Suddenly I heard my mother's voice. "You're stronger than this, Moira," she told me. "You've got thousands of years of Riordan blood in your veins. You can save yourself. You can stop Cal Blaire. You are my daughter, and you can survive this." Her hands gripped my arm, and I felt her tears on my face. I opened my eyes, and directly into her hazel eyes. I remembered the scared teenager that had nearly burned to death. Mom began to sing the power chant. "An di allaigh an di aigh…An di allaigh an di ne ullah…An di ullah be nith rah…Cair di na ullah nith rah…Cair feal ti theo nith rah…An di allaigh an di aigh…"

            I began chanting with her, and soon I could feel my magick restoring itself. I lifted my head successfully, and I could see that the light binding Cal and I had been diminished. Mom helped me up, and together we faced Cal.

            "Move away from her, Morgan," Cal growled. "I said, move away!"

            But Mom and I had other plans. Almost as if we could read each other's minds, we held hands and began a spell:

Magick, we are your daughters

We are following your path in truth and righteousness

Protect us from evil. Help us be strong.

Maeve, who came before us, help us be strong

Mackenna, who came before her, help us be strong.

Morwen, who came before her, help us be strong.

Let us banish this evil. Banish this evil.

            "No!" Cal screamed.

            "Banish this evil!" we answered him, and a strong wind kicked up, blowing our raven hair around us. Cal screamed again, and he sank back into the hole from which he came. The wind died down, and Mom and I tried to regain some of our composure.

            "Well, that was an adventure," I said weakly, and I promptly fainted.

*  *  *

            About fifteen minutes later, I was conscious and being smothered by Mom in the backseat of her car. And even though I've never been a cuddly type of person, I was perfectly content with my mother squeezing the life out of me. I had cheated death that night, and I never had felt so lucky. Or so crappy, for that matter.

            My dad walked back to the car from examining the fire circle, and opened the back car door. "It's what I suspected," he told us. "A bith dearc."

            "A what?" I asked.

            "A bith dearc," he repeated. "An opening to the netherworld. It severely affects witches who use them, so you'll probably feel horrible for the next few days." Dad looked at me quizzically. "How did you know how to open the bith dearc, Moira?"

            "I think Cal was controlling my mind somehow," I told him, and Mom tightened her grip on me even more. "These weird words came to mind, and I started saying them. He did that with the Cirrus thing, too—and I want to know what the deal with Cirrus is."

            "Cirrus was the coven that Cal led," Mom told me. "I was a part of Cirrus until he died."

            "And the field paranoia?"

            "It's where he held the first circle I ever went to. It woke up who I truly was inside."

            "Cal told you that you were a blood witch," I stated, rather than asked. She nodded, and I said, "And he tried to kill you." Another nod. "How the hell could you have kept this from me?"

            "Well, Moira, it never really came up," Dad explained to me. "It didn't seem important, because Cal was dead, and your mother believed that he would truly never hurt her."

            I looked into Mom's eyes. "Were you ever in love with Cal?"

            My mother sighed. "I thought I was once. But it was only part of Cal's mother's plan to take advantage of my power. The thing she didn't count on was Cal falling for me." My dad bristled beside me; he must have been jealous.

            I sat back, taking it all in. "Cal is truly evil, isn't he?"

            "Cal…is his mother's creation," Dad told me. "You can't completely blame Cal for who he became. He was raised by Selene Belltower, and she was purely evil. My father was also Cal's father, and he blames himself for how Cal turned out, because he didn't take Cal with him when he left Selene. But I doubt that he could have taken Cal away from his mother."

            "Cal's mother disillusioned his view of reality," Mom continued. "He didn't know of dark and bright magick, only power. He couldn't see the difference because no one had ever taught him any better." She tilted her head to the side, and said, "Now, tell me something: Was this part of what you wanted to tell Aunt Bree?"

            So I launched into that whole story, telling her about the voice and what had been happening, and in the end we all hugged and promised not to keep secrets from each other anymore. The next day I slept the whole day, and by Tuesday I felt like my regular old self. And I no longer wanted to renounce my magick. I finally accepted who I am.

*  *  *

            The next Saturday, I was initiated. We held the circle in the field where Mom and I had defeated Cal, after Dad had destroyed the bith dearc. There was a big bonfire, and I wore my mother's dark green robe, which once belonged to my grandmother. A flower crown rested on my dark hair, and the firelight illuminated my eyes. My mother stood opposite me, smiling broadly. "Moira Riordan-Niall, I now pronounce you an initiated witch of Kithic," she said, handing me a box. It held the Belwicket tools, tools of witchcraft handed down from generation to generation of Riordan witches.

            My initiation wasn't the only event of the evening. My new friends were there, and we were going to form a new coven, in the presence of my parents and their coven mates. I cast a circle and we filled it.

            "Tonight we gather to form a new coven," I said with authority. I didn't need Cal to help me feel strong. "We gather to celebrate the Goddess and the God, to celebrate nature, to explore and create and worship magick, and to explore the magickal powers both within and without ourselves."

            "Blessed be," they said. Claire grinned at me. Rusty's eyes never left my face.

            "Anyone who wishes not to be of this coven, please break the circle now." When no one moved, I said, "Welcome. Merry meet and blessed be. As we gather so we'll be. The seven of us have found our haven, here within the Stellaluna Coven." I only had a rough idea of what Stellaluna meant—it had something to do with the moon and stars. It sounded pretty, anyway, and it wasn't Cirrus. The rest of the night was a great celebration, lasting until it was nearly dawn.