As soon as we got home, Grandma began interrogating Tim about my ring. “Tim, I really need to know how you came upon this ring. Emily says it has been in your family for a very long time?”

“Yes, Ma’am, it has been passed down to the oldest female in each generation. I know that there is a kind of prophecy about it that I’ve always thought was just a fairy tale, but now I know that magic is real, so perhaps the prophecy is as well.”

“Oh yes, I’m aware of the prophecy.” Grandma said. “The Moonstone is a legend to those in the magic using community. Supposedly, a threat to everyone is coming, but no one knows just what the threat is. According to the prophecy, a woman, a powerful witch, will face the threat and win. The ring will help her in her battle, it’s said, by increasing her great power.

The prophecy is actually a story about the ring, how and why it was made and such. It’s actually some pretty awful poetry. Someone translated it, and it’s still pretty terrible. The legend says the ring was created from a piece of the moon which fell to earth, and it is said to have been blessed with the magic of a hundred witches.

A mighty King had it in his possession for almost a century, but when he died, the ring was gone. My guess is that it was given to an especially loyal retainer, who became the caretaker. I’d bet that this person is your ancestor, Tim. It wasn’t until I saw the ring that I realized that Emily fulfilled the prophecy.”

Oh crap. More magic?! My dad once told Gabe that he was a “trouble magnet.” Apparently, my transformation hasn’t changed me all that that much, darn it!

“All right, so what is the prophecy, anyway?” I asked, not that it was going to matter-whatever it said,
I knew it meant that I was gonna be in the crap-again.

Grandma wasn’t smiling. “Well, it’s actually the last few lines of some pretty rotten poetry, but it goes something like this:

‘A child, a woman, of Cancer born
On whose left hand the ring is worn.
The one who shrinks the ring in size
her power, the ring will magnify.’

Or something to that affect. As I said, not really great poetry, but perhaps a decent prophecy.”

I stared at my engagement ring.

My Mom walked over and hugged me. “You shrunk the ring, didn’t you dear?”

Slowly, I nodded. “It was just a little too big, so I squeezed it down just a tiny bit, to where it fit perfectly. It was just a tiny little bit,”

“And your birthday, July 14th, is definitely in the sign of Cancer,” Grandma reminded me.

“So, according to the prophecy, my family has been holding the ring for you all these years?”

“I guess,” I said, shrugging my shoulders. I looked at him, afraid he might be as freaked as I was. “Does that bother you?”

“Do you understand what that implies?” He asked with a smile.

I thought about it. Well, it implies that we were meant to be together, which made me smile. But that also means that I was supposed to be a girl, which means that my accident wasn’t one...it was deliberate and planned! But if this was planned five hundred years ago...Oh hell, I don’t think I’m meant to think like this! I had to sit down.

Tim could see that we were on the same wavelength. He smiled, like someone who’s just won a lottery. “If someone knew enough to set us up 500 years ago, I’m thinking maybe they want things to be fairly smooth sailing for a certain couple who plan to get married in a couple of years.”

Sounded like wishful thinking to me, but I was still trying to deal with the idea of a prophecy roughly 500 years old. C’mon, it was a lot to think about. One of two things occurred to me. First, that maybe it was a witch with some extremely awesome clairvoyance to have seen me so far off into the future, but I didn’t believe that.

Then there was the other possibility that I somehow knew to be true. Instead of someone seeing the future, I had been made to fit the prophecy. I started to get angry, because that meant that Gabe’s whole life had been a lie. Someone knew that every single hope and dream that I’d ever had was just a fantasy. Apparently I had started crying again, because Mom came over and hugged me.

“Emily? Honey, I know this must be kind of a shock, for you.”

“Really? Knowing that my whole life as a guy was wasted? That I probably should have just started wearing dresses in Kindergarten? Mom, I wanted to be like Grandpa. That was what kept me going when Grandpa died, the idea that someday I could be just like him.

It was bad enough knowing that Gabe was gone forever, now I find out that he never really had a chance. It’s just...”

“I know, Emmy. It’s very hard to see your whole world change, but think of it this way. What if Gabe was a kind of smokescreen or mask, protecting you and hiding you from enemies too powerful for us to even understand? Someone like that might have just killed all of us easily, and you would have never had the chance to live at all.

Sometimes, we have to have faith that there are things we can’t understand, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t be happy. Look at how happy you’ve been for the last couple of days. Now tell me, is your life really all that awful?”

I looked at Tim, and my heart made a small jump. I realized I had never really been this happy in my whole life as Gabe. Maybe Mom was right, maybe if I had been born as Emily in the first place, something truly awful might have happened. I guess Gabe was a caterpillar, and I was like a butterfly.

Fortunately, this butterfly came with one heck of a sting! I was starting to feel better already, and I melted into Tim’s arms, where I knew I was meant to be right now. I giggled, knowing my friends with some feminist leanings would crucify me for that thought, but they didn’t have a prophecy that was half a millennia old guiding their lives.

Which brought me back to this evening. What had I seen in my vision as Grandma and I fought the circle? Did I see any faces, or were they all just shadows? I knew at once that they were women, but the vision didn’t last long enough to give me any details.

“So, Grandma, do you have any idea why Mama Gwen was possessed by this “Circle”? What were they trying to achieve?”

“I have a theory, but it’s only a theory right now. It fits all the facts, though. What if Gwen was a test? She’s fairly strong, so if you were trying out a new technique, she’s a pretty good choice as a test subject.

I’m pretty sure that the Circle you saw was only a small one. What if there were many more of them? Could they then take control of the most powerful witch ever? I don’t know, but I think the reason Gwen went a little ‘crazy’ was that they pushed too far, and when they did, she snapped. The frightening thing to me is that now they’ve lost their test subject, they probably will need to find another. We already know that it’s hard for us to detect a possessed person, but we’ll have to find a way.

Speaking of which, I’ll have to ask you not to leave for a while, Tim. I’ll prepare a talisman of some kind, and as long as you keep it against you, they won’t be able to use you. The property within our territory is well warded, but don’t leave the grounds without that talisman. I'll give you a couple of small charms to protect your parents, as well.

I helped Gwen to get her wards up, and I told her how to make her own talisman, but we can’t protect everyone. I’ve sent a message to every member of our coven, warning them to protect themselves.”

“Whoa, I didn’t know you could reach that far with your telepathy, Grandma.”

“Telepathy?” she asked, and then held up her phone. “Not everything has to be done with magic, dear. I just texted them, same as usual.”

Okay, well, now I felt dumb, but I guess I should have known. Grandma loves hi-tech, and she’s always beaten me in computer games, which is probably why I never got hooked on them. I don’t even know which system she uses.

Tim and I took a walk outside in the woods behind our house.

“I’m sorry I ruined the date,” I apologized. “Can I make it up to you?”

“It’s okay, Emily, sometimes things happen. The important thing is that we’re together. Oh, why don’t you come have Sunday dinner with us? I’ve been telling my parents all about you, and my Mother really wants to meet my fiancé.”

I’ve faced down a madwoman, a gun and a powerful circle of witches. So why does meeting his parents make me so nervous?

“All right, that sounds...interesting (gulp).”

He laughed. “Relax, they really aren’t that bad. Mother is very happy for us, and she can’t wait to meet the girl who stole her son’s heart. I am very sure you’ll get along with her, especially after I tell her that you are the girl of the prophecy.”

“Why does that make me so nervous? You know if you reveal that, then you'll have to reveal my magic as well. Do we really want to do that?" He shook his head. "So, how big a deal is Sunday dinner at your house?”

“Oh, it’s huge! I mean, you know how us rich people are, right?” He said in a stuffy accent.

I smacked his chest. “You’re teasing me! I just want to know what I should wear-Sundress or something really nice? I want to make a good first impression, okay?”

“Emily, I can almost guarantee my Dad will be in jeans and a work shirt, and Mom’s favorite outfit is an old Denim skirt, tee-shirt and an old straw sun hat. We’re just not fancy people, except for one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“Well, their son has this very pretty and wonderful girlfriend, and...” He leaned over and kissed me.

I smiled, then hit his chest again. Brat. But such a cute brat!