Selene swept their black hair to one side, and unclipped one of the silver necklaces that cascaded in a fall down their chest. One of the shorter ones.
“It’s cleansed?” they asked.
“Yes. Brenda smudged it in frankincense and benzoin for quite a while before she put it into the bag.”
Selene nodded and threaded it onto the heavy chain.
“Would you?” they asked.
Joshua nodded, leaning forward, smelling the warmth of Selene’s skin mixed with tuber roses, feeling their breath on his cheek. He grasped the two ends of the chain, and slid it around the pale column of Selene’s neck. It took everything he had to not press his lips to the skin just beneath their chin, where it folded into their neck, dipping toward the black collar of their shirt. Instead, he inhaled, and thumbed the clasp open and shut, wincing as his bruised knuckles flexed.
Joshua paused for a moment before sliding his hands down the chain, and then parting, leaving Selene to occupy their own space again. He rocked back toward his own center of gravity, which suddenly didn’t seem right anymore.
The pendant rested on Selene’s breastbone. It already looked as if it had been there forever.
“Thank you, Joshua,” Selene said. “For everything.”
Joshua couldn’t speak, so he simply squeezed Selene’s hand, pushed up into a standing position, and looked around for an empty chair. Noise entered again. There were other people in the room. He heard people greeting someone. Lucy must have arrived.
He gave Selene a half smile, and turned toward the green north banner, where a couple of chairs sat, empty.
Moving away from Selene felt like walking upstream through a river.
“Hey, Joshua?” Selene called after him.
He turned.
“You should have Tobias or Tempest look at your hand.”
“Yeah. That’s probably a good idea,” he said. Maybe when there was time. After all of this was over.
Lucy rushed past the curtain, followed by Brenda. Joshua took a seat.
“Okay,” Tobias said, leaning forward in his chair, a lock of hair falling across his forehead. “Selene and I have cooked up a plan. What we need to do now is run it past all of you. Please try to poke holes in it. We need to not mess this one up. There’s too much at stake. And after that, we’ll figure out roles. Okay?”
Selene’s fingers stroked the moonstone. They caught Joshua looking and gave him a slight smile before dropping their hand.
“Lucy,” Selene said, “we already talked about the roses, and would love your take on them. Maybe you could check them out on a break?”
Lucy nodded as she swept her dark hair back into a ponytail. She’d come directly from work, if the paint stains on her pants and hands were any indication.
“What we’d like to do is use Tobias’s dehydrator to quick-dry the rose petals so we can either use them as incense or to scatter on the ground. We’ll have to see what feels right in the moment.” Selene raised their hand, palm out. “And before you ask, yes, we’ll use gloves, and yes, Tobias is willing to sacrifice the dehydrator if necessary.”
“And what’s this supposed to do?” Moss asked.
“Well, the roses linked me directly to the Alchemist, because he seems to be either stupid or uniformed. And then he led me to Tabitha. So…Tobias?”
Tobias took over the thread. “So we figure we can set a trap for him on the astral. Use his own magic against him.”
“And?” Raquel asked.
“And then we shut him down,” Selene replied. “Or take him out if necessary.”
Joshua shivered a little. No one smiled. Everyone knew that if a witch talked like that, the situation was more than serious.
He knew then, without a doubt, that not only was Selene a total gorgeous badass, but he wanted to be just like the people in this room. Courageous, and knowing that magic would support them because they knew what they were doing.
And if people were in danger? They would move forward, regardless of the risks to themselves.
“We’re already working with Quanice and the chaos magicians on disrupting the Alchemist’s servitor,” Frater Louis said.
“And the rest of us can run whatever containment or interference you need,” Moss added.
Yeah. These people. These were the people Joshua wanted to surround himself with. As for his role in it all? He closed his eyes, and vowed to the strange Capricorn fish goat that he would do the best he could. And put his whole will and intention behind whatever was required.
I pledge my magic to these people, he thought. And I pledge my life to magic.
He was going to give it everything he had.
33
Selene
It was six o’clock on a Friday evening, and a gorgeous day for the Trans March. The small heat wave had broken and the temperature was only in the high seventies. Big oaks and maples shaded the green grass and sidewalks of the North Park Blocks, a green space within the grid of four city blocks.
This was usually Selene’s favorite day of the year. Oh, being in the midst of a crowd was never easy, and their protections had to be dialed up high, but seeing a glorious array of trans and non-binary people and their allies never failed to move Selene. It filled their heart with a sense of possibility that things could be okay for people like Selene. And mostly, that trans people and femmes wouldn’t always have to live in what felt like constant danger.
Selene was a little bit nervous. This was the first time a magical operation Arrow and Crescent had planned felt so distinctly personal. Selene had never been a direct magical target before.
But they felt strong, too. Magically, they were as well prepared as they were going to get, and were surrounded by their coven.
And Joshua was there, too. That fact simultaneously made Selene squirm with discomfort and want more. A lot more.
After he came to their apartment the night of the attack, something in Selene had relaxed, and decided he was safe. They touched the moonstone just beneath their collar bone. It felt right, as thought it had rested there for years.
“You okay?” Joshua asked. His lips buzzed near their ear, sending a good kind of shiver across Selene’s skin.
Selene looked over at him and nodded. “I’m fine. I wish we could just enjoy the day, though. I wish people hadn’t actually gotten hurt.” And died.
“Yeah,” he replied. There wasn’t too much more to be said.
Joshua looked gorgeous, goatee freshly trimmed, top hat resting at a jaunty angle on his head. He wore a crisp white shirt under a burgundy vest. But Selene couldn’t enjoy being in the park with him, either. There was work to be done.
They looked across the long squares of grass. Sandwiched between two stretches of Park and 8th, the grassy enclave was flanked by condos, art galleries, and restaurants, and was the starting place of many marches. Edging up against downtown, Chinatown, and the Pearl, it made a good gathering point.
Selene loved the big bronze Chinese elephant statue in the center of one of the blocks, with one small elephant standing on the back of one large. They could see them in the distance, one long block away. Two children pretended to ride the statue, watched carefully by two tall queens.
In the block not far from where the coven stood, was a white pop-up shelter with a small sound system and some folding chairs set up beneath. A regal-looking Black trans woman spoke into the microphone about the threats trans women of color faced every day.
Selene felt cold, despite the warm day. Their own attack was still with them, and the threat was still out there. They were white, and non-binary, but as a femme-presenting person, the risks were real. And for Black and brown trans women? The threats were amplified.
A Chinese American trans woman walked by, holding aloft a big sign that read “Yellow Peril for Black Lives.” Members of the Portland Two-Spirit Society were present, some wearing elaborate beadwork; others, bright shawls. Some of them carried stiff fans made of dark brown feathers.
Damn the Alchemist for ruining this beautiful day.
Brenda and Raquel, heads close, conferred about something, while Tobias and Moss unfurled a big banner that read Queer Witches Support Our Trans and NB Siblings with a big pentacle smack in the center. The other coven members were clumped nearby. They were hoping to stay put at the beginning of the march. It was going to be easier and simpler to do magic if they were all in one place. Selene didn’t trust that the whole coven could stay together once the crowd began to move.
Plus, some of the members felt they should not join the march, being only supporters and allies. That decision made sense, but Selene was pretty clear that if the asshole Alchemist showed up, the way they thought he would, the coven was doing whatever the hell was necessary. If that meant marching, they would march.
“Do you sense him anywhere?” Selene asked Joshua. Besides Selene, Joshua and Lucy had the closest energetic links to the man.
Joshua shook his head. “No. But that could just be because there are so many people here.”
A discordant ripple came from Selene’s left, toward the edge of this block. Shouting. People running.
“Let’s go!” That was Alejandro, taking off, Tempest and Cassiel right behind. Selene followed the purple of Tempest and the bright red of Cassiel, both women’s hair sparking each time the sun hit as they passed in and out of shade.
“Selene!” Joshua called out. They didn’t care. They had to see what was happening. Every ache in their body flared. Joshua was right, they shouldn’t have been running into danger. But that was what the coven was here for, wasn’t it? To confront the Alchemist.
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence had formed a cordon of giant rainbow flags and blue-and-pink trans pride flags stretched taut between tall poles. Their wimples and veils towered, glittering and gleaming in the sun on the street. Above their flag-and-pole partition fences rose banners with giant painted flames, and words condemning everyone to hell.
God Hates You read one of the banners.
Well, wasn’t that special. The Alchemist wasn’t the only asshole they had to be on the lookout for today.
Selene stopped, chest heaving, still not fully recovered from the attack. Joshua stopped next to them, also gasping. Just because the nicotine hadn’t had much time to affect him, didn’t mean he’d come out unscathed.
“Are those Fred Phelps’ people?” he asked, once he caught his breath and plopped his top hat back on his head.
“Looks that way. I forgot they usually show up for Pride and try to make us feel as ashamed as possible.”
Joshua grinned and wiped sweat from his face with a fancy handkerchief. “How’s that working out?”
Selene barked out a startled laugh. “Pretty well for us, not so well for them.”
Alejandro, Tempest, and Cassie had doubled back and hooked up with them.
“I don’t understand what they get out of this,” Alejandro said. He looked neat as a pin, even after the sprint across the park. His shirt today was rainbow-striped, for pride. Selene always forgot he was bisexual, because he’d dated only women for as long as Selene had been in the coven. They kicked themself for forgetting.
“Oh, people like that just love to feel superior,” Tempest replied. “Jerks.”
“We should get back to the rest of the coven,” Selene said. “I’m not feeling too good about this situation all of a sudden.”
“Is he here?” Alejandro asked, face serious, body posture tense, clearly on high alert.
Selene closed their eyes for a moment, trying to sense the edges of the park, then opened them again.
They looked at their coven mate.
“I don’t know,” they said. “But something doesn’t feel right. I just want us all back in one place.”
“Let’s go,” Cassiel said, and turned. Selene followed the bright banner of her red hair through the increasing crowd, making sure the energy still cycled around the edge of their aura, keeping the excited and happy crush of emotions and thoughts at bay.
34
Joshua
Joshua didn’t care about anything right now except finding the Alchemist. That wasn’t his official job in this operation, but it was a job he felt prepared to do. The connection to tobacco was still with him, which was one good outcome from the poisoning. He and Lucy both had that now, but Lucy wasn’t here. She had offered to sit with Tabitha in the hospital today, to make sure the woman was magically safe. Joshua just hoped it was enough.
Several coven members had an intuition that the Alchemist was going to strike during the Trans March. It made sense. If the asshole thought that Selene, as a non-binary person, was a “perfect alchemical creature,” then he was going to want to be in a place where there were sure to be non-binary people gathering. The trans march was open to trans, non-binary, and gender fluid people and their families and friends. And trans and enby people tended toward mutual support.
Besides, the Alchemist also seemed to be targeting queer people and artists in general. Maybe it was some strange attempt to fire up the alchemical philosopher’s stone, reaching enlightenment, turning the base metal of his life into gold. For a megalomaniac that probably looked a great deal like becoming king of the world.
Add in the powerful energy of an excited crowd, and the Trans March was going to be catnip for the man.
Joshua followed Selene and Cassiel back to the rest of Arrow and Crescent. The crowd was growing. Joshua wasn’t used to a crush of bodies on anything other than a dance floor. He wove his way between two gorgeous women in slim summer dresses, wondering how in the world they were going to march in those heels.
The skin on his right hand tingled. The energetic trace of the nicotine activating. The Alchemist must be near.
“Excuse me,” Joshua said to two trans men in matching pink shirts and straw boaters. He pushed forward, trying to keep pace with Selene, who strode across the grass as if they owned the place.
Selene on the verge of magical battle was impressive. There was no hint of the shy awkwardness that so often colored how they walked in the world. This Selene was a Valkyrie. A badass wizard. A virago.
They were so gorgeous, Joshua thought his heart might stop. Truly. They wore the moonstone pendant today. The large piece, topped by a silver crescent moon, seemed to vibrate. Watching their black hair stream behind as they strode through the crowd, shirt swirling, boot buckles shining beneath black jeans, Joshua was struck.
He was in love.
Was that what the feeling was? It had to be. It wasn’t the sense that the Alchemist was near. His heart wasn’t racing from nicotine. Not right now.
His heart raced for Selene.
Sap, he thought. He shook his head and forged on, finally close enough to touch Selene’s shoulder.
“Hey,” he said, just loud enough for his voice to reach their ears. He touched their shoulder, feeling the warmth beneath the long, loose black shirt that flowed around their body. Selene’s head turned. Their eyes caught his. He noticed that their eyeliner was slightly smudged beneath their left eye. Their lips were red today. The red of the blood of their enemies.
Selene slowed down. Joshua matched their step.
“I feel him,” he said.
“The Alchemist?”
“Yes. The skin on my hand feels funny, from where the ointment touched it.”
Selene looked around, scanning the crowd. Joshua felt their aura as it…shifted. Expanded? Softened? He couldn’t quite pinpoint it, but Selene was definitely scanning with more than just their eyes.
“Can you tell where he is?” they finally asked. “It feels like somewhere on the northwest corner, but I’m getting a lot of interference.”
Use what you’ve got. The basics, remember?
He slowed his breathing down, and imagined a candle flame in front of him. Centering on that image, he softened, and allowed his own senses to expand. Seeking out the thread that connected him to the spirit of tobacco. To the nicotine. Seeking out the Alchemist.
“Come on…show me where you are,” he whispered across the park.
The whole park seemed to flip, as if the world turned upside down and back again, not landing in exactly the same orientation as before.
“What the hell was that?” Joshua heard Moss ask.
Joshua blinked. Had they somehow walked all the way back to the rest of the coven already? Sure enough, there were Tobias and Moss holding the Queer Witches banner and the rest of the coven as well. Raquel nodded at him, and Brenda waved. Frater Louis was there, too, in a bright purple button-up shirt. Legis stood next to him, wearing a black T-shirt that read I’ll Mess Up Anyone Who Messes With You.
Quanice and some of his friends had arrived. Queer Chaotes in Solidarity With Our Trans Siblings their banner read. In the center of the banner was the black chaos star, its bristle of arrows pointing outward from the center.
But what about that flipping sensation? Where was the Alchemist and what was he doing?
“No, no… He’s not northwest,” he said to Selene. “That’s a blind. He must have backup, setting up decoys or something.” Joshua cast outward again, seeking. Following the thread. Gotcha.
“He’s back at the bronze elephants,” Joshua said, opening his eyes again.
“How in the world?” Selene asked.
“He flipped the park somehow,” Joshua said.
Raquel spoke. “He must be doing time and space shift magic. Probably has a servitor for it.”
She turned toward the chaos magicians.
“Quanice?”
Quanice handed his edge of the banner to one of his cohort and stepped forward. Today’s outfit was red high-top Chuck Taylors, a red T-shirt with a chaos star in the center, and black jeans.
“Yes ma’am.”
“Don’t call me ma’am,” Raquel said. “I’m nowhere near old enough. Do you work with any time or space servitors?”
Quanice grinned. “I sure do.”
By Moon Page 16