[Rosalynd]
“Am I in a jungle?” I wonder internally as I blink awake, staring up at sunlight filtered through monstera leaves and palms. My head feels like smashed jello. Cradling it gently with one hand, I sit up rubbing my eyes with my other hand. Slowly rotating my neck, the pain is so intense that if I move too quickly, I am certain that my brain will leak out of my ear.
I don’t know where I am, but this place is beautiful. Someone has worked hard to make this room into a paradise of growing things. The room is made entirely of glass, like a greenhouse large enough for a house, chairs, and several shelves. Tendrils of flowering vines and offshoots of spider plants hang from overhead. An assortment of flowers,
[Rosalynd] "Rosalynd!" Gideon shouts at me as he helps me to my feet. "Fancy meeting you here.” I’m not sure if he’s happy to see me or not. He’s a very difficult man to read. Wincing I ask, “Can you please stop shouting?” “What?” he yells back. I put my hands over my ears. Pulling out a tiny earbud he says. “Sorry, I didn’t catch that. Were you trying to say something?” The golden hour sunlight glowing through his hair, He’s almost charming as he blinks at me, trying to make sense of my words. “I was just asking you to stop shouting, I have a bit of a headache,” I explain. Placing a hand on my temple, he says a few words, and I find my head feeling lighter, the pain receding. Looks like his “hangover helper” spell has more than one use. “That should keep the pain away for a couple of hours, but you should still take it easy. How did you get a concussion?” “Long story,” I raise my hands. “And I would rather not talk about it right now if you don’t mind.” He grim
[Slone] “So you’re not an elf?” Evander, Axel, and I sat around the dining room table eating guacamole from a communal bowl. “Nope,” Evander mumbled through a mouthful of tortilla chips. “I’m pretty sure there isn’t a single elf in my family tree. My grandma was human, but that’s not so unusual amongst our kind.” He shrugs. “Nothing against elves or anything, it's just not who I am.” Axel just grunts. He doesn’t have a lot to say. I’m not even sure why he is still here. Shouldn’t he be with Rosie? Stretching, I rub my eyes, s
[Rosalynd] Clamping my phone closed, I smile up at everyone.“All set,” I announce. “Slone’s going to take care of everything." Ten of us are seated around a grand oak table in the center of a large living room. This house is just off campus, butted up against the back of the forest, just outside of Fae territory. It is a larger house, an old Victorian, that had been converted into apartments. When the coven purchased this home ten years ago, they kept the apartments separated, allowing each member to have a little semi-private space. The coven meets like this every night, coming home and joi
[Gideon] I feel warm everywhere at once. I sensed that she might be the one, my Match, from that moment I felt her power at our first meeting, but to hear it confirmed, to know I was right feels validating. After years of searching, and failing, to find that one person who matches my power so completely they can be a mirror for my sword, a focus to my anchor, I never expected that person to stumble across our path. She fell right into me, and I wasn't clever enough to realize what a gift that meeting was, that she was sent to this coven as a gift from the universe. This girl from the south with her large gray eyes that always look a bit lost, has found her home within our coven, strengthening us all for the battles ahead. The faces aroun
[Rosalynd] Gideon picks up the first item and holds it up to the moonlight. “This,” he explains as he twirls a small blade, no bigger than my palm blade around his fingers, the bone gleaming dully, “Is called an athame. It is used for preparing spell components and other ritual uses. Every member of our coven has one. It must be gifted or crafted, it cannot be bought.” “I made this blade when I was 15 years old,” he muses, “I had just come into my power. My grandmother taught me how to craft it, and how to make the bone respond to my wishes. It took me all summer to get it right.” Flipping it around in his hand, he wraps it in a silk cloth and hol
[Rosalynd]“Do we need to be this close?” I whisper, our breaths mingling as I remove my glasses.“Is this making you uncomfortable?” His deep voice echoes through me as he moves a strand of my hair behind my ear. I feel a tingle where our skin touches.“A little,” I admit, suddenly very shy. “You are awfully close.”“When we begin to cast spells together, we may occasionally be even closer than this,” the corner of his lip curls. “We will need to become a lot more comfortable with one another over time.”
[Evander]“Why hasn’t she called to check in?” the sulking pup in the corner whined, the edges of his lips curled down. “Shouldn’t she have checked in by now?”“Rosalynd is a grown woman,” I roll my eyes at him. “She doesn’t need to ‘check in’ with you just because you’re lonely.” This wolf is absolutely exasperating. "I'm sure the witches are keeping her busy."“But what if she’s hurt? What if that…coven, has done something to warp her mind?” He huffs, his mind spinning through a series of scenarios, each one more biased and neurotic than the last. “What if they’ve brainwashed her and she now never wants to see us again? What if..?”“What
[Slone]He is calling me.*thump*I just need to walk to the edge of the road, to the start of the forest beyond. Just a step, and a turn.*thump thump*The stones are crunching underneath my bare feet. I am not wearing shoes. Why am I not wearing shoes? My feet and ankles are wet with dew as I walk across Evander’s garden. The flowers are so beautiful. The glow in the moonlight.*thump*I need to find Rosalynd. I need to tell her. To warn her.*thump thump*The hounds are coming. I can feel their fiery breath on my legs, on my spine. If they catch me they will open me and I wil