Eden’s skin prickled, and she looked down, relieved it was just goosebumps.
Chamber of Truth?
“W-what was the test?”
“You passed without figuring it out?” The man turned to his female companions. “I believe that’s a first.”
“And in such a dramatic fashion.” The younger of the two women observed the debris.
“Sorry.” Did they know what she’d seen? What she really was?
“Your light casts a shadow,” the wizened woman said. “The brighter the light, the larger that shadow becomes. Your light is…quite bright.”
Thank the gods. It’s what saved me from you ghouls.
“So it was a spell? What I saw, it wasn’t real, or the future, or—”
“Even lies carry a grain of truth.” The man helped Eden to her feet. “What did you see?”
They don’t know.
Eden licked her lips. “Do I still win if I don’t tell you?”
The three exchanged glances.
“You will still take the prize, of course, but you won’t benefit from our wisdom.” The old woman’s gaze was penetrating. “A vision that powerful can serve a purpose if you let it.”
“It did. Trust me. I got the message.”
She’d gotten it loud and clear. There was darkness in her, but it could be controlled. She just had to focus on the light.
“Then this belongs to you.” The man pulled a small, black box from his robe pocket.
The old woman lifted the lid, and with great reverence, reached for something inside. “The origins of this stone are lost to time. We have traced it back more than five hundred years, but suspect it is far older. It has been passed from generation to generation of practitioners. We acquired it for study two decades ago. In itself, the stone is not magical, but we have found it to be of great aid in complicated spells. Please take it with our blessing. Use it, and keep it safe for future generations.”
As the woman spoke, Eden’s flesh pebbled again. No wonder Carolyn had wished she could compete. Her anger at the cruelty of the test washed away, replaced with gratitude at being honored with such a valuable gift.
Right up until the woman put the thing in her hand.
It was a dark silver stone, polished smooth on one side. But on the other, carved into the surface was a gruesome face, its mouth contorted in a scream. Fingers grasped the edges as if the creature was trying to claw its way out of the stone.
Eden swallowed. “This is, um… This is very generous. Too gener—”
“Take it, child.” The woman closed Eden’s fingers around the disturbing object. “It belongs to you now.”
“Thank you.” Eden forced the words and a smile.
If Carolyn wanted the thing, she could have it. Eden would give it to her as soon she got home. She slipped the disc into her purse, wishing she could wash her hands.
On the ride home, everyone wanted to see what she’d won. Everyone except Alex who seemed particularly sullen. Sarah whispered that she’d run into her at the end of the maze, but not until after Eden had won.
“Alex was not happy when they told her it was over,” Sarah said. “Even less so when she found out you were the one who’d beaten her.”
“I’m sure she’ll add it to the list of reasons to hate me,” Eden said.
“So show us already.” Courtney was smiling, maybe even a little proud. “What was the fuss about?”
Eden pulled the artifact from her purse and handed it to her.
“Oh.” Her face scrunched up. “That’s…interesting.”
“Let me see.” A junior named Nicole took it from her and frowned. “Interesting is one word for it.”
Haley looked over her shoulder, eyebrows climbing her forehead too. “That thing looks like it wants to kill us in our sleep.” Nicole reached out to give it to her, but Haley held up her hands. “Pass.”
“Looks like it found the right home.” Rebecca checked out the object with disdain. “Something freaky for our resident freak.”
Sarah shot daggers at her. “She saved your—”
“Give it to me.”
Alex held out her hand, and Nicole passed it to her.
“You guys are such babies. Any of you would be lucky to work with something like this.” She handed it back to Eden. “Congratulations.”
“Thank—”
“Don’t lose it, or break it, or do anything to it to screw it up for future generations.” She crossed her arms and sat back.
“Got it.” Eden was about to slip the talisman back into her purse when Sarah reached for it.
Something flashed in her eyes, and her breath caught. “This is important.” She pitched her voice low so only Eden could hear it. Sarah turned the disc over in her hand. “I don’t know why, but it is. And you’re supposed to have it.”
“Really? Why?” She couldn’t think of one use she’d have for it.
Sarah shook her head. “I’m not sure. I don’t actually see anything, this time. It’s more of a knowing. But when the time is right, you’ll use it.”
“That sounds really creepy.”
“Yeah, well, you’re not the only freak in the van.” Sarah handed the relic back.
“Good thing. Otherwise, I’d be pretty lonely.” Eden smiled, and Sarah did too.
Maybe if she couldn’t give the prize to Carolyn, she’d be willing to hold it for her. Until the time was right—whatever that meant. With any luck, that time would never come.
Ani waited until the van was halfway down the block before following. The girls hardly seemed dangerous, but there were a dozen of them, and in some matters, she erred on the side of caution.
“If you hadn’t squandered so many vials on trivial pursuits, this wouldn’t be necessary.”
Her brother’s annoyance rolled off him in waves.
“Trivial?” She arched an eyebrow and spared him a glance. “The man I questioned led us here.”
Thanks to her efforts, they knew where the stone was. That was more than her father could have ever claimed in fifty years of hunting.
“And if you hadn’t created such a mess, we’d have been here in time to take the stone instead of following a van full of girls.”
“You didn’t have to clean up.” Ani eased the vehicle onto the highway. “You’re the one with the obsession to leave things neat.”
“It’s not an obsession, it’s a code, which you full well know.”
She did. The code had been drilled into her since childhood. Find the stone. Don’t kill innocents. Duty above all else. She’d be glad to be done with it.
They rode in silence, and she spent the time thinking of the next steps. Once they had the stone, their duty—passed down the family line for generations—would be done. She mused over the life she would have once her every waking thought was no longer dedicated to the hunt.
If her father were alive, he would admonish her for not focusing on the task at hand, but he had died four years ago, and she was closer to fulfilling the family’s destiny than he’d ever been.
Forty minutes later, she turned off the road and stopped at the base of the driveway where the van had gone, taking in the Gothic stone mansion set high atop the hill.
Her brother stiffened. It was not the sort of house someone could ransack and hope to find an object so small. Not without getting caught, anyway.
“Relax, brother.” Ani hoped to stave off more mention of the man whose brain she’d scrambled and how long it had taken her to unscramble it. Talk about wasting vials—the man sold rocks for a living; how much of his mind did he need? But her brother had dug in his heels, and she’d done her best to undo the damage. To a point. “We have more than enough for a location spell that can pinpoint where it is in the house. We’ll gather the ingredients, and by this time tomorrow, it will be ours.”
Code or no, nothing was going to stop her from getting that stone.
Chapter 4
Back at Coventry House, Carolyn had turned in for t
he night, so Eden couldn’t question her about the relic she’d won. The girls who’d been drinking continued their party in the common room, but Eden was sober and didn’t feel like catching up. Besides, it was late, and she had class the next day.
Once in her room, she fished the stone disc out of her purse and put it on her dresser, wishing Sarah hadn’t told her she needed to hang onto it.
As she washed her face, Eden flashed back to the image of herself as a borahn, and by the time she was brushing her teeth, found herself pacing around the room, unable to shake the memory. She was never getting to sleep if she didn’t find a way to calm down.
Magic often soothed her nerves, and she was struggling with the spell she was required to perform for her next test, so she sat cross-legged on her bed and began to practice.
As soon as she closed her eyes, the light beckoned, and she did nothing to resist.
Merging with it made her feel whole. Made her—for a time—forget the words that haunted her.
You’re the perfect kind of monster.
Every time she practiced magic, she proved the borahn demon wrong. It wasn’t important that as a child she’d gone to him. What mattered was as an adult, she’d killed him.
Eden went through the steps of the spell, first channeling the light into a sphere in her hand. That was the easy part. She struggled with what came next.
The task was to gather the energies until they coalesced into a specific energetic form. She was trying for a shimmering, white rose. But no matter how she tried to bend and shape the energy, it stayed a sphere of light, becoming so large it eclipsed her hand.
As frustrated as she was, she still marveled at its beauty, becoming entranced until nothing else existed but her and it. And then there was no separation at all; she became one with the light.
Her phone chimed, and Eden felt a sense of loss as the sphere winked out and she reached for her phone.
Quinn—Sweet dreams
She smiled the way she always did when she thought of him. Or saw him. Or talked about him. He was out of town for two more days, and she missed him more than she wanted to admit. It wasn’t as if she didn’t have a full life without him, but she enjoyed it more with him.
She grinned wider as she typed.
Eden—U too. See u soon.
She checked the time and was shocked to see that twenty minutes had passed since she’d started the spell.
It felt more like twenty seconds.
Something wet hit her upper lip, and she leapt up, reaching for a tissue. She dabbed her nose, and when she pulled the tissue away, it was bright red.
Eden had never had nosebleeds in her life, and this was her second one this week. She tilted her head back and pinched the bridge of her nose. When she wiped again, the tissue stayed clean. She tossed it in the waste can and cursed the heat drying her sinuses.
The last thing she saw as she turned out the light was her prize staring at her from the top of the dresser. A minute later, she got up and shoved it in her sock drawer. Ancient artifact or not, that thing was off.
Sarah hadn’t been surprised that Eden won the scavenger hunt in record time. Alex might be jealous—maybe even Jules too—but Sarah didn’t mind. She wanted to be a witch, but Eden seemed to need it. Her friend worked harder than anyone, with the possible exception of Jules, sometimes canceling dates with Quinn just to practice. If anyone deserved to win, it was her.
Too bad that prize was so creepy…
Creepy or not, she’d gotten a flash of something. It was murky, and she couldn’t articulate it any better than she had, but she hoped Eden had taken her seriously. According to Carolyn, the future could change, but as things stood, it was important Eden kept the talisman close.
When they made it back to Coventry House, Sarah texted Kai. For the past three weeks, since that kiss on the quad, she and Kai had seen each other almost every day…and quite a few nights. Thankfully, Kai’s dorm room was a single. She’d heard stories of couples hooking up while a roommate slept only a few feet away. The mere thought made Sarah’s cheeks get hot.
Even with her nerves and awkwardness, being with Kai for the first time had been a revelation. It was as though everything finally made sense, and she couldn’t understand why she’d ever thought she was anything but a lesbian.
You know why.
It was true. She did know. She’d grown up in Baptist household with a mother who had threatened to disown her if she ever “decided to turn gay.” As if it was a choice. She wondered what her mother would say if she asked her when she’d decided to be straight.
Kai replied to her text saying she was still at a Halloween party and invited her to join, but Sarah was done with crowds for the night.
Using magic was draining. She was learning to regulate her energy levels but she still found herself spent after even a small amount of practice. All new witches struggled with balance. According to Carolyn, the answer was more practice.
Sarah texted Kai to enjoy herself, and she’d see her tomorrow, but when her phone chimed again, she smiled and picked it up.
Kai—My place in 30?
The next morning, she watched Kai as she slept; her full lips were smiling, leaving Sarah to wonder what she was dreaming about. Her chest rose and fell, and long, dark hair framed her oval face. The temperature on the east coast had dropped, but Kai’s skin was still golden brown. Sarah couldn’t have imagined a more beautiful woman if she’d tried.
Throughout high school, she’d tried to date boys. Tried to make herself feel the thing she knew she was supposed to feel. Only now did she realize she had been—just not toward boys.
Now she understood why her lips had tingled when she convinced her friend, Janie, to practice kissing with her when she was thirteen; knew the reason she’d gotten butterflies in her stomach whenever Tricia sat next to her in sophomore homeroom.
With Kai, they weren’t butterflies, but lightning bugs—every touch igniting a new spark.
Sarah finally understood why they called it falling in love. Being with Kai felt like flying and careening toward the earth at the same time. It was wonderful and terrifying. Wonderful because being with Kai was like coming home, like any question worth asking had been answered. Terrifying because for the first time, Sarah had given her heart away, and only after she had, did she realize she would never get it back…not completely. Most of the time that was all right, but every now and then, especially when she contemplated telling Kai she was a witch, she realized Kai could go, and take that piece of Sarah with her. Surrendering to love meant surrendering to heartbreak.
“What’s going on in there?” Kai brushed a thumb on Sarah’s temple.
Sarah smiled. “I thought you were asleep.”
“I was, but you were thinking so loud, it woke me up.”
“My apologies.” Sarah kissed her.
She didn’t mind that it had taken her so long to figure out who she was. Kai was more than worth the wait.
“Maybe you should make it up to me.” Kai traced her fingers along Sarah’s forearm.
Sarah kissed Kai’s shoulder and sighed. “I would love to, but I can’t miss class.”
“For once, I didn’t mean that.” Kai’s breath tickled her ear. “Not that I haven’t loved having you to myself the past couple of weeks, but I want to take you out on a real date. One we both know is a date.”
Sarah’s cheeks grew warm. She knew Kai was kidding, but still felt ashamed of how she’d reacted when Kai had first kissed her. She hadn’t known Kai was a lesbian at the time…hadn’t even realized she was, herself. But that wasn’t an excuse. Her strict religious upbringing had reared its head, and she’d behaved terribly.
“How about this Friday?” Kai glanced at her expectantly.
Sarah swallowed, unsure why her heart was suddenly beating so fast.
“Sure. Friday’s great. No house meeting for once.”
So why was she already thinking of excuses to cancel?
Chapter 5
>
Eden spent the morning volunteering at a voter registration rally. Some ballot measures were coming up that could make a real difference to the community, but turnout for anything but presidential elections was abysmal.
The event broke up late, and she dashed across the quad on her way to class. She had to choose between lunch and being on time. Again.
She was spreading herself too thin, but couldn’t help it. There was just so much to do. For as long as she could remember, she’d believed she was supposed to do something important…something that meant…something.
Only she didn’t know what it was, and Eden was beginning to think all of her efforts amounted to emptying the ocean with a teaspoon. For every committee she joined, two others tugged at her heart, but she couldn’t fit them all into her schedule. How was she supposed to choose between animal rights, hungry people, and climate change? Not to mention the problem with rape on campus, which was only spoken about in hushed tones and never by the administration. They were all important, and if Eden couldn’t fix everything, she had to do what she could.
She glanced wistfully in the direction of the student dining hall but ducked her head against the cold and turned toward her next class.
When she’d first joined Coventry House, Eden had been sure magic was the answer, but the more she learned, the more she felt hamstrung. After she’d killed the borahn, it was evident she was powerful. When Carolyn suggested private sessions, Eden had been thrilled at the prospect of accelerating her studies, only to realize the lessons involved more theory than practice.
Carolyn stressed the importance of balance, but try as she might, Eden could not understand why anyone would willingly accept darkness.
She knew firsthand what it was like to fear she might hurt others, even if by accident. Her fear of burning down Coventry House while she’d slept had led her down a rabbit hole of lies, pain medication, and ultimately, a mind wipe that had ruined her life. The choice had cost her both Quinn and her place at Coventry House. She’d had enough of darkness, thanks. Carolyn was a good teacher and a powerful witch, but she was wrong about this.
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