Free Bound In Blood (The Adams' Witch Series Book 1) by Erin Butler Page A

whispered into my ear.
    “I call upon the guardians of the east to keep watch over all who enter this circle. Let all who enter do so in perfect love and perfect trust.” She kept moving, lighting different colored candles at the south, west, and north points. "The circle is cast.”
    The robed figures lined up beside her and she said something to each one that I couldn’t hear. I shuffled behind Drake, watching everyone walk around the circle as they entered.
    Drake’s turn came and I realized I had no idea what to say. I moved closer to hear, practically crawling up his backside, but their exchange was already finished.
    “How do you enter this circle?” the high priestess asked. I could see now the girl was petite, with dark choppy hair that ended at her chin.
    “Umm…”
    The girl smiled and I thought I heard her giggle. “Do you enter in perfect love and perfect trust?” she asked, peaking her eyebrow with a sly smile.
    “Yes.”
    She motioned for me to step in and follow behind Drake. I wanted to yell at him for not telling me what to say, but yelling while entering a Wiccan circle probably wasn’t the right time.
    The high priestess moved to the center. Everyone stared as she lowered her hood. “We gather together on this, the celebration of our coven and its freedom to practice magic without fear. We gather together to honor the memory of those that we have lost to ignorance.”
    Her voice was a melody of rhythm. The wind, candles, everything seemed to move at her pace, her pitch.
    “We gather together to unite our friendships and welcome new ones.”
    The melodic voice poured into me, sprouting goosebumps and tingling my limbs as my brain lost all sense of worry and inhibition. It felt almost as if I were transported back to the sixties and became some stoner hippie without a care in the world.
    I liked it.
    “I call upon the goddess Isis in your many forms…”
    I lurched forward as if a pressure on my shoulders shoved me. I tried to resist, digging my feet in the ground, attempting to step backward.
    All over my body, tingling flesh weighted me forward as if a thousand hands were forcing me to move. Beside and behind me, no one touched me. No one was even that close except for Drake.
    I looked around the circle and no one even noticed what was happening. They stared straight ahead at the one who formed the circle.
    I tried to kneel, to fall on purpose like the first time I went skiing and couldn’t stop. My muscles wouldn’t obey. They moved forward another step. I shut my eyes and concentrated, forcing myself back, digging deep into my core and willing my body to move.
    Finally, it did.
    Two steps in reverse and I was back into the circle. Drake was again to my right, staring straight ahead, still watching the girl, never even noticing what just happened.
    I urged in a few uneasy breaths. The hooded witches stared at the ground. As I watched them, one by one, they looked into my eyes and lowered their hoods.
    Their eyes rolled into the filmy white behind. Two moon spheres on each witch stared straight at me.
    A glowing red emanated from deep within them, like a warning beacon through dense fog.
    My eyes narrowed even though every sense in my body urged me to flinch, to close my eyes and wake up in Neverland. I stood marbleized like a great goddess statue.
    Light wind tracked a hair across my face and burned my eyes, but I still didn’t blink.
    The red in their eyes flickered brighter and brighter until it singed the cloudy white.
    A lightning bolt encased in a circle. The same symbol from Dad’s journal.
    All force gave way within me and I toppled over, landing outside of the circle and onto the crunchy grass.
    Even with my eyes closed, I saw nothing but the symbol etched there. It flamed out, the red reaching for me.
    I screamed.
    A hand came down on my shoulder, startling me. I tensed for another scream. Flames. No more flames.
    “Shh.” The voice was calming. “Shh, Sarah. It’s