Free The Moonstone (Enchantment Book 1) by Evelyne Contant

inherited Ether from her mother. Just imagine, she can control time, isn’t that wonderful?!”
    “That’s fantastic! Your integration to the training sessions will be that much easier. Ok, let’s skip the chitchat ladies; it’s time to get to the business at hand! We only have a few minutes left to complete the ritual and make everything official. Follow me!”
    Charles stands up, a smile on his face, and taking us both by the arm, he starts to skip. We walk together to a far corridor at the other end of the house. It seems to be a tunnel with glass walls that look out into the now dark yard. At the far end there is a black wooden door in the same style as the one at the main entrance.
    “Are you ready to discover the monster’s lair? Please excuse the disorder, it’s a creative mess and it’s my personal space, nobody else ever comes in here. You two are privileged this evening, my dears.”
    He says this quickly and with a tone of voice that borders on hysteria…a little like the mad scientist from an old B movie. He opens the door with a passionate yank and invites us in with a theatrical bow. It’s the way I would have imagined it to be, maybe even a little predictable, if I were to be honest. The whole house is styled in a purely modern fashion, but here all is old and rough. The walls are arched and covered with large wooden shelves and the whole room is cavernous. On the shelves are vials and bottles of every size and color. The ceiling boasts an immense domed window that amplifies the stars’ and moon’s luminosity, adding an air of mystery to the space. Charles puts on his white lab coat, another cliché, and begins to light candles all around us. I can see so many candle stubs around us that I realize he doesn’t use electricity in this room.
    “I prefer to work in the old style, it’s better for the energy of the space!” he tells me, while staring at me closely, as if he could read my mind.
    “Come, ladies, get closer, the moment has arrived!” he says, using his arm to sweep the contents, mostly what seem to be parchments, off the large central table.
    “You could’ve at least tidied up before we got here, Charles! You knew that we wouldn’t have much time once we arrived,” scolded Gertrude, in a discouraged tone.
    “Lou, my dear, come, get closer, get up on the table,” says Charles, holding out his hand.
    “Go on, Lou, he knows what he’s doing.”
    Over the years, Gertrude/Nyx had learned to read my emotions and my state of mind, she almost knows me more than I know myself. Not without fear, I reach out to Charles who grabs my hand and helps me onto the wooden table. The table is old and rickety and groans and shakes as I try to find my balance on it.
    “Have you done this before?” I inquire, in order to reassure myself.
    The two look at me uncertainly.
    “No, never. But don’t worry, the worst that can happen is that it doesn’t work and in that case we’ll need to wait until the next full moon.”
    “What should I do?”
    “Stretch yourself out on the table and look up at the sky; I’ll take care of the rest.”
    Lying down, I raise my eyes and spot the moon, so beautiful and full. I feel a wave of peace come over me, or maybe it’s at that moment that a feeling of exhaustion overtakes me. Charles approaches and gently takes the pendant from around my neck. He raises it over me, allowing the moon’s light to pass through the translucent stone. With his other hand, he puts his fingers into a ceramic jar and takes out a sort of black mud. His voice changes, becoming deeper and huskier…
    “That by the earth we tread, by the soil we seed and by the ashes we become after the Grim Reaper’s passage, Gaia grants you her power.”
    He then applies the mud to my forehead in a circular motion.
    He takes out a crystal vase filled with water and traces a path from my feet to my mouth with the liquid while reciting:
    “That by the water we are born of, the oceans we navigate,