by Nora Lee
Gemma watched him jog after Fern with a grimace. She’d have to get over her nervousness around strangers and get to know him a bit better since he showed no sign of wanting to leave Secret Hallow any time soon.
Lonely though Gemma was, she could practically hear the wedding bells chiming in Orianna and Caedmon’s future.
“What are you doing here?” Gemma asked, settling beside Orianna.
“I’m here to help you with the love spell! Should we get started on the pieces?” Orianna uncovered her basket. She saw a collection of bottles and crystals inside and caught a whiff of the distinct smell of pumpkins. “That’s why you came out, isn’t it?”
“Yes, but…I don’t know if I can do the spell.” Gemma blurted out the thought before she could stop herself. She wasn’t ready to tell anyone about the feelings she’d just discovered. Her emotions were too raw.
Hopeful she showed no outward signs of her distress after having taken great care with a glamor that hid the ravages of her breakdown, she smiled in as convincing a way as possible under the circumstances.
Orianna raised an eyebrow in her direction.
She took a deep breath. “I have…” No, don’t admit to anything personal. “There are some issues…” Sounds like I don’t trust the coven now. “Oh, cauldrons! I’m not sure can do this. Ethics, you know.” She sighed and motioned toward the spell ingredients. “Did you help put all this together? I’m afraid I left Rowan before we could do too much at the Leif farm yesterday.” She hated admitting that she’d run out on an overdue pregnant woman.
“The whole coven’s been working on this. We’ve got good vibes about this spell, if that makes you feel any better. No one believes this will be used against someone who isn’t interested.”
Gemma warmed to know she had the coven’s support, if nothing else. She could always rely on the love of the Secret Hallow coven—even when Fox was trying to find love in other places. Her heart twisted at the idea.
“Why are we doing a love spell if you feel so dubious about it?” Orianna asked with nothing but kindness glowing in her eyes.
“Well, I’ve been trying to find non-magical ways to finance the construction of a new school. That’s how all this started.”
“Oh yeah?” Orianna again sounded interested. “How would that work?”
Gemma sat down at her side, cross-legged, and opened her e-mail. “I’m using a group funding website. See? Asking other people to send us money.”
Orianna peeked over her shoulder at the screen. “Are there a lot of people out in the mundane world into financing projects in magical towns? I thought most people didn’t believe in our kind.”
“More believe in us than you’d think.” Gemma laughed as she thought of all the people Fox interacted with on a daily basis. Her online friend seemed to have no qualms about discussing witchcraft with anyone and everyone who’d listen. Secrecy was far from her strongest suit. “I contacted moderators on magical forums online and they suggested areas where people could post fundraisers.”
Gemma found what she’d been looking for and handed the phone to Orianna. While funding the school seemed a bigger project than most others, that didn’t mean they couldn’t earn at least some of what they needed.
“I wouldn’t know how to make heads or tails of this.” Orianna handed the phone back almost right away. “How did it lead to a love spell?”
“My friend said she’d finance us completely if I helped her cast it. I couldn’t possibly take payment for something like that, but if she needs help, well…”
“Nobody in Secret Hallow can refuse someone in need,” Orianna filled in with a warm smile. “I love the idea of the worldwide community helping us build a school for our children, even if the specifics of the internet thing are beyond me. If you think this process will work, I trust you. You’re pretty savvy about non-magical ways.”
The musical sound of childish laughter floated to them on the gentle breeze.
Looking up, Gemma caught a glimpse of Caedmon chasing Fern, the two of them dodging and weaving through the tree trunks at the edge of the forest. She looked over in time to catch Orianna’s fond smile toward the duo.
Gemma took a deep breath to brace herself. “Can I ask you a question in confidence?” She stared off at Caedmon and Fern as she awaited a response. She didn’t want to appear too eager about this.
“Sure.” Orianna covered a yawn and looked away from her daughter. “Fern hasn’t been sleeping well. We had another late night so my brain’s a bit mushy right now, but I’ll do the best I can to answer.”
“How’d you know Caedmon wouldn’t hurt you?”
Orianna gave a surprised laugh. “Well…I wasn’t expecting you to ask something like that. Good question.”
Afraid she’d crossed a line, Gemma started to say, “If you don’t want to…”
“No, I don’t mind. Really.” Orianna looked out across the lawn again, though she didn’t seem to be watching the scene playing out before them. “I would’ve wondered the same thing if I were looking at my life from the outside. I’ve never been open to a man like him before, you know? Not even Fern’s father.”
Gemma nodded. She’d often wondered about the mysterious man Orianna refused to discuss with anyone. Like members of the Winterblossom family often did, she’d gone out to visit another coven in search of a suitable partner. She’d returned pregnant and alone. A short time later, she’d given birth to Fern, a half-elemental witch.
“But the answer is…I guess I didn’t know he wouldn’t hurt me. I couldn’t know. Every relationship comes with some risk.” Orianna looked relaxed and far from worried about the potential of being hurt by the man she watched. “The risks are great, but the potential benefits are worth it.”
“Do you love him?”
Orianna gave a nonchalant shrug. “Love’s a big word.”
Looking over at Caedmon again, Gemma continued her line of questioning. “Does he love you?”
“Neither of us have spoken the word.”
Gemma’s mind whirled, leaving her unable to form a coherent thought. She had no idea what to do about her feelings for Fox when the other woman showed no sign of interest in her—other than friendship.
Could she feel satisfied as nothing more than Fox’s friend? Especially when Fox became involved with others. What had Orianna felt for Fern’s father? Did she refuse to talk about the subject because the thought of losing him still hurt her? Had Orianna left him or had he refused to take part in parenting their child?
She felt Orianna watching her with a questioning look, but chose to drop the subject. Gemma didn’t think she could yet give voice to her feelings for Fox. She knew for a fact she’d probably break down again if she tried to discuss her friend any more at the moment.
One thought burned bright in her mind.
Would she survive if she walked away from Fox?
Chapter 9
ORIANNA AND GEMMA puttered around the ritual space for a little while, testing bits and bobs of magic in silence. It must have been obvious that Gemma’s heart wasn’t in it, though—it wasn’t long before Orianna started cleaning things up.
“Fern, come on. Let’s go!” the mom called to her elemental daughter.
Gemma felt a hitch in her heart when she caught the fond smile the other woman bestowed on her daughter and Caedmon. The man and child stood to one side, both winded from the exertions of their play, the little girl twisting a strand of hair around one finger in an endearing way.
“Are you done already?” Caedmon looked around with an expression of surprise. “I don’t sense much residual casting here. Didn’t work?”
“Now isn’t the best time for this working. We’ll try again later.” Orianna sounded as though she didn’t want to discuss the matter any further and Caedmon sent a look of understanding in her direction. “Could you carry these?” She handed him the largest and heaviest of the baskets.
He took the burden and hefted it onto his shoulder.
Fern bounced over and opened her arms, as though begging to carry a basket of her own.
Smiling at her daughter, Orianna handed the smallest container to her. “Be very careful. This is the most important one of all. We’ll be in trouble if we don’t have the ingredient for our spell.”
Fern held the tiny basket she’d been given to her chest with both hands. Gemma tried hard not to smile at the child’s serious look and expression.
That kind of personality was what Gemma desperately wanted to nurture in the coven’s witchlings. The world needed more brilliant, passionate, hard-working people like Fern.
The school needed to be rebuilt. In order to do that, she needed to get her wayward feelings under control.
Secret Hallow needed Fox’s help more than Gemma wanted to reserve Fox for herself.
Orianna ruffled Fern’s hair and gathered up the rest of the supplies. She smiled at Gemma as she walked past. “See you later?”
“Sure.” Gemma couldn’t continue to hide away. She had to get over herself.
She watched the trio walk away, both sorry to see them go and relieved to be on her own again. Gemma felt easier with only her own raw emotions to handle, even with no idea how to handle what she felt, and couldn’t deal with the happiness of the burgeoning relationship between Orianna and Caedmon at the same time she felt so much angst.
Gemma stepped out of the ruin onto the grassy field. Golden light warmed her skin, the sun chasing away the chill, though a few clouds in the distance foretold of a possible weather change later on in the day.
Closing her eyes, she took a couple deep breaths. She pushed all her jumbled and confused thoughts into the back of her mind and focused her magic.
As a direct descendant of Emilia Ash, carrying traces of her blood and power, she might have more success restoring the structure than the rest of the coven. Of course, she forgot to consider the fact that her sister, also a blood Ash, had participated in the previous failed rituals.
She pressed her palms flat against the warm earth as she leaned back, supporting her stretched-out form with the strength of her arms as she drew power from the ground below her. Sunlight caused her to see red on the backs of her closed lids.
Though she was a techno-witch, she only needed to draw on her most basic magic skills to see the lines of power flowing throughout Secret Hallow.
It was a beautiful thing, the magic of the village. A spiderweb that linked herself with the coven, the Samhain Grove, the Elder Tree, and the world outside. It sparkled in her mind like cascading fireflies.
“Let’s see what we can do,” Gemma murmured to herself.
She tapped into her specialty: summoning and generating technology.
Power radiated out from her toward the ruins. In her mind she saw the progress of the myriad decaying wires dangling within the crumbling wall remnants as they twisted and stretched, reforming into complete pieces before reconnecting to the various junction boxes, switches, and outlets. Any magical practitioner needed to maintain the delicate balance between spells and their specialized powers; since Gemma had an affinity for all things wired she did better with this part of the reconstruction than she would with the restoration of the foundation, walls, and roof.
She hummed under her breath to help her workings. Since she hadn’t set up any formal circles or supplies, she needed all the help she could get. A theory nagged at the back of her mind that the coven’s previous failure may have been due to their too-fussy castings, so she tried hard not to become too rigid with her own working. While the group had been having fun during breaks, they hadn’t seemed to enjoy the actual spell work, so any progress they’d made may have been too brittle to stand firm. She hoped channeling joy into her own spells might produce a different outcome.
Gemma felt tendrils throughout the Academy coming together, almost as though she were touching every part of the building with her bare hands, supporting wires with little effort on her part.
She sensed definite progress and felt if she could just get in just a little deeper…a little bit further…she’d reach a point where the entire place returned to the glory of its’ heyday without a hitch.
She felt the exact instant things started to break down.
As she approached the peak of her spell work, she sensed holes in the building where wiring and other vitals pieces hadn’t reconnected, the gaps so large they prevented the building from attaining structural integrity. She never should have attempted such a big job on her own. Of course, she didn’t come to that realization until the structure once more began to collapse.
Her extremities trembled with exertion as she tried to push beyond her impending failure.
The few walls she’d reconstructed fell in with a whooshing sound and a cloud of dust.
With a sigh, she refocused on her own body, the remnants of magic returning to her. She felt alone with the loss of connection to the powers of the outside world.
To her regret, she hadn’t done any better than the rest of the coven.
“Shame,” she said aloud as she got up, dusting off her hands and knees. She shook the dust out of her skirts and straightened her hair. A fine sheen of sweat covered her from head to toe from her exertions. When she got home, she’d need to shower and do a load of laundry, something she hadn’t done in a few days. She’d been too caught up in the idea of rebuilding the school to think about her personal hygiene.
She pulled out her phone and turned up the brightness so she could see the screen out in the brilliant daylight. Still somewhat weak and trembling, she leaned against a post for support as she loaded the ComePayMe site.
Gemma stared at the bar graph with the red line near the top of the page.
It was full again. More than full.
Hadn’t Fox retracted her donation?
A further inspection of the page revealed that not only was the project fully funded again, they’d received over 250 percent of their goal.
She toggled another page and found dozens of unfamiliar names and comments. Love Foxy and Friends! A friend of Fox’s is a friend of ours! Can Foxy and Friends do a story about a magical school?
Fox!
Clicking through to the Foxy and Friends site, she brought up the most recent blog post.
One of my best friends in the world is trying to put together a magical school for kiddos who started out the way I did, she’d written. The town where she lives is amazing and this is a great project headed by a fantastic person. Your support would mean the world to me.
Somehow, Gemma felt worse than ever. She’d been so fixated on her own pain while she tried to keep her feelings under control and Fox was…well, being Fox. A wonderful, thoughtful person, looking to Gemma for help.
“Gem?”
She looked up to see Enid walking toward her at a brisk pace with a concerned expression. Enid must’ve been feeling Gemma’s tumultuous emotions, which wasn’t a surprise since the two of them tended to be so in tune with each other. They’d always been very close.
“Enid.” A wave of relief washed over her as she held out her phone. Her sister’s matter-of-fact ways could be a calming influence. “Did you see what Fox did? After I asked her to take the donation back and everything. I think she’s doing too much.”
“I did.” Enid ignored the phone as she looked into Gemma’s eyes. “But Gemma—”
She looked back down at the screen. “This is really nice and all, but …”
“Gem,” Enid said again in an unfamiliar and insistent tone of voice.
Gemma looked up with a frown. She sensed something odd. “What?”
Enid motioned over her shoulder with her thumb. In a low voice, she said, “Behind me.”
Her eyes followed her sister’s movement and her heart skipped a beat as she saw…
“Hi!” FeistyFox95 stood back on the sidewalk, just beyond the fence, smiling and waving.
Gemma blinked once, hard, hoping to clear her vision. But her eyes weren’t playing tricks.<
br />
Fox, in the flesh, bounced in place a couple times before jogging through the gate and across the field to join the two sisters. As usual, she wore black from head to toe, the outfit hugging her curves. Gemma’s glance dropped to the low neckline of the form-fitting tank showing off Fox’s chest piece: the tattoo of her cartoon fox, tangled in cobwebs, sitting in an oversized cauldron.
“She wanted to come find you right away,” Enid said. She cleared her throat. “If you want to complain to her about the donations, now’s your chance.”
Chapter 10
FOX, WAS HERE, and real.
Gemma felt the way she imagined she might if she met some kind of celebrity. She knew Fox was a real person. They’d spoken a bunch of different ways and she’d seen a million places online proving Fox to be a person, but seeing her online friend in Secret Hallow seemed unreal somehow. She couldn’t reconcile the person she knew from their online interactions with the one who now stood in front of her.
In a funny coincidence, Fox seemed to feel the same way.
“Isn’t this weird?” Fox moved closer and looked up with an amused expression as they both realized Gemma towered over her. Neither of them had given a thought to possible height differences when they’d talked in the past so the discovery came as an unexpected surprise.
Gemma gave a weird bark of a laugh. The one she knew Enid would recognize as her nervous tic. She couldn’t help herself.
Fox’s smile widened. She wore a purplish shade of lipstick that wouldn’t look very good on most people, but accentuated her snakebite piercings in a beautiful way. She’d also dyed her mohawk a similar shade and the slight breeze ruffled her lavender hair. As usual, she outlined her eyes with dark slashes of liner in a way that reminded Gemma of the images she’d seen of ancient Egyptian queens. Forcing herself to look away, Gemma struggled to tame her racing thoughts.
“How?” She stopped to take a breath and clear her throat when her voice cracked. “I just…you didn’t say anything last night.”
“Surprise!” Fox clasped her hands behind her back, rocking back on her heels, mohawk swaying. “Enid asked if I could come out!”