Chapter One
Where was that blasted cat now? Stephanie silently steamed as she searched the entire house repeatedly.
One would think that a witch's familiar would actually stay by her side. But nooo, Steve was always running off the first chance he would get! If the front door was opened, even the smallest of cracks … POOF! Out the door, Steve would go!
To make matters worse for her, the little gremlins that inhabited her 15th-century Massachusetts home absolutely loved to open the doors and windows every time Stephanie closed them. This allowed Steve to go wandering off whenever he damned well pleased.
Not many people truly believed in ghosts, goblins, ghouls, and the paranormal anymore. But Stephanie KNEW they were real. Her house was infested by them. When she first moved in, they really helped stave off the loneliness she felt now that she lived outside her childhood home. She found it exciting and intriguing.
The ghosts would constantly make little creaking noises, and there would be the sound of voices just too faint for Stephanie to understand.
The little brownies would constantly be taking things only to leave them in an odd place, making every day a treasure hunt for her valuables. There were still several pieces of jewelry that Stephanie still hadn't been able to find.
The gremlins, however, ... Stephanie growled deep in the back of her throat. They loved playing tricks on her, and her patience with them was wearing thin. She was about to let her mother win and come over to run them all off.
"And I will if you don't stop letting Steve out of the house!" Stephanie shouted to whomever or whatever was listening.
Steve would come home eventually, especially once he got hungry. In his mind, Steve was much too pampered to chase mice. Stephanie had even seen him watch one ideally as it stole a few pieces of food that Steve had refused to eat.
But it could be days from now when Steve decided he was hungry enough to want to come back home. Stephanie needed the little pest to be present at her welcoming ceremony that was happening in three days. The welcoming rite had to be done that night if Stephanie wanted to participate in the Mabon ritual at the end of this month. Mabon also fell on a blood moon, a sign her coven thought to be extra special. There was no way that Stephanie couldn't let them down. Flipping cat! She desperately needed him to come home right now!
"Darn you, Steve! I swear to the Goddess that if you do not show yourself right now, there will be nooo tuna snacks for a month! A month, you hear?!" Stephanie shouted.
Her frustrated voice echoed through the house again, hoping the wayward animal was close enough to hear her. She listened for a moment, but heard nothing beyond a few little scratching noises in the walls caused by the mice that Steve insisted on ignoring.
Stephanie sighed and growled inwardly. Maybe she could convince the High Priestess that her familiar was not needed for the ceremony? After all, plenty of witches throughout the world didn't have one! Then again, plenty of witches worldwide were a bit more apt at even the smallest spells. Whereas Stephanie had only ever been able to produce one… the spell one that summoned the embodiment of aggravation she was searching for right now.
Her mother Sophia had been training Stephanie and her sister Patricia since they were old enough to reach the top of the altar. Every spell that Sophia and Patricia cast worked perfectly, and they would get the rituals memorized in no time flat. Stephanie, on the other hand, had to study for years to get them down and still made mistakes.
Stephanie was absolutely sure one of those mistakes led straight to getting a familiar that would rather snoop around the block than stay home and practice the ritual they would have to perform.
She groaned and wondered, not for the first time if maybe it was a coincidence that Steve had shown up on her doorstep after she had performed the familiar spell.
Her mother had told her not to overthink it and to believe in the magic. But Stephanie couldn't help it. She had never heard any other witch complain that their familiars would run off at the drop of a hat.
"Get it together, child," Stephanie heard her great-grandmother's voice in her head.
It was the same thing her grandmother always said to her whenever she would start to feel sorry for herself, for one reason or another. Stephanie wasn't as tall as her sister, nor did she hold any of the ethereal beauty her family was famous for. But her great-grandmother, Melinda, had never allowed Stephanie to feel sorry for herself.
"Get it together, child. You're a Halverson and just as strong and amazing as any of us. Chin up, back straight, and face the day!" Melinda Halverson would always say.
Hearing those words once more, Stephanie found herself as inspired as she had when she was a little girl.
The Halverson name held a special power for all that held it. Ever since my first ancestor had taken up the name, it was expected for the woman to carry it on.
Lifting her chin stubbornly and straightening to her full 5'2" height, Stephanie grabbed her coat and threw it over her bright flowing dress to go find her little beasty.
The air was already starting to get the sweet autumn chill, but Stephanie refused to give up on summer just yet. Just like she was not about to give up on getting her little pestie home.
She stormed outside, ready to search the woods that butted up against her backyard. The search was basically fruitless since the area behind her house was enormous. But Stephanie knew she had to try no matter what. There was no way the High Priestess would let her join the coven, family or not. It didn't even matter who her family was.
Saturday was supposed to be the big welcoming ceremony that would make her an official member of the Green Tree Coven. It was an ancient and respected gathering of witches that went back as far as the infamous town of Salem, Massachusetts.
Stonewood, as her town was called, was said to be the first haven for those fleeing prosecution. Those who were accused of or actually practicing, Witchcraft fled here to be safe from the witch craze that had swept through most places.
Those that fled included Stephanie's ancestors and the first High Priestess of the Green Tree, Melisandre Halverson. She was a powerful and feared witch in her own right. It was said she could project herself outside her body and walk in the moonlight. Apparently, this ability was why she was driven from the town where her family lived. She was caught walking in the woods one full moon and was accused of trying to seduce all the married men in the village at one time or another.
"They only wished she would have," Melinda Halverson used to tell her at the end of the story whenever she would recite it.
Melinda always had a tone of disdain towards those long-dead villagers. One Stephanie had taken on over in the years since her great-grandmother had passed.
In this day and age, witches were no longer drowned or burned at the stake. But they were still looked down on as a joke or pure devil worship by many outsiders. If Stephanie were honest, she couldn't tell which attitude towards it was worse.
"Idiots," Stephanie spat out softly in her best Melinda impression.
She wiped those displeasing thoughts out of her head and focused on her chore. She had almost made it completely through the beginning of the forest when she saw a flash of black fur. With a growl of frustration, she jerked her head toward the right in time to see the black ball of fur hop over the neighbor's fence.