Chapter 61: 49. Closed And Locked

"Please be careful, ok Cass?" mum sighed. "Nina, Kaylee, please don't let her get too close to any magic."

We were already heading out the door, but my little sis and my girlfriend both nodded while I responded, "We'll all be safe. It's just a routine thing tonight, we're going to do a ritual at midnight."

I added before pulling the door closed, "Have a good night! Don't wait up, we might be late."

Paige was only a minute or two away with her minivan, and as the three of us moved to wait at the end of the driveway Kaylee commented quietly "You're so lucky your moms are ok with you doing club stuff. I can't even tell my parents what Club Luna really is. And if I did tell them, I'm sure they'd make me quit. They definitely wouldn't let me go out to perform arcane rituals in the woods at midnight."

"Sorry Kaylee," I sighed. "At least you can tell them you're staying over at my place whenever you need an excuse to be out late for club stuff."

Paige pulled up in her minivan before my girlfriend could respond, and like before everyone else was already inside. Melanie slid open the door and the three of us climbed into the back and got our seatbelts on and everything.

"I'm glad to see everyone dressed appropriately this time," our new club leader commented. Then she glanced over her shoulder towards Marissa and added, "Or almost everyone."

The young blonde was in her usual cosplay outfit with her giant witch hat on her lap. The rest of us were all wearing jeans and sneakers, hoodies or dark jackets. Me included, Kaylee convinced me not to wear one of my new skirts since we'd be out in the dark and nobody could see it. I was still wearing tight jeans though, I figured they looked good.

"Does everyone have everything they need?" Paige asked. "Next stop is the forest, so I figured I should double-check."

Kaylee replied, "I've been studying the ritual Marissa posted on the group chat, and I printed out a copy along with the sigils and glyphs."

"Me too," Marissa said. "Printed a copy and studied the whole thing."

"I got three boxes of table salt from work today," Melanie added. "I wasn't sure how much we needed. I hope three's enough."

Brooke commented, "Paige and I have also studied the ritual. I think it'll work best if all four of us contribute. It seems to draw on some aspects of spiritual magic, which Kaylee and Marissa both do well at? But it also looks like it has some components of protection magic, which me and Paige are good at."

"And the rest of us will cheer you all on from the sidelines," I joked. At least I meant it as a joke, but it seemed like some of my friends thought maybe I was sad about not being able to help.

"Not at all," Paige responded. "We'll be relying on Melanie's senses to help us find that little meadow in the dark, and to get us back to the car again after we're finished. And we're trusting you and your magic sight Cass, to keep an eye out for any magical traps or anything enchanted that might be in our path."

"And Nina's our back-up," Brooke stated. "If us mortals get into trouble we're trusting her demonic magic to help us out."

My little sister replied quietly, "I'll do my best."

By that point we were already in the parking lot. As we climbed out of the van Kaylee frowned at the large basket Marissa was carrying.

"What are you doing with that?" my girlfriend asked the younger blonde.

Melanie had already shifted to her wolfgirl form as soon as she was out of the van. She gave her girlfriend a look then rolled her eyes, "She's going to collect all the fae toadstools. She thinks they're magic mushrooms."

"If we're closing the portal then the fae don't need them!" Marissa protested. "And when am I ever going to get a chance like this again? Don't worry, I'll be careful and safe, I got a book and I've been reading about mushroom foraging."

Kaylee Paige and Brooke all just sighed or shook their heads, but nobody tried to intervene. Then the seven of us set off together, with Melanie in the lead. The sky was clear but the moon was smaller than half, a bit bigger than a crescent. It provided a bit of illumination but not very much, so we were all waiting for our eyes to adjust as we got further away from streetlights and stuff like that.

The wolfgirl seemed very confident as she led the way. After a few minutes she asked, "Hey is everyone coming over to my place tomorrow for the BBQ?"

"Yeah," I replied. "I wouldn't miss it."

Kaylee chimed in, "I'll be coming over with Cass. My dad said he could give us a lift home if we're out too late."

"Me and Paige will be there," Brooke said, "But we can't be there for four. It'll probably be closer to five thirty?"

The tall brunette added, "Brooke and I both have to work tomorrow, but she's going to pick me up afterwards and we can head straight over to your place."

"What about you Nina?" the wolfgirl asked as she glanced back at my little sis. "Are you coming too?"

The small demon hesitated, "I wasn't sure if I was invited..."

"Of course you are," Melanie responded.

"Ok then. I'll be there too," Nina agreed.

That put a smile on our werewolf's face, "Perfect. Since Paige and Brooke can't get there till later, how about we say five or five-thirty instead of four? Does that work for everyone?"

Marissa was very quiet for that whole conversation, and for a while afterwards too. I figured she was still embarrassed or worried that Melanie would say something about it being her birthday, but so far that hadn't come up at all.

We seemed to reach the little meadow much quicker in the dark than we had last week in the daytime. Following Melanie's nose was apparently way more effective than following maps. And like Paige speculated, we could just see some lights through the trees to the east, in the direction of the houses.

As we arrived the club leader suggested, "Melanie, Cass, Nina, why don't you three find somewhere to stand and keep watch, that's away from the actual circle?"

"What about right here?" I asked. We were just inside the clearing, with the trail behind us.

Melanie nodded, "Works for me."

Nina didn't say anything but she stayed by my side, while the werewolf took up position on my other side. Meanwhile Brooke and Kaylee had pulled out their printouts of the ritual stuff, but Marissa was busy. After taking the three boxes of salt out of her big basket she got to work slowly filling it with toadstools.

Kaylee let out an exasperated sigh, but Brooke and Paige both got to work. They each took a box of salt, then our new club leader started drawing a large circle outside the ring of mushrooms while our former leader pulled out a compass to try and orient herself to the north.

The old-fashioned compass worked better than the one in my phone, and when she was satisfied she was pointed in the right direction Brooke started drawing a large pentagram on the ground with salt. And my girlfriend finally started to help as well, she took the third box and began marking the other glyphs and sigils in and around the pentagram and circle.

It took them a little while, but when they were done there was a very witchy looking set of markings laid out in salt in the middle of the meadow.

"Normal folks will probably freak out if they see this," Melanie stated. "Are we going to try and clean up the salt afterwards, or just leave it like that?"

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Marissa set her basket full of mushrooms down next to me and her girlfriend then replied, "How would we clean it? Portable vacuum?"

"It's supposed to rain on the weekend," Brooke commented. "That'll wash away the salt. We'll just have to hope nobody stumbles across it before then."

Paige checked the time on her fitness watch then announced quietly, "We've got twelve minutes to go till midnight. Let's wait till we're down to a couple minutes, then we'll begin the ritual."

The others agreed, and for the next several minutes there wasn't much to do but stand around and wait. Which was actually kind of creepy, it turned out. Like standing silently in a fairy clearing in a dark forest next to a big witchy pentacle marked in salt was as creepy as it sounded.

Only a few minutes passed before Brooke whispered, "I feel like we're being watched again."

"Yeah," Kaylee whispered back. "I feel it too."

We were all quiet for the span of a couple heartbeats, then Melanie said in a soft calm voice, "I hear something to the north of us. I'm pretty sure it's just an animal though? Small, like a dog or cat maybe."

I glanced to the left, my eyes swept the almost pitch-black woods then locked onto the faint purple glow that was about seven or eight meters away. It took me a second or two to figure out what I was seeing, but in the end it kind of matched what the wolfgirl said.

"It's a fox," I whispered. "And it's enchanted. I can see it, the glow of its magic."

Paige asked, "What's it doing?"

I watched for a few more seconds to be sure, then answered softly "It's getting closer? Slowly though, like it's curious but cautious."

After a glance at her watch our new leader sighed, "We don't have time to worry about it now. Cass, Melanie, keep an eye and an ear on it I guess? We need to start the ritual."

"Wait," I whispered. "Would that be a fae fox who's come over here for a visit? Or a local fox that's been enchanted with fae magic? Because if it's a fae fox and we close the portal it'll be trapped here won't it?"

Before anyone could respond I added, "Actually what if there's other fae or fairies over here visiting? They'll be expecting to go home at dawn and find the portal gone, won't they? We'll be trapping them here."

Paige sighed, "It's a possibility Cass. If any of them get stuck here they'll have to find another way home. Or if they hang around and start causing more trouble, we'll have to deal with them one at a time."

"This won't be the only portal on Earth," Kaylee added quietly. "But hopefully it's the only one around here. Once it's closed we don't have to worry about more of them coming over, or humans getting kidnapped and taken away. Any fae stuck here can find another way home."

Suddenly I wasn't sure if this was the best solution, but I didn't think to ask those questions when we were first here last week. And it was way too late to try and change the plan, so all I could do was watch while Marissa, Kaylee, Brooke, and Paige moved to the four cardinal points around the salt circle.

The younger blonde was at the north, my girlfriend at the south. Our new leader was on the east, and our former leader was on the west side, not far from where me and Melanie and Nina were standing. And as soon as the four of them were ready they got started.

I hadn't bothered to study the ritual since I couldn't participate, but it looked like they were using the Will and the Word and the Way. It didn't feel like May Hawthorne's magic though, which kind of made sense. I figured the ritual was probably some other flavour of witchy magic. Before long the salt pentacle and glyphs and everything were glowing with the faint purple light of magic.

Then Melanie gave me a gentle nudge, to remind me I was supposed to be watching the woods for trouble, not staring at our friends.

I looked around and spotted the magic fox again. It was sitting by the base of a tree, only a meter or two from the edge of the clearing. It seemed to be watching what we were up to, but it didn't look like it was going to interfere or anything. I wasn't sure if that was normal fox behaviour, if they were curious like cats or if this was because of some fae influence. Like maybe it was their pet, or maybe it was on guard duty or something. Whatever it was doing though, it did it quietly and didn't come any nearer than it was.

After watching the fox for a little while I glanced around to make sure there wasn't anything else creeping up on us from another direction. The rest of the woods were dark though, the only magic I could see apart from the fox was the stuff our friends were doing with the circle. It was glowing brighter as they continued the ritual, gathering more magic and pouring into the salt symbols on the ground.

Melanie and Nina were looking around too, though I noticed both of them looked at the fox now and then too. My little sis especially seemed interested in it.

After another minute or so I whispered to her, "Is there anything special about the fox?"

The small demon shrugged, "It's cute. I hope it stays safe."

"Me too," I agreed. Then I looked at it again and raised my voice slightly as I addressed it, "Hello fox. We're not going to hurt you. I hope you stay safe."

It seemed to stare at me for a few moments, then turned its attention back to what the others were doing.

From the look of it the ritual was building towards a crescendo. The salt was glowing brighter and I could hear the murmuring of whatever the four original Club Luna members were chanting as they gradually got louder. I could even make out one or two of the words.

"Huh," I commented. "I thought it was a witchy ritual but at least one of those words sounds chthonic. I think there's some latin in there too."

Melanie gave me a funny look, "You can tell that just by listening?"

I blushed slightly as I realized I shouldn't have said anything. I tried to cover for my slip-up, "Even if I can't do magic it doesn't mean I can't read and study and stuff."

The wolfgirl accepted that, and we were both quiet again. Just in time too, as the ritual seemed to reach its climax. The other girls raised their voices for one last chant, then with a flash of magic the purple glow sank downwards from the salt and into the ground, then sort of spread out and faded into the earth.

"That's it," Paige announced. "The portal ought to be sealed now, this is just any other normal meadow in the woods. No more fae coming through here."

"And none going home here either," I mumbled quietly to myself. I glanced over to my left in time to see the fox turn and run off deeper into the woods till I lost sight of its glow.

"That's it then?" Kaylee asked quietly. "We're done?"

"All done," Marissa nodded as she picked up her basket full of mushrooms.

Melanie gathered up all the partially-used boxes of salt and asked, "So it's up to me to find our way back to the car now?"

"Yes please," Paige smiled. "And keep an eye and ear out for anything just in case. Cass, Nina, both of you keep watch too please? I don't expect trouble, but let's not let our guard down till we're home safe."

In a way it seemed kind of anticlimactic as the seven of us filed out of the little clearing and onto the trail again. We never even saw a fae or a fairy. Though on the other hand it's probably best we didn't get into some kind of supernatural fight.

"When we get back to the minivan am I just driving everyone home?" Paige asked after a few minutes. "Or do we want to stop for coffee first?"

Everyone quickly agreed on visiting the cafe first, so that's what we did. We didn't actually get home till almost half past one, but it was fun.