Chapter. 33
Diana was not ready for this. She knew it had to be done, and she knew it had to happen tonight, but she really wanted to hide in her bed instead. Maybe under the bed? Clutching a baseball bat and rocking backward and forwards instead. The day went so fast. Diana was a bundle of nerves as Agnes was drove them to the covenstead.
“So where are we going again?” She asked.
“Fit and ready. It’s a gym that we own with function rooms downstairs.” Anna leaned over to look back into the passenger seat at Diana. She was once again dressed in her black and white reverse hooded robe, whereas Agnes and Diana wore plain black ones. Again, Diana went for jeans and a dark orange shirt beneath her robe, rather than the power dress her sister chose. White, lace and fitted to accentuate her subtle curves.
“A gym?” Diana sniggered. “The location of your secret witchy headquarters is in the basement of a gym?”
“Ay.” Agnes chuckled. “No one would expect it to be there, would they?”
“No I guess not.” She shrugged and ran her hands over her long braid. It was either that or bite her nails. Her brown eyes stared out of the tinted windows anxiously. Part of her still worried she was going to catch a glimpse of red eyes looking at her.
When they arrived they parked near ‘Service door two’ and took a set of stairs directly down to the basement. The gym wasn’t what Diana expected, but the covenstead was. Black marble floors, silver archaic symbols arching and sweeping on all the surfaces, and many candelabras. Candle light was the only source of light in the massive basement. In the centre of the room there was a single mattress with soft white linens. Three people hidden beneath their hoods were on their knees and scrawling something with white chalk in a spiralling pattern out from the mattress. It was clearly the focal point of whatever was going to happen tonight. “Erm…okay that’s creepy.”
“That’s comfy.” Elaina greeted them both and pushed her hood back to reveal her long luscious red locks. They bounced around her face and she smirked with crimson lips at them. “I use the same one when I go for an astral walk. Trust me. You’d feel it tomorrow if you just laid on the floor.”
“Oh, right.” Diana was stiff as a board and walked awkwardly on Elaina’s arm as she was escorted over to the bed. Her heart fluttered and her palms started to get sweaty. It’s one thing to fall asleep and have a night terror. It’s another thing entirely to consciously and purposefully go through this. Diana felt nauseous as she was coaxed into sitting down on the bed. Elaina knelt on a red cushion beside her and winked at her seductively.
“Now you need to undress so we can begin the orgy.” Diana nearly gave herself whiplash with how fast she snapped her head round to glare at the redhead.
“What the fu-” Elaina cackled and nearly fell off the cushion, holding her stomach as she bellowed with snorting laughter.
“That-was so, your nostrils looked ready to breath fire, so funny, I’m dying, sweet moon and stars that was funny!”
“You’re hilarious.” What a bitch? Despite her initial anger at being so easily teased, Diana had to chuckle. Well she distracted me from wanting to throw up again, at least. “Orgies. As if I fell for that.”
“Orgies are a Saturday night thing, and totally optional.” Elaina giggled and winked at her again. Diana leaned back from her warily. Man I can’t tell if she’s joking or not…
“Well I opt out, thanks.”
“Your loss.” Elaina giggled and slowly put her hands on Diana’s shoulders. “Now lay back and try and relax.”
“Not sure about the relaxing part, but I’ll try.” Diana’s head rested on a plush pillow and she stared up at a ceiling with various cords suspending talismans and charms above her head. Most suspiciously had bones and feathers as their main components, which gave her the creeps. “You’re going to talk me through this before we start, right?”
“Of course.” Elaina nodded to Yani as she lowered to kneel opposite her on Diana’s left side. “I am a gifted astral walker. One who can not only astral project, to separate my spirit from my body and return at will, but I can travel through time and space.”
“Oh, so hiding from you wasn’t ever really an option then?” Diana sniggered up to the ceiling. It’s a good thing I’m not trying to run anymore. I wouldn’t get very far with Elaina the pervy ghost able to pop up and find me anywhere in time and space…
“Nope.” She giggled and reached her hands over to interlock her fingers with Yani’s blue ones. Around them Anna, Agnes, and six other witches walked in a circle around the spiralling chalk markings around the mattress.
“Wh-what are they doing?” She half sat up on her elbows to look in alarm around them. “Why are they circling me?”
“Because as you walk, they walk. They walk in the physical plane whilst you walk in the astral one. Imagine that you were going to climb down a cliff and into the dark?” Diana deadpanned her. Couldn’t think of a less scary analogy? Like, going to a summer stroll? “It’s not something you just do, especially if you were skilled at rock climbing. Or a witch skilled in astral walking. You’d climb down the cliff with a harness, and a rope. They are the rope tethering you here and to your body. So you can return safely.” Elaina’s green eyes started to glow and Diana’s body tensed as a breeze started to pick up around them inside the basement. Elaina’s hair billowed upward and she laughed with euphoria. “I am your harness. I anchor you to the rope, and through me you’d give yourself more slack to go further. I will stop you from falling off the rope and bring you back. At the same time, I’m going to be your surrogate, since you have no magic of your own yet to fuel this journey.”
“Tell her not to be distracted from her target.” Yani added. “She is a novice. We should give her a short journey today and nothing more. So her soul isn’t lost to the nexus and consumed as ether.”
“We’re going to start you with baby steps today.” Elaina censored with a grin. “We’re not going to send you through time, but we’ll send you through space. Whilst you are in the same timeline it’s easier for us to guide you to witness something. Sometimes you can even interact with others, being part of the same time line. But don’t worry, only those highly sensitive to magic will be able to perceive you. You’ll basically be invisible.” Diana flinched and watched with her heart rate rising in tempo as Elaina started to sway her hands over the length of her body. Sparks of sharp yellow fizzled down like a firework stick on her black robe. The winds around them got stronger, and soon Diana couldn’t hear or see the rest of the witches circling them. “You cannot ever see the future. You can only ever witness the past. As it has already happened, you can’t interact or change what has already been. These are laws that cannot be broken. Side stepping though? That’s a lot easier, and you have more freedom.”