Snapping back into her corporeal body immediately gives Selene Dauphin a feeling of whiplash. Moments before she was standing atop one of the lesser Carpathian mountains, with a spectacular view of the night sky and now she finds herself exactly where she expected to be. She sighs with relief. Astral projection is a tricky thing. There is always the chance of the spirit not making it back to its body. And it had been touch and go for a moment when she got that ominous feeling and turned to see a beast charging at her from the darkness. Although whatever it was couldn't hurt her physically in her corporeal state, it had be enough to startle her and she tugged on the magical thread that connected her to her body.
"Well, how was it?"
Selene looked up to see her friend, Victoria Proveaux, who sat directly across from her, staring at her expectantly.
"I don't think it's a good idea," she replies while blowing out the candles encircling her.
"What do you mean? We chose that location specifically. The full moon is tomorrow night. We don't have enough time to locate and prep another spot."
She pushes a hand through her hair only to realize it was shaking, glad the room is now encased in darkness.
"Vicky, there was something else on that mountain. Something other than me."
"Maybe it was a mountain lion or a wolf."
"It looked like a man to me."
"A local then."
Selene grumbles. "You're not listening to me."
"You're right, I'm not. You get all weird after you astral project."
Her friend stands and moves through the room to flick on the light switch. Selene is momentarily blinded. Blinking helps to readjust her vision to the newly lit room at the inn they are staying in. Her gaze lands on her mocha colored friend who is still standing next to the light switch; her hair a gorgeous mess of tightly-ringed curls. The two women are strongly contrasted. Where Selene has fair skin framed by dark brown hair with brown eyes, Vicky is the totally opposite, favoring her mother apart from her blue-grey eyes that she inherited from her father.
"What are you staring at?" asks Vicky with her hands on her hips.
"I was just reminded of your mother and how much you look like her just now."
Vicky holds one hand out in front of her, palm facing towards her friend. "Don't go there. I know you're not trying to make this about our mothers. For all we know you were imagining what you saw. I did not beg my father to send me abroad in Europe to study witchcraft under your aunt just for you to get all weird on me and back out the night before we attempt a massive spell."
"Vicky, our mothers' coven were—"
"No! I don't want to hear it." She moves from the wall to collect the candles surrounding Selene and place them in a burgundy velvet sack. "Tomorrow we are going to take everything we need up to that mountain and then when the full moon rises we will cast that damned spell."
Selene resolves to helping her friend clean up. "I hate it when you get all demandy on me."
"Demandy, really?," Vicky responds with a scoff. "You're next in line to become High Priestess. Someone needs to keep you in line and you don't have many friends in our coven so that duty has fallen on me."
"And it's part of the reason I love you so much."
Vicky rolls her eyes at her silly friend.
Selene knows that Vicky needs her to cast that spell, she is after all, the stronger of the two. If they miss tomorrow's full moon, Vicky would have to wait another month for Selene to help her increase her power and she was already falling behind in the coven. Despite Selene's own fears, she is determined to help her friend. But that doesn't mean she is going to be sloppy about it. Tomorrow night Selene will be on high alert, wary of any suspicious activity while they are on that mountain.