by Lila Dubois
Together they learned forward, pressing their lips to his.
Nim’s heart thudded in her chest and all she could think was please, please, please.
She shifted her head a fraction, changing the angle of the kiss. Harris mirrored her movement, and his tongue touched the corner of her mouth. The contrast of hot and cold between Harris’s lips and Trajan’s was disconcerting, and she had to fight the instinct to turn away from Trajan and focus her kiss on the warm and willing Harris.
Then Trajan’s lips moved under hers, first a tentative reply of pressure. Nim crowded closer, raising her outside arm and wrapping it over Trajan’s still-stone shoulder.
He sucked in air, the deep inhalation making Nim’s kiss-damp lips cold. She didn’t stop kissing him, nor did Harris. The arm under hers started to warm.
“Stay calm,” she breathed against the corner of his mouth. She didn’t dare lift her lips from his skin. “Don’t move. Don’t run.”
Nim’s bare legs were on the ground, and she sent out pulses of inquiring power. Now she could once more feel the stone leeching into the soil.
“It’s working,” she whispered against Trajan. “Just stay calm, Tray. Stay calm and kiss us.”
Trajan’s arm was now fully warm, and he moved it, sliding his hand into her hair, holding her steady for his kiss. And if his hand gripped her a little too tight, pulling so that the roots of her hair ached, it was the only sign of the panic he was no doubt fighting.
Nim monitored the earth, and felt when the leeching stopped. She kept kissing Trajan and Harris, not willing to stop and risk Trajan turning to stone again.
“I, uh, hate to interrupt, but I’m going to go,” the fire witch said. “I’m Robert, by the way. Ahem. Anyway, looks like you all have, uh, whatever this is, under control.”
Harris broke from their kiss first. “Don’t go anywhere, Robert.
Trajan grabbed at Harris, eyes a bit desperate, but Nim petted his cheeks. “Hold on, let me look at you.”
She inspected every inch of his head, chest, and arms. Then he wiggled free of the soil and stripped off his pants, and she inspected his legs, looking for any signs of dark-gray discoloration. The only thing she found was the small laceration on the bottom of one foot, where he cut it while pulling himself up and out of the blades of stone. Despite the night of healing, the cut was still there.
“I think this is the source.” She used a twig to poke at the insignificant cut, not wanting to risk touching it with her bare hands.
“I’d forgotten about that,” Harris said.
Trajan had yet to speak, but when Nim lowered his foot to the floor he snatched up his pants and pulled them back on before saying, “Thank you. That was…that was…”
Nim didn’t know how to comfort him, so she wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him. He kissed the top of her head.
“You’re okay now,” she whispered against his chest.
“Am I?” he asked. He released Nim, and she felt cold. “Passing out of the transformed area is what started this.”
Nim swallowed. “You think…”
“I think I can’t leave.”
* * * *
They found her bunker, what was left of it anyway. It had been cracked open, like a hot dog bun being split. The bed was covered in dust and leaves, the futon hidden under a massive thorny rosebush.
Trajan and Harris had both items of furniture cleaned in a matter of minutes, and then they hauled the futon to the roofless bedroom. The bathroom had survived mostly intact—minus the previous damage—and everyone took turns making use of the composting toilet. They washed their hands in a bucket of water Nim drew from the tank.
Then they sat, three dirty, half-naked people and one dressed, well-equipped but shell-shocked fire witch.
Robert opened his backpack and passed out bottles of water and protein bars. Nim hadn’t realized until that moment how hungry she was. They ate in silence as Robert watched them.
“I have a few questions,” Robert said once they’d finished the first bars. He passed out more.
“We don’t have many answers,” Harris said, mouth full. “And I have questions too.”
“Okay, then let me simplify it and ask…what the fuck is going on?”
That startled a laugh out of Trajan, who was on the bed beside Nim, while Harris and Robert were seated on the futon.
Nim rewrapped the remaining half of her bar and put it down. “My name is Nimue Mahkah. If you’re a fire witch, that means you’re Salachar coven, same as me, and it means you’ve probably heard of me.”
“Mahkah? The pot kingpins?” Robert asked.
“Is that how everyone describes us?” she asked
“Pretty much.”
“Yes.”
“Yep.”
She hmphed. “Well, yes, that’s me. What else do you know?”
Robert frowned. “Wait, isn’t there a curse? The heir dies on her birthday.”
“On her twenty-fifth birthday,” Nim corrected. “That’s me. I’m the heir. I’m going to die in a few months, and when I do, the curse passes on to my sister. I decided to try to break the curse. I started gathering and storing power in the ground under this forest.” She gestured to the treetops above them. Trajan had a soft steady wind flowing over the top of the cracked-open bunker, which prevented any bugs from flying in to hang out with them.
“I also grow pot in this forest. A few weeks ago something started killing my pot plants. I tried to save them but couldn’t. So, I kidnapped Harris.”
Harris raised his hand and waved.
“You got kidnapped by a girl?” Robert asked Harris.
“Trust me, this girl could kidnap anyone she wanted. Not that she should. Her moral compass might be a bit off.”
Nim threw a pillow at Harris, who laughed. “I kidnapped him so that if he decided to help me, which I was banking on, he wouldn’t get in trouble with his coven.”
“You agreed to help her?” Robert asked.
“I did. But it was taking too long. I should have called my uncle.”
“That’s where I come in,” Trajan said. “Harris’s uncle is Baron of his coven. He hired my coven’s security firm to find Harris.”
“Okay, I have some questions about that, but I’m going to let it go for now.”
“Smart, because we haven’t really gotten to the weird parts yet.”
Nim took up the storytelling again. “I was wearing a heavy-duty dampener so Harris could work when Trajan found us.”
“I was wearing a dampener too,” Trajan said. “I planned to neutralize her, grab Harris, and get out of here.”
“So what happened?”
“This is where it gets weird,” Harris added.
Nim continued, “We all used our magic at the same time.”
“Wait, wait.” Robert held his hands up. “All three of you used active magic at the same time? And there wasn’t a big hurricane or anything?”
“You tell us,” Trajan said. “What’s been happening? Earthquakes, forest fires, storms?”
“Nothing, at least not in Northern California.”
“San Francisco is still standing?”
“Yep.”
Nim sagged in relief. “Thank the Goddess.”
“So you all used magic and you’re still alive?” Robert asked.
“Surprised us too,” Harris said.
“Actually, do we have definitive proof we’re alive?” Trajan asked. “I mean, maybe this is just a very vivid afterlife.”
“Well, I’m alive.” Robert frowned. “At least I better still be alive.”
“Yes, we’re alive. When our magics reacted, it transformed the forest. We’ve been trying to get here”—she gestured to the bunker—”and get out of the forest for the past twenty-four hours.”
“But when you did get out, he turned to stone.” Robert pointed at Trajan.
That comment sucked the proverbial air out of the room.
“Robert,” Nim said
, “could you give us a minute?”
He dug into his bag and grabbed a pair of headphones. “I’ll turn the music up. Sorry, but I’m not going out there alone.”
Harris dragged the chair over next to the bed and sat facing Nim and Trajan. “We can’t leave?’ he asked.
“I can’t,” Trajan said grimly.
“We don’t know that,” Nim insisted. “Maybe when the cut is healed you can.”
“Okay, then what about the issue of the fact that we can touch each other when we’re here, and we can’t touch each other outside of the forest,” Trajan asked
“Again, we don’t know that—we didn’t try it.”
“Considering what happened last time, we’re not going to try it.”
Nim nodded. While they’d been speaking she’d come to a rather grim realization. A realization it was time to share. “I’m sorry, because I’m the cause of all this.”
“You’ve already apologized,” Harris cut in.
Nim raised her hand. “Please just listen. I don’t know why the forest transformed. Maybe it was the reaction of our magic, maybe all the power I had stored had something to do with it. Whatever it was, I think we can all agree that I’m at the center of this.”
They looked at one another, then back to her. “You’re starting to worry me, Nim,” Trajan said.
“I’m going to die in four months.”
Trajan and Harris both sat back, as if she’d slapped them.
“The curse is still there, still in me. I can feel it. It’s not as strong as it was, but it’s there.”
“We’ll find a way to beat it,” Harris assured her.
“Not beat it, end it,” she corrected. “I’m going to die, and I’m going to take the curse with me. I’m going to save my sister, my family. And I think…I think when I die the forest will revert, back to the way it was. If that happens, you’ll be safe to leave.”
Trajan stared at her, but Harris jumped to his feet. “Whoa, we’re not letting you die just to get out of here.”
“My dying is not up for debate. That’s going to happen no matter what. I’m asking you to…” She had to take a shaky breath and force the words out through a tight throat. “I’m asking you to help me find a way to make sure the curse ends with me.”
Harris shook his head. “No, you’re not going to die.”
Trajan didn’t protest. She could see in the resigned way he looked at her that he understood what was going on.
Her heart ached, and she realized that she no longer looked forward to her death. Not that she’d wanted to die, but there was a sort of grim anticipation she felt before now. Before them.
“I’m asking you to stay with me,” she whispered.
Harris’s cheeks were flushed with anger, but he said nothing. Trajan reached out to take her hand. “I’ll stay with you. Even if the cut heals and I can leave, I’ll stay with you until the end.”
“Thank you,” she whispered.
Harris looked back and forth between them, his hands clenched in fists. Then his shoulders sagged. “I’ll stay with you. Of course I’ll stay.”
He rushed to them, and Nim was enfolded in two sets of strong arms. She clung to them, a few tears spilling though she tried to hold them back.
Trajan kissed her head and pulled away. “This leads to another problem.”
“One at a time,” Nim and Harris said in unison.
“Funny. You’re both funny. What do we tell our covens?”
“The truth?” Harris asked. Nim and Trajan stared at him. “Okay, or not…”
They looked at one another, then at Robert. “He knows too much,” Nim said.
“He is listening,” Robert said, not opening his eyes.
“I thought you were going to turn the music up?”
“I lied.”
“Rude.”
Robert sat up. “I’m with the bloodthirsty chick. You can’t tell people that you three managed to make a magic forest and now can use your magic without fear of it interacting with another person’s. I was wondering if any of you would realize that you all used magic around me, and nothing happened. That means that in this forest the normal rules don’t apply.”
Harris whistled.
“The implications of that are…” Nim couldn’t even think them through, they were so complex.
“So this has to stay a secret,” Robert said. “Until she dies and the forest goes away. Sorry about that, by the way.”
“Thanks,” Nim replied.
“So what do we tell our covens?” she asked.
Robert pursed his lips, then said, “Remember that thing with the miners in Chile?”
“How could that possibly be relevant?” Trajan asked.
Robert held up a hand. “Hear me out. What if you say that two of you used your magic and created a sinkhole and you all fell in it? You’d have to invent some reason you’re handling getting out yourselves, but it would make people steer clear of here, and could explain how long it takes to get out. It took them like a month to get the miners out.”
“Magical sinkhole we all fell in. That could work,” Nim said.
“I won’t tell anyone exactly where you are,” Robert added.
“My coven will know, and they could bring us supplies,” Nim said.
“No,” Trajan said. “They might cross the boundary. Robert, you’re going to have to be our supply chain.”
Nim expected him to object, but he just nodded. “I can do that.”
Nim, Trajan, and Harris shared a look. “Five months,” she said.
Harris and Trajan nodded.
Chapter 20
Nim used a small puff of power to push all the soil particles off her skin, cleaning her very dirty arms and legs. She’d finished capping the water tank and plumbing lines that fed the already broken shower and sink in the bunker. They couldn’t stay here, not with the place cracked open like it was, and she’d decided the first thing to do was to make sure the bunker was shut up. The entrance to her dug-out cellar had been filled with vegetation, so she’d left Harris clearing that while Robert and Trajan picked through the furniture, trying to see what was salvageable.
She hopped down into the hallway, not bothering to use the door.
The cellar was clear, and her sitting room was mostly organized—one messy pile of things to be thrown away, a second pile of usable items much more neatly stacked.
All three men were back in the bedroom. Robert was lying on his back on the bed. Harris and Trajan were sitting on the futon leaning against one another. They’d found some of her XL witch-themed graphic shirts she used as sleepwear and put them on. They were staring into space.
“But, like, what if everyone secretly has magic, man? I mean, what if?” Robert asked from the bed.
“You know what the real magic is?” Trajan waved one hand in the air. “It’s love. You know what I’m saying?”
Nim froze, mouth dropping open.
“That’s so true,” Harris agreed. “But you know what? We’re not even allowed to say that.”
“Toxic masculinity,” Robert added from the bed.
“You did it to me, Tray, you did.” Harris shook his head slowly side to side without lifting it from the back of the futon. “You made fun of me for getting kidnapped by a girl.”
“Fuck, I did. Fuck. I’m sorry. That was a dick move.”
“It’s how we’re socialized to see and perform masculinity,” Robert said.
“Damn, you’re smart. You a professor?” Harris asked.
“Firefighter, but my moms are hella smart. Smartest women you’ll ever meet. They see…” Robert waved his hand in the air. “They see how it really is.”
Nim stepped further into the room. “Are you stoned?”
Three wide-eyed, innocent expressions stared back at her. “No.”
Nim held back the smile. “I think you’re stoned. Wait, did you go touch the crop?” If they’d gone down into the forest, they might be far more than stoned.
“No way,” Trajan insisted. “You’d get fucked up from those things.”
“Fucked up,” Harris agreed.
Nim went to stand in front of them, and that’s when she saw the empty jug at their feet. She picked up the pitcher with the screw-on lid and the cute label that said “lemonade”.
“Did you three drink this?” she asked.
“Got thirsty,” Harris said, peering up at her in that unfocused way that only the truly, epically stoned could manage.
“You know this is cannabis lemonade, right?” She shook the empty pitcher.
Harris and Trajan both raised their heads off the futon, looked at her, then looked at each other.
“Pot lemonade? That’s a thing?” Trajan asked.
“You think my clients with emphysema were smoking a joint? Or the cancer patients?”
“But…brownies?”
Nim couldn’t help it anymore. She laughed. “There’s more to it than joints and brownies. I was testing out recipes for some new lemonade using alternative sweeteners so there’s not so much sugar. You’re very stoned right now.”
“I’m serious,” Robert said from the bed. “Listen, think about it. What if this is what the world is meant to be—enchanted and stuff?”
Nim turned to look at him. “You’re stoned, fireman.”
“What if the whole world were like this? Then we could all use our magic, anytime we wanted. No cabals, no separation. Can you imagine that?”
Nim stared at him, shocked and a little taken aback.
“I bet there’d be dragons,” Harris said with the knowing expression of the pot-wise.
“I wonder if we could change the whole world?” Trajan asked.
Nim shivered.
* * * *
They moved into the golden cave, which was the safest place in the forest. They brought the furnishings from her destroyed bunker, though they had to disassemble them to get them through the cave entrance. They designated a small area in the far corner as the bathroom and moved her compositing toilet after Harris first hauled in buckets full of dirt and grew a rosemary hedge around the area that both masked smells and provided privacy.
Robert brought them supplies on the back of his ATV—toilet paper, MREs, cereal, milk, tea, and a small camp stove in the first run.