire light the riches’ way.” Carefully, I placed the lit tea
candle in the center of my family’s copper casting pot.

Adam came forward and dumped a little vile filled to the rim
with salt over in his hand. He grabbed a pinch from his palm and held his
fingers over the copper pot. “May the watchtowers of Earth grow the fortune to
us,” Adam said.

His green eyes were focused on the little pot with my
flickering candle flame and Kace’s wisps of incense mingling together. I
watched as he sprinkled the salt he’d held pinched between his index finger and
thumb around my candle in the pot. He turned his attention to Callie as soon as
he was finished.

“You need to carefully dump the water around the candle in
the bowl without putting it out while saying, ‘May the watchtowers of Water
cleanse the riches’ way to us,’” Adam instructed her.

We all watched silently as Callie finished the spell for us.
Once the words had passed from her lips, a warm sensation slid through my body,
making my breath hitch as it grew in potency. A flood of endorphins splashed
through my mind, bringing a smile to my face.

“Wow,” Kace uttered in a breathy tone. A grin spread on his
face. “Did you guys feel that?”

“That was incredible,” Adam muttered under his breath.

“Amazing.” Callie grinned. Her eyes had grown wide, losing
their drunken glaze, and now shimmered with liveliness.

I nodded in agreement with them, but didn’t speak. What I
felt had been stronger than what I felt when Kace touched me, but not as strong
as when Theo and I had kissed. I wondered if I would ever feel the same
sensation as then. Why did everything always seem so dull in comparison?

“Now we let the incense and the candle burn out on their
own,” Adam said. He propped his elbows up against the podium and continued to
gaze at the page in the book. “We should feel something again once they both
burn out that will let us know the spell is complete.”

“What will the spell actually do?” I asked.

Now that I knew it had worked, I wanted to be on the lookout
for anything it might send my way in the form of money.

Kace leaned over the book a little more closely. “I’d say
probably the same thing as with the Hoodoo spells from Twila. Some opportunity
will find each of us that will increase our financial situations.”

Sounded good to me. All I had to do was wait. I could do
that.