Second Sight Read online

  “Don’t do that quite yet,” Annie said. “Her parents are still hoping she’ll just come home. They don’t want anyone to panic or anything.”

  Cooper saw T.J. coming toward them. Picking up her guitar, she waved to her friends. “I’ve got something to do,” she said. “I’ll catch you guys later.”

  As she went to talk to T.J. about her lyrics, she tried again to remember exactly what Elizabeth Sanger looked like. But when she concentrated, her mouth suddenly filled with the taste of oil and dirt that she’d experienced in her dream. Shuddering, she shook her head to clear it of the memories, and by the time she reached T.J., she’d forgotten all about the nightmare.

  CHAPTER TWO

  “Focus your attention on the water,” Robin said. “Think of it as a mirror.”

  Cooper gazed down at the bowl she was holding in her hands. She tried to concentrate on the dark surface of the water, but it was hard. Every time she moved, even a little bit, ripples broke across the smooth surface, disrupting her thoughts. She shifted around on the cushion, took a deep breath, and tried again.

  Staring at the water, she let her mind empty of all thoughts—for about two seconds. Then she found herself thinking about the way the clay bowl felt in her hands, about the new kind of incense burning on the altar at the back of the store, and how she really should set up her own Goddess altar in her bedroom. Sighing, she looked around the room to see how the others were doing. To her relief, most of them seemed to be having as much trouble as she was, judging from all the furrowed brows and frowning mouths she saw.

  “It’s not as easy as it sounds, is it?” Robin said.

  “I guess if seeing the future was easy, everyone would be doing it,” Cooper joked.

  They were learning about scrying, the practice of receiving messages or information by focusing attention on a reflective surface and seeing what kinds of images came up. Robin, one of the members of the coven that ran Crones’ Circle, had spent some time describing the different ways people could attempt scrying, and now she was having them try it themselves. Each person in the study group was looking into a black clay bowl filled with water and attempting to see something there.

  “All I see is water,” Annie said plaintively.

  “That’s probably all most of you will see,” Robin said, laughing. “I just wanted you to get an idea of how difficult this can be. Many people think that scrying—and other magical activities—involves simply sitting down and doing it. But, like anything else you want to be good at, it takes practice and focus.”

  “I saw some things,” said a man sitting next to Cooper. “But how do I know if what I saw was real or if they were images I made up in my head? I mean, how do I know I wasn’t just daydreaming?”

  “You don’t always know,” Robin answered. “That’s what makes any divination practice difficult. You have to learn how to tell what’s real from what isn’t. And sometimes you still can’t be sure.”

  “Then what’s the point of doing any of it?” asked Cooper. “If it could be that you’re just making it all up, why bother?”

  “What’s the point of meditating?” Robin asked her.

  Cooper thought for a minute. “To clear your head?” she answered hesitantly.

  “Partly,” Robin said, nodding. “But partly it’s to change your mental state, to open yourself up to noticing what’s going on around you and how these things are affecting you. In the same way, when you engage in something like scrying you’re trying to open yourself up to receiving information you normally wouldn’t receive because you’re so busy thinking about other things and doing other things.”

  “So this information is always there; we just aren’t always tuned into it?” Kate asked, sounding confused.

  “Something like that,” Robin said. “Think about dreams for a minute. All of us have had dreams, right? Sometimes our dreams are very realistic. We dream about people we know and situations we’ve been involved in. Other times we have dreams that seem to make no sense whatsoever, but for some reason those dreams help us solve problems we’re having or make us think about things in a new way. When we dream, our minds are working in a way they can’t when we’re awake because we take over and make them do what we want. But when we sleep, our subconscious takes over for a while, and sometimes it shows us things we need to see. Scrying is a little bit like dreaming while being awake.”

  “That still doesn’t help you know what’s real and what’s just a weird dream,” Cooper said, thinking about her own nightmare.

  “That’s true,” Robin agreed. “And that brings us back to the original question. How do you know what to take seriously and what is just the result of eating too much sugar or not getting enough sleep? Ben, what was it you saw in the bowl?”

  The man who had asked the original question looked embarrassed at being called on. “At first it just looked like swirls of colored light,” he said. “But then it formed pictures. I saw myself standing in front of two doors. They were locked. I was holding a key, and I knew that it would open one of the doors. But I was afraid to try it, because I knew that behind one of the doors there was some kind of monster, and I was afraid that was the door that the key would open.”

  The class murmured, and Ben grinned sheepishly. “I know that sounds kind of silly,” he said. “That’s why I asked the question. I know there’s no such thing as monsters, so I knew that what I saw couldn’t be true.”

  “Think about the two doors for a moment,” Robin said. “Do they suggest anything to you?”

  “Well, sort of,” Ben replied. “I thought maybe they might represent two choices.”

  “And are you trying to choose between two things in your life?” Robin pressed.

  Ben nodded. “And I’m kind of afraid that one of the choices might not be right for me,” he said. “But I didn’t need a vision to tell me that.”

  “Maybe not,” Robin said. “But maybe this choice is more important than you think. Perhaps your subconscious is telling you to take a harder look at what’s behind each of those doors before you decide which one to open.”

  “Okay,” said Cooper. “So Ben got a message from his subconscious. But isn’t scrying supposed to be used to find out about the future?”

  “Sometimes it is,” Robin replied. “Like I said, it’s simply one way of receiving information. Different people use it differently. Ben might find scrying a useful way to sort out his feelings. You might do it and get some kind of message about something that’s about to happen. Kate might do it and find herself seeing images that are coming from someone who needs to contact her from the other side.”

  “The other side?” Cooper said. “As in dead people?”

  “It could be,” Robin answered. “Don’t forget—just because they’re dead doesn’t mean they don’t have anything to say.”

  Cooper was confused. She had a better idea of what scrying could be used for, but she still wasn’t sure how to tell if what she saw—if she ever saw anything at all—was real or not. According to Robin, visions could come from her subconscious or her imagination. And now, apparently, they could come from dead people.

  “I know you all would like there to be easy answers and easy ways of doing these things,” Robin said, as if reading Cooper’s thoughts. “But as we’ve been talking about ever since the first class, magic isn’t easy. Part of being a witch is knowing when to trust your experiences and your intuition. That doesn’t happen overnight. It only comes with practice, practice, and more practice. None of you are going to be able to scry right away. Some of you—maybe a lot of you—won’t ever be able to do it well at all. That’s okay. Everyone has different talents. As my covenmates will tell you, I, for example, am absolutely horrible at doing candle magic. I always manage to screw it up, which is why Julia will be teaching that class when we come to it. But I can scry like nobody’s business, so that’s why I’m the one doing this class.”

  Cooper wondered what her talent was. She was enjoying everything abou
t witchcraft, but she hadn’t found any one thing that she felt she could do really well. She certainly knew what she couldn’t do well, at least not yet. She, Kate, and Annie had come together because some spells Kate had done had gone wrong. That had taught the three of them how serious working with magic could be, and it was why they were all in the class now. They hadn’t tried to do any spells since those early ones. But Cooper was getting anxious to find something she could be good at.

  “The good news,” said Robin, interrupting Cooper’s thoughts, “is that you can’t hurt anything by practicing your scrying. I’m going to teach you an easy ritual you can do. I designed it to help a person get into a receptive mode and open up to seeing and receiving whatever messages need to get through. So let’s all get into comfortable positions and hold our bowls.”

  People moved around, some sitting on the floor and some choosing to sit on the big purple couch or in the chairs scattered around the room. Cooper crossed her legs on the cushion, sat as straight as she could, and held the bowl in her lap with her hands cupping the sides.

  “Take some deep breaths,” Robin instructed. “Close your eyes and feel yourself anchored to the spot. If it helps, you can use the old trick of imagining roots going down through your body and into the ground.” This was a familiar way of focusing, and Cooper had done it many times. She did it now, thinking about roots connecting her with the earth, drawing up energy and filling her with light. It always made her feel more focused and more alive.

  “Now I’m going to recite a quick chant,” Robin informed them. “It’s not exactly a spell, more like something to make your intentions clear. Just listen the first couple of times. Then, if you want to, you can say it with me.” She cleared her throat and then spoke the words of the chant in a clear, strong tone: “Show me places cloaked in secrets; pierce the gloom of darkest night. Reveal that which has been hidden; let me see with second sight.”

  Cooper listened as Robin paused for a moment and then spoke the chant again. She tried to remember the words, so that the third time she could join in. She got most of them, but had trouble with one of the lines. But by the fourth time Robin repeated it, Cooper had it down. It’s just like memorizing lyrics, she thought. You just have to come up with a tune for them to help you remember.

  She did come up with a simple tune, which she played in her head as she repeated the chant to herself silently. After a minute or two, Robin told them to open their eyes and gaze into the bowl of water.

  “Keep saying the chant if you want to,” she said as they all stared into the bowls. “Use it to focus your thoughts.”

  Cooper looked at the water’s surface. It was as smooth as glass. Her hands were completely still as she sat, reciting the chant over and over, waiting for something to come. She felt herself growing more and more relaxed as she sat there, and her thoughts became fuzzy as the sound of her voice in her head murmured the words. Show me places cloaked in secrets, she heard. The voice was hers, but there was something unfamiliar about it. It was as if someone else was singing along with her, faintly.

  She listened. Reveal that which has been hidden, she heard. Only this time it wasn’t her own voice. It was someone else’s. She looked at the water, unable to move her eyes away from it. In the depth of the bowl she thought she saw something moving. It was as if something was trying to swim up to the surface from a long way down. Something in the bowl shuddered, pushing up from the bottom.

  Reveal that which has been hidden, she heard again. But why was it the same line? Had she sung through the whole chant again already? She didn’t even remember saying the other words. And now she couldn’t think of what they were. All she heard was that one line, repeated again and again in her mind. Reveal that which has been hidden. Reveal that which has been hidden. Reveal that which has been hidden. The voice was echoing in her head. And still something was moving beneath the water, trying to show itself to Cooper. But no matter how hard she stared, it didn’t become clear.

  Suddenly she heard an explosion, and the voice went silent. She felt something wet on her leg, and looked down. She had dropped the bowl, and the water had spilled on her jeans.

  “Sorry,” said a girl near her. “I didn’t mean to scare anyone. I just couldn’t hold that sneeze in any longer.”

  Robin was looking at Cooper. “Are you okay?” she asked, sounding concerned. “You were really startled.”

  “I’m fine,” Cooper said quickly. “I guess I was just really concentrating.”

  “Did you see anything?” Kate asked her.

  “No,” said Cooper. “No.” She really hadn’t seen anything. Or had she? She wasn’t sure. She had definitely heard something, but it had just been a voice. Probably my subconscious trying to sing, she told herself.

  “I think that’s enough for tonight,” Robin said. “If you have any questions, I can stay around for a while. Otherwise, I’ll see you next week.”

  People got up and went to empty their bowls into the sink in the other room. Although she was wet, Cooper continued to sit on the floor. She was still thinking about the voice she had heard. For some reason, it reminded her of the dream she’d had on Sunday night. But she didn’t know why. The dream had been all about her. The voice, though, didn’t sound like her at all. How could the voice and the nightmare possibly be connected?

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” she heard Robin ask.

  “Oh, yeah,” Cooper said, trying to sound fine. “Just wet.”

  Robin smiled. “Try not to worry so much about understanding everything,” she said. “Sometimes not knowing what’s going on is part of the process. It just means you’re growing.”

  Cooper laughed. “Then I must be growing a whole lot lately,” she said.

  Kate and Annie returned from emptying their bowls. Kate was holding hands with Tyler, who, although he was already a witch and a member of a coven, was attending the Wicca study group classes in preparation for being a teacher someday. He and Kate looked slightly awkward as they stood there, their fingers entwined.

  “You two are so cute I could throw up,” Cooper said, teasing them.

  They both blushed deeply, and everyone laughed. “At least I didn’t wet myself,” Kate retorted.

  “I couldn’t help it,” Cooper said, standing up. “I was so excited about scrying that I lost control.” The sarcastic banter made her feel more like her old self, and the slightly creepy feeling that thinking about the dream and the strange voice in her head gave her retreated.

  “Oh, before I forget . . .” Tyler said. “You guys know that Beltane is coming up, right?”

  They all nodded. Cooper still didn’t remember what all eight of the important Wiccan holidays called the sabbats were exactly, but she knew another one was about to happen.

  “The coven is having its ritual on Saturday, and you guys are invited,” Tyler continued. “It’s going to be at Thatcher’s house on the beach. We’ll have a bonfire and everything. What do you think?”

  “I’m in,” Kate said instantly.

  “Me too,” Annie added.

  “Sure,” said Cooper. She’d had a great time at the last ritual they’d attended, the one for the Spring Equinox, and she was curious to see how this one would be different. “Does this bonfire involve roasting marshmallows and singing bad camp songs?”

  “Sorry, no,” Tyler said. “But I can promise you drumming and dancing, and maybe even some leaping over the fire.”

  “I’m definitely in then,” Cooper said. “I’ll wear my flameproof robe. And speaking of inviting, I have some of my own to do.”

  The others looked at her, surprised, and waited for her to explain herself. She hesitated. She’d actually been putting off what she had to say for almost a week. But now she had to do it.

  “I’m kind of having a birthday,” she said finally.

  “A birthday?” Annie and Kate said loudly. “And you didn’t tell us?”

  “Well, birthdays aren’t exactly my thing, you know?” Cooper said
, trying to explain. “I didn’t want to make a big deal about it.”

  “Excuse me,” Kate said. “You’re turning sixteen. That’s a big deal, with a capital B and D.”

  “When were you planning on telling us?” Annie demanded.

  “When it was all over?” Cooper said sheepishly. “But then my mom went and decided to have this birthday dinner thing. It’s on Thursday. I told her you guys were probably busy, so it’s okay if you don’t want—”

  “We’re coming,” Kate and Annie responded, once more speaking at the same time.

  Cooper groaned. “I knew I should have lied and told her you were both dying from the flu,” Cooper said. “Fine. It’s Thursday at six. Nothing fancy.”

  “Do boyfriends get to come?” Tyler asked hopefully.

  “That would involve too much explaining,” Cooper said. “Next time?”

  “Okay,” Tyler responded, pretending to be hurt. “But I’ll have to rethink that present idea now.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  If Amanda Barclay had been any thinner, she would have been able to slide under the doors of Beecher Falls High School instead of opening them and walking through as if she owned the place, which is what she did. But then she might have broken one of those ridiculous nails, Cooper thought to herself as she watched Amanda take a notebook out of her bag and flip it open while she strode down the hallway, following Principal Browning as the older woman tried to get to her office.

  “But Ms. Browning,” the reporter said, “aren’t you at all concerned that one of your students is missing? What about the safety of the others? Don’t parents have a right to know?”

  Principal Browning stopped so quickly that the other woman almost ran into her. The expression on the principal’s face as she stared down the reporter was one of icy indignation. “Miss Barclay,” she said, “of course I’m worried that one of my students is missing. But until we know exactly why she’s missing I am not going to send the rest of the student body into a panic by suggesting that anything dire has occurred. I would appreciate it if you would do the same.”