Chapter 16

Moira Black

I finished painting the magical circle in blood.

Mrs. Swartzenburg’s blood.

I had to work with care. My body shook from the adrenaline of my first sacrifice. I could still feel my athame sinking into her flesh. Blood dripped down my face. It was so messy to kill her and cut out her heart. I would have to burn those clothes to hide the evidence.

She lay nearby, her skin pallid. Her magnificent breasts ruined by my knife. I was a tad out of breath. It was more difficult than I thought to cut out a heart. Ribs were tough. But I had managed. I had managed.

I was naked, the way magic should be worked. I didn’t need to masturbate. There was more than enough blood—life—that I didn’t have to substitute sexual energy. That was the power of human sacrifice. The transgression sent ripples through the spiritual world.

I had my circle drawn along with the representation of the River Lethe sweeping through it. I picked up the heart, holding it in my hands before me. An offering to the goddess. I drew in a deep breath, trying to calm myself.

My heart raced.

Her screams echoed in my ears.

“Hecate,” I cried out, “here is what you ask! Let the River Lethe flow through their memories!”

The heart in my hand burst into black flames. Hecate consumed my offering, finishing the spell that I had started to cast in Sable’s house. The power flowed through me like a real river. It gushed out into the world, a flood that swept out toward the minds of Mrs. Augustine’s lovers.

It erased from them all her extramarital activities.

The energy was so strong. So powerful. I quivered with the euphoric high of being a conduit for this much magic. Hecate worked through me to affect the world. The power buffeted me, wanting to erase me, but the magic circle protected me from the River Lethe destroying my memories.

I smiled at the black fire burning hot for a moment more.

The flames snuffed out.

The heart was wholly consumed.

I rose to my feet. The pasta that had been boiling now burned in the pot. The smoke set off the fire alarm. I gathered my bloody clothes in a garbage bag and stepped over the corpse on my way to the door. I restored my veil and stepped outside.

I walked down the driveway, my athame gripped in my hand. I sucked in deep breaths, the shakes returning. I reached the gate and climbed over it with ease. I marched to the limo and opened the door. I slipped inside.

“Take me home,” I said.

“Yes, Mistress,” Ms. Denise said, under my power right now.

I did it. I was a real witch now. My first human sacrifice.

So why was I crying? I rubbed at my cheeks as my body shook. My teacher told me I would have to cross this line one day. It was done. I had murdered the mother of my enemy. I had carved out her heart and cast the spell to help my brother.

I hugged myself and silently sobbed.

Charles Ludwig Swartzenburg II

I felt good when I pulled up into the driveway. I headed to the door and ... heard the smoke alarm blaring. I ripped open the front door to the smell of smoke. And blood.

My mother...

Horror froze me at the sight of her lying sprawled on her back, her chest ripped open. A magic circle drawn in her ... in her...

I rushed forward, grief slamming into me. I picked her up. “No, no, no, no!”

I held her in my arms. She was limp. Her head lay back. This could not be happening. She was mine! My mother. She was violated by ... That bastard Zach. He did this. He attacked me. Taunted me. Used my mother for some rituals.

I darted for the stairs, cradling her body. “You’re not gone. It’s not too late. You’re not gone, Mom!”

I hurtled down in the basement.

“No, no, no, you’re not gone! You’re not!”

Panic swept through me as I burst down into the basement to where my altar to Molech lay. I had erected it complete with a bronze statue of the hungry god. He sat above it, looming, his horns almost touching the ceiling.

“Not too late!”

I sat her on the altar. Her lips were blue. Her eyes stared up in horror.

I trembled as I darted around the room. I grabbed the candles from the box. I sat them down around the circle before the altar. I lit each of them, my hands smearing her blood across them. On the circle.

They burned as I ripped off my clothing. My shirt. My slacks. I threw it all down. I knelt naked in the circle, staring up at Molech. I had to get her back. I knew Zach did this to me, and he would pay. He would pay dearly.

I bowed low, but first...

“Molech! I come before you naked and in awe of your power. I have a boon, my God. Raise my mother! Restore her to life!”

“What do you offer me?” Molech boomed in my head. The bronze statue quivered. “What sacrifice do you have?”

I reached for my phone. I found the new number. That woman. She picked up. “Hello?”

“It’s me, slut,” I growled. “I need you.”

“Yes!” she whimpers. Her husband was shouting in the background.

“Is that him?”

“He needs me!” she cried. “Shut up. Where do you need me to be?” I told her my address. “I’m on my way, Lord!”

I went upstairs, my body trembling. I paced around the magic circle. It was dedicated to Hecate. She used one of the Five Rivers. But which? The Lethe, Styx, Phlegethon, Cocytus, or Acheron? Each one had a different sphere. The Lethe affected memory, the Styx was used to make inviolable vows, the Phlegethon was used to enact destruction, the Cocytus was used to punish and deliver retribution, and the Acheron was to curse someone with woe.

All of them were bad.

It was hard to focus. My mother would come back. She was not gone. She had not been taken from me. I would get her back. I would murder Jenny. I would cut out her heart. A life for a life. Molech was a god of Sacrifice.

They all were, but he appreciated it more than others. To sacrifice a life to Hecate...

It was a powerful spell.

One that affected many.

But why?

A buzz rang. Someone was at the gate. I rushed to the call box and pushed the button, seeing Jenny in her car. The gate opened. She drove through. I took a deep breath. I had never killed before. But I would murder the entire world to get my mother back.

The car passed through the gate and drove up to the house. The door opened, her car beeping because she hadn’t closed it. She rushed up to the porch. She pounded on the door with a frantic beat. I opened it.

She flung herself into my arms. “Oh, Lord!”

“Come with me,” I said and pulled from her. I grabbed her arm and dragged her toward the basement.

She gasped as the stove still smoked, The fire alarm still blared. “W-what is all that ... that...”

“Don’t worry about the blood,” I said. “Everything will be fine. You would do anything for me, right?”

“Yes,” she moaned.

“Die for me?”

“I would,” she moaned, so caught by the enchantment around me. It was a powerful thing to do to a person. To so ensnare them. Molech gave this gift only to his chosen family. My family. The men of my line had worshiped Molech for five thousand or more years.

I dragged her downstairs to the altar. She gasped again at the sight of my mother’s ... form. I would get her back. Molech quivered. He could feel what she was. A mother who’d born children. I had filled her womb with my seed.